Godly generation

I am reading book of Judges right now. Yesterday I was reading the first few chapters and below verse just struck me. 2nd chapter gives an introduction to the downward spiraling of Israel's spiritual condition. But the highlighted verse stood out for me. The nation served the Lord until Joshua lived and all the elders of his generation lived. So they lived a life that was pleasing to Lord. They followed the commandments sincerely. But the next generation starts to fall.

Now, this is no excuse for the sinful acts of Israel. I am really not trying to find a reason or excuse to justify actions of the new generation. But just wondering if the parents had failed to fulfill their responsibility. How could a generation just come up without knowing the Lord and without even knowing what He had done for Israel? Do you see it as a failure on Joshua's generation to bring up their children in godly ways? We see the same happening in USA. Just in one generation we are seeing "God bless America" become "God less America".

I am not trying to play down the fact that every person denying Jesus Christ is taking full responsibility on him or herself. At the same time, parents are given responsibility. And for that, they would be held accountable. I think it's high time parents realize this truth. They cannot just sit and say things were greener in their days and blame the younger generation for going astray. It is parents who have to put the right seeds in child's heart.

It was a great reminder for me yesterday. To do a cross check on how effective I am being as a spiritual leader of the family! Have you ever wondered about this?

Judges 2:7-9
7 The people served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had seen all the great things the Lord had done for Israel. 8 Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of a hundred and ten. 9 And they buried him in the land of his inheritance, at Timnath Heresin the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. 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.
 
The years from leaving Egypt 1460 /1513 bc up to Joshua's death 1245 bc were years where the Jews experienced miracle after miracle / God's presence on a rather literal level. I believe it was a period of history that really stood out. There is a good chance that this scripture is not saying the kids grew up ungodly, just not knowing God on the same level. Living history vs reading it. It is like Samuel was sad to write about Joshua's passing and the end of the 'Moses era 1271 bc'. Samuel died in 1008 bc.

As for bringing up kids. Definitely thinking hard about it. I am mindful of how God has given us / entrusted us with the 'biggest' role in the kids life. How we bring them up is part and parcel with our walk with Him. We are definitely partly to blame for an ungodly generation. Though I think full blame is harsh as no human can control the rolling snowball of immorality.
 
This is a cycle that's repeated throughout the ENTIRE bible - from cover to cover....
and it's a cycle that continues to plague churches even today.

See, the difference stems from
PERSONAL relationship
vs
Inherited Religion

See the "Generation" that experienced the Power and Might of God for themselves - they experienced Personal Relationship.... They did all the "Religious" stuff as an "Output" because they experienced God first hand personally in their hearts....

But.. You can't pass "Personal Relationship" on to your kids... All that you can do is to teach them, and put them into position to be willing to experience "Personal Relationship" for themselves....

What is passed on, though, is Inherited Religion.... The Children hear the lessons from the parents... They are "Born" into the church... They experience the rituals, sacraments, rites, and rules - and they think that THIS is what "Religion" is all about... They don't connect "Personal Relationship" unless you intentionally make the point of "Personal Relationship" explicit.... AKA - you aren't BORN a Christian and you don't become one by going to church...

What they tend to HEAR is "Religious Practice"... Offer these sacrifices, go to church, tithe, etc... Do "Good things" for others... Secular humanism.. The good of Mankind... Works based salvation and "Karma" - the Heavenly Scorecard, The value of Self-sacrifice.... Stuff like that...

and without the "Personal Relationship" - going after idols and The World seems like a fine and perfectly rational thing... What's the big deal if I worship God AND other gods too.... There are many equivalent paths to God... Etc...
 
Good stuff on this thread. I agree that it is one thing to know about God and all of the sacraments and right things to do and even practuce such for the sake of pleasing man (parents, in this case) and another to want to do it out of the volition of one's own heart to please God for Whom they have a personal relationship and for which they know does not depend on their performance (Ephes 2: 8-9), even if one of satan's very successful ploys is to make one of God's children hide from God after we've failed due to earthly father and pride baggage.

WANTING to delve into the facts of Scritpture and God's love for oneself is the individual's responsibility to see how "real" and applicable it all is for them. There msut be that personal realization.

We had a very good pastor once who preached about a generational cycle of faith. I hve grandids beckoning loud must ;earve get bal ;ater
 
Hmm thats interesting, as Joshua was the one who said 'as for me and my household we will serve the Lord' . What do you think happened in this generation that made them turn away? Were the parents preoccupied? Did they forget to tell them? Did they not write it down for them???

It seems to me once Joshua died nobody had him as an example so they just forgot....

As for USA dont really know what happened there. Dont live there so dont know. It might be once Joshua and everyone came into the land of Canaan, cos there were still canaanites there, they started to follow their idols? They didnt properly destroy all the idols? Have to read the book again.
 
Anyway, I am having very close family visiting from other side of country now. Not much time. Later I will try to find where I took notes in my Bible about this cycle which repeats itself over and over throughout the ages of Bible history of a specific sequence of generational attribution towards stages of faith, I believe. But after a generation, I believe, of faithful and strong the next has shown through the Bible to be much less (David, Solomon, ...) but there is a sequence this pastor learned of a cycle of various stages of faith/faithless ness and such. Maybe what (the stage in the cycle) we are looking at is good sons who think that they can just lie on the bedrock of their father's relationship with God to save/establish them but we all know, who read the Bible anyway, that we are not saved by anyone's works but those of Christ and that we must each personally realize and admit/confess our need for Jesus Christ's atonement for our sins and accept this free gift from God to be saved and redeemed unto God the Father as His children and nothing else done by anyones else is worthy of more than a pile of doung towards our salvation. I will return sometime in the future.
 
We all know how the children want to rebel against what the parents had taught them. They heard about the miracles, but what had they experienced? Follow the law, follow the law....they say 'whatever'. Look how cool the Philistines are... (feel free to plug in any neighboring tribes in for Philistines.) They didn't have a need for faith. Judges states this in chapter 21 with "In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes."
They went from 'Love God' to 'I'll love myself first'.
 
Well, now we have a King - Jesus. And not just in Israel. Without him, we are sunk.
So no wonder they all went astray. Even children with unbelieving parents can still follow Jesus if someone tells them the gospel.
 
another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel.

Great topic!

Believe me, it's not just Israel and America. I'm a high school teacher in Portugal and it's shocking how God-less these kids are.

They are not just ignorant, they detest all things related to God. It's sad and terrifying and we only have ourselves to blame.
 
Great topic!

Believe me, it's not just Israel and America. I'm a high school teacher in Portugal and it's shocking how God-less these kids are.

They are not just ignorant, they detest all things related to God. It's sad and terrifying and we only have ourselves to blame.
We have a similar situation over here in the UK.
It's very sad.
 
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