Old and New Treasures
how our lives are like building on ancient cities
Family Histories
Growing up is a fascinating experiment of mixing the old with the new. Now that I’m a parent, some things my parents did make sense and I replicate them. Other things they did don’t make sense or aren’t something I could replicate even if I wanted. I don’t have as much oomph as my parents did. In that case, I must try something new.
History seems to unfold similarly. Each society builds upon the one that came before, replicating some things and changing others.
I’m halfway through a rather tedious book called Archeology of the Land of the Bible: 10,000-586 B.C.E. by Amihai Mazar. It’s a book that helps me nod off at bedtime, but I’ve also learned many fascinating things. One such thing is that whole societies came and went before Abraham stepped onto the scene. Around 2000 B.C.E. in the soon-to-be Promise Land, a huge hierarchical urban culture with city-states was replaced by an egalitarian pastoral society without much of a political system.1 Then after the time of Abraham there’s archeological evidence that Egyptians ruled various towns in the Promise Land.
When new societies replaced the old ones, they rebuilt some structures, reused others, and removed others.
This all reminds me of how we might use history: our family’s history, country’s history, church history, and the social history in the Bible. We decide to replicate some things. We decide to cast off other things. And we decide to build upon still other things. It’s like what Jesus says in Matthew 13:52:
“Therefore every teacher of the law who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.” (NIV)
History in the Bible
When reading the Bible, we discover various case studies of how God interacted with various people. Through God’s interactions with these people, we see glimpses of Sumerian, Jewish, Egyptian, Philistine, Babylon, Assyrian, and Greco-Roman social structures, medical practices, home life, government, and scientific beliefs. These societies were the backdrop over which God revealed Himself.
God used various cultural norms to demonstrate His justice, mercy, and compassion to various people. We get to see glimpses of what it meant for these people to work out God’s laws in their societies.
None of this means we must replicate the Bible’s social structures, medical practices, or scientific understandings. That would be silly. That would be like restricting our building materials to what we could find in old archeology. Rather, history, including the social practices in the Bible, Church History, and our forefathers are old treasures to bring out at the right time.
Moral Law versus Social Practice
How do we know what treasure to bring out and when? Perhaps the best indication that something is a social practice and not a timeless moral law is when that practice doesn’t treat others how we’d like to be treated.
When our application of something in the Bible stunts another’s spiritual maturity, crushes another’s spirit, diminishes another’s work, puffs us up over others, encourages trust in men instead of God, divides what God intended to unite, devalues children, excludes the unusual, cheapens another’s work, belittles or patronizes another, we’re probably not using our treasures correctly. We may be misapplying a Biblical cultural norm instead of understanding the God who worked in that ancient culture. We might also be idolizing one of God’s laws over the others. Or we may be seeking our own purposes instead of God’s purposes.
Confession: I do this rather often with my kids. To not waste food, I neglect mercy. To ensure respect, I overuse my authority. Sometimes I shut down their new ideas because they feel like a threat to my way of thinking.
Old Treasure
So, if we aren’t supposed to replicate the social norms in the Bible, Church history, or our culture’s history, what are we supposed to do with these stories?
Recall that the societies in the Bible are like the backdrop behind which God revealed himself to the Jews. We don’t have to speak Hebrew or practice ancient Jewish customs to know God. However, learning the language and culture helps us understand what God was doing with Israel in the Bible. Likewise understanding our country’s history, helps us see how God has been working in our country. Learning our parents’ family culture can help us understand how God was working in our parents’ lives when we were little.
Once we understand the context of these cultures, we can use history like old treasures. This is how those people followed God. How will we build upon Israel’s history? How will we build upon Church History? How will I build upon my family’s history?
To view history like old treasure, doesn’t mean we white-wash it or paint people with pure motives. Nor do we shame, blame, or condescend our parents, Colonial America, Church History, or ancient Biblical practices. People of the past were doing the best they could with what they knew. We have more treasure than they do because we have more access to more history. With our treasure troves of historical case studies, we can discover new treasures for today.
We can choose what social practices we want to keep, what to throw out, and what to build upon. And the building is always for the sake of loving the people right in front of us. The old and new treasures unite us with our families, friends, fellow believers, and lost sheep. They help us treat others as we would like to be treated in this culture right now.
God is doing a new thing! And he gives us the treasures we need to do it.
To read more like this, click a link below.
Mazar, Amihai. Archeology of the Land of the Bible: 10,000-586 B.C.E. (New York: Doubleday, 1990.) Pg 170.
Interesting!