There Arose Another Generation Who Did Not Know the Lord (3/30)

Thought from today’s Bible reading from Judges 1-2.

“The people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who survived Joshua, who had seen all the great work of the Lord which He had done for Israel. Then Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of one hundred and ten. And they buried him in the territory of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.

“All that generation also were gathered to their fathers; and there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord, nor yet the work which He had done in Israel. Then the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals” (Judges 2:7-11).

In the days of Joshua, the Israelites were, for the most part, faithful to the Lord. This faithfulness continued to the next generation. But sadly, the following generation did not exhibit such faithfulness and dedication to the Lord. What happened?

First of all, the text says this new generation “did not know the Lord, nor yet the work which He had done for Israel.” They did not see with their own eyes the mighty hand of God defeating the enemies of Israel. They did not see the miracles that occurred.

Of course, the same could be said of us, yet that does not mean we are doomed to a life of unfaithfulness. What has been written down for us is sufficient to produce faith (John 20:30-31; Romans 10:17). This next generation of Israelites did not have a complete written record like we have, but they did have the older generation from whom they could learn. Yet they became unfaithful.

Did the last faithful generation fail to teach the first unfaithful one? Possibly, though the text does not explicitly say so. But we know that the new generation did not have their own faith. This is why they forsook God.

How is this prevented? Two things have to happen:

The older generation must teach the younger.
The younger generation must develop their own faith.

We cannot control what the younger generation chooses when they come of age. But we can control how we teach them. If they choose to depart from God later, let it not be because we failed to teach them. Let us be busy and diligent in our efforts to train up the next generation in the ways of the Lord.

Tomorrow’s reading: Judges 3-5

[I’m using the Chronological reading plan on the Bible Gateway website if you’d like to follow along, too.]

Daily Notes & Observations contains all 365 articles from this series and is available in paperback from Gospel Armory.