Inquire, please, of bygone ages, and consider what the fathers have searched out. For we are but of yesterday. – Job 8:8-9
Most likely you were the recipient of “family tradition” long before you knew what it was. Genetically you were bequeathed eye color and a blood type, and environmentally you may have cherished the smell of chicken frying in the kitchen. You cannot measure, by looking at yourself in the mirror, how much of who you are today belongs to events and people from the past.
Surprisingly, the word “tradition” does not show up in the Old Testament. Yet across its pages, as Israel rises as a nation, and then in the New Testament as the Church is birthed and takes root, the concept of tracing wisdom through the traditions of those who have gone before is core to every spiritual principle God’s Word portrays.
The prophets of old taught that sin-laden humanity could look forward to God providing a redemption for that sin and a pathway back to full fellowship with Himself: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he” (Zechariah 9:9). They understood that the way would come through a person, the Messiah: “the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14).
In the New Testament, the wisdom of tradition is fleshed out in the naming of God’s Messiah as Jesus of Nazareth. Of all generations, you are supremely blessed to have both the wisdom of tradition and the revelation of Christ as God’s path to fellowship. Pray for America to embrace the tradition of faith in God that the nation was founded upon, bringing His blessing upon the country.
Today’s Verse: Job 8:8-9
“For inquire, please, of bygone ages,
and consider what the fathers have searched out.
9 For we are but of yesterday and know nothing,
for our days on earth are a shadow.
All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Recommended for further reading: Deuteronomy 32:7-12
Remember the days of old;
consider the years of many generations;
ask your father, and he will show you,
your elders, and they will tell you.
8 When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance,
when he divided mankind,
he fixed the borders of the peoples
according to the number of the sons of God.
9 But the Lord’s portion is his people,
Jacob his allotted heritage.
10 “He found him in a desert land,
and in the howling waste of the wilderness;
he encircled him, he cared for him,
he kept him as the apple of his eye.
11 Like an eagle that stirs up its nest,
that flutters over its young,
spreading out its wings, catching them,
bearing them on its pinions,
12 the Lord alone guided him,
no foreign god was with him.
All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
