WWUTT 1551 Our Fathers Under the Cloud (1 Corinthians 10:1-3)

The Apostle Paul warns the Corinthians not to think of themselves stronger than they really are.

Don't put yourself in a position where you could potentially be tempted and fall when we understand the text.

Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is committed to teaching sound doctrine and rebuking those who contradict it.

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Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of the book of 1 Corinthians and we're on to chapter 10 this week.

If you want to open your Bible and join with me there, I'm going to start off here by reading the first 13 verses.

This is the Apostle Paul writing to the church in Corinth. 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 were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them, and the rock was

Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them, God was not well pleased, for they were struck down in the wilderness.

Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved.

Do not be idolaters, as some of them were, as it is written. The people sat down to eat and drink and stood up to play.

Nor let us act in sexual immorality, as some of them did, and 23 ,000 fell in one day.

Nor let us put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents.

Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have arrived.

Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed, that he does not fall.

No temptation has overtaken you, but such as is common to man. But God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.

Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.

That was verse 14 that I ended with there. But we can see here Paul making numerous references to Old Testament stories that serve for us as an example that we would not fall into temptation as they did, and so be destroyed.

Now this still goes along with what we've been reading in the last couple of chapters, chapters 8 and 9, and now we get here to chapter 10 where Paul begins, for I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea.

The fact that he begins this chapter with 4 connects it to the previous chapter where Paul had been arguing for the rights, the authority that he has as an apostle.

But even though he has the right to do the things that he talked about in that particular chapter, eating whatever food, taking along a believing wife if he wanted to, taking a salary for the job that he was doing as a minister of the gospel of grace.

Whatever authority or rights he had, he set aside for the sake of the gospel, that he might win others to the gospel.

Now understand when I say that he set his authority aside, it doesn't mean he gave up his office as an apostle, which is a position of authority.

But he could have commanded people to wait on him, right? That was the whole argument he was making about not taking a salary.

He didn't burden anybody else by making them provide for him, though it would have been his right to do so.

But he made himself available to everybody. So even going into poor areas, he would not have to obligate a poor people to have to provide for him.

He made his own living and earned his own wage so that he could become all things to all people and win some to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

That was the argument that he was making through chapter 9, talking about his rights, his authority, what he had the right to do as an apostle, but gave it up so that others might hear the gospel and be saved.

So he gets to chapter 10, and all of this is in light of the argument that he was making in chapter 9, of having presented and defended his rights.

For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea.

Now remember, this is also in the context of Paul responding to a question about food sacrifice to idols.

That was at the beginning of chapter 8. Now concerning the things sacrificed to idols, we're still responding to that matter.

Defending his rights as an apostle, he had the right to eat whatever he wanted, and it was not defiled, even if that food had been sacrificed to an idol.

But Paul would put off eating meat if it was going to cause somebody else to stumble so that he might win others to the gospel, not putting a stumbling block before unbelievers or those who were weak in their faith.

Verse 13, well, this is 8 .13, where Paul said, Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble,

I will never eat meat again, ever, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble. So as he's defending his rights, this is all under the subject heading of talking about food that has been sacrificed to idols.

There's a lot of things we have the right to do as believers if we want to do it, but we may need to have to set that aside for the sake of another, either not causing a brother who is weak in his faith to stumble or putting a stumbling block before an unbeliever and making it difficult for them to come to an understanding of the knowledge of God through some sort of non -essential.

This is not in any way, Paul arguing, that you shouldn't preach the gospel in its fullness because that might be hard for an unbeliever to have to believe.

So you want to give it to them gently or in bits and pieces? No. Preach the full counsel of God. Paul preached the full counsel to the synagogue in Corinth, and when they would not listen to what he had to say, he shook his garments of them and went to the

Gentiles to preach to them. So there was nothing that he left out when he was appealing to Jews with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

When it comes to preaching the gospel, leave nothing out. When it comes to some of these extra things, the non -essentials, as I mentioned, don't put a strong emphasis on that stuff if it's going to prevent somebody from coming to a knowledge and an understanding of Christ.

Then as they grow in their maturity, you can start talking about some of those deeper things that they need to know, even as it pertains to the way they live in their

Christian faith because that's really the application of these instructions here.

It's with regards to how we are living, how we are walking in Christ. Regarding food that is sacrificed to idols, we know that we have knowledge.

Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. Therefore, concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world and that there is no

God but one. That was in chapter 8, verse 4. So from there, he talks about his rights, defending his rights.

We're here in chapter 10. We don't want you to be unaware of the things that our fathers went through, things that our fathers even had the liberty to do, having been released from slavery in Egypt, and yet they were so easily tempted and fell away.

So don't put yourself in a position to be tempted by anything. Again, going back to food sacrificed to idols, can you eat the food that's been sacrificed to idols?

Sure, but should you? See, that's really what Paul is going to be putting before the

Corinthians here. Like, you can go over to that altar there where there's meat on the altar being sacrificed to a false god, and you can take the drumstick off of that altar and eat your fried chicken and think to yourself, hey,

I've not done anything to defile myself. It's just food. The idol is an empty thing. Doesn't really matter there.

Have you defiled yourself? No. You've not defiled yourself by eating the meat that was sacrificed to an idol.

But how tempted are you going to be in your flesh to,

I don't know, salute that idol, worship that idol, give some kind of homage to it, or maybe even become tolerant of people who are idol worshipers because, hey, they give me meat, so I don't want to get on their bad side.

I'm going to let them have their idol worship as long as I can get meat from them, and then as you tolerate that sin, eventually you even become a partaker in it?

See, that's where Paul is going with this. You're not defiling yourself by eating something that was sacrificed to an unclean thing.

Food goes in the body. It gets expelled. That's it. You've not defiled yourself by eating that. But should you even be putting yourself in a position where you could potentially be tempted?

Why even put yourself there? You can think, I have the right to do this, and I'm strong in mind and body, and I can resist the temptation and not be defiled.

And you may be that strong, but what if you're not? Do you understand how weak we are in our flesh?

And where does Paul go as an example of this? The Israelites who were released from slavery in Egypt.

Now, they worshiped false gods when they were in Egypt. We don't often think about this, but that was the case with the

Israelites in Egypt under slavery and captivity in Egypt. The Israelites were not wearing white hats, and the

Egyptians were wearing the black hats. That's what we tend to think about regarding that story. The Israelites were the good guys, and the

Egyptians were the bad guys. It was like an old Western or something like that. And then Moses, the sheriff, comes into town, and he's cracking the whip against the evil mayor who was

Pharaoh. You know, he's going to drive that guy out of town. And the reality was they were trying to get themselves out of town, released from slavery in Egypt.

But the Israelites were not innocent, godly people appealing to the

God of Abraham to save them. That's not who the Israelites were. Even when Moses brought a word to them, they didn't want to listen to Moses.

Pharaoh didn't listen to Moses, and the people of Israel didn't listen to Moses. So the Israelites were just as wicked as the

Egyptians were. But what was the difference? God made a covenant with Abraham that he was going to be with Abraham's offspring and give to them a land.

God was faithful to himself, to his own promises. Not because the

Israelites were good guys, but because God is good.

And he was faithful to the promise he gave to Abraham to free the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and also to the idolatry that they were under when they were there in Egypt, that they might be freed from their captivity to go into the wilderness and sacrifice to their

God. Remember, that was what Moses said to Pharaoh, that the Israelites needed to be able to go a three days journey away from Egypt and sacrifice to God.

And Moses said to Pharaoh, if we won't, then God will judge us. If we don't worship

God the way that God has said that he is to be worshipped, even the Israelites were going to be judged.

And then Pharaoh, of course, hardened his heart and he would not let God's people go.

And here, Paul refers to them even as fathers. He's referring to those Israelites who were in the wilderness, whose offspring would receive the promised land.

Remember, none of them entered the promised land, only Caleb and Joshua. Even Moses and Aaron would not be allowed to enter the promised land because they disobeyed

God. So they were cursed to wander in the wilderness for 40 years. And then when that generation had died out, it was their children who received the promised land, plus Caleb and plus Joshua who led them.

And yet, Paul refers to them here as fathers. 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 they all drank the same spiritual drink for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them and that rock was

Christ. And then what does Paul say happened to them in verse 5? Nevertheless, with most of them,

God was not well pleased for they were struck down in the wilderness. Now what's the train of thought here?

Go back again to verse 1. Our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea. First, an understanding of this term fathers.

Let's camp on that for a moment and then we'll continue on with the illustration. So we who are in Christ are children of Abraham.

So our forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the forefathers of Israel, the patriarchs of Israel, there are patriarchs too.

As it says in Galatians 3, verse 7, know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.

And we read later on in verse 28, there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.

Now I've heard some say, well, yeah, we who are in Christ, we're Abraham's offspring, but we're not Jacob's offspring because Jacob is

Israel. And so anytime we see a reference to Jacob, the father of Israel, that's only pertaining to Jews or Israelites, that's not pertaining to Christians.

I just think that argument is silly because Abraham's the father of Jacob. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Jacob, a child of promise of Isaac who was the child of promise to Abraham.

And we are all children of promise through Christ who was the promised seed.

And now all of us who are in Christ, we are therefore children of God through the patriarchs,

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who are our patriarchs too. Anyway, I won't continue on with that argument.

But just to say, they're our patriarchs also. They are our forefathers.

You don't have to be an ethnic Jew in order to claim that you are a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Jesus said in Matthew 8, 11, I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness.

In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. So we have, we who are in Christ, we have fellowship with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, not those who were ethnically descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

It is only by faith that we have become the children of God through Jesus Christ, our

Lord. By his blood, we are adopted sons and daughters of God.

So therefore, we can call the patriarchs our fathers. And then we also recognize the

Israelites who are descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Well, they're also our fathers.

That's the way Paul refers to it here. Now I make that point because he's talking to an audience that is primarily

Gentile. Most of the Corinthians were Gentiles, not Jews. Remember again, Paul went into the synagogue there in Corinth and preached the gospel to them and they would not receive it.

And he shook his garments of them and said, from now I'm going to the Gentiles. Some of the Jews did become believers and followed

Paul, but most of them were Gentiles. And yet he is speaking to a primarily

Gentile audience. Not exclusively Gentile, but primarily Gentile. He is speaking to that audience and saying to them, our fathers.

And I don't think he's making reference to himself as an Israelite. And therefore the rest of his kinsmen who would also be

Israelites. He's saying that for you and for me, our fathers, those who are in the wilderness, to whom the promises of God had been given first.

The apostle Paul says, in Romans chapter 3, what advantage is there to being a Jew? Much in every way.

First, because the Jews received the oracles of God. To them was given the law.

To them were given the patriarchs. The promise of the Messiah who would come through the

Jews. So they were the first to receive these promises. Therefore they are our fathers.

Now you could argue, you could argue that when Paul makes reference to fathers, he's only talking about those who were faithful and made it through the trial in the wilderness and were thus given the promised land.

Remember, some of those who received the promised land were indeed among those who left slavery in Egypt and passed through the

Red Sea and were there to hear God giving the commandments at Mount Sinai.

The ones who were not allowed to pass into the promised land were those who were of the age of 20 and older.

So there were some who were youth that after wandering in the desert for 40 years, they would have been much older, you know, now into their 60s or 50s.

You know, the youngest of them were probably in their 40s and 50s. That would have been the youngest of them since they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years.

So some of them were given the promised land. They did see the signs and wonders in Egypt, the plagues.

They saw the Red Sea parted, even pass through the sea. They got to see that before they were given the promised land.

It would have been their parents who grumbled and were not faithful that perished in the wilderness and were not allowed to receive the promised land.

So it could be that when we say fathers here, we're only talking about the faithful who therefore received the promised land.

But I don't think that that's necessarily where Paul means to camp. I think he means all of those who were descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

That's who Paul is referring to here as our fathers. They were all under the cloud. They all passed through the sea and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.

Remember the cloud that guided them by day and there was a pillar of fire that guided them by night and they passed through the

Red Sea and this is being referred to here as a baptism going through the Red Sea and all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them and that rock was

Christ. So some of the things that we saw in the Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy narrative some of those things were types that pointed to something greater and what is greater is

Christ, the greater rock. Moses tapped a rock, water came from the rock, the people drank the water.

Well the true rock is Christ who gives us everlasting water. Remember the thing that Jesus said to the woman at the well in John 4 if you knew who it was who was asking you for a drink you would have asked him instead and he would have given you living water that turns into a spring welling up into eternal life.

And so even the things that we see in the Exodus narrative there's some typology there that means to point us to Christ who is the fulfillment of all the law and the prophets.

We'll pick up there and talk more about that tomorrow. How Christ is our spiritual drink and is our spiritual rock and you see multiple testimonies throughout the

Old Testament to Christ being our rock. Even before we have reference to Christ being the rock when we get to the

New Testament. Let's conclude with prayer to our rock and our savior and then pick up with this lesson in 1

Corinthians 10 tomorrow. Heavenly Father thank you for what we're reading here that we may know Christ all the more and heed these warnings not to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think.

Not to think that we're stronger than we really are. But we continue to rely on Christ and follow him and obey him that we may not fall into temptation.

Deliver us from the evil one that we may walk in sanctification and in paths of righteousness today for your name's sake.

It's in the name of Jesus that we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to When We Understand the

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