All the turmoil in the ’60s came because this massive generation of people—the Baby Boomers--came on the scene at a time coupled with tremendous affluence, which brings in boredom.
Jordan says, “You know the old saying, ‘The idle mind is the devil’s workshop.’ But when you bring affluence into a culture you bring boredom. Now you don’t need to slop the hogs and feed the chickens—‘We can sleep in late that morning.’
“Children no longer have to go out and do the chores. I heard many times from my dad that every morning his first job was to get the firewood and when his mother got up he had to have the kitchen stove roaring hot, and if he didn’t he was in trouble.
“You know the nature of adolescents—‘If mom and dad do it this way, I’m going to do it that way.’ So they produce this tremendous cultural revolution. And though the children have grown up they still have the taste of children because the whole of society has been changed and picked up like a rising tide from its moorings and set adrift.
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Isaiah 3 is a time in Israel’s history when they were exactly the same kind of situation we are culturally and there’s a strong statement by Isaiah about what happens to a people in that situation:
[1] For, behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water,
[2] The mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient,
[3] The captain of fifty, and the honourable man, and the counseller, and the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator.
[4] And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them.
[5] And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbour: the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honourable.
[6] When a man shall take hold of his brother of the house of his father, saying, Thou hast clothing, be thou our ruler, and let this ruin be under thy hand:
[7] In that day shall he swear, saying, I will not be an healer; for in my house is neither bread nor clothing: make me not a ruler of the people.
[8] For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen: because their tongue and their doings are against the LORD, to provoke the eyes of his glory.
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Jordan explains, “Israel had contracted with God through Moses and the Mosaic covenant to receive certain blessings if they obeyed, and to receive certain cursings if they didn’t. They didn’t obey and so God is sending the cursings. He is directly intervening in the life of this nation to bring about disaster that they had contracted to receive if they rebelled against--morally and spiritually rebelled against His covenant. So He’s sending it to them.
“Notice what he says. The first thing they lose is prosperity. They’re going to lose the store that they have--the bread, the water, the basic elements of life. They’re going to lose their economic prosperity. They’re going to begin to be in want. ‘The mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient, the captain of fifty, and the honourable man, and the counseller, and the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator. And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them.’
“I mean this country is going into judgment and God is going to take the blessing away from them and their enemies are going to surround them and take them captive and they’re going to go up into that 5th course of captivity in Leviticus 6 and they’re going to be taken away.
“Famine is going to come on them. Economic disaster is going to befall them. They’re going to lose their leaders. The mighty men, the leaders of the nation. They’re going to look around and there aren’t going to be any statesmen to lead them in the political and economic realm and in their institutions. They’re going to be adrift.
“Their military is going to be decimated. Disarmament is going to be the idea of the day. The judges are going to be so corrupt that they’re going to corrupt the law to the point that when you need them you’re not going to be able to depend on the legal system of the day. The prophet and the preachers are going to be prophesying lies. Jeremiah said the ‘people prophesy lies and the people love it so.’
“You see, the basic institutions of their society are just going to be decimated. ‘The prudent and the ancient.’ Prudence is the ability to make good decisions and their government is going to be in a situation where there aren’t going to be men and women in government who have the capacity to make good judgments and decisions about things.
“The ‘captain of fifty’ is going to go right down through the structure. It’s not just going to be the people at the top; it’s going to be the people that come down through the structure of government in society. The honorable men.
“They go out in their culture and they look for somebody that they can trust. Somebody in government, somebody in leadership; somebody in public position in the church and in education and in the government that they can say, ‘There’s somebody who can tell me the truth. There’s somebody who’s decent and honorable that I can trust what they say.’ Those people are going to be gone!
“The counselor. That’s somebody who gives you good advice. You’re not going to get good advice. Not just bad decisions but there’s nobody there to tell you what you ought to do! That’s not going to be found anywhere in their institutions and government society anymore!
“ ‘A cunning artificer.’ That’s the artist. And the oracle. The real true artist, whether it’s with painting or music or words, the real true artists are going to be gone! And all that’s going to be left is the filth. When I read down through that I think, ‘You read that and you say Wow, somebody’s been reading the Chicago Tribune, the Sun-Times and the US News and World Report! Somebody’s been listening to NBC, CBS, CNN, ABC!’
“But this Isaiah, 750 years before Christ. But it really sounds similar. ‘And I will give children to be their princes and babies shall rule over them.’ That’s what Bork called those ‘wave of savages who must be civilized’ by their parents and by their schools and churches.
“What’s happening are the people who have been charged with civilizing the children and the babies, and bringing them in and teaching them the traditions of the culture they’re in so they would know how to live, and teaching them in their history of who they were as a nation and what God’s purpose for them was, in Israel’s case.
“Those people have lost their moorings and there’s no one there to do that. And the impact of that absence is when, every year, this new generation of kids that come on the scene, there’s no one there to give it to them! So they’re set adrift and they’re left to their own devises.
"The adults have lost the strength of character, the will, the backbone. There’s no one there to tell the child, ‘NO! You can’t do that! NO, this is wrong!’ There’s no one left to give them the directions and teach them what’s right and wrong.”
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