My grandmother made the most amazing potato salad. Having grown up eating her special recipe, I have yet to taste any other potato salad that comes close to comparing. Thankfully, she passed along her secret ingredient to my mother, who has since passed it along to me. And it continues to be a staple dish at Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Over the past few months, I have been studying the Old Testament, trekking Moses and the Israelites through the wilderness, Joshua’s leadership as they entered the Promised Land, and the period of the Judges. When I was younger, I tended to veer my Bible reading to the New Testament, but yet I know we are given the whole Bible that is inspired by God, and He had a purpose for every Word that is in it. Therefore, it is important to study scripture from the beginning of Genesis all the way through to the end of Revelation. In this recent study, as I entered the book of Judges, a profound thought struck me. Before I share… let me set the stage with a bit of scripture. In Deuteronomy 4:9, Moses instructs the children of Israel not only always to remember what God had done for them but also to pass it on to their children and grandchildren as he says, “Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons” (KJV). And then again in Deuteronomy 6:5-7, Moses tells them, “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up” (KJV). The message seems clear enough. They are not to forget what God has done. They are to love God and pass their knowledge and love of God on to their children and grandchildren.
But… what happens?
Later on, Joshua leads the Israelites into the Promised Land, and it is divided among the tribes. Joshua dies along with the generation that he has led. The Book of Judges 2:8 and 10-11 details, “And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being an hundred and ten years old… And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel. And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord…” (KJV).
In a busy world, where it seems we have so much to accomplish in a day’s time, some things on our list get shifted down on our list… and most of the time these shifts happen without us even meaning for them to. We simply somehow lose track of time, and what should have been at the top of the list for today gets moved to tomorrow. Yet, I was struck by how clear this lesson is in God’s Word. This passage in the Book of Judges illustrates the consequences of failing to pass on the Word of God from just one generation to the next.
May we prioritize teaching the Word of God to our children and our young people and diligently share what God has done in our lives. He has given each of us our own personal testimony for a reason.
