1 Corinthians 10:5

5 But even then God was not pleased with most of them, and so their dead bodies were scattered over the desert. ¹

1 Corinthians 10:5 Meaning and Commentary

1 Corinthians 10:5

But with many of them God was not well pleased
As he is with none but those that are in Christ; and with none of the services of men, but what are done in faith, which become acceptable to him through Jesus Christ; for in him only persons and services are accepted with God; and this was the way of acceptance in the Old, as in the New Testament dispensation: how many of the Jewish fathers God was not well pleased with, or took no delight in, but hated and abhorred, which is the sense of the phrase here, whether they were the greatest part or not, is not certain; however, they were not all, excepting Joshua and Caleb, as some interpreters understand it; for not all that died in the wilderness were out of the special grace and favour of God, witness Moses, Aaron, Miriam, and, it is to be supposed and hoped, hundreds and thousands more; but the apostle has respect to such who were the instances of God's direful vengeance and displeasure, as appears from the reason given;

for they were overthrown in the wilderness:
he does not say merely that they died there, for many with whom God was well pleased died there; but these, their carcasses fell in the wilderness, being stricken, thrown down, and overthrown by the immediate hand of God; they did not die a common death, according to the ordinary course of nature; but by the plague, or by the sword, or by fire from heaven, or by fiery serpents, or by a destroying angel, or by one judgment or another, as hereafter mentioned.

1 Corinthians 10:5 In-Context

3 All ate the same spiritual bread

4 and drank the same spiritual drink. They drank from the spiritual rock that went with them; and that rock was Christ himself.

5 But even then God was not pleased with most of them, and so their dead bodies were scattered over the desert.

6 Now, all of this is an example for us, to warn us not to desire evil things, as they did,

7 nor to worship idols, as some of them did. As the scripture says, "The people sat down to a feast which turned into an orgy of drinking and sex."

Cross References

• 1. 10.5Numbers 14.29, 30.