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When God shows us the way of escape from our former way of life apart from the Kingdom of God, we must go forward and help other escapees by being a well-lit exit sign from the evil around them.
1st Corinthians 10 is Paul’s midrash (commentary) from Israel’s history on how divisions arose during the journey from Mitzraim (Egypt) to the Promised Land. And the crossing of the Red Sea — recorded in בְּשַׁלַּח Beshalach, “when he sent,” Ex. 13:17-17:16 — also is a parallel for our trip from unsaved to Savior.
Haftarah: 1Corinthians 14
“Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall. No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it. Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.” (1 Corinthians 10:12–14 NASB)
In 1Corinthians 8, Paul introduces the issue of food sacrificed to idols and that those who know the truth about idols have to work patiently with those who don’t yet.
In 1Corinthians 9, Paul goes as far as to say he wouldn’t take any compensation to help convince people to fully accept Yeshua.
In 1Corinthians 10, Paul draws from Israel’s history, knowledge of which would be necessary for relevance, to warn against divisions arising from taking one’s eyes off the true Salvation. It was also Paul’s midrash (commentary) from Israel’s history on how divisions arose during the journey from Mitzraim to the Promised Land.
God can make sons for Abraham out of rocks and we see here that Paul includes the Corinthians in the story of the Exodus from Egypt, acknowledging their adoption as children of Abraham. By the time of Paul’s writings to the Corinthians, they were steeped in Torah, otherwise Paul’s reference to Torah would have gone over their heads and his writings would not have been helpful.
Passover and freedom comes first and then the law. God gave the law and said there’s a way of salvation from the curse of the law.
What is the way out? The Exodus shows us the way out. The question is do we see the opening God gives us?
Paul warns the Corinthians repeatedly against divisions in the Body of Christ. Yeshua often fought with the Pharisees against their over-reaction to fleeing idolatry. Now, Paul is having to pull the Corinthians away from their flirting too close to the edges of idolatry.
Our family history is embedded in the story of the Exodus as well as in Paul’s writings to the Corinthians. These people were/are our family, too.
“… Philo (Spec. Laws 4.129; Moses 1.161–164, 305; 2.174, 283; Posterity 182–185; Drunkenness 95) and Josephus (Ant. 3.295; 4.12, 140) refer to the same incidents that Paul mentions in 10:1–13 as notorious instances of factionalism (cf. 1:10–13; 11:18–19; 12:25). Corinth was not the first place where God’s people had experienced divisions relating to idolatry and sexual immorality!”
Roy E. Ciampa and Brian S. Rosner, “1 Corinthians,” in Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament. ed. G. K. Beale and D. A. Carson; (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007), 722.
Idolatry changes shape, form and identity over the centuries. What was Moses’ fighting at the Sea? HE was not fighting the war chariots of Egypt but against the “principalities of the air.” The real battle was a battle of ideas, not a battle of men.
We still fight the battle of ideas today. Idolatry and immorality are alive and well now just as they were in Moses’ Egypt and Paul’s Corinth.
When God shows us the way of escape, we aren’t to push other escapees out of the way but to be like a well-lit exit sign showing others how to escape the evil around them.
Summary: Tammy