THE VALUE OF ISRAEL’S HISTORY

Divinely recorded history, fascinating though it is, is not given to entertain us. History is rather like a lighthouse, warning us of danger. Yet, often moved by passing pressures and pleasures, we rarely learn from it as we should.

Here Asaph the Levite reminds Israel of the history of their nation. They had learned this from their forefathers, so that they in turn could pass on the truth to their children and grandchildren. He recalls the wonderful works that God had wrought for His people from the time of their deliverance from Egyptian slavery till the reign of king David. This was to preserve them from the follies of their fathers. It was “that they might set their hope in God, and … keep his commandments”, v. 7. It was that they might not forget God’s intervention in mercifully delivering them from their enemies. Their ancestors benefited from God’s goodness, but their heart and their spirit were wrong. Forgetting how much they were indebted to God, they refused to obey His law, v. 8.

Asaph then refers to a typical episode in Israel’s history, “The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle”, v. 9. They failed to face and drive off the decadent and grossly immoral nations that attacked them. They had arms, but failed to use them.

So with ourselves; we have powerful foes. “The flesh lusteth against the Spirit”, Gal. 5. 17. But God has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness. There is no sound reason for a true believer turning back. The Holy Spirit lusts “against the flesh”, and the apostle John says, “greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world”, 1 John 4. 4.

We are armed, so let us go on. We have our Lord Jesus Christ above interceding for His own, and the help of the Holy Spirit on earth. We have also the guidance of the Holy Scriptures. So using the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God, and praying always for more grace, we shall go on.

“We are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul”, Heb. 10. 39.