| “IT ONLY TAKES A GENERATION” Judges 2:6-19; 2 Timothy 1:1-14 Olivet Covenant Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, PA © Rev. Linda Jaymes – 10/11/2009 |
There is a saying that history repeats itself and I think we could say the same about the history of the Israel as recorded in
the Old Testament. You can pick almost any story about the Israelites and see the same themes and cycles recurring over and
over again. In general, each of these cycles has four steps that I would summarize like this:
1) With miracles or mighty acts of power, God intervenes to deliver Israel from whatever their latest crisis is.
2) The Israelites are initially thrilled, but soon reject God and defect to whatever the local cultural options are for
worship, morality and behavior.
3) That choice to reject God and his commandments leads to severe consequences, such as famine, drought,
oppression, war, exile and slavery.
4) The people come to their senses, recognize their sin, repent and pray until God—once again—intervenes to
deliver Israel from their latest crisis, and the cycle begins again.
It’s so easy to recognize this vicious cycle. One would think that a few times of going through it would be enough to
teach those stubborn, stiff-necked, hard-headed Israelites that abandoning God always leads to trouble. Why don’t they get it?
Our Scripture lesson from the book of Judges is only one example of this self-destructive cycle. It takes place just a short
time after the death of Joshua, who, from his youth, had been Moses’ constant assistant. After the death of Moses, Joshua had
faithfully led the Israelites across the Jordan and into the Promised Land, until the twelve tribes of Israel were finally settled in
their own territories. At that point, Joshua was nearing the end of his life, and so he gathered all of Israel around him for an
inspirational farewell sermon. He admonished God’s people never to forget all that God had done for them; that it was God’s
power that brought them out of slavery and into this wonderful land flowing with milk and honey. Joshua warned them never
to abandon the God of Israel or to worship any other gods. But Joshua also told them that they had a choice in the matter. It
was up to them to decide which god they would worship and serve. As for Joshua and his household, however, they would
serve none other than the Lord, the God of Israel.
If you go back and read the last chapter of the book of Joshua, you will find that the people of Israel seemed almost
insulted that Joshua should even suggest that they would turn from the Lord and choose some other god. So just to prove their
loyalty, three times they pledged that they would be faithful to God and God alone. Joshua then made a covenant with the
people, putting into writing the decrees and laws they agreed to follow. All of these were recorded in the Book of the Law of
God. They even set up a large stone in a holy place as a witness to all the promises they had made. Then Joshua died, and
Scripture tells us that Israel continued to serve the Lord throughout the lifetime of the generation of elders who outlived Joshua,
the generation which, as children, had seen and experienced everything the Lord had done for Israel.
But Israel’s faithfulness didn’t last very long. Scripture tells us that no sooner had Joshua’s generation died, than another
generation grew up, “who neither knew the Lord or what He had done for Israel.” This generation quickly turned to worship
the gods of the culture in which they lived. They made God very angry because they “forsook” or willfully rejected Him; they
chose to serve Canaanite gods instead of the God of their fathers. It only took one generation to lose the knowledge and
understanding and faith and relationship with God that had been a vital way of life for the previous generation. It only took one
generation to lose the blessing and protection of Almighty God. It only took one generation before the Lord allowed Israel’s
enemies to raid and plunder their cities. Even when they mustered enough strength to fight their enemies, they were defeated
and in the words of scripture, “they were in great distress,” which rather seems like an understatement!
What is it about those Israelites that they just didn’t get it? Scripture goes on to say that eventually, the Lord took pity on
them and sent them judges—strong, godly leaders to save them out of the hands of these raiders. These leaders trusted in God
and tried to lead the people back into God’s ways again. But even so, as soon as these leaders died, the people returned to their
wicked ways, selling themselves into the hands of other gods again and again. Then they would groan under the affliction and
oppression that is the guaranteed consequence of forsaking the One, true God, and that punishment would continue until
Almighty God, in his compassion, would deliver the people and the cycle would begin once again.
Some people just never learn, do they? I guess we could say that it’s a good thing that we’re not anything like those Old
Testament Israelites. It’s a good thing that we aren’t stubborn and stiff-necked and hardheaded and prone toward worshiping
the gods of our culture. It’s a good thing that we haven’t abandoned Almighty God, the Holy One of Israel, whom alone, we
worship and serve. It’s a good thing that we are able to have an intimate knowledge of that God through our relationship with
his one and only Son, Jesus Christ, who died for us. And it’s a good thing that we are making it a priority to set an example for
our children and tell the next generation the story of our God, and of his great love for us in Jesus Christ. It’s a good thing,
because it only takes a generation to lose touch with the God who has made us, loved us, forgiven us, died for us and poured
out his Spirit on us so that we might live vibrant and abundant lives that are true witnesses to Him.
Here in the city we don’t know a whole lot about being real shepherds and herding real sheep, but maybe this little story
will help us remember how important it is for us to be shepherds to the next generation. According to the story, a preacher
was taking a vacation in Scotland and staying with a sheep herder who had a very large flock of sheep. One day, the herder
was especially quiet, and so his guest asked what was wrong. The herder replied that in the night, he had lost 65 of his best
lambs. The preacher then asked how many of the older sheep were killed, a question which really surprised the sheepherder.
“Don’t you know,” he said, “that a wolf will never take an old sheep as long as he can get a lamb?” The shepherd knew that
the lambs were the easiest and choicest prey, most vulnerable to attack or any kind of stress coming from outside the flock.
The shepherd knew that losing one generation of lambs is all it takes to decimate the entire flock. It’s crucial to guard and
protect and nourish and care for those lambs so that they will mature and give birth to yet another generation of lambs, keeping
the flock going indefinitely.
Today we officially welcomed a new “lamb” into our flock, a sign that we are all in the shepherding business together. We
all took vows to teach and watch over this little lamb and to support his parents as they do their part to nurture him with God’s
love as he grows. It is a privilege and an honor to be a part of this shepherding process and it is one of the most important
things we can do as a church. As I mentioned earlier, I am in the ministry today because the people of God in the little church
where I was baptized loved and cared for me and nurtured me in the Christian faith, the faith that has sustained me during all
the ups and downs of my life. That church has since closed its doors, but many of the children who grew up there are strong
people of faith today who have carried the Good News of Jesus Christ with them and have passed it on to others along the
way. And God willing, as we model and teach this same faith to the children of this church, they will have the opportunity to
pass on this Good News to their generation as well.
Today’s New Testament lesson gives us a very concrete example of how this works. We read about a young man named
Timothy, who had been nurtured in the Christian faith by his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice and no doubt by a
number of other Christians as they met together in homes during the days of the early church—long before there were church
buildings. Timothy’s family began the work of teaching him about Jesus, and later the Apostle Paul took him under his wing
and continued to nurture him as his “son” in the faith. Timothy was eventually called by God to be the pastor of the church in
Ephesus, no small thing for such a young man. Because of Timothy’s age and inexperience, Paul continued to guide and
encourage Timothy in his ministry, exhorting him to “guard the good deposit”—the Christian faith—and pass it on without
alteration to his flock. The end result is that some 2,000 years later, Christians are still reaping the benefits that Lois and Eunice
and Paul and Timothy were faithful to pass on to us. And our prayer is that 2,000 years from now there will still be a
generation of believers who are saying the same thing about us.
As the saying goes, Christianity is always one generation away from extinction, and in the end, each generation must
choose for itself whether to follow or forsake God. We cannot choose for our children, our lambs. We cannot give them our
experiences of God or our relationship with Him. But we can do everything in our power to cultivate their minds and hearts so
that they will come to know and love the Lord for themselves. We can make sure they are in Worship and Sunday School and
set the example by participating in those activities ourselves. We can teach our children the scriptures at home and help and
support those who teach them at church. We can tell our children about the Lord’s mighty acts of deliverance in our own
lives, and we can live in such a way that demonstrates that the God of the Bible is real and alive and at work in each one of us.
We can let our children know that they are an important part of the Body of Christ, and help them to find ways to participate in
the life of the church. With God’s help, we can and we must do these things, because the next generation’s future depends on
whether they choose to follow or forsake God.
The Israelites learned the hard way that one of those choices leads to destruction and the other leads to life. Only one of
those two choices is the right one, the best one, the one God wants us to make—so let’s make sure we make the right choice
and do what we can to help our children do the same. After all, it only takes a generation to lose that “good deposit” and end up
like those rebellious Israelites, instead of enjoying the abundant life and the promise of eternity that Jesus died to give us and our
children and all the generations to come.
Let us pray.
the Old Testament. You can pick almost any story about the Israelites and see the same themes and cycles recurring over and
over again. In general, each of these cycles has four steps that I would summarize like this:
1) With miracles or mighty acts of power, God intervenes to deliver Israel from whatever their latest crisis is.
2) The Israelites are initially thrilled, but soon reject God and defect to whatever the local cultural options are for
worship, morality and behavior.
3) That choice to reject God and his commandments leads to severe consequences, such as famine, drought,
oppression, war, exile and slavery.
4) The people come to their senses, recognize their sin, repent and pray until God—once again—intervenes to
deliver Israel from their latest crisis, and the cycle begins again.
It’s so easy to recognize this vicious cycle. One would think that a few times of going through it would be enough to
teach those stubborn, stiff-necked, hard-headed Israelites that abandoning God always leads to trouble. Why don’t they get it?
Our Scripture lesson from the book of Judges is only one example of this self-destructive cycle. It takes place just a short
time after the death of Joshua, who, from his youth, had been Moses’ constant assistant. After the death of Moses, Joshua had
faithfully led the Israelites across the Jordan and into the Promised Land, until the twelve tribes of Israel were finally settled in
their own territories. At that point, Joshua was nearing the end of his life, and so he gathered all of Israel around him for an
inspirational farewell sermon. He admonished God’s people never to forget all that God had done for them; that it was God’s
power that brought them out of slavery and into this wonderful land flowing with milk and honey. Joshua warned them never
to abandon the God of Israel or to worship any other gods. But Joshua also told them that they had a choice in the matter. It
was up to them to decide which god they would worship and serve. As for Joshua and his household, however, they would
serve none other than the Lord, the God of Israel.
If you go back and read the last chapter of the book of Joshua, you will find that the people of Israel seemed almost
insulted that Joshua should even suggest that they would turn from the Lord and choose some other god. So just to prove their
loyalty, three times they pledged that they would be faithful to God and God alone. Joshua then made a covenant with the
people, putting into writing the decrees and laws they agreed to follow. All of these were recorded in the Book of the Law of
God. They even set up a large stone in a holy place as a witness to all the promises they had made. Then Joshua died, and
Scripture tells us that Israel continued to serve the Lord throughout the lifetime of the generation of elders who outlived Joshua,
the generation which, as children, had seen and experienced everything the Lord had done for Israel.
But Israel’s faithfulness didn’t last very long. Scripture tells us that no sooner had Joshua’s generation died, than another
generation grew up, “who neither knew the Lord or what He had done for Israel.” This generation quickly turned to worship
the gods of the culture in which they lived. They made God very angry because they “forsook” or willfully rejected Him; they
chose to serve Canaanite gods instead of the God of their fathers. It only took one generation to lose the knowledge and
understanding and faith and relationship with God that had been a vital way of life for the previous generation. It only took one
generation to lose the blessing and protection of Almighty God. It only took one generation before the Lord allowed Israel’s
enemies to raid and plunder their cities. Even when they mustered enough strength to fight their enemies, they were defeated
and in the words of scripture, “they were in great distress,” which rather seems like an understatement!
What is it about those Israelites that they just didn’t get it? Scripture goes on to say that eventually, the Lord took pity on
them and sent them judges—strong, godly leaders to save them out of the hands of these raiders. These leaders trusted in God
and tried to lead the people back into God’s ways again. But even so, as soon as these leaders died, the people returned to their
wicked ways, selling themselves into the hands of other gods again and again. Then they would groan under the affliction and
oppression that is the guaranteed consequence of forsaking the One, true God, and that punishment would continue until
Almighty God, in his compassion, would deliver the people and the cycle would begin once again.
Some people just never learn, do they? I guess we could say that it’s a good thing that we’re not anything like those Old
Testament Israelites. It’s a good thing that we aren’t stubborn and stiff-necked and hardheaded and prone toward worshiping
the gods of our culture. It’s a good thing that we haven’t abandoned Almighty God, the Holy One of Israel, whom alone, we
worship and serve. It’s a good thing that we are able to have an intimate knowledge of that God through our relationship with
his one and only Son, Jesus Christ, who died for us. And it’s a good thing that we are making it a priority to set an example for
our children and tell the next generation the story of our God, and of his great love for us in Jesus Christ. It’s a good thing,
because it only takes a generation to lose touch with the God who has made us, loved us, forgiven us, died for us and poured
out his Spirit on us so that we might live vibrant and abundant lives that are true witnesses to Him.
Here in the city we don’t know a whole lot about being real shepherds and herding real sheep, but maybe this little story
will help us remember how important it is for us to be shepherds to the next generation. According to the story, a preacher
was taking a vacation in Scotland and staying with a sheep herder who had a very large flock of sheep. One day, the herder
was especially quiet, and so his guest asked what was wrong. The herder replied that in the night, he had lost 65 of his best
lambs. The preacher then asked how many of the older sheep were killed, a question which really surprised the sheepherder.
“Don’t you know,” he said, “that a wolf will never take an old sheep as long as he can get a lamb?” The shepherd knew that
the lambs were the easiest and choicest prey, most vulnerable to attack or any kind of stress coming from outside the flock.
The shepherd knew that losing one generation of lambs is all it takes to decimate the entire flock. It’s crucial to guard and
protect and nourish and care for those lambs so that they will mature and give birth to yet another generation of lambs, keeping
the flock going indefinitely.
Today we officially welcomed a new “lamb” into our flock, a sign that we are all in the shepherding business together. We
all took vows to teach and watch over this little lamb and to support his parents as they do their part to nurture him with God’s
love as he grows. It is a privilege and an honor to be a part of this shepherding process and it is one of the most important
things we can do as a church. As I mentioned earlier, I am in the ministry today because the people of God in the little church
where I was baptized loved and cared for me and nurtured me in the Christian faith, the faith that has sustained me during all
the ups and downs of my life. That church has since closed its doors, but many of the children who grew up there are strong
people of faith today who have carried the Good News of Jesus Christ with them and have passed it on to others along the
way. And God willing, as we model and teach this same faith to the children of this church, they will have the opportunity to
pass on this Good News to their generation as well.
Today’s New Testament lesson gives us a very concrete example of how this works. We read about a young man named
Timothy, who had been nurtured in the Christian faith by his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice and no doubt by a
number of other Christians as they met together in homes during the days of the early church—long before there were church
buildings. Timothy’s family began the work of teaching him about Jesus, and later the Apostle Paul took him under his wing
and continued to nurture him as his “son” in the faith. Timothy was eventually called by God to be the pastor of the church in
Ephesus, no small thing for such a young man. Because of Timothy’s age and inexperience, Paul continued to guide and
encourage Timothy in his ministry, exhorting him to “guard the good deposit”—the Christian faith—and pass it on without
alteration to his flock. The end result is that some 2,000 years later, Christians are still reaping the benefits that Lois and Eunice
and Paul and Timothy were faithful to pass on to us. And our prayer is that 2,000 years from now there will still be a
generation of believers who are saying the same thing about us.
As the saying goes, Christianity is always one generation away from extinction, and in the end, each generation must
choose for itself whether to follow or forsake God. We cannot choose for our children, our lambs. We cannot give them our
experiences of God or our relationship with Him. But we can do everything in our power to cultivate their minds and hearts so
that they will come to know and love the Lord for themselves. We can make sure they are in Worship and Sunday School and
set the example by participating in those activities ourselves. We can teach our children the scriptures at home and help and
support those who teach them at church. We can tell our children about the Lord’s mighty acts of deliverance in our own
lives, and we can live in such a way that demonstrates that the God of the Bible is real and alive and at work in each one of us.
We can let our children know that they are an important part of the Body of Christ, and help them to find ways to participate in
the life of the church. With God’s help, we can and we must do these things, because the next generation’s future depends on
whether they choose to follow or forsake God.
The Israelites learned the hard way that one of those choices leads to destruction and the other leads to life. Only one of
those two choices is the right one, the best one, the one God wants us to make—so let’s make sure we make the right choice
and do what we can to help our children do the same. After all, it only takes a generation to lose that “good deposit” and end up
like those rebellious Israelites, instead of enjoying the abundant life and the promise of eternity that Jesus died to give us and our
children and all the generations to come.
Let us pray.
