They Didn’t Know The Lord

Joshua sent the people of Israel away. Then they went to take over the land. All of them went to their own shares of land.

The people served the Lord as long as Joshua lived. They also served him as long as the elders lived. Those were the elders who lived longer than Joshua did. They had seen all of the great things the Lord had done for Israel.

Joshua, the servant of the Lord, died. He was the son of Nun. He was 110 years old when he died. His people buried his body on his own property at Timnath Heres. It's north of Mount Gaash in the hill country of Ephraim.

All of the people of Joshua's time joined the members of their families who had already died. Then those who were born after them grew up. They didn't know the Lord. They didn't know what he had done for Israel.

The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. They served the gods that were named after Baal. They deserted the Lord, the God of their people. He had brought them out of Egypt. But now the people of Israel followed other gods and worshiped them. They served the gods of the nations that were around them. They made the Lord angry…

Judges 2:6-12

The Israelites who first entered the Promised Land with Joshua saw the mighty acts of God and believed. But sadly, the very next generation did not know the Lord, and they didn’t know the work He had done on their behalf.

They turned aside to worship other gods. They didn’t make the faith of their fathers their own.

No generation can live off the faith of the previous generation. Every generation needs a firsthand faith. When faced with trouble of any kind, the faith that is not personalized is likely to drift and falter.

Find out what God says in His Word and personalize it so that yours is a fresh, firsthand faith.

If your faith is not personalized, it’s not faith.

Our Daily Bread – May 19, 2010