Judges 2:10-11 NLT
After that generation died, another generation grew up who did not acknowledge the Lord or remember the mighty things he had done for Israel. Then the Israelites did what was evil in the Lord’s sight . . .
God created the law of cause and effect in this creation. Doing evil was the effect, but it wasn’t the cause. We don’t do evil in a vacuum; we do evil because there is something that happens within us prior to that.
We don’t acknowledge the Lord. We don’t remember the mighty things He has done (accounted in the Bible).
I know a great many people who say that they love the Lord, that they believe in Him. But they do so without reading the Bible; they do so without acknowledging what He has chosen to reveal about Himself.
They worship a god they have made up in their own minds . . . because they don’t care to take the time or effort to get the know the real God that really exists.
We are commanded to study the Word, to seek after God for a reason. Psalm 119:11 says:
I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. NLT
The Hebrew word translated here “hidden” actually has the connotation of hoarding, storing up. It makes me think of the squirrels who, in the summer, store and store and store as many nuts and things as they can so that there is food for the winter.
As Christians, we need to read and study and memorize and apply as much scripture as we can. We need to focus our lives and energy upon it so that when the winter of sin comes, we have the resources to resist the temptation.
We can’t wait until we do evil to examine our lives and realize that we are far from the Lord. We grow far from the Lord when we fail to acknowledge Him as Lord and when we fail to remember—through study and prayer—the mighty things He has done.
Father, help me to acknowledge You, to remember Who You are and what You have done . . . that I might not sin against You. I ask this in the name of Yahshua my Savior. Let it be so.