Old Tradition
By Grant Gaines
Have you ever wondered why we all sing “Happy Birthday” and celebrate someone’s birthday with a birthday cake? It’s pretty crazy to think about. We come from different families, geographical locations, social classes, and religions and yet the majority of Americans and many first world countries all sing the same simple “Happy Birthday” chorus when celebrating a birthday. And why do we associate cakes with birthdays? Why not cookies, ice cream, or brownies?
One word holds the answer to those mysteries: “tradition.”
Traditions are what make up the fabric of cultures, families, and friend groups. They’re what keep us together and are often the number one thing we look forward to when a holiday gathering rolls around.
Of course, not all traditions are necessarily good and productive. Direct TV has made quite a few commercials that play off of this idea that while some traditions are great, others can keep us from moving forward. Take 30 seconds to watch the clip below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iunxIzxpWjs
(On a side note, I’ve always wondered if those commercials offended Amish people until I remembered that they don’t have TV’s ?)
A similar phenomenon happened to the Israelites in 2 Kings 18:4 (NIV) when King Hezekiah had to, “…[break] into pieces the bronze snake [pole] Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it.”
To fully understand this text, we need to look at the prelude of this story. Several centuries before 2 Kings 18 rolled around, the Israelites who had just been delivered out of Egypt’s powerful grasp by the LORD became plagued with a negative, complaining spirit that swept through the entire camp in Numbers 21. Because of their crabby attitudes that really reflected their lack of trust in God, “…the LORD sent venomous snakes among them; [the snakes] bit the people and many Israelites died” (Numbers 21:6, NIV).
The Israelites, much like Harrison Ford in the popular movies Indiana Jones, hated and were petrified by the deadly snakes. As you could likely imagine, it didn’t take too long for them to realize that they were doing something wrong and quickly repented from their wickedness.
Numbers 21:7-9 (NIV) records what happened next:
“The people came to Moses and said, ‘We sinned when we spoke against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take the snakes away from us.’ So Moses prayed for the people. The LORD said to Moses, ‘Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.’ So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived.”
The bronze snake pole that Moses built in Numbers 21 is the exact same bronze snake pole that we read of in 2 Kings 18 which was hundreds of years later. The pole that once brought so much physical life to the Israelites while they were in the wilderness was now bringing them so much spiritual death. Why? Because the physical pole itself was now more sacred to the Israelites’ eyes than what the pole was originally created to represent – the Gospel.
You see, just as Moses hung what was cursed up on a pole (snakes) so that all who looked at that snake might live, God did for us by hanging Christ on a cross as He bore the curse of our sins (Galatians 3:13) so that, “…whoever should believe in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16, NIV).
But by the time we get to 2 Kings 18, the message of the bronze snake pole had lost its meaning and was now just another lawful duty that the Israelites had to worship…which is obviously not what it was ever intended to be.
The same exact thing can happen to us as Christians if we are not careful. What was once an incredibly life-giving prayer routine, Bible study method, or worship song can quickly become as much of a snare to us as the bronze snake pole was to the Israelites if we let it.
Don’t get me wrong, I believe it is super important to have a disciplined, organized time every day set aside for the Lord. Repeatedly throughout Scripture we even see that Jesus would often wake up early to spend time in prayer and He also gave us a model prayer to follow in what is most commonly known as “The Lord’s Prayer” in Matthew 6:9-13. So structure is a great thing, particularly in this A.D.D. world we live in.
However, when routine becomes a religious rut, we run ourselves into a massive problem and are actually missing the very God we originally set out to intimately know.
That being said, you can love precious hymns, but if your mind is able to wander while your lips can hold the tune, it’s time for you to explore some new worship music. If you’re a fan of journaling your prayers but now it’s almost a competition against yourself to see how many pages you can write, you might need to put the journal down and go for a prayer walk instead. Or maybe you’ve always loved reading your Bible in a certain translation (such as the NASB or NIV) but now the words have become so familiar to you that you can scan over an entire page without retaining any knowledge. Maybe it’s time for you to momentarily put down that translation and pick up a different version of the Bible so that the words will jump off the page to you.
The bottom line is this: don’t let patterns take precedence over a personal relationship with the Lord. Patterns and routines are such helpful tools when it comes to launching our faith and getting the discipline we are called to have. However, when routine becomes religion, we start to lose our intimacy with the Lord and consequently begin to lose our grasp on the abundant life and joy God desires us to have (John 10:10).
Do you have any old traditions in your life that need to change?
Comments? Questions? Suggestions?
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©Grant Gaines 2016
