1 Corinthians 10:1-5

Butler's Comments

SECTION 1

Illustration (1 Corinthians 10:1-5)

10 I want you to know, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea. 2and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3and all ate the same supernatural food 4and all drank the same supernatural drink. For they drank from the supernatural Rock which followed them, and the Rock was Christ. 5Nevertheless with most of them God was not pleased; for they were overthrown in the wilderness.

1 Corinthians 10:1-4 Privileges: The Corinthians are given a short review in Israelite presumptuousness. The descendants of Jacob (Israel) were delivered from Egyptian bondage under the privilege of great, supernatural works. They were immersed (Gr. ebaptisanto) or surrounded by water in the cloud and the sea to protect them from the Egyptians. God gave them miraculous guidance in the unknown wilderness by a cloud and a pillar of fire. He sustained them by supernatural food and drink (cf. Exodus 13:1-22; Exodus 14:1-31; Exodus 15:1-27; Exodus 16:1-36; Exodus 17:1-16). God chose them for a messianic destiny. Since the Messiah was in their loins, God gave them the privileges of the Messiah's supernatural sustenance. It was the Anointed One of the Father who actually gave them the miraculous water in the wilderness. Jesus later made it plain that it was not Moses who gave them the bread from heaven, but God himself (John 6:32-33), and man's life is perpetuated not by physical bread but by the supernatural breadthe Word of God, even Jesus.

The ancient Israelites presumed these initial privileges meant God would surely continue to give them security without any need for an exercise of faith and holiness of life on their part. Hebrews 3:7-19 tells us why they became overconfident and presumptuouspride and the deceitfulness of sin. Later Jews were so smug as to believe that as long as they had the Temple in their midst, God would not punish them for blatant sin (Jeremiah 7:4-11).

The Greek word pneumatikon is usually translated spiritual, but is correctly translated here supernatural (see comments on 1 Corinthians 2:14-16). The emphasis of the context is the supernatural sustenance the Israelites were privileged to enjoy. The food and water they consumed was real and physical enough, but its origin was supernatural. The supernatural Spirit of God and Christ was with the Israelites through their journey to the promised land (see Isaiah 59:21; Isaiah 63:11-13). But God's Spirit was with them there in an even more important way. He provided the Israelites with spiritual bread and drink through Moses-' teachings about the Messiah (see Deuteronomy 8:3; Deuteronomy 18:15). That supernatural Rock (the Christ) followed them in deed and word wherever they went in the wilderness. They were being sustained physically and spiritually by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God (through Moses).

1 Corinthians 10:5 Perfidy: This is the point Paul wishes to illustrate. Divine privileges obligated the recipients to respond in holiness and love. The Israelites were privileged, by God's grace, to receive supernatural and spiritual fellowship with the Creator above and beyond all other people. But they were unwilling to exercise self-control, holiness and love for their Benefactor. They sat down to eat and drink and rose up to dance.

Those who are Christians (including apostles) have privileges and liberties beyond anything the Israelites ever enjoyed. Most of the Israelites (all of responsible age except Joshua and Caleb) God destroyed in the wilderness. They never went into the promised land! They failed because they used the freedom from bondage God gave them for occasion to indulge their own fleshly desires. They would not control themselves and sacrifice the flesh for the greater messianic goal set before them in the teaching of Moses.

The Christians at Corinth had been baptized into Christ, set free, protected and sustained. They had heard Paul and other Christian teachers emphasize their freedom in Christ. They had been taught, and now believed, that an idol was nothing. They had been taught that all of God's creation was good and everything belonged to them (1 Corinthians 3:21-22). Paul evidently felt the Corinthians (especially the strong brethren) were dangerously close to becoming as presumptuous as the fleshly-minded Israelites were after their release from bondage.

There is a risk in freedom. When people are made free they are, by the nature of freedom itself, made vulnerable to options. Free people are autonomous (self-ruled) and may no longer be controlled by outside force. The only thing forced by freedom is responsibility. There is always the risk with freedom that people will use their freedom as a pretext for evil (1 Peter 2:16). While there is risk in freedom, the alternative, trying to produce righteousness and morality by force of law, is unacceptable. Righteousness cannot be wrought by force; it can only be produced in a matrix of freedom to choose motivated through the compulsion of faith and love.

Of course, God must reveal to man precisely what kind of thinking and acting constitutes righteousness, goodness and morality. God has, by the redemptive work of Christ, made right thinking and acting possible. But God cannot, and will not, make man's choice for him. That is the risk God takes when he sets us free in Christ. The risk itself is not bad. Man could never grow into the potential for which he was created if the freedom to choose was not there. When man becomes proud and presumptuous, disaster is certain. That is when man rejects God's revelation (which is all wise and all powerful) directing him to true righteousness and goodness.

Often God reveals to man what righteousness is by revealing and warning against unrighteousness. That is what the apostle Paul does in this dissertation. He warned that overconfidence (which is really a lack of faith in God) makes man vulnerable to the temptations of immorality, idolatry and insensitiveness.