Have you ever felt like the thing that you were going through was just too much? The feeling of being thrown on the waves of life has come over many people and it is something that many will have to deal with in the future. For some these moments can cause them to question if they should continue to have faith in God if He allows them to go through such a troublesome time. They feel as if God has put too much on their plate and that it is unfair that they must go through this while other people away from God seem to have it so much easier. 1 Corinthians 10:1-22 would be a good scripture to remember when going through a time like this.
In 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 Paul is explaining to the church in Corinth how their fathers went through the same temptations that they go through even though there are some differences. Paul connects temptation to the people in the wilderness back in the book of Exodus. In verse 6 Paul explains why he is telling them about the Exodus “Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted.” The people during the Exodus got so tired of waiting to get into the promised land that they wanted to abandon God and go back to Egypt. They were at the foot of the mountain about to receive the Ten Commandments, but they thought that Moses had died and asked Aaron to make them an idol. Paul goes through all the rebellions the people in verses 7-10 and points out that they all met their end because of these rebellions against God and the people of God. Verses 12 and 13 make it clear why Paul is telling them about the rebellions “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”
In this section, Paul is making it clear that God watches over his people and will show them the way out of their problems. It can be easy to abandon God in moments when our plate seems too full. It is our responsibility to trust in God and to look for that way out that he is providing. We need to remember that God will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we can stand. It can be hard, but God knows what we can overcome, but we may not realize that we can handle that much.
Paul tells the people of Corinth what they need to do with this information in verses 14-22. He tells them to flee idolatry and to remember the things that connect them to the Lord. He is commanding the people to stop going to the idolatrous feasts and adding God to their gods. Paul makes it clear that the Lord is jealous and wants to be the only thing that we worship in our lives. He also connects all Christians through the partaking of the Lord’s Supper.
For us, we do not have idolatry in the same way that they did in the first century, but our idolatry is much more about the things that we choose to put over God instead of doing his will. It can be easy to fall into idolatry when our plate is full. We may think that we need to have this feeling of escaping our problems, or we may think that we need to have something to replace our feelings. We should resist these things because God will not tempt us beyond what we can handle. We can handle it, but we need to rely on God to see us through.
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