Judges Chapters 17 & 18
In the previous
post I wrote that the Danites polluted the ground of their sacred inheritance. Please
bear with me as I attempt to explain what I mean.
Occasionally I’ve
written of my friend, George Will (not the columnist). I first met George in
1966 in Greenville, SC; I last spoke to him around ten years ago. George spent
most of his life serving Christ in the Mediterranean, primarily in Italy. In
Christ, my life would not be what it is without Christ Jesus using George to
influence those early years, indeed, to influence all of my years. While George
introduced me to historical mentors who have been with me throughout my life,
such as Andrew Murray, Watchman Nee. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, A.W. Tozer; he also modeled
something for me which only as I write this can I give a name to: simplicity
in Christ.
When I first met
George he was quoting 1 Corinthians 1:30 – 31, “But by His doing you are in
Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and
sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, Let him who glories,
glory in the LORD.” When I last spoke with George, some forty-five years later,
he was still quoting 1 Corinthians 1:30 – 31. (I assume George is in the
Presence of Christ since I haven’t heard from him for so long.) In fact, some
of his last words to me were, “I am nothing, Jesus is everything” (see 1 Cor.
1:28).
George did not
pollute his inheritance in Jesus Christ, he lived his life “looking unto Jesus,”
(Heb. 12:2), yet another verse that he was always quoting. I think George could
say with Paul, “For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ,
and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2). George
had a simplicity in Christ that was constant, an anchor, and that
humbled me. I have known a few people like George, not many, sometimes I have
realized it at the time, but usually I’ve been too dumb to see that I was in a special
place with a special person. Anna Nichols was another such person, perhaps I’ll
write about Anna sometime, I may have done so around 2010.
How do we pollute
our inheritance? While I’m sure there are many ways we can do so, such as
making merchandise of God’s Word, profiting off insights and understandings which
were never ours to begin with, which never belonged to us – going one of the
ways of Balaam; more often than not my sense is that we pollute our inheritance
when we substitute the inheritance for Jesus Christ, for His Person, for an
intimate relationship with Him – a relationship so intimate that the Bible uses
the image of a Bride and her Husband.
Consider that
each tribe of Israel was given a specific inheritance in the Promised Land. As
it turned out, much of that inheritance was never fully occupied as the
Israelites often sought accommodation with the pagans, a policy in disobedience
to the Word of Yahweh. (Aren’t we foolish when we think we know better than
God?) In virtually all instances, the tribes of Israel did not hold their
inheritance as a trust from Yahweh, but rather as something that they could do
with as they pleased, whether that be accommodation with pagans and their
cultures, or, as in the case of the Danites of Judges 17 and 18, the establishment
their own form of idol worship.
If we think of
insights we have gained in Christ, of experiences we’ve had, of our various
theological and ecclesial traditions – is it possible that in our identification
with these experiences and ways of thinking that we have left the simplicity
that is in Christ? (See 2 Cor. 11:1 – 3). Paul’s concern for the Corinthians
was that their “minds will be led from the simplicity and purity of
devotion to Christ.”
Might it be that
when we substitute elements of our inheritance in Christ in the place of
devotion to Jesus Christ, that we pollute our sacred inheritance? Might this be
the equivalent of “I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ”
(1 Cor. 1:12)? And note that the trajectory of this passage leads us to 1 Cor.
1:30 – 2:5.
In a recent post in this series I raised the
question of whether we speak of Jesus Christ to one another and to our world,
or whether our language and conversation is about God/god and church. If our
language is of god and church it may be that we have polluted our inheritance,
because our inheritance has become our center of gravity, it has become our
primary identity. If this is the case, then might we have crafted
attractive idols for ourselves and others? Might we have taken a blessing from
our Father in Christ and turned it into a platform for self-righteousness, of self-identity
– turned it into something it was never meant to be? Might we have convinced
ourselves that our experience must be everyone’s experience - no matter where
on the experience spectrum we may be?
Might we have
become so identified with our way of thinking that we assume it doesn’t need
critique or adjustment or alignment with the holistic Bible? Have we closed the
door on mystery and paradox and enigma and asking the Holy Spirit to not only
search our hearts, but to search our minds and our doctrines and dogmas and
practices?
Over the past
few years, when I have done pulpit supply on Sunday mornings it has usually
been within a certain denomination. One question that often comes up when I’m
in a Sunday school class or in conversation with individuals is, “Are you of
our denomination?” (I’ll not use the name of the denomination). They aren’t
asking me about my testimony, or about my relationship with Christ, or my
calling as a preacher, or about my qualifications to preach – they aren’t
asking me about things of the Kingdom, they simply want to know if my identify
is their denominational identity – and they want to know this because this is
their identity.
Now, pretty much
wherever I have preached there has been an assumption that I believe the
doctrinal distinctives of the place where I am speaking. This is interesting to
me, for it indicates what closed systems we live in, how introverted we are;
and I understand this because I’ve been there, and am probably still there in
some respects. There have been seasons of my life when experience or particular
thinking has been my primary identity, rather than the Person of Jesus Christ.
This is one
reason why the concepts of Mere Christianity and The Great Tradition
are important to me, and it is why the simplicity in Christ that George
Will modeled has been a North Star for me throughout the years; when I have
steered off course I have, by Christ’s grace, been pulled back to the glorious
and blessed Trinity.
There have been
times when I have polluted my inheritance, when I have been so enamored of an experience
or a “revelation” or perspective, that I have shifted my love and affection and
devotion from Jesus Christ to these other things.
Is it possible
that you have had, in your own way, this experience also?
O how I want to
live life in the simplicity of Jesus Christ.
What about you?
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