In Joshua 24:15 we find one of the most important questions in the Old Testament, “Choose this day whom ye will serve?” This great sermon delivered by Joshua motivated the people insomuch they answered in the twenty fourth verse, “The Lord our God will we serve, and his voice will we obey.” However, from our text above we learn the sad contrast of the following generation. Moses warns the people in Deuteronomy 4:9, “Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons and thy son’s sons.” Moses encourages the people not to forget the wonderful things of God, but also instructs Israel to teach them to their children. Joshua’s generation kept their own soul but failed in training their children. Notice the wording from Judges 2:10, “which knew not the Lord” because they did not know “the works which he had done for Israel”. Sense the next generation did not hear the works of God, they did not know God. The great miracles were not only for those who saw, but as Jesus said, “for them also which shall believe on me through their word,” (John 17:20).

     Adrian Rogers said, “We are only one generation away from paganism.” How sad it is when Christians fail to teach their children the things of God. However, how wonderful it is as Hannah prayed to the Lord regarding Samuel, “I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life,” (I Samuel 1:11). It is no coincidence when parents are devoted and dedicated in raising their children for the Lord these children become giants of the faith. An appropriate example of this is Timothy. Paul writes, “When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also,” (II Timothy 1:5). Most of our great heroes of the Faith were saved at an early age. When the Gospel seed is planted in the tender ground of a child’s heart it quickly grows, and soon becomes the “greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree,” (Matthew 13:32).
                                                                                                                                            Joshua Greene
                                                                                                                                                    6-14-09