Four Modern-Day Lessons From Ancient Israel

Roughly 3,500 years ago, some things happened to some people who have long since died and most of whose names we don’t even know.

I’m here to tell you why you should care.

When Paul wrote to the Corinthian congregation, he pointed them toward the recorded history of ancient Israel, explaining that Israel’s repeated failings “became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted” (1 Corinthians 10:6).

On their way out of Egypt, the Israelites worshipped false gods (verse 7), engaged in licentious sexual acts (verse 8), put God to the test (verse 9) and seemed to generally complain at the slightest provocation (verse 10).

It’s not an accident that we know all this. Here’s Paul again:

“Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come” (verse 11, English Standard Version).

For our instruction.

All of history has lessons to teach, but Israel’s history is so important, so valuable in terms of the instruction it offers us, that God personally ensured those stories were preserved over the course of literal millennia.

For us.

If we aren’t taking the time to learn from that history, we are missing out on the lessons God Himself wants to teach us. And that’s the worst kind of past to repeat.

So what can we learn from the pages of Israel’s ancient past? Plenty. Here are four of those vitally important lessons:

1. God plays the long game

If you became an ant, the things that seem small to you now would suddenly become giant. A coffee cup would become a cavern. A basketball would become a planet. A french fry would become a feast.

Except .  . . the objects wouldn’t really change at all, would they?

Just you—and the way you perceive them.

Time is kind of like that. With our life expectancy of 70-plus years, a century sounds like a huge chunk of time. Our long-term plans are measured in years or decades—but not God’s.

The book of Exodus starts off with Israel in bondage to Egypt and crying out for God’s deliverance. And over the next several books of the Bible, we get to follow along with the fledgling nation on its way to Canaan—a destination often referred to as the Promised Land.

But promised to who?

For that, we need to flip backward to Genesis. That’s where God promises Abraham, “Know this for certain: Your offspring will be resident aliens for four hundred years in a land that does not belong to them and will be enslaved and oppressed. However, I will judge the nation they serve, and afterward they will go out with many possessions. But you will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure” (Genesis 15:13-16, Christian Standard Bible).

Given time, a stream can carve through the hardest stone. Allowing the wrong attitudes, influences and activities into our lives will inevitably do the same to us. God made a promise to Abraham that required Abraham to look far beyond the boundaries of his own life—400 years into the future, when the multitudinous descendants of his own as-yet nonexistent child would march out of crippling oppression and into a land of their own.

Abraham was just a man and still without an heir, but God was already looking ahead to the great nation that would one day trace its lineage back to him.

Humans don’t naturally think on that scale. We’re ants.

God thinks about millennia. Eons. Eternity.

We couldn’t comprehend that kind of scale if it bit us. But that’s the brush God routinely paints with.

The Bible tells us that Jesus Christ’s sacrifice was planned “from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8)—not an afterthought, not a course-correction, but the plan from the beginning.

This first lesson from ancient Israel’s history—or, more accurately, from the history of how ancient Israel was given a history—reminds us that God works on a scale our limited human perspective can never fully grasp.

What does that mean?

It means we have to trust that He can see things we can’t. He can plan for eventualities we haven’t even begun to daydream about.

Sometimes, from our antlike perspective, the reasons for the decisions He makes might not seem clear to us—but we can always trust that there is a reason. More than that, we can trust that it’s the best reason.

2. Remember why you’re different

True to His word, four centuries after His promise to Abraham, God sent the nation of Israel to drive out the wicked nations of Canaan and claim the land as their promised inheritance.

Crucially, Israel was supposed to be different from the nations they were driving out. They were supposed to be an example, a proof of concept, showcasing what life looks like when people obey God’s instructions. This would make them different from any other nation on the planet—a truly unique people defined by their obedience to God’s laws.

At the border of Canaan, Moses reminded the Israelites: “So be sure to do them, because this will testify of your wise understanding to the people who will learn of all these statutes and say, ‘Indeed, this great nation is a very wise people’” (Deuteronomy 4:6, NET Bible).

One of the things that made Israel different was the absence of a king. God gave them no human ruler because He was to be their King. His presence was with them in the holy place of the tabernacle, and He conveyed His instructions through His messengers.

But being different is hard—and in time, Israel caved to the pressure. They demanded a king, “that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles” (1 Samuel 8:19-20).

They didn’t want to be different anymore. They weren’t interested in being God’s model nation; they were interested in being like the world around them. And the more they swept the things that made them different under the rug, the farther they got from the God who made them different.

If we’re not careful, we can do the same.

Being different is hard, and living according to God’s way of life invariably makes us different. We will never fit in with a world that rejects God—the more we try to align ourselves with His instructions, the more pressure we’ll feel to give in and “be like all the nations.”

But we’re different because we’ve been given something precious. Something worth treasuring.

Moses continued by asking Israel, “For what great nation is there that has God so near to it, as the LORD our God is to us, for whatever reason we may call upon Him? And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law which I set before you this day? Only take heed to yourself, and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life” (Deuteronomy 4:7-9).

God’s Sabbaths, His holy days, His standards for how to live our lives—these aren’t just things we do, but things that define who we are.

Don’t let the world pressure you into giving that up.

3. Clear out what God says to clear out

It’s important to hold onto the things God gives us—but on the flip side of that same coin, it’s also important to get rid of the things God says to get rid of.

Israel failed on that front repeatedly.

The nations that God had marked for destruction and expulsion from Canaan? Over and over, the Bible highlights that Israel failed to drive them out of the land (Joshua 13:13; 16:10; 17:13; Judges 1:21, 27-28, 32).

Those nations hung around within Israel’s borders. Their corrupt practices (which included child sacrifice, see Deuteronomy 12:31) continued to bleed into and mingle with Israel’s own culture, leaving God’s people increasingly comfortable with pagan abominations.

God tasked Israel with destroying the “high places”—hot spots for pagan worship—of Canaan (Numbers 33:52). Instead, they incorporated the high places (and the pagan practices found there) into their own worship of God—and an increasing pantheon of idols.

God tells us to get rid of things for a reason. Holding onto them comes with long-lasting and far-reaching consequences. As Israel’s history shows, keeping those influences around will change us—no matter how strong or impervious we think we are.

Given time, a stream can carve through the hardest stone. Allowing the wrong attitudes, influences and activities into our lives will inevitably do the same to us.

4. Unwavering faithfulness doesn’t mean unlimited time

God is patient.

Incredibly patient. Patient in ways we can’t fathom and don’t deserve.

He always leaves repentance on the table as an option for us (1 John 1:9). When we come to Him looking for forgiveness for our sins, with a desire to bring our lives into alignment with His commandments, we will always find the forgiveness and assistance we need.

More than that, He extends this patience to the entire world, “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). In this life or the next, everyone who has ever lived will have the opportunity to understand what he or she needs to do to be part of the incredible future God has in store for us. (For more on this, read “Are Most People Eternally Lost?”)

But there’s a limit to that patience.

God spent centuries sending messenger after messenger to urge His people back onto the right track, but Israel ultimately refused to listen (Jeremiah 7:25; 32:33; etc.). Instead, they doubled down on their disobedience.

God lamented, “They enthroned kings without my consent! They appointed princes without my approval! They made idols out of their silver and gold, but they will be destroyed!” (Hosea 8:4, NET Bible).

Their hearts were set on disobeying God. And so the nation of ancient Israel—a nation called by God’s name, a nation that was supposed to show the whole world the blessings that come from obedience to God—was ultimately delivered by God into captivity and destruction.

God is patient. But eventually, we have to make a decision. Will we obey God or not? Are we serious about His way of life, or are we unwilling to commit?

God gives us every opportunity to succeed—but He won’t wait forever.

Hope for Israel and a choice for us

Ultimately, there’s still hope for ancient Israel. They didn’t have access to God’s Spirit the way His people do today. They had a “heart of stone” (Ezekiel 36:26) that made it difficult for them to truly embrace what God was showing them. The whole chapter of Ezekiel 37 talks about a time when they will be restored to life and given the opportunity to understand and repent.

But for those of us who follow God today—who can have God’s Spirit placed within us (Ezekiel 36:26-27) through the process of repentance and baptism—we have a choice to make.

Or rather, a choice to continue to make.

About 3,500 years ago, some things happened to some people who have long since died and most of whose names we don’t even know. If we want, we can ignore the lessons they’ve left behind and pay the steep price of that ignorance—or we can listen up and learn.

God knows where all this is going. If we’re willing to embrace being different and reject the things He warns us about, refusing to play games with His incredible mercy, we are well on our way to a future where “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:4).

Let’s learn from the past on our journey toward that future.

Read more in our booklet God’s Purpose for You.