Articles
A Hard Lesson to Learn!
It is that “lessons that we learn don’t stay ‘learned’”….
The Bible is full of “teaching moments” – circumstances and instructions intended to help us avoid some of the same consequences suffered by our ancestors. The record of them is left “for our learning” (Rom 15:4). Israel’s sad decline and eventual destruction is well documented in O.T. History – Paul says these things were “written as an example, and are for OUR admonition” (1 Cor 10:11).
Generally speaking, worldliness, materialism, complacency and compromise brought Israel to its knees, and its ultimate downfall – and yet, here WE are!
Soothing platitudes, teaching designed for itching ears, and a lack of needed knowledge – due in large part to the self-serving omission by its “leaders” of the downside to disobedience--made Israel vulnerable to apostasy and idolatry. But, again, here WE are.
And we need not go that far back – each generation faces similar dangers, with similar results. Over my life time (and that of other “old folks” like me) there have been several predictable cycles of the ebb and flow of effective and distinctive discipleship. Issues of worldliness, materialism, complacency and compromise were not just Israel’s problem – they are ours as well. One would be hard pressed to find a congregation today that was strong and distinctive 50 years ago…their failure to “stay learned” is obvious in the stages of their evolution - most have either imbibed the “spirit of the age” (turning to gimmicks and a changing dynamic to survive, even in a corrupted form), or dwindled down to a few who remember the “former glory”, and day dream about it to each other and to the next unstirred and unmotivated generation.
Preachers and pastors with less than pure motives and less than adequate knowledge of the principles and plan of God continually leave us exposed to the "ravening wolves" that are always near.
As it is said, “those who refuse to learn from history are doomed to repeat it”…. Praise God for the few who prove themselves exceptions to the rule – in some places there are encouraging signs. Whether they prove to be fruitful will depend in part upon the impact the lessons of the past have made upon them. It has always been a fight, and the weapons never change. Let us not forget the lessons we have learned on how to use them!
