In Judges, chapter two, verse nineteen, reveals a progressive deterioration in Israel. An escalation of backsliding and hardness of heart characterize each successive generation. Similarly, second and third-generation believers under the new covenant should ask themselves if they are committed to God as was the generation that preceded them. Or are they conforming more and more to the ways of their society while rejecting the original standards of their fathers?
The Israelites were experiencing a spiritual decline due to the influences surrounding them in the environment they chose to follow. The children of Israel’s focus and relationship within their society cause them to move forward with these tribes and people. However, their association with the ungodly propels them to step back from God. The new lifestyle for the Israelites will further influence their younger generation and not follow the commandments of the Lord that led them out of bondage from Egypt. The children of Israel did not realize what they did to themselves and the future of their younger generation.
The current generation of believers faces the same situation as the children of Israel did back then. What influences are we following now? The children of God now are an endangered people with the ways of the world rising more than ever. The advancement of technology is rapidly taking over people how they live. Social media has overwhelmed society so much that it is all about self and nothing else.
For believers now, the question is straightforward. Do we, as believers, do enough to influence our family, loved ones, friends, and neighbors to follow the path of God? Or are we adopting the ways of the world like the Israelites in the past? That is the question we have to ask ourselves every day. The way the world is going on right now indicates an end coming according to God’s Word: as believers, we want to be on the right side and not the wrong one.