Learning from Mistakes

Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread. Marvin Williams wrote today's reading, and he titled it Learning from Mistakes. To help avoid future financial mistakes, such as those in 1929 and 2008 that brought down the world's economy, the Library of Mistakes was founded in Edinburgh, Scotland.

It features a collection of more than 2,000 books that can help educate the next generation of economists. And it serves as a perfect example of how, according to the Library's curators, smart people keep doing stupid things. The curators believe that the only way to build a strong economy is to learn from prior mistakes. Paul reminded the Corinthians that one way to avoid yielding to temptation and to have a strong spiritual life is to learn from the mistakes of God's people in the past. So to make sure that they wouldn't become overconfident with their spiritual privilege, the apostles used ancient Israel's failures as an example from which to gain wisdom. The Israelites engaged in idolatry, chose to commit sexual immorality, grumbled about the plans and purposes of God, and rebelled against his leaders. Due to their sin, they experienced his discipline. Paul presented these historical examples from Scripture to help believers in Jesus avoid repeating Israel's mistakes. As God helps us, let's learn from our mistakes and those made by others so that we might gain a heart of obedience for him.

Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is drawn from 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verses 1 through 11. For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them.

Their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. Do not be idolaters, as some of them were.

As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry. We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day 23,000 of them died. We should not test Christ, as some of them did, and were killed by snakes. And do not grumble, as some of them did, and were killed by the destroying angel.

These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come. Would you pray with me? Heavenly Father, would you please help us to learn from our failures and the failures of others and the biblical examples so that we might be more obedient to you. Thank you, Lord. It is for your glory, and it's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen.