08/03/14

Do we look back in our lives?

Job 8:8 - For enquire, I pray thee, of the former age, and prepare thyself to the search of their fathers:


The world advices always to look forward and not to look back, it has quotes like 'If you keep chasing yesterday's question, you're gonna miss tomorrow's answer'. It also says 'if you walk with your head turned behind you will not see your way ahead'. But when we do not go why what the world says but see what it does then we see something else, the world gives a great importance to the past, 99 percent of the school syllabus is based on the past. History, Archaeology, literature etc. are all based on the past. Even a subject like science has all about the achievements of man in the past.

I have heard many Preachers preach about not turning back or looking back, about forgetting what you were and only look at what you aim to become.

In today's message the Lord is speaking to us through the mouth of Bildad the friend of Job. The Lord is telling us to enquire of the former age and search of our fore fathers.

One cannot do Bible Study without doing historical research. It is only through the records of history we get confirmation of what we believe in. Today's message not only confirms this but also tells us without looking back we will never be able to prepare ourselves for our future. What is that we need to look of the past? The Bible says we need to look at the mistakes and blessing of our ancestors, not only that of our ancestors but even our own.

If we get into the grammar of this sentence it shines light of exactly what we need to do (I love this part of Bible study it makes a person write like Paul did). If I look at this sentence in English we see 4 verbs enquire, pray, prepare and search. But when we look at it in Hebrew in the actual text there are only 3 verbs enquire, pray and prepare, the word search here is given not as a verb but as a noun. One would say how does this change much the dynamics of the sentence?

When we get to the foundation it gives us clear direction of what we should do. How?

A verb is something what we do and noun is not something we do. Noun can be identified like an object (referred to) and not an activity. So the scriptures tells us our research (tense Gal which means casual) is something we do casually to know of the former age so it is something we get involved in, but when it comes to mistakes and blessing it is not an activity we are part of but something we look at. That means even our own past mistakes which we made or the blessings the Lord showered on us should be just looked at but not something we get attached to. It is after this 'looking at' we need to prepare ourselves for our future journey.

One would say why not look back and keep thanking God for our past blessings? I would say doing this is like standing at a milestone and not moving ahead. Imagine a person standing at a milestone and cleaning it with a cloth again and again and again and not moving ahead. Yes milestones are very important in our lives, for they record our journey but one needs to move ahead to further greater milestones.

If one understands blessings one will know they are like milestone that already exist from before on our journey, we come across them when we move in the right direction. All our blessings the Lord has already put in our lives when we were born but we miss them when we do not move in the right direction or do not move at all. No body adds blessings to us, they only affect our journey by quickening the distances between milestones or ask God to direct us to our milestones.


[ Prayer Starter ]
Lord, You are an awesome God. You have set all good things in our path but because of the mistakes we make on our journey in life which are like craters which make us lose our path or hinder our journey ahead. Lord we pray we do not put ourselves behind our past craters not get stuck up with glorifying our past milestones but by thanking You from the bottom of our hearts for them we move on for greater milestones ahead. Lord help us move ahead and keep move from milestone to milestone and avoid creating craters on our path ahead...

This prayer we make in Jesus' Name, Amen.


[ Reference ]
Deuteronomy 9:7 - Remember, and forget not, how thou provokedst the LORD thy God to wrath in the wilderness: from the day that thou didst depart out of the land of Egypt, until ye came unto this place, ye have been rebellious against the LORD.

Deuteronomy 15:15 - And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the LORD thy God redeemed thee: therefore I command thee this thing to day.

Deuteronomy 16:3 - Thou shalt eat no leavened bread with it; seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread therewith, even the bread of affliction; for thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt in haste: that thou mayest remember the day when thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of thy life.

Deuteronomy 32:7 - Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will shew thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee.

Romans 8:18 - For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

The Word of God was given free to us, therefore we should also share it freely with others. (All rights are with God)