| Church School Lesson: Choosing Badly |
"Choosing Badly"
October 11, 2026
Background: Judges 2; Print: Judges 2:6-15;
Key Verse: Judges 2:11; Devotional: 1 Corinthians 10:1-14
Judges 2:6-15 (ESV)
6 When Joshua dismissed the people, the people of Israel went each to his inheritance to take possession of the land.
7 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.
8 And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of 110 years.
9 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.
10 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.
11 And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals.
12 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.
13 They abandoned the LORD and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth.
14 So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunderers, who plundered them. And he sold them into the hand of their surrounding enemies, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies.
15 Whenever they marched out, the hand of the LORD was against them for harm, as the LORD had warned, and as the LORD had sworn to them. And they were in terrible distress.
Judges Chapter 2 (Commentary)
2:6-10 Here the author presses rewind on the narrative to tell us that the people [had] worshiped the Lord throughout Joshua’s lifetime (2:7). After Joshua died (2:8), things went downhill. When his generation passed away, another generation rose up who did not know the Lord or the works he had done for Israel (2:10). Tragically, parents had failed to transfer their faith in God to their children. And the resulting generational spiritual breakdown would bring about decline in the culture. This is a sharp warning for us: When the family breaks down, civilization breaks down with it. We need to take seriously the spiritual development of our children, because not only do they depend on it, society is banking on it.
Amazingly, the majority of these Israelites didn’t know the works that God had done for their nation in the past. So they were ignorant about what he could do for them. Repeatedly Moses had told the Israelites to teach their children the ways of God to avoid this very situation (Deut 6:4-7). While children may not see the benefit of spiritual training as it’s offered—or even want it—one day they’re going to need it.
2:11 When the transfer of faith from parents to children failed, the Israelites did what was evil in the Lord’s sight. They worshiped the Baals. Baal was a dominant idol among the Canaanites. To them, he was the god of fertility—though he was really a god of futility. Baal was said to look after the fertility of soil, farm animals, and humans. An idol is any person, place, thing, or thought that you look to as your source—of meaning, provision, deliverance, and fulfillment. The Israelites had lost faith in God as their source and began to look to the natural realm.
2:12-13 They abandoned God and followed other gods from the surrounding peoples (2:12). This tells us that not only did the Israelites fail to rub off on the culture, they had allowed their enemies’ culture to rub off on them. This should make us ask: What ungodly aspects of today’s culture are rubbing off on our children? Are they buying into cultural lies because we’ve failed to transfer our faith to them?
2:14-15 When the Israelites left God, God handed them over to marauders and sold them to the enemies around them (2:14). Since they submitted to the evil system, God allowed that system to rule them. Understand that when you and I wander from serving the true God, false humanistic worldviews will fill the vacuum, taking his place in our hearts and ultimately wielding control over us.
As a result of Israel’s unfaithfulness, God’s anger burned against them: Whenever the Israelites went out, the Lord . . . brought disaster on them (2:15). Now from the people’s perspective, the bad things that happened to them might have just seemed like bad luck, but in reality God himself was working against them. If God is against you, it doesn’t matter what you have going for you. And if God is for you, it doesn’t matter who is against you (see Rom 8:31). It’s your obedience to his Word that will make all the difference.