Teach the Children Well
Near the beginning of the Book of Judges, after Joshua dies, the author writes this:
“After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel. Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD and served the Baals. They forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They provoked the LORD to anger 13 because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. In his anger against Israel the LORD handed them over to raiders who plundered them. He sold them to their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist. 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.”
Notice that this generation wasn’t one that just forget, they didn’t know Him or what He had done. They left Him for other gods but they really didn’t know the God they left. The end result us that they gave themselves to other gods, provoking God to anger and His hand to be against them. And they were in great distress.
The tragedy is that the generation right before them knew – they knew firsthand. They saw God lead them into the promised land parting the Jordan river, leading them to victory, giving them the Land. In Moses’ final sermon (Deuteronomy), that generation was warned to Love the LORD your God with all their heart, soul and strength. They were to take to heart the commandments given to them and impress them on your children. They were to talk about them at home and along the road as they walked, when they lied down and when they got up. There was to be visual reminders everywhere on doorposts, gates and even headbands. The precursor to the WWJD bracelets I guess.
It was expected that your kids would ask, ‘Now why do we do this?”. And they were to tell them the history and not forget…. But I guess they did.
Moses warned them. Living in houses they didn’t build, they forgot that their mothers and fathers were slaves. Drinking from wells they didn’t dig, they forgot times of thirst. Eating and being satisfied from vineyards and olive groves they didn’t dig, they forgot what it was like to go hungry. Living in flourishing cities, they forgot the wilderness. They forgot. And they didn’t tell the next generation.
I can’t look in judgment on them. I wouldn’t consider myself rich but compared to even what my Father went through as a boy, I am. Not to mention how rich I am compared to the vast majority of the world. I live in a house I didn’t build. I eat food I didn’t toil over the ground to produce. I drink from water that I didn’t have to walk 5 miles each day to fetch. I am satisfied. I am blessed. And in the blessing, I think I am entitled and I forget.
I look at my sons and wonder will they be a generation that doesn’t even know? That thought grieves me and haunts me of the distress they could encounter. How do you ‘impress’ kids without it being forced? How to you make it normal to talk about the goodness of God?
How do you help them know? How do I not forget?
