"Nevertheless, with Israel God was not well-pleased; for they were laid low in the wilderness. Now these things happened as examples for the Church, so that we would not crave evil things as they did. 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.’" 1 Corinthians 10:5-7

The apostasy into which the Israelites repeatedly fell was one of mixture. They generally did not totally reject worshiping the true God, but mixed in pagan customs and rites.

 Sometimes they just added foreign gods to their worship list as in the time of Elijah when they were worshiping Baal. At Mt. Carmel Elijah cried out, -"How much longer will it take you to make up your minds? If the LORD is God, worship him; but if Baal is God, worship him!"Obviously they were serving both.

When God delivered the Israelites out of Egypt and instructed them in His Laws He warned them to not add nor take away from His instructions. He also warned them against learning the ways the pagan nations worshiped their gods and said, -"You shall not behave this way toward Me, for it is an abomination to Me."

In today’s text, the Apostle Paul warns the Church to not make the mistakes Israel made.

 In saying, -"The people sat down to eat and drink, and stood up to play" Paul reminds the Church of Israel’s mistake when they made a golden calf and worshiped it in the wilderness of Sinai. Moses had been on the Mountain with God for more than a month and the people did not know what had happened to him, so they went to Aaron, the High Priest and asked that he would make a graven image to represent God. They gave their silver and gold as offerings for the project.

After Aaron had completed the task he said, -"Behold, this is the God that delivered you out of Egypt." Aaron then proclaimed a Festival to the Lord to be celebrated the next day. Notice that this was not an image to represent a pagan god but the God of Israel.

And notice also that the Festival which Aaron proclaimed was to honor a pagan god but the God of Moses.

Though this was all done to honor the true God, because of the unholy mixture God did not accept it. Meanwhile on the mountain top God said to Moses, -"Go down at once for the people have corrupted themselves. They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them." As a result three thousand men died that day.

According to our text, this was recorded for us in order that we would not fall into the same error. Paul said, -"Do not be idolaters as some of them were." God sees mixture as idolatry and unfaithfulness. God wants His Church to be holy and pure in our worship of Him. The Lord is coming for a pure bride, let us be found faithful.