God Has No Grandkids

SYNOPSIS: The Israelites, under Joshua, knew God, enjoyed his favor, experienced his presence, and walked in obedience before him—but in the book of Judges, their children missed out. What the parents knew and loved didn’t transfer to the kids. For the next generation, “the God of my father” never became “my Lord and my God!” Knowing about God never became knowing God. Here’s the deal: God has no grandchildren. Each generation is responsible to seek God for itself. However, it is the responsibility of the parents to drill that into their children, early and often, leading them to the door of faith. But children have to walk through the door for themselves. At the end of the day, they may reject their parents’ faith, but not because the parents didn’t do their best to inculcate their kids with the knowledge of God. Parents, by all means, lead your children to the door of decision.

The Journey// Focus: Judges 2:10-14,16

After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, 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 ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They aroused the Lord’s anger because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. In his anger against Israel the Lord gave them into the hands of raiders who plundered them.…Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these raiders.

Prosperity, rebellion, consequence, repentance, restoration….prosperity, rebellion, consequence, repentance, restoration…

That is the sad cycle of Judges. So be warned: you will get a lot of that as you read this book. In many ways, it is a frustrating, if not depressing history, but such is the dark reality of life in rebellion against God. Yet within this collection of stories that take place over the 400 years between Joshua’s death and the arrival of Samuel the prophet, you will also find sun breaks of God’s grace, inspiring stories of heroic men and woman who stepped in to lead Israel to revival, and invaluable life application for those who are serious about obeying their covenant of love with God.

This second chapter is both a preview and an overview of the book of Judges. The verse above captures the problem: when Joshua and his generation died, somehow the baton was dropped with the next generation that grew up, and for whatever reason, “knew neither the Lord nor what he had done.”

Therein lies the problem that has perpetually haunted God’s people. The next generation somehow misses out on knowing God. Interesting, and sad, isn’t it, how that happens! Their parents knew God, enjoyed his favor, experienced his presence, and walked in obedience before him—but their kids missed out. What the parents knew and loved didn’t transfer to the children. For the next generation, “the God of my fathers” never became “my Lord and my God!” Knowing about God never became knowing God.

Why? Who knows for sure, but just as we have seen within our own families, there are different reasons. Perhaps the parents were so busy with God stuff that they didn’t include their kids. Maybe the parents assumed their faith would simply transfer, sort of by osmosis, to their children. It could be that the next generation grew up with a sense of entitlement—believing the presence of God and his favor was owed them. It might be that the kids vicariously experienced spiritual life through their parents’ spirituality. Or it is possible that these children hung out around the holy, and it just became so common that their sense of God became jaded. There are a lot of possibilities, but whatever the reason, the God of their fathers never became their God. Somehow, the baton was dropped.

The deal is, God has no grandchildren. Each generation is responsible to seek God for itself. And it is the responsibility of the parents to drill that into their kids, early and often. The parent is to bring the child to the doorway of faith, but the child has to step through to personal faith. At the end of the day, they may reject their parents’ faith, but not because the parents didn’t do their best to inculcate their kids with the knowledge of God.

If the parents fail to do this, or if the kids refuse to accept this, the outcome is predictable: Prosperity. rebellion, consequence, repentance, restoration….prosperity, rebellion, consequence, repentance, restoration… It is the vicious cycle of rebellion and restoration. It would just be a lot simpler and far better if we would just stay in the restoration zone.

What is the key to avoiding this Judges’ syndrome: Know God and remember what he has done. That is not a passive thing, but an active laying hold of the things of the Lord. It takes consistent, dogged intentionality, but it is well worth the effort.