The Blog

In the first verse, Paul alludes to the Israelites’ escape from slavery in Egypt, when God led them by a cloud and brought them safely through the Red Sea.

In verse two, Paul uses the phrase “baptized into Moses”. This phrase means that just as we are united in Christ by baptism, so the Israelites were united under Moses’ leadership in the events of the exodus.

In the upcoming verses, Paul alludes to all the mistakes of the Israelites during their journey to the promised land.

• The first one is the golden calf.
• The second one is when the Israelites worshiped baal of Peor and engaged in sexual immorality with Moabite women.
• The third one was a reference to the Israelites’ complaint about food.
• The final one refers to when the people complained against Moses and Aaron, and the plague that resulted.

All of these were mentioned to shed some light to the Corinthians concerning God.

1 Corinthians 10:1-10
10 For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. 2 They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3 They all ate the same spiritual food 4 and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.
6 Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. 7 Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.”[a] 8 We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. 9 We should not test Christ,[b] as some of them did—and were killed by snakes. 10 And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel.