A Different World

There is a bad tendency in our world today to look back in history and apply modern philosophy and thinking to the ancient world. It becomes very easy to judge those folks from our safer, easier, and protected perspective. Yet the truth is that they lived in different times and under different circumstances that we couldn’t really understand without being in their shoes. Before we pat ourselves on the back as being different and better, we might need to think more about how we’d be in those circumstances.

I think this is Paul’s point in 1^st Corinthians 10. He tells those hundreds of years later that those in ancient Israel were in a different world, but were still a lot like them. He then goes on to show how they failed to live pleasing to God, warning us to heed the example. He then says, “Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall.

Lots of folks look back and think, " Well, I never do that (Matthew 23:30)! Instead, we need to consider that though the world might be a different place, people are still the same. If they made those mistakes, so can we. The temptation might be wrapped in different paper, but the sin is still the same.

We might think we are better on our high horse, but that just means the fall is going to be that much harder.

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