1 Corinthians 10:1-13 Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke
The Third Sunday in Lent Sunday, March 20, 2022 “A Reality Check from Israelite History”
A young lady thinks that her relationship with her boyfriend is the most wonderful thing ever. And then one day, he breaks up with her. It is a reality check. Somehow, what she was thinking about the situation was different than what he was. The reality was the relationship was not going as well as she had felt it was. A man thinks his car is going to last him many years, and then it dies. Reality check. No one really knows how long anything might last (in spite our best guesses). How many times has a political party or a specific candidate expected to win, maybe even in a landslide, and then was surprised by how the election turned out? It’s a reality check. There was something about the situation which was not as it seemed or as they thought. When Paul wrote to the Christians in the city of Corinth, he wanted to make sure that they understood the truth. He wanted them to know that they couldn’t make assumptions about their own situations based on the factors they were most likely to consider. Paul had a reality check for them. His words were, “let him who thinks he stands be careful that he does not fall.” He was worried that these Christians could be complacent. They might not recognize the evil all around them. They might assume that everything was just fine, after all, everything seemed to be going well. But there were threats and dangers that they needed to be aware of. And so Paul offered them a reality check by recounting a number of events from the history of the Old Testament Israelites. The lessons from the Israelites sound a warning for us, too. We can’t consider every detail about the history of the Israelites, but we can summarize some of the events to which Paul alludes, and we can take the lessons— the reality check—to heart. One thing that is very clear from Israelite history is that they were a privileged people. God had given them many amazing blessings. We heard earlier about how God called Moses to lead this people and to rescue them from the Egyptians who had been holding them as slaves. God led Moses ultimately to answer that call and to do as God directed. The people left Egypt with God himself appearing in fire and cloud leading their way. They faced a challenge when they arrived at the Red Sea and had Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and his army chasing after them to recapture them. God did a miracle. He split the waters of the sea so that the people could walk through on dry ground, walls of water on each side. He rescued them through that water and made them into a people uniquely joined to each other and to Moses through that experience. And that was just the beginning. God fed his people in the wilderness with miraculous food, and he gave them water to drink. At times water flowed out of solid rock. And Paul makes a pretty clear comparison between those Israelites and the Corinthians. He makes the same comparison really between them and us. He suggests that the experience with the cloud and the sea was something like baptism. He suggests that miraculous food and drink was very much like Holy Communion and the miraculous food and drink God provides for us there. In other words, we are privileged people, too. They had something like baptism and something like Communion. We have baptism that God uses to wash sins away and Holy Communion in which God feeds us Christ’s own body and blood for our forgiveness. That’s an amazing privilege. And yet…the conclusion of this account is not necessarily what we expect. As good as God was to the Israelites, he was ultimately displeased with most of them. Almost all of the generation of Israelites who left Egypt died in the wilderness. Their bodies were scattered about. It wasn’t enough to have these blessings and benefits. It says something about how the people made use of their privileged position that they did not please God. And that is at least in part explained by what Paul describes next. The Israelites were a tempted people. They were tempted not to rely on God who gave them such amazing gifts. They were tempted to misuse and misunderstand what God had given them and what he had done for them. And the details are instructive. Some of them were idolaters. The quote Paul offers comes from the account of the golden calf. The people created their own God and worshiped it. They did not keep their hearts set on God and his instruction. God did not remain first in the hearts and minds of the people. Do you think there is any similarity between them and us? Would you care to even consider how many times you have made a golden calf for yourself? No, I don’t