Judges 2:6-10
A Generation That Had Not Known the LORD
6After Joshua had dismissed the people, the Israelites went out to take possession of the land, each to his own inheritance.
7And the people served the LORD throughout the days of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him, who had seen all the great works that the LORD had done for Israel.
8And Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of 110.
9They buried him in the land of his inheritance, at Timnath-heres in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.
10After that whole generation had also been gathered to their fathers, another generation rose up who did not know the LORD or the works that He had done for Israel.
Berean Standard Bible
Joshua dismisses the people, and the generation that saw the LORD's great work is buried before another generation rises.
The next generation grows up without the same remembered knowledge of the LORD or the work He had done for Israel. The wording is not saying God was absent; it shows what happens when memory and teaching fail.
After Joshua had dismissed the people, the Israelites went out to take possession of the land, each to his own inheritance.
The loss is not described as God's failure to remain present. The generation that had seen His work has died, and the next generation does not know the LORD or what He had done for Israel. Memory has to be received, taught, and practiced. A household cannot hand on a living knowledge of God by assuming that yesterday's stories will teach themselves.
The gap is relational as well as informational. Knowing the stories of rescue is not the same as knowing the LORD, but a household that stops telling the stories makes that knowing harder to receive.
After that whole generation had also been gathered to their fathers, another generation rose up who did not know the LORD or the works that He had done for Israel.
Ask what your family remembers about God's faithfulness and what it is learning from your ordinary choices. Choose one story to tell accurately this week.
Questions
1 What is happening in this reading?
AnswerJoshua dismisses the people, and the generation that saw the LORD's great work is buried before another generation rises. The next generation grows up without the same remembered knowledge of the LORD or the work He had done for Israel.
2 Where do we see responsibility or failure?
AnswerThe gap is relational as well as informational. Knowing the stories of rescue is not the same as knowing the LORD, but a household that stops telling the stories makes that knowing harder to receive.
3 What does this passage make clear?
AnswerThe loss is not described as God's failure to remain present. The generation that had seen His work has died, and the next generation does not know the LORD or what He had done for Israel. Memory has to be received, taught, and practiced. A household cannot hand on a living knowledge of God by assuming that yesterday's stories will teach themselves.
4 What should our household remember?
AnswerAsk what your family remembers about God's faithfulness and what it is learning from your ordinary choices. Choose one story to tell accurately this week.
What This Means for Us
A household hands on more than information when it remembers God's faithfulness in ordinary conversation and conduct. Choose one true account of God's work to tell, and consider what younger people are learning from the way the family lives now.
A household's testimony is carried by repeated choices as much as by formal teaching. Let the way adults handle power, money, conflict, and worship make God's faithfulness believable to those watching.
Prayer
Lord, teach us to ask what your family remembers about god's faithfulness and what it is learning from your ordinary choices. Keep us from confusing strength with faithfulness. Amen.