New Testament in a Year

Warning From History

10 Brothers and sisters, I want you to know what happened to our ancestors who were with Moses. They were all under the cloud,^[a] and they all walked through the sea. ² They were all baptized^[b] into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. ³ They all ate the same spiritual food, ⁴ and they all drank the same spiritual drink. They drank from that spiritual rock that was with them, and that rock was Christ. ⁵ But God was not pleased with most of those people, so they were killed in the desert.

⁶ And these things that happened are examples for us. These examples should stop us from wanting evil things like those people did. ⁷ Don’t worship idols as some of them did. As the Scriptures say, “The people sat down to eat and drink and then got up to have a wild party.”^{[c] 8} We should not commit sexual sins as some of them did. In one day 23,000 of them died because of their sin. ⁹ We should not test Christ^[d] as some of them did. Because of that, they were killed by snakes. ¹⁰ And don’t complain as some of them did. Because they complained, they were killed by the angel that destroys.

¹¹ The things that happened to those people are examples. They were written to be warnings for us. We live in the time that all those past histories were pointing to. ¹² So anyone who thinks they are standing strong should be careful that they don’t fall. ¹³ The only temptations that you have are the same temptations that all people have. But you can trust God. He will not let you be tempted more than you can bear. But when you are tempted, God will also give you a way to escape that temptation. Then you will be able to endure it.

¹⁴ So, my dear friends, stay away from worshiping idols. ¹⁵ You are intelligent people. Judge for yourselves the truth of what I say now. ¹⁶ The cup of blessing^[e] that we give thanks for is a sharing in the blood sacrifice of Christ, isn’t it? And the bread that we break is a sharing in the body of Christ, isn’t it? ¹⁷ There is one loaf of bread, so we who are many are one body, because we all share in that one loaf.

¹⁸ And think about what the people of Israel do. When they eat the sacrifices,^[f] they are united by sharing what was offered on the altar.