An intriguing story in our first reading today from Isaiah 7. A couple of big-shots are planning to attack Jerusalem and overthrow Judah. And God says, “No way!” In the Gospel reading from Matthew 11, Jesus pronounces woes on some towns – Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum – because He performed mighty deeds there, but they did not repent.
Jesus has some pretty harsh words for these places that failed to repent. In fact, He says, things will go better for Sodom on the day of judgement. And Sodom was pretty much vaporized. Not good!
We’ve all heard the saying, “Those that fail to learn from history are destined to repeat it.” I believe this is exactly what Jesus was trying to communicate to the places where He pronounced woes. The people knew their history. They knew the bad stuff that happened when people failed to repent. Yet even with this knowledge, they would not get the message and repent. Seems true that history repeats itself – when people fail to learn lessons from the past. Have we learned our lesson?
Father, help us to learn from the past. Help us to remain close to you, and to repent when we have turned away, that we may not face destruction. Amen.
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