Warnings Against Idolatry

The Inescapable God
God Reveals
1 Corinthians 10:1-11 (The Message)
 ^1-5Remember our history, friends, and be warned. All our ancestors were led by the providential Cloud and taken miraculously through the Sea. They went through the waters, in a baptism like ours, as Moses led them from enslaving death to salvation life. They all ate and drank identical food and drink, meals provided daily by God. They drank from the Rock, God's fountain for them that stayed with them wherever they were. And the Rock was Christ. But just experiencing God's wonder and grace didn't seem to mean much—most of them were defeated by temptation during the hard times in the desert, and God was not pleased.  ^6-10The same thing could happen to us. We must be on guard so that we never get caught up in wanting our own way as they did. And we must not turn our religion into a circus as they did—"First the people partied, then they threw a dance." We must not be sexually promiscuous—they paid for that, remember, with 23,000 deaths in one day! We must never try to get Christ to serve us instead of us serving him; they tried it, and God launched an epidemic of poisonous snakes. We must be careful not to stir up discontent; discontent destroyed them.
 ^11-12These are all warning markers—danger!—in our history books, written down so that we don't repeat their mistakes. Our positions in the story are parallel—they at the beginning, we at the end—and we are just as capable of messing it up as they were. Don't be so naive and self-confident. You're not exempt. You could fall flat on your face as easily as anyone else. Forget about self-confidence; it's useless. Cultivate God-confidence.

For Reflection
Lots of folks read fire and brimstone, hell and damnation threats into passages such as this.  OK, so maybe a good concept of hell is not such a bad thing. It keeps some of us in line.  But as I read passages like this I am reminded that promises are costly.  Promises have to be fulfilled.  God and Jesus made lots of costly promises.  Threats are cheap!  One can always say, "Well you tried so I guess I can let it go this time.
There is another way of looking at these admonitions.  The consequences of violations such as in these passages naturally flow from the act of violation.  Falling victim to temptation results in separation from God.  Setting up an idol is an attempt to define and thus limit the power of God.  The temptation to avoid the mystery of God and define Him on human terms is naive, useless and God is not pleased with our reluctance to trust in Him.  We fall because it is natural to fall when we fail, not because God is necessarily punishing.  Maybe!

Pray that you will be confident in God's grace.  Pray that you walk forward unafraid of that which you do not understand.  Rejoice in God's wonder and everlasting love.