February 3 – Judges 2:6-15

February 3 – Judges 2:6-15

⁶ When Joshua dismissed the people, the people of Israel went each to his inheritance to take possession of the land. ⁷ And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that the Lord had done for Israel. ⁸ And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110 years. ⁹ And they buried him within the boundaries of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gaash. ¹⁰ And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel.

¹¹ And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals. ¹² And they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed down to them. And they provoked the Lord to anger. ¹³ They abandoned the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth. ¹⁴ So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunderers, who plundered them. And he sold them into the hand of their surrounding enemies, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies. ¹⁵ Whenever they marched out, the hand of the Lord was against them for harm, as the Lord had warned, and as the Lord had sworn to them. And they were in terrible distress.

Verse 10 tells us, And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel.  Oh, my! I think of my grandmother and my parents and the work that they did to raise us in the church. I watch people that have fallen away from their walk with God and think of the challenges their children will face because they have no knowledge of the word of God. God wants to protect us and His word is written so that we may live a life that honors Him.

If you know of a family that lives without God in their lives, ask God to give you opportunities to speak truth into their lives. Pray daily that our God will show you a way to make an eternal difference in the life of the family.

Heavenly Father, as I read these verses I also think about how things have changed in our generation and how the world has fallen away from loving You.  They don’t even seem to believe in You anymore.  How we must grieve You and anger You daily with the things we do, and sometimes just the things we accept as “normal” and “okay”.  Intolerance has become a word in this world that means we hate people.  But I see being tolerant has more hate than intolerance.  When we tolerate bad behavior, we are saying to people that its okay for them to anger You.  We don’t teach them how to love You and respect You as our Creator and Lord.  We discipline those we love.  The word discipline even has a negative feeling now when it really is about teaching and discipling.  We discipline our children because we love them and want to teach the how to treat others and how to honor You.  So when we tolerate bad behavior, we don’t love enough to teach.  Help me love people and hate sin enough to help them see truth…Your truth…THE truth!!!

In Jesus’ name.

Amen!