The Former Days

by I.H. Stewart, Glasgow | Category: General | Sept 1972

With what pathos does the melancholy parable of the patriarch still ring across the centuries,

"Oh that I were as in the months of old,

As in the days when God watched over me;

When His lamp shined upon my head,

And by His light I walked through darkness;

As I was in the ripeness of my days,

When the secret of God was upon my tent" (Job 29:2-4).

He looked backward to earlier days when in happier circumstances he knew in very deed that the Almighty was with him. Then he had reckoned that as his root was spread out to the waters and the dew lay all night upon his branch, his leaf would be green. He would not be careful in the year of drought, nor cease from yielding fruit. Now it was not so, but rather he was knowing the withering experience of having his roots dried up beneath and from above his branch cut off.

Nor was he alone in longing for earlier days. Gideon, on being confronted by the angel of the LORD and assured of the presence of Jehovah, rejoined with wistful questions that revealed a deep desire to witness divine intervention, as had his forefathers, when he asked, "Oh my lord, if the LORD be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all His wondrous works which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt" (Judges 6:13). At that time there had been no doubt about the LORD'S presence as He looked on that oppressed nation and drew them with the cords of a man, with bands of love. Lovingly He called His son out of Egypt and though they knew not that He healed them, He took them on His arms (Hosea 11:1,3). In the times of the Judges, however, all had changed. The highways were unoccupied and in the frequented, devious byways every man was doing that which was right in his own eyes, and thus Israel was brought very low.

Many centuries later from under a juniper tree in the wilderness the request was made, "It is enough; now, 0 LORD, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers" (1 Kings 19:4). From whom does this cry of failure come? - from none other than that illustrious sojourner of Gilead, Elijah the Tishbite, who had so recently seen a unique manifestation of the power of God and witnessed the united voice of the people when on Carmel they cried, "The LORD, He is God; the LORD He is God" (1 Kings 18:39). Yet now he was bewailing failure and requesting for himself that he might die.

Today we find ourselves in times of declension. As of old we cry, "Help, LORD; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men" (Psalm 12:1). We have sown much, and brought in little. As we recall the stature of our spiritual forefathers, we feel insignificant and impotent. To us the pertinent words come, "Say not ... the former days were better than these", and again, "who hath despised the day of small things?" Let us remember the lessons of men of God of a past dispensation who were indeed men of like passions with us. Discouraged they were, but knowing the help that comes from God while passing through the valley of weeping they made it a place of springs as they went from strength to strength, fully assured that no good thing would He withhold from them that walk uprightly (Psalm 84).

The witnesses we have cited spoke in their extremity when their race was half run. Did not the LORD bless the latter end of Job more than the beginning? Was not Gideon (despite failure at the last) to know in a wonderful way the works of the LORD as he routed the Midianites? What shall we say of Elijah whose mournful request was not granted? For him no cold tomb was waiting, but a chariot of fire to carry him up into heaven.

This is still the day of God's power. Shall not we His people, the sheep of His pasture, as we seek to show forth His praise, offer ourselves willingly to serve His counsel in our generation, happy in the knowledge that He has promised to fulfil every need of ours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus? If such is our exercise then we shall walk, in darkening days, the path of the righteous which is as a shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day (Prov. 4:18).

I.H. Stewart, Glasgow | Sept 1972
General