2. Idolatry and its lessons (10:6–13)
D. The example of the Israelites (10:1–13)
1. A reference to history (10:1–5)
Paul has argued that the strong should have a concern for the weak, and has emphasized his own example. Now he shows from the history of the people of God that the enjoyment of high privilege does not guarantee final blessing. The Israelites of old experienced redemption, baptism and God’s continuing help. But they flirted with idolatry and nearly all of them perished in the wilderness. It may be that some of the Corinthians felt that their baptism and their use of Holy Communion guaranteed their final salvation, no matter what they did. Paul warns them that this is not so. Idolatry brings ruin.
1. For ties this section to the preceding. The danger of being ‘disqualified’ is very real, as the case of the Israelites in the wilderness shows. I do not want you to be ignorant is a formula Paul uses to introduce something new and important (Rom. 1:13; 11:25; 1 Cor. 12:1; 2 Cor. 1:8; 1 Thess. 4:13). It is interesting that in writing to a Gentile church he speaks of our forefathers. Clearly he sees the church as the true Israel. The word all occurs five times in vv. 1–4 (NIV omits the word before drank); the Israelites, without exception, received the tokens of God’s good hand on them. The fact that most perished (v. 5) comes accordingly with greater force. The cloud was the means of divine guidance at the time of the Exodus (Exod. 13:21–22), when the people passed through the sea (Exod. 14:21–22).
2. The experiences linked with the cloud and the sea (Exod. 13:21–22; 14:21–22) united Israel to Moses in such a way that they were all baptised into Moses. NIV accepts the passive, but, with Metzger, it is likely that we should see the verb as middle with a force like ‘they got themselves baptized’ (Goodspeed, ‘all, as it were, accepted baptism as followers of Moses’). It is startling for the Christian, who is ‘baptised into Christ’ (Rom. 6:3; Gal. 3:27), to read of baptism into Moses. Probably we are to think of Moses as a type of Christ. Just as baptism in one aspect brings people under the leadership of Christ, so participation in the great events of the Exodus brought the Israelites under the leadership of Moses (cf. ‘they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses’, Exod. 14:31, RSV). They were united to him, though we should not press this, for no other union can be anything like as close as that between Christians and Christ. All the Israelites shared the common baptism, but that did not prevent most of them from perishing on account of their subsequent sin.
3. They were all likewise sustained by the manna (Exod. 16:4, 13ff.), here called spiritual food. The adjective does not mean that Paul doubts the physical reality of the manna. It is his way of directing attention to the heavenly origin of this food (cf. Ps. 78:24); RSV has ‘supernatural’.
4. When he refers to their spiritual drink Paul adds an explanation, as he did not do with his reference to food. Moses got water from a rock at the beginning and end of the wilderness wanderings (Exod. 17:1–7; Num. 20:2–13), and this apparently was the origin of a Jewish legend that a rock travelled with the people. Paul may have had this legend at the back of his mind, but he does not refer to it. He refers to Christ and sees him as following the Israelites and continually giving them drink. He transfers to Christ the title, ‘the Rock’, used of Yahweh (Deut. 32:15; Ps. 18:2, etc.), a transfer that is significant for Christology, as of course is the clear implication of Christ’s pre-existence (cf. Conzelmann, ‘The “was” … means real preexistence’). The reference to spiritual food and drink is surely made (as Calvin and others have thought) in the light of the Holy Communion. Israel had her equivalents of both sacraments.
5. Nevertheless (the strong adversative alla), although God had given them such signal manifestations of his power and goodness, the majority failed to enter the Promised Land. God was not pleased with them. Most of them is a masterly understatement. Of all the hosts of Israel only two men entered Canaan; the rest perished in the wilderness. Paul’s verb katastrōnnymi adds a picturesque touch; he sees the wilderness as strewn with bodies (‘their corpses littered the desert’, JB). This is not simply natural death. It is God’s sentence against the rebels.
2. Idolatry and its lessons (10:6–13)
Paul brings out the fact that we are to see these events as history indeed, but as more than history. They are ‘types’ conveying spiritual lessons.
6. Examples renders typoi (see TNTC on 1 Thess. 1:7). The meaning is that certain things in the history of Israel prefigured spiritual realities in the Messianic age. God had a purpose in them both at the time they happened and for later generations. In this case it was to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things. No-one who seriously considers what God did to the sinning Israelites will lightly follow their example.
7. The warning against idolatry is very relevant to conditions in Corinth. Paul quotes Exodus 32:6, where the eating and drinking and dancing point to a typical idol festival. Often such a festival degenerated into a debauch. There was no sense of serious purpose in idol worship (how could there be?). The lowest passions might be, and often were, unleashed in the very act of worship.
8. This is not a new subject, for fornication (sexual immorality) formed part of much idol worship. Sacred prostitutes were found at many shrines, and Corinth had an unenviable notoriety in this respect. But Paul’s primary reference is to the incident in which Israel ‘began to indulge in sexual immorality with Moabite women’, and ‘joined in worshipping the Baal of Peor’ (Num. 25:1, 3). Judgment came in the form of a plague, and twenty-four thousand people perished (Num. 25:9). Paul speaks of twenty-three thousand, but both are obviously round numbers, and in addition Paul may be making some allowance for those slain by the judges (Num. 25:5). The words emphasize that idolatry exposes people to serious danger.
9. So we should not test the Lord (the verb (ek)peirazō means ‘to test’ but usually with a view to the person failing; thus it has a secondary meaning ‘tempt’). The idea in ‘testing’ or ‘tempting’ God is that of seeing how far one can go (cf. Acts 5:9; Heb. 3:9). Paul urges the Corinthians not to test the Lord (many MSS have ‘Christ’); Israel did this of old when the people complained about food, with the result that God sent fiery serpents among them (Num. 21:5–6; cf. Ps. 78:18).
10. The verb grumble is used a number of times of the Israelites complaining against God (Num. 14:2, 36, etc.), a complaint followed in each case by suitable punishment. Here the reference is probably to the overthrow of the company of Korah (Num. 16). The destroying angel (Phillips, ‘the Angel of Death’) does not occur in exactly that form in the Old Testament (though cf. Exod. 12:23; 2 Sam. 24:16; Isa. 37:36), nor in the New (though cf. Heb. 11:28). But the meaning is clear enough. Grumbling about God calls down divine punishment.
11. Paul sums up by saying that these things are examples, recorded as warnings. The fulfilment of the ages is a curious expression (which many oversimplify, as JB, ‘at the end of the age’, or GNB, ‘when the end is about to come’). It appears to mean that the culmination of all past ages has arrived. The coming of Christ has decisive significance. All previous ages come to their appointed end in him. Those ages are now completed and the lessons they teach are open to us. We should then reap the fruits of the experience of those ages.
12. The Corinthians were very sure of themselves. But then, so had the Israelites been. They had dallied with idolatry and reaped nothing but disaster. Let the self-confident take heed lest they fall.
13. Temptation (see on v. 9) is sometimes understood simply as ‘test’ (GNB, Héring), a meaning it certainly has on occasion. But here it is used in a broad sense which includes both ‘test’ and ‘temptation’. Nothing exceptional in either way had happened to the Corinthians. They had experienced only what is common to man. And God is not simply a spectator of the affairs of life; he is concerned and active. Believers can count on his help. He will always make a way out. This word (ekbasis) may denote a mountain defile. The imagery is that of an army trapped in rugged country, which manages to escape from an impossible situation through a mountain pass. The assurance of this verse is a permanent comfort and strength to believers. Our trust is in the faithfulness of God.