Lessons from Israel’s Idolatry

Meditations in First Corinthians

May 27, 2022

Lessons from Israel’s Idolatry 

Yet God was not pleased with most of them, and their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.

1 Corinthians 10:5

Read: 1 Corinthians 10:1-5

In just five verses, Paul lays a solid foundation for his teaching in the rest of this chapter. In referring to “our ancestors” in verse one, Paul makes clear that Christianoi, the people of Christ, have been grafted into God’s story. Accordingly, Moses and Abraham and the rest of the Old Testament people of God are our ancestors.

Paul takes four parts of the exodus from Egypt and incorporates them into the life of the Christian. The cloud and the sea Paul saw as the Holy Spirt and water baptism for the Christian. The spiritual food and spiritual water in the wilderness corresponded to the bread and wine of the Eucharist, or Holy Communion. Together these four marked the people of God in the exodus from Egypt, and the people of God, who through faith in Jesus, are making the exodus from sin and death to eternal life.

My Takeaway: Paul uses these four points of connection to draw a profound conclusion. Not all the people of Moses remained faithful and completed the journey to the promised land. This is a warning to the Christians in Corinth to not presume on the kindness of God. God has expectations his people will resist sin and strive for moral perfection throughout their life.

Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.

Rev. 3:22

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2022 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.