Battle for the Next Generation
Pastor Harold Warner
Recently I was captured by the designation that God repeatedly applies to Himself in Scripture as “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” His title of choice tells us that there is a generational dynamic to God and His workings.
It is impossible to fully appreciate the thought, Where is the God of miracles? without realizing that Gideon’s challenge to the angel in Judges 6:13 was based on the testimony of past generations: “Where are all His miracles that our fathers told us about?”
This same dynamic has been the marching orders by which our church has operated for many decades, confirmed and clarified in Psalm 78:5-8: “He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children, that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments.”
The Crisis of Generations
Ecclesiastes 1:4 observes that “a generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever.” This is an inevitable cycle. You can mark it down: change will come as surely as a new generation does.
Just a very short glance backward reveals the appearance of several different generations: The G.I. Generation (born from 1900-1924), then the Silent Generation (1925-1945), followed by the Baby Boomers (1946-1964), Generation X (1965-1979), the Millennials (1980-late 90s), and now Generation Z (or iGen). I don’t know who comes up with these labels, but the truth is irrefutable: each subsequent generation has a unique identity.
The most critical part of a relay race – where precious tenths of seconds can be won or lost – occurs during the transition; in the passing of the baton from one runner to the next. This is not only true in a track event. Businesses also encounter what is known as the “second generation phenomenon.” It is reported that 70% of second-generation businesses fail. That’s not surprising. The passion, the drive, the creativity, and the sheer will that it takes to launch a great organization may be difficult to duplicate in the next generation.
Gary Inrig writes, “The second generation has a natural tendency to accept the status quo and to lose the vision of the first generation. Too often the second-generation experience is a second-hand experience.”
If a well-executed handoff is vital to the success of any natural venture, how much more will it be in the passing on of eternal truth? Too often, the baton is lost in the transition here, as well. Church history is filled with examples of the dropped baton and sadly, so are many churches. The parent’s fervor for the Lord Jesus Christ may be lost to the children’s formalism and the grandchildren’s apathy.
The Curse of Complacency
This brings us to a defining verse in the Book of Judges that resonates deeply in my life. Judges 2:10-12 tells us, “there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that He had done for Israel. And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals. And they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt.”
The baton was dropped. How could this have happened?
The first reason we are given is that the next generation “knew not the Lord.” This phrase does not describe intellectual ignorance, but rather the fact that God was no longer central to their lives. He was no longer the preeminent governing influence. This factor is closely connected with the second: They also did not know “the work that He had done for Israel.” This was not the generation that God redeemed and delivered from bondage in Egypt, but the generation that followed; the generation that was engaged in the conquest of the kings of Canaan after crossing over the Jordan into the Promised Land.
This next generation had no firsthand experience of the mighty power and trustworthy character of God, and this is the precious treasure that each succeeding generation must obtain for itself. The complacency and compromise that resulted from its loss is evidenced in the next statement: “They did evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals (false mini-lords).”
This loss of focus on God’s power and character was behind the distressing treadmill spelled out in the Book of Judges as His people went continually from serving God to taking His blessings for granted and becoming complacent; to the spiritual compromise of serving false gods until they were oppressed by godless nations, to their eventual repentance and return to God – at which point He always had mercy on them and delivered them, raising up the next judge who would again promote faithfulness to God.
I think it’s important to realize that it was never facts that the people lacked, but real fellowship with God in their own experience, they had lost touch with God, and because of this they quickly fell into sin.
Things are really no different today. The challenge of each generation is to communicate the foundations of faith in such a way that they will not be forgotten by the next generation but rather adhered to. This is vital to seeing the next generation embrace God. When this is accomplished, the blessings follow.
A father recently communicated this truth to me: “Each of our kids had to come to their own faith.” When you consider the implications involved here, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that a great deal of spiritual warfare involves an attack that targets the next generation.
For example, kids who have been raised in church may be tempted to think, “I don’t have a real testimony” when they hear their parents talk about the radical things that God did for them. They may feel that their testimony is somehow inferior. Coupled with this is the constant pull of the world that tells them You’re missing out! to try to draw them away from following Christ. For this very reason, every generation needs to contend for its own encounter with God and not resort to making excuses.
You can’t blame your parents for raising you in church with the hope that you would follow the Lord and His ways. Instead, you must come to this invaluable realization: God, I need Your grace and mercy just as much as my parents did!
The Cure That Restores
I believe it is extremely helpful to realize that God has provided an antidote for this generation of ours. It’s all found in Judges 3:1-7. Listen to the first two verses: “Now these are the nations that the Lord left to test Israel by them; that is, all those in Israel who had not experienced all the wars in Canaan. 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.”
Here was a change of plans. God allowed the unconquered nations – these pockets of resistance – to remain in place in order to test and to teach His people. On the one hand, the plan was to test them for covenant faithfulness, while the other purpose was to prepare them for destiny by giving them their own experience. In this way, they would become a people who knew how to trust God in battle.
Parents – especially parents raising boys – may find themselves in a similar scenario. When your child (boy or girl) is harassed by a bully, parents begin by teaching the child how to defuse the situation rather than escalate it. But when the other methods have failed, tactics change.
“Now, son, I do not want you starting any fights. That is not how you deal with your problems in life. However, when conflict becomes inevitable, then make sure your first punch is a good one!”
In the same manner, God left all the “ites” in the land to teach a generation of inexperienced soldiers – His people – to stand up for what is right. The end result was for them to gain their own experience of God’s grace, power and faithfulness. They would personally come to know Jehovah-Nissi, The Lord is My Banner. He is the One who brings us into battle and He is the One who also brings the victory. They learned that victory is not just a testament to man’s courage or military prowess or skill; that victory comes from the faithful God.
Have you ever wondered why God didn’t just eradicate your sinful carnal nature when you first trusted Him with your life? It’s a brilliant plan – because, like it or not, we’re in a fight, folks; a spiritual war. The weaknesses in your life, the difficult problems you have to deal with, the obstacles to overcome, the temptations that are universal – all of these come into play as God teaches us how to win in spiritual warfare. They become the means whereby we shake off our apathy and trust Him.
How else could David’s testimony in Psalm 144:1,2 shine so brightly? “Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle; He is my steadfast love and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield and Him in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me.” Nine times David uses the word my; who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle, my steadfast love, my fortress… He’s talking about his firsthand experience with God that came out of facing the trials and enemies of life.
Escaping the Love Trap
Now, this is a deep and timeless insight. Judges 3:5-6 tell us that the children of Israel not only lived among the “ites,” they also “took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons, and served their gods.” This reveals another part of God’s plan to rescue the second generation, and it comes to us in the same context. These verses highlight intermarriage with the Canaanites as a fatal step in Israel’s slide into apostasy. The command for God’s people to avoid intermarriage with other nations was the Old Testament’s equivalent of the New Testament command, “be not conformed to this world” and, “be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.”
To boil it down: a critical factor for escaping the clutches of complacency is making right decisions about sex and marriage. If we are concerned about seeing revival for the next generation, then we must marry right! The surest way to end up loving the world is to bind yourself to someone who actually does (I John 2:15).
Sex is not neutral, and marriage is the most significant human relationship we will every have – more important than education or career. What these short verses emphasize is that many end up derailed by sex and bad relationships.
All the talk – all the volumes that have been written on the Millennials that are leaving the Church (the“Nones”) – overlook a simple reality: It’s not science that’s secularizing Americans – it’s sex. Yes, sex has the power to shape our beliefs. Participating in romantic and sexual relationships with unbelievers (those who don’t share your convictions) can eventually wear down even the strongest faith. Just ask Solomon (I Kings 11:1-8).
The verses in Judges 3:8-11 are encouraging. They speak of God raising up Israel’s first judge, a young man named Othniel. As we see in Judges 1:12-13, Othniel distinguished himself first in the love arena: “And Caleb said, ‘He who attacks Kiriath-Sepher and captures it, I will give him Achsah my daughter for a wife.’ And Othniel the son of Kenaz captured it. And he gave him Achsah his daughter for a wife.”
The two aspects of the battle intersect here: enemies to prevail over in your own relationship with God and decisions to make for yourself about love, sex, and marriage. Othniel prevailed in both and was blessed with a great wife and a spiritual destiny as the land had rest for the next forty years under his leadership.
I believe that the next generation is in a position of powerful potential to see great revival. Not only is Generation Z (born after 1994) possibly bucking the trend of their parents’ looser relationships, but studies are now showing there is a greater tendency for them to be more devout in matters of faith. Having endured the post-truth model that left them confused, they are also open to discussions about the place of God’s Word and will in their lives.
I agree with Bianca Juarez Olthoff’s observation in a recent Instagram post: “Honestly, I believe the movement that brought my parents to know Jesus – the hippie movement, the Way, the Jesus Movement back in the ’60s – is a microcosm of what God’s going to do in this next generation. I think it was an amuse-bouche. It was a tidbit of what we’re going to see. And I want this next generation to know that that revival will not happen unless you’re utterly dependent on God’s presence moving before us.”