Reformed Doctrine Daily Devotions

Today’s devotion comes from 1 Corinthians 10:6-11.

 

“⁶  Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved.

 

⁷  Do not be idolaters, as some of them were;  as it is written, “THE PEOPLE SAT DOWN TO EAT AND DRINK, AND STOOD UP TO PLAY.”

 

⁸  Nor let us act immorally, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day.

 

⁹  Nor let us try the Lord, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents.

 

¹⁰  Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer.

 

¹¹  Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.”  1 Corinthians 10:6-11.

 

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Let us first talk in the vivid language of the Wild, Wild West.  It is one thing to “lay down the law” and give people knowledge of what they should do and what they should not do.  But, it is another thing, and a helpful addition to promote justice, to “hang ’em high” so everyone can see and better remember through such a shocking display what happens to those who violate the law. 

 

In terms of today’s Scripture, the people had the Law including all the commandments.  But, it is another thing, and a helpful addition to promote justice, to punish the violators so publicly and so spectacularly.  It is memorable.  “Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.”  1 Corinthians 10:11. 

 

“For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment;  and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly;  and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter;  and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds), then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority.”  2 Peter 2:4-10.