The Generation That Forgot | In Need of a King| September 13, 2026

Judges 2:6 through 3:6 lays out the sad pattern that runs through the whole book. Joshua’s generation served the Lord because they had seen His great works, but another generation arose that “did not know the Lord or the works that he had done in Israel.” That does not mean they lacked facts about God. It means they did not personally know Him, trust Him, love Him, or walk with Him.

The picture is like a parking lot with all the lines gone. People who remember where the lines belong may still park in order, but a generation that never knew the lines will create chaos. Israel forgot the Lord, and forgetting Him opened the door to forsaking Him. The people exchanged the God who brought them out of Egypt for the Baals, the Ashtoreths, and the gods of the culture around them. What is evil in God’s eyes eventually becomes right in human eyes when people live long enough apart from His truth.

Faith cannot simply be inherited. Faith must be taught, modeled, and embraced. The home bears a real responsibility to show children, grandchildren, spouses, and those coming behind what it looks like to read Scripture, pray, repent, and follow Christ. The church does not replace the home, and the home does not replace the church. God gives both the family and the local congregation so believers can be taught, challenged, humbled, accountable, and strengthened to raise up a generation that knows the Lord.

Israel’s idolatry also exposes the question beneath every human life: who or what will be worshiped? Money, success, relationships, fame, possessions, and personal dreams become cruel gods when they take the place that belongs to Christ. Identity is not found in appearance, accomplishments, or social standing. Identity is found in Jesus Christ, who saves all who put their faith in Him.

God’s mercy shines through Israel’s repeated failure. The Lord raises up judges to save His people from their oppressors, and He is moved to pity by their groaning. Their rebellion does not exhaust His mercy. God provides a deliverer even before Israel cries out, showing that His kindness runs ahead of desperate people.

The remaining nations become a test, and Israel fails through compromise. Some battles disappear quickly after conversion, while other sins become wars that last for decades. Yet the just man gets up again, looks to the grace of God, listens to the Spirit, and keeps walking with Jesus. Judges finally points beyond every flawed deliverer. Israel needs a righteous King. Christ is that King, the One who saves, changes, and leads His people home.

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Key Takeaways

• 1. Faith must be passed down intentionally. Faith is not transferred through family resemblance, church attendance, or familiar songs. The next generation needs to see Christ loved in ordinary life, not merely named in religious settings. The home and the church must both become places where Scripture is opened, prayer is practiced, sin is confessed, and disciples are made. [34:08]
• 2. Forgetting God leads to cultural idols. Israel’s fall begins when the Lord’s works no longer shape its memory and worship. The gods of money, approval, achievement, and comfort always promise life but cannot provide salvation or a settled identity. Christ alone gives what the world keeps trying to counterfeit. [45:47]
• 3. God’s mercy outlasts repeated failure. The Lord does not minimize sin, and His anger against rebellion is real. Yet God raises up deliverers because He is patient, kind, and moved by the groaning of afflicted people. Christ still receives the ruined, the backslidden, and the ashamed who come to Him. [52:25]
• 4. Compromise makes sin harder to drive out. Israel leaves standing what God commanded them to remove, and those remaining nations become snares. Persistent sins may become long battles, but long battles are not proof that grace has left. Christ calls His people to get up again, stay in the Word, receive help from the church, and keep walking.
  
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Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [27:28] - Israel’s Slide into Spiritual Chaos
• [30:36] - A Generation That Does Not Know God
• [31:09] - The Parking Lot Lines Illustration
• [33:17] - Don’t Forget the Lord
• [35:43] - The Home and Church Making Disciples
• [41:46] - Living a Life That Shows Christ
• [43:34] - Don’t Forsake the Lord
• [45:47] - The Gods of the Culture
• [49:51] - God Raises Up Deliverers
• [54:29] - Don’t Fall into Compromise
• [58:11] - Stay With the Word
• [59:44] - Israel Needs a Righteous King
• [60:28] - Christ Saves, Changes, and Leads

1. When Joshua dismissed the people, the people of Israel went each to his inheritance to take possession of the land. [27:28]
2. And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that the Lord had done for Israel. [33:32]
3. And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110 years.
4. And they buried him within the boundaries of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gaash.
5. And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel. [34:08]

1. And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals. [43:34]
2. And they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed down to them. And they provoked the Lord to anger. [44:47]
3. They abandoned the Lord and served Baal and the Ashtaroth.
4. So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunderers, who plundered them.
5. And he sold them into the hand of their enemies all around, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies.

1. Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them. [49:51]
2. Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they whored after other gods and bowed down to them. They soon turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the Lord, and they did not do so.
3. Whenever the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge, and he saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge. For the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them. [50:36]
4. But whenever the judge died, they turned back and were more corrupt than their fathers, going after other gods, serving them and bowing down to them. They did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways. [52:25]

1. Now these are the nations that the Lord left, to test Israel by them, that is, all in Israel who had not experienced all the wars in Canaan. [54:29]
2. It was only in order that the generations of the people of Israel might know war, to teach war to those who had not known it before.
3. These are the nations: the five lords of the Philistines and all the Canaanites and the Sidonians and the Hivites who lived on Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal-hermon as far as Lebo-hamath.
4. They were for the testing of Israel, to know whether Israel would obey the commandments of the Lord, which he commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses.
5. So the people of Israel lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
6. And their daughters they took to themselves for wives, and their own daughters they gave to their sons, and they served their gods.

1. What does Judges 2:7 say Joshua’s generation and the elders had seen, and what two things did the next generation fail to know in verse 10? [33:32]
2. In Judges 2:11-12, what actions show Israel’s movement away from the Lord and toward the gods of the surrounding peoples? [44:47]
3. According to Judges 2:16-19, what did the Lord repeatedly do for Israel, and what did Israel repeatedly do after a judge died? [49:51]
4. What does Judges 3:5-6 identify as the outcome of Israel living among the nations left in the land? [55:04]

1. Judges 2:10 says the new generation “did not know the Lord.” Why does this mean more than simply lacking information about God, and what would personal knowledge of the Lord look like in everyday life? [35:03]
2. Israel remembered neither God’s mighty works nor God’s commands, and soon they served the gods of their culture. Why does forgetting God make people more vulnerable to treating evil as normal or even right? [44:15]
3. The Lord’s anger against Israel is real, yet He is also moved to pity and raises up judges to save them. How do these verses hold God’s holiness and His mercy together without minimizing either sin or grace? [50:36]
4. The nations left in the land tested whether Israel would obey the Lord, but Israel compromised and served their gods. How can a long struggle with sin become different from making peace with sin? [57:03]

1. What practices help keep the works of God fresh in a person’s memory—Scripture reading, prayer, worship, testimony, or something else? Which one needs to become more regular this week? [34:12]
2. Who is coming behind you—children, grandchildren, younger believers, friends, coworkers, or neighbors—and what could they actually observe in your life that would show them how to follow Christ? [36:52]
3. The home and the local church are both gifts from God for discipleship, accountability, and growth. Where might you be tempted to leave all discipleship to the church, or to live disconnected from the church? What is one practical step toward greater faithfulness in both places? [38:05]
4. Money, success, relationships, possessions, approval, and personal dreams can become cultural idols when they take Christ’s place. Which of these most competes for your trust, time, or sense of identity right now? [45:44]
5. Identity is not secured by appearance, accomplishments, income, or social standing; it is found in Jesus Christ. When are you most tempted to look to something other than Christ to tell you that you matter? [46:30]
6. Some sins may be long battles rather than quick victories. Where have you been discouraged by repeated failure, and what would it look like to get up again through God’s grace, the Spirit’s help, God’s Word, and the support of the church? [57:03]
7. Israel needed more than another temporary deliverer; they needed a righteous King. In what area of life do you need to stop relying mainly on your own strength and submit again to King Jesus, who saves, changes, and leads His people? [01:00:05]