Message: This morning I noticed another pattern/theme between what we read in the final chapter of Joshua, and what we read in Hebrews 7. In Joshua 24 the people were being prepared for the death of Joshua and the end of his leadership. He was 110 years old and God called him ‘old’ a few chapters back. (I hope you’re laughing because when God himself calls you old, that’s just funny!) Joshua gathered the people and went through their history all the way back to Abraham’s parents. He went through explaining which lands their ancestors went to and how God brought them out of places that served other gods. Then he told them that as long as they served God he would protect them but if they served other gods, God would be against them. He had them swear an oath that they would serve only God and they firmly took that oath with the understanding that their oath would be a witness against them if they did not follow it. Joshua 24 ends by telling us that the entire generation that was gathered that day faithfully served God all the way to the death of the last elder. In Hebrews 7 we read about the priesthood set in order permanently until Jesus came and super-ceded that priesthood. Reading through all of this got me thinking about our family generations. I want my kids to serve God with as much passion (and much more) than I do right now. We all want better for our kids but sometimes we view them differently than ourselves and we want and expect things out of them that we are not willing to do ourselves. The hard truth is, unless they are self- motivated, or catch their own fire, they will not be taught or motivated to do anything they are not seeing us do. When we run hard for God we set that as a standard of normal in our homes and in our families. We have to set the pace of that higher standard. I thought about how long Israel was faithful and I wondered where the decline began. When I visited Israel and saw all of the different denominations and religious things that came out of it, I wondered where all of that came out of one gospel. The Apostle Paul fought hard to keep the purity of the gospel and we have to fight hard too. We have to make sure we pass on the real true gospel to our families and those we bring into the faith. The only way to pass this on is to live it out passionately. We can’t afford to go through the motions at the cost of another generation. The bible shows us the importance of each generation doing their part. How often do we hear about “the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob”? The people respected the faithfulness of their ancestors and that lineage of faithfulness should have continued all the way to Jesus. My challenge to myself is that not only will I not allow this to stop with me, but that I would be passionate about making sure my family serves God in this way. Raise the bar and pass it on so that our future generations are not left in the dark.
