No new thing under the sun

Today there is a rush to make the most of wind power for generating electricity. But this is nothing new. The technique has been tried and tested long ago, albeit on a smaller scale. Windmills and watermills were once 

vitally important for grinding corn to make flour, before they were replaced by steam-driven and then petrol-driven engines.

Now, with energy sources running out and carbon emissions causing such concern, going back to wind power 

for the production of electricity is a reminder of how things are changing. Perhaps it is the case that the future lies behind us! Going back to the future as it were.

But there is a danger that by looking forwards all the time and having turned our back on the past, we can easily forget what has happened back then and keep repeating

the same mistakes over and over again. Many people choose to live that way, always hoping that something better will happen ‘the next time around’. But a wiser course of action would be to learn from the past and then find a better way of doing things.

Take the case of windmills and wind power. When they were used extensively in the past, that was a time when mankind worked in harmony with nature, using natural sources of energy like wind and water and there was then no question of pollution or environmental damage. It was also a time when the pace of life was slower and when people lived closer together, and more communally than they do nowadays. The past therefore has some important lessons to teach us, if we are willing to learn.

The apostle Paul appealed along similar lines to the believers at Corinth, in ancient Greece, though not about windmills, in (1 Cor. 10:11,12). He reminded them that God had once dealt very severely with the Israelites when they were travelling through the wilderness because of their idolatry and immorality; and such practices were common in Corinth at this time and so the Greek believers in Corinth were in danger of being punished by God

also Paul was referring to events that had happened to the Israelites nearly one thousand five hundred years before, but notice what he said, “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. Therefore, let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall” (1Corinthians 10:11,12 English Standard Version).

In this passage he is saying that we need to take note of events that have happened in the past and to learn from them.

And In this next passage, to his readers at Philippi in Macedonia, in (Phil. 3:13,14), Paul admits there were things he had done in the past that he wanted to forget, but that he had learned from his past mistakes, and that he now intended to live in a way to make up for those past mistakes, by following the example of the Lord Jesus Christ, by saying,

“Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13,14 King James Version).

In this passage Paul likens himself to a runner in a race, who constantly pressed forward towards the winning post and the prize of eternal life in Christ Jesus, but for all of his energetic endeavour going forward, he was not unmindful of what lay behind in the past.

He wanted to learn from his own mistakes and the mistakes and experiences of others who had run the same race before him, as recorded in God’s Word the Bible, especially that of the example of God’s Beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, that through grace he might attain unto the prize held out before him, and to everyone else that runs in this race for life, that of being bestowed with righteousness and immortality and a place in God’s Kingdom upon the earth at Jesus’ return.