SCRIPTURE:
"I will no longer drive out the nations that Joshua left unconquered when he died. I did this to test Israel—to see whether or not they would follow the ways of the Lord as their ancestors did.”"
Judges 2:21-22 (NLT)
OBSERVATION:
The Promised Land is falling into the hands of God's people, under Joshua's leadership.
The people who were in the land were worshiping other gods whose practices were an abhorrence to the LORD--horrible things done to children and to each other.
Israel's tribes were to vanquish the people of the land and take it as their possession; an order of the LORD.
They did that...mostly.
A common theme in the first chapter of Judges is that each tribe failed to completely eradicate the people living there.
So while the displaced people became slaves, etc. to Israel, they remained...and so did their practices of worshiping Baal, Molech, and other false gods.
Fail? Or God's design?
Scripture tells us that God allowed it to happen to test the hearts of His people, to see if they would hang tough and keep the LORD's commandments….or would they choose to ‘be with the other people’, become one of them through marriage, and thereby fall into yet another round of disobeying God.
APPLICATION:
While the blood of Jesus now cleanses us from all unrighteousness, we find ourselves in somewhat a not very different situation.
We have a society in America who, through a young generation who did not witness the struggles, the miracles, and the acts of God in my time, are turning to "alternatives"...a self-reliant culture that demands a voice without any moral backing except their own self-expression.
We have youth with no earned credibility, no forged wisdom, yet demanding to control a nation based on their demands to “feel good about themselves”.
Social media has become the temple, and these so-called leaders known as “influencers”, are glorifying themselves in the guise of a cause.
In this context I feel like I'm in the shoes of the ancestor. The one who tries to teach the healthy fear of God in words, AND by example.
And while the Israelites were originally commanded to eradicate the people interspersed among them, we have Jesus' command to "love God and love your neighbor" as our primary weapon. Paul had done so well to "be all things to all men that by all means he might save some..."
How do I reach a rebellious young generation...even some of our young people in our church who dance on the fence between devotion to Christ and the pull of the world...
The LORD is testing all of us as it were; the next generation, and the current generation, the next in line to be ancestors...to pass the batons of faith well, to not give in to the forces that push against God's ways, and to love without condition while teaching and correcting without apology, the healthy fear of the LORD and the selfless "others first" mandate of Jesus.
A huge order. But there's too much at stake. Jesus is plan A and there is no plan B.
PRAYER:
Lord Jesus, You see the beginning from the end..the time is at hand.
I'm only a small potato but use me in Your way to influence as many young leaders as I can.
And not so much with fancy speech and cool things, but with the pure and simple example of what it means to "be last so You can be first".
Amen.
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