Inexplicable,
inexcusable, unforgivable, shameful, and outright tragic, all
fail to express the profound implications of this verse.
"What advantage then hath the Jew? ...
Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed
the oracles of GOD." Only one generation had
passed since Moses, how could they squander such a privileged
place which GOD had entrusted to them? Were they not the
ones who committed with Joshua that:
"... as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." The results of failing to "train up"
our children are predictable and the ensuing verses defy even
the most naive: "And the children of Israel did evil in
the sight of the LORD, ... And they forsook the LORD, and served
Baal and Ashtaroth ... they went a whoring after other gods, and
bowed themselves unto them: they turned quickly out of the way
..." Is this not hauntingly biographical
of a generation gone amuck before our very eyes?
"There is a generation that curseth
their father, and doth not bless their mother. There is a
generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not
washed from their filthiness. There is a generation, O how
lofty are their eyes! and their eyelids are lifted up.
There is a generation, whose teeth are as swords, and their jaw
teeth as knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the
needy from among men."
Where are the GOD fearing parents? Where are the Christian
school teachers ... the VBS and Sunday School workers?
Now also when I am old and grayheaded,
O GOD, forsake me not; until I have shewed THY strength unto
this generation, and THY power to every one that is to come."
Do you find it
difficult to keep a straight face while gasping with dismay at
the graduate class of our own protégé? HIS Mantle has been cast aside, and the
spiritual wind chill of the GOD forsaken is increasingly brisk
with each passing day. Where are the aged who will pass the torch of
HIS awe to this generation?
"Tell ye your children of it, and let your
children tell their children, and their children another
generation."