Scripture text for Monday, February 8, 2010: Judges 2:6-3:6
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Chapter 2 values wisdom, authority and accountability for the Israelites. “10After the whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel . . . 16Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of their raiders.”
History continues to repeat itself. Think about it. Social decline seemed rampant to my grandparents as their generation of “flappers” witnessed the post war, anti-establishment crowd thumb their noses at authority as they knew it. Family values took hard hits from the ‘make-love-not-war’ mentality of hippies who disregarded God and took freedom for granted. Divorce rates increased and abortion was legalized.
Not knowing the Lord, this new generation struck out to set aside the accountability of the Judeo-Christian principles which constrained them, to profess peace at all cost to an inherited world that was lost in turmoil. But just like the Israelites of Canaan, we are a stiff necked people.
Advances in television in the late ‘60s enabled Hollywood to collectively contribute to the nation’s downward spiral. Through risqué sitcoms, society digressed from “Andy of Mayberry” to the scantily clad of “Laugh-In.” Indeed, social standards were shattered by the self-consumed. Today we tread hard to stay atop a cesspool of sin—900+ channels and an internet full of my grandparents’ worst nightmare.
Father, please forgive this generation who knows you not, nor what you have done for Israel.
Devotion prepared by Linda Bogan