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No.9.
THE THOUSAND GENERATIONS.
pp. 225 - 227
It is only possible to speak of the Millennium if we believe that the term "a thousand
years" means what it says, and is to be taken literally. This being so, what are we to
understand by the statement in Deut. 7: 9?
"The Lord thy God, He is the God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and
mercy with them that love Him and keep His commandments TO A THOUSAND
GNERATIONS."
How are we to understand the language of David recorded in I Chron. 16: 15?
"Be ye mindful always of His covenant; the word which He commanded TO A
THOUSAND GENERATIONS."
And yet once more, what did the Psalmist mean in Psa. 105: 8?
"He hath remembered His covenant for ever, the word which He commanded TO A
THOUSAND GENERATIONS."
The usage of the word "generation" in the Scriptures falls into three groups or shades
of meaning:
(1) The primary meaning is that of offspring. This is its meaning in the genealogies
that abound in the O.T. In Hebrew "The book of the generations" is sepher toledoth, and
in the Greek biblios geneseos (Gen. 5: 1; Matt. 1: 1).
(2) Arising out of this primary meaning comes a secondary sense, namely a period of
time. This would not have been used rigidly, especially when we observe that the natural
length of human life has changed since the days of the patriarchs. Herodotus, the Greek
historian, says "Three generations of men make an hundred years" and Clement of
Alexandria citing Homer says "two generations" cover the period of "above sixty years
old".
It will be remembered that our Saviour's earthly life was just about a "generation", He
commencing His ministry at about thirty years of age (Luke 3: 23).
(3) The word subsequently came to indicate some specific characteristics such as "an
adulterous and sinful generation". When the three O.T. writers quoted above speak of "a
thousand generations" they can mean nothing more or less than an exceedingly long
period of time, not necessarily 33,000 years, but sufficiently long to overlap the
Millennium to such an extent as to show that the thousand-year reign is but the threshold
to a period very much longer than the present history of man multiplied several times. If
this has even any element of truth in it, then the Day of God, which follows the Day of
the Lord (see article Day of the Lord) must be of great importance, and it is highly
probable that many a passage of the O.T. that has been indiscriminately labeled