God and grasshoppers

Gym

I'm going to read this morning from two passages of Scripture. The first one is in Paul's first letter to the Corinthian Christians. It's from chapter 10. It is a section in which Paul is talking about the Exodus event, where God rescued the people of Israel. And then he summarizes this section with these words beginning in chapter 10, verse 11. "These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. So if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall. "No temptation has taken you except what is common to man. And God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. When you are tempted, he will provide a way out so that you can stand up under it." And then to the primary text which we find in the book of Exodus. Let me give you a few words of background as we come to this particular text. As you can hear from the passage in 1 Corinthians, the material which could be summarized in the phrase "the Exodus event" is very important in the life of the first Christians.