Why Is Your Generation Poorer Than Your Parents'?
Judges 6:1-6; Deuteronomy 28
Why is your generation poorer than your parents? Why does it feel like the whole system is rigged against you? The housing market, the tax burden, the bureaucracy, the waves of chaos rolling through your nation. You can see the enemies, but what if they’re not the real problem? What if the Bible names the actual cause and the actual solution, and it’s nothing like what we’ve been told on social media? We’re in Judges chapter 6 today, and what we find there will reframe everything for you.
God Deals with Nations as Nations
Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. Now, as a nation, they did evil. Many people say that God doesn’t deal with nations — but here he is, considering them as a nation. We are focused, particularly as evangelicals, on the individual: Jesus and me, my heart, my feelings, me going to heaven when I die. No. Lift your eyes up. The Lord’s concern is wider than you and your heart.
In the second half of the verse, it says the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian for seven years. Did Midian just roll up there on their own accord? No. The Lord actively delivered Israel into their hand. He, the Lord, is the one actively punishing his own children, chastising them for their evil — again, as a nation.
So when we look for the ultimate root cause of why terrible things are happening in our society, we must say that it is God dealing with nations as nations. He’s still concerned with nations. He still chastises nations. But we have our nose pressed so far into our phone that we can’t see anything around us.
All we see is: Midian is the problem. Midian this, Midian that. We’re not concerned about the real cause. For Midian, we can substitute the Jews, the US government, the WEF, the brown people, the Islamic people. It’s all their fault. But no — lift your eyes to how God deals with nations, then and now.
The Gideon Generation
The previous generation had rest for forty years. Forty years is a generation. So the present generation — the generation of Gideon — had a terrible situation. Total insecurity. Their lives were in question all the time. But the previous generation had an easy life because of something done before even they were adults. They had peace. No invasion. No problems.
Whereas Gideon’s generation were absolutely in the thick of it. They had to literally run to the hills. They couldn’t occupy the cities. They couldn’t occupy the sweet farmland. They had to go where life was marginal and hide themselves in caves.
We’re not in that position physically — but in terms of comparing and contrasting the former generation that had peace and the present generation which has problems, we have problems. You want to get married as a young man? Good luck finding a sane woman. Good luck getting a house unless your father owns property. Good luck making enough money to keep a wife at home. So we are, I think, greatly impoverished compared to the generation before us — and not through any fault of your own if you’re in your twenties or thirties.
The Midianite Pattern in Our Day
And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel. A foreign nation coming in — they don’t belong there. Midian was the fourth child of Abraham with Keturah, sent away far to the east. But they came back. And they won. They prevailed.
What are we finding? That increasingly, people who don’t look like they belong here anyway are winning. We can’t kid ourselves that they’re not winning. And if you want to win in a godly way instead of lose, you better listen to the diagnosis God gives and take the medicine God prescribes.
Because of the Midianites, the children of Israel made themselves dens, caves, and strongholds in the mountains. Then the enemies would encamp against them and destroy the produce of the earth as far as Gaza, leaving no sustenance — neither sheep, nor oxen, nor donkey. It wasn’t just a feeling of anxiety. It was the systematic destruction of agriculture. The oxen were like tractors. The donkeys were like jeeps. The entire infrastructure of agriculture was being destroyed.
How much of the produce got to the Israelite people? Very little. The overwhelming percentage went into the mouths of their enemies. And what do we find today? How much does a farmer have to produce and sell just to meet what functions as an enemy taking the fruits of his labour — in the form of taxation, inheritance tax, fuel excise, and the systematic rewilding of productive farmland?
For they came as numerous as locusts, both they and their camels without number. And who are these locusts in our day? I think they’re the bureaucrats. How many people in the UK work productively compared to those who consume taxes — working for government, enforcing regulations, inventing new ways to make our lives more difficult? They eat away at the substance of the people.
The Turning Point: Crying to the Lord
So Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites. And are we not greatly impoverished? The turning point comes at the end of verse 6: the people cried to the Lord.
Now, in order to cry to the Lord, you need to realise that the Lord is the solution. That means thinking of Jesus not just as your personal saviour, but as the saviour of nations — as the owner of the nations. His salvation is cosmic. You can’t put a limit on it.
In order to turn to Jesus for salvation from all these Midianites, children of the East, and Amalekites, you have to reframe in your mind who God is and what his interests are. Because if you just have a little individual-salvation God, what can he do? He appears powerless against these great foes. And what’s your move then? You take the first Adam route and blame your circumstances. You blame the Midianites. You expose the evil of the Amalekites. Where is that going to get you?
No, the winning strategy is to cry to the Lord. But you have to recognise that he is, right now, the Lord of the nation. If you have this idea and stick to it — that he’s the Lord of your heart and that’s where it stops — there’s no hope for you. Just run to the hills, dig yourself a hole.
God’s way is the way of victory. The children of Israel cried out to the Lord, and despite all their sins, they were much better than we are at this point. How many people are crying in social media? Many. But how many are actually crying to the Lord?
We have to realise that Jesus is the covenant Lord of the nations now. We have to understand how he operates. If we’re a Christian nation, we have a special privilege — and beside that, a special responsibility. Part of that responsibility is taking it on our own shoulders and saying: it is my fault. Being a priest of the nation, representing the nation in prayer, humbling yourself before God.
So reach out to me if you have questions or comments at questions@godsworldgodsway.com.