God told Joshua to meditate on the Book of the law of Moses day and night (Joshua 1:8). The rest of the population did not do this. Most people in church probably don’t read the Bible.
Instead of paying attention to the Book of the law, “everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:6). In the same way, many people in church prefer to figure things out on their own or follow the crowd rather than read the Bible.
The generation after Joshua was already forgetting to pass on the lessons to their offspring. Similarly, many churchgoers do not pass on core Bible concepts to their children today to build them up to follow the Lord.
The people followed the crowd to do evil, especially when an evil king commanded them to engage in illicit acts like prostitution or other sexual behavior, which they were willing to do.
The people followed the customs of other nations around them, which did not honor the Lord.
There are other reasons, but the core issue is that few people had a heart for God, while most were satisfied to do outward religious practices, just like churchgoers today.
I keep bringing up today’s churchgoers simply because we are not different from the people of the past. How are you doing?
