Why Study History Practically?

Meditation on Statues

What is the purpose of statues? In the United States, we have many statues that we visit, take pictures and sometimes even contemplate their structure, but what is their chief end? There are many different statues with many different purposes, but the chief end is to commemorate or to bring us to remembrance. The Lincoln memorial was meant to commemorate the life and importance of Abraham Lincoln. So when we truly engage with the statue we should be contemplating: the divided nation, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the Civil war along with many lost lives. It’s a way to engage history in a very tactile way. This is why I think God introduced the Feast of Booths.

From Statues to Celebrations

The Feast of Booths was a celebration by the Old Testament Israelites where they would go out of their house (once they had entered the land) and live in temporary shelters (booths) for seven days. Honestly, if someone observed me going out of my comfortable house for a portable hut, they would think I was out of my mind. The main idea of this is conveyed to us in Leviticus 23:43, “so that your generations may know that I (God, not me) made the sons of Israel live in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt.” So, to commemorate the Israelites victory in Egypt then to commemorate the journey to the promise land. This type of celebration seems to suggest that all the Israelites taking part in the feast would recall all the sensory details from the generation of the trek. The sight of innumerable soldiers charging into battle as the Egyptians charge the Israelites during their escape, the sound of thunder crashing through the sky in Mount Sinai, odor of other traveling Israelites, the taste of the manna which was sweet like honey, and the feel of dust and sand invading every little pore on your body. Not only that, but the celebrating Israelites would remember the events of the journey to the promise land. The crossing of the Red Sea, the accepting of the Mosaic Covenant, the making of the golden calf, the census and the failure to take the land of Canaan. All memories both good and bad. This would help the Israelites to be brave in battle, abhor idols and of course look forward to the Messiah who would tabernacle with their sons.

So Why Study History?

As we all know, the Israelites would not seek wisdom and did worse than their ancestors. So, why study history? Because our first priority in studying history should be to study it so we do not make the same mistakes again. The ancient Greek view of history is that events in history occurs in cycles. Personally, I think when we do not learn from history, time does end up becoming a cycle of problematic events. The prime examples are the Jews in the New Testament. When the Jews disobeyed God in the Old Testament and refused to be “healed” (Isaiah 6:8) they were destroyed by the Babylonians and in the New Testament, they refused to be “healed” (John 12:40) and the Romans were sent to destroy them. When we do what we need to, the cycle is broken and we are spared from destruction. Do you have cycles of embarrassing sins in your life? Do these sins bring up too much pain to remember them? Do not bury them. Look at them with the light of Scripture and uproot those sins in your life. “Kill sin or it will kill you!”

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