Links for today’s readings:
Read: Read: Deuteronomy 2 Listen: (5:06) Read: 1 Corinthians 12 Listen: (4:25)
Scripture Focus: Deuteronomy 1.1-3
These are the words Moses spoke to all Israel in the wilderness east of the Jordan—that is, in the Arabah—opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth and Dizahab. 2 (It takes eleven days to go from Horeb to Kadesh Barnea by the Mount Seir road.) 3 In the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses proclaimed to the Israelites all that the Lord had commanded him concerning them.
Deuteronomy 2.21-22
21 They were a people strong and numerous, and as tall as the Anakites. The Lord destroyed them from before the Ammonites, who drove them out and settled in their place. 22 The Lord had done the same for the descendants of Esau, who lived in Seir, when he destroyed the Horites from before them. They drove them out and have lived in their place to this day.
Reflection: Repeating History
By John Tillman
In his 1905 book, The Life of Reason, Spanish-American philosopher, George Santayana wrote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
It is somewhat humorous to me that most of us do not remember Santayana’s version, but remember Winston Churchill’s repetition of the idea in 1948: “Those who do not remember history are doomed to repeat it.” Perhaps that is because Churchill’s version is catchier. However, it’s arguable that Moses expressed this concept much earlier in Deuteronomy.
Moses didn’t want Israel to repeat history, so he reviewed it with them through a series of speeches or “sermons” to the next generation. This repetition is why Deuteronomy’s name comes from a Greek word meaning “second law.” He reminded them of God’s covenant because he wanted them to be faithful and succeed where the previous generation failed.
A specific failure of the previous generation was failing to trust God to defeat the Canaanites. The large and powerful Anakites seemed undefeatable. The spies reported that they felt like grasshoppers compared to the Anakites’ size and strength. (Numbers 13.33) To encourage the new generation, Moses reviewed their recent military history in which God gave them many victories.
Moses also pointed out that nations related to Israel defeated enemies similar to the Anakites with God’s help. Edom descended from Esau and Moab and Ammon from Lot. God was faithful to them, giving them land and helping them defeat Anakite-sized enemies. Moses used these victories from the past to assure the new generation that God had victories in their future if they would be faithful.
Like Israel, we have failures in our past, both individually and as the global Church—slavery, abuse, nationalism, violence, corruption. At times, we have been more like Anakites than God’s people.
If we forget the mistakes of history, we cannot repent of them and we will repeat them. If we remember the victories of history, we can repeat them, with God’s help. The model of our victory from history is the resurrection of Jesus. Our victory will not be the destruction of human enemies, but of sin, Satan, and death.
Our past isn’t perfect and our future won’t be either, but God will be faithful to his promises. Anakite-sized enemies that seem undefeatable will fall. There is no enemy, problem, weakness, or sin that will not be overthrown by the gospel.
Divine Hours Prayer: Greeting
The Lord lives! Blessed in my Rock! Exalted is the God of my salvation! — Psalm 18.46
– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime
by Phyllis Tickle
Read more: Faith of a New Generation
Watching the mistakes made by their parents or grandparents, they refined their faith and purified its practice.
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