DON'T STEP HERE!

Land mines became accepted weapons of war in WWII. In the last 65 years, millions of land mines have been used in conflict to kill and maim the enemy. Armies use land mines in specific areas and then as the conflict moves on, often the land mines are left in place. The devastation that we have seen on the TV news from Iraq often mentions IED’s (Improvised Explosive Devices) which are a type of homemade land mines.

Mines are indiscriminate in who they kill or maim. Once they are put down, it doesn’t matter to the device who gets hurt: an enemy, a friend, an adult, a child; whoever triggers the device is the one who is attacked.

It is currently estimated that over 100 million land mines have been left in areas of previous conflict. Portions of Afghanistan, Iraq, Cambodia, Vietnam and the Balkans have tens of millions of unexploded mines that have yet to be discovered. Hundreds of innocents are killed and maimed every week because they accidentally step on an explosive device.

When a left-over land mine is discovered and before it is removed, a warning sign goes up to keep everyone away. The warning sign is a reasonable and appropriate way to let all know: “DANGER! DON’T STEP HERE!”

Paul tells the church, “I am writing to warn you of some things that can totally ruin your day. We were taught these by studying the Exodus and learning from their example” (see 1 Corinthians 10:6 and 11). Paul likens the journey to Canaan (the Promised Land) to our journey of faith in Christ and suggests that we can totally mess up our life in Him if we don’t pay attention to the warning signs that have been planted by the Holy Spirit. Paul lists five things that will blow up in our face if we trigger them, and while they won’t rob us of our eternal life, they will certainly ruin the heck out of our spiritual journey.

Here are the five:

1. Lust
This is not primarily sexual lust; this is selfishness and attempting to gratify oneself at the expense of someone else. Paul also refers to this in other places as coveting (Romans7:7), which is to desire what belongs to someone else.

2. Idolatry
Idolatry means that we have replaced God as primary in our lives and put something else in His place. Idolatry can take the form of material things (home, business, money), it can be another person, or it can be a fantasy, like television, the movies or pornography.

3. Sexual Immorality
Immorality is so rampant in our society that I know this paragraph will not be well received by many in the church. In an attempt to “modernize” the Scriptures, there has recently come an argument that says, “Paul and the other NT writers were writing from a First Century perspective and what they have to say has to be translated into the cultural language of the Twenty First Century.” OK, let’s do that! Here’s what the Scripture has to say about immorality in the Twenty First Century: “All sex outside of marriage is sin! Oral sex is sex and that means it is sin! Sex prior to marriage is sin!” How’s that for an updated version!

4. Testing The Lord
Testing the Lord is demanding that God do what is contrary to His will or inconsistent with His character. The person who lies and cheats in a relationship or in business and then demands that God bless them is “testing the Lord.” Positive confession in the extreme is dangerously close to “testing the Lord.” Testing the Lord is pushing the boundaries to see just how far you can go, to see how far God’s longsuffering reaches.

5. Grumbling/Murmuring
When individuals or groups begin to complain about God’s plan and the leaders God has raised up, this is nothing less than an act of rebellion and God will punish a rebellious spirit. Sowing discord among the brethren is a sin. The children of Israel in the wilderness were complaining/grumbling because instead of being taken immediately into the “Promise,” they were taken through the wilderness and like spoiled, rebellious children they complained and wanted to go back to Egypt. Murmuring has its roots in unbelief and is a denial of the goodness and mercy of God.

When the children of Israel ignored the warning signs and stepped into these forbidden areas on their way to Canaan, it triggered a response from God.

Paul wrote these verses in 1 Corinthians 10:6-11 to alert us to an existing minefield. His words are a giant warning sign that says, “DANGER, DON’T STEP HERE!”