Words in italic type have been added for clarity. They are not found in the original Hebrew or Aramaic.

I Corinthians 10

• Corinth is located in Greece.
• The same provision God made for Israel is available for believers today.

Old Testament Examples

I Corinthians 10:¹ Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea,

• Jesus was the pillar of cloud Who gave light to them by night and protected them by day.
• They all passed through the Red Sea. When they passed through the sea not one Hebrew died.

I Corinthians 10:² all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea,

• A baptism of unity.
  • Romans 6:5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,

I Corinthians 10:³ all ate the same spiritual food,

• The spiritual food is the Manna that came down from heaven.
  • John 6:33 For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.

I Corinthians 10:⁴ and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.

• The Rock walked with them.
• The Rock that followed them still provides His Living Water.
  • John 7:38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”

I Corinthians 10:⁵ But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.

• A wilderness is a place where people become lost. It can be a desert or a wilderness of people.

I Corinthians 10:⁶ Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted.

• A warning to believers:
  • Adjust your lust.
  • Don’t excite your appetite.
  • Measure your pleasure.
  • Cure the lure.
  • Shun the dumb fun.

I Corinthians 10:⁷ And do not become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.”

• A person’s idol is that which they give the most of their life to: riches, fame, honor, beauty, pleasure, adventure, sports, etc. An idol is man’s worship of himself.

The definition of an idol is “It’s all about me”. The same with temptation. The same with one’s appetite.

Idols promote pride. God promotes dignity.

“An idol cannot give life, but – God can.”

I Corinthians 10:⁸ Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell;

• [Just as Joseph fled and left his clothes behind.
  • Genesis 39:¹² that she caught him by his garment, saying, “Lie with me.” But he left his garment in her hand, and fled and ran outside.]
• What if the twenty three thousand didn’t die? How many women became pregnant? Who belonged to who? Think of the suspicions, accusations, division. These were the people God wanted to bring to the promise land in order that He would have models of righteousness for the gentiles.

I Corinthians 10:⁹ nor let us tempt (test) Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents;

• Don’t be fooled by thinking you are strong enough to resist the temptation of the serpent.
• You cannot play with the serpent and resist him. Don’t make the serpent your pet.

“Feed a serpent and the serpent will feed on you.”

• A man who was being strangled by his 15-foot pet snake before police shot it in the head has died.
  By Jarrod Wardwell and Zoe Sottile, CNN
  Updated 7:35 PM EDT, Mon July 25, 2022
  
  CNN  — Police officers shot a man’s pet snake on Wednesday after they arrived at a Pennsylvania home to find the reptile wrapped around its owner’s neck, rendering him unconscious.
  The 27-year-old man, Elliot Senseman, died Monday in a hospital due to an “anoxic brain injury,” the Lehigh County Coroner’s Office and Forensics Center said in a statement.
  The snake died from its injuries, Upper Macungie Township Police Department Lt. Peter Nickischer told CNN.
  Nickischer said two police officers responded at 2:12 p.m. on Wednesday to the house in Fogelsville, Pennsylvania, a rural town in the eastern part of the state, where the man reportedly suffered cardiac arrest after the snake wrapped itself around his throat.
  He said after entering the house, the officers encountered a family member who guided them toward the owner, who was lying unresponsive, choked by the snake’s midsection. The snake totaled at least 15 feet in length, he said.
  “It was a dire situation,” Nickischer said. “It was without a doubt a life-and-death situation for this person.”
  He said as officers peered down a hallway, they observed the man lying across the doorway between the hallway and a room, where the snake was staring back toward police. Nickischer said an officer fired one shot, striking the snake’s head, which was distanced from the man because of the length of the animal’s body.
  He told CNN officers pulled the victim away from the snake and into the living room, where several fire department and EMS responders administered emergency care before transporting the man to the hospital.
  The man was keeping the snake at the house as a pet, and officers found two other snakes in the home, Nickischer said.
  ^{https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/24/us/pennsylvania-pet-snake-attack-police-trnd/index.html}

If you feed your serpent, it grows – and breeds.

Florida conservationists capture 215 pound python, the heaviest found in the state.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/26/us/florida-heaviest-python-captured-scn-trnd/index.html

• 01:03 – Source: CNN
  
  She’s massive, invasive and covered in scales: A record breaking 215-pound, 18-foot-long Burmese python has been captured in Florida.
  The python is the heaviest ever captured in the state, the Conservancy of Southwest Florida announced on Wednesday.
  The huge reptile was captured by the conservancy as part of its invasive Burmese python research program.
  
  Biologists found the female by tracking a male “scout snake” named Dionysus with a radio transmitter. Males are attracted to the largest females, according to the conservancy. So by following a breeding male like Dionysus, they can find and remove large breeding females and their eggs.
  
  Ian Bartoszek, a project manager for the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, biologist Ian Easterling and intern Kyle Findley caught and euthanized the huge female python before hauling her back to their field truck last December.
  
  Bartoszek says that they didn’t realize just how large the snake was until they weighed her at the lab. There was “collective disbelief” when they realized she was a whopping 215 pounds, breaking the previous record of 185 pounds for a Burmese python captured in Florida.
  
  But it wasn’t until several months later, on April 28, that biologists had a chance to perform a necropsy on the snake. They discovered she broke another record: she had the largest number of eggs ever found, with 122 developing eggs in her abdomen.
  
  Burmese pythons are indigenous to southeast Asia, where they are considered vulnerable to extinction due to overhunting.
  
  But renegade snakes from the pet trade, who either escaped or were released into the wild, have established a population in the Florida Everglades since the 1980s. As an invasive species, the pythons threaten Florida’s native fauna, Bartoszek tells CNN. Florida state authorities have taken measures to minimize the population, like by hosting an annual “Python Challenge” to see who can remove and kill the most pythons.
  
  There is “no other Everglades in the world,” said Bartoszek. “It’s a unique bioregion, it’s a gem” – which is jeopardized by the invasive pythons.
  
  The necropsy revealed that the 215-pound female python had hoof remnants from a white-tailed deer in her stomach, one indicator of how pythons affect Florida’s native wildlife. White-tailed deer are an important food source for Florida’s native panthers, which are endangered.
  The python “is a generalist predator,” said Bartoszek. “It doesn’t discriminate.”

I Corinthians 10:¹⁰ nor complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer.

• The root cause of complaining is not getting what you want from God.

I Corinthians 10:¹¹ Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition (instruction), upon whom the ends of the ages have come.

• Foretold. Forewarned. For you.

I Corinthians 10:¹² Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.

• When a man falls, he must look the serpent in the eye.

I Corinthians 10:¹³ No temptation (serpent) has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear (endure) it.

• Don’t confuse emotional or physical pain with temptation. There is a pain that is unbearable literally, physically, emotionally. God will provide a way to keep from sinning in order to avoid the unbearable pain. Never, ever minimize another’s suffering. Consolation – Never Correction.

Flee from Idolatry

I Corinthians 10:¹⁴ Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.

• Just as Joseph fled and left his clothes behind. Temptation pursues one’s appetite for pleasure which is idolatry.

I Corinthians 10:¹⁵ I speak as to wise men; judge for yourselves what I say.

• The Greeks worshiped wisdom (which is not wisdom).

I Corinthians 10:¹⁶ The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion (fellowship or sharing) of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?

I Corinthians 10:¹⁷ For we, though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one bread.

• Believers are baptized into unity, just as the Israelites were baptized into Moses. [see verse 2]

I Corinthians 10:18 Observe Israel after the flesh: Are not those who eat of the sacrifices partakers (fellow-shippers or sharers) of the altar?

• The Table of the Last Supper could metaphorically be considered an altar. The “appetite” of the priest (Jesus is the believer’s High Priest) is righteousness as opposed to Esau’s appetite for worldly soup.
• Judas left before he partook of the bread or the cup.

I Corinthians 10:¹⁹ What am I saying then? That an idol is anything, or what is offered to idols is anything?

• Another person’s idol is nothing to me, or anything offered to idols – but do not let it be an excuse to sin. Jesus never partook of another’s sin.
• “We should not lust after evil things as they also lusted”, verse 6.

“If you don’t know where you are going – any road will take you there.” – Unknown

I Corinthians 10:²⁰ Rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons.

• Sacrificing to idols is the same as sacrificing to demons. Those who worship the non-entity of idols project into them their own demons concerning the safety, protection and fortune of those idols which they have confidence in instead of God.
• The spirit of demons live in man’s heart in his love for money, sexual immorality, power, lust, and the like. The spirit of demons live in a man’s appetite for worldly things.

I Corinthians 10:²¹ You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord’s table and of the table of demons.

• The cup of the Lord is metaphorically partaking in Jesus’ blood at the Last Supper.
• Is there an “altar/table” in our life other than the Lord’s table?
• Beware Esau’s stew, that we serve our appetites (pleasures).
• “You cannot serve God and “mammon”. Luke 16:13

I Corinthians 10:²² Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He?

• Flirting with temptation is akin to expecting to fail.

All to the Glory of God

I Corinthians 10:²³ All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful; all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify (build up).

I Corinthians 10:²⁴ Let no one seek his own, but each one the other’s well-being.

I Corinthians 10:²⁵ Eat whatever is sold in the meat market, asking no questions for conscience’ sake;

I Corinthians 10:²⁶ for “the earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness.”

I Corinthians 10:²⁷ If any of those who do not believe invites you to dinner, and you desire to go, eat whatever is set before you, asking no question for conscience’ sake.

I Corinthians 10:²⁸ But if anyone says to you, “This was offered to idols,” do not eat it for the sake of the one who told you, and for conscience’ sake; for “the earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness.”

I Corinthians 10:²⁹ “Conscience,” I say, not your own, but that of the other. For why is my liberty judged by another man’s conscience?

I Corinthians 10:³⁰ But if I partake with thanks, why am I evil spoken of for the food over which I give thanks?

I Corinthians 10:³¹ Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

I Corinthians 10:³² Give no offense, either to the Jews or to the Greeks or to the church of God,

I Corinthians 10:³³ just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved.

• Those who watch pornography cannot be an instrument of God in helping another escape sexual immorality.
• The greedy cannot introduce the love of God when they themselves cannot share what they have.
• It’s impossible to stay on the “A” list when the lust of fame overshadows Jesus.
• Never give up that which you should value most in your life for a worthless bowl of immediate pleasure.
• Esau settled on Mt. Seir known for its demons and goat-gods. See Genesis 25.