Never Break The Chain

Judges 2:8- 10

“The Lord's servant Joshua son of Nun died at the age of a hundred and ten. He was buried in his own part of the land at Timnath Serah in the hill country of Ephraim north of Mount Gaash. That whole generation also died, and the next generation forgot the Lord and what he had done for Israel.”

This stuck out to me as an incredibly sad and disheartening portion of scripture. Two things came to mind after I read this. First, Israel tied their faith to leaders and not God. Secondly, they weren’t teaching the “why” to their children.

With the death of Joshua, Israel turned from God, and scripture goes on to say, started worshipping the gods of the unbelievers around them. It got me to thinking how this often happens today. I must question myself: Is my faith grounded in God or based on the spiritual people/leaders around me? I’ve seen this in the church so many times. The beloved pastor is retiring or being replaced and there are those in the congregation that all out stop going to church. I’ve also seen believers that don’t “leave”, but sit in the foyer complaining about the change, in a silent one man protest. This is sadly because they tethered their faith to whoever was in power and when they're gone, so is their relationship with God.

It is absolutely impossible to have a true relationship with God through someone else. That is a good definition of building your house on sand because man is fallable. When they inevitably disappoint us, our house will fall because it was built on instability. Man is unstable by nature because we are sinful by nature. However when we build our foundation on Christ, we build on a rock that can’t be moved and has never been tainted. Waves and storms will come, but our house will stand.

Lastly, the people of Israel either weren’t sharing about God to their kids, or not in a real tangible way. It says the whole next generation forgot God. That is a lot of people to turn their backs. I suspect the parents kept the “traditions” but that’s all they were. The same way my mom could take me to church and when I’m old enough I just stop going. Somehow the “why” for their traditions didn’t penetrate their hearts, or maybe they never explained it at all. They went through the motions and eventually said what’s the point.

I’m challenged with my own kids to not just take them to church, to not just let the bible be “old hat” to them. I need God to guide me that my kids know why we go to church, why we serve God, why we should be Christians, and why this way is best. Otherwise as soon as I’m no longer “around”, they just go their own way like Israel in Judges 2. I need God to show me how to make Proverbs 22:6 work. “Teach children how they should live, and they will remember it all their life.”