How many generations does it take for a faithful group of people to fall away from the LORD? For Israel, it only took one. We might think that after God delivered them from Egypt, parted the Red Sea, gave them a land to dwell in, and drove out their enemies, the people of Israel would remain faithful. For a time, around the life of Joshua, they did (Judg 2:7). However, soon after, the generations that followed did not know the LORD or the work He had done for Israel.
Why did the generation closest to direct contact with God not know or serve the LORD? Judges reveals that Israel failed to eliminate Canaanite influences and gods from their lands (2:1), which led them to abandon the LORD and pursue other gods (2:12). They allowed external worldly influences to corrupt them. Instead of removing these people and their teachings, they coexisted with them and intermarried (3:6).
As a church, we face the challenge of living “in the world but not of the world.” We cannot completely avoid contact with sinners (1 Cor 5:9–10), but we must not allow ourselves to be influenced by them as the Israelites were. I believe we sometimes underestimate the world’s influence on us, thinking it is not inherently harmful. This mindset is precisely what led Israel into trouble, as tolerating the world resulted in their spiritual decline and abandonment of God.
We should also be alarmed at how quickly the offspring of a faithful generation abandoned God. It can be easy to assume that the children of faithful people will also be faithful, but in this case, that was not true. While we cannot force people to obey God, we all have a crucial responsibility to train the younger generations (Deut 6:7), something Israel perhaps failed to do. Instead of blaming one generation for its unique failures, we should focus on fulfilling the intergenerational instructions found in 1 Timothy 5:1–2 and Titus 2:1–6. This way, with God’s help, we can avoid becoming one generation away from ruin.