1 Corinthians 10:1-6 - They all died in the desert

10:1-5

Paul has just been stressing the seriousness with which he took his calling, now he further emphasises how seriously the Corinthians should take theirs. It is literally a matter of life and death, eternal life no death. To do so Paul points back at the Old Testament, and Moses taking the Israelites out of Egypt. We should take note of how seriously all the New Testament writers and Jesus Himself took the Old Testament.”That’s just Old Testament” is one the most stupid statements you can make. All the Israelites came out of Egypt, yet most of them died in the desert. This was despite them experiencing many things. They all experienced the cloud of God and the fire of God, they all passed through the Red Sea, they all ate the manna from heaven. Yet this did them no good. Today people will often say that they need more evidence, that if they saw a genuine miracle, then they would know there is a God. This is simply not true. The Israelites saw all sorts of things, but did not believe. The people saw Jesus do many amazing things, but most did not believe. We need to repent, we need the Spirit to open our eyes, we need to be born again.

“and the Rock was Christ”, note the tacit implication of the deity of Christ. We cannot be Christians by accident or by association, we need to be disciples of Christ.

10:6

These things were given as a warning. People often think that the judgement aspects of the Old Testament have gone out of the window with Jesus. Nothing could be further from the truth. The “violent” passages of the Old Testament demonstrate the reality of God’s judgement. Moreover, Jesus Himself often spoke of judgement. These things happened to warn us to turn away from evil.