Tag: 1 Corinthians 10:11

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Learning from History

Historian Will Durant asked, “Is it possible that history has no sense and that the immense past was only a weary rehearsal of mistakes that the future is destined to make on a larger stage and scale?”

In the Bible we are told to learn from history. God’s dealings with his ancient people Israel provide lessons to teach us. “These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us” ( 1 Corinthians 10:11). In this text the apostle Paul is reminding us not to repeat the mistakes of the Old Testament Israelites.

In 1 Corinthians 10 Paul refers to a pivotal event in biblical history, the exodus. God’s covenant people were liberated from slavery in Egypt. Some of Paul’s readers (the Jews) would have been familiar with this. Others (Gentiles), would have needed to learn about it. So in 1 Corinthians 10:1-10, he outlined the story, and some of the lessons Christians should draw from it.

He wrote about how, despite the Lord’s goodness in delivering them from slavery and providing for them on their journey to the Promised Land, they disobeyed God. They put God to the test. They complained about the leadership of Moses. They were ungrateful. They were tempted by idolatry.

The Hebrew people had all kinds of special advantages and supernatural blessings from God, yet they fell into sin. The books of Exodus and Numbers tell us about their experiences on the way to their new homeland. Their forty-year pilgrimage in the wilderness of Sinai was one long funeral procession, the consequence of their disobedience.

Paul is writing about this as a warning to the Corinthian church, and to believers today. Do not put God to the test and face his corrective punishment. ! Corinthians 10:11 says we are living in “the fulfillment of the ages.” This is the culmination of God’s plan for history, beginning with Christ’s death and resurrection and continuing through his second coming. We live in the period of time when God’s grace is in operation, the age of the Holy Spirit, the church age.

With these greater advantages comes greater responsibility. Sinning against God’s grace is even more serious than sinning against his law. He expects us to live in the power of his Holy Spirit. He has given us the guidance of his word. We are to learn the lessons of biblical history and link them to our lives as guardrails.

Failure is not inevitable. The warnings and threats in this scripture are meant to protect us and keep us from falling into sin. Paul gives us these words of encouragement: “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And 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 that you can stand up under it” (1 Corinthians 10:13).

I read that 26% of all U.S. bachelor’s degree recipients graduate from college without having earned one single undergraduate credit in history. William Willimon lamented what he called “an a-historical culture in which ignorance of the past hinders our ability to move forward into the future.”

I think the apostle Paul would agree. Ignorance of biblical history puts us at risk of falling into the same pattern of failure as ancient Israel. Let’s read our Bibles and learn the lessons of history.

Pastor Randy Faulkner

 

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Old Testament Lessons for Today

I recently read a book review in a religious magazine. The book’s author, a prominent pastor, claimed that the Old Testament is not as authoritative as the New Testament. Perhaps he meant to say that it is not as applicable, or relevant as the New Testament. But to say that it is not authoritative is to question its truthfulness and value, something no Christian should do.

The New Testament plainly says that Christians should study the Old Testament and apply its lessons to our lives. Romans 15:4 says, “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.”

In 1 Corinthians 10, the apostle Paul based his teaching to New Testament Christians on the experiences of Old Testament people. In verses 6 and 11, he repeated the phrase, “These things happened to them as examples, and were written down as warnings for us.”

When Paul wrote to Timothy that “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching” (2 Timothy 3:16), he was not saying that every Old Testament Scripture is equally useful or applicable to Christians today. But he was saying that it is useful and practical for what it teaches about God, his will, his mighty acts in history, and how he worked in the lives of his people in the ancient past.

One example might be the life of King David. When he was at his best, David provides a model for us in how to live with a heart for God. When he stumbled morally, his story is a solemn warning about the consequences of sin.

David provides an example of a warrior spirit, courage and boldness. He discovered that if he obeyed God’s will, the Lord himself would be with him (1 Samuel 16:18). When the youthful David fought the Philistine hero, Goliath of Gath, he recognized that he was facing more than a military problem. This was a theological problem. Goliath was insulting the Living God! And you know what happened to Goliath.

We are tempted to think of our problems as financial problems, or psychological problems, or interpersonal problems, or health problems. And to us they are. But on a deeper level they reveal our opinion of God. If we, as David did, recognize God as “the Living God,” then we are in a position to entrust our problems to him, as David did.

On the other hand, when David sinned, his story is a warning to us about the terrible cost of disobeying God’s moral law. Even though David confessed his sin and repented, the natural consequences of his failure brought devastation to his family and to the nation of Israel. Hundreds of lives were lost in the civil war that ensued. David’s sons fought among themselves and brought grief to the heart of the king.

One of the timeless lessons from this part of the Old Testament is that God’s children cannot get away with sin. Our heavenly Father disciplines his children. His correction is always because of his love (Proverbs 3:11-12).

Another lesson from the Old Testament story of David is that it is possible to be forgiven and restored to fellowship with God. David’s psalms teach us that, especially Psalms 32 and 51. The sorrows that followed David’s great sin changed him and prepared him to resume his role as the anointed king of Israel. He passed along a legacy of faith to his son and successor, Solomon.

The theme of David’s life was that he was a man after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14; Psalm 89). I think this means that at the core of his being, David’s heart was compatible with God’s. Surely this is what we want to be true of ourselves. We learn these lessons from the Old Testament.

It is truthful, trustworthy, practical, applicable, divinely inspired, and, yes, it is authoritative. These lessons from the life of David are proof of what our Lord Jesus said, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God'” (Matthew 4:4). Every word, the Old Testament as well as the New.

Pastor Randy Faulkner