How Long is a Thousand Generations?

How many years are in one thousand generations? Sometimes a generation is considered 40 years. Other times, I have heard it said to be 70 years. If a generation is 40 years, then one thousand generations would be 40,000 years. If Moses’ era was around 1446 BCE, we are nearing 86 generations since the time of Moses on the 40 year cycle. If we use the 70 year cycle, we have had 49 generations since Moses. Consider these verses by King David:

1Ch 16:8 Give thanks to Yahweh; call upon his name; make known his deeds among the nations!
1Ch 16:9 Sing to him; sing praises to him; tell of his wondrous works!
1Ch 16:10 Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those seeking Yahweh rejoice!
1Ch 16:11 Seek Yahweh and his strength; seek his face continually!
1Ch 16:12 Remember his wonderful works that he has done, his wonders and the judgments of his mouth,
1Ch 16:13 O offspring of Israel, his servant, O sons of Jacob, his chosen ones!
1Ch 16:14 He is Yahweh our God; his judgments are in all the earth.
1Ch 16:15 Remember his covenant forever, the word he commanded for a thousand generations,
1Ch 16:16 that he made with Abraham, his sworn oath to Isaac.

In the Psalms the message is repeated:

Psa 105:1 Give thanks to Yahweh; proclaim his name; make known his deeds among the peoples.
Psa 105:2 Sing to him; sing praises concerning him; tell of all his wonderful works.
Psa 105:3 Boast about his holy name. Let the heart of those who seek Yahweh rejoice.
Psa 105:4 Make supplication to Yahweh and his might; seek his face continually.
Psa 105:5 Remember his wonders that he has done, his signs and the judgments of his mouth,
Psa 105:6 O offspring of Abraham his servant, you descendants of Jacob, his chosen ones.
Psa 105:7 He is Yahweh our God; his judgments are in all the earth.
Psa 105:8 He remembers his covenant forever, the word that he commanded for a thousand generations,
Psa 105:9 that he made with Abraham, and by his oath swore to Isaac.

Where does David get this idea that the covenant Yahweh made with Abraham, extended to the twelve tribes of Israel, would last a thousand generations? It is possibly this passage from Deuteronomy.

Deu 7:6 For you are a holy people for Yahweh your God; Yahweh your God has chosen you to be for him a people, a treasured possession from among all the peoples that are on the face of the earth.
Deu 7:7 “Yahweh loved you and chose you not because of your great number exceeding all other peoples, for you are fewer than all of the peoples,
Deu 7:8 but because of the love of Yahweh for you and because of his keeping of the sworn oath that he swore to your ancestors, Yahweh brought you out with a strong hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt.
Deu 7:9 So know that Yahweh your God, he is God, the trustworthy God, maintaining his covenant and his loyal love with those who love him and with those who keep his commandments to a thousand generations,
Deu 7:10 but repaying those who hate him in their own person to destroy them; he is not slow with those who hate him in their own person; he repays them.

If Yahweh will keep his covenant with those who love Him and keep His commandments for a thousand generations, how did we arrive at the place 49 generations later where many in the church claim we no longer have to keep His commandments? If it is taken into consideration that Yahweh’s commandments were cast aside starting in the fourth century, and in some cases earlier than that, we reduce the amount of generations significantly.

How did the omnipresent, omniscient Creator of the universe think He would have people keeping His commandments for a thousand generations, then all of a sudden, after not even 50 generations, supposedly no one has to keep them any more? Did He change His mind?

From the 347 CE Council of Laodecia, a Roman Canon I often quote, is still being followed by Catholic Churches and protesting Catholic (Protestant) Churches today.

Canon XXIX.
Christians must not judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, rather honouring the Lord’s Day; and, if they can, resting then as Christians. But if any shall be found to be judaizers, let them be anathema from Christ.
Notes.
Ancient Epitome of Canon XXIX.
A Christian shall not stop work on the Sabbath, but on the Lord’s Day.
Balsamon.
Here the Fathers order that no one of the faithful shall stop work on the Sabbath as do
the Jews, but that they should honour the Lord’s Day, on account of the Lord’s resurrection, and that on that day they should abstain from manual labour and go to church. But thus abstaining from work on Sunday they do not lay down as a necessity, but they add, “if they can.” For if through need or any other necessity any one worked on the Lord’s day this was not reckoned against him.

We know that in 347 CE, people knew what day the Sabbath was observed. This would have been the same day of the week that Jesus observed the Sabbath. In this Canon, the Church is essentially cursing (anathema) anyone who rests on the Sabbath.

Yahweh says something different about His Sabbaths:

Isa 58:13 If you hold your foot back from the Sabbath, from doing your affairs on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a pleasure, the holy day of Yahweh honorable, if you honor him more than doing your ways, than finding your affairs and speaking a word,
Isa 58:14 then you shall take your pleasure in Yahweh, and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth, and I will feed you the heritage of Jacob your ancestor, for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken.”

Who do we believe? Yahweh through His prophet Isaiah, or the Council of Laodicea? Churches today still choose the council of Laodicea over Yahweh. Can we conclude that we are even serving the same God any more? What did Jesus have John write to the Church of Laodecia prior to the council? Perhaps they ignored the warning to repent?

Rev 3:14 “And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation.
Rev 3:15 “‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot!
Rev 3:16 So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.
Rev 3:17 For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.
Rev 3:18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.
Rev 3:19 Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.

Often we hear that Jesus somehow changed or did away with the Sabbath. Is this true? Where is the evidence? It would appear Jesus kept the Sabbath by His actions.

Luk 4:16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read.

There was no Biblical authority for the Church to change the Sabbath and curse anyone who keeps it. This is outrageous and shows us why we followed the commandments and kept the covenant for only a very small percentage of generations that Yahweh had intended.

There is more than the weekly Sabbath that we have abandoned. Yahweh’s special Sabbaths and feast days were traded for Baal’s feast days and Sabbaths, over time, by the church. Yahweh’s feast days were to be kept forever, not just a mere thousand generations, and they will be, even if the church only keeps the sun god days now.

The House of Israel, similar to the church, also profaned Yahweh’s Sabbaths and forsook His commandments. This is why they were cut off and divorced from Yahweh. They broke His covenant. Remember, Yahweh said He would remember His covenant for those who loved Him and kept His commandments for a thousand generations. Did Jesus come to eliminate Yahweh’s commandments? Did He come to start a new religion called Christianity that would curse those keeping Yahweh’s Sabbaths? In Jeremiah we see the woman of Israel baking cakes to Ishtar, the queen of Heaven.

Jer 7:16 “And you, you must not pray for this people, and you must not lift up for them a cry of entreaty or a prayer, and you must not plead with me, for I will not hear you.
Jer 7:17 Do you not see what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?
Jer 7:18 The children are gathering wood, and the fathers are kindling the fire, and the women are kneading dough to make sacrificial cakes for the queen of heaven, and they pour out libations to other gods for the sake of provoking me to anger.
Jer 7:19 Are they provoking me to anger? ” declares Yahweh, “Is it not themselves they hurt, for the sake of the shame of their faces?”
Jer 7:20 Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, “Look, my anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, on the humankind, and on the animal, and on the tree of the field, and on the fruit of the ground, and it will not be extinguished.”

Jesus has much to say about keeping the commandments. What gospel was Jesus proclaiming early in His ministry? In modern times we think the gospel is only that of proclaiming to people Jesus died and resurrected for atonement of their sin, but Jesus was proclaiming the gospel before that time was even revealed.

Mat 4:23 And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.

What is this gospel of the kingdom that was being proclaimed by Jesus? It was similar to John the Baptist’s message. He was teaching repentance and a return to following the commandments.

Luk 3:1 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene,
Luk 3:2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness.
Luk 3:3 And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
Luk 3:4 As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
Luk 3:5 Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways,
Luk 3:6 and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”
Luk 3:7 He said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Luk 3:8 Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.
Luk 3:9 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
Luk 3:10 And the crowds asked him, “What then shall we do?”
Luk 3:11 And he answered them, “Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.”
Luk 3:12 Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?”
Luk 3:13 And he said to them, “Collect no more than you are authorized to do.”
Luk 3:14 Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages.”

In other words, return to the covenant because the Kingdom of God was at hand, and the wrath of Yahweh is approaching. How could the nations enter, or in the case of Israel, re-enter the covenant with Yahweh? The House of Israel had been cut off and assimilated with the heathen nations foreign to Yahweh. The scripture Jesus read on the Sabbath in the synagogue gives us a clue.

Luk 4:16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read.
Luk 4:17 And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,
Luk 4:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
Luk 4:19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Luk 4:20 And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.
Luk 4:21 And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

Jesus would allow Israel and the nations that they assimilated with into covenant with Yahweh. This was prophesied by Jeremiah.

Jer 31:31 Look, the days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “and I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,
Jer 31:32 not like the covenant that I made with their ancestors on the day of my grasping them by their hand, bringing them out from the land of Egypt, my covenant that they themselves broke, though I myself was a master over them,” declares Yahweh.
Jer 31:33 “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares Yahweh: “I will put my law in their inward parts and on their hearts I will write it, and I will be to them God, and they themselves will be to me people.
Jer 31:34 And they will no longer teach each one his neighbor, or each one his brother, saying, ‘Know Yahweh,’ for all of them will know me, from their smallest and up to their greatest,” declares Yahweh, “for I will forgive their iniquity and their sin I will no longer remember.”

The law Yahweh writes in the hearts of His people is the same law and commandments His people would keep for a thousand generations. This is the grace He gives us.

Joh 1:17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came about through Jesus Christ.

Grace isn’t a license to break the law of Moses, or Yahweh’s commandments given through Moses. Grace is Strong’s G5485

G5485
χάρις
charis
khar’-ece
From G5463; graciousness (as gratifying), of manner or act (abstract or concrete; literal, figurative or spiritual; especially the divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life; including gratitude): – acceptable, benefit, favour, gift, grace (-ious), joy liberality, pleasure, thank (-s, -worthy).

Grace is divine influence on the heart, or Yahweh writing His law in the heart as He said He would.

What about the 347 CE Church council, who cursed the people of Yahweh, for keeping His commandments like the Sabbath? By what authority could they do such a thing that is still lasting today, 1647 years later? This sort of behaviour is also prophesied by Jeremiah.

Jer 23:16 Thus says Yahweh of hosts, “You must not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They are deluding you with visions of their mind, They do not speak from the mouth of Yahweh.
Jer 23:17 They are continually saying to those who disregard the word of Yahweh, ‘Peace it will be to you,’ and to each one who walks in the stubbornness of his heart they say, ‘Calamity will not come upon you.’
Jer 23:18 For who has stood in the council of Yahweh, that he has seen and heard his word? Who has listened attentively to his word and heard it?
Jer 23:19 Look, the storm of Yahweh has gone forth in wrath, even a whirling tempest. It will whirl upon the head of the wicked.
Jer 23:20 The anger of Yahweh will not turn back until his doing and until his keeping the plans of his mind. In latter days you will look closely at it with understanding.

Is this not what is being done even now? “In latter days you will look closely at it with understanding.” Here we are, in the latter days, understanding.