In Joshua 24, as Joshua prepared for his own death he took a final opportunity to encourage his brethren to maintain their commitment to God. He “gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem and called for the elders of Israel, and for their heads, and for their judges, and for their officers; and they presented themselves before God…” (Joshua 24:1). At this point he began to speak, and as he spoke he pointed their minds in three directions: past, present, and future.
To begin Joshua reminded the people of God’s blessing upon them as far back as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and worked his way forward historically to all of the blessings they had received through the leadership of Moses. However, the last several years had been spent in an earnest pursuit of conquering Canaan and inhabiting it as their own homeland. God had blessed them with deliverance and victory. However, in looking forward to the future Joshua challenged them to “now therefore fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the Lord. And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:14-15).
To this the people responded with a unified voice – “God forbid that we should forsake the Lord, to serve other gods…the Lord our God will we serve, and his voice will we obey (vs. 16,24). And so they did. Judges 1 is committed to informing us of that generation’s submission to God. No, they were not a perfect people; they had their shortcomings. However, they remained morally pure by abstaining from idolatry and generally maintain the law of God. But, “all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generations after them, which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel” (Judges 2:10).
What happened? When that generation died they left empty shoes that the next generation was unwilling and unable to fill.
Title: Empty Shoes
Main Point: I have heroes in the faith, men and women that I have had the privilege of meeting, knowing, and interacting with that I look up to, admire, and respect. There are other men and women who I have never met because they’ve died or just because circumstances have never allowed me to meet them, but I still look up to and respect them. However, I remember the day I realized that one day that generation of men and women would be gone and the leadership of the church would rest on the shoulders of my generation. I was scared to death. It was hard for me to swallow the fact that the shoes of these individuals would one day be left empty, needing to be refilled by people my age. That is an inheritance that comes with immense responsibility. How can we avoid making the same mistakes Israel made upon inheriting the land of Canaan?
Discussion Points:
- Some of Us Need to Teach – I can’t help but assume that part of the problem that lead to Israel’s mass departure was too many parents not doing enough teaching. Deuteronomy 6:4-9 indicates that God always intended each generation to pass His law to the next proceeding generation. That did not guarantee acceptance but I can’t imagine that an entire generation would abandon God so quickly if they had done their job. In Titus 2:1-10 Paul told Titus the God-approved manner by which generations were to maintain their faith in God; they were to be taught. No one who has not been actively engaged in helping to teach a new generation has the right to complain when that generation abandons God. God squarely placed that responsibility on our shoulders. We are fully aware that one day our time on earth will expire. What are we doing to help in filling our shoes that will one day be left empty? Simply put, some of us need to be engaged in the lives of our young people, teaching them what they need to know to step into those leadership roles one day – filling empty shoes.
- Some of Us Need to Learn – However, while some of the responsibility, perhaps even a significant portion of the responsibility must have rested on the older generation of Israel the younger folks were not exempt from criticism. They had the responsibility to respect, honor, and learn from their parents and elders. In fact, God went so far as to condemn stubborn and rebellious children who refused to obey their parents by casting them out of the city and having them stoned to death (Deuteronomy 21:18-21). Its true that we cannot learn unless we are taught, but it does no good to be taught unless we are willing to accept the instruction. Maybe that’s why Paul not only instructed the older men and women to teach, but he taught the younger men and women to learn. Ephesians 6:1-4 clearly says that children are to obey and honor their parents in the Lord. We are all to honor and respect our elders (people older than us) for the sake of learning and growing. We cannot adequately prepare ourselves for the responsibilities we will have one day unless we take the advantage to learn today. There are empty shoes that we will one day fill. But empty shoes cannot be filled by empty lives.
- All of Us Need to _________________ – 3 essential items will fill in this blank. (1) We all need to work. These efforts require work on everyone’s behalf. It’s not that one party can put forth effort while the other doesn’t and still acquire the desired result. It demands that everyone work to accomplish the end. (2) We all need to cooperate. However, while we work we must work together, knowing that the future rests in each of our hands. The older cannot teach and the younger cannot learn without joint efforts of those on everyone’s part. Each party cannot stand on their own and still accomplish the end result. We must work together with each other’s best interests in mind to fulfill God’s divine plan. (3) We all need to pray. Nothing can be accomplished without adequate and fervent prayer (Philippians 4:6). It is submission to God’s divine plan coupled with God’s providential blessings that will help each passing generation fill their empty shoes to keep the church pure and powerful.
One day you will either be leaving empty shoes or be asked to fill some. What are we doing, individually and collectively, to fill them?
-Andy Brewer