a. Analogy

10:1-5

1. For I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, that all our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea; 2. and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.

a. "For I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers." The conjunction for joins this verse to the preceding context (chap. 9) and indicates a continuation of that discourse. Paul also employs the address brothers, which includes the sisters, and introduces new material to his discourse. He reminds the readers of events from Israel's history and uses these incidents as effective examples. Throughout his epistles, Paul expresses his desire not to see his readers ignorant of certain facts. To dispel their ignorance he refers to either personal intentions and experiences or spiritual truths. These spiritual truths he will later apply to their question concerning eating meat which was offered to an idol.

b. "All our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea." With this terse description, Paul mentions the exodus and the crossing of the Red Sea. God led his people by means of a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night (Exod. 13:21). Thus, they were able to travel during either the day or the night. The cloud and the pillar of fire represented God's presence hovering over his people. Although the cloud and the pillar always attended the people (see Exod. 14:24; Num. 12:5; Deut. 31:15; Ps. 99:7), some in Israel's camp doubted God's nearness.

Paul calls the Israelites "all our fathers." He implies that the entire nation of Israel left Egypt and that this nation assumes the role of spiritual forefathers for both Jewish and Gentile Christians in Corinth. The possessive pronoun places those Gentiles who are members of the Christian community on the same level as Jewish Christians.

The phrase all passed through the sea alludes to Israel crossing the Red Sea on dry land while the Egyptian forces drowned in those same waters (Exod. 14). The fact that all the people safely reached the other shore demonstrates God's faithfulness toward his people in the past and assures his trustworthiness in the present.

c. "And all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea." Paul's reference to baptism links past and present. He projects the Christian meaning of baptism into Christ (Rom. 6:3; Gal. 3:27) onto the exodus by saying that all the Israelites were baptized into Moses. He compares the Christians who place their faith in Jesus Christ to the Israelites who placed their trust in God, represented by his servant Moses (see Exod. 14:31). Christ redeemed his people from sin and death, while God through Moses delivered the Israelites from oppression in Egypt and the destructive waters of the Red Sea.

For the Israelites, being "baptized into Moses" signified that they were members of the covenant which God had made with his people (Exod. 24:4b-8). Moses served as mediator of that first covenant, which became obsolete, but Christ is the Mediator of the new covenant (Heb. 7:22; 8:6; 9:15). Just as God's people became a nation with Moses as its leader, so God's people today are incorporated into Christ, who is their spiritual head (Eph. 5:23).

What is the significance of the two elements, the cloud and the sea? A study of the relevant chapters in Exodus reveals that with the cloud and the sea, God separated his people from the hostile Egyptian forces. The cloud went from the front to the back of the Israelites and remained behind them to separate God's people from the armies of Pharaoh (Exod. 14:19-20). The Red Sea became a defensive barrier for the Israelites and served as a boundary between Egypt and Israel (Exod. 23:31). "The experiences of being 'under the cloud' and 'passing through the sea' both related to the identification of the children of Israel as a people now separated from Egypt, and under God's protection." In short, by means of the cloud and the sea God separated to himself a people. The exodus must be seen from both a historical and a spiritual perspective.

As the passage through the Red Sea symbolized an end to Israel's slavery and its beginning as a new nation, so baptism for the Christian means a separation from sin and consecration to God. The experience of being under the protective cloud and passing through the waters of the Red Sea was the Israelite's prerequisite for inclusion in God's people. Similarly, the sign of being baptized into Christ is the mark of participating in his redemption. In short, being baptized into Moses represents Israel's redemption, much as being baptized into Christ entails the Christian's incorporation into his fellowship.

3. And all ate the same spiritual food, 4. and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they were drinking from the spiritual rock which followed them, and the rock was Christ.

a. "And all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink." Five times in five consecutive clauses, Paul writes the adjective all. That is, everyone who participated in the exodus was under the cloud, passed through the sea, was baptized into Moses, ate spiritual food, and drank from the spiritual rock.

God led the Israelites into the desert, away from the Egyptian granaries, and yet supplied them with "bread from heaven." The people called this bread "manna," which literally means, "what is it?" (Exod. 16:15). Every morning, except on the Sabbath, God caused manna to cover the ground (Exod. 16:2-36). This manna kept the Israelites alive until they had crossed the Jordan and ate bread baked from grain grown in Canaan. Then the daily provision of manna stopped (Josh. 5:12).

The same thing was true for Israel's need for water. During Israel's forty-year sojourn in the desert, God provided drinking water for his people and for their animals. Moses struck a rock at Mount Horeb and God supplied drinking water for all the people and their cattle (Exod. 17:6). Later Moses hit a rock at Kadesh to provide water for the community and their livestock (Num. 20:11). These two recorded incidents are given as examples of God's continued care for his people. The psalmist notes that God split rocks in the desert and caused streams to come forth out of the crags (Ps. 78:15-16). In other words, God daily quenched the thirst of man and animal by giving them streams of water in the wilderness.

Rabbinic sources have recorded legendary material on the rock that supplied water for the Israelites and traveled with them during their forty-year journey. We assume that Paul was acquainted with this explanation. He is interested, however, not in a legend but in God's miraculous provision of food and drink. And this supernatural act Paul describes as "spiritual."

Occurring three times in verses 3 and 4, the word spiritual has a figurative meaning. The material substance of food, drink, and rock points to a spiritual source. Through his Spirit, God actively engages in providing for the basic needs of his people. As the elements of the Lord's Supper point to the spiritual significance of the presence of Christ, so the elements which Paul describes with the word spiritual ultimately point to Christ.

b. "For they were drinking from the spiritual rock which followed them." God miraculously supplied for the Israelites streams in the desert. As Paul demonstrated in the preceding clause, the water indicated God's faithful provision for his people, a faithfulness that was not bound to one location, either Mount Horeb or Kadesh. It followed the Israelites continually wherever they went during their wilderness travels. Yet the Israelites rebelled against God; in the Song of Moses (Deut. 32) and the Psalter, the writers delineate both God's faithfulness and Israel's rebellion.

In the Old Testament the word rock appears frequently as a description of God:

1. Jacob      declares him "the Rock of Israel" (Gen. 49:24).

2. Moses      portrays him as a rock (Deut. 32:4, 15, 18, 30, 31).

3. Psalmists      call him a rock (Pss. 18:31; 62:2; 78:35; 89:26; 95:1).

c. "The rock was Christ." Although the identification of the rock with Christ is figurative, nevertheless the Old Testament alludes to a definite link. The word rock in the Song of Moses and the Psalter is often qualified with words that apply directly to Christ's redemptive work: the Rock is [my] salvation (Deut. 32:15; Pss. 62:2; 95:1), Savior (Ps. 89:26), Redeemer (Ps. 78:35), Begetter (Deut. 32:18).

Paul seems to have made a connection between the terminology recorded in Old Testament hymnody (Song of Moses and Psalter) and Christ; thus he identifies Christ with the Rock. He thereby connects an episode from the history of Israel with the current conditions in Corinth. Christ was present in the wilderness as he is present in the church today. God's rejection of those Israelites who tested and tried him (see Ps. 95:7-11; Heb. 3:7-19) is a relevant lesson and reminder for those Corinthians who dabble in idolatry.

5. However, God was not pleased with most of them, for their bodies were scattered over the desert.

Paul wants the readers to reflect on God's boundless goodness and mercy toward his rebellious people during the exodus and the desert journey. These people distrusted God, in spite of his wonderful daily care. They longed to go back to Egypt and served idols which they made and carried with them (Amos 5:25-26; Acts 7:42-43). No wonder that God was not pleased with these Israelites. Paul writes euphemistically when he says "most of them." He actually means that only two men who were older than twenty years of age (Caleb and Joshua) pleased God and entered the promised land. The rest died in the wilderness. In graphic terms, Paul writes that the bodies of the people were scattered over the desert floor (Num. 14:16). Funerals were the order of the day, and when pestilence struck, thousands perished (Num. 16:40; 25:9). Taking the total number of men who were twenty years and older, 603,550 (Num. 1:46), and assuming that there were an equal number of women, we divide the total, 1,207,100, by 38 (the years Israel spent in the desert after the curse [Num. 14:23]). We calculate an average of about 90 deaths per day for that entire period. A grim and daily reminder of God's anger!

Paul compares the people who died in the desert with the members of the church in Corinth. He wants the Corinthians to know that all the Israelites were recipients of God's daily provision, yet they perished because of unbelief. By analogy, he wants his readers to know that their reception of baptism and the Lord's Supper does not guarantee them eternal life. Without daily commitment to Christ, they lack eternal security and face spiritual death.

Additional Comments on 10:1-5

Paul is not interested in providing a discourse on baptism and partaking of the elements of the Lord's table. His references to the sacraments are only incidental to the objective he has in mind. He resorts to typology, which in the identification of the rock and Christ should be understood figuratively.

a. Typology. At first glance, Paul's identification of Christ with the rock in the wilderness which supplied the Israelites with spiritual food and drink appears to be a straightforward example of allegory. But that is not quite the case. We must take into consideration Paul's educational background. His writing often reflects a Jewish mode of interpreting Scripture. Jewish Christians read Scripture with the understanding that God's people are the same whether they belong to either the Old Testament or the New Testament era. In Paul's view the Old Testament reveals the work of the preexistent Christ on behalf of his people.

Paul's fellow Jew and contemporary, Philo of Alexandria, explains the rock in the wilderness as the wisdom and word of God. So God demonstrated his faithfulness to his people by providing for them the necessities of life from the source of his law. For Philo, manna represented God's gift in the form of his revelation. And he interpreted the Song of Moses to denote that the flinty rock (God) provided both food and drink for the Israelites (Deut. 32:13). Indeed, Philo's interpretation is distinctly allegorical.

Although Paul was influenced by the educational methodology of his day with respect to interpreting Scripture, he prudently adopted scriptural terminology. And even though at times he resorted to allegory, as he himself admitted (Gal. 4:21-31; see especially v. 24), he refrained from providing correspondences at every point in his discourse. Instead, Paul presented God's inspired revelation.

b. Responsibility. The death of all Israelites who were twenty years and older, with the exception of Caleb and Joshua, stands in stark contrast to Paul's fivefold use of the adjective all in the exodus account. They all enjoyed God's favor, yet only two responded in faith. The writer of Hebrews also uses the adjective all when he queries, "Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt?" (Heb. 3:16). God revealed his trustworthiness in various ways to all the Israelites, yet these same people failed to put their trust in him and rebelled against God ten times (Num. 14:22). This failure should not be attributed to God, who daily revealed his faithfulness, but to the Israelites, who refused to honor him. In the first century, many Christians likewise were in danger of drifting away from the living God because of unbelief and disobedience.

Baker New Testament Commentary - Baker New Testament Commentary – Exposition of the First Epistle to the Corinthians.

Simon Kistemaker的这篇文章分析得清清楚楚，出埃及的以色列人作为a people一个整体得蒙神从法老手中的救赎出来，但他们中大多数人是不信的，他们甚至一直渴望回到埃及侍奉他们亲手造的偶像，他们甚至还怀揣这些偶像过的红海；这与后来他们拜金牛犊的作为是完全一致的，清清楚楚表明了他们一直的不信。更重要的是，保罗将以色列的历史与现在作类比，告诫我们受洗进入教会不意味着你是真信徒，你们心中仍然怀揣着偶像进入教会，如果不悔改，下场就是倒毙旷野。