The operation was a success, but the patient died!

Scripture Read: Judges 2:6-10 When Joshua had dismissed the people, the sons of Israel went each to his inheritance to possess the land. The people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who survived Joshua, who had seen all the great work of the Lord which He had done for Israel. Then Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of one hundred and ten. And they buried him in the territory of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. 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.

Application: We now pivot back in time to the death of Joshua. Why? I believe we are given some interesting information that can help us understand why Israel behaved the way she did. In the first portion of this chapter we see that the people did not fully obey God by cleaning out all the idolatry in the land. Notice what this sections states.

Verse 10 gives us information that will bring light to the problem – “and there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord, nor yet the work which He had done for Israel.”  What could it mean that the next generation did not know the Lord, nor the work He had done. It could not mean they did not know the name of the Lord or that Jehovah was their God. They must have been taught the history of their people so they must know the facts of what God did for them. So what could this mean? I believe the key is that they failed to put into practice what they had been commanded to do in Deuteronomy 6:4-9.

"Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons 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 up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

There are two kinds of teaching - one is mere transfer of information, in other words; content retention. The other is passing on truth by word and example, this kind of teaching transforms the individual. True the generation that was with Joshua served the Lord until they died, but they did not do it fully. Neither in cleaning the land nor in communicating truth to their children in a way that would transform them. Data is essential, we have to have the data, but if that is all we have, we end up knowing a lot, but not knowing what to do with it or allowing it to make an impact on us. James states it very simply - 

Jame 2:19 You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.

Knowledge that remains raw data and does not progress to applied truth will never transform a person. It may warp an individual the way it did the Pharisees, because a lot of head knowledge without wisdom will lead to arrogance! Don't settle for just the data only, ask God to guide you into how to use that data and look for how that applied truth will change you!

Meditation Questions: When you read the scripture, what do you leave with when your done? Do you read the scripture with the mindset that you are there to learn something about God, or that you will learn something about God that will change you? Do you know anyone that can quote you scripture, but does not practice what it teaches? What do you think of that person? Can you think of the last time you changed inside based on a truth that God illuminated for you? What does your answer show you? How often do you expose yourself to the truth of scripture? What does your answer show you?