Bad Examples
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2026 · 4 January 2026
The cross is the focal point of the whole of Scripture, and therefore there are a lot of places you can go to choose for that heart preparation. And I want you to turn to 1 Corinthians 10. I thank the Lord explains what might be helpful to you as we enter the year 2026. And it is a warning to a blessed people. Like the Corinthians who had the privilege of being founded by Paul, who spent time building that church.
To think about Corinth was to think about the ultimate kind of idolatry, and the very ultimate life of sexual immorality. And right in the midst of that paganism came the apostle Paul, and the Lord planted a church there. It became a remarkable church, and yet in the midst of its privilege, they were living on the edge of danger and had to receive many exhortations lest they’d have to forfeit all of its privileges.
Let me read the first half of this chapter through verse 13, “Now I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud, all passed through the sea, 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3 They all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ.”
“5 Nevertheless God was not pleased with most of them, since they were struck down in the wilderness. 6 Now these things took place as examples for us, so that we will not desire evil things as they did. 7 Don’t become idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and got up to party. 8 Let us not commit sexual immorality as some of them did, and in a single day twenty-three thousand people died.”
“9 Let us not test Christ as some of them did and were destroyed by snakes. 10 And don’t grumble as some of them did, and were killed by the destroyer. 11 These things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our instruction, on whom the ends of the ages have come. 12 So, whoever thinks he stands must be careful not to fall. 13 No temptation has come upon you except what is common to humanity.”
“But God is faithful; He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation He will also provide the way out so that you may be able to bear it.” That is a dramatic portion of Scripture, and it refers back to the nation of Israel and us, that fell under divine judgment. It happened to the people of Israel. Paul knew that he lived, in the imminent reality that that could happen to him.
Paul didn’t overestimate his spiritual powers. He knew that he needed to discipline his body, to bring it into subjection so that he didn’t forfeit his ministry by falling into sin. And that is essentially the key to the passage before us, and it is verse 12, “Let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall.” The danger of being so blessed that you become overconfident. You cannot flaunt privileges without danger.
The apostle Paul has many warnings to the church in his writings. Apparently the Corinthian church ignored self-denial and self-control. They exercised undisciplined liberties. They were living on the edge of disaster and the forfeiture of divine blessing. And so, the apostle Paul draws the illustration from Israel to warn all churches, including ours, of the danger of being greatly blessed and taking that for granted.
Now, I want to break this up, by talking first of all about the blessings in verses 1–5, “I do not want you to be unaware that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea.” It is repeated five times in the opening verses, stressing the fact that the whole nation of Israel received the privileges of divine blessing. “All” who belonged to that nation were under the cloud. All of Israel was blessed.
Well, he’s simply talking about the tremendous privileges that came on the people of Israel when they were led out of Egypt and they were led to the land of Canaan. All were under the cloud. What is the cloud? Exodus 13:21 says, “The Lord went before them by day, in a pillar of cloud, to lead them, and by night, it was a pillar of fire.” The whole nation passed through the Red Sea. They all experienced that.
Verse 2 says they were all baptized into Moses. They were immersed into his leadership. They were identified with him. They were one with their leader. They were united, as a community, with one leader. They all had, then, this divinely-appointed and divinely-prepared and divinely-gifted leader, and they were led as a united community. They all enjoyed that union with that great leader Moses.
Now, these are all analogous to the experience of salvation. We have all been delivered from the domain of darkness, which is like Egypt. We have all been led through the waters of escape. We have all been brought to a place where we’re under the direction of God. We have all been baptized into identification with our leader, Jesus Christ. That’s the imagery here. We are all together as one people in Christ.
And the Israelites, verse 3-4, “They all ate the same spiritual food; 4 they all drank the same spiritual drink.” In other words, God provided water and food for them in the wilderness. Look at the manna from heaven and the birds that would hover off the ground and provide nourishment for them for the 40 years they wandered in the wilderness. They were privileged, rescued, guided, fed and nourished.
And that’s analogous to the salvation experience of the Corinthians and us as well. We have all been delivered, under the direction of our Lord, united with Him as one, and our souls are constantly fed. And then a statement in verse 4, “For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them; and that rock was Christ.” We’re going to start a series on finding Christ in the Old Testament; in Exodus 17.
Christ is often appearing as the Angel of the Lord. That is a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ. He never allowed them to thirst; He never allowed them to hunger. In a way, we could say the manna and the water were evidence of the presence of Christ who followed them. He was the rock that followed them. But the eternal Son, the second member of the Trinity, was the caretaker of the people of Israel.
So, what are we talking about here? I’m just giving you an overview. “Being led through the sea,” that’s emancipation. “Under the cloud,” that’s guidance. “Baptism into Moses,” that’s identification with a new assembly and one leader. “Manna and water,” sustenance. And all of this provided for them and for us by Christ Himself. This is to talk about how blessed they were and how blessed we are.
Then comes in verse 5, “Nevertheless, God was not well-pleased with most of them.” Yes, everybody but two: Joshua and Caleb. And they all died in the wilderness except those two. Numbers 14:16 says, “Since the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land which he swore to give them, He has slaughtered them in the wilderness.” And verse 5 says they were struck down”, like corpses in the desert.
They were what Paul feared being: disqualified. Paul had a sensible fear that he, too, could lose his approved status for service – not his salvation, but his usefulness – if he didn’t practice self-denial and self-control. And I look at our church, and I say we are profoundly blessed. And yet, I am sure there are many in our church congregation with whom the Lord is not well-pleased. In fact, there are many whose life breaks His heart.
We always stand on the brink of losing that blessing and that divine favor, if the Lord determines that that is so widespread as to remove us from the place of blessing. Let’s look from the assets or the blessings in verses 1 - 5, to the abuses in verses 6 - 10. Verse 6 says, “These things happened as examples for us so that we could not crave evil things as they also craved.” The loss of privilege is related to the craving of evil.
“Craving evil things” that’s worldliness in a very general sense. And those are the things that define the world in which we live. The New Testament says, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world,” in 1 John 2. They had been blessed and sustained by God, but they became disqualified to go into the Promised Land because they failed to bring their hearts into full devotion to Christ.
You will notice in verse 7, “Do not be idolaters, as some of them were.” That hits the big issue in Corinth. The Christians there were saying, “We can go back to our idolatry festivals; we can go back to the celebrations, the social events.” Paul addresses this in the letter. The Gentiles sacrifice to demons and not to God, and you can’t be a sharer in demons, and you can’t drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons.
And we see that with Israel. Barely out of Egypt and already they have defected in their worship of God and created a golden calf and are bowing down to that golden calf – not only bowing down to it, but committing all kinds of horrendous sins in front of that golden calf. And so, that is the warning here – idolatry. They fell into idolatry; the Corinthians lapsed into the kind of activities that belonged to idolatry.
And further, verse 7 says, “The people sat down to eat and drink and stood up to play.” That’s taken out of Exodus 32. And what it’s referring to is that they literally engaged themselves in an idol kind of orgy, horrible kinds of behavior. I’m talking about sexual immorality. And that is further explained in verse 8, “Nor let us act immorally, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day.”
It was an ugly scene at the golden calf. Exodus tells us that the people were actually naked. God killed 3,000 of them in that one moment, and in all, 23,000 perished. That would have been a good indication that God was removing favor. In fact, you can read about that in Numbers 25. He killed 23,000. The next day, God even did away with a thousand more of them, disqualified from usefulness and blessing.
Verse 9 and Matthew 4:7 says, “Do not test the Lord your God as some of them did and were destroyed by snakes.” Those words come out of the mouth of Jesus at His temptation when Satan came after Him. You don’t test God even by diving off the corner of the temple to fulfill a prediction given in the Old Testament. How much can we get away with? That’s the wrong question. How much can we be like the Savior? That’s the right question.
There’s another sin here in verse 10. Complaining, being dissatisfied and verbalizing it. Exodus 16:2 says, “The whole congregation complained against God, and almost 15,000 people died because they complained. And it says in Numbers 16 they were killed by the destroyer, the judgment angel. The rabbis called him Mashit, he destroyed the Assyrians in 2 Chronicles 32. And here, the death angel executes complainers.
So, there are the abuses of the children of Israel: worldliness, idolatry, immorality, presumption, living on the edge and complaining. And they are results of lack of self-denial, lack of self-control, lack of godly pursuits. They are abuses of freedom and abuses of privilege, flirting with the world and its morals, pushing the patience of God to the limits, complaining when you don’t get what you want.
So, the admonition comes to us in verses 11 -12. The ends of the ages is the messianic period. The last age is before the kingdom. In the book of Revelation there are warnings given to the church. Like to the church at Sardis in Rev. 3:3, “Remember what you have received and heard; and keep it, and repent. And if you don’t wake up, I’ll come like a thief, and you’ll not know at what hour I will come.”
You can’t live any way you want to live and continue to enjoy the pleasure of God and the blessing of God. The person who will suffer the consequences in his or her own life, but we are concerned about sin in the church for the sake of the church, for the sake of the testimony of Christ. Like verse 12 says, but we need to take heed that we do not fall. And that means personal vigilance in every life.
We understand the dangers of pushing the liberties in this culture. And expose yourself to things that are evil that do not build you up. We know the danger of that at every level. The Lord has been gracious to protect us as we submit ourselves to the standards of the Word of God, as we do what Paul said, beating our body into submission so that we don’t become disqualified. And I say that to every individual here.
Then verse 13 says, “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’re able, but with the temptation will provide a way of escape also so that you will be able to endure it.” That’s a very important, encouraging, final word. How can I deal with the temptations that the devil has placed into the system in which I live?
What does that mean? That is to say it is humanly bearable, it is normal; it is not superhuman, it is not supernatural; you cannot claim to be overpowered by anything. We all face the same things, and we can deal with them. We can’t blame God; we can’t blame the Devil. Further, he says, and this is even more wonderful, “God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you’re able.”
God is controlling those temptations so that none comes to us for which we will not be able to win or to triumph. Furthermore, we’ll also be provided by God the way of escape so that you may be able to endure. Nothing superhuman, nothing more than you can handle. And God knows what you can handle. And always a way out. That is God’s promise. And He promises us here to do that. There is always a way out.
We can learn from the example of the people of Israel. We can learn from the example of the disobedient Corinthians. We can learn even more from the testimony of Holy Scripture that the Lord is there in the midst of all of our temptations to show us the way out. That puts the responsibility clearly with us to remain in the place of blessing, to learn from the warnings of the past, and the tragedies of the past. Let us pray.