In this episode of AdBible from the Ezra Project, Alan J. Huth and guest reader Dr. Michael Elliott dive deep into 1 Corinthians 10, uncovering timeless truths about temptation, idolatry, and God’s unshakable faithfulness.
Alan reflects on Paul’s teaching that “the Rock was Christ,” showing that Jesus was present even in the Old Testament and remains our foundation today. From his personal Bible journals, Alan walks through six key warnings—what we must not do as believers—and highlights the great promise of verse 13: “God is faithful… He will provide the way of escape.”
The episode closes with a powerful personal testimony.
00:13:13 Personal Testimony and Importance of Bible Reading
SPEAKER 01 :
Welcome to Add Bible, an audio daily devotion from the Ezra Project. Alan J. Huth shares a Bible passage with comments from over 35 years of his personal Bible reading journals and applies the Word of God to our daily lives.
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Today we are in 1 Corinthians chapter 10. We’ll listen to our guest reader, Dr. Michael Elliott, the first chairman of the board of the Ezra Project, read the 33 verses of 1 Corinthians chapter 10.
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1 Corinthians chapter 10. 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 that 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. 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. We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and 23,000 fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble as some of them did and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction on whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore, let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. 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. Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. I speak as to sensible people. Judge for yourselves what I say. The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body. For we all partake of the one bread. Consider the people of Israel, not as those who eat the sacrifices, participants in the altar. But do I imply then that food offered to idols is anything or that an idol is anything? No. I imply that what pagan sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. And I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he? All things are lawful, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful, but not all things build up. Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor. Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience. For the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof. If one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you are disposed to go, eat whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience. But if someone says to you, this has been offered in a sacrifice, then do not eat it for the sake of the one who informed you and for the sake of the conscience. I do not mean your conscience, but his. For why should my liberty be determined by someone else’s conscience? If I partake with thankfulness. Why am I denounced? Because of that for which I gave thanks. So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God. Just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many that they may be saved.”
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In my personal Bible reading journal of 2015, I read 1 Corinthians 10 and 11 on the same day, and I wrote, Paul certainly thinks Christ was around in the Old Testament, and I was referring to verse 4. So let’s step aside from the journal for a moment and look at that verse. To put verse 4 in context, we have to start at the beginning of the chapter. So let’s read the beginning of chapter 10. For I want you to know, 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. And in my Bible, rock is capitalized. So that’s why in my journal I referred to the fact that Paul thought Christ was around in the Old Testament. Then I went on in my journal to write, don’t put Christ to the test. And I was referring to verse 9. This is a principle I learned early in my Christian life, and it sticks with me even to this day. What I meant by that is that I don’t believe in testing God in my Christianity. Some people say, if you do this, I’ll do that. If God, if you answer this prayer, then I’ll do such and such. I have not done that in my Christian life. I don’t believe in putting God to the test. I believe in trust and walking in faith. and believing God that he’ll take care of me. And next in my journal in 2015, I referred to verse 13, and I wrote it’s one of the first verses I memorized, still so valuable to me today. So let’s look at verse 13. 1 Corinthians 10.13 says, 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. What a promise. What a power verse in Scripture. God will not tempt us beyond our ability to endure. And He provides the way of escape so that we may be able to endure any temptation that comes our way. I have believed that verse all my Christian life. I am so thankful that God will not tempt me beyond what I’m capable of handling. That gives me great comfort. I hope it also comforts you. When you get a chance, look up in your Bible, 1 Corinthians 10.13. Think about this verse, and maybe you’ll also memorize it like I have. Back in 1994, I read 1 Corinthians 10, the first 13 verses on a particular day, and I wrote this. Let us not crave evil things, be idolaters, act immorally, try the Lord, grumble, think we stand. I would like to take a few minutes to look at the nots in this chapter. Verse 5 says that God was not pleased with the people. Verse 6 says, now these things took place as examples for us. So here in this chapter are several things we are not to do. Verse 6 says we are not to desire evil as they did. Verse 7 says we are not to be idolaters as some of them were. Verse 8 says we are not to indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did. Verse 9 says we are not to put Christ to the test, as some of them did. Verse 10 says we are not to grumble, as some of them did. And verse 12 says we are not to think we stand, lest we fall. What happened to them because they did those things? God was not pleased with them, and they were destroyed. Paul writes to us about this and tells us, Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction. So in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, we have been instructed on six things we are not to do. We are not to desire evil. We are not to be idolaters. We are not to indulge in sexual immorality. We are not to put Christ to the test. We are not to grumble. And we are not to think highly of ourselves, lest we fall. Right after that, in verses 14 through 21, Paul makes the case that we cannot follow Christ and keep our feet in the world. In other words, you can’t have it both ways. Referring to idol worship and food sacrifice to idols, Paul says, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. And it’s the same for us today. We can’t have our feet in Christianity and in the world at the same time. It didn’t work for the Corinthians. It won’t work for us. Paul concludes the matter in the last couple verses of this chapter. He says, Just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved. Paul’s message to the Corinthians is the same message to us today. Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Lord, get my feet out of the world and just plant my feet on you and you alone, the rock of Christ as referred to in this chapter. And thank you for this great promise in verse 13, that no temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man, that you are faithful and you will not let me be tempted beyond my ability, but with the temptation you will provide the way of escape. that I may be able to endure the temptation. What a promise. I thank you for that. Thank you for not tempting me beyond what I can endure. And Lord, I hope my response is, whatever I do, I do all to the glory of you so that someone around me might be saved. I bless you. I praise you. I thank you. In the name of Jesus. Amen. Thanks for listening to AdBible today. You might wonder how I became a daily Bible reader. When I was 15 years old, a buddy and me stole his father’s car. We could steal his father’s car because his father was in Vietnam, serving in the war. So he was never home. So we took the car that day. Neither one of us with a driver’s license, and we took off out east of Colorado Springs on a dirt road. We were flying down this dirt road at 60 miles an hour, and he lost control of the car. We began to spin, and we were going down the road, fishtailing, and he spun the wheel of the car 60 miles an hour. The car tumbled, crushed the top, tucked the wheels under, totaled the car. I was on a dirt road. I don’t know if I was thrown out of the car or crawled out of the car, but I looked at that car, and I thought, am I even alive? Am I broken? Am I bleeding everywhere? And I began to pat myself down, and I felt like I was okay. So I stood up, and I was uninjured, amazingly. The sheriff came to draw up the accident. He said, it’s a miracle you guys are alive. I got home that night, went down into my bedroom. My mother came to me and said, you ought to thank God you’re alive. I was laying on my bed, and I was thinking about the day’s activities. And I just thought, wow, I could have been dead today. I wasn’t the driver. I was the passenger. I wasn’t in control. But God was. At that moment, I figured out at 15 years old, God could take my life any time. He could have that day. So as I laid there, I thought, okay, you could take my life any day. So you saved my life today for a reason. For whatever reason that is, I’m going to live for you and that reason. As I said that, I heard a voice say to me, there’s a Bible on your bookshelf. Get it down and read it. I must have heard something, because I got up, I went over to the bookshelf, and I pulled down a Bible. I opened it to the first page, just like I would any other book, and I began to read God’s Word. I read Genesis chapter 1. The next day I read Genesis chapter 2. The next day I read Genesis chapter 3. And a chapter a day, I began to read God’s Word at 15 years old. If you do that, by the way, it’ll take you about three and a half years to finish reading the Bible a chapter a day. And that’s a good plan. So that’s how I became a daily Bible reader. And when I finished going through the Bible the first time, at 18 years or so, I just started over because I thought that’s what Christians did was read their Bibles every day. So that’s how I became a daily Bible reader.
