History repeats itself . . .

1 Kings 20; Psalm 106; Daniel 2; 1 Thessalonians 3

History does repeat itself. As I read the Old Testament along with the NT, I see patterns in the way God deals with His people and in the way we respond to Him. Some of it is wonderful, such as salvation from bondage in Egypt. It is a picture of redemption through faith. The people cried out in their misery and God heard them. He demanded nothing from them except to follow the one He sent to take them out of slavery and into freedom. How like the Gospel!

Later, God gave laws to show His people how to live as His distinctive children. Some of these laws were about worship and sacrifices which would later change when Jesus came, yet all of God’s laws defined them as different. They were no longer in bondage but free to choose and to show their faith in God by how they lived. Unfortunately, they struggled with that. Psalm 106 outlines some of what happened:

While they left Egypt with joy and a lot of loot, they soon “rebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea, yet (God) saved them for his name’s sake that he might make known his mighty power. He rebuked the Red Sea, and it became dry, and he led them through the deep as through a desert. So he saved them from the hand of the foe and redeemed them from the power of the enemy . . . then they believed his words and sang his praise.”

It didn’t last long. The rest of the psalm highlights the problems, but also the grace and mercy of God. “But they soon forgot his works; they did not wait for his counsel” and put God to the test. Later, some were jealous of their leader but God destroyed those rebels.

Then they made a calf and “worshiped metal image” exchanging the glory of God for the image of an ox. They forgot God who had saved them and He was going to destroy them had not Moses interceded for them. Once they were in the land God promised them, they “despised the pleasant land” and had “no faith in his promise” but instead complained and did not obey Him. They provoked His anger with their behavior and he sent a plague. All would have died but a godly man interceded and the plague stopped. Their behavior angered Moses who lost his temper and spoke rashly — to his regret.

When in their land, they were supposed to destroy all that went against them but they didn’t do that. The “mixed with the nations and learned to do as they did.” They served their idols, sacrificed their children, and idolatry made them unclean. “Many times he delivered them, but they were rebellious in their purposes and were brought low through their iniquity.” (Psalm 106:43)

Pay attention to the daily news and change the names . . . history does repeat itself. Rebellion against God and against living godly lives still happens. The pattern in my own spiritual life has stumbled at times just like the pattern displayed over the centuries outlined in this psalm. What happens next? Was this the end? Did God lose patience and give up? Is that His pattern? Not at all!

Nevertheless, he looked upon their distress when he heard their cry. For their sake he remembered his covenant and relented according to the abundance of his steadfast love. He caused them to be pitied by all those who held them captive. Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from among the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting! And let all the people say, “Amen!” Praise the Lord! (Psalm 106:44–48)

Even before Jesus came to give His own life and enabled the people of God to live like people of God, the Lord remembered His covenant made long before, a covenant of love and promised blessing. He kept it in Christ, and He keeps it each time His followers mess up and each time I mess up. Salvation is of the Lord and I rejoice. I could never save myself by obedience but I can be obedient because God saved me and keeps on saving me.

APPLY: Never give up. Do not live like I’m part of this pagan world but live as a child of God should live — trusting Jesus with everything and about everything — doing what He tells me to do because I want Him to be glorified.

Who is worthy of worship?

 

1 Samuel 7–8; Psalms 20–21; Jeremiah 44; Romans 6

It is often said that history repeats itself. This comes out today as I read the above passages in sequence and then that scary quote. Maybe the daily news is affecting my vision, but these narratives draw me away from the news to a big picture of how the world is going.

In Samuel’s time, the people were tired of having a God-appointed judge govern them; they wanted a king. Samuel was not pleased, but to his credit, he prayed about it. God told him this:

“Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you. Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.” (1 Samuel 8:7–9)

Samuel then warned the people that a king would make their sons serve in his army, and both sons and daughter would be his servants. He would take their money and goods and use it to cover his expenses and no matter how hard they complained, the Lord would not answer them.

Sound familiar? We want a king, a prime minister, a president — so we are like all the nations and have someone to “judge us and go out before us and fight our battles” (verse 20) yet it is not long before we are complaining about the very person we elected.

Saul became king and Samuel’s predictions came true. Only when David took the throne did things change and that was because David was “a man after God’s own heart.” He relied on the Lord for wisdom and said:

“Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed; he will answer him from his holy heaven with the saving might of his right hand. Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. They collapse and fall, but we rise and stand upright.” (Psalm 20:6–8)

He did fight their battles and do the duties of a king but under the guidance of the King of heaven. If only that part of history would repeat itself!

Jeremiah tells how it does not. Despite the people saying they would obey God, they turned to idols. These days, idols are not wood or stone but money and even people — like those newly elected? Surely this person will rescue us from all our troubles . . . but God says NO. There is judgment for idolatry and back then Jeremiah said:

“The Lord could no longer bear your evil deeds and the abominations that you committed. Therefore your land has become a desolation and a waste and a curse, without inhabitant, as it is this day. It is because you made offerings and because you sinned against the Lord and did not obey the voice of the Lord or walk in his law and in his statutes and in his testimonies that this disaster has happened to you, as at this day.” (Jeremiah 44:22–23)

Do we look at the mess in today’s world like that? The people in Jeremiah’s day did not. They claimed life was good when they followed idols and disaster happened when they stopped, as if the idol controlled the good life and God didn’t want them to have it. Their thinking was perverted to the point that God could not be trusted at all, yet it was God who told them that following their idols would be their downfall, just as insisting on having a king was not a good idea. Their choices led them astray from trusting the Lord.

Eventually in this story the King of kings came yet He was rejected at first. Even after Jesus died for all our sin and rose again, some had the idea that continuing in sin was okay. Romans 6 addresses that question and more; it tell God’s people that we must also die to sin and rise to new life:

“ . . . . You also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under law but under grace.” (Romans 6:10–14)

APPLY: This is good news, yet death to sin is the human battle that cannot be fought apart from trust in the One who gives life. History says it and the Word of God says it. I need Jesus to live well — just as our ‘kings’ need Him to govern well. May God help us see this is true and obey the only One worthy of our worship!