Lessons from the Past
Yesterday’s sermon was really good. It was based on Deuteronomy 8:1-20, where Moses reminds the people of Israel not to forget the Lord. He tells them to remember how God led them through the bad times – God led them through the desert for forty years (v2), fed them with manna to satisfy their hunger and to teach them that “man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” (v3). He also called them to remember that God had disciplined them not as a master disciplines a slave, but as a father disciplines his children – out of love (v5).
Moses also reminds the people to remember God during the good times – Moses tells them that God is going to deliver them into a good and abundant land (vv7-8), very different from the life of wandering in wilderness that they had experienced for so long. But Moses warns them that their hearts should not become proud when they reach this state of prosperity, and they should not forget that it was GOD who brought them to that place and blessed them.
And… that message for Israel most certainly applies to us today. We have a tendency to forget God in good times and in bad. In the bad times, we can start to believe that God doesn’t care about us – that He has forgotten about us, and is no longer watching over us. I confess that I felt this way not too long ago. I think it’s a natural reaction, but it’s not what God wants from us – because it’s not true. In fact, the opposite is true – WE are the ones who have forgotten God; He NEVER forgets us! Amazing, right? This is why we need to trust in God for all our tomorrows, for He has taken care of all the yesterdays.
The other thing is that we can forget God during our times of prosperity and peace. A byproduct of this is the inclination to believe that we are the ones who produced success for ourselves. As the pastor said, there’s an “allure of self-sufficiency and pride.” That’s not good either – because only through God can we achieve anything good. And we need to recognize that, in order to give Him due praise and also to have something to remember when times aren’t so good anymore.
So… good reminders. Deuteronomy 8:1-20. Check it out. Â 