Pass It On

Throughout the book of Judges, the Israelites frequently lose their way and various judges bring them back to God. Within a few years of that judge dying, the people are lost again. It brings to mind a verse from Proverbs. “Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; but blessed is he who keeps the law.” Proverbs 29:18 The King James version says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.” One of the jobs of leaders is to keep the people focused on the vision. Where are we headed?

After Moses and Joshua both died, Israel did not have consistent strong leadership holding them together. They had multiplied in number and were spread out over the Promised Land. They failed to rid the land of the inhabitants and began to take on the foreign gods and forgot about their God who had freed them from slavery and led them to the Promised Land. Periodically, God called out leaders to turn their hearts back to him. And so we have the stories of Gideon and Sampson we teach in Sunday School and children especially like to imitate these ‘superheroes’.

But even in those stories there is a lot of unsettling behavior and conflict among the Israelites – horrible stories of prostitution, sexual abuses, civil war, and intermarriage with the nations they were to have driven out. My stomach turns as I read these portions of Scripture. The Israelites lost sight of their laws and of their God who had led them in previous generations. And their behaviors and lifestyles rapidly deteriorated leading them to come under enemy control.

I wonder, did God leave them or did they leave God? Or did God leave them to their own devices so that they would rediscover their need for him? “Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, so the Lord delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years.” Judges 13:1 That is the lead in to the story of Sampson.

And I wonder, how did the Israelites get so far from God so quickly? In just a couple of generations, they had completely forgotten what the Lord had done for them as a people. “After that whole generation had been gathered to their families, another generation grew up, who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel.” Judges 2:10

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” II Timothy 3:16-17 So what am I to learn from the book of Judges? I can’t help but think of God’s instructions through Moses. “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.” Deuteronomy 6:4-9

The only way to keep the future generations from falling into deep sin is to love the Lord my God with all my heart, soul and strength. In doing that, I will instruct my children by the way I live my life. And as I talk about my God and what he means to me, my children will come to know him as their God as well. Maybe this is why in Revelation it says, “So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” Revelation 3:16 Taking our children to Sunday School is not enough. Saying memorized prayers at mealtime and/or bedtime is not enough. Our children need to see our dependence upon God; they need to see our active relationship with God and our service to God as we care for those God loves – the widow, the fatherless, the poor, etc. They need to be taught to have an active relationship with God as well. When they see our love for God and how much God loves us, they learn to love him as well.

In our culture, we see so much unnecessary suffering because people have turned their hearts away from God. We have the ebb and flow of revivals as periodically strong evangelists travel and point the way back to God. But within that, just as within the times of the Judges in Israel, there are individuals who love God with all their heart, soul and strength and continue to pass on that love from generation to generation. I’m so grateful my parents did that for me. Now it is up to me to pass that on to the next generation – and to everyone that God places within my sphere of influence.