The Next Generation

Do you have something that you are so passionate about that it keeps you up late at night? Is there a question that is always in the back of your mind? I know for me, I’ve always been haunted by Judges 2:10, which states;

“And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that He had done for Israel.”-Judges 2:10

What happened? How could a generation before “know the Lord” and the next not? I believe there are three key insights on why the generation before dropped the ball for the next generation and how we can learn not to repeat the same mistake. We will discuss each one of them over the next three weeks.

1.) Lack of Trust

When you read the events in Exodus, we get a glimpse of man’s sin when we don’t put our trust in the Lord, especially in difficult times. Here are just a few scenes:

Crossing the Red Sea: “When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”-Exodus 14:10-12 ESV

Bread From Heaven: “They set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the people of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt. And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”-Exodus 16:1-3 ESV

The Rebellion: “But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.” Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.” So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them. Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night.  And all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! Why is the Lord bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?” And they said to one another, “Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt.”-Numbers 13:30-14:4 ESV

In our human nature, it’s easy to trust the Lord when things are good, but when things get difficult, we decide not to trust Him and look for other things to trust in. This relates well with the COVID-19 situation. Are we trusting God through this, or are we putting our entire trust in our government, the media, and the “experts” to save us? Don’t get me wrong, God put them in authority and we should listen to what they are saying, but we shouldn’t trust them as our “gods” to save us. Jesus slept through a storm while His disciples were freaking out! After Jesus rebuked the winds and the waves, He rebuked His disciples for their lack of faith (Matthew 8:23-27). Where is our faith?

Our lack of trust in God comes from our lack of knowledge and belief in the character and nature of God. God is sovereign over All things. The Greek behind the English word “all” means all! Every good and bad thing, God is in control of it. He isn’t surprised when difficult times come, and we shouldn’t be either. He actually tells us to be prepared. 1st Peter 4:12-13 says;

“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.”-1st Peter 4:12-13

When we show our lack of trust in the Lord, we give permission to those who are watching permission to lack trust. The opposite is true as well, when we show our trust in the Lord, we give permission to those who are watching permission to trust in the Lord. Choose wisely whom you will trust, because others are watching.

Blessings,

Mike

As you have seen, we have been making changes to the website. We added a “Audio/Video Teaching” Page and a “Resource” Page. Those will be available to you by the end of this month. Our hope and goal is that all of the content challenge, encourage, and equip you as disciples for Jesus Christ.