Wednesday 26 November 2025
Remember the days of old, consider the years long past; ask your father, and he will inform you; your elders, and they will tell you. (v. 7)
Background
These verses are the first half of a song which Moses gives at the end of his ministry, as he has presented the five books of the Law. It is Moses' farewell song and it gives advice because he knows what the people are like and that they will make some of the same mistakes they’ve made before. He is emphasising the importance of knowing their history in order to try and avoid some of the mistakes they have made in the past, and to see what good practice is.
Often we can reminisce with rose-tinted spectacles but that is not what Moses is doing here. He is putting it bluntly, but poetically, based on his long experience as a leader. He is saying that we need to remember what it used to be like, how hard it was, and the mistakes that made it harder through our communal disobedience. We also need to remember the ways we made life easier, through obeying the Lord’s commands.
We need not only to ask what the past was like, but why it was like that. Explanation of the past is needed, so we can understand its complexities and nuances and not fall into the trap of easy nostalgia.
To Ponder:
- Do you know what church leaders of the past had to face and how they used the skills God had given them? What can we learn from talking to older, perhaps retired, people and asking them to explain what they did?
- How do we avoid rose-tinting the past and falling into easy nostalgia about what the country, the Church, and lay or ordained ministry used to be like?
Bible notes author: Sally Rush
Sally is a Learning & Development Officer in the Methodist Connexional Team.