Ecclesiastes Chapter Seven, Longing For Yesterday

Ecclesiastes 7:10 Do not say, “Why were the former days better than these?” For you do not inquire wisely concerning this.

I know that I have fallen victim to this sort of ignorance. We pine for former days that were better than the ones we currently suffer through. Whether this is a case of reflecting through rose colored glasses on days of yore, prior to our own, or looking back at earlier times in our own lives when things were simpler or better (from our current line of thought), neither is according to wisdom.

I firmly believe that nowhere in history has a generation of humanity had a comparatively easy time in life, as opposed to other generations that preceded or followed it. Yes, the circumstances of each generation differ, sometimes radically. But humanity is humanity from Eden to the current day. We are sinful creatures. Even being born again, Scripture makes it abundantly clear that a sin nature exists within us, and Christians may fall into sin if we walk according to the flesh rather than the Spirit. This is opposed to the erroneous and unbiblical teaching that being born again makes a Christian incapable of sinning. The Bible and common sense agree to refute such a childish view of certain passages of Scripture.

Every former time came with its own woes. Looking back on the time of Christ, leading to the completion of the New Testament circa 100 AD, the era, while different superficially, was a turbulent time both politically and spiritually. Herod was a petty tyrant governing over Israel, both father and son. Caesar, culminating under Nero, developed a severe lack of mercy toward Christians, which led to many gruesome executions. The gladiatorial arena was their cable television, and the temple of Aphrodite in Corinth was their pornography. Epicurean and Stoic philosophy permeated cultured thought in Greece, and Gnosticism became the first aberrant cult that fractured off of Christianity by the late first century. The Jews rebelled against Rome and Titus, under Vespasian’s rule, destroyed the temple and the city. There were wars, famine, sickness, economic and social unrest and fear all around, as it is today.

When we are troubled by personal circumstance or wider ranging issues, we can view former times romantically, as though times lacking cell phones, internet and space travel were somehow simpler or easier. But people being people regardless of the era they are in, we may know for a certainty that simple is not something that most people are. We are complex, multi-faceted beings with nuanced thoughts, emotions and reactions to a variety of external stimuli; to say nothing of the internal wars that rage in our hearts and heads on the daily. We are beings made in God’s image, after His likeness. We know this has nothing to do with gender, because Genesis makes it clear that both men and women are made in God’s image, Genesis 1:27. Rather, it has something to do with our souls and spirits. We may emote and abstract; we create and ponder and envision. We manipulate and interact with the world around us, bending the environment to our will. More than that, there is a keen awareness in humanity of something beyond the visible, material world. While we are flesh and blood, the real us cannot be clearly defined or explained in terms of the bodies that house us. To fixate on the body to the detriment of the soul is the grossest disservice we can do to ourselves.

Rather than lament over what has been, either in times long past or earlier in our own career, we should heed the counsel of the Apostle Paul and give thanks always for everything in Christ Jesus. Every day is a gift from above; it is another chance to serve, to help, to improve, to grow. Hardship teaches, it improves us as people far better than when ease and comfort come along. With ease and comfort distraction begins to creep in and we find fault with the little things that were formerly non issues. It is another ugly facet of human nature to want to fixate and focus our lens of scrutiny on what is wrong, rather than what we’ve been blessed with. And when nothing is legitimately wrong, we make mountains out of mole hills, so that we have something to be vexed by and complain about. Rather than doing this (because so many people have it harder than we do, and they persevere with an integrity that I find enviable) we should rejoice. We should learn to say, “This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it,” Psalm 118:24. While this verse refers to the day of Christ’s advent, we may also apply it to every day we experience. It is a new day that represents the chance to change what is, mend wrongs we have done against others, or forgive wrongs done against us. When we are tempted to look back on former times wistfully, recall the preacher’s counsel, that such thinking reflects a lack of wisdom on our part. Not looking back, nor looking ahead, focus on the present, and how we may serve the Lord and walk with Him, one step at a time, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path,” Psalm 119:105.