Good Old History Class
Just the title of this article summons the Sandman into action for most of us. I will never forget my junior year of high school as our teacher slept while we read chapter after chapter from our World History book in preparation for a final test full of dates, names, and at least to us, an overabundance of meaningless historical events. Sound familiar? I’m getting sleepy just thinking about it.
Now that I have matured enough to marry history with the realities of life, I can’t satiate my appetite with enough truth from the past. I now find it both interesting and beneficial. Imagine what knowledge of the past does. Without knowledge of history, we would be permanently burdened with a lack of perspective, empathy and wisdom. Remember, there was no history in the beginning, so God had to make everything and do everything for Adam and Eve, and then tell them the difference between right and wrong. They had no history of anything.
Our Sunday morning adult Bible classes are engaged in studying the speeches/lessons of Moses to the Hebrew nation before they entered the Promised Land. Can you guess what the first and last lessons were about? That’s right: History! Moses’ admonition to his people was to not forget the past, to learn from the past, and to remember those who went before them. This is interesting because only two among them (besides Moses) had witnessed the people leaving Egypt, crossing the Red Sea, Mt. Sanai, and the mighty protection miracles of God in those early days. The remaining people were younger folks who had not witnessed any of this.
George Santayana is credited with the famous saying, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Moses said, “Remember the days of old; consider the generations long past. Ask your father and he will tell you, your elders, and they will explain to you” (Deut. 32:7).
To prepare for the future is a great responsibility of man. Yet it is impossible without the history lessons of God through servants like Moses, David, Paul and others. Join us this Sunday and engage Moses as he prepares a whole nation for a blessed future by remembering history.