1 Corinthians 10:5,6 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

But with many of them Although they had so many tokens of the divine presence with them, and enjoyed such singular favours; God was not well pleased So far from it, that he swore in his wrath they should not enter into the rest he had provided for them; and therefore they were overthrown in the wilderness With the most terrible marks of his wrath. Even the whole generation that came adult out of Egypt died there, and sometimes in such multitudes, that the ground was overspread with carcasses, as a field is in which a battle has been fought. Now these things These punishments; were our examples Showing what we are to expect, notwithstanding our profession of Christianity, if we act like them; if, enjoying the like benefits, we commit the like sins. The benefits are here set down in the same order as by Moses in Exodus; the sins and punishments in a different order: evil desire first, as being the foundation of all; next idolatry, 1 Corinthians 10:7; 1 Corinthians 10:14; then fornication, which usually accompanied it, 1 Corinthians 10:8; tempting and murmuring against God in the following verses. To the intent we should not lust after evil things Should not indulge irregular and luxurious desires; as they also lusted After flesh, in contempt of the manna, and thereby brought the wrath of God upon themselves, and were consumed with pestilential distempers, while the meat was yet between their teeth, Psalms 78:30-31. Learn, therefore, as if he had said, by what they suffered, to cultivate that temperance and self-denial which I have just been recommending to you.