Nine-year-old Nooruddin was pushing his cart and selling vegetables in the streets of Kabul, not too far from his grandfather’s house. Suddenly there was a blast–as he puts it “a dreadful bang of explosion”.
Nooruddin was knocked to the ground and he felt this intense pain in his legs – except as he looked more closely his right leg was gone.
Every year about 15,000 people are killed or wounded by landmines. Many of them are children and women. And many, if not most, of the landmine incidents occur after a war.
For instance, Afghanistan is the most densely mined country in the world right now. But those mines are not from the current conflict. They’re left over from previous wars.
The stories the same around the world – Angola, Cambodia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mozambique, the former Yugoslavia. The wars are over but the landmine danger remains.
The same is also true in our walk with Christ.
The battle has been won. Christ was raised from the dead – sin and death defeated. But there are still leftover landmines buried in the ground, waiting to destroy the unsuspecting pedestrian.
Thus we have the apostolic warnings – including those found in 1 Corinthians 10. Look at the first 6 verses. “I don’t want you to forget, dear brothers and sisters, what happened to our ancestors in the wilderness long ago. God guided all of them by sending a cloud that moved along ahead of them, and he brought them all safely through the waters of the sea on dry ground. As followers of Moses, they were all baptized in the cloud and the sea.”
This is, of course, the Exodus. Remember that the Israelites were led through the Red Sea and they were directed through a special cloud. This experience, Paul is saying, is equivalent to that of our baptism. Verse 3, “And all of them ate the same miraculous food, and all of them drank the same miraculous water. For they all drank from the miraculous rock that traveled with them, and that rock was Christ.
Again, Paul is drawing on the experience of the Israelites in the wilderness. Just as Christians eat the bread and drink the cup so did the Israelites experience Christ in the wilderness as spiritual food and drink.
Verse 5, “Yet after all this, God was not pleased with most of them, and he destroyed them in the wilderness. These events happened as a warning to us, so that we would not crave evil things as they did.”
In other words, even though these early believers had all of the miracles and mysteries, they ended up stepping on landmines and blowing themselves to bits anyway.
St John Chrysostom puts it this way: “Why does Paul say these things? He was pointing out that just as the Israelites got no benefit from the great gift which they enjoyed, so the Corinthian Christians would get nothing out of baptism or holy communion unless they went on and manifest a life worthy of that grace...”
Remember the context here. Paul is speaking to the church in Corinth – a church which saw itself as being totally together because some of the people had some exotic and esoteric spiritual experiences.
That’s how they defined Christian success, by the intensity of their spiritual experiences. Yet, Paul goes on to draw a parallel between them and the sins of the Israelites – the sins which ultimately led to the destruction of a whole generation – the generation which had to live out their days in the wilderness.
And by listing these sins Paul is warning his readers that they could just as easily step on the same landmines.
Verse 6 – “These events happened as a warning to us, so that we would not crave evil things as they did or worship idols as some of them did.”
Idolatry. In spite of the very direct and miraculous intervention of God the Israelites set up a golden calf as an object of worship. Even after being instructed to avoid such a landmine.
Verse 7, “For the Scriptures say, ‘The people celebrated with feasting and drinking, and they indulged themselves in pagan revelry.’ And we must not engage in sexual immorality as some of them did, causing 23,000 of them to die in one day.”
This is probably a reference to the incident in Numbers 25 where the Israelite men hooked up with a bunch of Moabite women. And the women talked them into sacrificing to the Moabite gods.
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.
God responded by sending a plague which wiped out 23,000 or 24,000 of these fine, baptized and communed believers.
Just because you’ve received the sacraments -- just because you’ve had some kind of intense worship experience or felt the intimacy of God, that doesn’t mean that you will be spared landmine destruction.
Verse 9 -- “Nor should we put Christ to the test, as some of them did and then died from snakebites.”
The reference is to Numbers 21, when the Israelites in the wilderness grumbled against Moses and God. And God sent poisonous snakes.
A little sidebar here... Notice that Paul says in verse 9, “the people grumbled against Christ.” This is 1,500 years before Jesus.
The apostolic message is that Christ is God. Before the incarnation Christ was at work in creation and in the salvation of his people. Thus when the Israelites rebelled against God and put him to the test they were rebelling against Christ and trying to test his patience.
Paul is saying, their experience was with the same God – so beware.
Verse 10, “And don’t grumble as some of them did, for that is why God sent his angel of death to destroy them.”
Wow, God must think that grumbling is a pretty big deal. We tend to think of it as a civil right – free speech and all that... Might it be that whining could lead to our downfall?
Verse 10 “And don’t grumble as some of them did, for that is why God sent his angel of death to destroy them. All these events happened to them as examples for us. They were written down to warn us, who live at the time when this age is drawing to a close.”
If you think that these temptations and this kind of judgment were problems in the old days – just think how much more intense these things are now that we’ve entered the end times. Remember, that from a biblical perspective the beginning of the end started with the coming of Jesus the Messiah, the Christ.
For 2,000 years we’ve been in the end times! And that means that we’re in even more danger of stepping on landmines than were the Israelites. Idolatry, sexual immorality, testing of God, and grumbling are all characteristics of the end times!
Therefore, guard against smugness!
“Oh, I’ll never step on a landmine... I’m too advanced... I’m too enlightened... I’m too spiritual... I have these wonderful intense worship experiences. I feel closer to God than ever before.”
Verse 12, “If you think you are standing strong, be careful, for you, too, may fall into the same sin.”
In my own experience I’ve found that the times I’m most prone to do something stupid is when I think I’m on the most solid ground. When I’m the most confident of myself, that’s when I’m most prone to let my guard down. I’ve been known to say and do some pretty stupid things. And I’m going to spare you all and not go into detail. We want to get out of here in an hour or so.
But when I’m cautious and guarded because I don’t think I know what I’m doing or because I’m in new territory I’m usually just fine.
The point is that we need to guard against smugness. As soon as we stop watching for landmines or as soon as we wander too casually into mined territory, that’s when we’re most likely to cause an explosion.
Secondly, be aware that you will experience the same temptations and trials as others.
Just because you have Christ in your life and your life is in Christ – that doesn’t mean that somehow in some magic way you’re going to glide through life a foot off the ground so that you’re never in danger of stepping on something explosive.
Verse 13 “But remember that the temptations that come into your life are no different from what others experience.”
I can’t say, “No one knows what I’m going through. Don’t get on my case. This is unique.”
The word here in verse 13 that is translated as “temptations” is really the same as “trials”. And that is appropriate, for our trials are often also our temptations.
And it is no sin to have a trial in your life or to be tempted. As Martin Luther said, “You can’t stop the birds from flying over your head.” But then he added, “You can stop them from nesting in your hair.”
That’s the difference between sin and temptation or a trial.
So in our guardedness we need to be aware that we’re going to have trials and temptations. But the good news is that we can take refuge in the fact that God in his faithfulness will get you through the temptations and trials.
Note the end of verse 13, “And God is faithful. He will keep the temptation from becoming so strong that you can’t stand up against it. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you will not give in to it.”
The word that Paul uses here for “way out” is the word that would be used by an army backed into a box canyon. Everything seems hopeless. But then someone notices that behind a rock, not very evident at first glance, is a narrow ravine out. That is the way of escape. And God is faithful – always providing for us a way of escape.
In the 60’s there was a popular TV show called Laugh In. And one of the characters Flip Wilson had a recurring line – “The devil made me do it...”
It was his excuse for anything. Life is out of my control. I’m not responsible. The devil made me do it.
But here Paul says, really folks, you are in control. God is faithful and if you let him he will get you through the ordeals and the temptations.
You can’t say, “The temptation was too strong and I just had to give in to it. The devil made me do it.”
Because when you say that you are really saying that “God is unfaithful and that he didn’t provide me with a way out of it.” And that’s a lie.
God always provides a way of escape so that we don’t have to give into temptation. Not sometimes. Not most of the time. But all the time.
The point is that there are plenty of landmines out there. And we need to be aware of the danger. We’re not exempt no matter how “spiritual” or “religious” we are.
Some of us need a little kick in the pants to remind us of this reality.
It’s like when we let our teenagers drive the car. As they leave we say, “be careful.”
Well, they’ve heard that before. They already know that we want them to be careful. But it’s just an ongoing reminder of the reality of the world out there.
Now, of course, some people don’t really need to be reminded that there are landmines out there.
They’ve already stepped on a mine or two or perhaps they’ve just figured out that they are standing in the middle of a minefield. And they don’t know what to do.
And if this is you, the word for you this morning is “hang tight”. Don’t panic. Don’t give up. God is faithful. He will provide a way out.
Let’s join together in affirming our faith in God’s faithfulness.
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Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. Wheaton, Illinois 60189. USA. All rights reserved.
