1 Cor 10:1-21 NOTES

1 Cor 10:1-22

Vs 1-5

All were under the cloud

All passed through the sea

All were baptized/immersed into Moses in the cloud

All drank from the spiritual Rock - which was Christ

But most displeased God

First, they all enjoyed the protection and guidance of the cloud, which represented the presence of God to lead them (Exod 13:21; 14:19–20), and all experienced the redemptive act of God which brought them out of bondage in Egypt through the Sea of Reeds by God’s saving action to the new state of existence won for God’s covenant people. Because these events constitute a paradigm of redemption (from bondage, by God’s saving act, to a new lifestyle and reality, Exod 14:19–22) Paul finds it appropriate to denote this as a baptismal-like redemptive experience of grace. The significance of baptized in relation to Moses is not least to identify the participating nature of their status and experience. Baptism signifies being bound up with the one in whose name, or in whose sphere of influence, a person is baptized, so that in Paul Christian baptism signifies above all else identification with Christ, especially identification with Christ’s saving death and resurrection (Rom 6:3–11). This point is made with convincing force by R. Schnackenburg. The coupling of the cloud and the sea with the verb baptized underlines the redemptive dimension, just as πάντες underlines participation in, and identification with, those redemptive events.

Paul jolted his readers with this christological intrusion into the Old Testament event. He had replaced “God,” who is identified as the rock in Deuteronomy 32:4, 15, 18, 30, 31, with “Christ” (see notes on 10:4, 9). Whether or not he believed Christ was actually present in the life-giving events of the Exodus, he certainly believed in the salvific significance of Christ for all humanity, reaching back to these formative days of Israel. All God’s actions in the Old Testament were, from Paul’s perspective, blanketed over by the Christ event. The “rock” easily caught his attention, since passages using this word were appropriated for christological purposes widely by the earliest Christian readers of the Old Testament, evidenced in such places as Romans 9:33 (quoting Isa 8:14; 28:16) and 1 Peter 2:4–8 (quoting Isa 8:14; 28:16; Ps 118:22).

1 Corinthians 10:1–13 (PNTC 1Co): The logical link between the two is easily discerned: all the runners run but not all win; so also, all the Israelites experienced the blessings of the exodus and divine provision, but not all made it to the Promised Land. Just as in the previous passage the Corinthians were to interpret their situation in the light of the analogy of the athletic games, in this passage Paul uses the Israelites’ experience of redemption, idolatry, and destruction as a prism through which the Corinthians are to understand their own situation.

The exodus is now to play a central role in forming the identity not only of Jews but of Gentile believers as well. And the parallel between the exodus and the experience of salvation the Corinthians have had at the turn of the ages was something to be expected by all those who knew the biblical story. It was

because Israel knew that God had acted for them in the past [that] they could be sure that God would act similarly for them in the future. Hence the prophetic books envision God’s restoration of Israel in terms of a new exodus event. Israel will once again be gathered from the nations and be led through the wilderness to her inheritance. In the words of Michael Fishbane, the exodus informed Israel’s “projective imagination” (Fishbane 1979: 121), their expectation of how God would interact with them in the future.

Vs 6-10

Do not be idolaters

All vs some of them

Do not engage in sexual immorality

All vs some of them

Do not put Christ to the test

All vs some of them - how could OT saints put Christ to the test?

Do not grumble

All vs some of them

Edwards goes behind the “four examples” identified by Meeks and others to show that ἐπιθυμία, misdirected desire, lies behind all four, while worldly self-indulgence or “sensuality” leads to (i) idolatry and (ii) immorality; and unbelief leads to (iii) doubt which puts God to the test, and (iv) despair, complaint, or “murmuring.” The unity of 10:7–13 is no less theological than it is rhetorical or hermeneutical.

In 10:6, Paul answers this question with his instruction that the Corinthians should not follow in the footsteps of their spiritual ancestors in the desert. If they did, God, whose character remains consistent, would surely bring a similar destruction upon them in terms of not reaching the goal of their salvation: eternal communion with God. He identified as their general downfall their uncontrollable desire for things they should not desire. The Corinthians who desired to eat meat offered to idols needed to check their motivations. Was this a desire born of rebellion against God and fuelled by the craving to accommodate the social practices of their pagan, nonbelieving family and friends?

1 Corinthians 10:6 (NIGTC 1Co): 6 Many interpreters include v. 6 with vv. 7–13, identifying craving as the first of five specific failures enumerated here. However, in our view craving represents the general stance from which the specific four failures of vv. 7–13 flow. Again, δέ in this context of introducing a summarizing proposition has the force of the logical now in English, with NRSV, NJB, and NIV. Since Paul is considering a correspondence between events (as in typology), not merely ideas (as in allegory), and appeals to history (as Goppelt insists), ταῦτα is well translated these events in REB. In his article on τύπος in TDNT, Goppelt urges that although the Greek word means example or sometimes mark (in the sense of stamp or imprint), or example as a norm (Rom 6:17), there also “occurs a new sense peculiar to the NT. In 1 Cor 10:6, Rom 5:14, τύπος is a hermeneutical term for the OT ‘type’. A corresponding sense is borne by … τυπικῶς in 1 Cor 10:11 and ἀντίτυπος in 1 Pet 3:21.” Goppelt also notes the use of the word in the sense of a heavenly “original” in Heb 9:24.

Moltmann insists that for Israel in the wilderness, as for the pilgrim church of Christ, the future is promised but not yet. Hence “Presumption is the premature self-willed anticipation of what we hope from God; despair is the premature arbitrary anticipation of non-fulfilment.” By contrast to each, Christian faith lays hold on divine promise. In this context (1 Corinthians 8–10) it adopts neither the presumptions of “the strong” nor the anxious timidity of “the weak,” but moves forward in both wariness and confidence, with self-discipline and trust. Believers, Moltmann asserts with Paul), live as the “exodus church.”

Vs 11-13

All these things are examples

THEREFORE….

Take heed lest one fall…

-How radically has life changed since you met Jesus? We - like the people of Israel can easily slip into a pattern of living and thinking that emphasizes the present - with its difficulties and painful times - so that the past events - that which God has done in our lives appears to be insignificant.

Vs 14-22

THEREFORE

Flee from idolatry

The cup and the bread - the blood and body of Jesus

All Israel particpate in the sacrifice

You shall not provoke the Lord to jealousy

The lure of self. Soon after God miraculously delivered an unarmed and unequipped descendants of Abraham, these same people quickly allowed their personal comfort and convenience to lure them into

Idolatry - replacing the mighty God of Mt Sinai with man-made golden calf

Sexual immorality - vs 8

Put God’s authority to the test - vs 9

Grumble - vs 10

Pilgrims or Pagans?

See Isaiah 47:10-ff for a description of idolaters

See Rev 2:4-5

Idolatry = exchanging one primary love for another

THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU DO: guard your relationship with God through Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit. If we fail here, we fail everywhere. We may accomplish great and mighty things, but none of those will lead people to the gospel. Only by a), preaching the gospel to ourselves EVERY DAY, and b). Insuring that our walk with Jesus is as close and as intimate as possible, and c) Focusing our eyes on the eternal prize and not just simply the temporal prizes will we escape the lure of idolatry.

I believe the people in our community are searching for a person, or a group of people, whose passion is unbridled, unrestrained, and unencumbered. Let us agree today that we will be a people unlike those described by Paul in 1 Cor 10:6-10 and that we will choose to ‘flee’ idolatry.

φεύγετε pheugete

Therefore, my dear friends,

flee

from idolatry.

φεύγετε pheugete flee; escape

verb, present, active, imperative, second person, plural

LSJ

Louw-Nida to cease quickly, to disappear rapidly

M-M flee; escape

The danger of idolatry is often underscored by reference to the intense jealousy (קַנָּא, qannāʾ) of Yahweh. The initial prohibition against worshiping other gods and making images for worship concludes with the warning that Yahweh is a jealous God and will punish those who “hate” him (Exod 20:3–6). Idolatry displays hatred of Yahweh, and Yahweh does not take that rejection lightly. Serving other gods would arouse the jealousy (קָנָא, qānāʾ; Deut 32:16, 21) of Yahweh, which could kindle his anger and bring destruction on Israel (Deut 6:13–15).

The ot frequently uses the language of prostitution (זָנָה, zānāh, “to play the whore”; Exod 34:5) or adultery (נָאַף, nāʾap, “to commit adultery”; Jer 3:9) to describe idolatry. Just as sexual infidelity breaks the marriage agreement (Lev 20:10), so religious infidelity breaks the covenant (Jer 3:6–11; Ezek 16:8, 15). Many examples blend sexual and religious language, speaking of sacrifices and offerings in the midst of describing sexual liaisons (e.g., Isa 57:3–10; Jer 2:20–28). Other passages use verbs that literally describe adultery or illicit sexual activity to indicate the activity of going off to worship foreign gods (Exod 34:15; Deut 31:16; Ezek 6:9).

While the nt does not explicitly use the language of adultery or sexual immorality (e.g., πορνεία, porneia) to describe idolatry, the conceptual link may still be found in the vice lists that often mention both sexual immorality and idolatry, frequently in direct sequence or very close proximity (1 Cor 5:11; 6:9; Gal 5:19–20; Rev 21:8; 22:15). On two occasions, Paul links idolatry with the sin of covetousness, perhaps extending the idea of idolatry from worship of other gods to worship of or desire for things (Eph 5:5; Col 3:5).

Lexical Information