Learning from the past

There is Biblical support for the principle of learning from former generations. The Book of Job expresses it clearly when it says; 'Ask the former generations and find out what their fathers learned, for we were born only yesterday and know nothing.'1. Jeremiah speaks about the same issue. ‘This is what the LORD says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.’2. 

There can be a tendency, that in wanting to be culturally relevant for our own time, we ignore what has happened in the past. There are many easy pitfalls into which one can fall when looking into history to learn lessons for the present day. One of the most obvious is ‘when we talk about the past…we inevitably project our perspectives into the past.’3. This tendency can be exaggerated to the point where ‘we are more interested in the retrospective significance of a given episode than its meaning for the agent at the time.’4.

However, Scripture also teaches us 'Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing!' 5. How do we reconcile the seemingly contradictory commands to both remember and forget? Perhaps we need to realise that the past is a great place to visit but not a very good place to live. The past is meant to be a place from which we can learn but not one that we should attempt to copy or replicate. 

1. Job 8:8-9

2.Jeremiah 6:16

3. Bradley, J.B. and Muller, R.A., Church History: An Introduction to Research, Reference Works and Methods, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1995, p.33

4. Skinner, Q., Regarding Method (Visions of Politics Volume 1), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2002, p.73

5. Isaiah 43:18,19