Cycles
I have been spending a lot of time this past week or so in the first epistle of St John. Since that is what is on my mind, you get to share a bit of it also. If I had to give John’s little letter a context, it would be a bridge between John’s Gospel and the Revelation. Traditionally, John’s writings are considered to be among the last to be collected for the New Testament. First John (I John) spans the gap from the “In the beginning was the Word” of John’s Gospel, to the “Behold, I am coming soon” of Revelation. If the Gospel of John is the discovery of a savior; Revelation the exhortation to stay the faith through persecutions; I John is the warning of complacency.
This pattern echoes the cyclical history of Israel from the patriarchs to Moses, to Joshua, into Judges, and continuing throughout the Old Testament. By the time of John’s writings, he was the last surviving Apostle. He taught the next generation, and the following generation of the Christian Church. The passion and excitement of the first generation gets watered down by the third generation. “It’s Grandpa’s church and that’s just what we do… you know, tradition.”
The Lord said to Moses:
“You are about to lie down with your fathers, but this people will rise up and prostitute themselves to the foreign gods among them in the land they are about to enter. They will forsake me and break my covenant that I made with them. My anger will burn against them on that day, and I will forsake them and hide my face from them. They will be on the verge of being devoured, and many evils and distresses will find them. They will say on that day, ‘Haven’t these evil things found us because our God is not among us?’ Yet I will hide my face on that day because of all the evil they have done by turning to other gods.
From <https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy%2031&version=EHV>
Joshua said, “Now, therefore, fear the Lord and serve him wholeheartedly and faithfully. Remove the gods that your fathers served in the region across the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if you see no benefit in serving the Lord, then choose for yourselves today whomever you will serve—whether the gods that your fathers served beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household—we will serve the Lord!”
The people responded by saying, “Far be it from us to forsake the Lord in order to serve other gods! For the Lord our God, he is the one who brought us and our ancestors up from the land of Egypt, where we were slaves. He is the one who performed these great signs right before our eyes and protected us on the whole journey that we made and among all the peoples through whom we passed. The Lord drove out of our presence all the peoples and the Amorites who were living in the land. We too will serve the Lord, because he is our God!”
But Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the Lord, because he is a holy God. He is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. If you forsake the Lord and you serve foreign gods, then he will turn and cause disaster for you, and he will put an end to you after he has done good for you.”
From <https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Joshua%2024&version=EHV
After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them, who did not know the Lord or the deeds that he had done for Israel. The people of Israel committed evil in the eyes of the Lord. They served the Baals, and they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods from among the gods of the peoples who were around them. They bowed down to them, and they angered the Lord. They abandoned the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtartes.
So the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and he delivered them into the hand of raiders, who plundered them. He sold them into the hand of their enemies around them, and they were not able to stand up in the face of their enemies. Whenever the men of Israel went out, the hand of the Lord was against them to bring disaster on them, just as the Lord had said to them and just as the Lord had sworn to them. So they were greatly distressed.
Nevertheless, the Lord raised up judges, who saved them from the hand of those who plundered them, but they did not listen even to the judges! Instead, they prostituted themselves to other gods and bowed down to them. They quickly turned from the way in which their fathers, who had obeyed the commands of the Lord, had once walked. This generation did not act the same way their fathers had acted.
Whenever the Lord raised up a judge for them, the Lord was with that judge and saved them from their enemies during all the days of that judge, because the Lord had compassion when he heard their groaning under their tormenters and oppressors.
But then, after the death of the judge, Israel would turn back and become more corrupt than their fathers by going after other gods, by serving them, and by worshipping them. They refused to let go of their practices and their shameless ways.
From <https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Judges%202&version=EHV>
I John address the three generations:
I am writing to you, dear children,
because your sins have been forgiven because of his name.
I am writing to you, fathers,
because you have known him who is from the beginning.
I am writing to you, young men,
because you have overcome the Evil One.
I have written to you, little children,
because you have known the Father.
I have written to you, fathers,
because you have known him who is from the beginning.
I have written to you, young men,
because you are strong,
and the word of God remains in you,
and you have overcome the Evil One.
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, boasting about material possessions—is not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the one who does the will of God remains forever.
From <https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20John+2&version=EHV>
This is the warning from Judges 2. This is the warning from Joshua. This is the warning God gave to Moses.
For your contemplation: where are you in the cycle? Where is the Church in the cycle? Can the cycle ever be completed? Did you notice, I didn’t ask if the cycle can be broken?
Trust the Promises,
Steve Skiver