For the past couple of Sundays I have been preaching in the book of Judges. What a fascinating book! What an interesting group of individuals used by God! How would one describe their stories? Interesting might describe them best. They certainly did not fit any particular mold. I have taught the Book of Judges often and have focused on the cycle that is repeated some seven times within the book: sin, slavery, supplication, and salvation. I have even preached concerning that cycle and how it often describes our lives.
But, as I have spent the past few months working through Judges, God has impressed upon my heart a few truths I had not seen before. The first truth is found within the following passages: Judges 3:7, 12; Judges 4:1; Judges 6:1; Judges 8:33; Judges 10:6; and Judges 13:1. That truth can be summarized with the following words: "Israel did evil in the eyes of the LORD." After all the amazing victories that God brought about through Othniel, Ehud, Deborah and Barak, Gideon, Jephthah, and Samson and others, the people turned away from God. Furthermore, if one reads these passages more carefully, one will discover that this turning away from God occurred within the space of forty years - one generation.
As I pondered that reality, I began to ask myself this question: Why did Israel so quickly abandon God? There had to have been a reason. My search to find a root cause drove me back to that foundational text concerning families found in Deuteronomy 6:4-7. There God instructs the people that the foundations of faith lie within the home. Fathers, teach your children about God. Make this a daily occurrence. Use those moments within life to share with your children who God is. That was the heartbeat of God for the family. But, when fathers fail to teach their children, then children tend to abandon God. Failure within the home often becomes failure within a nation. The home is a window into the soul of the nation.
Just look at the status of the home today. We have homes where a father is either absent physically or absent emotionally. Many dads have checked out of their family's lives. Where do children turn when dad is gone? For those within the urban areas sadly it is often to gangs. A gang leader becomes that missing father-figure within a young person's life. Other homes are consumed with the drive to obtain more things. For those homes and families, success is defined by the number of "toys" stored in the garage. I find it fascinating that we build houses with three-car garages, but have to leave the cars outside because the garage is filled with stuff. Still other homes are possessed with the drive for status and community acceptance.
So, what has happened? We have witnessed a generation who have grown up and have abandoned God. Mary Eberstadt, in her book titled, "How the West Really Lost God," writes: "The fortunes of religion rise or fall with the state of the family." One could say that was true of the nation as well. She goes on to state that many youth of today have had no - or very limited - exposure to adult role models who were strongly committed to living out their faith. I believe America is in a state of moral and spiritual decline today because America's homes have been in a state of moral and spiritual decline for the past fifty years or even longer.
The second truth I have discovered is this: the cause for this abandonment of God by families is a time of peace and prosperity. Look at the following texts: Judges 3:11, 30; Judges 5:31; Judges 8:28. When everything is going smoothly, when the seas are calmed and the winds blow gently, it is then that we tend to put God on the shelf. We don't need God. We can do things really well ourselves. Just look at America's history since the close of World War II. I know there have been those times of economic recession, but, for the most part, Americans have known peace and prosperity. We are not sending America's youth off to war in the millions as was done between 1941-1945. Yes, there have been those engagements that were costly - Korea, Vietnam, Kuwait, Afghanistan, and Iraq. But for most of us, those military engagements have hardly had an impact upon our everyday lives. And so, as a nation, our families have forgotten God.
A third truth that was extremely difficult to accept was this: It often took years of slavery and oppression before the people of Israel came to their spiritual senses and cried out to God. The only answer that I could arrive at is this: It takes a long time for a people to be humbled before God. How pride interferes. It is so difficult to surrender and to admit, "God, we are the problem!" Has America gotten to that point yet? Generally speaking the answer is "No, we have not!" We rely upon the government to substitute that which God intends the home to supply. We rely upon our armies and navies to shore us up militarily, but discover that military might cannot remove the moral and spiritual degradation infecting the land. Friends, I have come to the conclusion that the Book of Judges has a lot to say about 21st century America.
But there is one final truth that I also discovered that encouraged me greatly: God can and will use anyone to bring about a spiritual renewal. As you read this book, you quickly notice that these men and women, used by God, were really nobodies. They were unknown. They were merely ordinary people but who had a heart to serve God well. I believe the judges God is raising up in America today are fathers and mothers who have a heart to serve God well by beginning with serving their families in matters of the heart. Fathers and mothers who take time to share the Scriptures with their children. Fathers and mothers who use those golden moments within everyday life to share what God is doing and desires to do. It is time to attack at the root of the problem - the home. It is time to return to those Godly principles found in Deuteronomy 6:4-7. That is God's plan...and it works!
I have been doing some study on how to reach Millennials, those born between 1980-2000. But, God is laying upon my heart a strong desire to reach Generation Z, those born after 2000. Many of these are in their high school years. They are searching to find significance for their own lives. I have been asking God to use me as a tool to help them find that significance in a close relationship with Jesus Christ. And I want them to see that God desires to be the center of the home they will establish someday. How we need to model Christ before them.
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