#B90Days, Day 17. Judges 2:10.
Reading: Joshua 15: 1 - Judges 3 : 27
Scripture: Judges 2 : 10
After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel.
Observations:
Joshua died, and when everyone who was alive at the time of the crossing of the Jordan passed away, they remembered the Lord no more.
All of a sudden the repetition in Deuteronomy urging them to love and serve God with all their mind, soul, heart and strength, and to diligently teach their children all the time, make sense.
Deuteronomy 6:7 says:
You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.
Something went wrong.
Maybe the glory of the Lord was so obvious to that generation that they took it for granted that the children would understand the magnitude of what He had done for them. The adults at the time reveled in the Glory of God, and the young children watched as their parents served. Perhaps the instruction, and talking about the laws never happened, because the adults didn't need the reminders.
When the adults passed on, and the children were grown, all of a sudden there is a generation of people that had been riding on the faith of their parents. If they had heard, and learned, they would have made it their own. But faith by osmosis cannot stand in the day of trials. Faith by osmosis is not faith at all.
So the grandchildren of the ones that crossed the Jordan grew up barely hearing mention of God.
And God knew it would happen. That's why He warned them over, and over again.... Don't forget. Don't become complacent. Remember all that I have done, and pass it along to your children.
But as it happened, a generation was raised that "knew neither the LORD, nor what He had done for Israel."
Application:
Faith is a personal journey. I could not bring my mother to the kingdom through my prayers for her. She had to find it on her own. And she did. And the faith of all of us cannot pray my sister into heaven. She has to find it on her own. She can pick up the details by osmosis.... and learn a little Christianese... but the bottom line is a relationship with our Creator and Savior.
My faith in God has to be lived out, every single day. It has to be in my words, and my actions.
My sons cannot hear my internal praying. I have to bring it all out in the open, for them, so that they can see faith in action.
We need to talk about the God that loves us, all the time. At the dinner table. When we are walking down the road. When we are driving in the car.
They need to see that trusting in the Lord is normal.
They need to see that making time to get up early to be in the WORD, to hear from Him is normal.
But more than seeing it....
They have to understand it, and choose it for themselves.
It needs to become their own.
Prayer:
Father God,
What a wake up call.
Thank you so much for my sweet son, who every morning comes down and asks me, "Mommy? Is your pray time with Jesus done?" Thank you for helping me to establish the pattern of getting up early to meet with you during the school year, and then providing the discipline and motivation to continue it on through the summer time!
Help us, as parents, to live our faith out loud to our children. Discussing You with them, all the time.
And help us to handle the boundary testing that is happening now with grace, and love...
Amen.
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