Today’s scripture can be read in different ways. Someone may look at it only as exhortation, or think that Paul is trying to scare the Corinthians into obedience. Christiane and I read some commentaries and talked about it for a while, and for us one thing that speaks louder than anything else is how God loves his people. How from the very beginning He’s always desired relationship with his people, and us, as humans, also from the very beginning, kept messing it up turning our backs on him  denying his power.  

What we see in this passage in I Cor 10:1-13 is how, throughout the Scriptures, God is determined to make a way for his people, to set us free and give us life.  The Passover, Exodus, and Promised Land are a typology for our life in Christ. A Typology is seeing a “type”, or a foreshadow, of Christ in the Old Testament.  Moses was sent to deliver the people from oppression in Egypt – Jesus came to deliver us from being subject to sin. This is an example of a typology in Scripture.

Christ’s ultimate sacrifice was one of love. He took on our flesh, defeated death, and opened up the way so that not even death could separate us from Him. He made it possible for us to be One with Him. 

When relating the exodus story to the Corinthians, Paul highlights the typology. How in exodus we can see the foreshadow of what is to come. He says:

For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers:

were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 

Here you see the cloud as a type of the presence of the Holy Spirit available to us today, and you see the passing through the sea as a type of our baptism in Christ – the cloud and the sea representing our baptism in water and Spirit.

Paul continues:

and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. 

This comparison  may not seem obvious to us at first, but many have written about the manna as a type of the body of Christ and the water that came from the rock, as His blood. Here you can see Paul referring Not to the physical aspect of their nourishment, but actually calling it  spiritual food and drink provided by God.

Now, in verses 5 to10, Paul gives the Corinthians a quick summary of some of the things that happened to the Israelites who turned their back on God. Some of them chose to ignore everything God was doing amongst them, in order to engage in idolatry, sexual immorality, unbelief…  

Paul drives his point home by telling the Corinthians, who were struggling with similar sins, that there’s a way out – the way of Jesus.

Sometimes we get caught up in fear when we read this descriptions, and we lose sight of the typology. Paul puts emphasis on “ALL” for a reason. He wants to show that despite making the cloud, the sea, the manna, and the water, available to ALL; some, who partook of what God provided, still chose to doubt him, to deny his power, to define for themselves what was good and evil for them. 

In verse 7, he says:

Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” 

This verse is a good example of what it means to pay lip service. These people would partake of what God provided, yet their hearts were not towards Him. They were more interested in what they wanted to do after they were fed.

You see, Paul was warning the Corinthians not to fall into the same trap of desiring evil as the Israelites did.  The Corinthian church lived in an idolatrous culture, much like we do. 

Sometimes, when we talk about idolatry, it is easier to think of some ancient, and even modern cultures, worshiping literal idols of stone or something. Most of our modern day idolatry though is baked in the culture itself. In our very individualistic culture, sometimes we don’t even realize how easy it is to make an idol of ourselves. 

We want what is best for us. The idea of sacrificing what we want for the sake of others seems unnecessary, or even absurd. We choose US, before sitting with God and asking Him:  what does He think, what does He know is best?, in what way can we participate in what He’s already preparing, already working on?

If you don’t have the habit of doing that, I encourage you to acquire it. We want your heart to be constantly molded by God. 

We want to surrender and let God be God. You and I are not God. There’s only One. Our Triune God is worthy of our surrender, our complete trust. He is the one who makes a way for us in the midst of our troubles. He is the one who sets us free and gives us life – not just so one day we can defeat death, and have eternal life. But, so TODAY // we can live in freedom and abundance of life.

This life and death choice is determined by the posture of our hearts. Are we giving God lip service and giving ourselves what we really want? Or are we truly trusting and surrendering our hearts to God completely? 

We can only experience the freedom and abundance of life He has for us, when we take ourselves, anyone, or anything, trying to take God’s place, out of the place in our hearts that belongs to Him and Him alone. 

So, let Him examine your heart. He created you. He knows exactly how to have you ABIDE in him if you so desire. 

Our passage finishes:

Now these things happened to them as an example,// but they were written down for our instruction,// on whom the end of the ages has come.

Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.  

It continues in a portion not in our reading:

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

It is amazing that Paul wrote this 2000 years ago and what was written down for their instruction, has also been written down for our instruction. It is easy to think that Paul wrote “the end of ages” as if this world was coming to an end in the 1st century. In fact, Paul was talking about this age we still live in. This other side of History. // This age //when God //revealed Himself// in Jesus. 

Now – No temptation, fear or unbelief can overtake us, if we truly surrender our hearts to Him.  Jesus is our Promised Land. It is IN him, // by abiding in Him // that we experience the freedom and abundant life He has prepared for us. 

Now I know our reading ends in verse 13, but I want to continue read a few more verses as to show you, in context, the importance of our union with Christ – pay attention to the word Participation. In verses 16 and 17 Pauls says: 

The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.

Remember the spiritual food God provided for the Israelites in the desert? How the manna and the water were a type of the Eucharist? And how the sea and cloud were a type of our baptism for purification and sanctification – water and Spirit? 

Paul speaks to us, who partake of the body and blood of Christ. Jesus not only redeemed us// He gave Himself to us. Through his sacrifice, we become one with Christ and His Body with one another. 

So let’s not fall into the mistake of taking for granted what God has provided.  Let us not “sit down to eat and rise up to play”.  He is the GIVER. He is the provider. There’s only One God, not the idols we create for ourselves. 

Let’s surrender our hearts completely and trust Him,// in every area of our lives. One day at a time…

Amen