The Importance of History

Early in my young adulthood, I remember being told, “If you don’t know your history, you’re bound to repeat it” (Author Unknown). I didn’t fully understand it at the time, but the older I get, the more sense that statement makes.

Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to accompany my son on a field trip to the African American Museum in Washington, DC. The journey through history that each floor of the museum leads you through is humbling. And, as I walked through the historical displays, that quote kept coming back to me, “If you don’t know your history, you’re bound to repeat it.”

While it certainly applies to some of the events happening around our world today, that’s not what I felt this gentle reminder was about. No, this reminder was for the children of Yahweh, the Most-High God. As I worked my way through the exhibits, I saw how religion was woven into the fabric of the African American journey throughout every era. One display highlighted how African Americans drew on their religious beliefs to find grace in difficult times.

Walking through the artifacts, I saw how similar the journey of African Americans is to that of the children of Israel, specifically their progression from slavery in Egypt to their reliance on God as they transitioned to a new life of freedom, that is, until they took their eyes off of God and found themselves once again in captivity to other nations and other gods. But how did they get back in such a predicament?

Psalm 78:2-7 (ESV) reads, “I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings from of old, things that we have heard and known, that our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might, and the wonders that he has done. He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children, that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments…”

And that’s just one of many scriptures that stress the importance of passing down the history and accounts of what God did for His people. See, these stories and accounts kept God’s love, grace, and provision engraved on the Israelites' hearts and minds so that they, and the generations to come, would stay the course and not let their hearts stray away from God (Deuteronomy 6:6-9). Don’t be mistaken, these stories and accounts were not just stories of the blessings of God, but also sobering reminders of the wrath of God when the path of disobedience was chosen. When we stop sharing and passing down this rich history, we become lost and leave ourselves and our future generations without the compass of spirit and truth to navigate life.

As believers and followers of Jesus Christ, it is our job to make sure that our children and our children’s children and the generations thereafter not only know the remarkable stories and history of the Bible, but that they understand why we believe what we believe. Where the Bible leaves off, that is where our living experiences of God’s faithfulness, loving correction, and sovereignty pick up.

So today, I ask, if we don’t tell them, who will? If we don’t teach them, who will? Understand, if we don’t affirm through our history who they are, in and through Christ, then we have left them to be deceived by this world.