Your Spiritual Plus One
A group at church asked me to speak to them about how to stay connected to their kids who had walked away from Jesus. As we talked, I felt heartsick for the pain these parents carried. They had done everything they'd been told to do, but their adult children didn't want to come to church, and the fights had left scars.
Judges 2:7-19
And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen every great work of the Lord that he had done for Israel. Then Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at a hundred and ten, and they buried him in the territory of his inheritance, at Timnath-heres in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. That whole generation also was gathered to their fathers, and another generation arose after them that did not know the Lord, or the work that he had done for Israel. Then the sons of Israel did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord, and they served the Baals. They abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and they went after other gods — from the gods of the peoples around them — and bowed down to them, and provoked the Lord to anger. They abandoned the Lord and served Baal and the Ashtaroths. So the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and he gave them into the hand of plunderers who plundered them, and he sold them into the hand of their enemies around them, and they could no longer stand before them. Wherever they marched out, the hand of the Lord was against them for harm, just as he had said and just as he had sworn to them; and they were in great distress. Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them from those who plundered them. But they would not listen even to their judges, for they prostituted themselves after other gods and bowed down to them. They quickly turned aside from the way their fathers had walked. Their fathers listened to the commandments of the Lord, but they did not. Whenever the Lord raised up judges for them, he was with the judge, and saved them from their enemies all the days of the judge; for the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning under those who oppressed and harassed them. But when the judge died, they would turn back and act more corruptly than their fathers, going after other gods to serve them and bow down to them. They did not give up their deeds or their stubborn ways.
As I look beyond our church, I see a generation walking away from God. The sociologist Ryan Burge calculates that more than 1.8 million people have left the Southern Baptist Convention in the past five years. Lifeway Research found that in 2024, more churches closed than opened. Pew Research says that since 2007 there's been a 16% drop in the number of U.S. adults who call themselves Christians. In Judges 2, the verb stays the same. Joshua's generation "serves the Lord" and Joshua was a "servant" of the Lord. But the next generation "served the Baals" and then "served Baal and the Ashtaroths." The Hebrew word, ʿabad, is the same every time. Everyone serves, or worships, someone greater than them. The Baals were the local storm gods, said to control the weather. In an agricultural community, every hill had a shrine to plead with the gods for rain. It was a practical spirituality. We need a good harvest, so let's try a both-and spirituality. We'll ask the Lord and Baal to help us. But over time, spiritual adultery leads to divorce. Why? The narrator explains that a generation did not know two things: the Lord, or the work he had done (v 10). This isn't about knowing facts or information, but the absence of a personal encounter with God and his activity. Even though they knew about God, they didn't know God. It's like how I heard my grandfather share a few stories about his service in WWII. I had a vague understanding of his experience, but I lacked any first-hand understanding of war. Throughout the rest of Judges, the cycle is the same: the people cry out, and God responds. But here we see the bigger picture: before anyone seeks God, we see that he is moved by compassion. He disrupts their peace and prosperity to lead them back to himself. He raises up leaders for them who both save them from their enemies and return them to the worship of God. God keeps taking initiative, over and over again, to bring his people back to himself. It's a pattern that will find fulfillment in Jesus becoming human, walking among us, and going to the cross. In every generation, God raises up judges and prophets, parents and grandparents, brothers and sisters, friends and neighbors. In the covenant instructions, he tells us to know him and teach others to know him (Deuteronomy 6:1-9). Because God is giving himself to us, we are called to tell others about God. Ultimately, Judges shows us the cost of stubbornly going our own way, serving the god of prosperity. It's an invitation for us to humbly listen to the commands of the Lord, and faithfully serve him. What story will we tell those coming after us?
Why do you think the Bible uses the same word for the worship of God and of Baal?
What does it tell you about God that he shows compassion before his people cry out for help?
Who or what are you worshipping in addition to God?
Ask God, "Who do you want me to pursue?" Then, take a risk and tell your friend the story of how you came to know God.