Looking Back to Move Forward

Greetings All,

It seems that I have been a bit absent from blog posts for the last week.  I apologize, but I do have one to share with you today.  Let us begin with a scripture reading from Deuteronomy:

NLT

Deuteronomy 4:31 For the LORD your God is merciful-- he will not abandon you or destroy you or forget the solemn covenant he made with your ancestors. ³² "Search all of history, from the time God created people on the earth until now. Then search from one end of the heavens to the other. See if anything as great as this has ever happened before. ³³ Has any nation ever heard the voice of God speaking from fire-- as you did-- and survived? ³⁴ Has any other god taken one nation for himself by rescuing it from another by means of trials, miraculous signs, wonders, war, awesome power, and terrifying acts? Yet that is what the LORD your God did for you in Egypt, right before your very eyes. ³⁵ "He showed you these things so you would realize that the LORD is God and that there is no other god. ³⁶ He let you hear his voice from heaven so he could instruct you. He let you see his great fire here on earth so he could speak to you from it. ³⁷ Because he loved your ancestors, he chose to bless their descendants and personally brought you out of Egypt with a great display of power. ³⁸ He drove out nations far greater than you, so he could bring you in and give you their land as a special possession, as it is today. ³⁹ So remember this and keep it firmly in mind: The LORD is God both in heaven and on earth, and there is no other god!

This comes from the early parts of Deuteronomy where Moses has been recalling all that God has done for the Israelites and all that He has instructed them to do, but now he is preparing them to enter the promised land.  He has talked about land divisions and sacred vows, but now he needs to give them the confidence they need in God to be able to move forward into the promise of God.   To do this he actually tells them to look back; to remember that God is merciful and that He will never abandon you, look back to the very beginnings of creation.  He asks them if there has ever been anything as incredible as what God has done for the Israelites?  Has any other nation heard the voice of God from fire and not been destroyed?  Has any other nation been chosen by God to be saved from another and then let the world watch as God does exactly that in spectacular ways?  The implied answer is "NO!"

Moses tells the Israelites that when they look back at the evidence of God working in their midst they have all of the evidence they will ever need to trust God that He will do what He says He will do when He promises to give them this land flowing with milk and honey, even if it is occupied by giants!  They are part of this story of God that has been going on since before they even existed as a nation.  As they choose to trust and follow God they become part of that story to which others in the future will look back on God working with them and be able to move forward into their own promises.

That is us!  We are the future people who look back to Moses and the Israelites in the wilderness; to the miraculous things God did for them, but more importantly how God was always faithful to them.  We too place our stories in the story of God.  First we look back and see how God has worked not only in Israel but through out the ages since then.  Second we look back on our own lives and see how God has been working in it.  Then and only then can we have the confidence to move forward into whatever God has in store for us next, because we have been reminded that He is trustworthy, faithful, merciful and strong and that He will sustain us in all He calls us to do.  Will we look back today so we can confidently move forward into tomorrow?

Your brother in Christ,
Faron