Skipping A Generation

“Behold therefore, I will gather thee unto thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace; and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place. And they brought the king word again.” (2Ki 22:20 AV)

These words are to King Josiah.  Josiah was Manasseh’s son.  He began his reign when he was eight years old.  He began the process of restoring temple worship and in the process, came across a copy of the law.  When the words of the word of God were read in his ears, he rent his clothes and repented of all that his fathers had done.  The word of God tells us that when he held a Passover, it was not like any other that had ever been held since the time of the judges.  What an incredible testimony.  Because of his integrity and soft heart, the LORD postponed judgment on Judah while this king lived and reigned.  It was his father, Manasseh, who drove the final nail in the coffin of Judah.  Even though Manasseh repented and undid much of what he had done, the LORD was pressed beyond His limit.  Judgment was coming.  But this judgment was not coming in Josiah’s generation because they repented and followed the LORD as no other generation had, or ever would, follow Him.

When I was a young boy, my best friend had a garden and I wanted one, too.  My mother was thrilled.  My father; indifferent.  So, I grabbed my dad’s pick, az, and shovel and got to work.  I planted green beans, tomatoes, and sweet corn.  I may have planted radishes and cucumbers as well.  I cannot remember.  What I do remember is it did not turn out as I hoped.  I may have neglected to water it as much as I should have, and passed one weeding from time to time, but that was certainly no excuse for the lame ears of corn or the rare cucumbers which blossomed into fruit.  At the end of the season, it is required that all the plants grown would be turned into the soil.  They would act as a fertilizer.  The end of that garden was determined.  There was nothing that would change the predestined outcome of that year’s garden.  However, that which prolonged the inevitable was any hanging fruit, no matter how little remained.  The rest of the garden, deader than a winter’s flower, remained.  The rest of the unproductive plants received a respite until the last cucumber was picked, or the last tomato was harvested, or the last of the green beans were stored away.  It was the life of the fruitful, no matter how minuscule, that saved the existence of the useless.  My pending destruction of a once fruitful garden was postponed because a small remnant chose to provide more fruit.

There is hope for any generation.  Even though past generations invited the killing of the preborn, normalizing immorality, and now, rejecting the God of our nation, that doesn’t mean a future generation is without hope.  Judgment comes on any and all nations that forget God.  Our nation is especially guilty.  Like Israel of old, we have turned or back on the God who planted this nation for the purpose of promoting the free exercise of conscience of its citizens.  We were founded on the right to worship God as our conscience dictates.  Don’t let the God-haters rewrite history and teach our foundation was freedom from everything.  That was and is not our foundation.  The foundation of the United States is a spiritual one.  Not a civil or political one.  There is still hope.  Perhaps we, as a nation, have gone to far and there is nothing that can stop the judgment of God.  But a generation can prolong the inevitable.  If they are turned to repentance and revival, then the LORD may skip a generation.  He may put off the coming of the Tribulation and its king, the AntiChrist, if a generation will return to their historical roots.  If this generation will turn itself back to God, perhaps there will be peace and prosperity in their day.