The following exegetical study is Part 1 of 3 in a series that examines the contextual meaning and application of 1 Corinthians 10:13, a beloved verse for those experiencing temptation. Part 1 focuses on the phrase, “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man.” Part 2 focuses on the phrase, “God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability.” Part 3 focuses on the phrase, “but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it.”

1 CORINTHIANS 10

13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it.

1 Corinthians 10:13 Summary Statement

Paul told the Corinthians that God is faithful to deliver them from every trial and temptation they encounter.

Outline

I) The Corinthians Face Temptations that are Common to the Temptations Others Experience  (v.13)

A. Paul in the Race

B.  Israel in the Wilderness

a. Idolatry

b. Sexual Immorality

c. Putting Christ to the Test

d. Grumbling

i) Korah’s complaint

ii) Korah’s discontentment

iii) The fallout of Korah’s rebellion

II) God is faithful (v. 13)

A. Paul states that God is faithful because he does not allow people to be tempted beyond their ability (v. 13)

B.  Paul states that God is faithful because he provides escape and endurance for every temptation (v. 13)

God is Faithful

The cosmopolitan city of Corinth teems with diversity. A pagan goddess dominates the landscape from a pinnacle of prostitution. Sailors and tradesmen from beyond the Mediterranean function as sojourners who contribute to Corinthian commerce and immorality. Athletes from across the region attract thousands of spectators as they showcase their physical prowess at the annual Isthmian games. This combination of prostitutes and pilgrims, priestesses and peddlers, casts a shadow of impious impropriety amongst the agents of immorality within the city of Corinth. Into such darkness shines the light of the gospel from the ministry of the Apostle Paul, who preaches “nothing except . . . Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2). Although Paul’s luminous message results in the conversion of both Jews and Gentiles, it does not entirely quench unrighteous living among the Corinthians. This predicament, conversion within a sinful culture, requires many new Christians to overcome the vast temptations present within a community of predominantly pagan people. Such circumstances compel Paul to inform the believers in Corinth that God provides endurance and escape amid temptation, a truth whose sustenance rests in the immutable faithfulness of a Sovereign God.

Context: About the Author

In A.D. 51, Paul visited Corinth on his second missionary journey. On this trip, he ministered in Phillipi, Thessalonica, Berea, and Athens. When Paul departed Athens, he traveled approximately 45 miles west to the Greek city of Corinth. “On reaching Corinth Paul found it necessary to resort to his old trade of tent-making in order to earn a livelihood.”[1] He met fellow tent-makers, Aquila and Priscilla, and stayed with them while in Corinth (Acts 18:2-3). Per his usual strategy, Paul began his Corinthian ministry in the synagogue, where he reasoned “every Sabbath and tried to persuade both Jews and Greeks” (Acts 18:4). While in the synagogue, Paul testified that Jesus was the Christ; however, he was “opposed and reviled,” so he focused his ministry on the Gentiles in Corinth (Acts 18:6). Once Paul left his synagogue-based efforts, he did not traverse too far. He went to the home of Titus Justus, a worshiper of God whose house was “next door to the synagogue” (Acts 18:7). Despite opposition, Paul’s ministry to both Jews and Gentiles in Corinth was fruitful. “Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord together with his entire household. And many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized” (Acts 18:8; cf. 1 Cor. 16:15). Thus, in eighteen months of bi-vocational ministry, the Apostle Paul, along with Aquila, Priscilla, Timothy, and Silas, planted the Christian church in Corinth.[2] Eventually, Apollos of Alexandria would travel to Corinth to build on the foundation laid by Paul and his fellow disciples (Acts 18:24 - 19:1).

Paul continued his ministry in a third missionary journey when he spent three years in Asia at Ephesus. While there, Paul received a report from “Chloe’s people” that there was “quarreling” among the brethren in Corinth (1 Cor. 1:11). Divisiveness arose when some brothers claimed to follow Paul, some Apollos, some Peter, and some Christ (1 Cor. 1:12). In response to such a dispute, Paul wrote to the church a letter known today as 1 Corinthians. He did not limit his epistle’s scope to just the issue of division but addressed a wide array of trials among the Corinthians, such as sexual immorality (ch. 5), civil lawsuits among believers (ch. 6), questions on marriage (ch. 7), food offerings (ch. 8), the legitimacy of his apostleship (ch. 9), idolatry (ch. 10), head coverings (ch. 11), spiritual gifts (chs. 12-14), corporate worship (chs. 11-14), and the resurrection of Christ and the body (ch. 15). Like a father’s instruction to a child, Paul wrote in tones of both truth and love for the church’s edification so that the glory of God might be displayed among the diverse group of Corinthian Christians.   

Context: Audience and Occasion

Corinth, located on the isthmus[3] between the Gulf of Corinth and the Saronic Gulf (suh-ron-ik),  was an ideal city for Paul’s gospel proclamation due to the city’s tremendous number of citizens and sojourners. Among those enticed to visit Corinth were tradesmen, who utilized the city as an intersection to exchange goods from north-south and east-west directions; picture Corinth as the intersection between two major interstate highways. Many sailors transported their goods across the isthmus to avoid the dangerous, rocky waters to the south of Greece. Another primary cause for population density in Corinth was the Isthmian Games, a gladiatorial event that attracted the best athletes and thousands of spectators.[4] At one point, the games left Corinth for the nearby city of Sicyon but most likely returned to their original home by the time Paul wrote his epistles to the church.[5] A third Corinthian attraction coincided with the illustrious commerce and athletic ceremony: one-thousand prostitutes.

“Just outside the city stood the hill of the Acrocorinth, which at one time had a famous temple to Aphrodite where a thousand cult prostitutes plied their trade.”[6] The temple rested on the acropolis, which rose about 2,000 feet tall. Despite the inherent protection the elevation provided for them, the priestesses did not always remain within the temple to Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love. The women often “came down into the city in the evening to offer their services to male citizens and foreign visitors.”[7] Inevitably, the tradesman, merchants, sailors, and athletes would seek the services these “religious” prostitutes offered. This pagan scene, teemed with immorality, was the fray Paul entered during his second mission trip. While the location of Corinth provided him with fertile ground for gospel seeds to be sewn, it also offered a diversity of pagan backgrounds that tempted many people to engage in idol worship and sexual immorality. These two significant issues impacted the church and compelled Paul to write his first epistle to the Corinthians.

The Corinthians Face Temptations that are Common to the Temptations Others Experience

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man (v.13).

The term “temptation” appears twice in 1 Corinthians 10:13 and can mean either trial or temptation. Paul conveyed to the Corinthian audience that nothing exceptional, either trial or temptation, had taken place in their lives.[8] This statement revealed Paul’s level of concern and compassion as he acknowledged the legitimacy of the temptation yet simultaneously removed the allowance of self-pity or excuse for sin. In 1 Corinthians 9:24 - 10:6, Paul provided two examples of people who encountered the same temptations as the Corinthian church. The first example was the Apostle Paul himself (1 Cor. 9:24-27). The second example was the children of Israel in the wilderness (1 Cor. 10:1-6).

Paul in the Race - 1 Corinthians 9:24-27

In 1 Corinthians 9:24-27, Paul likens himself to a runner who disciplines himself for a race (perhaps he writes this with the Isthmian Games in mind). Paul states, “Every athlete exercises self-control in all things . . . I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified” (vv. 25, 27). Paul’s instruction taught believers how to endure temptation: with self-control and discipline. For the believer, self-control is possible through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, who equips and enables Christians to control themselves in trials or temptations, a truth Paul taught the church in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (cf. Galatians 5:16-23; Romans 8:9-11). 

Paul encouraged the Corinthians through a reminder of their motivation for running the race: an imperishable prize (v. 25). In this pursuit, Paul stated that he did not want to be “disqualified” from the race (v. 27). The word “disqualify” means that “which has not stood the test.”[9] With Paul’s description of himself running for an imperishable prize fresh in the minds of his audience, he used the conjunction “for” in 1 Corinthians 10:1 as an indication that he is about to build off of his previous statements in 1 Corinthians 9. Paul wanted his audience to connect the context of 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 with the content immediately following in 1 Corinthians 10.  Removal of the chapter and verse numbers helps display and amplify the continuity of Paul’s thoughts between chapters nine and ten:

Lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did (1 Cor. 9:27-1 Cor. 10:4, emphasis added).

Paul used the metaphor of a runner who sought to obtain a prize to describe life’s walk with Christ to pursue glory in heaven. He projected himself to the Corinthians as a positive example of how to run the race with self-control and discipline that will help them withstand life’s tests. Next, he turned to Israel in the wilderness as a negative example and displayed how to disqualify oneself by not running the race with self-control or discipline.

Israel in the Wilderness - 1 Corinthians 10:1-11

Paul used Israel in the wilderness as an example of people who, much like the Corinthians, had “tremendous advantages and privilege but disqualified themselves by their indulgent, immoral, idolatrous behavior.”[10] The children of Israel did not run the race with self-control and discipline and found themselves unable to withstand temptation and trial throughout their wilderness journey. Paul showed the reader the type of temptations and trials he had in mind in 1 Corinthians 10:7-10 by listing four different examples of times when the children of Israel did not withstand the test before them.

Idolatry - 1 Corinthians 10:7, “Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, ‘The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.’”

Idolatry impregnated the isthmus because of the influential Greek and Roman population in the area. The temptation existed for Corinthian Christians to participate in pagan feasts and practices, which amounted to idolatry. The prostitution of Aphrodite’s priestesses was not the only pagan deity vying for the worship of the Corinthians. The Temple of Asclepius, the Greek god of healing, provided a forum for pagans to practice idolatry when they sought physical remedy. The temple rested about 450 meters north of the center of Corinth. “The excavations conducted at this temple site reveal that patients who came to the Asclepium for treatment often left votive offerings to the god as an expression of their gratitude for the healing.”[11] The offerings included terra cotta replicas of various body parts representing the part of an individual’s anatomy that required healing, including arms, legs, heads, eyes, ears, and “unpresentable parts” (1 Cor. 12:23).  It is possible that Paul intentionally utilized this imagery from the Asclepium when he wrote to the church about the “body of Christ” in 1 Corinthians 12:12, saying, “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.”[12]

In 1 Corinthians 10:7, Paul quoted Exodus 32:6, when the children of Israel committed idolatry by forging a calf from gold provided by Israelite men via their wives and children, presumably obtained from the Egyptians prior to the exodus (Ex. 12:25-36).[13] By doing this, he compared the modern-day Greco-Roman pagan practices in Corinth to the ancient Egyptian pagan practices at Mt. Sinai; he juxtaposed the likes of Asclepius to the Golden Calf. Paul masterfully displayed a centuries-long temptation to commit idolatry that spanned from Egypt to Corinth in a manner that laid the foundation for Paul to comment several verses later that the temptation to commit idolatry is “common to man” (1 Cor. 10:13).

Sexual Immorality - 1 Corinthians 10:8, “We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day.”

In 1 Corinthians 10:8, Paul referenced the sexual immorality of the Israelites in Numbers 25: 

While at Shittim, the Israelite men began to indulge in sexual immorality with Moabite women. These women brought the men to their idolatrous sacrifices, and Israel soon bowed before them. Israel sacrificed to Baal of Peor, a fertility god who was venerated by means of the most sensuous, orgiastic practices known to humanity. Moab’s local Baal was Chemosh to whom they offered their worship in all kinds of profligate expressions.[14]

This scene sounds quite similar to the sexual immorality between Aphrodite’s prostitutes and the citizens and sojourners of Corinth. Paul recognized this influence earlier in his letter, writing, “But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband” (1 Cor. 7:2, emphasis added). When Paul referenced Numbers 25 in 1 Corinthians 10:8, he compared the modern-day prostitution in Corinth to the ancient immorality in Moab; he likened Aphrodite to Baal. Paul masterfully displayed a centuries-long temptation to commit sexual sin that spanned from Moab to Corinth in a manner that laid the foundation for Paul to comment several verses later that the temptation to commit sexual immorality is “common to man” (1 Cor. 10:13).

Idolatry and sexual immorality commingle throughout scripture. Often, not always, when one is present, so is the other. Paul made definitive statements in 1 Corinthians 10:19-20 about the demonic nature of idols. He said, “What do I imply then? That food offered to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons.” These verses teach that an idol is nothing more than a mask for a demon. Whether it is food or sex offered to an idol, it is ultimately participation with demons. The insightful teaching about demons strengthens Paul’s command in 1 Corinthians 10:14 that says, “Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.”

Putting Christ to the Test - 1 Corinthians 10:9, “We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents.”

Paul referenced another passage from Numbers, this time in chapter 21,

From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. And they spoke against God and against Moses, ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.’ Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to Moses and said, ‘We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us (Num. 21:4-7, emphasis added).

Numbers 21 teaches the impatience of the Israelites. A lack of patience proceeds from a heart of pride (Ecclesiastes 7:8). In their pride, the Israelites spoke against God’s provision for themselves. The people scolded Moses because they thought their preferences were more superior than God’s provision. This truth was evident in at least two areas: Israel’s discontentment with their physical location and physical diet (Num. 21:5).

Numbers 21 is not the only account of Israel’s complaints regarding their physical circumstances. Numbers 11 and Exodus 17 display scenes of ravenous discontentment. Psalm 78 discusses these numerous episodes, providing insight into the condition of the Israelites’ hearts when they put God to the test. A close look at this Psalm answers the question, “What does it mean to put God to the test?”

Psalm 78:15-16 recalls a story from Exodus 17:1-7, saying, “He split rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep. He made streams come out of the rock and caused waters to flow down like rivers.” The people were thirsty, complained to Moses, and God gave them water. In Exodus 17:7, Moses recorded that the people of Israel tested God by doubting his presence among them. They asked, “Is the Lord among us or not?” Although God miraculously provided their hydration needs, they still managed to find another way to complain, only this time their grumbling was about their food. The following two verses in Psalm 78 display Israel’s malcontent during a separate event found in Numbers 11:1-35, saying, “Yet they sinned still more against him, rebelling against the Most High in the desert. They tested God in their heart by demanding  the food they craved” (vv. 17-18).

These four verses (Psalm 78:15-18) begin to unveil for the reader what it means to put Christ to the test. Commenting on this psalm, Dr. W. Robert Godfrey says, “In their complaints, they doubted the presence and concern of God. This doubt seems to be at the heart of testing God.”[15] Putting Christ to the test involves heart-deep distrust and doubt that God is who he says he is and will do what he says he will do. Simply put, putting Christ to the test is the “doubt, unbelief, and failure to trust God’s promises.”[16] 

A brief stop in one more Psalm will further illuminate what it means to put Christ to the test. Psalm 95:7-10 states, 

For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah[17] in the wilderness, when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work . . . they are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.

Psalm 78:18 and Psalm 95:8 display the cause of putting God to the test: a hard heart that does not know the ways of God. God’s promise to such people is stark: “They shall not enter my rest” (Ps. 95:11).

Paul knew the Law and the Prophets well. For this reason, he understood that the stakes were eternally high for Corinth, which compelled him to write that “we must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents” (1 Cor. 10:9).  Paul wanted the church in Corinth to learn from those who put Christ to the test in Exodus 17, Numbers 11, Numbers 21, Psalm 78, and Psalm 95 so that such testing and quarreling would not be repeated among them. He wanted them to be well acquainted with the reality that the punishment for the hard-hearted people in the wilderness was death! Paul masterfully displayed a centuries-long temptation to put God to the test that spanned from Meribah to Corinth in a manner that laid the foundation for Paul to comment several verses later that the temptation to “put Christ to the test” is “common to man” (1 Cor. 10:13).

Grumbling - 1 Corinthians 10:10, “nor grumble as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer.”

The word “grumble” in Greek is the verb gogguzo. Paul used this term in 1 Corinthians 10:10 to mean “discontentedly complain.” Among the many times that Israel grumbled against the Lord, in verse 10, Paul most likely referred to one particular occasion from Numbers 16 known as “Korah’s Rebellion.” In this intense chapter, the Levite Korah and two Reubenites, Dathan and Abiram, rose against Moses and Aaron. The following two paragraphs display their grumbling by showing both their complaint and the nature of their discontentment (i.e., gogguzo).

Korah’s complaint

Korah’s assembly consisted of Dathan, Abiram, and 250 other men who charged Moses, saying, “You have gone too far! For all in the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?” Korah complained that Moses and Aaron obtained their positions via self-appointment. He thought he was entitled to the priesthood just as much as the next Israelite, so his complaint was that Moses and Aaron exalted themselves above the entire assembly.

Korah’s discontentment

In Moses’ rebuttal to the accusations against himself and Aaron, he revealed the nature of Korah’s discontentment, saying, 

Hear now, you sons of Levi: is it too small a thing for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the congregation of Israel, to bring you near to himself, to do his service in the tabernacle of the Lord and to stand before the congregation to minister to them, and that he has brought you near to him, and all your brothers the sons of Levi with you? And would you seek the priesthood also? (Numbers 16:8-10).

Korah, a Levite, was not content to work in the tabernacle but desired a more prominent position within the priesthood, one that belonged to the sons of Aaron. Although Korah aimed his fury at the person who held the job he wanted, his grumbles were not ultimately at Aaron but instead against God. Korah failed to see that God appointed Moses, Aaron, and the priesthood, which led Moses to respond, saying, “It is against the Lord that you and all your company have gathered together. What is Aaron that you grumble against him” (Numbers 16:11)?

The fallout of Korah’s rebellion

In a mighty display of his power and wrath, the Lord judged Korah, Dathan, Abiram, and the 250 others. Numbers 16:32-33 states, “And the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households and all the people who belonged to Korah and all their goods. So they and all that belonged to them went down alive to Sheol, and the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly.” The reader may think that this type of an act would deter grumbling, but such a thought would be wrong. “On the next day all the congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and against Aaron, saying, ‘You have killed the people of the Lord’” (Numbers 16:41). The second round of grumbling led to the spread of a plague and the eventual death of 14,700 Israelites (v. 49). This event is what Paul referred to when he wrote, “nor grumble as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer” (1 Corinthians 10:10). 

Korah’s rebellion was not against Moses and Aaron but God’s provision and decreed order among his covenant people, specifically the priesthood. When Paul reflected on this event, he meant to send this message to the Corinthians: don’t discontentedly complain against God. Paul’s delivery of the message masterfully displayed a centuries-long temptation to grumble against God that spanned from Korah to Corinth in a manner that laid the foundation for Paul to comment several verses later that the temptation to commit idolatry is “common to man” (1 Cor. 10:13).[18]

Application for Today

In a few short verses, Paul takes his Corinthian audience on a tour through Israel’s wilderness struggles. The Apostle expresses his intent for sharing his wilderness reflections by utilizing a technique known as “bracketing” or “framing,” which mostly appears in biblical narratives and the Psalms (e.g., Joshua 3-6, Psalm 8, etc.). This literary technique consists of placing “a similar word, statement, event, or theme at the beginning and at the end”[19] of a thought, passage, or story. Although verses 6 and 11 are not necessarily the beginning or end of Paul’s entire thought, the two verses undoubtedly correspond with one another in both their content and pedagogical purpose; recall that verses 7-10 contain the sins of Israel in the wilderness: idolatry (v. 7), sexual immorality (v. 8), testing of the Lord (v. 9), and grumbling (v. 10). Paul “frames” verses 7-10 with verses 6 and 11, as follows, “Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did (v. 6) . . . Now these things happened to them as an example, but they are written down for our instruction (v. 11).” Therefore, Christians today must look to the sinful people of Scripture as negative examples who teach believers what not to do in their pursuit of an imperishable prize (1 Corinthians 9:25).

 

Since 1 Corinthians 10:13 uses the phrase “no temptation,” it would be improper to limit Paul’s teaching in this verse to just the four temptations of idolatry, sexual immorality, putting Christ to the test, and grumbling. Conversely, since Paul discusses these four examples of Israelite temptation immediately before he encourages and admonishes the Corinthians regarding personal temptations in verse 13, it is wise to not disconnect the word “temptation” in 1 Corinthians 10:13 from Israel’s sin in the wilderness. Paul desires Corinthians under temptation to “seriously consider what God did to the sinning Israelites”[20] to prevent them from indulging in sin, disqualifying themselves, and experiencing a fate like Korah’s. Instead, Paul teaches believers who stare temptation in the face to put on self-control and discipline, which only come through the power of the Holy Spirit.

***

In the sequel of this two-part series, the examination of 1 Corinthians 10:13 will focus on the phrase, “God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it.”

Notes:

[1] H.I. Hester, The Heart of the New TestamentI (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishers, 1950), 285.

[2] Paul also furthered his ministry to a previous church plant while in Corinth when he wrote his very first epistles, titled 1 & 2 Thessalonians.

[3] An isthmus is a narrow strip of land that is bordered on both sides by water.

[4] Leon Morris, 1 Corinthians: An Introduction and Commentary (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1985), 19-20.

[5] Mika Kajava, "When Did the Isthmian Games Return to the Isthmus? (Rereading "Corinth" 8.3.153)." Classical Philology 97, no. 2 (2002): 168-78. Accessed January 23, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1215461.

[6] John D. Currid and David P. Barrett, Crossway ESV Bible Atlas (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2010), 245.

[7] John MacArthur, The MacArthur Bible Commentary (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2005), 1562.

[8] Leon Morris, 1 Corinthians, 142.

[9] Morris, 1 Corinthians, 138.

[10] Elmer L. Towns and Ben Gutierrez, eds., The Essence of the New Testament: A Survey (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing, 2012), 151.

[11] Andrew E. Hill. "The Temple of Asclepius: An Alternative Source for Paul's Body Theology?" Journal of Biblical Literature 99, no. 3 (1980): 437-39. Accessed January 30, 2021. doi:10.2307/3265377.

[12] Craig A. Evans, Dictionary of New Testament Background: A Compendium of Contemporary Biblical Scholarship (Westmont: InterVarsity Press, 2010), 759. Accessed January 29, 2021.

[13] Glen S. Martin, ed. Max Anders, Holman Old Testament Commentary: Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers (Nashiville, TN: B&H Publishing, 2002), 138.

[14] Martin, Holman Old Testament Commentary, 344.

[15] W. Robert Godrey, Learning to Love the Psalms (Sanford, FL: Reformation Trust Publishing, 2017), 138.

[16] Godfrey, Learning to Love the Psalms, 138.

[17] Meribah and Massah are names given to the location where Moses and the Israelites were when they put God to the test in the wilderness. These words translate to mean quarreling and testing respectively (see Exodus 17:7).

[18] For more background information and specific application regarding Korah’s rebellion, see https://biblicalcounseling.com/resource-library/articles/lessons-from-the-life-of-korah/.

[19] J. Scott Duvall and J. Daniel Hays, Grasping God’s Word: A Hands-On Approach to Reading, Interpreting, and Applying the Bible, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2012), 108.

[20] Leon Morris, 1 Corinthians, 140.