Judges 2:10-23 (NIV):
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. 11 Then
the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals. 12 They
forsook the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of
Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them.
They aroused the Lord’s anger 13 because they forsook him and
served Baal and the Ashtoreths. 14 In his anger against Israel the
Lord gave them into the hands of raiders who plundered them. He sold them into
the hands of their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist.
15 Whenever Israel went out to fight, the hand of the Lord was
against them to defeat them, just as he had sworn to them. They were in great
distress.
16 Then
the Lord raised up judges,[a] who saved them
out of the hands of these raiders. 17 Yet they would not listen to
their judges but prostituted themselves to other gods and worshiped them. They
quickly turned from the ways of their ancestors, who had been obedient to the
Lord’s commands. 18 Whenever the Lord raised up a judge for them,
he was with the judge and saved them out of the hands of their enemies as long
as the judge lived; for the Lord relented because of their groaning under those
who oppressed and afflicted them. 19 But when the judge died, the
people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their ancestors,
following other gods and serving and worshiping them. They refused to give up
their evil practices and stubborn ways.
20 Therefore
the Lord was very angry with Israel and said, “Because this nation has violated
the covenant I ordained for their ancestors and has not listened to me, 21 I
will no longer drive out before them any of the nations Joshua left when he
died. 22 I will use them to test Israel and see whether they will
keep the way of the Lord and walk in it as their ancestors did.” 23 The
Lord had allowed those nations to remain; he did not drive them out at once by
giving them into the hands of Joshua.
This Word is
extremely powerful. Listen, it is so important for your children and your
household to know the LORD. Look at this passage and see the amount of danger
and destruction that comes from lack of knowledge and relationship with the
LORD. You alone cannot steward your household into the LORD’s presence; there has to be a personal relationship with the
LORD that you cultivate in your children by surrounding them with the Word.
Let’s study
the Word to see the consequences which are very real by the way, of not
allowing your household to come into the LORD’s presence or of failing to bear
the responsibility of exposing your children to the Word.
That whole generation
passed away. You won’t be here forever-but
your lineage will continue. And they will
grow up. The issue here and even relevant to our daily lives is this new
generation in the Word neither knew the
LORD nor what he had done for Israel. In other words, this is the case
where your children don’t only know the LORD because you have not spoken to
them about Him, you have not exposed them to Him, but also, they know nothing
of what He has done for you and by extension for them-for your family. This is
failing to share the testimony of how the LORD has been good to you-of how He
has helped and protected you with your children. It is extremely dangerous. The
danger is this-when they neither know the LORD nor of the deeds He has
done-maybe because you have forgotten to share which in itself is a form of
allowing the enemy to steal your testimony because you have failed to protect
it by sharing it and speaking about it and living it-they sinned-they served Baals. This means they served other idols, and
in this generation, this could be sexual immorality, it could be promiscuity,
alcohol addiction, drug addiction, addiction to all sorts of immorality-these
are Baals. These are idols they end
up serving because they know nothing about God.
Notice the
Word said they followed and worshipped
various gods of the people around them. This is so important-you will
notice if you fail to protect your posterity with the knowledge of the LORD
that they will fall easily into the habits of the community, the habits of the
current culture and of this world-they will just follow anything that seems
current because they lack a foundation in
Christ.
And this aroused the LORD’s anger. Its very
dangerous to arouse the LORD’s anger-and it happens when He is
forsaken-remember the LORD says He is a jealous God and Him only shall you
serve. So what happens when you fail to share this knowledge of Him with your
kids? When you fail to let them know of Him? They don’t serve Him-they serve
idols.
And they
become exposed to harm-the LORD gave this
generation of Israelites over to raiders who plundered them. This means
they become exposed to disease, to hardships, to problems, and situations that
they should not have been exposed to in the first place-because it began with lack of knowledge. The LORD says my
people perish for lack of knowledge (Hosea
4:6).
And they wont
be able to win any battles because they
have turned from God-they have embraced different Baals-different idols of
immorality and the world.
That is the
real danger present in this day and age when your children don’t know the LORD.
You need to
allow the LORD raise them (Judges
2:16). Allow Him to lead and teach them by bringing them into knowledge of Him.
The LORD raised judges who saved those
that lacked knowledge from the raiders-in other words, the LORD taught them how
to fight and they won because He was with them.
If your child
is on the other side, the side of ignorance, of failing to have intimacy with
the LORD, they would not listen. (Judges
2:17). They won’t even pay attention. They will be stubborn (Judges 2:19). But
notice the judges were leaders-the LORD was with the judge. Is your child being
raised to be a judge in this generation? Your instinct knows the answer-begin
to expose them to the LORD.
If they are
like the Israelites who failed to listen, the danger is you have exposed your
posterity to attack from the enemy-Judges 2:20-23.