Ec 7:10 Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these? for thou dost not enquire wisely concerning this.
We know it's true. I think almost all of us do it. Any ideas why it's unwise?
The past, no matter how good it was, has the capacity to place a choke-hold on our hope. It has a capacity to limit Gods will (and our intent to discover it thereby.) It has the potential to blind us, and keep us under the thumb of self-imposed tyranny. Every generation must lay hold of God's kingdom for themselves.
Hope deferred makes the heart sick. But hope realized makes us not ashamed. The kingdom of heaven is intended to be an eternal invasion into our present time with the intent to advance its borders (metaphorically speaking), its influence, and the fullness of its saturation. It is never to be a retreat.
Until the day star arises fully in our hearts...
If I remember correct, in either Ezra or Nehemiah there is a passage that talks about how the older men lamented at how the new temple looked in comparison to the old one. They lost sight of hope...they were trapped in a world that no longer existed, and their potential to serve God in the present was plastered within a cast of their own history. They became museum curators rather than kingdom advancers.
Man...I needed to hear this.
God is the God of now. The past is gone, the future is not ours, so it is good to focus on the Lord. How many people spend their days thinking of what has past? How many people spend their days planning for the future? What is lost? Life itself. So many people also gauge the future by their past experiences. They use their past as a measuring stick to determine what will happen in the future.
For much of the world, the past represents anger and resentment and bitterness and the future represents fear and anxiety.
The truth is, yesterday is gone and tomorrow is not guaranteed. It is good to look back and see what God has done in our lives, it is good to look forward to the day that we come into His presence. It is awesome to walk daily with the Lord, one day at a time........brother Frank
Ec 7:10 Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these? for thou dost not enquire wisely concerning this.
This verse challenges me all the time whenever I lament the unchecked wickedness common today.
I am 63 YO and can remember well when common sense was the norm. You could easily expect it to rule culture, governments, politicians and your neighbors. But no more. Or, so it seems.
Then this verse informs us we should not say 'why were the former days better than these'. I have concluded that people back then were wicked as well, they just did a better job of hiding it. But God saw even when others didn't.
Still, Scripture informs us that the end times people will get worse and worse...
Oh. Well. Gets confusing, doesn't it?
ginnyrose
Maybe it's because the past is always skewed with the sentimental silver lining. I see my childhood now as a Norman Rockwell painting yet I know it was far from it at the time.
I agree with the post that says it keeps us from looking forward with hope and vision.
Nothing is worth comparing to what lays ahead.
Psalm 84: 11
For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.
Luke 9:57-62 (NASB): demonstrates Jesus' perspective of the past and future:
57As they were going along the road, someone said to Him, “I will follow You wherever You go.”
58And Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
59And He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.”
60But He said to him, “Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God.”
61Another also said, “I will follow You, Lord; but first permit me to say good-bye to those at home.”
62But Jesus said to him, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
V. 62 ministers to me all the time when I observe the present day wickedness and recall the apparent simple life of years past. When you do this you get discouraged...
Now Jesus says that if you look back you are NOT fit for the kingdom of God illustrating by referring to a man who plows and looks back.
When a person plows a field he needs to keep his eyes focused on a point ahead of him and steer towards this point. If you look back you will make a crook in the furrow which will make it difficult to plow on the next pass. If a person persists in looking back he is totally unfit for plowing.
As I understand this is what Jesus is teaching. Look ahead, let the past be pass, can't undo it beyond repenting and make amends...
Blessings,
ginnyrose
Thank you for that Ginny, I had no idea about the messed up furrows looking back would make. That is incredibly helpful to a city-dweller like myself for helping interpret the word inductively. God bless you sister.
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