Bottom line up front: It is cliche now because Santayana’s words are repeated so often: “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it,” but how much more important is it that Christians learn from the history of redemption? Here’s what I mean.

Examples: I was again reading through 1 Chronicles in the Old Testament. It is admittedly not the most enjoyable part of Scripture. It is just what its name denotes–a chronicle, so there is a great deal of recordings of lineages, family lines, and data. But it also contains some magnificent insights, but you have to pay attention. It is important to keep in mind the teaching of the New Testament, and how it fulfills the Old Testament and explains it: “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Rom 15:4, ESV). Written for our instruction. That is key. Written for our instruction.

The early parts of 1 Chronicles focus upon Saul as an example of a wicked king, a wicked ruler, a shell of a man. Saul was in it for Saul, not for the Lord. Saul was a judgment upon the people for their trusting in man rather than in the Lord:

Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah and said to him, “Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.” But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed to the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you. Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.” (1 Sam 8:4-9, ESV)

By the time we get to 1 Chronicles, Saul has been revealed to the discerning to have been a wicked man, a duplicitous leader, an insecure person, and a judgment upon the people. He hates David because he knows David is God’s man and he (Saul) cannot bear it.

Saul is later wounded in battle and eventually commits suicide, but even that was under the sovereignty of God: “So Saul died for his breach of faith. He broke faith with the Lord in that he did not keep the command of the Lord, and also consulted a medium, seeking guidance. He did not seek guidance from the Lord. Therefore the Lord put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David the son of Jesse” (1 Ch 10:13-14, ESV). Writtten for our instruction.

Encouragement/takeaway: It connects so appropriately to our day, does it not? California is burning up because of the policies of the Left, but the locals reinstall the same failures in office to be their career politicians, their Sauls. Meanwhile, the earth literally is scorched. Yet the people don’t learn. God ordains Sauls in our lives in order to awaken us, to “quicken” us, to say, “You are being used as fools and the sufferings are to lead you to repentance and faith in the truth. Will we learn from history? Will we see that these things are written, as it were, for our instruction–or will we watch it all burn? Because as Scripture reminds us time and time again: “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked . . .” (Gal 6:7, ESV).