“The angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bokim and said to the Israelites, “I brought you out of Egypt into this land that I swore to give your ancestors, and I said I would never break my covenant with you. For your part, you were not to make any covenants with the people living in this land; instead, you were to destroy their altars. But you disobeyed my command. Why did you do this? So now I declare that I will no longer drive out the people living in your land. They will be thorns in your sides, and their gods will be a constant temptation to you.” When the angel of the Lord finished speaking to all the Israelites, the people wept loudly. So they called the place Bokim (which means “weeping”), and they offered sacrifices there to the Lord. After Joshua sent the people away, each of the tribes left to take possession of the land allotted to them. And the Israelites served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and the leaders who outlived him—those who had seen all the great things the Lord had done for Israel. Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110. They buried him in the land he had been allocated, at Timnath-serah in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. After that generation died, another generation grew up who did not acknowledge the Lord or remember the mighty things he had done for Israel. The Israelites did evil in the Lord’s sight and served the images of Baal. They abandoned the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They went after other gods, worshiping the gods of the people around them. And they angered the Lord. They abandoned the Lord to serve Baal and the images of Ashtoreth. This made the Lord burn with anger against Israel, so he handed them over to raiders who stole their possessions. He turned them over to their enemies all around, and they were no longer able to resist them. Every time Israel went out to battle, the Lord fought against them, causing them to be defeated, just as he had warned. And the people were in great distress.”
Judges 2:1-15 NLT
God is a curiosity. In the one vain, he is stalwart. He is entirely faithful and can be completely relied upon. But in another sense, he is also unable to be boxed in. He cannot be controlled. This can be difficult for humans to navigate if they do not rely on his character to discern his actions. God’s character is seen in the repetition of stories and the observance of traditions. For humans, these things change over time with slight variances becoming large deviations. This is why strict adherence is necessary. God, a long lived being, knew how such small things lead to devastating consequences. This is why institutions were established. He knew that finite men would find him unpredictable, rather than the only solid thing. It took a single generation to be distressed, forget God, and devolve into idol worship. But not only was their behavior predictable, but it was predicted, as was God’s understandable response. The generation before them did not care about them enough to stave their deviation. They believed that small things remained small. They cut off one head of the hydra without considering what was to come. We have no right to judge think that the future will worship God if we have this limited mentality. We have no right to wonder why God is punishing us when we continue to forget his character. If we care about him, we must root out wickedness. If we care about our children, we must instruct them about the importance of doing so, in the context of legacy.
God’s Character: God is both faithful and unpredictable, requiring humans to rely on his character to understand his actions.
Importance of Traditions: God established institutions and traditions to guide humanity, as small deviations can lead to significant consequences.
Consequences of Forgetting God: Human tendency to forget God’s character and deviate leads to predictable consequences, emphasizing the importance of teaching future generations.
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