Today’s Reading: Judges 10-12

For the last 5 days, we repeatedly read “again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord” for 6 times at least. Then, God is no longer with them. They get in trouble and cry for help. Then, God “could bear Israel’s misery no longer” and rescues the Israelites. This pattern repeats over and over. The cycle is shorter and shorter – Jephthah for 6 years, Ibzan for 7 years and Elon for 10 years and Abdon for 8 years. Every time these judges die, the Israelites return to their bad ways until another misery strikes them. Compare this constant chaos to a peaceful living because “the Lord gave them the rest on every side” right after the majority of conquest (March 15). Then, here comes the Ephraimites – “why did you not call us to go fighting?” after winning by Jephthah. Repeated again! But, no one seems to learn their lessons in any way. Why is that?

“After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel” (March 17). No one taught the next generation…. It is also important that it is not good enough to read the history to the next generation because such history becomes just a story or even a legend if you do not live out your faith in God in your life. If you worry about your finance and your child sees that, the child would not understand the conflict between what you do (worry about the finance) and what you say (God will provide our needs). Your every day actions are the most effective tools to teach your children about God. Do we want raise our next generation “who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel”? No, we don’t! Then, live out your faith boldly before your children.