1 Corinthians 10:1-12, Part 2

[Hidden In Him]

Christ Jesus: The Old Testament God Of War And Judgment, Part 2

                             

     Were the Lord Jesus Christ and the God of the Old Testament two different Gods, or One and the same? The apostle Paul's contention in our current passage was that Christ Jesus was in fact the God of the Old Testament Himself, the same God who led the Israelites through the wilderness, and brought judgment and destruction upon their enemies, as well as all who turned against Him to worship other gods and therefore incur His wrath.
     Is there any evidence in scripture for Paul's contention? Depending upon who you ask, some will cite certain passages and some others. For my own part, I find the following to be the most compelling evidence for why Jesus and the Old Testament God of necessity had to have been the same God. You see, the Lord Jesus Christ was described in both the Old and New Testaments as He who would tread the great winepress of God's wrath on the Day of Judgment. And the way He was described in these passages leads one to the conclusion that He could have only been God.
     What "winepress" am I referring to? The expression referred to a large region of mountainous territory located just South of the Dead Sea called Idumea, where the corpses of all who served the Antichrist during the end-times would be cast into, being thereafter drained of their blood in preparation for being burned in the Lake of Fire.
     In describing the Battle of Armageddon, the prophet Isaiah referred to this winepress using the following words:

     The wrath of the Lord is upon all nations, and His anger upon the number of them, to destroy them and give them up to slaughter. And their slain shall be cast forth, and the stench of their corpses shall arise, and the mountains shall be made wet with their blood. And all the powers of the heavens shall melt, and the sky shall be rolled up like a scroll… "My sword has been made drunk in heaven. Behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and with judgment upon a people doomed to destruction…" for the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in Idumea… and the land shall be soaked with blood, and shall be filled with their fat (i.e. dead flesh). For it is the Day of the Lord's judgment, and the year of the recompense of Zion in judgment. (Isaiah 34:2-8 LXX)

     Later in his life Isaiah would again prophesy that the Lord would stain His robes red the blood of the wicked in Idumea, which was the Grecko-Roman name for Edom. In the following passage, the prophet depicted a back and forth conversation between himself and the Lord, where He who would tread the winepress explained to him what would come to pass in "the year of His redeemed." Isaiah started by asking:

     "Who is this who comes from Edom, with garments dyed from Bozrah? He who is glorious in His apparel, traveling in the greatness of His strength?"
     "I who speak in righteousness, Mighty to save."
     "Why are You red in Your apparel, and Your garments like he who treads in the wine vat?"
     "I have trodden the winepress alone… I will tread them in My anger, and trample them in My fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon My garments, and I will stain all My raiment. For the Day of vengeance is in My heart, and the year of My redeemed has come." (Isaiah 63:1–4)

     Bozrah is located in the mountains of Edom overlooking the Northern Arabah, a massive valley that essentially forms a huge bowl surrounded by mountains on both the east and the west, and the Lord was here proclaiming through Isaiah that the day was coming when this huge valley would be turned into a giant vat, if you will, where the angels of God would cast the carcasses of hundreds of millions, and essentially trample them down until their blood drained out.

                                                       

     The massive amount of blood released in this "winepress" is described in the Book of Revelations. It will rise as high as 5 feet in some places, and flow "for a distance of 1,600 stadia," or roughly 180 miles:

     The angel swung his sickle on the earth, and gathered its grapes and threw them into the great winepress of God’s wrath. They were trampled in the winepress outside the city, and blood flowed out of the press, rising as high as the horses’ bridles for a distance of 1,600 stadia. (Revelation 14:19-20)

                         

     So what then suggests our Lord would have to be God here? Because in Isaiah He vowed that He would do these things in His anger and in His fury, and do so "in the Day of His vengeance." If He were a man, He would sin by doing such things, for scripture says that the wrath of man does not cultivate the righteousness of God, and that men are NOT to take revenge on their enemies, for vengeance belongs to God alone and HE will repay (James 1:19-20; Romans 12:19-21). If Christ Jesus were God, however, everything fits, for He would be just in executing judgment upon the wicked in the Day of His vengeance, and treading out the winepress of God's wrath in His anger and in His fury. And scripture states that it is clearly the Lord Jesus Christ who will tread the winepress of God's wrath alone, for the same imagery is used of Him in the Book of Revelations:

     11 In righteousness He judges and makes war. 12 His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. 13 He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. 14 And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. 15 And out of His mouth went a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself will tread the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. (Revelation 19:11-15)

     This revelation, then, confirms what Paul was teaching the Corinthians. Christ Jesus was the same God who followed the Israelites in the wilderness and led them to victory, defeating the Egyptians and then the Canaanites, who both worshipped demons as "gods." Tragically, however, some of His people were seduced by the Devil into worshipping these demons as gods as well, and thus became examples to the New Testament church of how the God of Heaven would not tolerate anyone giving themselves to the worship of other "gods," including them:

     10 Brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, 2 all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ. 5 But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. 6 Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things just as they also lusted. 7 And do not become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.” 8 Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell... these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the end of the ages have come. 12 Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. (1 Corinthians 10:1-7, 11-12)

     I covered the first incident Paul mentioned from Israel's history in our previous study, and will now cover the second, where he went on to say, "Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell." Paul was specifically talking here about events that transpired after the Israelites got seduced into worshipping the god Ba'al-Peor, where not only did they began eating meats sacrificed to idols but engaging in temple prostitution with the daughters of Moab as well. This brought death upon them, serving as probably the most perfect example of all those Paul will give them of why the Corinthians needed to not "lust after evil things as they also lusted."


The Incredibly Wicked Gods Of Canaan

     The incident Paul was referring to was right here, as recorded in the Book of Numbers:

     1 Now Israel remained in Acacia Grove, and the people began to commit harlotry with the women of Moab. 2 These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. 3 So Israel was joined to Baal of Peor, and the anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel. 4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Take all the leaders of the people and hang the offenders before the Lord, out in the sun, that the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel”... 9 those who died in the plague were twenty-four thousand... 16 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 17 “Harass the Midianites, and attack them; 18 for they harassed you with their schemes by which they seduced you in the matter of Peor...” (Numbers 25:1-4, 9, 17-18)

     This is the account Paul was telling the Corinthians about. The Numbers account describes 24,000 dying whereas Paul described only 23,000 doing so that day, but Deuteronomy 4:3 states that all those connected with Baal-Peor were under God's judgment, so it appears that 23,000 died from the plague itself in one day, whereas an additional 1,000 were later executed in Numbers 25:5, accounting for the discrepancy in the numbers here.
     But the important question is this: Why was God so angry as to kill 23,000 people in one day? Yes, He was a Jealous God who would have no other gods before Him, but He also knew how evil the Baal gods were whom the Israelites were now turning to, for their wickedness made that of even the gods of Egyptian look tame by comparison. For starters, the temple prostitution they practiced was a type of imitate magic, where they enacted rites to mimic how their "god" supposedly brought fertility to the land.

     In particular the Ugarit tablets are explicitly concerned with fertility, cast in terms of human sexuality. Worship of Baal involved imitative magic, the performance of rituals, including sacred prostitution. Sexual acts by both male and female temple prostitutes were understood to arouse Baal who then brought rain to make Mother Earth fertile when crops were abundant; Baal was praised and thanked for his abundant rain.

     This is what the Israelite men also got seduced into participating in, for reference to engaging in temple prostitution is made where it says, "These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. So Israel was joined to Baal of Peor, and the anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel."

     "Joined themselves to Baal-Peor" was here a reference to engaging to temple prostitution. But the Ba'al gods were even more famous for instituting one of the most evil practices known to the ancient world, and I am talking here about human sacrifice; extremely cruel and sadistic practice that took the lives of infants and children by burning them alive in the fires in homage to these "gods."
     As scripture itself records:

     They [the Israelites] mingled with the Gentile and learned their works. They served their idols, which became a snare to them. They even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons and shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan. And the land was polluted with blood. (Psalms 106:35-38)

     The Ba'al-Peor incident appears to have been Israel's first encounter with these "gods," but it would not be their last. For centuries into the future the inhabitants of Israel and then Judah would be engaging in human sacrifice to these gods, as is clear from later passages like those in Jeremiah where the prophet was told to warn the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Even many years later they would still be offering human sacrifices to these gods.

     3 Go to them, and say, "Hear ye the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, 'Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever hears, his ears shall tingle. 4 Because they have forsaken Me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents. 5 They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind.'" (Jeremiah 19:3-5)

     Studies from archeology confirm these things took place, and have connected Ba'al worship with other gods in the Mediterranean who likewise demanded child sacrifice, as mentioned by several ancient writers who gave rather gruesome details about how these sacrifices were actually carried out:

     “Out of reverence for Kronos [the Greek equivalent of Ba'al Hammon], the Phoenicians, and especially the Carthaginians, whenever they seek to obtain some great favor, vow one of their children, burning it as a sacrifice to the deity if they are especially eager to gain success. There stands in their midst a bronze statue of Kronos, its hands extended over a bronze brazier, the flames of which engulf the child” (Kleitarchos, 4th century B.C., translated by P. G. Mosca, 22).

     “In their zeal to make amends for their omission, they selected two hundred of the noblest children and sacrificed them publicly; and others who were under suspicion sacrificed themselves voluntarily, in number not less than three hundred. There was in their city a bronze image of Kronus, extending its hands, palms up and sloping toward the ground, so that each of the children when placed thereon rolled down and fell into a sort of gaping pit filled with fire” (Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History, Book 20, 14:4-7, Loeb Classical Library, 1954, 153).

     “With full knowledge and understanding they themselves offered up their own children, and those who had no children would buy little ones from poor people and cut their throats as if they were so many lambs or young birds; meanwhile the mother stood by without a tear or moan; but should she utter a single moan or let fall a single tear, she had to forfeit the money, and her child was sacrificed nevertheless; and the whole area before the statue was filled with a loud noise of flutes and drums [so that] the cries of wailing should not reach the ears of the people” (Plutarch, On Superstition, Loeb Classical Library, 1928, 2:495)

     Studies also connect Ba'al-Hadad with the Canaanite god Molech as being one and the same, which is why Molech worship is depicted in artist renditions as having contained all these same elements.

                                           

     One can therefore see why the Lord Jesus Christ, as the God of the Old Testament, was commanding the Israelites to destroy such peoples, and not allow their worship to be incorporated into the worship of the nation. Unfortunately the Israelites did not listen, beginning with the incident involving Ba'al-Peor, where 24,000 ended up dead for forsaking the Lord and turning instead to the worship of an exceedingly wicked and evil god.


The Greek Gods: Just Sanitized Versions
 
     Though somewhat more sanitized for public consumption, the gods of the Greeks were in many respects little different, one reason being that the Greeks assimilated several of the Canaanite and Egyptian gods into their pantheons by simply renaming them with Grecko-Roman names to make them more approachable. Such was the case with the god Ba'al-Hadad, who as mentioned above was assimilated into Greek worship under the new name "Kronos." Moreover, some of the most famous gods in all of Greece were themselves not above asking for human sacrifice, including Zeus, the most powerful of them all, as recent excavations have unearthed:

     The discovery of a 3,000-year-old skeleton in Greece may confirm one of the darkest legends of antiquity. Greece’s culture ministry announced on Wednesday that a Greek-American team of researchers had discovered the skeleton of a teenager on the side of Mount Lykaion – known to be the site of animal sacrifices to Zeus. “Much later, sources talk about human sacrifices taking place on Lykaion,” Anna Karapanagiotou, the head of the local archeological service, told a local municipal radio. “All this will be studied.” Mount Lykaion was associated with human sacrifice by many ancient writers, including Plato, and while it may be too early to speculate on how the teenager died, the location adds a strong connection...
     David Gilman Romano, professor of Greek archaeology at the University of Arizona, who participated in the dig on Mount Lykaion said classical writers linked the remote peak with human sacrifice. According to legend, a young boy would be sacrificed with animals, before the human and animal meat was cooked and eaten. “Several ancient literary sources mention rumors that human sacrifice took place at the altar [of Zeus, located on the mountain’s southern peak] but up until a few weeks ago there had been no trace whatsoever of human bones discovered at the site,” said Romano. “Whether it’s a sacrifice or not, this is a sacrificial altar ... so it’s not a place where you would bury an individual,” he said. “It’s not a cemetery.”
     He noted that the fact that the upper part of the skull was missing, while the body was laid among two lines of stones on an east-west axis, with stone slabs covering the pelvis was also interesting... “On the one hand there’s this picture of Greece as the cradle of civilization, the birthplace of democracy, of philosophy, of rational thinking – but on the other hand we have these cruel cruel myths,” he said. (Skeletal Remains Confirm Ancient Greeks Engaged In Human Sacrifice, The Guardian.com)

                                                         


     These, then, are among the reasons why the apostle Paul warned the believers in Corinth about worshipping the gods of their pagan culture now that they had turned to the True and Living God. The circumstances were similar, for as Paul and the other New Testament writers understood, the gods of the Greeks were demonic spirits as well, and worshipping them could arouse the Lord's jealousy just as worshipping demonic gods had long ago during the time of the Exodus.

     14 Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry... the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons. 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the Lord’s table and of the table of demons. 22 Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He? (1 Corinthians 10:14, 20-22)

     Thus, Paul's teaching was that Jesus Christ was not just another god, but the God of the Old Testament, and at war with all the demons being worshipped by the Greeks just as He had been with the gods worshipped by the Egyptians and Canaanites. It is why Paul was here giving them examples from Israel's history of why they needed to avoid eating meats sacrificed to idols. They could likewise bring judgment upon themselves if the Lord viewed their actions as having the potential to lure weaker believers into sin and even spiritual death as a result (1 Corinthians 8:8-13).


   
Links to sources:
https://biblearchaeology.org/images/Child-Sacrifice-and-Abortion/4---Canaanite-Child-Sacrifice---Smith-90-125.pdf
https://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends-asia/identity-moloch-0011457
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/aug/10/skeletal-remains-confirm-ancient-greeks-engaged-in-human-sacrifice