1 Cor. 10:6-13.
Now this is done for us as an example, that we do not lust after evil, as they did. Neither become idolaters, as some were, when it was written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed fornication, and fell three thousand and twenty thousand in one day. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them tempted him, and were slain of serpents. Neither murmur, as some of them murmured, and were destroyed by the destroyer. All these things happened to them for an example; but they are written for our warning, upon whom the end of the world is come. Therefore, whoever thinks he is standing, let him take care that he does not fall. None but human temptation has yet afflicted you; but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above your ability, but will make the temptation come to an end so that you can endure it.
This is a very serious exhortation, and as hard a writing as St. Paul has written in his lifetime, when he writes to the baptized Christians who have ever found the church of Christ, and gives them several examples that are truly terrible, even of the people of God and of the church, which he especially mentions from the people of Israel.
2 And this is the cause and opinion of this epistle. Because the Corinthians began to be sure that they had Christ, baptism, sacrament; thought that it could be
They no longer lacked anything, and went on and created sects and divisions among themselves, despising one another, forgetting love, not correcting nor atoning for their lives and evil deeds, but only becoming more secure, doing what they wanted, so that they even let it happen that one had his father's wife with him in public, etc.And yet they wanted to be Christians, and to boast and brag about the gospel preached to them by the high apostles: that is why St. Paul had to write them such a hard epistle, and such lauds.
than he has done anywhere else, that it seems too much to write to Christians in this way, and might have hit weak, stupid consciences so hard that they would not have been able to bear it; as he then alleviates in the other epistle, seeing that they are somewhat distressed by such serious writing, and neatly fosters with those who are now moved to repentance.
3 He shows enough in this passage, from the excellent examples of Scripture, that there is a need for such serious admonition to those who first want to become fleshly secure in the grace they have received and do not remain with the repentance they have begun.
4. but this text should begin with the beginning of the tenth chapter (which is usually read in the epistle of the Sunday Septuagesimä), since he begins thus and speaks: "I will not keep you, dear brothers, that our fathers have all been under the cloud, and have all gone through the sea, and have all been baptized under Moses, and have all eaten one kind of spiritual food, and have drunk one kind of spiritual drink etc. But in their many God was not pleased; for they are cast down in the wilderness." This is now followed by this text, "But this was done for an example to us."
(5) This exhortation he makes, as I said, to those who are now Christians, so that they may know whether they have been baptized into Christ and have received all his benefits by grace without merit, but that they still owe it to themselves to live in his obedience from now on, not to strut and insist against him, nor to abuse his grace. For this is what he also wants from us, even though we are not righteous before him or deserving of his grace. Just as the bride, by living chastely and being faithful and obedient to her husband, does not deserve to become a bride and a wife, but because she has pleased the bridegroom, even if she had been a whore before, he still wants her, because she has been honored by him, to keep her honor pure and chaste from now on; if not, the bridegroom has the right and the power to push her away again. And just as a poor, miserable orphan, whore child, or foundling, by a pious man
If he wants to become disobedient and rebellious for such a good deed, he will be rejected and cast out of such an inheritance. Thus the Jews did not deserve by their piety to become or remain God's people, as Moses often rubbed this into their ears, that they had always been stubborn and stiff-necked against him; but nevertheless, when God had chosen them and led them out of Egypt, he also earnestly commanded them that they should serve him and obey his word; but since they did not do so, he punished them so horribly that they had to feel it.
6 This example is now held up by St. Paul holds it up to all the world with great seriousness, as a warning against carnal presumption and certainty in God's received gifts and benefits, and he sets it apart and weighs it highly; As it is an excellent, great, important, special example, and if one looks at it rightly, there is certainly no greater miraculous story of the beginning of the world in any Scripture (except for the highest miraculous work of the death and resurrection of the Son of God), than this Historia, how God led the people out of Egypt and brought them through the desert into the Promised Land; for it is full of vain great special miraculous works of God and excellent examples of both His wrath and great grace.
(7) Now he begins from this, saying, If ye be Christians, and baptized, 2c, you should also know this; and if you do not know it or do not remember it, I do not have to leave it undeclared to you that you nevertheless look behind you and think back, as the Scriptures reproach us, that it was the case of those who were also God's people; that is, our fathers, an excellent, beautiful, large group and congregation, which were numbered over six times a hundred thousand of all adult men, without their wives and children. These, he says, were and were called the holy people of God, for God had taken care of them all, and had also God's word, promise and sacrament through Moses, who was their bishop and pope. Under this, he says, they were all baptized, since
he led them through the sea, and afterward under the cloud, as they walked daily under the shadow in the great heat; but at night they had a beautiful fiery pillar, which was a great bright beam or light, like lightning; besides which their bread was given them daily from heaven; item, water drunken out of the rock: These were their sacraments and signs, whereby they saw that God was with them and wanted to protect them, and they also believed in the promised Christ, the Son of God, who led and guided them in the desert, and were thus excellent, highly blessed and holy people.
8. But how long did such faith last among the great multitude? Not longer than until they came into the wilderness; then they soon began to despise God's word and to murmur against Moses and God, to practice idolatry etc. Then God also struck among them, so that of all the great people who had come out of Egypt, and the high and mighty men who had led and governed the people out of Egypt with Moses, no more than two persons came out of the wilderness into the land; so that he would show clearly enough that he was not pleased with the many great multitudes, and that it did not help them that they were called God's people, holy people, with whom God had shown such great good deeds and miracles, because they did not believe or obey God's word. It seemed right, since they had been redeemed from their enemies with such a great miracle, and had received the law and beautiful worship from God at Mount Sinai, that they should now enter the land and were already at the gate; but in that very gate they angered God so that they had to turn back and wander in the wilderness for forty whole years, until they all died and perished in it.
(9) All this came out of the sorrowful hope that they would defy God's word that they were God's people and receive such great benefits daily from God. Do you not see, they said, that all this congregation is holy, and that God is at home here, performing such great miracles for us every day? This defiance and pride made them so stiff-necked and hard that they did not stop crying out against Moses and blaspheming and contradicting him, as he did with them, and thus incurred God's wrath.
He was not able to humble the people until they were all cleared up; and often all would have perished at once, if Moses had not fallen before God against them, and averted the wrath with earnest, fierce pleading and entreaty, so that he was the poorest, most miserable, most afflicted man (as the Scriptures call him in Numbers 4:12, 3). 12, 3), that he had to struggle daily with such defiance, disobedience and contradiction of the great people alone, and also had to see and bear the whole forty years of so many great and terrible plagues of his people, which have troubled and crushed his heart, and had to sit down against God's wrath without ceasing.
(10) Behold, is not this terrible of such excellent great people, and of this people, which is God's own, in whom He and Christ Himself manifest Himself, ruling and guiding them with His angels, and honored by God with such excellent miracles, such as have never been heard of any people on earth; as Moses himself testifies, Deut. 4:7: "Where is such a glorious people, to whom gods draw so near as the Lord our God, as often as we call upon Him? That nevertheless all these, who came out of Egypt and saw the wonderful miracles of God in themselves and in their enemies, fall so horribly and sin; not through little human infirmities or weakness, which also remains in saints and believers, but through wanton contempt of God and disobedience, hardened and hardened in unbelief, bring such terrible punishment upon themselves, until they perish because of it.
(11) He recounts some of their sins and deeds, so that they deserved God's wrath, to show how they fell from the faith and went against God's word. First, he says in general that God was not pleased with many of them. This was the great multitude, and especially the nobles, princes and rulers of the church, great and excellent people, who were considered the best and most holy, who had also done great things themselves; these many fell back and became hypocrites under the glory of God's name,
as Korah did with his band, two hundred and twenty leaders of the community, 4 Mos. 16, 1. 2.Who also wanted to have the priesthood and the regiment as well as the two, Moses and Aaron, with such great pretense and defiance, that also here no one could be judge but God alone, and thus had to prove that he was not pleased with these and their bunch, as they boasted that they all devoured the earth alive, and a large bunch of the others, who held it with them and murmured around them, were consumed by fire etc.
(12) He then goes on to list the vices for which this people was punished and beaten by God in the wilderness. First of all, when they lusted after evil, and soon after the second year of the Exodus, when they had already come to the Promised Land, they forgot the benefits and miracles that God had shown them, and now they were displeased, and desired to return to Egypt, that they might only sit at the fleshpots, and grumbled against God and Moses, so that God also had to close the door, and to control such lust and grumbling with such punishment that the fire from heaven consumed a part of the people, and the others, before they had eaten the meat, were beaten with great plagues; Therefore the same place was called the grave of pleasure, Numbers 4:11. 11 This was the reward, that they might atone for their lust, which St. Paul here rightly calls: To be tempted with evil.
For it is certainly nothing else than the desire for God's wrath and terrible punishment, when one seeks something new out of forgetfulness, ingratitude and displeasure of God's graces and benefits; just as the world is now filled with such lust, since the great multitude is tired and weary of the Gospel, especially because it does not profit the flesh's advantage, power, wealth, pleasure, etc.They now desire the old, former nature, the priesthood again, since they had been weighed down and oppressed to the highest degree, no less than the people of Israel in Egypt: but in the end they will have to pay for this lust of evil terribly and horribly, as they struggle for it.
14. third, come now only the rech
tenth great knot. This is first of all idolatry, as he says: "Do not become idolaters, as some of them became. These were not bad, little people, but also the best and most distinguished, who governed others. For as these go before, so go the multitude after, and follow their example. So Aaron, Moses' brother, the high priest himself, being overawed by these, departed from them and followed them, and brought forth the golden calf, Ex 32:4.It is to be wondered at that such high and excellent people, who have heard and seen God's word and miracles so abundantly, should so soon fall into idolatry and false worship (as if they were Gentiles and had no word of God) that no one resists or resists; it is much less to be wondered at that otherwise the blind world always lies in idolatry.
(15) But it so happens, where one does not have or does not respect God's word, that human wisdom chooses and makes its own worship, and is pleased with it and considers it a delicious thing, when such is forbidden by God's word to the highest degree and is called an abomination before Him. For human reason thinks it may play with divine things as it pleases; and as it pleases it, so shall it please God; and then, in order to maintain and defend such idolatry, it also adorns itself with God's word, which must allow itself to be rhymed and directed so that it is given a fine, beautiful form and color, as if it were not contrary to it; just as the papacy has decorated and colored all its abominations of the mass, monasticism, and saintly service, and now the world again seeks to color and decorate such idolatry, so that it also remains next to God's word etc. So does Aaron, the high priest, when he makes the golden calf for the people, Ex 32:5, 6, an image and sign of their sacrifice and worship, and builds an altar for it, and proclaims the feast of the Lord, who brought them out of Egypt; that it is called serving the right God out of great devotion and beautiful good opinion, with their sacrifice (which is indicated by the calf), so that they also have a fine orderly worship.
804 L. s, 188-iso. On the ninth Sunday after Trinity. W. xn, ios8-i "6i. 805
16 From this it follows that the text 2 Mos. 32, 6. says and here St. Paul indicates: When they had done their sacrifices and worship, "after that the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play," that is, they became merry and of good cheer, knowing for certain that they had done such worship as if they had done well; they went on and did what they pleased, as if God could not be angry with them, and so were quite free, uncaptured and unpunished by God's word, wanting to live according to His pleasure, as the Scriptures there v. 25. says that Aaron had set the people free etc.
17 Thus idolatry always acts in such a way that it does not want to be sin, but misses to deserve grace, boasts of the freedom of the people of God, and yet goes without repentance and safely, even in public vices; thinks that everything should be bad and forgiven by God for the sake of its holy worship; as up to now and still of the Pabst's clergy their shameful fornication, fornication and all known vices with the name of the church and the holy worship, the mass etc. and the holy service, the mass, yes, strengthens and defends them.
18. fourth: "Let us not," he says, "tempt Christ, as some of them have tempted him. etc. This is also a grave and terrible sin, as the terrible punishment well shows, of which Numbers 21:5, 6. says: "After they had wandered forty years in the wilderness, and God had helped them through it and had given them victory over their enemies, when they were now hard by the Promised Land again, the people became discontented and impatient on the way, when they were to go through the land of the Edomites, whom they would not let go through their land, and they began to speak against God and Moses, because he had led them out etc.And God sent fiery serpents among them, by which they were bitten, and a great multitude of the people were slain. This speaking against God he here calls "tempting" him, that they set themselves with unbelief against God's word, and blaspheme, as if God and his word were nothing, because he does not do it with them as they would have it; for this actually means tempting God, that one not only does not believe his word, but rebels against it, and will not
Let what he says be right, but master it by our wisdom and discretion; and so defy him on ourselves, as St. Paul also says in 1 Cor. 10:22: "Shall we defy the Lord? are we stronger than he?" etc.
19 So the Jewish people also did as God had promised and promised them: that he would be their God, be with them and help them in all their needs, and that they alone should believe and trust in him; and that they would prove this daily by miracles and miraculous acts of mercy: yet it did not help; but as soon as it did not go as they wanted and thought, or there was a lack or need, they began to cry out against Moses, that is, against the ministry and word that he had received from God: Why did you bring us out of Egypt? As if to say, "If it were God's word and command that you pretended, and He wanted to do such a great thing to us, He would not let us suffer such hardship. In sum, the way God did it with them did not have to be His word or work, and He should do it through Moses, as they suggested, or He would not have to be God. So they did soon in the beginning, when they came out of Egypt into the wilderness, and now saw how they had miraculously received God in the Red Sea and had been delivered from the enemies, and had also received bread and meat: they began to murmur and quarrel with Moses and Aaron, because he had led them into the wilderness, when they found no water, and because of this they went out and said, "Is the Lord among us, or not?" Ex. 17, 7. Behold, this is called (as the text there also calls it) "tempting" God, that is, that they have God's word and miracles so abundantly, and yet will not believe that He does it as they will etc.
(20) They continued to contradict and tempt God as long as they were in the wilderness, until the fortieth year, as God Himself said to Moses, Numbers 14:22: "This people has tempted Me ten times, and has not obeyed My voice. That was soon after they left in the next year; but now, whether they should have been humbled for so long a time, and had seen how they (if they were still alive) had been wonderfully redeemed for forty years, so that they did not perish together with the others, they were not tempted.
and now brought to the land; only then do they begin again to contradict with great impatience and bitterness: Why hast thou brought us out of Egypt, that we should die in the wilderness etc. But they would gladly say, "You have told us many things, that you have God's command, and you have promised us great things; how well are you leading us into the land, that we must go on wandering and all die in the wilderness? etc.
21) It is to be noted that St. Paul interprets this temptation of God in this way, and says: "They tempted Christ", in order to show how the same person, the eternal Son of God, was from the beginning with his church and in the people, who had received the promise from him from the first fathers, that he should become man, and thus just as we have believed; as St. Paul also said above, v. 4, in the beginning that Christ was the rock, who followed along. Paul also said above, v. 4, in the beginning, that Christ was the rock who followed etc. Therefore he herewith gives to understand that this trying and contradicting actually went against the faith of Christ or the promise of him, that Moses had to hear against it from them: Yea, thou dost indeed boast of a Messiah, who is God Himself, who is with us, and is before us, who revealed Himself to the fathers, and promised us that He should be born of our blood and flesh, to redeem us, and to help all the world, and therefore to adopt us as a people, and to bring us into the land: yea, where is He? How finely he helps us! Should this be our God, who lets us wander in the desert for forty years, until we all die and perish?
22) That such was the sin and blasphemy is also indicated by the fact that Moses, in the terrible punishment afterward, when they were bitten by the fiery serpents and died, by God's command set up a bronze serpent as a sign, so that whoever looked at it would be healed etc.In order that he might present Christ to them in the signs, who was to become a sacrifice to help those who had sinned, so that they might know that just as they had earned God's wrath and punishment by blaspheming against Him, so there was no other counsel to save them from such wrath and condemnation.
niß again, because they began to believe in Christ again etc.
The last part is almost the same as the previous one, when it is called: "Murmuring against God", that is, coming out publicly from unbelief and doubting God's word, recoiling against God with anger and impatience, and not wanting to obey where it is not according to the will of flesh and blood, and soon saying: God is hostile to them, does not want to help them. etc.As they, the Jews, often and almost without ceasing did, so that Moses could not satisfy them, and yet they were always punished and beaten for it, so that they should have beenware of it, nor did they do it more and more.
24 With this story St. Paul wants to warn all who boast of being Christians and God's people. Paul wants to warn all who boast of being Christians and God's people (as we will hear further), and this example is well imagined, so that everyone thinks and remains in the fear of God and isware of security; For God, with such terrible punishments, shows all the world terribly enough that he does not want to joke or think too well (as the world and the flesh may think), that one wants to despise or master his word under his name and glory, and out of his own presumption and trust in his own wisdom, holiness and divine gifts, follow his own good judgment, cleverness and lusts, and falsely comfort himself with such thoughts: God is not angry with you, you who are such an excellent man, so highly exalted and honored by Him above others. etc.
25. For here you have heard that he did not spare all the people who came out of Egypt and so many excellent great men who were among them, not even the family of Christ in the tribe of Judah, but also punished the great rulers and nobles, in priestly and other families, most horribly in front of all the people, with whom he had done so many great and excellent miracles: Not only redeemed them bodily by Moses out of Egypt, but also baptized and sanctified them spiritually by his ministry, and gave them Christ, who talked with them, and led them, defended and helped them, and played with them as kindly as a father with his children, and yet afterwards so horribly rumbled and killed among them, because they wanted to abuse grace.
They become proud and insist that they are God's people, Abraham's children, circumcised, and Christ alone is promised to them, therefore they cannot lack God's kingdom and grace.
(26) Now that such a terrible, horrible judgment and punishment has been passed upon the great and excellent people: "Dear, let us not be proud and decayed," says St. Paul. Paul, we who are not yet equal to them by a long shot, and may not now, at this last time, be equal to the world in such excellent gifts and great glorious miracles; but let us be mirrored by them, and let their example be a joke, that we may think, when we boast of Christ, of the forgiveness of sins, and of God's grace, that we also look on, and stay with it, and not lose again what we have received, and so fall into God's punishment and condemnation; For we have not yet passed through nor passed over to where we are to go, but are still on the way under, since we must always continue in the battle we have begun against all the journeys and hindrances that push against us. Redemption is well begun, but not yet completed in us. You have come out of Egypt, passed through the Red Sea (that is, led out of the devil's power through the baptism of Christ into God's kingdom), but you have not yet passed through the wilderness into the Promised Land, and you may still be defeated and lack salvation.
(27) God is certainly not lacking, for he has already given us his word, sacraments, grace, spirit, and gifts, which we need, and will help us again; only that we do not fall away from them, and cast grace away from us, through unbelief, ingratitude, disobedience, and contempt of his word (2c). For it is not said, as Christ says, Matt. 24:13, "He that begineth, but he that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved." Now this is what the apostle continues to say here:
All these things happened to them for an example: but it is written for a warning to us, upon whom the end of the world is come.
28. when you read or hear these histories and examples of how the Jewish people in the
If you think that the punishment of the wilderness is so horrible, do not think that it is a dead history that no one is concerned about anymore. For it is not written to those who are now dead, but to us who are alive, that we should take offense at it, and regard it as an eternal example presented to the whole church; for it is just the same work and rule of God in His church from the beginning of the world to the end, just as it is always the same God's people or church. And this history is not only a picture of the church at all times, but also a large part of it (and almost the most important), which shows us how the church always stands and walks on earth, namely, that it is always wonderfully governed and preserved by God without human power and help, through various temptations, troubles, sufferings and weaknesses; and does not remain in a steady and orderly regiment, according to human wisdom, since it all depends on each other and goes after it for and for; but is tossed and scattered from time to time, weakened also among themselves by various disruptions and punishments, and the great and noblest part, which carries the name and prestige of the church, falls away, and causes such misfortune that God cannot spare, he must let such severe and terrible punishment go by rottenness or other desolation, that the smallest little group remains righteous.
(29) If these things have happened to the people whom God first chose as a nation, and if such great public miracles have been done among them, which have not been done since, what better shall we or may we expect? Yes, how much greater is our journey and cause, that we should take care and be on our guard, lest the same thing happen to us, and much worse. This is also reminded and shown to us by St. Paul himself, when he says: "It is written as a warning to us, that the end of the world is coming etc. That is, we are now in the last and most evil time, which brings with it much greater and more grievous journeys, and much more dreadful punishment; for it was foretold in the Scriptures, and prophesied by Christ and the apostles, that there would come grievous and hard times, in which there would be great apostasy from the right doctrine, and terrible and terrible punishment.
The Church would be devastated; as, alas, both are all too horribly fulfilled by so much heresy and subsequently by Mahomet and the Papacy.
30. This last time has already begun with the apostles; for after Christ's ascension we Christians are the last piece of the world, and the rest of the little group that belongs to heaven; and we Gentiles, in the midst of the great innumerable multitude of the godless wicked kind in the wide world, must also have it much worse than the Jews, who all lived under Mosiah's law and God's word, in fine outward discipline and one kind of orderly rule; and yet just at the last time, shortly before the end, when the gospel was to resound everywhere, the great multitude most of all boast of being Christians; when experience shows how highly and excellently the pope has praised his church, that apart from him there were no Christians on earth, and all the world would be obliged to hold him as the supreme head of the church on earth etc.
(31) And it is true that under him all have been baptized into Christ, called to God's kingdom, have the sacrament and the name of Christ; but what do they do? Without suppressing Christ's word and kingdom under such a glorious name and fame, and having devastated the church for more than a thousand years, and persecuting the church most horribly until this very hour; on the other hand, the great countries and kingdoms, which also wanted to be Christians and yet did not respect the faith and the right doctrine, were punished and devastated by the Turk, and in return were filled with the shameful stink and filth of Mahomet.
(32) It is indeed a great and terrible punishment, and it seems that no more terrible plague is to be feared than that which fell upon the Jewish people in the wilderness; but nevertheless it was still a physical punishment. And although so many among them fell into eternal damnation through their unbelief and contempt of God, nevertheless God's word remained with the others through Moses and the true church. But this last punishment of the last times is much more dreadful, since God lets the pure doctrine be taken away and sends powerful effects of error, so that believers may be saved.
We will have to pay for the lie and will be eternally lost if we do not accept the love of the truth, 2 Thess. 2, 10. Thus, unfortunately, we have been paid for and punished too mercifully so far, and if we are not otherwise grateful for the grace God has given us through His Word, as the last spark of light that now wants to go out, we will have to pay for it much more heavily.
Therefore, whoever stands there may well see that he does not fall.
(33) This is the conclusion and summary of how these examples are to teach us, and a sermon against the safe spirits, as there were among the Corinthians who boasted of the high apostles' disciples, who also had received the Holy Spirit, who made sects, and all that they did should be right. To such he says: No, dear brother, do not be too sure and certain that you are standing; for when you think you are standing most firmly, you are probably closest to falling, and may fall so that you cannot get up again. Those in the wilderness were such good men, and began very well, and did great things, and yet fell so horribly, and perished. Therefore, beware and do not let the devil deceive you; beware, you have the flesh at your throat, which without it fights against the spirit, and the devil as your enemy, and you are in all kinds of trouble and distress yourself, so that you do not lose again what you have received; for you have only begun and have not yet reached the end, therefore you must take care here, fight and be brave, so that you, as St. Paul says, fight for your own salvation with fear and trembling, Phil. 2:12.
None but human temptation has yet entered you; but God is faithful, who will not let you be tempted beyond your ability.
(34) Nevertheless, I must not frighten you too much, he will say, but also comfort you a little; for you have not yet had a higher temptation than from flesh and blood, and among yourselves, where one despises another and does wrong, and fornication and other troubles are involved, that is not good and fine; therefore you must see to it that you do not become a slave to one another.
you mend your ways, lest it become worse with you; for if the devil himself should attack you rightly with false doctrine and spirituality, and high spiritual temptations, as, with God's temptation, as those and also the saints much are tempted (as St. Peter and others); then you would not be able to stand, for you
are still too weak and new untried Christians. Therefore give thanks to God, who still makes it so with you that you can bear it, and keeps over you that which is good for you, and therefore admonishes you by His word, that you take care, so that you do not fall further into temptation.