perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the
people stood to the covenant.” (Ibid. 23:3)
So the Lord is forgiving to those who “forget the law,” as long as they repent
and obey. But how much are we challenged today – not only in our own lives
but throughout our increasingly secular culture – when we forget the Lord?
The Word is filled with warnings – and hope. How many times did the
Children of Israel forget and stray – after being warned to “remember the
law”? They even begged Aaron to make them a golden calf while Moses was
gone for 40 days and nights receiving the Ten Commandments. Still they were
allowed to enter the Promised Land. But the danger of forgetting God always
hangs over us.
Consider the perspective of Russian literary giant Alexander Solzhenitsyn
when he was awarded the Templeton Prize in Philadelphia in 1983:
“Over half a century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number
of older people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had
befallen Russia: ‘Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened.’
“Since then I have spent well-nigh 50 years working on the history of our
revolution; in the process I have read hundreds of books, collected hundreds
of personal testimonies, and have already contributed eight volumes of my
own toward the effort of clearing away the rubble left by the upheaval.
“But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main
cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our
people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: ‘Men have forgotten
God; that is why all this has happened.’”
(BMH)
beware dragons on gentle slopes
Among the many haunting images in 19 th of June pageants from the Book of
Revelation is the evil dragon threatening to devour the child of the Woman
Clothed with the Sun. She is given the wings of an eagle to escape into the
wilderness, where she is nourished and protected “for a time, and times, and
half a time.”
We are told in the Writings that this is all about the beginning of the New
Church, in heaven and on earth. But like this sacred woman, we are never
completely safe from the dragons in this world.
When the woman was carried off to safety, the dragon “went to make war
with the remnant of her seed” – meaning all those who keep the commandments
of the Lord.
There are beasts and dragons all around us – false gods trying to destroy
innocent people. Their relentless efforts to make people doubt and go against
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