READ: Judges 2:8-19
«…and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the LORD to anger.» - Judges 2:11

The spiritual environment of discontentment, criticism and backbiting creates men of disloyalty and treachery. An environment creates a certain kind of person. When a person grows up in an environment of criticism, murmuring and treachery, it is not surprising that he turns out to be a Judas. That is all that he has ever known – treachery. That is all that he grew up in. That is all he will ever understand.

I once met a pastor who had grown up in a church where criticism, backbiting, slander and murmuring were the order of the day. It was not long before he manifested those exact same traits. Shortly after that, I met another person who had come out of that same environment and it was no better. Soon, I had met several pastors and Christian leaders who grew up in that environment. Every single one of them had the same traits of disloyalty and treachery. I was forced to conclude that their evil traits were a product of their environment.

What type of environment are you growing up in ? The environment you are in will mysteriously affect you!

«And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel. And yet they would not hearken unto their judges, but they went a whoring after other gods, and bowed themselves unto them: they turned quickly out of the way which their fathers walked in, obeying the commandments of the LORD; but they did not so» (Judges 2:10,17).