“The good old days.” “They don’t make ‘em like they used to.” “Tomorrow’s not promised.” “I don’t know what this world is coming to.”
Listen to how people talk and you will hear a pattern. We glorify the past and fear the future. The best things always seem to be behind us, and the worst things always seem to be ahead. Churches do it too. Many congregations are tied to a season that ended decades ago, and they spend their energy remembering when it was better instead of looking for what God intends to do next.
A short prophecy in Jeremiah 16 speaks straight into that habit.
A Little Old Testament History
Jeremiah makes more sense when you know where he stands on Israel’s timeline. All of these dates are BC and approximate:
- 1500 to 1200 BC: the Exodus. God brings His people out of slavery in Egypt.
- About 1050 to 1000 BC: Israel becomes a nation under King Saul. Around 930 BC the kingdom splits into Israel in the north and Judah in the south.
- 722 BC: Assyria conquers Israel.
- 612 to 609 BC: Babylon overpowers Assyria.
- 587/586 BC: Babylon conquers Judah, deports its people and destroys the temple.
- 539 BC: Persia conquers Babylon and lets the exiles go home.
- About 440 BC: the temple and the walls of Jerusalem have been rebuilt.
Most of the prophetic books were written somewhere in this stretch. It was a long, fragile and fractured season for God’s people. And through all of it, they drew strength from one great memory: the Exodus.
The Testimony God’s People Leaned On
All through the law of Moses, God reminds His people who He is and what He has done: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt” (Exodus 20:2). Obey because of who I am. Take courage because of what I have done.
That is a healthy, biblical practice. The psalmist, in a dark season, wrote, “I will remember the deeds of the LORD; yes, I will remember your wonders of old” (Psalm 77:11). Marking the moments when God came through gives us strength for the hard places.
A Better Testimony Is Coming
Jeremiah prophesied in Jerusalem while the world around Judah was coming apart. Assyria had already swallowed the northern kingdom. Babylon was rising. Things were bad, and they were about to get worse. Into that moment God spoke this:
“Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when it shall no longer be said, ‘As the LORD lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ but ‘As the LORD lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.’ For I will bring them back to their own land that I gave to their fathers” (Jeremiah 16:14-15).
The “north country” is Assyria and Babylon, the empires that conquered God’s people. God is promising a deliverance so fresh that it will replace the old testimony. One day His people would stop telling a story from centuries ago and start telling what God had done for them in their own lifetime.
You Need History With God
The first lesson is simple: build a history with the Lord. You need moments in your life where you can point and say, “God came through for me there.” A faith made only of other people’s stories, or of a testimony once or twice removed, will not hold you up in a crisis. Your own history with God will.
You Also Need Hope
But history is not enough. Jeremiah’s word is a word of hope. God was not finished delivering His people, and He is not finished with you. Hope says, “He has brought me out before, and He will bring me out again.”
Many believers lean hard on the courage of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who told the king that even if God did not rescue them, “be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods” (Daniel 3:18). That is a magnificent word. But it is also good to stand on the other side of their confession: our God is able to deliver, and we expect Him to.
Get a word from God. Get something burning in your spirit so that you can say, “God can do that in my life, and I believe He will.”
Stop Glorifying the Past and Fearing the Future
If the best word you have is about what is behind you, you are living below what God has offered. Hebrews says we have come to Jesus and “to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel” (Hebrews 12:24). The blood of Jesus speaks a better word over your life, your family and your future.
Churches need this too. It is easy to get stuck in tension with a past move of God, whether it was 10 years ago or 100 years ago. The trap is always looking back to when it was better and never looking forward to what God actually intends.
God spoke to this very temptation after the exile. When the returned exiles rebuilt the temple, the older generation remembered Solomon’s temple and wept over how small the new one looked. God answered through the prophet Haggai: “The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former” (Haggai 2:9).
The Future Glory Is Greater
That is the hope Jeremiah held out, and it is the hope God still holds out to His people. Your best testimony does not have to be behind you. The God who brought Israel out of Egypt also brought them out of the north country, and the God who has carried you this far is not done.
Honor what God has done. Remember it, tell it and draw strength from it. Then lift your eyes. The days are coming when you will have a new story to tell.
At Citylight Church, we believe an incredible life is built on the finished work of Jesus Christ, and that the best days of His church are still ahead. If you are looking for a place to build your own history with God, we would love to have you with us.