Digging - Remembering - Learning In Israel.

Our culture always looks ahead, moves forward. It’s very Western / American thinking to emphasize moving on, moving forward in order to be successful, to make a difference. The Jewish culture is always looking back. Always “digging” up the past and thinking and teaching about times and places in history. Remembering. What if the best way to move forward is to look back. Looking back and remembering the goodness of God, remember mistakes and forgiveness, remember droughts and provision by the mighty hand of God. We spend a lot of time trying to forget the past, forget hardships and hurt, and maybe the best way to heal and move on, is to look back and remember. Maybe the best way to not repeat the same sins, the same mistakes is to remember. Remember the things that have happened and then stand in His “presence” and move forward in faith with all the memories of how we got to this place and this time. We often look at remembering as being stuck in the past and maybe if we were courageous enough to remember we could move forward in faith with wisdom. Lot’s wife looked back and turned to a pillar of salt, I think it matters how we look back.... if we look back longing for the times and the things we had before God saved us, we will be bitter and of no use, but if we remember the goodness of God and how He brought us out of sin we can move forward. When Elijah had a contest with Baal worshippers he first “repaired the altar of the Lord” which means “remembered.” He didn’t start something new he remembered and everything Elijah did that day was in remembrance and represented the things God had done. It matters how we look back, not only what we remember but how we remember it. Do we look back like Lot’s wife and long for things and places that aren’t good for us or do we remember how God worked in our lives to move us out of places, away from things that would destroy us if He didn’t intervene and save us.