[3e3c3e]

Ecclesiastes 7:10 - "Do not say, 'Why were the old days better than these?' For it is not wise to ask such questions."

How many times have we looked back on the "good old days" and wished we where back there again. We remember how easy things where, how life had so little struggles. We remember how better the world was and how much more people honored God. Solomon speaks in Ecclesiastes about how this is unwise to do so though. Why would looking back on the "old days", be such a danger?

Through out scripture we see examples of the danger of looking back, but not just looking back but wanting to go back. In Job 29:1-5, we see Job wanting to go back to the way things use to be. He wants to go back to when "God preserved me" and "Almighty was yet with me". Those "old days" where what Job longed for, when life and things where so much better.

Israel was another great example of this longing for the "old days". As the Israelites where wondering in the wilderness, they wanted to return to Egypt. In Exodus 16:1-3 we see them longing for their pots of "flesh" and their "bread". But had the forgotten the troubles back in Egypt? Then in Ezra 3:11-12 when Israel returns to Jerusalem and begins to rebuild the temple the older generations wept because the new temple was not like the old. Their hearts where not filled with joy for the Lord restoring them as a nation, but weeping because it wasn't like the past.

Isn't this often true in our own lives; how many times when we look back do we remember only the good, blocking out the bad. We in a way question why God has us here and now, question the amount of grace He has given us as in the case of Job, or long to return to our bondage of sin because it feels so much more comfortable. Yet at the point that we do this we are questioning the wisdom of the Lord. The Lord, in His great wisdom, chose for us to serve him in this place of His great plan. Let’s serve Him not looking back, and do so with the joy and peace that we have through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Here are some thoughts on the dangers of longing for the times of old, consider these as we walk in our great faith:

1.) We lack contentment for the time and place God has us in.
Philippians 4:11 - "Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am."
Hebrews 13:5 - "Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, 'I WILL NEVER DESERT YOU, NOR WILL I EVER FORSAKE YOU,'"

2.) We question the amount of grace and mercy God is bestowing on us compared to times past.
2 Corinthians 12:8-10 - "⁸Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. ⁹And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. ¹⁰Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong."

3.) We may neglect opportunities for much good in the present by dwelling on the past.
Philippians 3:12–14 - "¹² Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. ¹³ Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

4.) Memory has a way of forgetting bad things in the past.
Exodus 16:1-3 - "¹ Then they set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the sons of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departure from the land of Egypt. ²The whole congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. ³ The sons of Israel said to them, ' Would that we had died by the LORD'S hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.'"

5.) Even if we experiences trials in the present, there is cause for rejoicing.
James 1:2-4 - "² Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, ³ knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. ⁴ And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."

“It is folly to complain of the badness of our own times when we have more reason to complain of the badness of our own hearts (if men’s hearts where better, the times would mend).” “It is folly to cry up the goodness of former times, so as to derogate from the mercy of God to us in our times” “We are not to think there is any universal decay in nature, or degeneracy in morals. God has been always good, and men always bad; and if in some respects, the time are now worse than they have been, perhaps in other respects they are better.” -Matthew Henry

~3e3c3e