After these things, Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of a hundred and ten. And they buried him in the land of his inheritance, at Timnath Serah in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. Israel served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had experienced everything the Lord had done for Israel. (Joshua 24:29-31, NIV 1984).
My Musings – What happens when there is no longer eyewitness links to the past? “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.” (Judges 2:7-12, NIV 1984).
The typical response to situations like this is “what’s this generation coming to?” As if to put the blame solely on that generation. While they are still responsible for their evil choices, there is a key phrase in the above passage that puts at least some of the blame on the prior generations – “another generation grew up, who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel.”
God’s instructions were clear. “Be careful and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them.” (Deuteronomy 4:9, NIV 1984). Just as clear, at least in large part, they had “let…slip from their hearts” “the things [their] eyes [had] seen.” So, it is. The things we do not hold in our hearts are unlikely to be taught “to [our] children [or] to their children after them.”
My Advice – The fame and fortune that we build in this life is not our legacy. Our legacy is our children and grandchildren. Also, others who we’ve come in contact with and shared our lives with. Will those we leave behind be a generation “who [knows] neither the Lord nor what he [has] done” to save us from our sins? The answer should be, “not if I can help it.”
“The time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” (2 Timothy 4:3-4, NIV 1984). Let’s keep the truth alive in our children and grandchildren.
The Brew Is A Musing 