Do Not Know the Lord

I was reading the Book of Judges a moment ago. Judg. 2:10—“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.” I was caught by this verse. Generally speaking, the entire, new generation didn’t know the Lord. It sets a sharp contrast in comparison with the previous generation. In 2:7, it said, “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.” Under Joshua’s leadership, people knew and served the Lord. Their serving pointed out the fact that they really knew the Lord, for mere knowing doesn’t promote servanthood in one’s life.

For me, what is shocking is that the new generation didn’t know the Lord and his works at all. My immediate response is that the older generation, the elders who worked with Joshua before, didn’t teach the next generation faithfully. They failed to inform and educate their descendants. Perhaps, they lived in the Promised Land, which was filled with milk and honey. They inherited and shared the land. They finished fighting for the land. They enjoyed living in the land. They forgot the land as a gift given to them in the first place. They lived for themselves. They lacked nothing, except urgency to build up their faith and cultivate the piety of the next generation.

The older generation served the Lord because Joshua served God among them as “the servant of the Lord” (2:8) and governed them with leadership. We must give Joshua credits, for he had a group of elders working along with him. A lot of leaders died in the wilderness due to their stubbornness. As Moses’s successor, Joshua raised up many capable leaders in his era. After Joshua was gone, something went wrong.

In our era, who are willing to pass on the tradition of the Christian Faith from one generation to another?