Week 44 1 Corinthians
In August-September I was tracking how many times the OT was quoted or referred to in the gospels. There were quite a few. But I quit counting after John since it was pretty labour-intensive. So I admit that I’m guessing when I say that the OT is still being used quite a bit in the post-gospel NT (but I think it’s a good guess, better than a how-many-jelly-beans-in-the-jar guess).
Anyway a good example of the OT sneaking up on me is chapter ten. Paul talks about the Red Sea crossing, the pillar of cloud, manna, water from the rock, the gold calf, the bronze serpent, the Balaam story, and the complaint episodes.
If I had decided on January 1 to opt-out of the OT then not much of this paragraph makes sense to me.
Fortunately though it doesn’t really matter a whole lot since Paul is using OT-Israel here for illustration purposes only: all these events happened to them as examples for us. They were written down to warn us.
It turns out that Paul’s Big Point – which I can understand even if I bypassed the OT – is: if you think you are standing strong, be careful, for you, too, may fall into the same sin.
So I’m relieved that OT-Knowledge isn’t essential (although thinking about Paul’s Big Point I realize that I don’t feel as relieved as I’d like).
Note: quotes from I Corinthians 10:11-12 (NLT).