March 4

In 1787, Lieutenant William Bligh, a young British Naval Officer, was commissioned to a voyage on a small ship called the HMS Bounty. The goal of the voyage was to obtain a large number of breadfruit plantings that would be transported to the Caribbean and then transplanted to provide food for the slaves in those colonies. On the morning of April 28, 1789, led by Masters Mate Fletcher Christian, twelve crewmembers staged the famous mutiny, capturing the ship and setting Captain Bligh and his supporters adrift in the ship’s launch. There is much disagreement as to who was to blame for the incident; whether Captain Bligh was too strict or the mutineers were too free spirited. Since the mutineers would be arrested and punished should they return to civilization, they chose instead to create a free society on the island of Pitcairn. Unfortunately, free from the restraints of law and God, the men were unable to govern themselves and their life on Pitcairn degenerated into a life of alcoholism, rape, and ultimately murder. Only one man of the original twelve survived the hell the men created on Pitcairn. John Adams turned to the Bible for guidance in building a new and peaceful society different from the one the mutineers had originally created.
“How long will these people reject me?” God asked Moses. “Will they never believe me, even after all the miraculous signs I have done among them?” (Numbers 14:11). Regardless of how many times God spared the Israelites from disaster or from their enemies, and regardless of how much food and wealth God provided for the Israelites, their history seems to have been that of one mutiny from God after another. Their history also shows that when God’s people treated God’s Word with contempt and deliberately disobeyed His commands, they suffered the consequences of their sin (15:30&31). Ultimately, God instructed Moses to have the people sew tassels on the hem of their clothing. Since the Israelites were prone to follow their own desires and do their own thing, these tassels would be a reminder that they were to obey the Lord’s commands (15:37-41). History has shown us over and over again, that people who ignore God’s laws are incapable of governing themselves. Wise individuals and societies learn from history and don’t make the same mistakes as those who have lived before them. May those who follow behind us see an example of people who chose to live in the light of God’s truth, and whose lives demonstrated the wisdom of doing so.