Articles
Learning from the Past
A saying that is often used in relation to history is “Learn from the past or we are des-tined to repeat it.” This saying isn’t often taken and used towards our faith, but there certainly is application to be found and God wants us to learn from the past mistakes of people in the Bible and learn from them. The Israelites were people just like us and a big difference between us and them is that they came before us. In 1st Corinthians 10, we find a chapter that some Bibles will place a subtitle over saying “Avoid Israel’s Mis-takes.” Subtitles in Bibles are not inspired but put in by man. This is a good representation of what this chapter is about. In the first 4 verses we see what amazing things the Israelites that were a part of. They were able to experience the Exodus of Egypt. They were under a cloud, referring to the cloud that led them by day (Exodus 13:21), they passed through the sea, referring to the parting of the Red Sea in Exodus 14, and they had spiritual food and drink, referring the mana that they ate and the water that was provided for them in a few different ways by God. The Israelites here saw amaz-ing things and yet, we come to verse 5. “Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased; for their dead bodies were spread out in the wilderness.” They saw these amazing acts by God, and yet most of them didn’t please God. They saw what God did for them and didn’t treat Him as God. We see examples listed in verses 7-10. We aren’t to be idolaters like some of them were. We aren’t to commit sexual immorality as some of them did, and 23,000 died in one day. We aren’t to put the Lord to the test as some of them did, and were killed by snakes. We aren’t to grumble as some of them did, and they were killed by the destroyer. God wasn’t pleased with their sin and there was punishment for it. We may commit the same sins today. These verses aren’t saying that if we commit these sins, this exact punishment is going to come upon us, but rather it’s saying pun-ishment will come, and as we ultimately know, the punishment is eternity in hell.
So why did these things happen? God answers that ques-tion in verses 6 and 11. Verse 6 says “Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they indeed craved them.” Verse 11 says “Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.” These things hap-pened for us to learn from. God has never been pleased by sin. He has always told His people what to do or not do, if we choose to neglect or disobey what God says, that is sin. If we know what the right thing to do is, and we don’t do it, that is sin as it says in James 4:17. The Israelites sinned and there was punishment for what they did, as we looked at in the prior paragraph. There will be punishment for sin. There was in the Exodus and there will be on the day of judgement. What we are to do though, is take the example that was has been written down for us and not follow in their sinful ways.
In 1st Cor 10:1-11, we are warned what not to do. That is so important, but it’s also important to know what we need to do to please God. He has laid that out for us, certainly in word, but
also in example from His people and His Son. With this article being focused on heeding the examples that have been laid out before us, let’s look at some examples. In John 13:5-20, we see Jesus washes the disciple’s feet. Nasty feet I might add. The Creator of all things (John 1:1-3, Col 1:16-17) is washing His creation’s feet. We see Pe-ter’s reaction in verse 6 and it’s a very understandable one. “Lord, You are washing my feet?” Peter sees that the perfect Jesus Christ is washing the feet of someone who in his own eyes has no right to have his feet washed by Jesus. Paraphrasing what Jesus will tell Peter in verse 7, is that Peter won’t understand what He is doing now, but will later. Jumping down to verses 12-15, after Jesus washed their feet, He says “Do You know what I have done for you? You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord’ and you are correct, for so I am. So if I, The Lord and the Teacher washed your feet, you also ought to wash one an-other’s feet. For I gave you an example, so that you also would do just as I did for you.” Jesus laid the example of service in numerous ways and this is one example. He served them by washing their feet, which we can do as well to those around us. This idea though, applies to all acts of service. If Jesus served others, there is absolutely zero reason or excuse that you or me have to not serve each other. Jesus is the ultimate example of being a servant. As Jesus says in Matthew 20:28 “Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”
There are numerous good examples in scripture to follow. Hebrews 11 is a chapter talking about faith and lays out many specific examples of faith. We are able to read about them and learn what they did and apply it to our lives. We have been given examples on how to please God and also given examples of what comes to those who don’t please God. Let us all heed these
