History Repeats Itself...

As I was studying in preparation for teaching the Bible this coming weekend, I was reading Judges 2 - about how Joshua the great Hebrew general led the children of Israel to repent of their idol-worship and turn to the Lord. Then it says they took possession of their various plots of land and began to prosper. These were really great times for Israel - as it finally looked as though the people would begin to fulfill God's plan for them to become a prosperous and righteous light to the nations, pointing humanity to the worship and knowledge of the one true God.

But as the story continues, it says that after Joshua and his generation died, the next generation "forsook the Lord" and didn't know Him, nor what He had done for them in bringing them out of Egypt. Imagine that. In only ONE generation, the people had completely drifted away from their knowledge of God. As I read on, I noticed three specific parallels to the generation God has called me to reach out to with the grace and truth of Jesus.

First, they were born into excessive PROSPERITY. Because of the hard work of their parents, those of the younger generation were handed a very prosperous nation as their inheritance. The prosperity itself was not the problem. In fact, it was a blessing from the Lord. But rather than using the prosperity to serve the Lord, they became greedy and distracted. Sound familiar?

Secondly, they were blinded by esoteric SPIRITUALITY. The whole "Yahweh is the only Way" system seemed much too narrow and intolerant for them. So they began to worship idols and the false gods of power (Ba'al) and pleasure (Ashtoreth). Much like today, spirituality was en vogue. But nobody wanted to be trapped into that narrow-minded claim that there was only ONE true God - so they opted for the smorgas-board approach.

Finally, they were burdened with educational DEFICIENCY. Despite the command of Deuteronomy 6:7 in which their parents were to pass the truth of their faith along to their kids as a matter of first priority - the ball was dropped and this generation had no understanding of the miraculous ways in which God blessed them. Rather than carrying the faith of their fathers into the next generation and beyond, they allowed the false promises of the broken culture around them to convince them to leave their first Love.

Yes, they were living under a completely different Covenant. And yes, God was gracious (just as He is with His New Covenant community) to never leave them or forsake them even though they failed miserably to obey Him. But can you see the relevance here? The modern American church is often addicted to material prosperity, all too willing to blend mystic spirituality with their faith in Christ, and severely lacking in basic knowledge of the Gospel of grace.

We will explore these issues more deeply this weekend at Valley. As always, we'll be celebrating the Good News of God's unrelenting grace toward us in Christ - and we'll be asking the Holy Spirit to further illuminate to us His life-changing power to be IN the world but not OF the world. Hope you can make it...