Deuteronomy 29 SEEN, YET NOT SEEN The learning process takes a lot of time because the natural heart of man is very self-centered and independent. The experiences of the people of God have often been told us and have been reviewed from time to time, but each succeeding generation seems to think the things that happened to others will never happen to them. Examples of God's dealing with Israel are written in the Bible so we can learn from them and not make the same mistakes they did. But many who should know better because they have been taught the truth of God from their youth will say, "The Old Testament is not for us. That was for those who lived before Christ came. I am not going to waste my time reading the Old Testament." That attitude is one which is not uncommon among those who have a wrong understanding of God. God is revealed to us in many important and impacting ways in the Old Testament that will do us good to review often lest we sin against Him. The God of the Old Testament is the God of the New Testament. He is the same and His character and judgments do not change. Fortunately, we are living in this day when the Gospel of God's grace is being preached to people all over the world. In Old Testament times, even as today, "In every nation, he that feareth God and worketh righteousness, is accepted by Him." God has always had those people who believed in Him by faith "without the works of the law." Those people have believed on Him and come to Him by faith based on the light God has given them.
Strangely, many who have been blessed and favored, like the Israelites, have taken God for granted or formed their own opinions as to who He is and what He is like. The children of Israel had seen evidence of God working on their behalf when the plagues fell on the Egyptians and they were freed after 400 years of bondage. They had crossed the Red Sea on dry land, been fed with manna from heaven, had their thirst quenched with water flowing out of a rock. There had been to them miraculous victories over their enemies. Their shoes and clothes had not worn out. Time after time God had been disobeyed and yet He was gracious and continued to bless them. Many of the new generation had heard these stories from those who had experienced the events but for some reason it did not always resonate with them. They had seen the results of disobedience when they buried their parents in the wilderness. They had not seen God physically because they would have died before His holiness, but they had experienced the evidence of God with them every day. How often we have experienced God working for us in our daily living and in the work in which we have been involved! How many times we have thanked Him for His grace and longsuffering toward us! Yet there is even with us who know Him personally, the tendency to take all His benefits for granted. "O that men would praise Him; for His wonderful works to the children of men!"
In spite of all we have experienced and been able to pass on as best we can to our children and their children, we cannot make it real to them. For some reason, almost always, they think they have to find out for themselves, everything they have been taught by us. The learning process goes all the way back to square one, and each generation goes through the same things the one before them went through.
The children of Israel had been taught the abominations of idol worship and what would happen to their own children if they got mixed up with the world-system, but they did not learn. Consequently, the evils of the cosmos came home to roost right among their own families. The problems still remain: the things that are seen are more important to most people than the things that are not seen. Physical eyesight has claimed the attention of those who knew the blessings of living by faith, but were never willing to have their eyes anointed with heavenly "eye-salve." The result is, and will continue to be, the generations ahead will go farther and farther away from God, and the influence of godliness will become less and less.
When people cannot see beyond what is physical and fleshly, and do not act with faith in God, they begin to experience the difficulties God promised would follow unbelief. The attention given to that which is able to be seen outweighs the actions of faith in God. The things that are eternal are ignored - like truth, holiness, love, grace and mercy - and are supplanted by money, possessions, physical pleasure, visible attractions, and even religious buildings and symbols take the place of God in human hearts and minds. The fact that God means what He says, escapes them until there is physical pain sent along and a person says in the middle of the night, "O God, help me!" If the pain is gone by morning, seldom do people stop to give God thanks and respond with worship and faith. Success in business is claimed for one's self because they were "shrewd" in dealing with others. When riches increase their attention is focused on more riches, until all is lost and then they blame God for wars and events that caused them to lose what they thought they had.
When a person begins to take God, His will, and His Word for granted, and ignore the truths they have been taught, they begin to think, "Not to worry. God, if there is one, is merciful. He wouldn't dare make anything bad happen to me." They have not remembered or paid attention to the warnings given by those who taught them: God does what He says. They have not personally experienced what happens when God turns away from His own people, or steps in to chastise them in order to change their behavior. Even though others have experienced the "Chastening hand of the Lord," they do not believe it will ever happen to them. It is hard for parents and spiritual fathers to watch what happens to disobedient children. But we have to leave them to God who knows who they are and what needs to be done to correct their behavior. "Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth," and we have to be content with that even though it is hard to watch.
We teach those we love and seek to help along in their spiritual life, the fact that there are lasting seriously bad consequences when a person goes their own way. This happened to the nation of Israel, and they became the focus of attention of other nations because of their great fall from God's favor. For hundreds of years, that nation has been hunted and haunted as a result of their disobedience to God. He still loves them in a special way but that does not make them exempt from His chastening. The principle remains, "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." We don't give up on our wandering children because of evidence of their disobedience. We don't stop loving them even though we hate what they are doing. All we can do for those who ignore, resist and reject what they have been taught, is to pray as intercessors for them and leave them to a righteous, loving and gracious God who knows what is best for them.
It is often startling and disturbing for the people of God to experience what unbelievers with say and do to them. Just because believers do not go along with the popular trends of the day, they often will find themselves the objects of scorn at first. Then comes derision, opposition and persecution. When the saints of God, will not accept the laws men make as superior in authority to God's laws, there may be the force of human government turned against the people of God. Some of those attitudes already are happening as religious groups that will not accept the Bible as authoritative. When it comes to truth, they will attack the Christians in an attempt to stop the power of the Gospel. We may never know why God allows difficulties to happen to His people because "the secret things belong to God." However, the things He has revealed to us, need to be passed on to our children so they will do what is right by repenting and believing the Gospel. Then we need to urge them to follow the Lord and help them to yield to God's Word and please Him when they live by faith.