All that generation also were gathered to their fathers; and there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord, nor yet the work which He had done for Israel (Judges 2:10).

We know that Israel would turn away from the LORD based on the prophecies of Moses and Joshua, and in these chapters we see these prophecies beginning to be fulfilled.

But I wonder if you noticed Judges 2:10, which tells us how this state of affairs came to be.

Notice that after the generation of Joshua and the elders, we are told that the next generation "did not know the Lord, nor yet the work which He had done for Israel." While we speak of the spiritual failure of the current generation described in these chapters, we must acknowledge that there may have been spiritual failure in the generation of their fathers, who had also seen all the mighty works of God. What was their failure?

They did not properly or sufficiently teach their children about the LORD and what He had done for them.

Yet, even as far back as the Exodus, we learn that God hardened Pharaoh's heart so that He could perform mighty signs in order that that generation of Israel might tell their children and grandchildren about God and His mighty deliverance:

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his officials so that I may perform these signs of mine among them that you may tell your children and grandchildren how I dealt harshly with the Egyptians and how I performed my signs among them, and that you may know that I am the Lord.” (Exodus 10:1–2).

Again, when God instituted the Passover, it was designed to help the parents remind their children of God's great deliverance:

Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants. When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.’ (Exodus 12:24–27).

Again, before they entered the Land of Promise, Moses reminded the people of what God did for them and the decrees and laws He gave to them. He urged them both to remember these things and to teach them to their children and their grandchildren:

Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them. Remember the day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when he said to me, “Assemble the people before me to hear my words so that they may learn to revere me as long as they live in the land and may teach them to their children” (Deuteronomy 4:9–10).

Again, in Moses' final messages to Israel he repeatedly reminded them to teach their children the Law, so that they might not forget the LORD:

These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates (Deuteronomy 6:6–9).

Notice how Moses emphasized the importance of impressing God's Word on their children. He did not generalize and simply say, “Teach it to them.” No, he described what he meant. They were to talk about God's Word when they were sitting at home. They were to do so when they were outside and walking along the road. They were to discuss God's Word in the moments before the unconsciousness of sleep. They were to talk of His Word in their first waking moments. They were to remind themselves and each other of God's Word by keeping them always visible, even on their hands and on their foreheads. They were to write them on the door to their homes and on the gates to their properties so that all who went in and out would see them. In other words, there was nothing more important for them to do than to know God's Word.

If this were not enough, Moses would repeat these very instructions just a few chapters later.

Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth (Deuteronomy 11:18–21).

Moses also commanded the Levites to regularly assemble the people for the public hearing of God's Law, expressly so that the children, "who do not know this law," may know it and know the LORD:

Assemble the people—men, women and children, and the foreigners residing in your towns—so they can listen and learn to fear the Lord your God and follow carefully all the words of this law. Their children, who do not know this law, must hear it and learn to fear the Lord your God as long as you live in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess (Deuteronomy 31:12–13).

In the very last words of Moses, right before he died, he emphasized the importance of communicating God's Word to their children. He pointed out that he was not giving them "just idle words." These words were their very life:

When Moses finished reciting all these words to all Israel, he said to them, “Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you this day, so that you may command your children to obey carefully all the words of this law. They are not just idle words for you—they are your life. By them you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess” (Deuteronomy 32:45–47).

Yet, a generation arose, after Joshua and the elders died, that did not know the LORD or what He had done for Israel. And as we will read in the forthcoming chapters of Judges, the people of Israel would devolve into a state not much different from the condition prior to the Great Flood, where God destroyed the whole world for its wickedness.

Friends, is the application for us not obvious? In the New Covenant, the Scripture teaches,

Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4).

This is pretty much the only instruction that the New Covenant gives to parents concerning their children. Yet, I wonder how many of us have made the spiritual instruction of our children the chief priority with respect to our parenting responsibilities. I write this as a parent, who also comes woefully short of this kind of focused biblical parenting. Let us, then, encourage, challenge and support one another to do better.

AI-Expanded Reflection

Judges 2:10 describes a painful break in covenant memory: a generation arises that does not know the Lord or the work he has done for Israel. The surrounding narrative moves quickly from this failure of knowing into idolatry and oppression. Knowledge here is more than possession of historical facts. It concerns recognition of the Lord's claim and a lived relationship of loyalty. The statement invites examination of both what the children were taught and how the community responded to that teaching.

The original reasonably asks whether the previous generation failed in its responsibility. Deuteronomy repeatedly commands instruction of children and grandchildren, and the Passover provides a recurring occasion to explain deliverance. Yet Judges 2 does not assign the entire failure to inadequate parental teaching. The later report in Judges 6:13 shows that some stories of the exodus were still being told. People can know an account without receiving its implications. Parents bear real responsibility, while children and the wider community remain responsible for their own response.

The pattern of instruction in Deuteronomy is immersive because the relationship with God concerns the whole of life. Sitting, traveling, lying down, and rising are ordinary settings in which questions arise. The command does not require parents to turn every conversation into a lecture. It calls them to make God's word a natural and intelligible part of shared life. Children should see how it informs decisions, admits wrongdoing, gives comfort, and directs love of neighbors.

Public worship also has a role. Deuteronomy 31 gathers men, women, children, and resident foreigners to hear and learn. Spiritual formation is therefore not an isolated parental project. A congregation helps carry the memory, provides trustworthy examples, and supports families whose circumstances are difficult. Older believers, teachers, and friends can contribute to a child's understanding. The church should strengthen parents rather than merely assign them blame when outcomes are painful.

Ephesians 6:4 places a restraint beside the responsibility to instruct: fathers must not provoke their children. Colossians 3:21 adds concern that they not become discouraged. These commands challenge methods that use humiliation, unpredictable punishment, or religious pressure to secure outward conformity. The wider New Testament also addresses providing for one's household and practical care, so spiritual instruction is not the only aspect of parental duty. It is central, but it should be integrated with affection, protection, nourishment, and patient attention.

A workable beginning may be a short passage read together, a genuine opportunity for questions, and a parent willing to say when an answer is not yet known. Children learn much when adults apologize and make restitution rather than merely demand obedience. Faithful teaching cannot guarantee another person's faith, but it can remove needless obstacles and give a credible account of God's goodness. The proper response to Judges is sustained responsibility without the illusion of control: remember the Lord, teach honestly, embody the instruction, and entrust the next generation to his grace.

At the close of Joshua, the LORD lets us know plainly that the people are not able to serve Him. Joshua tells them they are not able to serve the LORD, for He is a holy God, a jealous God (a reference to Joshua 24:19). The people respond that no, they will serve the LORD. And as if to say, you don't understand, but so be it, Joshua replies that they are witnesses against themselves that they have chosen the LORD to serve Him — and they answer that they are witnesses (a reference to Joshua 24:21–22).

The following generation comes, and the very next thing recorded of them is failure: the Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals (a reference to Judges 2:11).

Our faith is authored and perfected by God. We have Him to thank for whatever good we do. From a beginning with no evil we chose evil; from a time of mighty works we chose evil; from a time of revelation in Christ we still choose evil. It is not until the old is gone and the new world comes that this cycle stops. The glory be His.

AI-Expanded Reflection

The exchange at the end of Joshua is genuinely strange and the comment reads it well. Joshua actively discourages the commitment — tells them they cannot do it, that God will not forgive their transgressions — and the people insist anyway. It is the opposite of how a covenant renewal ceremony is usually imagined, and it reads as though Joshua is trying to make sure they understand what they are agreeing to before they agree to it.

The observation that the next recorded fact about the following generation is their failure is accurate and pointed. Worth adding that Joshua 24:31 sits between them: Israel served the LORD throughout Joshua's lifetime and the lifetime of the elders who outlived him. The collapse is not instantaneous. It takes the death of everyone who had personally witnessed what God did, which is the same point the previous comment identifies about transmission.

On the doctrinal frame, this comment attributes faith wholly to God's authorship — a position this project has noted is held seriously and is read differently by other traditions, which locate the same dependence on grace without describing the response as unilaterally produced.

Judges 2 records that after that generation died, another grew up who did not acknowledge the LORD or remember what He had done for Israel; that they did not listen to the judges but worshiped other gods; and that with each cycle they returned to corrupt ways, behaving worse than those before them, refusing to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways (a paraphrase of Judges 2:10, 17, 19).

Just one generation after Joshua, Israel forgot the LORD and turned to idols, and with each successive generation they grew worse. Whenever I read Judges I think of Genesis 3–4 and the swift progression from Adam to Cain to Lamech. Then Genesis 6, where even the godly line was corrupted, so that every inclination of the human heart was only evil continually (a reference to Genesis 6:5). Then Genesis 11, where even after God began again with Noah, the population turned away and built a monument to their rebellion.

In every case God intervened to stem the tide. But every new generation produced a new cycle, so that without God's constant intervention people would only grow worse. This was the situation again in Judges. By the end of the book the people would hardly know right from wrong anymore.

AI-Expanded Reflection

The cycle Judges describes is structurally explicit, and the book announces it in chapter 2 before demonstrating it seven times over: the people do evil, God hands them over, they cry out, God raises a deliverer, there is rest, the deliverer dies, and the cycle restarts. What the comment notices — that each turn is worse than the last — is also in the design. The judges themselves deteriorate across the book, from Othniel, of whom nothing bad is recorded, to Samson, whose story is a catalogue of appetite and broken vows.

The phrase the comment cites from 2:10 deserves its weight: a generation arose who did not know the LORD or the work He had done. The failure named is transmission. The generation that saw the Jordan stop did not manage to hand on what they had seen, which is a more unsettling diagnosis than rebellion would be — this is loss by default rather than by decision.

Christians differ on how far to press the doctrine of human corruption this comment draws from the pattern, and the traditions describe the extent differently. What Judges demonstrates without needing that argument settled is that memory is not self-sustaining, and that a single generation is enough to lose it.

I've often wondered why Israel kept choosing to follow their neighboring nations' gods instead of their own LORD. Isn't it at least a fifty-fifty chance? Yet they seem far more inclined to seek other gods than to remain faithful to God's law. I see the same tendency clearly in myself — when it comes to sin, there's no real effort required at all; it simply comes naturally. As Paul writes, when we were controlled by our sinful nature, we were free from the constraint of righteousness — but now we have the desire to follow the law of the Spirit of life living within us. Let's set our minds on what the Spirit desires, since Christ became a curse for us on the cross. Have a great week, everyone!

AI-Expanded Reflection

The "why would they choose this" puzzle this comment names actually gets a partial answer from the surrounding culture's sheer social pressure — Canaanite worship wasn't a private alternative religion competing quietly for attention, it was the area's dominant civic and agricultural religion, woven into everyday practices around fertility, harvest, and community life. Choosing to follow the LORD alone meant standing apart from virtually every visible social and economic incentive surrounding daily life in that land. That context doesn't excuse Israel's repeated failure, but it does suggest the "fifty-fifty" framing may undersell just how much cultural gravity was actually pulling in one direction the entire time.

Joshua was a book of victorious conquest. Now we reach Judges — a book of defeat and failure. Israel occupies a large portion of the Promised Land, but never drives out its inhabitants as instructed. Judges documents Israel's repeated failure, and how God repeatedly raised up judges to deliver them.

Judges 2:10–19 essentially summarizes the entire book in five stages: disobedience (Israel forsakes the LORD and worships the surrounding nations' gods); disciplinary judgment (God, angered, hands them over to raiders and enemies they can no longer resist); repentance amid suffering; deliverance (the LORD raises up judges to save them); and disobedience again — each successive generation growing more corrupt than the last, refusing to abandon their evil practices once the judge who delivered them dies.

Though God raised up mighty judges throughout this period, none broke the underlying cycle of disobedience. As each judge died, the nation quickly forgot the LORD — yet God still promised a deliverer would come from Zion, turning godlessness away from Jacob, taking away their sins under His own covenant (a paraphrase of Romans 11:26–27). Jews still await this deliverer; we as Christians know him to be Jesus Christ, who breaks this cycle by delivering us not merely from external enemies, but from ourselves.

Let's cry out to the LORD to deliver us from sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, rage, selfish ambition, dissension, envy, drunkenness, and the like (a paraphrase of Galatians 5:19–21), so we might instead bear the Spirit's fruit — love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22–23).

AI-Expanded Reflection

The five-stage cycle this comment identifies so clearly is worth naming as more than just a helpful summary — it's a pattern most Old Testament scholars recognize as Judges' actual deliberate literary structure, repeated with variations across the entire book's twelve major judge narratives. That structural repetition is itself part of the book's argument: readers are meant to notice the cycle accelerating and deepening with each retelling, since Judges as a whole traces not a static, unchanging pattern, but a nation's steady moral decline across successive generations, culminating in the book's own closing verdict that everyone simply did what was right in their own eyes.