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.

1 Corinthians 10:11-12

Paul is using Old Testament Israel during their days of wandering in the wilderness under Moses’ leadership to illustrate the warning he had given the church in Corinth about how Christians caught up in unrepentant sin will lose their salvation (9:24-27; cf. Gal. 5:4; Heb. 10:26-31).  In spite of being God’s chosen people whom he had saved from Egyptian slavery and for whom he had daily provided the necessities of survival in the desert, he was not pleased with them and they ended up dying in the wilderness because of their sins (10:1-5).

The inspired apostle emphasizes why he is discussing them with the church of his day (and by extension, us today – 2 Tim. 3:16-17) by writing, “Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might desire evil as they did” (10:6).  Many of the Israelites of Moses’ day did “desire evil,” committing sins ranging from petulantly showing ingratitude for the manna God provided for their sustenance (Num. 11; cf. Ex. 16) to lacking faith in God’s power to aid and deliver to them the land of Canaan (Num. 13-14).

Paul now lists more examples of their wickedness.  He writes, “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’” (10:7; cf. Ex. 32:6).  The context of the Exodus passage he cites shows that he had in mind the time Israel idolatrously worshipped the golden calf.

He continues, “We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day” (10:8).  This refers to the time some of the Israelites committed fornication with Moabite women and were punished by God with a plague (Num. 25:1-9), a plague which Paul says killed 23,000 in one day and which Moses says killed a total of 24,000 (Num. 25:9).

“We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents” (10:9).  This harkens back to the time when Israel, yet again after many, many previous occasions, were like spoiled children crying about how unfair life is to the same parents who daily provided for them their every need (Num. 21:4-5).  The Lord responded to their testing him by sending “fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died” (Num. 21:6-9; cf. John 3:14-15).

“Nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer” (10:10).  The Israelites were skilled grumblers, complaining time and time again (e.g., Ex. 15:24; 16:2; 17:3; Num. 14:2; Deut. 1:27; Ps. 106:25).  God responded to their pettiness by decreeing that their entire generation, save for the faithful Joshua and Caleb, would die in the wilderness over the following forty years (Num. 14:26-35).

The Corinthian Christians were surrounded by pagan idolatry and sexual immorality on a daily basis, many of them having indulged in these sins themselves before they obeyed the gospel (6:9-11).  Additionally, ingratitude and the complaining that results from it are common human failings which the Lord commands against (Phil. 2:14; Col. 3:17).  Therefore, Paul listed these particular sins as warnings for Corinth and us today to remember and guard against.

Accordingly, he gave the warning cited above in verses 11-12.  All of us have been living in the last age since the days of Christ (cf. Heb. 1:1-2; 9:26; Acts 2:17; 1 Pet. 1:20).  What is written in the Old Testament is there to serve as an admonishing, instructive example to Christians today (cf. Rom. 15:4; 2 Tim. 3:16-17).  This is why we must study the Old Testament, even though we are not obligated to follow the tenets of Moses’ law as Israel was (Heb. 8:7-13).

And in doing so, we must not arrogantly think that just because we follow God in various ways that we could never fall prey to unrepentant sin.  Instead, we must choose to have open, honest, upright, humble hearts that prompt us to penitently serve God in all areas of our lives (Lk. 8:15; Ps. 97:11; 51:17; 34:18).

— Jon