I’ve reached the book of Judges in my personal reading schedule, and if there’s ever a time when it seems like things are going off the rails for the Israelites, it’s here. Someone, particularly whom I can’t recall, described reading a particular author (Thomas Hardy) as watching a car accident happen in slow motion and being unable to look away. In many ways, the book of Judges is like that as well. They’ve had their ups and downs – slavery and freedom, grumblings, miraculous food in the wilderness, plagues and providence – but Judges is a downward spiral of idolatry, subjection to enemies, and brief interludes of rest.
Judges 2:10 struck me as noteworthy: “And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that He had done for Israel.” Juxtapose this with the number of times the Israelites were told to remember the Lord and His providential care. “And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm” (Deut 5:15); “Take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt” (Deut 6:12); “you shall well remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt” (Deut 7:18); “you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years” (Deut 8:2); “But you shall remember the Lord your God” (Deut 8:18); “And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you” (Deut 15:15); to list just a few examples. We also see patterns of setting up memorial stones – Genesis 28 and Joshua 4, to name a couple – and memorial feasts – the Passover, from Exodus 12 for instance – and the sole purpose of these all was to remember and call to mind what the Lord has done.
Clearly something went awry here though. Whether the older generations failed to follow through on these commands or the younger generations failed to absorb what was being said, they didn’t know what He had done. Some of it may have been an apparent lack of personal relevance; whatever the reason, the results of their forgetfulness were disastrous, as seen throughout the rest of the book of Judges.
This is a sobering reminder for me as a parent. I can look back and call to mind what the Lord has done for me personally, but those are not things I’ve conveyed to my kids. (And due to subject matter and their age, it’s also entirely appropriate to speak in vague generalities with them at this point in time.) As I think ahead though towards future conversations, this is something of which I want to be cognizant. I’m not sure that we – 21st-century Americans, anyway – do a great job of passing on these personal stories of the Lord’s providence. Perhaps we don’t even recognize it as the work of the Lord when He does care for us. Maybe we do see it for what it is, and don’t speak of it; or possibly we do speak of it, and they’re simply not remembered. I don’t know. I don’t think that this was a call specifically to those of Hebrew descent who witnessed firsthand the miraculous providence of the Lord in the wilderness. This is a call for us and for our children as well.