There’s a Midwestern idiom about people’s chickens coming home to roost. Basically, it means those moments when people receive the deserved results of their wrongful actions or attitudes. Some call it their comeuppance, karma, or just deserts. Fool around long enough, and you’ll find out. In our next look at Corinthians, Paul lays out four sinful episodes that had a deadly result. They fooled around, and their chickens came home to roost.
The full passage we are considering is 1 Corinthians 10:1-13. In verses 1-4, Paul lays out how the Children of Israel with Moses spiritually shared in the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Verse five concludes, “Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased; for their dead bodies were spread out in the wilderness.” (1 Corinthians 10:5, NASB 2020)
Paul identifies four specific sinful episodes which resulted in death. Two of those sins are listed in the Ten Commandments; two are not. That leads us to what is controversial for some. The first two “big” sins are idol worship and sexual immorality (vs 7-8). The other two are found in verses 9-10. “Nor are we to put the Lord to the test, as some of them did, and were killed by the snakes. Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were killed by the destroyer.” (1 Corinthians 10:9–10, NASB 2020)
Both incidents in Moses’ day are similar. In the first incident, they tested God by complaining about everything (Numbers 21:5 and following). They hated the wilderness, the water, and their God supplied food of manna. In the second, they grumbled and challenged Moses’ leadership (Numbers 16:41 and following). In response, God sent poisonous snakes. Anyone bitten by the snakes could be healed if they looked at a bronze snake lifted on a pole (a symbolic representation of Christ). Both seem like normal human frustration. And yet they went too far as to put themselves above God. It is very foolish to tell God that He doesn’t know what He is doing in our lives.
Paul summarizes, “Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction.” (1 Corinthians 10:11a, NASB 2020) The Old Testament is filled with cautionary examples of people’s sin and folly. But Paul warns us, “Therefore let the one who thinks he stands watch out that he does not fall.” (1 Corinthians 10:12, NASB 2020) All of us are susceptible to any of the four examples (and more) that Paul cites. Those times when we think we have it all figured out when we can stand on our own, that’s when we are most likely to fall.
But Paul ends on a note of promise. “No temptation has overtaken you except something common to mankind; and God is faithful, so He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13, NASB 2020)
One of the enemy’s tricks is to make us think that our sin, addiction, or bad habit is unique to us. Believe me, it’s not. And when tempations comes our way, God makes sure that we are not tempted beyond our ability and to also provide the way of escape so that we can stand. The problem is that we don’t run to God when we are first tempted. Someone once put it this way. When Satan comes knocking at your door with tempation ask Jesus to answer the Satan’s knock for you. Another way to drown out temptation is through praise and worship, either spoken or sung. We must turn our eyes and heart from that attractive sin to our savior and Lord.
The controversy is found in another of the enemy’s tricks. The second two examples seem small and petty. There are little things that we may think we can get away with. But the punishment was the same. In God’s eyes, sin is sin, no matter the size or depravity. “For whoever keeps the whole Law, yet stumbles in one point, has become guilty of all.” (James 2:10, NASB 2020) We love to categorize sins as large and small. Often, the “small” sins are the ones we get tripped up by the most.
I want to leave you with a promise. Yes, we will sin. Something will get the better of us, and we will stumble and fall. But God’s Word promises this – “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous, so that He will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9, NASB 2020). We don’t stand on our own; we stand on God’s grace.
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