God takes His people out of Egyptian bondage, leading them through the Red Sea, through the wilderness, right up to the edge of their Promised Land. But they retreat in fear, apparently having forgotten just what God is capable of.
God takes them through a refining disciplinary process and gives them another chance. Moses has the people renew their covenantal vows with God, and they march into the land full of confidence, not in themselves, but in the God they serve.
Moses dies, Joshua takes over, and his first item of business is to lead the people in renewing their covenant again. He wants to make sure they don’t forget this time. The people stand and, with one voice, make a promise to love God with everything they have and to pass their faith down to their children.
A promise that lasts one generation.
Joshua dies, and we read one of the saddest verses in the whole Bible, “After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel.” (Judges 2.10)
The people failed to pass the baton of faith to their children, and it set in motion this depressing chain of events we read about in the book of Judges.
In some ways, this book should never have been written. If the people had simply done what they promised to do, there would have been no rebellion, no punishment, no crying out to God, no need for deliverance. There would have been no Judges. But they didn’t keep their promise, so there were and there it is.
And here’s the really frustrating part. Every time the people survived their punishment and were delivered by God’s appointed judge, they had the opportunity to break the cycle. There was a time of peace that usually followed deliverance. In that time of peace, they had the chance to teach their children, to help their kids avoid making the same mistakes they made.
Do they learn their lesson? No, they do not. If only they’d gone back to the vows of the covenant they had made under Moses and Joshua, but they did not love God properly, and they did not teach their children.
Now we find ourselves living in a post-Christian era. We lament the decay of culture, wondering how things could have gotten so far off-track. But with each generational turning, we are given the same opportunity. We can bemoan the loss of Judeo-Christian ethics and values, or we can make a commitment to once again love God with everything, our heart, soul, mind and strength, and pass this commitment down to the next generation.
Lord God, as I look back on the stories of Your patience, guidance and many deliverances of Your people, and as I consider the similar story of Your works and ways in my life, I realise that You have put me in a position of great privilege and perspective. You have given me the opportunity to consider and learn from Your many interactions in human history, and You have also given me a personal history of Your many gracious dealings in my own journey. I pray that I would not squander these great gifts, but that I would impart what You have taught me to others so that I would invest in their lives and pass this on to the next generation. I do not want to waste the many blessings You have given me by keeping them to myself. May I pass them on so that Your gracious work in me would be a blessing to others.
In Jesus’s name, Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment