Right now in my Bible reading I have just finished Joshua and am several chapters into Judges. It’s amazing to me how there is “nothing new under the sun” as Ecclesiastes puts it. The same issues, failures, and inconsistencies have plagued us humans since creation. I think you’ll find this to be true as you read.
Let’s start at the end of Joshua. As you know, Joshua followed Moses as God’s appointed leader of Israel. Finally, Israel has entered into and conquered the majority of the inhabitants of the land. If you know this story well, you know that the previous statement is already a problem. They were to annihilate everyone who inhabited the land. So, either God hadn’t given them the power to conquer, or they were disobedient. Take a guess!!!
Nevertheless, they divided the land among the different tribes and begun to settle the land. In Joshua 24, we find Joshua gathering all the tribes of Israel together, reminding them of God’s faithfulness in bringing them out of Egypt, rescuing them from the hand of kings, and God’s other blessings. God promised many years ago to give them this land, and at this moment they stand in the Promise Land!!
After reminding them of these things, Joshua commands them to “choose THIS DAY whom they will serve” (emphasis mine). They can serve this powerful, faithful God, or they can choose to serve something else, but TODAY was decision time. It’s almost as if Joshua is saying, “Are you in, or are you out? Because if you’re in, then act like it! And if not, then make it known so that you can be dealt with.”
The people respond: “Far be it from us that we should forsake the LORD to serve other gods, for it is the LORD our God who brought us and our fathers up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (Jsh. 24:16-17a).
In Judges 2:11 we read, “And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals.” This begins the pattern of Judges: The people of Israel do what is evil in the eyes of the LORD Þ they cry out to the LORD for help Þ He rescues them Þ they do what is evil in the sight of the LORD Þ … you get the point.
Sound familiar? I mean not just in your knowledge of the Bible, but in your own life! Yeah, me too! Over and over we declare to God that He is our satisfaction and identity, yet constantly run to and fill our lives with other things in an attempt to quench the desires that only He is able to fulfill.
Immediately preceding 2:11, the writer of Judges informs us of the next point that I think is applicable to our lives…
“And the people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that the LORD had done for Israel…And there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD or the work that he had done for Israel” (Judges 2:7, 10b).
Can you see what happened? There was a breakdown in the family structure of passing on what God had done in the lives of the Moses and Joshua generation! How, when they had seen God so clearly work, could they have failed to pass this on to their children? Was there anything MORE important that they could have told them? Did they get so wrapped up in the daily grind that they forgot this?
Although this blows my mind to think how quickly this change took place, I think that we are in the middle of something very similar. If you have read anything about the youth of our nation, we are not far off from the reality in this story. Even the youth that have been in the church their entire lives are walking away from the church immediately after graduation. I would encourage you to read The Last Christian Generation by Josh McDowell, or Battle Cry for a Generation by Ron Luce to see just how desperate we are.
Have we failed, as the church, to pass on our faith to the next generation? Was the Gospel not evident in our lives to those younger than us? Hundreds of years from now will books say something similar to what we have seen in Judges? What are YOU doing to influence the next generation for Christ? What is your church doing to set our youth on fire for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Let’s agree together as the people of Israel did in Joshua that TODAY we choose to serve the LORD, and to raise up a generation of young people who will do the same.
More to come on Judges – I believe it’s a very applicable book to us.
Scott
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