The best manuscripts of 1 Cor 10:9 has the Israelites in the wilderness
tempting τον χριστον (the
Christ) as opposed to some manuscripts which read the more ambiguous τον κυριον (the Lord). Such is an important
text as it affirms the personal pre-existence of Jesus; indeed, Paul is
teaching the Corinthians that, just as the Israelites in Old Testament times “tempted”
Jesus, the Corinthians are doing the same! As Suzanne Nicholson wrote:
What, then, does it means to tempt Christ? In
the Old Testament, one tempted God by failing to acknowledge his power and will
to save, and expressed this temptation/testing by complaining against God’s
guidance, and failing to see God’s glory or signs and wonders. “to test God is
thus to challenge Him. It is an expression of unbelief, doubt and disobedience.”
The testing of God is alluded to in 1Cor 10:9 involves the story of Num 21:4-9,
in which the Israelites again grumbled against God in the desert (even after
they had received manna and water) and God in return sent venomous snakes among
the people. Psalm 78 also relates the various instances of grumbling in the
desert; it is striking that the psalmist also takes up the motif of God as Rock
(77:35)—a verse in which God is not only described as Rock, but also as
Redeemer. It is likely, then, that Paul fully intends for Christ, as Rock and
Redeemer, to be read into the Old Testament story here as well. The Israelites
tested God/Christ by complaining and not appreciating the miraculous
provisions; they challenged the idea that God was leading them to a better
place (Num 21:5); Paul warns the Corinthians not to fall into the same sins
(1Cor 10:6-10), one of which is to test Christ by calling into question his
plan of provision and salvation. It is fitting that the reason for the
Israelites’s grumbling because they are not happy with their food, either—they want
to be free to eat more than the weak think is proper. Paul warns, in essence,
that their appetite may lead to their destruction (Phil 3:19); by eating meat
sacrificed to idols, they are participating in the table of demons.
Thus, Paul’s references to Christ’s presence
in the Israelite desert wanderings serve to emphasize the continuity between
the effects of sin, specifically idolatry, in the old and new covenants. What
happened to the Israelites when they challenged God/Christ is no less a danger
for the Corinthians, who face the same God in Christ; they must flee from
idolatry. (Suzanne Nicholson, Dynamic
Oneness: The Significance and Flexibility of Paul’s One-God Language [Eugene,
Oreg.: Pickwick Publications, 2010], 83-84)