The Danger of Ignorance Judges 2:6-15

Professional baseball has been played in America since 1875, but on September 14, 1990, something happened that has never happened before or since. Late in his career, Ken Griffey, Sr., who had been a key member of the World Series champion Cincinnati Reds years before, was signed by the Seattle Mariners. His son Ken Griffey, Jr. was just starting his major league career. In the first inning of a game against the Angels, Griffey, Sr. hit a home run to left center field. His son followed him to the plate and hit another home run to almost exactly the same spot. It was the only time a father and son had hit back-to-back home runs in baseball history. Ken Griffey, Jr. said later that his father greeted him at the plate by saying, “That’s how you do it, son!”

There are few joys that can compare to seeing our children and grandchildren succeed. Whether it’s on a ball field, at a music recital, in an academic competition, or, most importantly, in a spiritual setting, seeing a child demonstrate character and competence is a true pleasure. But this victory is not something that just happens. Every right performance, every victory over temptation, every accomplishment is the result of a concerted effort to prepare for the moment of challenge.

-We must raise our children to know God in a personal way.

I. Knowing God Leads to Righteousness vv. 6-9

In our passage this morning, we see a big transition in the people of Israel

Joshua and his generation come to the end of their lives and the fruit of it all is pretty staggering

They were able to cross the Jordan and take possession of the land

By and large, they drove out the enemies before them

So long as they lived, the children of Israel served the Lord

What was the key to this success and faithfulness?

They had seen the great work that the Lord had done for them

They knew the Lord in a personal way

They understood His character

They had seen His power

As a result, they trusted Him and served Him

This pattern is important:

There is a kind of fruitfulness that comes from obedience

Obedience comes from faith in God

Faith comes from a right understanding of God

When I was a kid, I always loved doing jigsaw puzzles. However, one of the keys to doing the puzzle well was to have the picture in front of you. If you had an accurate representation of what you were trying to build, you were likely to be successful. I’m afraid that’s one of the problems that so many of our kids are facing: they have received an inaccurate view of God from their parents!

II. Ignorance of God Leads to Idolatry vv. 10-13

There is a problem, however

A new generation comes after them and they do not know the Lord

What does this mean?

I don’t believe that the primary issue here is a lack of information; I feel certain that a faithful generation talked to their kids about the Lord

Instead, it is a kind of inexperience; their knowledge of the Lord is not personal!

As a result of this ignorance, they begin to serve other gods alongside the Lord and eventually abandon Him completely

Further, they changed their behaviors; they begin to act like the peoples around them.

They do not live as God’s people

They look just like every other nation

There is a pattern again:

Ignorance of God leads to idolatry

Idolatry leads to immorality

I think when we look at the lives of people, we fail to separate the symptoms from the disease

We see the immorality, but we fail to see the idolatry underneath it

We see the idolatry, but we miss this ignorance that underlies it!

The English poet Samuel Coleridge talked with a man who did not believe that children should be given any religious instruction at all.

This man claimed that the child’s mind should not be prejudiced in any direction, and when he became older he should be permitted to choose his religious opinions for himself.

Coleridge said nothing; but after a while he asked his visitor if he would like to see his garden. The man said he would, and Coleridge took him out into the garden, where only weeds were growing. The man looked at Coleridge in surprise, and said, “Why this is not a garden! There is nothing but weeds here!”

“Well, you see,” answered Coleridge, “I did not wish to infringe upon the liberty of the garden in any way, I was just giving the garden a chance to express itself and to choose its own production.”

III. Idolatry Leads to Destruction vv. 14-15

How will God respond to this generation that has abandoned Him?

I think we need to note here that these folks are not blameless

They know better and are without excuse

Their idolatry leaves them:

Abandoned: they are turned over to the power of the nations among them

Powerless: they can no longer stand against their enemies

Opposed: God is not “for them” anymore, but works against them

The problem is not that God doesn’t love them, the problem is that He loves them too much to let them prosper in unrighteousness

How do we avoid this? How do we raise a generation that knows the Lord?

Teach the Father’s Truth

Deuteronomy 6:6–9 ESV

And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Follow After Jesus

1 Corinthians 11:1 ESV

Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.

Pray in the Spirit

Ephesians 3:14–19 ESV

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

This is perhaps the whole key, that they would know the love of Jesus!

While watching a little TV on Sunday instead of going to church, I watched a church in Atlanta honoring one of its senior pastors who had been retired many years. He was 92 at that time and I wondered why the church even bothered to ask the old gentleman to preach at that age. After a warm welcome, introduction of this speaker, and as the applause quieted down, he rose from his high back chair and walked slowly, with great effort and a sliding gate to the podium. Without a note or written paper of any kind he placed both hands on the pulpit to steady himself and then quietly and slowly he began to speak.... "When I was asked to come here today and talk to you, your pastor asked me to tell you what was the greatest lesson ever learned in my 50-odd years of preaching. I thought about it for a few days and boiled it down to just one thing that made the most difference in my life and sustained me through all my trials. The one thing that I could always rely on when tears and heartbreak and pain and fear and sorrow paralyzed me... the only thing that would comfort was this verse.........

"Jesus loves me this I know. For the Bible tells me so. Little ones to Him belong, we are weak but He is strong..... Yes, Jesus loves me... The Bible tells me so."

When he finished, the church was quiet. You actually could hear his foot steps as he shuffled back to his chair. I don't believe I will ever forget it.