Generational God

Stef and I have been reading in the Old Testament for months now and recently started reading the book of Isaiah.  It is one of the Major Prophets set of books in the Old Testament.  It is filled with messianic prophecy throughout the entirety of the book. 

The other day I stumbled across a passage that said, “In 65 years, such and such will come to pass.”  Later in the same chapter I believe there was a messianic prophecy too.  When Stef and I were talking about it on Sunday, (nothing wrong with the occasional private church service, right?) I mentioned that it reminded me of a sermon I had heard years ago.

This preacher had shared how he believed God was a generational God.  When we lose sight of that we easily grow frustrated in our daily endeavors.  Why am I not making any progress in this work?  Why is the world not changing for the better like I long for it to do?

When we look at the God of the Bible though, we see He has a very different definition of things happening in their proper time.  When the Israelites left Egypt and were going to the Promised Land; it took them an extra 40 years to finally cross into it due to their disobedience.  Back to the book of Isaiah and the chapter I was talking about, it took 65 years for the first thing mentioned to pass.  It took another 700 years, give or take a decade, for the messianic prophecy to be fulfilled.  Generations passed between when the last of the Old Testament prophecies was written and when Christ came onto the stage.  Israel didn’t become a nation again for almost 2 millennia after Christ left earth.

This preacher was talking in light of this generational view of God, he was praying for his children to be used mightily for God.  He said that his primary ministry was investing in his kids to send them off like rockets into the world when they became adults and after this pastor had passed away.  It was a very interesting perspective and one that has stuck with me since.

In American society, we are used to things happening instantly.  They don’t call us a microwave society for nothing, right?  I’m a big proponent of technology and forward progress, but one of the unintended consequences has been an expectation that everything should just happen when we want them to.  We start down the path of a dream and are derailed for any number of reasons and then get upset that our dream isn’t fulfilled right away.

We long to impact our work environments and neighborhoods for Christ and to make things better for everyone.  When we fail miserably like we always do and will, we lose hope and faith that things really can get better.  We take 1 step forward and 2 steps back in seemingly every area of our lives.  We get so frustrated at our inability to change things overnight or even within a year or two.

That’s thankfully not how God sees us and our lives.  He is the Creator of time itself and history is one long arc that He is in control of.  I once heard a preacher say we will never know the impact we had here until eternity and probably not even then.  The point isn’t the impact we make, although I personally strive and consistently pray to be a man of impact.  The point is to glorify God no matter what.  Glorify Him in the good and the bad, when you marry your best friend and when you lose your dream job.  On Friday at a conference we sang “Blessed be Your Name.”  I got teary eyed because of the lyrics in that song.  Blessed be Your Name, on the mountaintop and in the valley is the general idea.

God is surely a generational God.  May we remember that when we get discouraged about the lack of change we see in our lives and the lives around us.  May we remember that when we read the news and see the plight of billions of people in dire need around the world.  May it spur us to never give up in every good endeavor that God has called us to.