QT 11 Jan 17, Judg 2:6-10, This year, make God's word a priority

Judges 2:6–10 (ESV) — 6 When Joshua dismissed the people, the people of Israel went each to his inheritance to take possession of the land. 7 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. 8 And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110 years. 9 And they buried him within the boundaries of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gaash. 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.

NOTE: The first chapter appears to be a summary of the failures of Judges. Chapter 2 goes back to Joshua, repeating some of the verbiage and begins to make the case why Israel failed, as the rest of the book will then go into the details of the failure.

Israel fails because the second generation after Joshua did not know the Lord or the work he had done for Israel. While forgetfulness would certainly be contributory, I think lukewarm-ness is a better description. They do not know because they did not care to know. It is the same problem today in our churches. People don't know God because they don't care to know God. They want their appetites satisfied and they grab onto what they think will fulfill them and make them happy, not realizing that the creator has designed us in a special way that requires adherence to moral laws to enjoy our creation to the greatest extent. They fail because they ignore God. They fail because they no longer make him important. They fail because they do not spend time in the word of God. They fail because they disobey his commands. As the book of Judges reveals, the knowledge of God and his law progressively declines. In fact, I think that is why Samuel, near the end of the period of judges, starts a teaching circuit (because of how much of the knowledge of God that had been lost). The application to us is clear, we need to grow in our knowledge of God and make it a priority in our life.