Forgetting the Children

In the the book of Joshua, we see the people following their God-called leader, Joshua. When Joshua dies, at the age of 110 years, there is no person to follow him as he had followed Moses. The absence of qualified leadership results in chaos for the subsequent generations thereby they live in a continuous cycle of slavery and deliverance. When the future generations are not properly trained and prepared by the current generation, there will be a lack of qualified, effective leadership and the people will descend from victory to defeat.

This lack of faith on the part of the new generation is largely the fault and responsibility of the past generations. Many times the greatest generation in terms of their accomplishment results in the following generation being the worst. When people focus on their own personal success they tend to neglect the time it takes to ensure the success of their children. When the children are taught the faith of the past generations great people of God usually arise (II Timothy 3:15).

Another interesting Old Testament example occurs in first chapter of Ruth. A man named Elimelech moved his family from Judah to Moab. He leaves the land of his fathers, the land given to him and his people by God, to pursue worldly success and prosperity. While in Moab he dies and his sons marry Moabite women as opposed to women from Judah who would have the same cultural blessing and lineage as well as be Jewish. Had Elimelech stayed in Judah and trained his sons in the faith of Abraham, Issac and Jacob then they would have married Jewish women and lived the proper life of a Jew. Ultimately, God has great plans for one of the Moabite women, Ruth, but this does not excuse Elimelech from his duty to properly train his children.

The great judge, Gideon, was greatly used of God and delivered Israel from the Midianites and established a period of peace for forty years. Gideon then multiplied wives to himself and had seventy sons. One of those sons, Abimelech would cause great bloodshed and destruction after his father had passed. While Gideon knew the Lord, his children did not. Moreover, after his death the Israelites went a whoring after other God, departing from the faith exhibited by Gideon. This appears to be the result of a lack rearing the part of Gideon and his generation.