PEARLS OF PAUL
LESSONS FROM HISTORY
DR. JIM DIXON
1 CORINTHIANS 10:1-13
JANUARY 23, 2000
In Japanese history, the Samurai were members of the warrior class. From the 11th century, all the way through the 19th century, the Samurai flourished in Japan and throughout eastern Asia. They were brave in battle. They were strict in discipline. They were renowned for the code of honor, but most of all, they were skilled with the sword.
Now, this past week I heard a joke about Samurai swordplay. It seems there was this powerful emperor in an Asian nation. His chief Samurai died, so he made declaration to his people that he was in need of a new head Samurai. There were not many applicants because the position of head Samurai was very dangerous. In fact, in one year’s time, only three applied. The first was a Japanese Samurai. The second was a Chinese Samurai. The third was a Jewish Samurai.
Well, this powerful emperor summoned the Samurai, that they might demonstrate their abilities and their gifts. The Japanese Samurai stepped forward. He opened a little box and out of the box flew a little fly. He drew his sword, and with one whoosh of his sword, the fly fell to the ground in two pieces. The emperor said, “Very impressive.” Then the Chinese Samurai stepped forward. He also opened a little box. A little fly flew out. With two swift strokes of his sword in the form of an “X,” the fly fell to the ground, cut in four pieces. The emperor said, “Very, very impressive.” Then the Jewish Samurai stepped forward and he, too, opened a little box. A little fly flew out, and the Jewish Samurai drew his sword. In swift strokes, he swung his sword three times, four times, five times until a gust of wind filled the room, but the fly was still airborne and buzzing about. The powerful emperor was disappointed. He said, “How is it that with all that swordplay, the fly yet lives? Why is the fly not dead?” The Jewish Samurai smiled. He said, “Circumcision is not intended to kill.”
Now, of course, it is true that circumcision is not intended to kill. In fact, in the Old Testament, in Judaism, we are told that circumcision is intended to seal. It’s intended to seal the individual into the covenant community, into the Jewish community, into the Abrahamic covenant. Circumcision was given to every Hebrew baby on the eighth day. It was given to gentile adults when they converted to Judaism. It was the sign and seal of the covenant that these people belonged to God and were in covenant relationship with God. And yet, in our passage of scripture for today, the Apostle Paul tells us that even though the Jewish people were in covenant relationship with God, they were not immune from divine discipline. They were not excluded from divine discipline.
Paul tells us that even though God brought the Jewish people through the Red Sea as if upon dry land, and even though he guided them through the wilderness, through the glory cloud… Even though he gave them supernatural food as manna fell from heaven, and even though he gave them supernatural drink as water was brought forth from the Rock at Meribah as recorded in Numbers, chapter 20. Even though, in accordance with Rabbinic and oral tradition, that rock followed the Jewish people as a continuous source of water. Even though we might spiritually think of Christ as present with the Jewish people… Even though all those things are true, Paul tells us, that generation did not enter the promised land because God was displeased with their disobedience, and they received divine discipline.
Paul reminds us that, as Christians, we are also part of a covenant. We have entered the new covenant in Christ’s blood, and we are God’s people, but we are not immune from divine discipline. The covenant that we are in is not sealed by circumcision but the sign of our covenant is baptism. Yet even though our sins are forgiven, we are not to take sin flippantly. And so, Paul gives four lessons from history. Really four warnings from history.
The first warning concerns idolatry. 1 Corinthians 10:7: “We must not be idolaters,” as some of them were. For it is written, ‘The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to dance.’” Now, this is not a condemnation of eating or drinking or dancing, but it’s a condemnation of these things in the context of idolatry. Paul is referring us back to the Old Testament, to the book of Exodus, to the 32nd chapter, in the whole account of the golden calf where we are told that the children of Israel, under the leadership of Aaron, made a golden calf and they worshipped it and then celebrated.
The Hebrew word for calf in Exodus 32 is the word “egel.” This is a flexible word. It referred to any young animal in the bovine family up to the age of three. Most Bible scholars believe the word should contextually be taken as referring to a young bull. We know that at the time of the exodus, a young bull was the primary symbol of an Egyptian deity named Serapis, sometimes called Apus. We also know that this Egyptian deity’s cult was centered at Memphis. We also know that this Egyptian deity of Serapis was adopted by the Canaanite peoples. And so, it appears that the children of Israel, under the leadership of Aaron, actually adopted an Egyptian and Canaanite deity named Serapis.
Some Bible scholars doubt that they were actually worshipping Serapis, but they believed that they took the symbol for Serapis, the young bull, and used it as an idol or a manifestation of Yahweh, the God of Israel, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Other Bible scholars believe that they really did worship and adopt this Egyptian and Canaanite deity named Serapis—not as a replacement for Yahweh or the God of Israel, but in addition to Yahweh. They fell back into polytheism and syncretism, and they added a god. They figured two gods are better than one. Maybe we can double our protection. Maybe we can double our provision.
Of course, at the very moment that they had made this golden calf, and at the very moment they began to worship it, at that moment up on top of Mt. Sinai Moses was encountering the one true God. He was receiving the Decalogue, which we know as The Ten Commandments. The irony is, at the very moment that Moses was receiving the Ten Commandments, the children of Israel, under the leadership of Aaron, were at the base of Mt. Sinai violating the first two commandments. The first command is, “I am the Lord your God. You shall have no other gods before Me or beside Me or in addition to Me.” The second commandment is, “You shall not make for yourself any graven images.”
As Christians living in the dawn of the 2lst century, we tend to view idolatry as a thing of the past. We do not make graven images, certainly not in Protestantism. We view idolatry as having little to do with us, but the truth is we live in one of the most idolatrous cultures in the world. We have made for ourselves many gods, and we have added to our lives many gods. So, this warning from history is for us. We have made money into a god, and we kneel at the altars of materialism. We have made sex and food and drink into gods. We kneel at the altars of hedonism. We’ve made our careers into gods, and we kneel at the altars of promotion and success. The truth is we’ve made ourselves into gods. This is the primary form of idolatry in 21st century America, self. We worship self. We live for self.
In Daniel, in the Old Testament, in the third chapter, the prophet tells us of Nebuchadnezzar the Great who was King of the Babylonian Empire. We’re told that Nebuchadnezzar the Great built a great statue. He erected a statue on the plain of Dura outside of the royal city of Babylon. This statue was huge. It was covered with gold. It was 90 feet high and 9 feet wide. The king commanded that all people, regardless of gender, from throughout his empire must come and bow down and worship that statue. Now, Bible scholars debate the nature of the statue, but many believe it was an image of King Nebuchadnezzar himself. This fits what we know of his character, for he was enamored with self. As the Bible tells us, he stood looking out over the royal city of Babylon saying, “Is this not mighty Babylon, which I have built by my great power for the manifestation of my glory?” You get a little insight into his heart in a passage like that. Nebuchadnezzar is a fitting prototype for our culture today where there is so much worship of self.
But Jesus said, “He who would come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow Me.” So, there’s this warning concerning idolatry. Are you living for yourself or are you living for Christ? Choose this day, the Bible tells us, who you will serve. If you are living for self, it will be reflected in the way you use your money. It will be reflected in the way you use your time. It will be reflected in the way you use your talents and abilities. If you’re living for Christ, it will be reflected in those same ways through time, talent and treasure. The Bible tells us in the last days, the world will be characterized by “philautos,” which is the Greek word for “lovers of self.” So, warning concerning idolatry.
The second lesson from history concerns immorality, sexual immorality. The Apostle Paul writes, “We must not indulge in immorality as some of them did, and 23,000 fell in a single day. The reference here is to the book of Numbers in the Old Testament and to the 25th chapter where we’re told that the children of Israel had fornication with the Moabites and the Midianites. Their sexual immorality resulted in the deaths of 23,000 people through disease. Now, the Greek word that Paul uses in this passage, verse 8, for immorality is the Greek word “porneia.” The word porneia refers to sexual immorality. It is the Greek word from which we get the English porn or pornography. It is also the Greek word from which our word fornication comes. Originally, the word porneia referred to fornication. It referred only to fornication in its original use, fornication being sexual relations before marriage between single people. It referred to sexual relations between two people who were single. Fornication. Porneia. The Bible tells us that that’s sinful and displeasing to God.
The word porneia began to have a broader scope of meaning. By the time of Christ and the Christian era, the word porneia referred not only to fornication but it referred to all sexual activity outside of marriage. So, it referred to fornication. It referred to adultery. It referred to homosexuality. It referred to lust, which Jesus warned us about in the Sermon on the Mount, and it referred to prostitution. All of these things were included in the meaning of the word porneia.
Now, of course, we live in a culture that has written its own sexual morality. In our culture, fornication is not considered to be sinful. In our culture, sex amongst singles, sex prior to marriage, is considered normal and perhaps even recreational. Of course, in our culture, homosexuality is not considered to be sinful. An increasing number of people view the homosexual or the gay lifestyle as a viable alternative. Of course, in our culture, I think it would be safe to say that lust is not really considered to be sinful. In fact, Hollywood and the movies and television and magazines play to lust in our culture. Certainly, in our culture, in most segments of our culture, adultery is still condemned, but there are even subcultures within our culture in which adultery is kind of winked at.
But, you see, as a Christian, as a believer in Jesus Christ, living at the dawn of the 21st century and in this culture, you are not to take your moral values from the culture. You are not to derive your moral values from the culture, but you are to derive your moral values from God’s Word. You are to derive your moral values from the Word of God. If you do not like what God has said about sexual morality, please don’t get mad at me. The reality is, I’m nobody. It doesn’t matter what I say. What matters is what God has said. My responsibility as a pastor is to be faithful in teaching you what God has said in His word, and to rightfully render the meaning of the Hebrew and the Greek words, that you might understand what God has said to us in holy scripture. I have rightfully rendered the meaning of the Greek word porneia this morning, and it refers to any sexual activity outside of the marriage union. You see, biblically, sex is a wonderful gift, meant to be opened only in the context of marriage. Anything else, in the sight of God, is sin. So, we have this warning.
Should we, as Christians, show compassion for those people who are involved in sexual immorality? The answer is yes, we should show compassion because we, too, are sinners. We should show compassion because we are sinners sexually—if not in our actions, then at least in our thoughts. We should show compassion because Jesus showed compassion. He showed compassion towards those involved in sexual immorality. He showed compassion towards the woman at the well who had had many husbands and was living with a man not her husband. He showed compassion to the woman caught in the very act of adultery. In fact, the only people that Jesus did not show compassion to were those people who had no compassion on others. He did not show compassion to the Pharisees for they showed no compassion to others. So, we are called as believers in Christ and followers of Christ, to show loving compassion towards people and yet we’re also to stand for the truth, no matter what the cost. We’re to call sin, sin. In our own lives personally, we are to be engaged in the struggle against sin, that we might seek to live lives that honor Christ, lives that please Him. It’s all for our good. I mean, God’s given us these commandments for our good.
I heard a joke recently about a state trooper who was driving his police car on a rural highway. He noticed that a car was going so slow that a big line of cars was forming behind it. He clocked the car at 22 miles per hour. He thought, “This is dangerous. They’re going too slow.” He pulled the car over and he noticed it was a carload of elderly women. He went up to the driver’s window and he talked to the driver. He said, “Do you realize you were going 22 miles per hour?” She said, “That’s right, officer.” He said, “Well, the speed limit is 65.” She said, ‘‘Well, the signs say 22.” He said, “No, that’s Route 22. This is Highway 22.” Then the officer noticed that the other elderly women in the car were pale, looked very nervous, and really looked like they were shook up! The officer said, “Are these other woman okay?” The driver said, “Well, they’ll be okay pretty soon. We just came off Route 119!”
Now, of course, is it not true that the laws that are established by the governments across this country and enforced by the police, with regard to our driving, are meant for our good? Is it not true? Those laws are meant to protect us, and they’re meant to protect others. They’re meant to bless us, and this is also true of the commandments of God. They are given for our good. All of His commandments with regard to porneia, all of His commandments regarding sexual morality and immorality, are given in order that we might be blessed, that we might avoid sexual diseases (which have become rampant in our culture), that we might not suffer from broken relationships, and that we might not suffer from wounded emotions, and indeed, damaged souls. Because God loves us and He’s given these commandments to us. By the way, this word porneia, this word for sexual immorality, was used by Jesus again and again with exactly the meaning that I’ve given you this morning. So here is a warning from God’s word regarding sexual immorality.
The third lesson from history concerns testing God. The Apostle Paul writes, “We must not put the Lord to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents.” Paul is looking back, again, to the book of Numbers, this time to the 21st chapter where the children of Israel tested God’s patience and God’s forbearance. Paul is warning us not to do that. Don’t test God.
I heard another joke about a guy who was taking a walk in the woods. He got lost. He got so horribly lost that the whole day passed, and he had no clue where he was. He was beginning to get hungry. He looked over a cliff, and he saw a bald eagle just a little bit below the ledge. He knew that bald eagles were an endangered species, but he didn’t care about that. He was hungry. He took the bald eagle and he killed it. As he was eating it, park rangers came up and they arrested him. He was brought to trial. As he stood before the judge, he began to make excuses. He said, “I was lost and I was hungry,” and then he lied. He said, “I didn’t really kill the bald eagle. It was already dead.” To the amazement of everybody, the judge bought all this and believed him. The judge let him go, but the judge said, “Before I let you go, I just want to ask you one question. I’ve never tasted bald eagle, and I don’t plan to, but what did bald eagle taste like?” The man said, “Well, it tasted a little bit like a cross between a whooping crane and a spotted owl!”
Now you see, that’s putting a judge to the test. That’s what it means to test patience, to test forbearance, to see how much you can get away with. And the warning of scripture is, don’t do that with God. Don’t test His patience. Don’t test His forbearance. Don’t see how much you can get away with. If you’re involved in a sin, repent. Don’t just continue in it, putting Him to the test. Repent and turn from that sin. That’s what Christ is telling us this morning.
Now, this is the final day of sanctity of human life week. And of course, it’s been 27 years since the passing of Roe v. Wade, which was passed in 1973. In these 27 years, more than 35 million babies in America have been aborted. And these 35 million abortions have been on demand, for any and all reasons and in any and all trimesters. And it is, regardless, I think, of your particular view on the subject of abortion, a national tragedy. And I’ve said before that over 90% of the abortions in America have nothing to do with danger to the life of the mother, or rape, or incest, or gross fetal deformity. Most abortions in America are belated efforts at birth control in an increasing promiscuous society. And I believe that as a nation we’re putting God to the test. With our sexual immorality, with our disrespect for life, we’re putting God to the test and we need to pray for our nation. As individuals, we need to make sure that we do not put God to the test but that we live faithfully for Him.
And finally, we have this fourth lesson from history. It concerns grumbling. The Apostle Paul writes, “We must not grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer.” And the reference is back to the Book of Numbers, the 16th chapter, and to Korah’s rebellion. But the truth is when we look at Israel in the wilderness, we see constant grumbling. We see grumbling in Numbers 21, 16, and 14. Constant grumbling. God doesn’t like us to grumble because we’ve entered into a covenant relationship with Him and we have said that we will trust Him as our provider and our protector and we will receive all things as from His hand. He wants us to live lives of faith, trusting and rejoicing day by day. He doesn’t like grumbling.
Last week, I spoke to a group of Nazarene pastors. As Barb and I flew to the place where I spoke, we had first class upgrades. It is a very special treat to be able to fly first class, particularly for me, because I’m 6’3” and my legs are particularly long and I always feel like a sardine when I’m in coach class. This was just such a treat. Of course, you’ve got leg room, and amazingly, you’re given menus. They actually gave us menus, and you could choose what you wanted. This is incredible. You could choose what you wanted, and yet right next to us, in the row ahead of us (I couldn’t see the person because I couldn’t look over the seat) somebody was complaining about the menu. You could tell they’d flown first class regularly, and they had seen some of the stuff on the menu before. They particularly didn’t like the dessert, which was a lemon deal. They were kind of going on and on about that. I was thinking, “How amazing! Complaining about first class!”
But it occurs to me that all of us in this room this morning, we’re all flying first class! When you look at the world, we’re flying first class! We live in the United States of America and we, most of us, live in the suburbs. We’re flying first class. We have the most space, and we have all the legroom as opposed to third world nations. We have the best to eat and drink. We’re flying first class, and yet how many of us grumble and complain? Of course, God looks at the whole world, and He sees us in the light of that. We need to remember that as we wake up every morning and as we live day-by-day. God doesn’t like grumbling and complaining. He didn’t like it in the wilderness, and He certainly doesn’t like it in America.
You know, this passage of scripture concludes with a famous verse where the Apostle Paul writes, “There is no temptation overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful. He will not allow you to be tempted beyond your strength, but with every temptation will always provide a means of escape, that you may be able to endure.” But the Greek word for temptation is the word “peirasmo.” This word means “to test” as well as “to tempt.” Most Bible scholars agree that testing is the real meaning in this passage, so that God is saying, “There is no testing overtaking you that is not common to man. God is faithful. He will not allow you to be tested beyond your strength, but with every test will always provide a means of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” You see, in the midst of the test… and I don’t know the tests of your life… I don’t know the tests you are going through right now, but it’s not greater than you can handle. Christ has promised that. He doesn’t want us to grumble or complain.
There is a movie currently in release (and with this we’ll close). The movie is called “Anna and the King.” It stars Chou Yun-fat and Jodie Foster. The movie has been banned in Thailand. The Thai government says that the movie is historically inaccurate and it distorts Thai history. Of course, Thailand used to be called the Kingdom of Siam. Now, the movie “Anna and the King” is based on a book written by Anna Leonowens, written in 1870, called “An English Governess at the Siamese Court.” In the book, Anna Leonowens describes her experiences while teaching and tutoring the many children of the King of Siam. This began for her in 1863. The King is known to historians as Rama IV, and he is sometimes called King Mongkut.
Now, according to the book, Anna Leonowens claims that she became close personal friends with the King of Siam, and she influenced his thought and ultimately influenced the policies of state. The Thai government says that’s simply not true. Historians agree with the Thai government. Historians tell us that Anna Leonowens, according to all the evidence, only met the King of Siam one time. They were not friends. She did not influence his thinking, she did not affect the affairs of state.
Of course, the 1956 movie, “The King and I,” which won an academy award for Yul Brenner, was also based on that same book, but historians tell us that Anna Leonowens just made a lot of it up. The Thai government says it’s revisionist history. And Hollywood says, “Well, so what?” Hollywood says, “You know, what’s wrong with a little fantasy and a little fiction?” Of course, we all love fantasy. We all love fiction, but we should not love revisionist history. There’s too much revisionist history now. Too much revisionist history even in the schools. Revisionist history distorts the truth. Revisionist history does not really respect history, and therefore cannot learn from it.
You’ve got to admit, the Jewish people did not revise their history. When you look at a passage like this written by a Jew, describing the weaknesses of the Jews in the course of their history, we should thank God there is no revisionist history here. We should respect history and learn from it. That’s what God wants us to do today, learn from history, learn from the mistakes. When we look at history, we see the dangers of idolatry, and we are an idolatrous culture that has deified self, so here’s a warning. We look at history, we see the dangers of sexual immorality, and we see how, in history, God has judged that, and we want to be warned this morning. We don’t want to put God to the test. We don’t want to grumble and complain. These are all lessons from history. Let’s close with a word of prayer.