Paul turns now to warning against idolatry, beginning with what doomed the Israelites after being saved by the hand of God in fleeing from Egypt through the Red Sea. Ask yourself: when was the first baptism into Christ in the Bible?
“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, 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” (1 Cor 10:1-4).
I would not have answered that the first baptism into Christ was in the astonishing series of miracles given to the Jews in their flight from slavery in Egypt, capped by the parting of the Red Sea and the total destruction of Pharaoh’s army. I would have said, rather, that it occurred at some point early in the ministry of John the Baptist.
And it strikes me that this is a very important moment, if not a warning, for the disunited church of Jesus during the chaos that is the year 2020:
“Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. 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. We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. 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” (1 Cor 10:5-11).
I am not suggesting that the church of Jesus today resembles the Jews of Moses’ day. We do not desire evil as a play-thing. We are not idolaters worshiping stone gods. We do not indulge openly in sexual immorality.
But it might be suggested that we do put Christ to the test, even as Christ put us to the test in the year 2020; and we do grumble a great deal about our leaders; and we have not achieved the perfect unity Jesus prayed for in John 17:20-23; and the world does not know that God sent Jesus and that God loves non-believers as much as he loves us!
So a little self-reflection might be in order here, as a generation “on whom the end of the ages” might be coming.
Note that Paul believes the horrible history of the Jews under Moses was given as a warning to the believers during Paul’s time. So what might the history of believers in Paul’s time serve as a warning to us?
This is not as ominous as it sounds. Please ponder these parallels with history for a couple days. Spend some time in prayer asking what God wants to reveal to us as his church today, based on what the church in Paul’s time faced. Be serious about it, because the current times are serious.
What do we need to flee from?
Then hurry back for Part 2 and be encouraged!