Thinking Too Short

One of the complaints of Malachi in the second chapter of his prophecy is the loss of a timeless viewpoint.

Across the entire Ancient Near East, it was a mark of maturity and good education if you placed yourself in a stream of very, very long history. You stood on very ancient ground, and your choices could either smooth the way, or make unnecessary challenges for those who come behind you.

In Malachi’s time — roughly 400 BC — the Hebrew nation had already used up 1000 years from the Exodus (roughly 1400 BC), and had not improved on the legacy of Moses. The ancient Exodus leader stood on a very solid foundation, with both Egyptian and Aramaic education, forty years of each. His career started at age 80. Every step of the way, it was obvious that Moses was deeply aware of his place in history. This was not his time to seize upon personal opportunity; it was his time to set the course for the future in the right direction. He endured hostility and privation for the sake of God’s calling.

By the time the nation had survived a millennium, it had frittered it all of that away. The people were persistently given over to their short-term physical comfort. There were no people left who looked at life the way Moses did. With the legacy of their national history, they had not pushed ahead on the same path, but had gone back to slavery.

And if Malachi’s complaint was justified, even more is it so today. We’ve had twice as long with Christian faith — two millennia — and nobody is talking about how to handle privation and hostility for a divine mission calling. There is no sense of “prime directive” based on Biblical Law. Well, you can bet the Enemy’s people have it. The upper ranks of Satan’s children do operate from a multi-generational perspective. They work specifically to deny that kind of approach to those they regard as lesser beings.

This is why everything in our culture aims at inculcating a short-term orientation. Instead of asking how your choices will affect your grandchildren, in terms of defilement of blessing, everything encourages us to think in terms of just a few years at most. Everything we touch is imbued with a very close horizon.

The greatest power of Biblical Law is how it keeps working to bless centuries later. Mankind might forget who we were or what we did, but God remembers. He sees and knows what is in our hearts, and savors it far into the future. You are and I facing tribulation and persecution. If we get too focused on our own discomfort, we will never understand how God works in this world.

Let’s make Radix Fidem something that keeps changing lives into another millennium.