Not Their God May 3, 2019

As I was preparing a small group lesson for Sunday, I came across four words buried in the middle of the 12th verse of the 2nd chapter of Judges.  "God of their Fathers"  Four words that have been immortalized in the hymn, "God of our Fathers, Whose Almighty Hand".  There are many versions of this hymn on Youtube.  But when used in Judges 2:12, the phrase is more of a cautionary tale.

¹¹ And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals. ¹² And they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt.  Judges 3:11,12 ESV  

In Judges we see the people of Israel, God's chosen people, engaged in a destructive pattern of disobedience, oppression, crying out for deliverance, deliverance, peace, then disobedience, oppression, so on and so forth.  I wonder if much of the blame for this cycle lies at the feet of the older generations.  There were no Bibles, no scrolls, no church camps.  If children and adolescents did not learn about Jehovah from their parents and grandparents, they were out of luck.

Their parents had seen the mighty deliverance of God.  They were witness to fire from heaven, parting of rivers, miraculous victories on the battle field, but how vivid were their recounting of these events to their children?  How often did they observe genuine praise and fervent prayer from a parent, aunt or uncle?  Was Bible study done at the kitchen table or in a closed-door study before the rug rats were up? 

Was God just a "God of their fathers"?  Was it ever made real to the up and coming generation?  If Jehovah remained just a God of the old people, it is no wonder Generation I fell away.

As parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles, it is a spiritual imperative we help our God become just as real in the lives of our young charges as it is in ours.  I think this graphic points to the urgency of this mission.

Let's make sure the God of our fathers, becomes the God of our children.