Sermon Notes:

  1. A  generation (2:6-13)
    1. Joshua’s generation  (2:6-10a)
    2. The kids   from Yahweh (2:10b-13)
  2. Yahweh’s  (2:14-19)
    1.  (2:14-15)
    2. (2:16-19)
  3. The great  (2:20-3:6)

Going Deeper:

  1. Read Deuteronomy 6:6-9 and Psalm 78:5-7. What are parents responsible to do according to these verses? If you are a parent, how can you apply these instructions to your parenting this week?
  2. Three ways we can teach the younger generation to know, love and follow the Lord (Tim Keller, Judges for You)
    1. We ourselves must love God whole-heartedly.
    2. We are to apply and reflect on the gospel practically, not only academically or abstractly.
    3. Link the doctrines of the faith to God’s saving acts in our lives. We are to give personal testimony to the difference God made to us, how he brought us from bondage to freedom.
  3. Parents can do their best to teach their children the wisdom and instruction of the Lord YET still see their children choose to wander from the faith. One commentator gives examples: “The godly Hezekiah is followed by the godless Manasseh. The reforming Josiah is followed by Jehoahaz, who ‘did what was evil in the sight of the LORD’ (2 Kings 13:11). And even where parents clearly do sin, the character of their children varies. Adam and Eve had Abel, whose offering pleased God, and Cain, who murdered his brother. Instructing children in the ways of the Lord is a very serious responsibility. However, careful readers of the Bible will be wary of drawing too direct a connection between the faithfulness or unfaithfulness of parents in doing this and the eventual character of their adult children.” -Barry G. Webb We need to remember that every generation must choose for themselves. Their parents cannot choose for them.
  4. Read Judges 2:18. “Three important facts about the judges are set forth in this verse. First, as indicated in verse 16, it is the Lord who raises up each judge. Second, the power and authority of the judge come in the form of the Lord’s presence with him. This reality is later described as the Spirit of the Lord’s coming upon the judge to empower for deliverance (Judg. 3:10; 6:34; 11:29; 13:25; 14:6; 14:19; 15:14). Third, the Lord himself was the true agent of deliverance, with the judge serving as the instrument of God’s power.” -Miles Van Pelt
  5. The consequences of Israel’s rebellion are actually handed down from one generation to the next. The same can be true of us. The consequences of our sin can be handed down to our children and our children’s children. We need to take sin seriously! How can you do that this week?
  6. Read Judges 2:20-21 Notice the language the Lord uses: “this nation” or “this people.” Not, “My people.” Bary Webb explains this language: “Their willfulness has caused their relationship with Yahweh to break down. Now they face him as their judge rather than their deliverer.”
  7. Read Judges 2:23. The irony of v. 23 is pointed out by Daniel Block:“The very same rest [the Lord] had achieved for Israel under the leadership of Joshua he not granted to the Canaanites, and other nations, by not driving them out quickly.” -Daniel Block
  8. Why should a believer not marry an unbeliever? Barry Webb says,“The surest way to end up ‘lov[ing] the world’ (1 John 2:15, 16) yourself is to bind yourself to someone who already does. Hence the apostle’s solemn warning, ‘Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?’ (2 Corinthians 6:14, 15). If you are not married, do not marry an unbeliever. If you are a believer and you already are married to an unbeliever, stay married. Stay faithful to the Lord and pray for your spouse!
  9. “The fundamental idolatry described by the Bible lies also at the heart of the varied modern idolatries: the idolatry of the self. The self is set at the center of existence as a god; ultimate significance is found in god-like individual autonomy, self-set goals and boundaries. The sacred is defined in the first instance in relation to the self. The shadow of Nietzsche looms large. Self-expression and self-actualization are important themes in this religion, and evident in every corner of society from the advice columns of newspapers and magazines to schools, where sometimes the point no longer seems to be to learn things but to ‘find oneself’ and to be the best person that one can be. We are constantly urged, in fact, to believe in ourselves and to better ourselves—in our individual choices and actions, and in accordance with our personal ambition, to make and to remake ourselves in our own image, or in some other human image of perfection. We are invited to pursue the body beautiful, to take control of our personal health and fitness, to invent our own value and belief systems, with a view to gaining personal fulfillment. We are given ever-increasing permission to ignore and, if necessary, to dispense with whatever and whoever stands in our way in this quest, be it life in the womb, children, husbands and wives, the poor, foreigners, or the aged.” -Iain Provan “To Highlight All Our Idols: Worshipping God in Nietzsche’s World,” Ex Auditu 15 (1999): 33.