1 Corinthians 10:1-5

Scripture: 1 Cor. 10:1 For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea,

1 Cor. 10:2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea,

1 Cor. 10:3 and all ate the same spiritual food,

1 Cor. 10:4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.

1 Cor. 10:5 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.

Teaching: Paul just finished giving reasons why he chooses to limit his own freedom in the service of the Lord in chapter 9. He did not want to be a burden upon the Corinthians (and thus give them a reason to neglect the message he carried) and he saw his own personal restricting of liberty as a net positive in the effectiveness of his ministry and witness. As he said in verse 27, he disciplined his body so that he would not be disqualified. What he means here is that he did not want some enactment of “liberty” to then turn to sin (which, it easily can in some cases), and then cause his ministry to be undermined. He did not want his witness to the salvific power of Christ to be disqualified in the minds of those he reached. 

This leads him to illustrate what he means in chapter 10. Paul draws upon the example of the Israelites fleeing Egypt and becoming lost in the wilderness for forty years, as recorded in Exodus and Numbers. Paul makes several comparisons: the Israelites (or “our fathers” as he refers to them here) were all under the cloud, which was the Lord leading them through the desert, and passed through the sea, which is a reference to their miraculous passing through the parted Red Sea. They were “baptized into Moses”, by which Paul means they were made into one people, that they coalesced into one body. They all drank the same spiritual food (the miracle of manna from heaven) and drank from the same rock spring of water. 

So in these physical things, the Israelites of that day experienced God’s guidance and mercy (the cloud), God’s salvation and freedom (passing through the Red Sea), God’s acceptance and adoption (baptism into Moses), and God’s provision and sustenance (the bread of life and the Rock that pictures Christ). We experience the same today as believers, but in a full way; not merely the physical that pictured what was to come in Christ, but in the spiritual and real way.

Takeaway: Paul will make an application of this illustration in the coming verses against idolatry, but it is worth pausing today to reflect on how much we have been given in Christ. Sometimes it is tempting to look at the stories of Exodus and Numbers and wish we had a visible cloud to guide us or physical manna from the sky providing for us each day. That would make a life of faith easier, right? No, that is not the case, as we see in the Israelites. They grumbled over the fact that it was the same food each day and that they wandered lost. They chafed under the law given to them and even turned to a golden calf while Moses was receiving it! No, physical sight and physical “proof” of God is not what creates faith — is the Spirit of God. We have infinitely more today than they had — we have Christ. We have the gospel of Christ, whose power surpasses any physical proof because we see the proof of the gospel in how it saves. How it redeems. How it transforms. How it guides and provides. More than anything, we do not have to worry or wonder about tomorrow because we know that Christ has already overcome the world. Take heart in that today.