A New Year For New Beginnings – Or Is It History Repeating?

Word-Of-The-Day: ‘(23) <God said to Jeremiah,> ”But I gave them this command: Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in obedience to all I command you, that it may go well with you. (24) But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubborn inclinations of their evil hearts. They went backward and not forward.”’ (Jeremiah 7:23-24); ‘What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.’ (Ecclesiastes 1:9)

A new year, we believe, brings new beginnings.  As we enter 2026, many of us have made ‘resolutions’ to start anew the efforts to better exercise, maintain healthy diets, watch less TV, and break bad habits while trying to establish better ones.  Unfortunately, we do this at the start of every new year and for most of us we fail and fall back quickly into being couch potatoes eating our tasty but unhealthy snacks while binge-watching movies and shows. 

However, we may, in the several resolutions we make, have one stick long enough to make it into a new habit.  Perhaps it’s faithfully reading your Bible daily and daily devotionals, or simply starting to go to church each Sunday, for example.  If one thing sticks, out of all the resolutions we fail to realize, we make progress.

This is how it has been in the history of man.  We have never-ending cycles that repeat over the centuries, never heeding that one warning that God provides in today’s Scriptural references, namely, ‘those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it’.  Last year, our Pastor’s sermon series on Judges pointed out how the Israelites, after taking possession of Canaan, repeated the cycle of calling upon the Lord for His blessings, receiving those blessings, then in those blessings turning to ‘self’ and slipping away from the Lord in worshipping idols, only to fall into despair after suffering the consequences.

This didn’t just happen to the Jews, but also the Gentiles in a more secular cycle of: 1. Hard Times create Strong People; 2. Strong People create Good Times; 3. Good Times create Weak People; 4. Weak People create Hard Times.  In both the Jew and the Gentile, though, one constant can be found – both cycles begin anew when God is ignored.  The ‘Hard Times’ start when ‘Weak People’ think that they do not need or want God and His provisions.  They fail to follow either God’s principles, or even their own principles, of Righteousness and in their ungodly actions end up destroying most of the societal gains made.

Throughout history, the pattern repeats.  For the Israelites, the example is the entire Old Testament, not just Judges.  Adam & Eve start with Good Times in Eden; they become Weak (selfishly wanting the fruit) and commit the first sin in Genesis 3, and create for themselves Hard Times.  They lose the blessings once given and must build themselves up to be Strong People to attempt to have a semblance of the ‘Good Times’ they once enjoyed.  This repeats over the course of Genesis, as Adam’s descendants work to create Good Times, to the point the people begin to forget God and sin to the point where God appoints the one Righteous man remaining, Noah, to build an ark as Hard Times fall as rain (literally).

We find the pattern in ancient Rome, where the people built the first Republic out of sound principles, but without the knowledge or following of the one true God fell into that self-defeating cycle as the Republic became an Empire, eventually weakening and splitting in two, and then both the Western and Eastern Empires fell.  We have seen the United States at least twice go through the cycle; the Revolutionary War brought forth our nation, our nation prospers but through the scourge of slavery falls into Civil War. 

Out of Civil War the nation rebuilds, but progressivism and greed bring the Great Depression.  The second World War makes the United States into becoming a ‘superpower’, but we turn away from being a Christian-based nation and begin to fall – by way of our excesses – into a hedonistic, selfish society that forgets our God and today we have the turmoil built upon the principles of ‘self’ and not of Righteousness.

But with each cycle, man retains something to build upon.  We can again improve upon what we lost if we return to worshipping and following God through His Son and our Savior Jesus, both individually and corporately as a people, not just in the United States but throughout the world. 

Jeremiah 7:23-24 provides the clue; if we fail to follow the Word, we fall into our own evil pit that we dig ourselves into.  But when we follow the Word and the Righteousness it brings, we gain a way to climb out of the pit and return to solid ground.  To keep us and our children from falling back into the ditch we dug, we must keep ourselves in the Word, and teach our children to follow the Word and act Righteously.

Make all the resolutions you need to, and prayerfully you succeed in accomplishing each one.  But make one resolution this year stick – follow Jesus, study the Word, stay in fellowship with other Faithful followers, teach your children Righteousness and be a reflection of Jesus through your actions – be Strong in Faith no matter whether the times are Good or Hard.  We can break the cycle if we remain Faithful in God!