>> Jen: Well, good morning friends and faithful listeners. My name is Jen. I'm the host of the Bible Explained podcast. How have you all been? I haven't heard from many of you in a while. I haven't gotten as many emails. So I uh, love hearing from you guys. I love hearing where you're from, what you enjoy doing, what the weather is in your area, and also how you came about to finding the podcast. So if you ever want to contact me and just introduce
yourself, feel free to. You're going to find my contact information listed in the description of this episode. Also, if you go to p40ministries.com contact you can contact me there as well. But today we're going to talk about First uh, 1 Corinthians 10:1 13. This portion of Scripture is talking completely about temptation and how we can overcome it. So let's go ahead and read this. I'll be reading Philanthropy.
Make sure to grab your cup of coffee or cup of tea this morning for you crazy tea drinkers. And let's go ahead and read First uh, 1 Corinthians 10:1 -13. Now I would not have you ignorant brothers that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea, and were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. And they all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank of a spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ.
However, with most of them god was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples to the intent we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. Don't be idolaters, as some of them were. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. Let's not commit sexual immorality, as some of them committed, and in one day 23,000 fell. Let's not test Christ, as some of them tested
and perished by the serpents. Don't grumble, as some of them also grumbled and perished by the destroyer. Now all these things happened to them by way of example, and they were written for our admonition on whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore let him who thinks he stands, be careful that he doesn't fall. No temptation has taken you, except what is common to
man. god is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able, but will with the temptation also make the way of escape that you may be able to endure it. Not going to lie. When I first read this today, I didn't have a very Solid understanding of what Paul was talking about. And I kind of read it, and I was like, well, this is pretty cut and dry. You know, he's just saying the Israelites
did all these bad things, so you don't do them. But then once I went back into the Old Testament and reread some of the stories of what the Israelites did in the wilderness, it really all clicked for me. So I'm excited to talk about it. But verse one through four talks about how the Israelites are actually not that much different from the Christians. Here's what he says. I would not have you be ignorant, brothers, that our, uh, fathers were all under the cloud and all
passed through the sea. Now he's talking about the Israelites here when they were making their escape from Egypt. Back in the book of Exodus, the cloud was guiding the Israelites and protecting them from the sun and, uh, showing them which way to go in the wilderness. Now, obviously, we know that that cloud was the Holy Spirit. So the Israelites were being led physically by the Holy Spirit, whereas nowadays the Christians are being led spiritually by
the Holy Spirit. But not only were the Israelites led by the Holy Spirit, this cloud, but they were also baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. The Israelites experienced a form of baptism when they escaped from Egypt, got to the Red Sea, and god split the sea into two parts and allowed the Israelites to walk through on dry land. The Israelites passed through the water the same way that a Christian would when they're getting baptized to come back up again and experience new life.
The Israelites kind of did the same thing. They passed through the water, and when they were on the other side, they had a brand new life. They were officially freed from Egypt. They were no longer slaves anymore. Not only this, they were baptized into the leadership of Moses and also baptized in the cloud, meaning the Holy Spirit. So similarly, we Christians are baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Moses and Jesus are actually pretty similar
to each other. Moses was the leader of the Israelites. He was the spiritual leader of them in many capacities. He was the high priest for a while, and he was also the judge of Israel. And Jesus is all those things for his people as well. So in two ways, so far, the Israelites are very similar to the Christians because they are guided by the Holy Spirit. Back in the wilderness, they were also baptized and received new life the same way a Christian would be in a spiritual
sense. Not only this, the Israelites all ate the same spiritual food in verse Three, and they also drank the same spiritual drink. In verse 4, the Israelites were supplied food in the wilderness by god god actually rained down this, like, bread type substance out of the sky for the Israelites to physically eat and gather every single day. It ended up being called manna because the Israelites had no clue what it was. And manna just, uh, means, what is it?
So the Israelites had no clue what it was, called it manna, um, and ate it every single day. And that was their provision for 40 years in the wilderness. god rained down that manna every single day for them. So that was definitely a spiritual food. It literally came straight from god straight from heaven. And then they also drank a spiritual drink. There's a story, a handful of times in Scripture where the Israelites were in the wilderness. You know, the wilderness is very dry
and desert like. And, uh, sometimes there was no water in some of the places they were at, and they had nothing to drink and they would be scared. So god actually supplied them water through a rock. And when Moses struck the rock, the water would like, gush out of it and it would be enough to let all of the Israelites actually drink from it from just this one rock. I mean, that was also a spiritual drink that the Israelites physically were able to
drink. Now, Paul actually says that that rock signifies Jesus. That the Israelites drank from Jesus many times throughout. Scripture is actually called the rock, you know, the place of safety, a place you can go to be, uh, protected. But also, Jesus called himself the living water in the Gospel to the woman at the well. So the Israelites are similar to the Christians in many different ways. But with the Israelites, everything was, uh, physical. You know, God's Spirit was physically in front of
them in the form of a cloud. They physically went through a baptism by crossing through the Red Sea. They physically ate the manna, physically drank the water from the rock. But for Christians, all of these things are spiritual instead of physical. But still, Christians and the Israelites of the Old Testament have something very much in common, that Yahweh, god adopts his people and takes care of them. Now, Paul has a point to all of this. The Israelites were sustained by god in
many different ways. And yet the Israelites sinned in many capacities. And so Christians also have to be careful that they don't fall into the same temptations and the same sins that the Israelites did. Because sometimes, you know, we read through the Old Testament and we're just like, ah, these stories, you know, they happened so long ago. How can we possibly apply them to our lives today. You know, these people, they had a totally different culture. They had a
totally different life experience. So how can we possibly, like, apply that to our lives? But Paul's like, no, these Israelites that lived so long ago are not that much different than we are nowadays. He says, however, with most of them, the Israelites, god was not well pleased, for they were
overthrown in the wilderness. Even though evidence of god was all around them all the time, the Israelites constantly turned their backs on god And now Paul's like, these things that the Israelites did are our examples for today so that we will not lust after evil things as they also lusted. Then Paul gives an example of what lust means. We mostly think of lust in a sexual sense, and that's absolutely true. But we can lust after many different things, just as the Israelites did.
The first thing we can lust after is other idols. Don't be idolaters. Verse 7, as some of them were. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play. That's from Exodus 32. So I'm going to read that real quick. Verses one through six tells the story. So Moses was up on Mount Horeb listening to god god gave him the Ten Commandments and I think also the plans to build the Tabernacle. But Moses was up on this mountain for, like, several
weeks. And the Israelites were down at the bottom of the mountain being like, we don't know what happened to Moses. So here's the story. When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron, Moses, brother. And said, come and make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses, who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what's happened to him.
Aaron said to them, take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons, and your daughters are wearing and bring them to me. So all the people took off their gold earrings and brought them to Aaron. He took what they handed to him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, these are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt. When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, tomorrow there will be
a festival to the LORD. So the next day, the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. And afterward, they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry. So that's the Story of what happened with the golden calf. And obviously god was very unhappy with his people because once again, he's been supplying them with all of these things and helping them in every single capacity
as possible. Like this was. It was only like two months prior to this that god had proven he was there by splitting the Red Sea. Like this was not long after god did the most amazing miracle pretty much outlined in the Old Testament. And yet the Israelites were like, no, we don't want god and we don't know what happened to Moses. He could have died or whatever. So let's make ourselves gods that we can control, that we want to worship. god got very angry with the
Israelites. He did not destroy them, but he did send a plague. At the end of the chapter, we don't know how many Israelites died for that particular sin though, of the golden calf. So Paul mentions this story. He said, don't be idolaters and don't lust after other idols the same way that the Israelites did. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink. They rose up to play or indulge
in revelry. So if this story of the Israelites is an example of something that we do nowadays, in what ways are we worshiping other idols that are not Yahweh? The Israelites wanted to control their gods. They did not want Yahweh, who was in control over them. So it could be that nowadays we are m not necessarily bowing down to a calf god though maybe some people are. But I would say most people don't do that. But we absolutely can fall into the temptation of worshiping something that we can
control, right? Something that we make with our own hands, whether it's success, whether it's money. There are so many idols nowadays that we think we can control and so we worship them. That is the first way we lust. And we can use the Israelites as examples. The second way we can lust is with the typical meaning of the word, which is sexual sin, verse 8. Let us not commit sexual immorality as some of them committed the Israelites. And in
one day 23,000 fell. Now this story is from numbers chapter 25. This was actually the children of the people who worshiped the golden calf. So the children are all grown up. They're still in the wilderness, haven't gone into the promised land yet. It says in Numbers 25:1 3 that while Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with the Moabite women who invited them to the sacrifices of their gods. The people ate the sacrificial meal
and bowed down before these gods. So Israel yoked themselves to the BAAL of Peor, and the Lord's anger burned against them. Now, specifically, with this particular god BAAL of Peor, it included a lot of sexual worship. And these men and women would get together and do all sorts of crazy sexual things in order to worship this god BAAL of Peor. And of course, god was very angry with this because this was, once again, all idolatry.
But the appeal of this particular form of idolatry was this sexual promiscuity that came with it. So this specifically was very appealing to the men, is what numbers 25 says. It says the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with the Moabite m women. Now, this one, I don't think is hard to figure out how we engage in this particular form of lust nowadays in our culture of lots of sexual promiscuity and, you know,
pornography everywhere. They're saying now that the average age of children being introduced to pornography is something like 10 years old. I mean, that is very wild. So you can see how sexual immorality is very rampant here in America and is being introduced to, uh, children at a very young age. Paul says, let's not do these things. Then he says also, let's not test Christ. In first uh, 1 Corinthians 10, verse 9, let's not test Christ as some of them tested and perished by the serpents.
So this story is from Numbers, chapter 21. Once again, the Israelites are in the wilderness. They're being sustained by god every single day with the manna. But yet they are testing god They are unhappy with everything going on. They're testing Christ specifically, actually, is what Paul says. Numbers 21:4 -5 says they traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea to go around
Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way, and they spoke against god and against Moses and said, why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in this wilderness? There is no bread, there is no water, and we detest this miserable food. The Israelites were complaining, were impatient, were unhappy, were angry with god and with the choices that god was making. This anger was causing them to sin by blaspheming against god and being unthankful, um, and
unappreciative of what god was giving them. I mean, notice what they say here. We detest this miserable food. That was the manna they're talking about that god was supplying to them every single day. They were saying, we hate this, we don't want it. And by the way, that was not the only food the Israelites had in the wilderness. The Israelites were very rich after they
left Egypt. The Egyptians basically paid the Israelites to leave because after all the plagues happened, the Egyptians were so scared of the Israelites after all of those plagues that they actually allowed the Israelites to loot them and gave them stuff to actually let them leave. And they were like, here, take all of my jewelry. You may go. So the Israelites left with tons of jewelry, tons of money, and actually tons of animals as well. So they were not in need of meat or of food.
Exactly. But they wanted the food that they wanted, the Egyptian food that they had grown up with. I remember specifically one story saying, we miss the cucumbers of Egypt. So they wanted their cucumbers and whatever else Egyptian cuisine had to offer. They didn't want the manna and they didn't want the meat that they had. They were angry and dissatisfied with the situation they were in in life.
This is one that I am sure I have committed many times throughout my life and probably commit on a day to day basis is just complaining and being very unthankful for the gifts that I have been given. Paul actually calls this lust. But the last way we can lust is by grumbling, which is kind of similar to, uh,
unthankfulness. So the story that Paul mentions here in verse 10 is from Numbers chapter 14, verses 1 through 4, says that night all the members of the community raised their voices and wept aloud. All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron. And the whole assembly said of them, if only we had died in Egypt or in this wilderness. Why is the LORD bringing us into this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and our children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn't it be
better for us to go back to Egypt? And they said to each other, we should choose a leader and go back to Egypt. So there's a lot going on there. Absolutely. There's some unthankfulness, um, happening. Right. But mostly what the people are doing here is they are rebelling against god and they're also losing their faith in god Even though god was showing them all of these wonderful things, all of these wonderful miracles, the people had no faith. And because of their lack of faith, they chose to
rebel instead. So that is the last way that people can lust. Based upon the stories of the Israelites going through the wilderness, now all of these things happen to them, 1 uh, 1 Corinthians 10:11, by way of example. And they were written for our admonition on whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore let him who thinks he stands be careful that he doesn't fall. Paul concludes this by saying, if you Christians think that you're better than the Israelites, then be very
careful, because you're not. You are not better than they are. You can fall at a moment's notice. The second a, uh, fear pops up, the second you get stressed about something, the second a, uh, vice starts to tempt you, you can fall the same way the Israelites did back in the wilderness. So Paul concludes by saying, we Christians are no better than the Israelites. But there is hope for times when we are tempted to lust after
these things. Verse 13. No temptation has taken you except what is common to man. god is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able, but will with the temptation, also make a way of escape that you may be able to endure it. This verse is actually misquoted quite often. Um, this is the verse where some people think that Paul is saying that god is not going to give you more than you can bear in life.
But that's actually not true. Paul is saying, god is not going to give you more temptation than you can bear in life. There's always going to be an escape from this temptation you are experiencing. But how do we find this escape? With every single example that the Israelites had here, their faith was weak. They were not seeing all the amazing things that god was doing for them in the wilderness. They were not seeing how they were sustained with food and with water.
They were not seeing how god was providing a way through the wilderness. They were not seeing how their clothes and their shoes weren't getting, uh, like old. The Israelites were being sustained by god in so many capacities, but yet their faith was still shaken. So that is how we can avoid some of these temptations is by recognizing God's character and seeing in our lives the ways that he is truly sustaining us, protecting us, and helping us along the
way, even when it doesn't feel like it. I mean, the Israelites did have to suffer some things in the wilderness. Like, it was not always easy. It was not always fun. You know, they didn't know where they were going. They felt lost. They had no home. Everything that they had once known was gone from Egypt. They sometimes didn't know where they were going to get their water. But then god always supplied it at the end they didn't have the easiest life
traveling around the wilderness. And also, it was probably miserable to travel on foot with a whole family. But God was there sustaining them through all of it. So if you're struggling with a temptation, remember the character of God and recognize how god is sustaining you today and in the past and in the future. I swear, eventually my episodes are going to be like, uh, three hours long. My episodes used to be like five minutes long. When I was first starting out with the
podcast, they were like five to six minutes. Then they kind of moved to like 10 to 15 minutes. Then for a while there, they were like a solid 18 to 20 minutes. Now, I swear, almost every single episode I do is like 25 to 30 minutes long. So who knows in like, four years if I'm not done with the Bible yet, we might be doing like four hour long podcasts every day. I hope not. I think my voice would be dead at that point,
but. All right, guys, I will see you all on tomorrow's episode where we'll talk about first Kings. Until then, happy listening and God bless.