Honoring the Past and Protecting the Future
Today’s reading contains the last two judgments against Gentile nations: Ammon and Moab. The Ammonites are condemned because of excessive cruelty. We are told they “ripped up women with child in Gilead.” David Guzik commented, “We could say that Ammon sinned against the future by killing the babies in the womb.” Our culture needs to pay close attention to this judgment. God cares about future generations. We are told that God “chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.” Also, He told Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you…” (Jeremiah 1:5) The debate concerning when life begins has been answered for thousands of years: before time. God plans our existence before our parents even meet. He knows every detail of our shape and form before the first ultrasound reveals our gender. To sin against the future by murdering babies in the womb brings about judgment from the Lord.
The last nation to receive judgment is the nation of Moab. We are told their sin was that “he burned to lime the bones of the king of Edom.” This judgment gives us two insights into God’s character. First of all, The bones belonged to the king of a country that God had already spoken judgment against. Edom was, and still is, an enemy of Israel. Even still, God watched and paid attention to crimes committed against them. This fact shocks my human understanding. Even though we know that scripture tells us, “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him drink…” (Romans 12:20), I think most of us struggle acting upon a life of kindness even to our enemies.
As to the specific sin of Moab, David Guzik says, “You could say that Moab sinned against the past by desecrating the remains of an Edomite hero.” Here again, we would do well to pay attention to this judgment. Society actively changes the past. It is said that the victors write history, but all live it. When we rewrite the story to fit our desired way of thinking, we earn God’s judgement. God operates in truth, and He demands that His people do as well. What happened long before we were born may not be convenient to us now, but it still is. We may not like the way those before us lived or conducted their business, but that is not ours to judge. We cannot judge the past by modern standards. Someday, people will look back at out generation and be offended by something we believe to be good and proper. Our understand and our feelings cannot change the truth of what happened to shape our present. We would do well to remember and honor what has come before us.
These judgements of God against the Gentile nations surrounding Israel give us warning as well. We need to pay attention to our choices. We need to measure the responses we have to those of those who went before us. If God hated their actions – and God never changes – we can know that He will judge us if we copy their sins.
(Written by Keegan Harkins.)
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