Story Time

This month I've been reading about the great leader Joshua. What a mighty man of God he was, especially considering he had to follow Moses. He had big shoes to fill, but he followed after God in leading the Israelites into the promise land. But then...Joshua died. And there's a very sad verse in Judges that follows the death of Joshua...

Judges 2:10,12,17 "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... They forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers who had brought them out of slavery.....they...prostituted themselves to other gods and worshipped them. Unlike their fathers they quickly turned from the way in which their fathers had walked, the way of obedience to the Lord's commands."

WOW! After all of the triumphant battles, after receiving their inheritance of the promise land...the next generation lost out with God. But why???

My Quest study bible puts it this way...

How could a whole generation not know the Lord?

• The Israelites had failed to teach their children. God intended for parents to pass His laws and moral values along to the next generation. Gradually influenced by the surrounding paganism, however the Israelites surrendered to the prevailing cultural and social values, despite explicit warning.

This sounds like our society today. As people...as parents, we have to be extremely cautious about how much of this world's prevailing cultural and social values are coming through our front door into our hearts and the hearts of our kids.

We MUST be intentional about telling our kids stories of God's faithfulness, of His provision, of His great love. Sure, nursery rhymes are fine...but don't forget to pass down those first-hand encounters of God's incredible work in your family.

Paganism is EVERYWHERE. BEWARE!