A friend of mine asked me a question today that spurred on a provoking conversation. She said, “I think this generation is equipped to handle what is coming, don’t you?” My answer was, “Absolutely!” People are much more resilient than they think. Yes, we all go through hardships of various kinds, but we usually learn valuable lessons from them and come out on the other side better than we were before. Keeping in mind we are unique, and have different circumstances, and are in varying cycles of our lives, yet we seem to conquer so much more than we thought we could, or at least bounce back from adverse situations. We all may be in this together, this thing called life, with all it is throwing at us all at the same time globally, however, we all view and respond to things differently. Therefore, if we all work together, we can produce solutions, because we all have something to add that another may not have thought of.
I also must admit, though it is painful to say, my kids were right, or at least the teacher who taught them this was right. I will paraphrase, because I do not remember the exact quote, however, she had stated that every generation has its greatness. This came after me saying so many times, again I do not remember the exact words, things like, this generation has no social skills, no common sense, no work ethic, etc. And while this is true for various individuals and maybe a portion of society, however, I was painting with an extremely broad brush. In fact, my children who are brilliant, would then be lumped into the same category if I continued to push that rhetoric. They stopped me in my tracks one day when they told me what the teacher had said. It gave me pause and I was rebuked in my spirit because she really was right. You can imagine the rolling of the eyes that goes on in our house with four daughters, all highly intelligent, strong willed and have minds of their own.
You have probably heard the expression “the good old days” multiple times and possibly used it yourselves a time or two in conversation. Most of the time, we are referring to a time we did not even live in, therefore, how would we presume to know what happened in the lives of people then, or their reaction to things or the circumstances surrounding events? Any knowledge we do have is from books or movies perhaps, but not firsthand experience. If we do use that expression speaking from our personal experience, it is often looking back to a time that is now lost and is no longer relevant to the current events that are unfolding in our present day lives. If you stop to think about it, if your grandmother used that expression from her personal experience, it would still not be the same as yours, it could still be decades apart. Sometimes we use it speaking of historical times which could be centuries ago. Everyone’s “the good old days” are different, just as everyone’s present day life is different. We are not cookie cutters or clones.
Let us think about a couple of things. On March 9th, 1822, two hundred years ago in New York, Charles Graham received his patent for the first artificial teeth. So, if you were alive back then, and depending on your age at that time, you might have been toothless and never been a recipient of false teeth, however, your grandson or granddaughter forty years later if needed, could have been the proud wearers of a beautiful set of dentures. However, you would most likely be gone already and if they did refer to your day as the “good old days,” what was good about it? You did not have teeth. Would they even know that? As we evolve, we just take for granted that the things we have were always around in past generations, but that was far from the truth. We often romanticize certain eras.
Think of the epic story of ‘Gone with the Wind.’ The setting is during the American Civil War around 1861 to 1865 in and around Atlanta, Georgia. It is such a provoking love story that involves the horrors and beauties of the human condition and is portrayed in such a beautiful and compelling way. The beautiful house, ladies’ gowns and men’s activities of hunting and riding on the luscious green lawns of the estate are captivating. However, notwithstanding the war, were those the good old days? Can you imagine the Georgia heat and humidity in mid – summer? Those beautiful ladies all arrayed in their finest, melting and smelling like stale perfume to cover up their summertime body odors. You guessed it, no air conditioning. In fact, no electricity, which did not make its debut until years later. We take flipping on the light switch in our cool, crisp homes in August in 100-degree weather for granted. We just do not give it any thought. It is second nature to us. As well it should be because this is what we have always known and are used to.
How about those cowboy movie lovers? Tombstone is a popular movie that came out in 1993, the reenactment of the Earp brothers from 1881 in Tombstone, Arizona. There have been makes and remakes, all well done, but cannot change the history of the subjects. Just as removing statues of formidable historic figures from public areas cannot change history I might add. Back to the story, we see the cowboys on their horses, and again the women in their lovely gowns, though not the focal part of the story, do you know what happens to a long gown on a dusty, dirt road covered in horse manure? I will let you draw your own conclusions there. No plumbing for the filthy cowboys to take baths, they still rely on rivers, ponds, wells and hauling buckets of water to a tub. Indoor plumbing would not fully be experienced until the 1930’s and still then we can all think back to our grandparents or great grandparents’ homes that may still have had an outhouse. Those beautiful suits and ruffled topped shirts they are seen in, were washed, yes, but by hand! Where are the beautifully paved sidewalks and streets? Well, there are accounts of stone roads that date back to 4000 B.C in Mesopotamia and Egypt also had stone paved streets in about 2200 B.C, however, though the first asphalt road in America was said to be in 1870 in Newark, New Jersey, invented by Edmund J. Desmelt, a Chemist from Belgium, Tombstone had not heard of this yet, it seems, at least not in the movie. They forgot to google it, oh my, that is another subject altogether, but I am sure you are beginning to see my point.
Life is in constant flux, and we can see changes are happening around us daily. Granted, some may be good and some bad, however, what we perceive as bad may be seen differently by others. This is the wonder of the creation of the human being. We are all individuals. What I learned as a teenager which was spoken in the context of dating at the time, which is not original with me, however, again I could not name the source, is that we must establish our principles before crisis situations arise. Programs and administrations of events may change, but our absolutes, truths and principles should remain the same. We get this moral compass from the Word of God, which we know as The Holy Bible. We must know it, ingest it, love it, and hold it dear, as to not stray, no matter what generation we are from or what era we are currently living in. A lot is said regarding generations in the scriptures. We will examine and see what God’s take on the subject might be.
In the beginning, Genesis 1:22 tells us, “And God blessed them, saying, be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.” He again gave this same command to Noah after the flood and to Abraham coming out of the land of Ur of the Chaldees. To Noah he also gave the token of His covenant, the rainbow, showing he had promised the whole earth would never flood again, Genesis 9:12, and stated it would be to perpetual generations. I am sure many of you reading this already had an idea of what the rainbow means or at least a portion of it, and that took place thousands of years ago. The covenant made with Abraham that God would make him fruitful, make him a great nation, kings would come from his loins, God would be with him and bless him, and they would inhabit the land of Canaan was to be an everlasting possession and an ongoing promise to all their generations, Genesis 17. In Joel 3:20 it says, “But Judah shall dwell forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.” We have all heard of Jerusalem, go back further in the story and you will be back to the covenant between God and Abraham, and it is still standing. This is quite profound.
There are numerous covenants, promises and pronouncements that God stated would be for generations. Another one is His Name. We see this in Exodus 3:13-15, “And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, what is his name? What shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I Am That I Am: and he said, thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I Am hath sent me unto you. And God said moreover unto Moses, thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, the Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name forever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.” Psalms 45:17, “I will make thy name to be remembered in all generations: therefore, shall the people praise thee for ever and ever.” And in Psalm 135:13, “Thy name, O Lord, endures forever; and thy memorial, O Lord, throughout all generations.” When we study the Word, we see throughout, not only in the Old Testament but the New as well, that His Name is still the authority behind all we do. Jesus was the I AM, in bodily form. (Colossian 2:9) He told us we would do greater things than He had done while on the earth, in His Name. We would cast out demons, raise the dead, heal the sick, feel His presence, speak with new tongues, and baptize, all in His Name.
There is a holiday that we celebrate every year. Statically, if there are those who are not faithful church goers, they will at least go on this day, and that is Easter. Most of us would at least know something of what Easter is about and it is not eggs, bunnies, or peep candies. It is a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. After all, if he had not risen, we would be serving a dead god, like those who worship Mohammad or Buddha or any other idle. Why was this the time that was chosen by God to show that Jesus was God come in flesh? It all goes back to the time when the children of Israel were in captivity in Egypt. Moses came to lead them out as commanded by God. I am just giving the highlights, but you can read the full story in the book of Exodus. After nine plagues did not work on Pharoah to allow the people to go into the wilderness to worship their true God, the tenth one sealed the deal. God’s people were told to kill a spotless lamb, take the blood, and paint it on their doorpost, cook the meat and eat it all that night. During the night, those that had the blood on their doorposts, which would have been the Israelites, would be ‘passed over’ by the death angel, but those who did not, which would have been mainly the Egyptians, their first born would be slain. Of course, in the morning when the Egyptians saw their children dead, they told the Israelites to go. In Exodus 12:13-14 God told Moses, “And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt. And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever.” From that day forward, they held a feast and ate unleavened bread for days, so on and so forth, commemorating the fact that God had brought them out of Egypt. They call this the Passover. Jesus as a child and then into adulthood went yearly to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of the Passover. The year of his crucifixion was no different and not a coincidence. We often call it the Last Supper, but it was the time of the yearly Passover feast, however, this year, Jesus became the Passover Lamb. His blood was shed for our deliverance, not from Egypt, but from sin. We are washed in His blood when we are baptized in His name. John the Baptist recognized this at the beginning of Jesus ministry when he state in John 1:29, “The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” 1 Peter 1:18-19 states, “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” We are still celebrating the Passover, just as God had meant it to from generation to generation, we just call it Easter.
In correlation with this, another generational sacrifice they were told to keep yearly was killing a lamb as an atonement for sin. Jesus fulfilled this requirement on the cross once, and for all. Their sacrifice was only good efficacious to roll their sins ahead for a year, but at the cross all those sins were covered by the blood of the true atoning Lamb, as are our sins today. Hebrews 10:3-10 states this, “But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither has pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; Then said he, lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God; From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.” From the time of Adam’s sin which was passed down from generation to generation, God’s plan has been to buy us back. This had to be done with a pure blood sacrifice, and Jesus fulfilled those requirements that we might be free, not only us but our children and their children too. Acts 2:38-39, “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.”
People are enamored with Biblical times, however, would we have wanted to witness the cross firsthand, or experience it firsthand on this side? I say we still have the benefits of what they had, without the heartaches of it. Of course, we all go through our own troubles and trials. What is your consensus? Were those the good old days or are these? In Ecclesiastes 1:9 Solomon states, “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.” Everything we are experiencing is no different, just presented in a different packaging. 1 Corinthians 10:13, “There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” Even Jesus as he walked on the earth experienced the exact same things as we do. Hebrews 4:15 says, “For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.”
The old must teach the young and pass down experiences, memories, and knowledge to equip them for what will come their way in their generation. Joel 1:1-3, “The word of the Lord that came to Joel the son of Pethuel. Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers? Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.” Just as I should not have discouraged or spoken ill of the new generation, this generation should also not think that their forefathers were all ignorant, did not do things right or dumb because they did things differently. Deuteronomy 32:6-8 states, “Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise? is not he thy father that hath bought thee? hath he not made thee, and established thee? Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will shew thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee. When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.” We are all in this thing called life together, no matter what era we are born in. We are all where we are because of someone else from the prior generation.
Ecclesiastes 1:4, “One generation passes away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abides forever.” The world will keep on turning and things will keep on changing and evolving until Jesus returns. What would you be willing to give up to go back to another time and place, to get what you think might be there? Would you give up your electricity, your comforts of home like air conditioning and indoor plumbing? You have heard people say, “If I could only be 18 again, I wouldn’t have all this fat, wrinkles or responsibility.” You can add into this sentence what you think or have heard. However, if you go back in time to what you thought was ‘the good old days,’ you will not have the experiences, knowledge, or possessions, etc., that you have now. So, you need to ask yourself, when were ‘the good old days’ really? I would have to propose that ‘the good old days’ are right now. Today! So, enjoy it while you can, and make the best of each day you have. Each generation will have its greatness!