Fellow-Redeemed in Christ Jesus,
A cautionary tale is meant to warn the hearer of a danger. Often a fable or parable, sometimes the cautionary tale is the revelation of an actual event. Teenagers hear many such lessons from their parents to warn them against making the same mistakes we made.
In this part of his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul related several such historical cautionary tales to warn the Corinthians and us of danger. This danger is apostasy, turning away from our saving faith in the true God.
The apostle did not want believers in Christ to fall prey to sin’s temptations. These temptations can crush the believer if we think we are standing firm. These accounts from the Old Testament are a warning against overconfidence in self, or wrongly thinking that following Christ means I can take sin lightly, or test God’s patience.
As we hear, mark, learn, and take to Paul’s words to heart, Let These Be Lessons to Us. They occurred as examples. They come from a faithful God.
In my ministry, I have never experienced a Christian saying, “Tomorrow I am going to reject God.” Or, “Next week I am going to test God by loving the sin that tempts me daily.” Yet those things have happened. They happened among the Israelites on their journey from slavery in Egypt to life filled with milk and honey in the Promised Land.
The Corinthian Christians were not familiar with these Old Testament Bible stories. By stories, I mean, of course, real historical events. “These things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did.” Christians do not set our hearts on evil. To set your heart on something means you must have it, or must do it because your love it.
God graciously had rescued Israel from slavery in Egypt. They traveled across the desert on the way to Canaan. The Israelites were thankful and glad for this deliverance. They had plundered their masters. They had a good leader in Moses. Just before our text we read, “They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.”
Nevertheless, “God was not pleased with most of them.” Why? They turned away from God and loved “to indulge in pagan revelry.” They committed sexual immorality in the name of worship to the Golden Calf. God killed 23,000 who had become corrupt in that worship. Then there was the Bronze Snake, the lesson we studied with our children in VBS last Friday night. Many tested the LORD by complaining about his provision and against Moses. The LORD sent poisonous snakes and many died. Another time, the “destroying angel” slaughtered the rebels against God and his will recorded in Numbers, chapter 14.
“If you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall.” Let these be lessons to us. They occurred as examples. The Holy Spirit is warning us about taking lightly the sins that tempt us, or, relying on our own strength of character and effort to keep us in faith. I dare not mix love of wealth, leisure, immorality or other idols with love for God.
The Bible does not teach that because you are a Christian today, you always will be a Christian even if you test God by yoking your heart, mind and will with other gods. These examples warn about just the opposite.
There is more to Paul’s message, let these be lessons to us. They come from a faithful God; the temptations to sin do not come from God. These lessons as warnings come from our faithful God. He also provides the way so these temptations do not crush our faith.
God is more powerful than the temptation to sin. Jesus overcame the power of temptation by overpowering it in the wilderness early in his ministry. Jesus overcame temptation by his sacrifice on the cross. There he destroyed the devil’s power, and removed the guilt and curse sin brings when we give in to temptation. Paul mentions also, “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 you can stand up under it.”
That way out is his love and forgiveness in Christ. We sing in the Lenten hymn Stricken, Smitten and Afflicted, “If you think of sin but lightly Nor suppose the evil great, Here you see its nature rightly, Here its guilt may estimate. Mark the sacrifice appointed; See who bears the awful load. Tis the Word, the Lord’s Anointed, Son of Man and Son of God.”
There is that taking sin lightly thing again. The greatest temptation of any sin is to take it lightly; to underestimate the greatness of its evil. God prevents more temptations than we can handle from coming into our lives. The way we handle the ones that come is by the power of his forgiveness in Christ. If sin gets the best of me and drives faith from my heart, it is not because the temptations were too great. It is because I did not use the gospel to overcome them.
Paul mentions another important element. No one turns away from God because some special sin unique to them overpowered them. There is no such unique temptation. “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man.”
Think back to those Israelites. Their temptations were materialism, pleasure, dissatisfaction with God, unwillingness to listen to his servants. The desires of their hearts turned to rebellion against God and revelry in the flesh. Aren’t those the temptations we experience?
Even in the tests of our faith God sends as chastening that are not sins, like illness or difficulties, there is the temptation to sin against him by questioning his love and rebelling against his ways. God is faithful in those as well. He will not chasten us with those beyond what we can bear. We use his love in Christ to stand up under them.
On the one hand, be careful so you do not fall. On the other hand, God is faithful and has provided the power to overcome the temptation to sin. God has promised that as we use the means of grace, the way we stand up under temptation, all will be well. Let these examples from Israel be a lesson for us. Amen. <SDG>