Not Woke: On the Wrong Side of History

 

We often hear the phrase, On the wrong side of history. Maybe you have been told you are on the wrong side of history. The rise of the millennial generation, the progressive movement, even education, and especially culture accuses us who are approaching or in the final season of our lives of being on the wrong side of history. We are not woke enough.

Undoubtedly this could be said of many of God’s people down through the ages. Take Amos the sheepherder. God called Amos to stand before the king and speak against him. Amos was not only on the wrong side of history; he was in the wrong country. He was from the tiny village of Tekoa, six miles south of Bethlehem near Hebron, in Judah. God sent him to the king of Israel, the northern kingdom. He even found himself in the wrong city, Bethel. Hoshea called it BETH AVEN (‘house of harlotry’). And the wrong spot, the royal residence of the evil King Jeroboam II. Israel was experiencing great prosperity and the message Amos was sent to give was not what anyone wanted to hear. He was on the wrong side of history.

Jeremiah was another individual who found himself on the wrong side of history approximately sixty years after Amos. He was in the right place, Jerusalem, at the right time, the righteous reign of a young godly king of Judah at a time of outward reformation that was imposed by edict on an idolatrous nation.

Still, Jeremiah was on the wrong side of history. The young king, Joash, foolishly went to war against the king of Egypt who had no quarrel with Judah. He was killed in the battle. Thus, ended the reformation and Judah sank down into the muck once again with the rise of Joash’s son, Jehoiakim, who had learned nothing from his father. Jehoiakim was all in for himself. He was forced to tax Judah heavily to pay for peace with Pharaoh Necho of Egypt. To this, he added an additional tax to pay for his own lavish lifestyle and to build a great palace for himself.

Jeremiah was called by God to speak against the king and his court including, priests, contemporary prophets, and the people. He was not a popular guy. Most who find themselves on the wrong side of history are not. At one point, he was imprisoned. Another time, he was stuck up to his armpits in ooze at the bottom of a well. Eventually, God delivered Jeremiah and sent him to safety in Egypt while Jerusalem and Judah were destroyed.

Are you feeling, or have you been told, that as a Christian you are on the wrong side of history? You may feel like you are. In fact, God’s people, since Adam and Eve, have always been on the wrong side of history. We need to see history as life under the sun, to use Solomon’s perspective on life. Under the sun history is not “His story.” It is man’s story and it is a grim story at that. Only God knows how it will end. He has given us strong clues in His Word. We must wait for the unfolding of man’s story. God already knows because He is beyond time, the Alpha and Omega. Therefore we must follow Him, putting our trust in what He has sovereignly determined and what He has revealed through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Being on the wrong side of history may bring happiness or sorrow, pain or pleasure, acceptance or rejection. But we must not attempt to get on the right side of history because, while it may appear that the world will escape the consequences of its corruption and rebellion against the truth God has revealed regarding His plan for human history, it will not escape

Will God allow persecution for the glorious name of our Lord Christ Jesus? Maybe. Regardless of what the future brings, we must stand up for Christ and for one another as God’s witness to a dying world.