July 14 Click on verses for Full Scripture

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Today's Pathway: I Corinthians 10:1-5 Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; And did all eat the same spiritual meat; And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ. But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness.

Paul concluded chapter 9 with his own testimony that he was doing his best to control his flesh so that he would never be disqualified from the race that God had called him to run. In today's passage Paul now gives an example of a group of people who failed to practice self-discipline and personal holiness, and paid the price for that failure. These would be the Israelites who came out of Egypt following the original Passover, but who wandered and died in the wilderness over the next 40 years. The Corinthians apparently were "ignorant" of the fact that there were consequences for sinful behavior, so Paul warned them from his own perspective (chapter 8), and now uses Jewish history to enlighten them.

He starts by saying that the Israelites were "under the cloud", which could mean that they were under the protection of the Shekinah glory of God, or could simply refer to the fact that they were led by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. Either way, they were under God's leadership and care. In addition, they all passed through the Red Sea on dry land. Verse 2 declares that they were "baptized unto Moses". This is not referring to a religious rite, and certainly not to New Testament believer's baptism. Instead, Albert Barnes writes that it has "the sense of dedicating, consecrating, initiating into, or bringing under obligation to". The idea is this: because God gave them the pillar of cloud and led them through the Red Sea under the leadership of Moses, He was showing the Israelites that he had placed Moses in charge. Just as believer's baptism identifies the Christian with Christ, so the cloud and the sea identified Israel with Moses. According to verses 3-4 they all had the same spiritual meat and drink. God was providing for them spiritually, and He also provided them with physical meat (manna and quail, Exodus 16:15, Numbers 11:31) as well as water from a rock (Exodus 17:6) . Paul reminds his readers that the true Rock that gave them the water was not a stone, but rather the Rock of salvation, Jesus Christ.

However, after all the blessings that God had given them, there came a point where God was no longer pleased with them. In fact, Paul writes that He overthrew them in the wilderness. Numbers 14:29-35 puts it this way:

"Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me, Doubtless ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised. But as for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness. After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise. I the LORD have said, I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die."

Raymond Barber offered these thoughts:

"Because of their willingness to obey Moses, they were set free from the penalty and the power and the presence of the Egyptians who had held them captive for 400 years. Just as we are willing to place our trust into Christ, He sets us free from the penalty and the power and the presence of sin. But being set free from those things does not in any way guarantee that we are going to be usable to Him once we become a believer. We are not going to lose our salvation, but we may lose our right to be used. This is what he is saying. Just as Israel turned against God and became disqualified, our experience with Christ does not guarantee that we will be usable to God. It is not just how we start, it is how we finish."