I should write something about romance, with tomorrow being Valentine's Day, but I am not smart enough to make something work that I haven’t been thinking about. I should qualify that by saying that I have been thinking about Valentine’s Day enough to have a plan for making my wife and daughter feel special. However, I haven’t been thinking about it in any grand way regarding our faith or the church.
I have been studying Esther, the Old Testament book about a Jewish girl who becomes queen and then saves her people from a plot against them. In effect, she saves them from genocide. One of the key statements in the book is something Esther’s uncle tells her.
Esther 4:14 says, “Who knows, perhaps you have come to your royal position for such a time as this.” I am sure Esther did not want to be born into a time when it would take extreme bravery and God's intervention to save her and the lives of all the Jewish people living in her country. This got me thinking about one of my favorite verses, which also discusses our times and how we need to see them.
Ecclesiastes 7:10 says, “ Don’t say, ‘Why were the former days better than these?’ since it is not wise of you to ask this.” Many of our conversations and jokes revolve around making fun of how people live today. Or we bemoan how life was better in the old days. As Ecclesiastes says, it’s not a wise thing to do. When we remember older times or even previous circumstances, we often forget everything we were going through. We also miss a very important truth that God taught Esther. God has us each in the time and place He wants us to be in. The old days may have been better for the people who lived in them, but they are not better for you. God has put you in this time, given you gifts (1 Corinthians 12), and has work for you to do (Ephesians 2:10).
The Bible does not want us to reminisce about and envy past days or the old ways, but it has a very different thing to say about older people. Preverbs 16:31 says, “Gray hair is a crown of glory; it is gained in a righteous life.” Gray hair doesn’t always mean righteous and wise, but it often does. Our elders have walked through what we are walking through and have kept the faith. This is no small thing. Proverbs give us sayings to live by, but there is also a very explicit command. Leviticus 19:32 says, “You are to rise in the presence of the elderly and honor the old. Fear your God; I am the Lord.” There is little confusion about how older people are to be honored. The reward for this cannot be understated. This next verse specifically talks about elders in the church. 1 Peter 5:5 says, “In the same way, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. All of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another because God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.” We plainly see that our humility in following those who go before us in faith brings the reward of God’s grace, and the rejection of that brings our downfall.
My conclusion is this… older days can lead you astray, but older folks can give you hope. When we get lost wishing for our idealized versions of past times, it is all too easy to miss what God has us to do right now. We cannot shrink back from the issues of our day simply because they are harder in our view than what the generations before us dealt with. But when things are hard, do not hesitate to go to an older person, especially someone you trust, to get some perspective on how to make it through. Life is best when we walk through it with others and look to those who have gone before us. I am convinced that only then will we walk into the good works Jesus has prepared for us to do.
Pastor Will