Learning Lessons from History (10:1-14)

The Corinthians should not be ignorant of the fact that despite the many privileges post-exodus Israel received from God, most of them were still judged and never entered the Promised Land. Paul speaks of Israel as "our forefathers" which is significant considering he's talking to both Jewish and Gentile Christians (perhaps specifically the Gentile Christians here, given the subject matter). This indicates that the Jewish/Gentile church was the "Israel of God" under the New Covenant. This is good news (that Gentiles are included in the people of God), but also comes with a warning. Paul writes of some parallels between post-exodus Israel and the 1st century Corinthian church:

They were all baptized into Moses (through the cloud and sea)
They all ate spiritual food and drank spiritual drink (manna, water from the rock)
Nevertheless, most of them perished!

You (the Corinthian Church) were all baptized into Jesus (through water baptism)
You all ate spiritual food and drink (through the Lord's Supper)
Nevertheless, it is possible that you will perish as well!

It seems, then, that many of the Corinthians felt they were eternally secure b/c they had been baptized and took part in communion. But Paul considers this doctrinal position ignorant. They should learn from the example of Israel and, rather than using their new-found freedom to sin, they must continue to walk in obedience to the Lord.

Post-exodus Israel...
6-7 Was idolatrous (Exodus 32:6)
8 Was sexually immoral (Numbers 25:1-9)
9 Tested the Lord (Numbers 21:5-6)
10 Grumbled (common theme, Numbers 11, 14, Psalm 106)
*Each of these examples fit Paul's purpose well b/c they involve food/meat

1 Corinthians 10:8 presents an interesting problem
Paul tells the Corinthians that "we should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did- and in one day 23,000 of them died"
The problem is that this doesn't match up correctly with the Old Testament text.

I have run across 5 solutions to this problem

1. Paul was speaking from memory and made a mistake
2. Paul was right, but our OT texts are mistaken
3. He's referring to Exodus 32 and adding those killed by the sword (3,000 in Ex. 32:28) with those killed by plague (unknown, 32:35)
4. He's referring to Numbers 25, where 24,000 died. But Numbers is giving the TOTAL and Paul is giving how many died in "one day"
5. He's COMBINING Exodus & Numbers into 1 theme, taking the 3K from Exodus but keeping the 20k from Numbers. This is why no judgment is mentioned for idolatry in 10:7 when judgment is mentioned for the next 3 sins (10:8, 9 & 10). Paul is connecting idolatry and sexual immorality under 1 judgment.

Options 1 & 2 would bother most people's view of inerrancy. Options 3, 4 & 5 involve Paul basically playing with numbers in a way that seems quite odd.

Personally, my view of the reliability of Scripture would survive option 1, which I feel is the simplest solution. I wouldn't be very impressed with option 2 unless we found at least 1 manuscript that read 23,000 (maybe this exists and I'm unaware). I don't think Paul is referring to Exodus 32 here (though he is in the previous verse), which eliminates option 3 (Aside from it being somewhat 'silly' as well). I think that option 4 seems somewhat silly. Option 5 seems overly complicated and we don't have any other examples that I know of where Paul plays fast and loose with numbers like this.

In any case, the point is clear, the Corinthians should not presume safety just b/c they were God's people. Temptation came to Israel and they gave in. Temptation will come to the Corinthians too, but they need not give in. God desires to help them and will not allow unconquerable temptations to come to them. But there role is not passive, they must flee idolatry.