JUNE 20, 2005

GRADUATION
by Pastor George Van Alstine

I attended the Cal State LA graduation recently, rejoicing with the family of Tyronne Martin to see him receive a B.S. degree in biochemistry. It was a high to realize that he had accomplished this goal and was crossing over into a new chapter of his life.

“Crossing over”—the picture I get is of the Israelites crossing over the Jordan River into the Promised Land. For college graduates who have developed marketable skills, they are crossing over into “a land flowing with milk and honey,” the opportunity to achieve their piece of the American dream.

But with opportunity comes danger. What the Lord warned Moses of as the Israelites were about to cross over into their Promised Land can also be seen as an important caution for today’s college grads:
“When I have brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey ... and they have eaten their fill and grown fat, they will turn to other gods and serve them, despising me and breaking my covenant.”
(Deuteronomy 31:20)

How many “achievers” let their climb up the ladder of success go to their heads! Too good for old friends and associates, they have outgrown their need for God as well. They spend their prime years on self-indulgence and hoarding. But in time, even the “milk and honey” lose their taste, and they anxiously try to reconnect with the God who made their path to success possible.

Moses tried to prepare the people for all this, and he suggested a simple exercise which would remind them of their need to stay connected after they crossed over into the land:
“On the day that you cross over the Jordan into the land your God is giving you, you shall set up large stones and cover them with plaster. You shall write on them all the words of this law .... And you shall build an altar there to the Lord your God.... Then offer up burnt offerings on it to the Lord your God, make sacrifices of well-being, and eat them there, rejoicing before the Lord your God.”
(Deuteronomy 27:2-7)

Graduates from college, from high school, from one elementary grade to another, now is the time to set up your monument to the Lord. Now, before you enter too far into the Promised Land. Determine with all your heart to hold fast to him, not to forsake his ways. If you don’t, you’ll quickly become rich and fat and comfortable—and empty!

Milk curdles, honey ferments—but the Word of the Lord endures forever.