Baptism into Moses & Idolatry
1 Corinthians 10:1-11 · Roger Henderson · Jul 10, 2016
1 Corinthians, No. 27
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49265360476

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Okay, well today we're starting chapter 10 and the first part of chapter 10 is going to talk about some really interesting topics. I've labeled it the baptism into Moses and idolatry. So we're going to see some neat parallels here with the children of Israel in the wilderness. and how they were baptized or placed into or identified with Moses. That's going to be kind of a picture of our identification with our Savior. Moses was a deliverer and we have a Savior who's a deliverer. So there's some neat parallels between the life of Moses and the children of Israel and the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and Christ himself.

I'll show you some of those parallels as we go along, especially the first four or five verses. So, I borrowed again an outline from Macaulay. He doesn't take advantage of, I think, quite as much as there, but it's still good. Basically, the first four verses he calls it Israel's blessing. Then he has that they experience dramatic deliverance, and we're going to see that. They experience daily provision. And then basically starting in verse five, you're going to see sort of what happened. As you know, in their journeys in the wilderness, were they happy people? Were they happy campers out there in the wilderness? No, they were not happy campers out there. They were very, they grumbled, they complained, they did all kinds of stuff.

And so that's starting in verse five, it's going to kind of talk about that. And some examples of Israel. and the values of the examples. They are for us. Actually there is this word called tubos, a type or a pattern. That is going to show us that we can learn from what happened to the children of Israel in the wilderness. That can be an example or a type for us. He labels them a little more, I am going to take a different approach, but this is his approach. And then basically he has a responsibility to the church in verse 11, which is our last verse, and it kind of goes on. So, could someone read verses 1 through 11?

I do not want you to be unaware brethren that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea and all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the spiritual drink for they were drinking from a spiritual rock.

Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well pleased, for they were laid low in the wilderness. Now these things happened as examples for us that we would not crave evil things, as they also craved. Do not be idolaters, as some of them were, as it is written, that people sat down to eat and drink and stood up to play. Nor let us act immorally, as some of them did. And twenty-three thousand fell in one day. tried the Lord, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents, nor grumbled, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for instruction upon whom the ends of the ages have come."

Great. Thanks, Tom. So you see, it starts out very wonderfully about Israel's identification with Moses and how by being identified with Moses, that's God's plan and His purpose, and God took them through into the wilderness. He provided for all their needs, every single one of their needs.

But even with that provision, they became dissatisfied. And we can fall in the same boat. God has provided for us incredibly, but with the trials and tribulations of life, we can be upset about what's happening, what's going on, and the Lord asks us to learn from this example with Israel.

So let's just kind of jump in here to the first verse here. For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea. So literally it's I do not want or desire that you not be ignorant. So he doesn't want us to be ignorant. You see that phrase a lot. He tells us things. He doesn't want us to be unaware. And sometimes he tells us multiple times. He doesn't want us to forget. He wants us to understand what's going on. Our fathers, in this case it's the Israelites he's speaking of here. And then the verb here, our father's word, is this word amy, the state in which someone or something continually exists. So they continually existed. Think about this.

God provided this cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. But this cloud that was there, they could physically see God's direction in their life. You see these things on TV where they're following this, I don't know, insurance or maybe it's fidelity or something, they follow this little green arrow. Not quite the same thing, but they actually had a physical They had this cloud by day. When the clouds started moving, they would break camp and follow the cloud. God showed them exactly where they wanted to go. You can say, that sounds really pretty cool. I'd like to have that.

They're no different than we are. People say, we've advanced so much and we're so much smarter and intelligent. They were every bit as intelligent as we are, and maybe even more intelligent because they didn't have all the distractions of this world. They weren't bugged by Facebook. They had to go on their Facebook page and say, Oh, look what I have. The cloud left today. I don't know. I'm getting a little bit silly here.

Anyway, so they were under the cloud, the total provision of God. And all, none excluded, all were under the cloud. Under is the idea of hoopoe. It could be under or beneath. Beneath is pretty cool. Under or beneath the cloud. Let's look at a couple places about the cloud. Actually, I have so many verses today. I struggled with how to do this. I took the easy way out. I put all the verses and I copied all these verses in here. This would have been about twice as long.

I'll read some and if you guys wouldn't mind reading some we'll try to do this together. So let's look at Exodus 13. There are a lot in Exodus, a lot of numbers, so you might want to put, if you have some way to keep an extra finger or a pencil or whatever in those areas. Exodus 13, 21 and 22. I'm going to read that if you wouldn't mind.

The LORD was going before them in a pillar of cloud by day to lead them on the way, and in a pillar of fire by night to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night from before the people." Yeah, I like verse 22.

So that cloud, this is like this This is the state of being they were in. They were continually in this state. The Lord didn't say, well the cloud is going to show up sometime. Sometimes you have to figure out where the cloud is at. No, it never departed. Actually there was a time period when it did. But what we are talking about now, the cloud was there constantly. 24-7 it was there.

I think people have tried to illustrate that. At night they had a double thing. They had the cloud and then they had a fire in there too. I'm not quite sure. I didn't really trace through how that all works out. I've seen illustrations of that, but I don't know. Also in Psalm 105. Could someone read Psalm 105? He spread a cloud for a covering and fire to illumine the night. Great, thank you. So once again, the cloud and the fire.

Okay, so let's look at the, they all pass through the sea. So we've had the cloud, they were totally guided and directed by the cloud and never left them. And now he's going to provide for their deliverance and all pass through the sea, to pass over, to pass through. And let's look at a couple of verses here. Nehemiah 9, 11.

And thou didst divide the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on the dry land. And their persecutors you threw into the deeps, as a stone into the mighty waters. Good, thank you. So you see here that I like the part that He divided the sea before them and they passed on dry ground. So the picture that you see is that God was able, typically if something has been under water it's still going to be soggy and wet. So there's a miraculous thing. He divided the sea and it was dry immediately. He didn't have to wait around. Well, I have to wait here. It'll be dry. May tomorrow, May the next day. No, it was dry. He divided it and it was dry.

So that's a miracle within a miracle. And then Psalm 66, 6, and I'll read that one. 66, 6 says, let me just back up to 5. Come and see the works of God, who is awesome in his deeds toward the sons of men. He turned the sea into dry land, and they passed through the rivers on foot. There let us rejoice in him. So once again, it's on dry ground.

Okay, and they all pass through the sea. And then actually I even have another one. I'm not sure why I kind of put that separately. And actually we can just skip over that. Basically, the gist of that verse is they went through the sea, the midst of the sea on dry land again. So kind of emphasizing that point. So two things to take away from the first part of this verse, the A part is that They were under the total direction of the cloud 24-7 and that God delivered them through the sea on dry land. That's part one of his care for the nation of Israel.

Secondly, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. The word baptized is baptizo, to dip or immerse, It can be a use of physical or spiritual baptism. In this context, I believe it's spiritual baptism. As we talk a lot here at Holly Hill, it speaks of our identification with Christ. We've been immersed into Christ. We're in a living union with Christ. The verses that talk about that use the word baptize. We've been baptized into Christ. So we see kind of a foreshadowing of that in their identification or baptism with Moses.

Moses was the deliverer, just like Christ is our deliverer. So in a way Moses prefigures Christ and the nation of Israel prefigures us as being believers in the Lord Jesus. I answered the question already. What does this tell us about Israel and Moses? So what do you think the cloud represents in this context? It says they were baptized into Moses in the cloud. So what do you think the cloud is telling us here?

The presence of the Lord, as in there, but maybe in somewhat reduced in density because they wouldn't be able to live. Right, exactly. Okay, that's good. Other thoughts? I have a verse or two we're going to look at. I didn't put the verses in this passage, but we'll look at them here shortly.

Can you think of a connection with the cloud and something other in scripture? When the cloud is mentioned, something else seems to be mentioned a lot in the Old Testament. We saw the passage where the cloud guided them, but other passages talk about the cloud and some other aspect of God. Let's look at a couple passages on God's glory.

The connection between, what I noticed is in these verses, it always seems like the cloud is there and God's glory is there. They're together. It seems like they're separate, but they're together. The cloud, I think, represents the glory of God. Let's look at a couple passages. Back to Exodus 24, 16, and 17. Why don't we read 15, 16, and 17? I'm sorry.

Then Moses went up to the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. The glory of the Lord rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days. And on the seventh day, he called to Moses from the midst of the cloud. And to the eyes of the sons of Israel, the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a consuming fire on a mountain top.

How do you separate the cloud and the fire? It's all kind of in there together. The cloud is part of the whole display that you can see with your eyes. Because it says the children of Israel, it looked like it was consumed with fire. So you saw a cloud almost like smoke. In this case, they were all baptized in the cloud. The cloud represents the glory of God. Moses was And he went up to the mountain to be with God. So that all is connected with God's glory, I believe. So that's part one. And there's an end statement. So I just repeated the part again.

And we're all baptized into Moses in the sea. So they were baptized into Moses in the cloud, and baptized into Moses in the sea. So what does the sea represent here, do you think? From the world, ultimately, but in this case from Egypt. So what did the sea allow them to do? What did the dividing of the sea provide? Their way of escape, their deliverance, right? They were delivered from Pharaoh by God dividing the sea.

So the sea seems to be tied into their deliverance. So for us, what's our deliverance, right? So there's a parallel. We have the cloud. It seems that the sea, just like Christ is our deliverer, Moses was their deliverer. The sea provided that deliverance. When we're being baptized into Christ, we were delivered from our sin nature. So there's some parallels you can draw between what happened to the children of Israel being baptized into the sea and what has happened to us as believers.

OK. And actually, I will answer this question. So I'll see if I see represent. OK. Any any thoughts or further things on this? I have something I was going to read to you here, but I cleverly put it someplace I can't find it. I was thinking of a term I can remember the first. It speaks of the sea of God's forgetfulness. And I kind of think that ties in with forgiveness. So let's go on then. So that's verses 1 and 2. Verse 3.

And they all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink. So we see that God provided for their relationship with Moses and He provided for their deliverance through Moses. Now the next part is He's going to provide for their physical being. They need spiritual food and they need regular food, physical food. So He's going to provide for those two. So they all ate the same spiritual food.

I think in this case, spiritual is more, even though it's a word numos, related to that word, which is like a wind. You can't see a spirit, right? It's like the wind. That's a strict definition. But I think in this case, what I understand, it's more speaking of the supernatural, what God did supernaturally.

So what was the spiritual food? So what do you think, and we've kind of already touched a little bit on this, what do you think the spiritual food was? Actually we haven't, I apologize. This is going to seem like I'm speaking out both sides of my mouth here. I think it gets back to the fact that, was there a supernatural food that they ate in the wilderness?

It's spiritual in the sense that its origin is from God. Let me ask a qualification here. When we speak of spiritual, we typically don't think of physical things. We think, I've learned something about the Lord, there is some spiritual truth about him. In this case, it seems like it is more spiritual, who is more connected with God's supernatural power and its origin. That is why I have kind of redefined spiritual there a little bit.

Hopefully that is not too confusing. Let's look at a couple of cases about manna. We're going to see manna, they either love it or they hate it. They loved it when they didn't have any food, but after a while they hated it because they wanted different food. It's a love-hate relationship. They loved it or they hated it.

Let's look at Exodus 16.4. Let's go back here just to get the context.

Could someone read Exodus 16.1-4?

Then they set out from Elam, and all the congregation of the sons of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elam and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departure from the land of Egypt. The whole congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The sons of Israel said to them, Would that we had died by the Lord's hand in the land of Egypt when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly that hunger. Then the Lord said to Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day. that I may test them whether or not they will walk in my instruction.

Right. So you see actually in an interesting way that he provided bread, but actually it required faith. It required faith that this is God's solution. And isn't that the case so much in our lives? Do we, you know, I speak this for myself too, do I trust in God's solution? in my Christian life. Do I trust in his solution? I may not like the solution. I would want it different, but do I trust in his solution? And many times we see things that seem to be...

Brother Hal, there's no tragedies in the Christian life. Think about that statement. That's kind of what is implied here. The Lord is going to provide them what they need. His bread. But that's going to test them. Are they going to see that that bread, if God's provided that bread, and it's all that they needed, is that sufficient? And that's the same with us. Do we see that what God's provided for us, He's provided His life, He's provided the Holy Spirit, He's provided His Word, is that sufficient for us to go through our Christian life?

And many times we're tested to the very core of that, whether we believe that or not. I mean, it's not easy. I mean, when we, you know, things happen and we lose loved ones, or whatever happens. People in war, or babies die, or whatever. Those things are tested to the very core. It's easy to say those things. Just trust the Lord. Just like he wants to instruct the people in Israel in the wilderness, he wants to instruct us. Anyway, a little off the track there.

Deuteronomy 8.3 says a similar thing. He humbled you for you He fed you manna that he might make you understand. Oh yeah, this is the cool part. This is the last part of 8.3. That man does not live by bread alone. Well actually, let's turn that. That's often quoted.

Deuteronomy 8.3. They humbled you and let you be hungry and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone. The man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord. Paul expands upon that in so many ways in the epistles. God is the source of all things.

He provides for us. We are to live on His provision. and to be satisfied with that. And we're going to see that just like Israel, it's not going to be too satisfying after a while here. Go ahead, Randy. One of the things that I think we sometimes miss based on our use of language in modern English is the idea that when God was using words, he was decreeing and speaking and being sovereign, not just, oh, the people got food from the Ten Commandments and the 613 laws of the Old Testament. The idea of the word is that God is actually speaking his sovereign will into the life of Israel. And so it's not just words, it's not just like, I'll read the paper of the Bible. This is actually a reference to God's sovereignty as well. important element of the food is God's sovereign food.

Right. This was his solution, his plan, his purposes, and he said he tested. That was a test. That was a test that he wanted them to pass. There's different kinds of tests, words for tests in the scripture. There's a test for your approval. That's the way God is always desiring that you are approved, that you satisfy what he desires. And there's a test that comes from ourselves, and from the evil one, is for our downfall. And God never tests us for our downfall. James talks about that. So that's part of it.

So he was with a man he provided for them, and they all drank the same spiritual drink. So what was the spiritual drink? And again, the word spiritual is kind of redefined It's in terms of that God has supernaturally, its origin is from God. So what was provided in the wilderness in terms of drink? Water from the rock. Exactly. And the rock was Christ.

And he hit it twice and he should have hit it once. Don't you see in some ways it's kind of, It's encouraging, but it's like us. Israel is just like us. God tells them to do this, and a couple more. If you don't do it once or twice, it's got to be better. Let's look at Exodus 17. There are probably some mistakes in here. Thank you. 17.6 Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink.

And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. In Numbers it talks about, Numbers is a place where Moses strikes it twice. You figure if God told it once, twice, it must be better. Then in Psalm 78-15 it says, He split the rock in the wilderness and gave them an abundant drink like the oceans of the deep. That's pretty amazing. That's Psalm 78-15 says that. If you think about it, I was trying to look at the parallels. How does food and drink, and I have the passages down there, what do those passages say? What did Christ say about himself in terms of food? I am the bread of life.

And the other account is the one with the woman at the well. And it's the one where she says she wants to get a drink. And she says, how come you're here? You're not supposed to be talking to women. You're in the wrong place. She's trying to correct him. No, you shouldn't be talking to a woman.

And he says, well, I have water. She says, oh, you have water. I want some water. And he says, well, I have water. unto eternal life. He said, well, I want some of that water. Anyway, so Christ refers to himself as the bread of life, and in essence, the water of life. He's the bread of life. Those words aren't used precisely in that passage, but it implies that. He's the water leading to eternal life. So he's the bread of life and the water of life.

So we see a parallel between what was provided for Israel and what was provided for us by Christ himself. And then here's this beautiful, kind of ties it together a little bit more. It says, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock, a rock that God had provided, which followed them. They were drinking from a spiritual rock, which followed them, and their rock was Christ. So here's the amplified version, kind of tries to amplify that thought. And they all drank from the same spiritual, supernaturally given drink. for they drank from a spiritual rock which followed them, preceded by the sole power of God, without natural instrumentality, and their rock was Christ." Actually, just as a side light, I came across this this morning, I was reviewing this morning, and actually in the Old Testament, The Israelites referred to God himself as a rock.

Just look at Deuteronomy 32.4. Let me just back up a little bit. It says, For I proclaim the name of the Lord, ascribe greatness to our God, the Rock. His works are perfect, for all his ways are just. passage in the same chapter. There are other references that God is our rock. So it kind of fits in well that Christ would be called a rock. So the Israelites, God revealed to them that he was a rock and then Christ is a rock as well.

So I thought that was kind of interesting. OK, so now we're going to see a turning point. So the first four verses we saw of God's miraculous provision for the children of Israel, everything they needed. So now we're going to see a turning point here.

Nevertheless, with most of them, God was not well pleased, for they were laid low in the wilderness. So he held these wonderful provisions of God, but in strong contrast to that, with most of them, God was not well pleased. So what was God displeased about?

And actually what we're going to see is that actually the rest of the verses we're going to study really talk about that. But you can find, you know, I found a few verses and we, in the interest of time, I don't think we have to necessarily go through all of those. We may just glance at a few. And may I just summarize some of them.

It kind of centers around a lot of what those verses center around is the fact that God when they were preparing to enter the promised land, spies were sent out, right? Well, you know the story pretty well. Eight said it's bad, and two said we can do this, we trust the Lord, we can do it. So a lot of these verses revolve around the fact that God was displeased And he said, well, I'm not going to let anyone over the age of 20 enter the land except for Joshua and Caleb. So God judged him. So God's displeasure with Israel, that's one example.

There's other examples we're going to see in the rest of these verses here. Then it talks of they were laid low in the wilderness. Virtually, the Amplified has it, for they were overthrown and strewn down on the ground. So let's look at these verses. Some of these come back to the same verses, it seems like, in some cases. Let's look at Numbers 14. I'll start in verse 1. Then all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night. Let's just go back here for a second just to make sure I understand the context here.

This is about the spies in the land. Prior to that, if you go back to the last part of 13, it says they gave a bad report. The bad report was there's giants in the land, the Nephilens, and they were like grasshoppers in their sight. And so that leads in to start in 1401.

Then all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried. And the people wept that night. And all the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. And the whole congregation said to them, would that we had died in the land of Egypt, or would that we had died in the wilderness? And why is the Lord bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will be plundered, will plunder, and would it be better for us to return to Egypt?

So, let me say one more thing. Let's go look at 29 here. And basically God's going to, if you look at, start in 1426, and the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, how long shall I bear with this evil congregation who are grumbling against me? I have heard the complaints of the sons of Israel which they are making against me. Say to them, As I live, says the Lord, just as you have spoken in my hearing, so I will surely do to you. Your corpses shall fall in the wilderness, even as all your numbered men according to your complete numbers from twenty years of old and upward. who have grumbled against me." So the Lord, this reference there is pointing to that.

Because of their unbelief about going to the land, the people over 20, he judged them basically. We see some really hard things in here. Many people get upset about the Bible. They say, look at what God has done. He slays people, he does this and that.

I think a lot of it is to show that God, His absolute holiness, and that the Old Testament depicts that in a way that we don't see, and the church age is not present, but in that day and age, that's a picture for us and we're to see that God is holy and righteous and just, and He can rightly judge sin. He was justified in doing that. Roger, one of the observations, and I think Paul's going to get into this, so I don't want to steal too much of your time, but there's a critical line there where there's a responsibility for the family and the leadership that's there, that what they're leading their family in is spiritual truth. And God isn't going to tolerate a bunch of people who are not teaching their family by faith, but instead teaching their family humanism and we're going to rely on our own strength.

He's already taken through, as you, Brian, carefully walked us through along with Paul, he's taken them through all these difficult situations and fed them and clothed them and given them water and provided for them entirely up until this point. They get here and then they get whiny as though God, oh, he could handle everything, he could handle the Egyptians. Oh, we found the Nephilim. There's no Nephilim. Now they're making up junk. A bunch of whiners. She has to get rid of that.

Right. I agree. I agree. But Randy, don't you see, I mean, I see myself in this so much. I mean, Lord, I'm with you now. I'm with you now, Lord. Yeah. Now this happens, I'm not so much with you, Lord. That was just, you know, it's just the way it is. It's so, you know, I'm not, Those are hard situations that we have in life are not easy many times. We have trust the Lord and we continue to trust him. I don't think we stop trusting him, but we kind of get a flavor of what it was like.

We would have done no different. I'm sure if I had been out with Moses and Aaron, I would be out there, you Moses and Aaron, what did you do to us? My family is going to starve here. You can't take us and kill all my children. I would be up in arms too. I would be in his face probably.

Maybe, I don't know. But holiness does not come in graduated steps. You're either holy or you are not. That's a good point. You either trust the Lord about that and you're settled about that or you're not. Or you're walking by the flesh. And what he's showing here is that God has provided everything for you. And even under those situations. And we have the same thing. God has provided everything for us. Our home in heaven is secure. We don't have to worry about that. But even with that in place, we still do what the children of Israel do. We still grumble, complain, and all that. That's because we all have sin natures. They had sin natures. We have sin natures. And that's what the sin nature reacts on its own, given its own devices. It's human thought, human logic, rather than God's logic and His ways. So this verse kind of introduces us to the rest of the 7 through 11.

Now these things happened as an example for us. And this is this word tupos. It's figuratively an example or a pattern. And Kosovo says the Greek word translated example, tupos, from which we get our English word type. The experiences of Israel in the wilderness are types.

They were examples of the situations that would occur later in history that God would designate to teach us his people lessons. And we're doing that this morning. We're looking at what's happened through Paul. We're looking at what happened to Israel. And we're learning about how we can walk down the same path and do the same kind of things. So let's just go on here.

And the purpose of that, We would not crave evil things as they craved evil things. We believers, Paul speaking to believers in the church age, they are Israelites. Evil stands for that which is evil in character. So what kind of things do they crave? They crave food, they crave the They liked all the leeks and the garlics. They liked the different things that they had in Egypt. So they craved what they had before. And the word crave is actually, I didn't really call it out separately here, but it's a word desire. If you look at word desire up, you're familiar with in Galatians.

Galatians 5.17.

Let's just look at Galatians 5.17 for a second. So this word crave is the basic word desire in the New Testament. So we're going to see the battle that goes on here. So let's go back to Galatians 5, 16, 17, and 18.

It says, but I say to you, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. And that's our word. that here are cravings of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desires against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. For these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law. So what we see here, Paul, by utilizing this word, I think he's kind of pointing out the fact that even though the Israelites were not that's a different dispensation, a different time period. It's still the same, the desires of the flesh are still in there, still involved in that.

So basically in Numbers 11.4 it talks about they desired to eat meat and then God gave them meat. He gave them so much meat they were sick of the meat. So be careful what you ask for.

And then in 106, they, let's see, that one I'll have to check again. Okay, so let's go on in the interest of time here. What we're going to see now is, starting in verse seven, we're going to see a series of four things. Seven, eight, nine, 7, 8, 9, 10. Those verses are going to talk about different aspects of what they desired or what they did. And the phraseology is going to be very similar.

So it starts off, do not be idolaters as some of them were. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and stood up to play. So it says don't be idolatrous and literally it's stop, the verb tense is stop, they already are idolatrous, stop being idolatrous is the idea, or becoming idolatrous. And we're going to see all the phraseology, it's not everyone, it's some subset of them, as some of them were.

As it is written, and this passage comes from the end of Exodus, let's turn to Exodus 32.6, and this is the Golden Calf account, Exodus 32.6. If you trace through that, Aaron tries to be the facilitator here. Moses is gone, so we're going to find something to worship. So he melts down all their gold articles and stuff. There's another mistake here, I apologize. I think actually you could just put Exodus 32. So basically 6 through 9, or actually 1 through 9, and next is 32. So 19 is wrong. So it says 32, 6.

So the next day they rose up early and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. So that's a phraseology that we see right here. And then if you look down in verse 9, Then the Lord said to Moses, go down at once. So God observes what's happening and Moses is sent down at once. This is basically where he, I believe this is where he, eventually he throws down, he breaks the tablets of stone.

So the first one is idolatry. So in this one, they worship the golden calf. So that's number one. Number two is, no, let us act immorally, and neither let us be committing fornication, as some did. Once again, it's a subset. And 23,000 fell in one day. So in this case, he's addressing immorality. And that's actually in Numbers 25.

So in Numbers 25 verse 1, while Israel remained at Shittim, the people began to play the harlot with the daughters of Moab. For they invite the people They invite the people to sacrifice of their gods. And the people ate and bowed down to their gods. So Israel joined themselves to Baal of Peor. And the Lord was angry with Israel.

So basically we kind of trace down through this. Eventually what happens is, come down to verse 9, and actually it says they have 24,000, and those who died by the plague were 24,000. I didn't really trace through why this says 23,000 and that says 24,000. I'm sure somebody has complained about that or has something else. It probably can be resolved and at the moment I can't resolve it for you. In fact, there's a task, right? Resolve the difference between the 23. I believe it's referring to this passage. OK, so immorality is the second one. Nor let us try the Lord, neither let us be putting the Lord to an all-out test by trying him to the uttermost. So that's the third one. In essence, they were dissatisfied with the Lord.

They were destroyed by the serpent. This is the story of the bronze serpent. You probably remember this pretty well. This is the one where they, because of their Unbelief, basically. He sent serpents and they bit them and some of them died. He said he'll provide a way out. He provides a bronze serpent. If they look at that serpent, they'll live.

That's number three. Number four is grumbling. Once again, this is assumed grumbling is going to stop grumbling. As some did. And if you look through those, actually what I noticed is that Verne taught this series back ten years ago, whenever it was. And he came across there's at least ten separate instances of Israel grumbling. And I had a little bit of a hard time exactly matching, this destroyer is kind of the same word that's used about the angel of death that came at the Passover. I had a hard time finding this exact expression.

Now these things have happened to them as examples. So once again this is the word tupos, types, same as in verse 6. Now these things befell them by way of a figure, a type, as an example of warning us. And they were written for our instruction, and the Amplified has it, and they were written to admonish us and to fit us for right action and good instruction. Upon whom the end of the ages has come. Any last thoughts or comments? I apologize, there's a lot of verses. Maybe we could have done it a little bit different way, so we had to trudge through all the verses and stuff.

I think if we had to take something away, it's that God's provision for us was absolutely sufficient for the nation of Israel in the wilderness, and it's absolutely sufficient for us. He asked us to trust Him and to walk by faith, He gives us examples of how Israel fell. He doesn't want us to fail. First of all, we can't lose our salvation. We are totally provided for. But he wants us to trust him as we walk through this life. For whatever happens, however it plays out, that we trust him and walk by faith.

And learn from what Israel did. Learn that there is a battle between the desires of the flesh and the desires of the spirit. And they're banging heads together. And he wants us to learn by that. Any last thoughts or comments? We'll close here. No buzzer today, so it just keeps going, right? All right.

We thank you, Father. We thank you so much for this day. We thank you for the blessings we have, Father. Thank you just for your marvelous word, for the provision you've made for us, Lord, that we have been, as a nation of Israel, baptized into Moses. We've been baptized into our Lord Jesus Christ, and that's a baptism that's irreversible. We've been baptized into Christ and never taken out. We're in this living union with our Savior, and He desires that we walk by faith, trusting Him, and looking to Him day by day. We ask in His name, Amen.