The years quickly fade away, and another one will soon be complete. As each one looks back on the year past, he or she must determine whether it was a good or a bad one.
Because of the many distractions and temptations around us, it’s difficult to always keep God uppermost in our minds. Day-to-day living is not easy. It has always been this way. Look at what Jacob told Pharaoh in Genesis 47:9. “The days of the years of my pilgrimage are l30 years; few and evil have the days of the years of my life been and I have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.” Did Jacob think he had been given a “raw deal”? That’s what “few and evil” days sounds like. Too often, we probably feel the same way that Jacob did.
We rush here to get something done, and we can hurry there to get something else done. It is not an easy thing to keep God and Christianity at the forefront of our thoughts. The evils that we witness are the same as observed by our parents, grandparents and even back to Jacob’s time. However, if you can, imagine how far we’ve come since Jacob’s time! The more people there are, the greater propensity for more and varied evil. Jacob’s world was literally small compared to our world today. Yes, the earth was the same size, but it was not inhabited with billions of people as it is today.
Consider how easily we travel today: vehicles, monstrous ships, trains (which are almost obsolete now for passenger service and jet airplanes). We even have space stations. Jacob had to walk or to ride an animal. Consider how we communicate today. The media is greatly varied and reaches to all places on the earth. There is no way Jacob could visualize a world like this. He had to communicate by word of mouth. Yet, even in his comparatively small world, he described his days as few and evil.
“God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years” (Genesis 1:14). God’s creation included “days and years” for as long as His creation exists. It’s not what kind of world one lives in that matters; it’s what one does with his days and years that matters.
Paul had a difficult time trying to make the Roman brethren understand this. He said, “The good that I would, I do not but the evil which I would not, that I do” (Romans 7:19). Every one of us has to fight this battle every time sin rears its head. Paul confirmed this in verse 20 when he wrote, “Now if I do that which I would not, it is no more I who does it but sin that dwells in me.” Satan is a powerful force and influences men to sin, which brings spiritual death. We all know that sin is what separates us from God and brings eternal death. Sin is what makes our days seem “few and evil” just as Jacob said.
Since creation, sin has plagued mankind. So, if sin is always present, what can we do about it? Jacob awoke from a dream that he had and declared, “Surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it” (Genesis 28:16). We must be aware that God is always everywhere, and we must give our lives to Him just as Jacob did when he vowed that “The Lord will be my God!” (v. 21). Solomon said that there is a simple solution to man’s problems. “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments for this is the whole duty of man” (Ecclesiastes 12:13).
As you look back on the past year, determine what could have been better. Then, strive to make the new year a better year to the glory of God!
