Do you remember the Aesop fable, "The Tortoise and the Hare?" In it the slow but steady turtle upsets the much faster rabbit in a race. Despite huge advantages the rabbit suffers a crushing defeat because he is overconfident and distracted by things like play and sleep.
The Corinthians were losing their race as well. Despite having started strong in the faith and having the blessing of God they were now distracted and overconfident and in danger of losing a reward that never should have been in doubt.
So Paul gives them a bit of a history lesson and warns them not to be like their forefathers. He reminds them that the early Israelites had incredible advantages: the Red Sea parting, manna provided for breakfast, miraculous water, and direction by a cloud. But they, like the dumb bunny of Aesop's fable, eventually became distracted by sin and overconfident in their relationship to God. They grumbled, they tested God, they worshipped idols, and they got involved in sexual immorality. So, God punished them, and many never made it to the Promised Land.
It's a sobering fact: people with great advantages sometimes fail.
This can happen today as well.
1 Scores of famous preachers and Christian artists have gotten distracted and had highly publicized moral failures
2. Many strong Christian teenagers get distracted and overconfident when they go off to college and leave the faith
3. Many church attendees start strong and serve Christ, only to disappear from church when tempting hobbies or activities distract them.
4. Many veteran church members lose their edge over time, begin to auto-pilot their faith, and never really regain their fire and intensity for Christ.
Paul warns those of us who think we stand to be careful lest we fall.
Are you pursuing God with great fire and intensity? Or are you napping and playing and coasting? Paul would urge you: "Be careful! Don't be a dumb bunny!"
Additional scriptures: Exodus 32, Numbers 25.1-2, Numbers 21.4-9
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