Alba 7-27-2025
WHAT KIND OF EXAMPLE ARE YOU?
I Corinthians 10:5-11
Have you ever been told, “Let that be an example to you”? There are many things we can learn from examples, some good and some bad.
On September 19, 1997, a Drivers-Ed teacher gave a lesson he would like to forget. The teacher had one student at the wheel and another in the back, when a car suddenly cut them off. The teacher went into a road rage. He ordered the student driver to pursue the other car. When the car pulled over, the teacher got out and went over and punched the driver in the face. The bloodied driver pulled away.
Amazingly, that wasn't enough for the Drivers-Ed teacher. He again ordered the student to pursue the car. Eventually the police pulled the Drivers-Ed car over for speeding, and the motorist with the bloody nose circled back to report what had happened. The Drivers-Ed teacher was arrested and charged with assault. He was later suspended from his job. Obviously, this was not a good example from a Drivers-Ed teacher.
(From “Setting A Good Example [Part Three]” by Derrick Tuper)
The question is, what kind of example are you? Now if you were one of the younger ones in your family, you could learn a lot just by standing back and watching what happened when your older siblings did something that got them into trouble.
Learning from mistakes and wrong things you have done is just a part of life. But when you can watch someone else’s mistakes or wrongs and learn from that, it’s much easier. As it turns out, much of the Bible is that way. There is much in Israel’s history that gives some bad examples. I Corinthians 10:11 says, “Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition.” We can learn from what they did so we will not commit the same mistakes or wrongs.
In First Corinthians 10:5-11 we are given five negative examples. And, if we pay attention, we can have a positive outcome instead. Actually the Israelites were a blessed people. God chose Abraham as the one through whom He would bless the world. That blessing would be the eventual coming of Jesus into this world. In the meantime, there were many descendants of Abraham. And when Jacob and his children went to Egypt in need of food, they settled there. And after a while, they were made slaves to the Egyptians who forced them to do back-breaking work.
When God heard their cries, He chose Moses to deliver them from slavery and bring them to a land of promise. After a miraculous delivery, God kept providing miracle after miracle to help them on their way. God miraculously brought them through the waters of the Red Sea. God provided the miracle of water from a rock, and manna for food. In spite of all that God had done for them, it seems that all they could do was complain and were often disobedient.
That's why I Corinthians 10:5 says, “But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.” A journey that should have taken much less than four months became an extended stay of forty years.
Despite their great deliverance and the blessings they had, they turned their backs on God.
So despite everything they saw, everything they experienced, and everything they received from God, the vast majority of that generation never made it to the Promised Land. In fact, the entire generation of twenty-year-olds on up who came out of Egypt, except for Caleb and Joshua, all perished in the desert. They continually showed themselves to be bad examples of what the people of God should be. Now if you don't want to make the same mistakes that the Israelites did, I have five questions to ask to find out what kind of example are you? Here is the first question:
What do you desire?
There are a lot of good things that can be desired, but there are a lot of bad things, hurtful things as well. So verse six of this chapter reminds us, “Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted.” Lust is a desire that goes beyond simply wanting something. You know what? No matter how good things may be, we all have times when we want something different. That may not be a problem, but it can be.
Many people have gotten themselves into some very wrong situations because they started to desire things they should not have. That was the case of the Israelites. They lusted after what they had left behind in Egypt. They missed the food in Egypt even though they ate it in slavery. They could not be satisfied. So God sent manna for them to eat in the wilderness (Exodus 16:4). All they had to do was go out and pick it up off of the ground. What could be easier? But in Numbers 11 it tells us they were tired of manna. They ground it up, baked it, made cakes out of it, turned into a gruel, but they weren’t satisfied. They desired what they had in slavery rather than the freedom God had provided.
1 John 2:15-17 tells us, “15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. 17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.” We see examples of all three of these sins in the way the Israelites acted.
And when lust is involved, anticipation is always greater than realization. We have to be careful what we focus on. Those people were with God, but it wasn't enough. How about us? Is our relationship with God enough? Enough even when we see other people having more of what the world offers? We must ask ourselves, isn't our relationship with God more than enough? Be careful of what you desire.
We need the same desire as the Psalmist who sang this song in Psalm 73:25-26 “Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart fail; But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” Do not follow the example of the Israelites. If you want to be a better example, here is another question:
What do you worship?
I Corinthians 10:7 warns us, “And do not become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, 'The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.'” Their lust and wrong desires led them to idolatry. When Moses was up on the mountain in the presence of God for 40 days and nights, the Israelites got a little panicked. They thought perhaps Moses wasn't coming back. So what did they do about it?
Exodus 32 tells us what they did. That is when they made the Golden Calf. Moses is up on Mt. Sinai talking with God. And his brother Aaron is down with the people. And they say, “Hey Aaron, make us a god that will go before us. Something that we can see and follow.” So Aaron did it and they all jumped up and danced around it. Verse six of Exodus 32 says that they “offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.”.... What do you do when it seems like God is far off? When you've prayed but haven't received the answer you were looking for? Do you say, “I guess God isn't listening to me. Maybe He's mad at me; maybe He's forgotten about me. I guess I'll just go back to my old ways.” Is that what happens?
There is only ONE GOD worth following. Yet they made an idol. But what is an Idol? Something worshiped. Not all idols are carved from wood, and you don’t necessarily have to set up a little shrine and offer prayers in order to worship them. The ultimate idolatry is worship of self, when we do not keep God in the center. Don't let your example be like the Israelites. But to make sure, here is a third question:
How do you conduct yourself?
I Corinthians 10:8 says, “Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell.” Another poor example from the Children of Israel is that they seemed to not be able to control their sexual desires with the women from the nations they were passing through.
Numbers 25:1-2 (NIV) says that, “While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with Moabite women, who invited them to the sacrifices to their gods. The people ate the sacrificial meal and bowed down before these gods.” They became involved with the surrounding people, not to evangelize them but to become like them. Including sexual sins. As a result, judgment came on them, and thousands died as punishment. Sexual immorality is rarely a free standing sin. It always seems to create other more complicated issues – lying, deception, financial problems, and in this case more idolatry.
In the last hours of his life, Ted Bundy gave an interview with James Dobson. It’s on a video called “Fatal Addiction.” There, hours before he was executed, Bundy tells how his decline began with the impurity of pornography, and it grew and grew until he was a mass murderer. Bundy is an extreme example, but there’s a long trail of victims destroyed by impurity.
Remember what 1 Corinthians 6:18-20 says? “Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
Do not follow the example of the Israelites. But again, to decide what kind of example you are, here is question four:
How much do you trust the Lord?
I Corinthians 10:9 says, “nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents.” Numbers 21:4-6 records this event. It says, “Then they journeyed from Mount Hor by the Way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the soul of the people became very discouraged on the way.
“And the people spoke against God and against Moses: 'Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread.' So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many of the people of Israel died.”
That wasn't the first time they lacked trust. When the Israelites were grumbling against Moses, he asked them in Exodus 17:2, “Why do you contend with me? Why do you tempt the Lord?” Notice that I Corinthians 10:9 says that we should not “tempt Christ” as the Israelites did. That was 1,500 years before Jesus was born. The message is that Christ is God. So when the Israelites rebelled against God they were rebelling against Christ. He is the One who came to this earth and died as a sacrifice for us so that we could be forgiven. Jesus passed the test of His love for us by going to the cross. What other test would we ask of Him?
God was continuing to provide for these people. But in their discouragement, they felt that God was letting them down. Testing the Lord like this is a sign of mistrust; like we can't count on Him to honor his Word. We also put God to the test when we push the limits and basically dare Him to do something. We might not consciously do that that, but when we willingly go against His commands we are testing Him; like what a child would do to their parents to see how serious they are. It's never a good idea to test the Lord.
Are there areas in your life where you think God should do more for you? Give you more? Give better leadership? Make life better? If so, you are acting like the Israelites. They were a poor example. They were not trusting God. What kind of example are you? To answer that, here is one final question for you:
How often do you complain?
Verse ten of our text tells us not to “complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer.”
Grumbling and complaining was one of the main reasons that some of the Children of Israel were destroyed in the Wilderness. And if God saw it as an offense worthy of death in the Old Testament then it must be higher on the list of offensive things than we often credit it to be.
In fact, this example from the way the Israelites acted probably covers all the other poor examples that are given in this text. God was leading them and they were ready to quit. In Numbers chapter 14 it says they were willing to go back to Egypt, which would likely mean that they would be slaves again. We are told, don't be like them. Don't turn your back on God. And don't make the mistake of thinking the old life of sin was better than what God can provide.
Our human nature is never satisfied. It does not know what is best for us. It makes us think that the grass is greener on the other side and that there is more and better in something else, something new and exciting. But as someone has said, what you don't know is that under that green grass is a septic tank.
Of course there are a lot of things and a lot of reasons that can cause us to complain. And there are times that something needs to be said when things are not going well. But again, don't blame God! That's the meaning here. If you have a complaint, take it directly to the Lord. Ask for His help. He will listen.
So how did you do answering these questions? We see what poor examples the Israelites often were. Are you any better? What do your family or your friends see in the example of your life? I think all of us could do better, don't you?
CLOSE:
A father complained about the church service he and his son had just attended. He said, “The songs were not uplifting. The choir was bad. And the sermon was boring!” His son replied: “Not bad for a dollar, Dad!”
This father was not being a good example to his son on several levels. Often what we get out of something is dependent on what we put into it. I am not saying that if the man had put more money in the offering he would have liked the service better. It really is a matter of where the heart is.
If our heart desires the things of the Lord.
If our heart is set to worship the Lord.
If we endeavor to conduct ourselves morally and uprightly.
If we trust the Lord in good times and bad.
If we praise and bless rather than blaming and complaining to God, we will find a peace that passes understanding. Our lives will be better. And our example will be something of worth that others can follow.
