(i Cor. 10) 1: For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. 2 They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3 They all ate the same spiritual food 4 and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. 6 Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. 7 Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.” 8 We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died.9 We should not test Christ, as some of them did—and were killed by snakes. 10 And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel. 11 These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come.12 So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!13 No temptation[ has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.
In case anyone is worried about it from today’s New Testament passage, the good news is that, when we leave this sanctuary, there will be no deadly snakes to bite anyone for our sins against God or others, nor any earthquakes to swallow anyone up, nor any disease to strike people dead by the scores of thousands. If any of those things should happen to anyone, no one is in any position to say that the victims deserved it any more than anyone else. The bad news is that snakes, earthquakes and lightning bolts are easy compared to what we may face.
But first we may wonder, Why does Paul talk about such terrible things, and remind us of the bones of almost an entire generation littering the desert before anyone got to the Promised Land? That seems a little harsh, doesn’t it? Especially when the controversy that Paul was addressing in the passage we just heard was simply: Can we eat meat sold in the market from animals that had been sacrificed in some local temple to a pagan god or goddess? How do you get from paganized pot roast to bleached bones in the desert? Seems a bit like overkill, at first.
Well, it’s not because Paul somehow forgot that God is a God of love, while the Old Testament God is allegedly just a God of wrath. That, to me, is an overly simplistic way to treat the whole Bible and both Testaments. Yes, I do see dialog, debate and development within the arc of Biblical history, spanning both Old and New Testaments. These dialogs, debates and developments find their resolution in the person of Jesus Christ. He is the key by which Christians interpret the whole of the Bible. Though I have unanswered questions, I think I see, at least dimly, not perfectly, the steps and outlines of a progressive unfolding of revelation in the pages of the Bible, from Genesis to Jesus to the New Jerusalem. And now we, whom this passage says, “live in the culmination of the ages,” await the final and fullest revelation of God for all creation, at the return of Christ. That’s why we can’t just shuffle the pages of the Bible around at random and expect it all to mean the same thing, like we might do with, say, the book of County health codes.
We who live “in the culmination of the ages,” are the blessed beneficiaries of a fuller revelation of God, in Jesus, than what our earliest Hebrew ancestors had. Paul says that what went before us in the history of God’s revelation happened with us in mind, here and now, as well for the benefit of people back when. But that doesn’t mean that the timeless, unchangeable God is himself changing, unless there are twin gods greater than the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom even God Almighty bends the knee: namely, some gods named Time and Progress. Nor does that mean that we earned this fuller revelation by being smarter, better, kinder people than our Hebrew spiritual ancestors. Recent history and current events do not tell me that we are. Or at least, I wouldn’t claim to be. The unfolding revelation of God and of God’s work throughout history has to do with God’s wisdom and timing, not ours. Nor should we turn up our noses and raise our eyebrows in contempt over any stage of revelation that occurred before Jesus. Though not a one of those previous stages of revelation was complete and sufficient on its own, that does not mean that any one of them was wrong or unnecessary, nor that there is nothing for us to learn from them. In some ways, these stages of revelation throughout biblical history parallel the path of our own personal spiritual growth through life. If anything, then, we should be looking at least as much for commonalities among these stages of God’s unfolding program for the world, as for the differences between them.
Paul, in today’s passage, draws out five points in common between now and then, the church and our Hebrew spiritual ancestors in the Exodus out of Egypt. The first is that 1) We are in a new Exodus journey now, today. We too are an Exodus people, on a journey out of slavery to freedom, from slavery, that is, slavery to sin and death, and to the freedom to be all that God made us to be, and wants us to be. And so is the global, worldwide church, on an Exodus journey toward a renewed Creation. Two thousand years of church history are a story of the global church’s Exodus, in fits and starts, forward and backwards, with detours, difficulties and delays, from Egypt-like bondage to death and sin, to the fullness of our status in Christ. The first Exodus, like ours, was a long one. It took forty years to get Israel out of Egypt, because it was so hard to get Egypt out of Israel. It has not been any easier or quicker to get the world out of the church.
The first Exodus began with signs and wonders through Moses. Our Exodus began with signs and wonders through Christ. In the last supper that Christ had with his disciples before his arrest and execution, he took the words and ceremonies of the Passover feast and reworked them to symbolize his own coming death and resurrection. Paul here likens Christian baptism to the Israelites walking through the Red Sea. And the rock from which flowed water in the desert is likened to the Lord’s body, rent on a cross, when blood and water flowed from his riven side. The Bible itself draws so many other parallels between the First Exodus and ours that I could preach a series on it. But I won’t, except to repeat that the first thing we have in common with our Hebrew spiritual ancestors is that we are also a people in Exodus from slavery in sin and death to freedom for God and goodness.
The second thing we have in common with our Hebrew spiritual ancestors is that we have a great and wonderful destination before us. For our Hebrew ancestors in the desert, the desired destination was the Promised Land, flowing with milk and honey. Our destination is the fulfillment of all of God’s promises in Christ, and the new creation. The first Exodus was finished when God’s temple was built, and God had his footstool on earth, in Jerusalem. Our Exodus will be complete with the descent of the New Jerusalem, so that all Creation again becomes God’s temple. So, like the Hebrews crossing the Sinai Desert, we too are drawn forward toward a wonderful destination. That’s why, if ever we visit and pray with the dying, they often minister to us as much as we do to them, because they can almost see this glorious destination.
The third point we have in common with our Hebrew ancestors is that, as great as our destination is, just as great are the dangers and distractions, the traps and temptations along the way. In both Exoduses, then and now, the greatest dangers lie within the pilgrims, not outside them. The dangers Paul mentions in today’s passage are the same ones which tripped up the Hebrews in Exodus: cravings for evil things, pride, immorality and idolatry.
Paul’s Corinthian friends knew all about idols, and immorality. Corinth hosted at least five major temples, plus lots of smaller ones. One of the greatest was to Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love. In her service were over a thousand temple prostitutes for religious fertility rites and ceremonies. That adds urgency to the Corinthians’ question, “Can we eat meat sold in the market from animals that had been slaughtered in ritual sacrifices to these gods and goddesses in the local pagan temples? When we know what those rituals were like? When we used to participate in them ourselves and are sometimes tempted by the memories? And when we know what our money is going to support?” We could debate for weeks the fine points of the pros and cons of whether or not we’re free to eat such meat. But Paul is saying, Remember that you’re now an Exodus people, on an Exodus journey out of slavery to those very idols and immorality, those very ceremonies and sins, like your Hebrew ancestors were. If with those idols we play, then to those idols we must pay. And they will collect their dues. Remember also how weak, distractible and susceptible our Exodus ancestors were, and what were the consequences of their disloyalty and distractions. Just when did human nature suddenly change, so that we would be all that much wiser, stronger and better than they? Remember also what’s at stake: nothing less than arriving at our desired destination.
Or not. For the danger still exists of dying along the way, spiritually and morally, at least, if not physically. Maybe some of those Corinthian Christians did have a strong personal internal firewall between eating meat offered first to idols and the idols themselves. But what if their brother or sister in Christ did not? If such food doesn’t drag us back into idolatry and immorality, why would we want to grease the skids for our brother or sister in Christ, morally and spiritually?
Then we might prefer that the ground open up should we wander off the straight and narrow, like it did for Dathan and Abiram in the Sinai Desert, when they rebelled against God and Moses. The more we understand how dangerous, deceptive and destructive the temptations and distractions from our lives with God and each other can be, the more we might prefer dealing with snakes. We might prefer lightning from the sky, to the searing our spirits and the cauterizing of our consciences by our own actions and attitudes. The earth doesn’t need to open up and swallow evildoers; unrepented actions and attitudes can drive deep wedges into the very depths of our souls, and between people. Witness the paranoia and polarization of the left and right afflicting our society this election year. If such things don’t leave our bones to dry in the desert, they can still shipwreck our faith. The process of spiritual and moral death and dying may be more slow and subtle than were snakebites and lightning strikes in the first desert Exodus, but that only gives us more time to get used to it, like the frog in the pot of slowly heating water. Snakes, earthquakes and lightning strikes have this going for them: at least they are visible and immediate.
We attract what we love; we become what we worship. That is the bedrock spiritual order of the universe, the moral law of consequences, action and reaction that underlies the whole of the Bible, that the First Exodus shares with ours. That’s why Paul advises us against playing with the tools, the toys and the temptations of idolatry, immorality and pride. They could be just as deadly in ancient Corinth as they were in the Sinai desert, and as they are today. Remember then the third point in common between the first Exodus and ours: the dangers along the way, the costs of getting distracted in the desert from our glorious destination.
The fourth thing that our two Exodus journeys have in common is good news: on our side is the faithfulness of God, which made both the first Exodus and their arrival possible, and ours as well. God’s faithfulness includes his mercy, which get us back on track whenever we have wandered from the path, which heals us of any sin- inflicted maladies.
This is an easy thing to overlook in light of God’s severity against both the Pharoah and the Hebrews, whenever they rebelled and resisted God. And so we may forget, in light of all those snakes, earthquakes and thunderbolts, just how loving and gracious was God’s liberation of a people from slavery in the first place, just how kind was the calling and creation of a people blessed to be a blessing to the world, just how faithful God was to bring them to their destination.
Paul reminds us of God’s faithfulness when he says, in verse 13, that God “will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.” God provided those escape hatches in the First Exodus by providing food and water for the Hebrews, and whenever he dispersed their enemies. God will do the same for the Corinthian Christians, Paul is saying. God will provide another source of food than the temple meat market. God is just as faithful and ready on our behalf, whatever the danger, distraction or temptation we face.
Maybe, in our times of temptation, we can identify with what Mother Teresa of Calcutta said: “I know that God will not give me anything I cannot handle, but sometimes I wish He didn’t trust me so much.” But Paul’s faith, that God won’t let us face anything that He won’t help us to handle, is a principle on which our friends in the Twelve Steps groups depend. They would remind us that we are never meant to handle our temptations and struggles alone. A recovering addict’s first line of defense against temptation are prayer, the telephone, and another recovering addict. Whenever the desire to drink feels overwhelming, call your sponsor, or another recovering addict, or the anonymous hotline, and someone will help you talk your head back on straight. Then get to the very first meeting you can. There you might hear someone say, “If God brings you to it, then God can bring you through it.” Or, “It will work out in the end; if it isn’t working out yet, then you haven’t reached the end yet.” That makes each of us one of God’s means of help for each other.
Another divine resource on our behalf mentioned in this passage is the scriptures themselves, in particular, the story of that first Exodus. It’s not just the snakes and the earthquakes from which we learn. It was during that first Exodus that God’s pilgrims received guidance for their journey ahead, and ours. In the law given on Mt. Sinai, the Hebrews received powerful revelations of God’s nature and of God’s will. No, I’m not thinking so much about those detailed laws of kosher food and dress that might strike us as strange 33 centuries later. But they too were expressions of God’s grace in that they created a cultural and religious firewall against the idolatry, the immorality and the imperialism of Israel’s neighbors.
I’m thinking more of the Ten Commandments and the Great Commandment, to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves. I’m thinking of some other bedrock moral and spiritual aspects of the Hebrew Law that the apostles taught their Gentile converts, like respect for the elderly, peacemaking, justice and generosity toward the sojourner, the immigrant and the poor. These are universal and applicable to all times and places. Just because the civil and ceremonial codes of ancient Israel are no longer in effect for us Christians, so that we can eat pork chops, lobster bisque and fried catfish in clean conscience, that doesn’t mean that bearing false witness or adultery or dishonoring our parents—three of the Ten Commandments—are without importance or consequence. Just because we are free from Old Testament rituals of sacrifice and codes of dress does not mean that murder, coveting or worshiping idols are equally indifferent things. Both the Old and the New Testaments, the first Exodus and ours, reveal the same bedrock moral and spiritual order of the universe that reflects the very nature of God, and the unchanging needs of an unchanging human nature. So, again, the fourth thing that our Exodus and that of our ancient Hebrew ancestors have in common is the faithfulness of God to strengthen us, protect us and guide us through the desert and the dangers to the wonderful destination ahead of us. And one of those expressions of God’s faithfulness is the guidance He has given us in the scriptures, including those from our Exodus ancestors.
When that recovering addict, whom I mentioned a few minutes ago, goes to the 12 step meeting and introduces himself, people will respond by saying to him, “Keep coming, it works.” If it’s his first meeting, someone might add, “Your second meeting is the most important one.” Or, “It only works if you work it.” Which brings me to the fifth point that the first and second Exodus have in common: it’s not enough just to avoid the idols and watch out for snakes. Our part is to keep looking forward and walking ahead, according to the guidance we have received. Our task is to stay on the path toward God’s commands and of God’s promises and keep on keeping on. Those forty years that the Hebrews kept on keeping on in the desert were a time of trial and testing, yes, but also of preparation and purification. No step was a waste. So it is with what seems like another long wilderness sojourn, ours and that of the global church. But every step of the way counts. Every action of ours in this world has repercussions in the next. Even when it feels like we are simply and barely keeping up with the needs of family, friends and community, even while we tend to the poor, the frail and the needy, and do what we can to live justly and at peace with God, nature and others, we are participating in nothing less than the Recreation of Creation. In our worship, we are practicing and preparing for nothing less than the reunion of heaven and earth.
For we who live “in the culmination of the ages,” are getting closer every day to our destination. There is no other stage of Salvation history, no other great page of revelation between us and the new creation. We are like the Hebrews standing on the east bank of the Jordan River, looking to the other side, while the priests lean forward to carry the Ark of the Covenant ahead of them into the water. Before Jesus, no other group of God’s people in their own stage of revelation could say that.
So, moving backward through the message outline: let’s keep on keeping on in our end times Exodus, for it is not just a matter of our arrival, but of our survival, that we follow trustingly, obediently. God is faithful and will provide a way through all the dangers and distractions, trials and temptations of our Exodus, because, however great they may be, even greater is the destination, even greater are the love, the mercy and the power of God on our behalf. One of those wonderful resources which God has provided, to help us on the way, is the brother or the sister with us in the pew. Another is the history of our Hebrew spiritual ancestors, and the guidance about God and life they received, because, finally, we are too are on Exodus journey out of slavery to freedom from sin and death.