A Strange, And Not So Strange, Story (8)

 

Judges Chapters 17 & 18

 

“When these went into Micah’s house and took the graven image, the ephod and household idols and the molten image, the priest said to them, ‘What are you doing?’ They said to him, ‘Be silent, put your hand over your mouth and come with us, and be to us a faither and a priest. Is it better for you to be a priest to the house of one man, or to be a priest to a tribe and a family in Israel?’ The priest’s heart was glad, and he took the ephod and household idols and the graven image and went among the people.” Judges 18:18 – 20.

 

Is it possible that churches want chaplains and that pastors would be just fine serving as chaplains or social workers? That is, is it possible that what “we the people” really want is someone to dedicate or baptize our children, someone to marry us, someone to bury us, and someone to tell us nice things on Sunday morning? Is it possible that pastors are fine with serving in the foregoing capacity? Is it possible that even those pastors who enter ministry with a passion for Jesus Christ, a desire to see Christians actually become disciples of Christ, and a determination to see others come into a relationship with Jesus Christ, are eventually worn down to the point where they lose the sharpness of their calling and give in to the weight of the status quo?

 

The Danites say to the Levite, “We have a bigger and better job for you, how can you argue with our logic?” This sounds an awful lot like our religious reasoning today – “Bigger is Better” is the Great Commandment and the Great Commission merged into one. Of course, on the other end of the spectrum we have, “We don’t want new wine, we want to preserve our old wineskins.”

 

What happened to the Levite’s relationship with Micah that we see in Judges 17:11? “The Levite agreed to live with the man, and the young man became to him like one of his sons.” When “bigger is better,” relationships take a back seat. I’m sure there are exceptions to the norm, but how many times have we seen pastors leave one church to serve a smaller church? How often do we take a cut in pay to make a job move?

 

However, let me be quick to say that this mentality of “bigger is better” is not the fault of any one group of people, it is the result of many forces, of many areas in which we acquiesce to the world around us, to the spirit of Babylon. It is what happens when we desert the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ. After all, “bigger is better” and inviting money to be our arbiter is really the spirit of the Great Whore – Babylon the Great (Revelation chapters 17 – 18). John Piper titled a book, “Brothers, We Are Not Professionals”; I agree with the thought behind the title, but I’m just not sure we can extricate ourselves from the spider’s web in which we are entangled, it is difficult to function while living in Babylon. What I am trying to say is that we ought not to give ourselves a pass when reading about the idolatrous and mercenary Levite of our passage, either as vocational ministers or as congregations.

 

“When they had gone some distance from the house of Micah, the men who were in the houses near Micah’s house assembled and overtook the sons of Dan. They cried to the sons of Dan, who turned around and said to Micah, ‘What is the matter with you, that you have assembled together’?” (Judges 18:22 – 23).

 

Can we see the sorry result of Micah’s idolatry? Can we see that his neighbors were seduced by his idolatry to the point that they pursued the Danites in an attempt to recover the idols? Micah’s idolatry was a cancer, first spreading to his neighbors and then being perpetuated in the tribe of Dan. The partnership between Micah and his mother was evil, and its fruit poisonous. The Levite added a false sense of legitimacy to the evil, and the evil spread not only to Micah’s neighbors, but then to an entire tribe, affecting others beyond that tribe. How are we influencing our families and neighbors? How are our congregations affecting other congregations?

 

While there are seminaries who remain faithful to Christ, for many generations there have been seminaries which have graduated men and women who reject the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Bible. A seminary degree or an ordination certificate do not mean that the person holding them is a Biblical Christian, preaching and teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And so as not to be misunderstood, there are many who do not have a formal theological education who are also propagating idols within the Temple of God, the Church of Jesus Christ. Just because a person is the equivalent of a Levite, or of the family of Aaron, does not mean that he is teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

False teaching and idolatry have been a threat to the Church since its inception, as a result we have the New Testament letters, including the letter which we call Revelation. O dear friends, when Paul writes of a great “apostasy” (2 Thess. 2:3) and of “deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons” (1 Tim. 4:1) and of “difficult times” in which “men will be lovers of self, lovers of money…having a form of godliness” (2 Tim. 3:1 – 5) let us remember that these evil elements will appear Christian, very very Christian. The music will purport to be “Christian,” the written material will purport to be “Christian,” the teaching will purport to be “Christian.” Just as Micah and his mother and the Levite used the language of Yahweh, false teachers and idolaters today use the language of Jesus Christ and the Bible.

 

As we conclude this series on Judges 17 and 18, where would you like your name recorded? Alongside the idolatrous Levite and his family in Judges 18:30 – 31? Or alongside those faithful to Jesus Christ in Hebrews Chapter 11?

 

 

A Strange, And Not So Strange, Story (7)

 

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?

A Strange, And Not So Strange, Story (6)

 

Judges Chapters 17 & 18

 

“Then the five men departed and came to Laish and saw the people who were in it living in security after the manner of the Sidonians, quiet and secure; for there was no ruler humiliating them for anything in the land, and they were far from the Sidonians and had no dealings with anyone. When they came back to their brothers at Zorah and Eshtaol, their brothers said to them, What do you report? They said, Arise and let us go up against them; for we have seen the land, and behold, it is very good. And will you sit still? Do not delay to go, to enter, to possess the land.” (Judges 18:7 – 9 NASB).

 

Consider the words, “And will you sit still? Do not delay to go, to enter, to possess the land.” We could place an exclamation point “!” at the end of this exhortation to emphasize what the five spies were saying, their excitement at the land they saw, and their sense that their tribe needed to move fast, to take advantage of the situation, for the people of Laish were accustomed to living in peace, without conflict, and they were unprepared for an attack.

 

Now here is a thing that we ought not to lose sight of, while Laish (also known as Leshem in Joshua 19:47) was a place of idol worship when the Sidonians lived there, it would remain a place of idol worship when the Danites moved there, for the Danites would bring their own idols with them, particularly the idols of Micah along with the priest of Micah. That is, after the Danites destroyed the Sidonians living in Laish, along with their Sidonian idols (I really don’t know whether we can assume they destroyed the Sidonian idols), “The sons of Dan set up for themselves the graven image; and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh, he and his sons were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day of the captivity of the land. So they set up Micah’s graven image which he had made, all the time that the house of God was at Shiloh” (Judges 18:30 – 31).

 

Note the comment, “…all the time that the house of God was at Shiloh.” Yahweh had established His Tabernacle and Testimony at Shiloh, Shiloh was to be the place where the People of God worshipped, yet the Danites had established their own place of worship, and they turned their inheritance from Yahweh into a center of idol worship. (We would never do that…would we?)

 

The tribe of Dan had “exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures” (Romans 1:23). The People of Yahweh polluted the sacred ground of their inheritance, and this pollution would continue “until the day of the captivity of the land.” Let us not be so foolish as to ignore the warnings of the Risen Christ that He will remove candlesticks (Rev. 2:5).

 

In years to come, the tribe of Dan was a natural place for Jeroboam to set up one of the two golden calves that he made for Israel to worship (1 Kings 12:25 – 33). When the Danites of Judges 18 changed the name of Laish to Dan, in order to honor their ancestor, the son of Jacob, that was hardly an honor – giving the name of their ancestor Dan to a place that would be associated with idol worship until its destruction in the judgment of Yahweh. What fools we can be as we glory in our idols!

 

Do we do the same things? Do we honor those who have gone before us by bestowing their names on idolatrous practices? What might Augustine, Calvin, Luther, Wesley, Hus, or Francis of Assisi say were they to visit the places and peoples and practices upon which we’ve bestowed their names? What about our recovery of Divine Truth in our lives and “movements,” have we taken what was to have been a portion of our inheritance and turned it into an idol, taking the place of our Lord Jesus Christ?

 

Can we hear the disciples saying, as the woman breaks the vessel filled with precious and costly ointment to anoint Jesus Christ, “Why this waste?”? Can we hear Peter saying, “Let’s make three tabernacles”? Can we see Jesus Christ among the candlesticks of Revelation chapters 1 – 3? Do we see the distinction between the two women of Proverbs Chapter 9? Do we see the difference between the Bride and the Whore of the book of Revelation? Do we sense the concern of Paul when he writes:

 

“For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore, it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds” (2 Cor. 11:13 – 15)?

 

Idolatry is often attractive and seductive. We might even apply the foolish question heard in popular songs, “How can this be wrong, when it feels so right?” Let’s not forget, Micah and his family, as well as the Danites, were not far removed from Moses or from Joshua; they were not far removed from people who actually saw the plagues of Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea, the wonders of manna, the judgments and miracles of the Wilderness, the parting of the Jordan, the victory at Jericho.

 

Let us not forget that the letters of the Apostles reflect our tendency and predisposition to leave the simplicity of a monogamous relationship with Jesus Christ and fall into myriad forms of false teaching and idolatry, nor let us be so foolish as to think that the warnings of Revelation chapters 2 and 3 are not for us.

 

I know of no remedy for this, or protection, than to love, and abide in, the Person of Jesus Christ in fellowship with one another and in faithfulness to His Word as it has been confessed through the ages, and as it is embodied in the Nicene Creed. Dear friends, there is no book in any bookstore, nor available in electronic form, as pertinent to our lives and times as the Bible, and within it, the strange and not so strange chapters of Judges 17 and 18. These chapters do not portray some weird thing than happened in centuries long past, they paint of picture of the way we are today, a day in which idols proliferate both within and without the professing church.

 

We ask, “Will this be successful?” Instead of, “What is Jesus saying about this?” We ask, “Will this work? Will this pay for itself? Will we have a return on our investment?” Instead of asking “Where is the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ in this?”

 

We ask, “Will this offend anyone? Will this advance my ministry? Our ministry?” Rather than, “Where is the call of God in Christ?”

 

We ask, “Will people be comfortable with this?” Rather than, “Are we willing to die to our agendas, our preferences, our comfort, so that others may live in Jesus Christ?”

 

May I say, “I love Jesus Christ, and I pray that I will love Him with all that I have and all that I am.” However, having said this, I cannot say that I have never bowed to idols, nor can I say that I have never propagated idols. I found the temptation to idolatry much stronger in vocational ministry than in business, much, much stronger. For you see, in business you can often see idols for what they are, seductive enticements to put yourself first, to accumulate honor and material things. O but in ministry the idols are religious, they look so reasonable and good – what can be wrong with the accolades of peers? Of church growth? Of well – planned and seamless worship services? Of increased offerings? Of music on a professional level? Of excited congregations? Of meeting the felt needs of others? What can be wrong with substituting dumbed – down curricula for the Bible?

 

Don’t get me wrong, I think we owe our Lord Jesus and others our best; but I am also aware of how easily I can substitute the expectations and standards of this world, including the religious world, for the Word of God and the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

 

As a pastor I recall the realization that I was so well – trained in preaching that I could construct a sermon without relying on the Holy Spirit. Not only that, but it occurred to me that in my preaching classes we never once, as far as I recall, talked about dependence on the Holy Spirit, nor about guarding against self – reliance when preparing sermons. Once again, don’t misunderstand me, my preaching classes have been very helpful to me in proclaiming and teaching God’s Word, but I would be a fool not to ask Jesus to save me from myself. My point is that well – prepared sermons can become a religious idol.

 

(This is not an argument against theological education, nor is it an endorsement of ad-hoc preaching, or preaching without preparation – though we ought to be ready to witness and preach at anytime…to be sure…I am simply trying to illustrate how easy it is to follow after religious idols).

 

Again, as a pastor, how many times did I look at congregations and compare us to what the church world expected of us; rather than view my congregations as an organic people in Jesus Christ, with Jesus Christ as the Head? How often did I substitute the standards and paradigms of the church world for the Bible? I am simply trying to demonstrate how insidious false images can be and how they can infiltrate our lives and ministries and congregations.

 

Well, I’ll conclude this now because I may be rambling, and we’ll return to Judges 17 and 18 in another post. Please don’t miss the point that Judges 17 and 18 may seem a strange story at first, but maybe it isn’t all that strange…not really.

 

A Strange, And Not So Strange, Story (5)

Judges Chapters 17 & 18

 

“In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:6). “In those days there was no king in Israel…” (Judges 18:1a).

 

When Jesus Christ is not acknowledged as King in the Church, we can expect confusion and chaos and cacophony. When Jesus Christ is not served and submitted to, when we do not bow our hearts and knees before Him, we will do what is right in our own eyes. When Jesus Christ is not our King, we can anticipate much of what we see in Judges to be replicated in the professing church.

 

In Judges 18 we see that the tribe of Dan has yet to fully possess its inheritance and that it has sent five men to spy out the region of Laish (see also Joshua 19:40ff). “When they were near the house of Micah, they recognized the voice of the young man, the Levite; and they turned aside there and said to him, “Who brought you here? And what are you doing in this place? And what do you have here?”

 

We’re not told how the men of Dan knew the Levite, but they must have known him fairly well to have recognized his voice, or the Levite must have had quite the distinctive voice. In any case these five men, who had yet to enter into their inheritance, sought direction from the Levite, who had abdicated his inheritance for idol worship. The Danites knew the voice of the Levite but they did not know the Voice of Yahweh. O that we would know that the fulness of our inheritance is in Jesus Christ and that we will not find it in idols, in syncretistic Christianity, in the ways of this present evil age…no matter how successful these ways may appear.

 

The Danites ask the Levite, “Inquire of God, please, that we may know whether our way on which we are going will be prosperous.” The Levite responds, “Go in peace; your way in which you are going has Yahweh’s approval.”

 

The Danites see Micah’s idols, they see the Levite acting as a priest in Micah’s idolatrous household, and yet they want the Levite to inquire of God concerning their plans – they want to know if they will be prosperous. The Danites have forgotten the Law that Yahweh gave through Moses, they have forgotten their forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – or perhaps more accurately, they have chosen to ignore Yahweh’s Law and to reject their heritage.

 

Now while I suppose we ought to be careful about putting too much emphasis on this, I want to point out that the Danites want to know what “God” thinks about their mission, they do not use the name Yahweh, the covenant name of the God of Israel. On the other hand, the Levite does use the name Yahweh when he tells the five men that they have “Yahweh’s approval.”

 

Is our conversation and thinking centered in Jesus Christ? Is it centered in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? Or is our conversation and thinking centered on “God”? Do we speak of an ambiguous God, or do we speak of our Lord Jesus Christ? Do we speak of the Father who gave His Only Son? Do we speak of the Holy Spirit who lives in us? Or do we speak of a nebulous God who has been created in myriad images by mankind?

 

Dear friends, the name Jesus Christ is that Name above all names, “…there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Concerning Christ Jesus Paul writes, “For this reason, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:9 – 11).

 

We are called to explicitly and unambiguously preach, teach, and share Jesus Christ with others. As the Church, we are called to be monogamously wedded to Jesus Christ. If we are indeed in a relationship with Jesus Christ we will speak of Jesus Christ to one another in the Church, and to others outside the Church.

 

Now to be sure, there are pseudo-Christians who use the name Jesus just as the Levite used the name Yahweh. There are seminary professors and pastors and authors who attempt to remake Jesus Christ into their own image, thus leading others into darkness. Having said this, I ask the question, “Are we speaking to one another of Jesus Christ? Or…do we speak of “things” and “activities” and such? Are we more likely to talk to others about “church” or about Jesus Christ? Are we more likely to use the ambiguous term “God” when speaking to others or do we speak to others of Jesus Christ…doing so as a result of our relationship with Jesus Christ, in Jesus Christ, and through Jesus Christ?”

 

This is really only one question, phrased in different ways – is Jesus our all in all? Is He our everything? We can talk of “church” forever, we may speak of a nebulous “god” forever, and no one will hear of the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Jesus Christ; no one will hear of the marvelous and wonderful love of the Father for men and women and young people, no one will hear the call to confess their sins, repent, and enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ.  

 

O dear friends, we like to be safe; speaking of church is safe, speaking generally of a god with pithy sayings and cute maxims is safe – but speaking of Jesus Christ is never safe, for the message of Jesus requires us to die to self and live to Him, and it requires us to bear His shame and His rejection – for the sake of a lost and dying world. Tell me now, what do you think, what is the point of a person gaining the entire world but losing his or her soul? (Mark 8:34ff). Are we known as a people who speak of Jesus Christ? Or are we known as a people who talk about morality, politics, church, god, success? Just who do we belong to?

 

Can we say with Paul, “I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself” (Acts 20:24a)?

 

The Danites wanted to know if they would prosper in their way. Does this sound like our preaching today? The Danites had forgotten that true prosperity is to know the Word of Yahweh, to walk in that Word, to meditate in that Word, and to never allow that Word to depart from our hearts and minds (Joshua 1, Psalm 1).

 

When “everyone does what is right in his own eyes,” everyone has idols; personal idols, family idols, regional idols, national idols. When “there is no King,” we do what we want, when we want, and how we want – not just Monday through Saturday, but on Sunday mornings, for we are accountable to no one and we can bring idols into the Temple as long as they bring us success, otherwise they will not be accepted.

 

Idolatry was normative for Israel, for everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Is it normative for us?

 

O dear friends, to know Jesus is to belong to Jesus; to no longer belong to ourselves. To follow Jesus is to surrender our lives to Jesus Christ, to learn His Way of Life, the Way of laying our lives down daily for Him; to glorify Him and so that others might know Him.

 

The Apostle John concluded his first letter to Christians with these words:

 

“Little children, guard yourselves from idols.” (1 John 5:21).

 

A Strange, And Not So Strange, Story (4)

 

Judges Chapters 17 & 18

 

As we continue to ponder Judges Chapter 17; even though Micah and his mother are referring to Yahweh, the Covenant God of Israel, their actions are pagan and idolatrous. This ought to be a warning for us, we can talk “Jesus talk,” but that doesn’t mean that our thinking and practices reflect Jesus Christ – we can be just as far from the person and teachings of Jesus Christ as Micah, his mother, and the Levite were from the Law of God given through Moses.

 

Micah, his mother, and the Levite were making up their own rules as they went along. They were melding talk of Yahweh into pagan practices. They were referring to Yahweh while worshipping idols. Micah first consecrates one of his sons to be a priest, then he recruits a rootless Levite to be a priest (one wonders what happened to the son who had been consecrated). Micah took upon himself the authority to consecrate, thus usurping the Law of God. One of the great threats to the People of God through the ages has been syncretism, the blending of the Word of God with the cultures, religions, and philosophies of the world – syncretism is often subtle and seductive, and other times it is overt and blatant. Syncretism can be obvious to us, or we can be oblivious to it.

 

When we are raised in a syncretistic culture, such as in the United States, it can be challenging to discern what beliefs, thinking, and practices belong to the Kingdom of God and what don’t belong. Peer pressure, both in general society and in the professing church, can discourage us from pursuing the truth of God’s Word, for communities typically do not care for the destruction of their idols – whether those idols are within the church or in general society.

 

Micah operated without regard to the Law of Moses, without regard to the established priesthood of Aaron, and without regard to the covenant that Yahweh established with the Patriarchs. Is there a difference between Micah, his mother, and the Levite, and ourselves?

 

We are taught that we belong to the communion of saints, and that we’ve been “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone” (Ephesians 2:20). But do we actually believe this? Does this actually inform our thinking, our decisions, and our actions?

 

Are we linked to the apostles and prophets? Do we build upon this foundation? Do we know the Bible well enough to answer this question? Is the cornerstone, Jesus Christ, central to all that we do? Do we have a functional understanding of the Patriarchs? The Patriarchs of the Old Testament and those of the Church, those whom we term the Church Fathers?

 

Do we, as individuals and congregations, live with reference to the Body of Christ? That is, are our lives informed by the reality that we do not live in a vacuum, but that we are to serve, and to be accountable to, the Body of Christ? This means the Body of Christ in our communities, in our regions, and in our world.

 

What would you think if you were on a tour of the Mississippi River, traveling north from New Orleans, and that you were promised that you’d be taken to see where the Father of Waters began, only to find that after a few hours your riverboard docked in upper Louisiana where a small creek enters the Mississippi and were told, “This is where the Great River begins?”

 

Or perhaps the riverboat tour traveled a bit farther and stopped at where the Ohio River entered the Mississippi, or where the Missouri River entered the Mississippi – and you were told at each place that “this is where the River begins.” What would you think?

 

O friends, this is what happens when we begin our history with our traditions; whether it is a renewal movement in this decade or that century, or a reform movement in another century -we fail to reach the headwaters of the Great River, we fail to see where we have come from, we fail to build upon the Apostles and Prophets, with Jesus Christ as our cornerstone. When we limit our heritage and understanding and praxis to a tributary of the Great River, we fail to live in the fulness of the Great River, we fail to live in the context of the heritage and trajectory that is expressed in Hebrews Chapter 11.

 

Little wonder that we are a fragmented people, when we dogmatically insist that our own tributaries are the Great River, when there is only one Great River, flowing form the Throne of God (Rev. 22:1; John 7:38).

 

Are we really any different than Micah and his mother and the Levite?

 

What do you think?

A Strange, And Not So Strange, Story (2)

 

Judges Chapters 17 & 18

 

Continuing with the first six verses of Judges 17:

 

And his mother said, “Blessed be my son by the LORD.” He then returned the 1,100 pieces of silver to his mother, and his mother said, “I wholly consecrate the silver from my hand to the LORD for my son to make a carved image and a cast metal image…

 

Consider that Micah’s mother is blessing her son in the name of Yahweh (the LORD) and is also consecrating her silver to Yahweh so that her son can “make a carved image and a cast metal image.” Micah’s mother is talking “God talk” but she isn’t talking true God talk for she is not only worshipping idols, she is encouraging her family to worship idols – all in the name of the True and Living God. Do we see the confusion here?

 

Do we see that it is possible to use Biblical language, to use Christian language, and yet not worship the True and Living God, and yet not actually live in obedience to Jesus Christ?

 

 So when he returned the silver to his mother, his mother took two hundred pieces of silver and gave them to the silversmith, who made them into a carved image and a cast metal image, and they were in the house of Micah. And the man Micah had a shrine and he made an ephod and household idols, and consecrated one of his sons, so that he might become his priest.

 

It was common in the ancient world for households to have household gods. While families would worship and idolize the gods of their communities and nations, they would also have family gods, gods of their own households. Of course, this was not to be for the people of Israel, for they were to worship Yahweh and Yahweh alone, and they were forbidden to make images to worship, they were to have no other gods in the Presence of Yahweh. Therefore, a distinguishing feature of faithful Israelites was that there were no idols within their homes, while such idols were common in the homes of other peoples, they should not have been found within the homes of Israelites.

 

Yet, Micah and his mother not only saw no problem with making idols for their family, they made these idols in the name of Yahweh; then they took things a step further, Micah took one of his sons and made him a priest – Micah set up his own little idolatrous religion. While other households might have their family idols, Micah’s household would go them one better, it would have a family priest. Now we have a family in Israel not only making idols, in violation of the Law of God, but the family is now consecrating its own priesthood – this is in clear opposition to Yahweh’s decree that the family of Aaron was to serve as priests and that the broader family of Levi was to serve the Tabernacle. The actions of Micah and his mother were without regard to the Law of God and without regard to the people of Israel. How could this be?

 

It could be because, “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”

 

Is there a King in the Kingdom of God? If so, then what we do as individuals, as families, as congregations, as denominations or movements or ministries – ought to be done in obedience to the King and with reference to His Kingdom. If there is a King in the Kingdom, then our language ought to reflect that, our thinking ought to exhibit it, our relationships with other professing Christians ought to be under the authority of the King.

 

But are they? Or have we produced our own household idols? Have we carved our own denominational idols? Have our movements left their first love, Jesus Christ, and become movements of self-love? Are we making our own rules and priorities? Like ancient Israel, is everyone doing what is right in his or her own eyes? Micah and his mother were not accountable to anyone; what about us?

 

Are our denominations accountable to anyone or anything outside themselves? Our movements? Our ministries? Our “nondenominational” congregations? Are we using “God-talk” while all the time making idols for our households? Do we need to hear the voice of the Father on the Mount of Transfiguration saying, “This is My Beloved Son, hear Him!”?

 

O dear friends, we are to worship Jesus Christ, to hear Jesus Christ, to obey Jesus Christ. We are to beware of our propensity to make idols out of the good things that God gives us; whether those things are wonderful teachers, or deeper understandings, or blessed experiences. Micah and his mother lived in Canaan, the Promised Land – it was in the Promised Land that they made and worshipped idols. Let us not be so foolish as to think that the temptation toward idolatry was left behind in Egypt – it followed us in the Wilderness and it followed us into our inheritance, the Promised Land.

 

I have made my own idols, I have made my own rules, I have made my own priesthood. I have made things other than Jesus Christ the basis for my fellowship with other Christians. I have not sought accountability, I have not wept for the schisms in His Body, I have lived without reference to the universal Body of Christ. I have been prideful regarding doctrinal distinctives, experiences, movements, traditions, and associations with like-minded brothers and sisters.

 

In short, I have made idols.

 

What about you?

 

A Strange, And Not So Strange, Story (1)

 Judges Chapters 17 & 18

 

How about a journey through a pretty strange passage that reflects the pretty strange condition of the professing church? I am referring to Judges chapters 17 and 18, a description of much of the church and many of its pastors, congregations, and its popular “personalities.” I should hasten to add, that it also gives a pretty good description of seasons of my own life – I am sickened as I write that, but it is true and I might as well confess it and you might as well know it…maybe the confession will help someone.

 

Now there was a man of the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Micah. And he said to his mother, “The 1,100 pieces of silver that were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse and also spoke it in my hearing, behold, the silver is with me; I took it.” And his mother said, “Blessed be my son by the LORD.” He then returned the 1,100 pieces of silver to his mother, and his mother said, “I wholly consecrate the silver from my hand to the LORD for my son to make a carved image and a cast metal image; so now I will return them to you.” So when he returned the silver to his mother, his mother took two hundred pieces of silver and gave them to the silversmith, who made them into a carved image and a cast metal image, and they were in the house of Micah. And the man Micah had a shrine and he made an ephod and household idols, and consecrated one of his sons, so that he might become his priest. In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Judges 17:1 – 6.

 

Let me encourage you to read chapters 17 and 18 so you’ll have a context for this journey, even as we begin with these first six verses. What do you see in the above passage? What are the incongruities between this passage and the Ten Commandments? Between this passage and the faithful worship of Yahweh [the LORD]? Had you been a neighbor of this family, what would you have thought? What might you have said to Micah and his mother?

 

As we ponder these strange, yet not so strange, chapters in Judges, allow me to suggest that we focus on what we know and not on what we don’t know. The Bible tells us what we need to know and God doesn’t appear to be interested in satisfying our curiosity about things we don’t know. I am not sure why, but one of the challenges in facilitating many small groups is that people want to focus on what the Bible doesn’t tell us, as opposed to understanding and obeying what the Bible does tell us. Perhaps this deflects attention from our own lives and how we are to obediently respond to the Biblical text. We are quick to talk about others, about how others ought to behave and think and speak, but we are not keen to submit ourselves to the Word of God and allow the Holy Spirit to deal with the depths of our hearts and minds and souls. We would rather amuse ourselves in conjecture  than submit to the searching work of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God.

 

What we know is that Micah stole eleven hundred pieces of silver from his mother and that she didn’t know who the thief was. It’s a pretty good hunch that eleven hundred pieces of silver was a whole lot of money – these people weren’t poor. We also know that Micah’s mother uttered quite the curse regarding the person who took her money, and she wasn’t quiet about the curse either – she said it loud enough that Micah heard it and it must have frightened him.

 

In his fearful state Micah confesses to his mother that he is the thief, and she responds by saying, “Blessed be my son by Yahweh.” Let me point out that it wasn’t the Law of God that convicted Micah of his theft, but rather his mother’s curse that scared him into confessing his theft and returning the money. Now how is this a blessing from Yahweh? Conviction of sin would have been a blessing, conviction of sin leading to confession and restoration would have been a blessing, but I don’t see how being frightened by his mother’s curse was a blessing from Yahweh. Yes, God can use our fear of the consequences of our sin to drive us to repentance and confession, I’m just not sure that this is what we see here, and I think subsequent events confirm this…for what happened after the money was returned?

 

The mother says that she is going to “…wholly dedicate the silver from my hand to Yahweh for my son to make a graven image and a molten image…”

 

What is wrong with this picture? How does this thinking and behavior line up with the Ten Commandments? How in the world did this woman have such confused thinking and such misconception concerning the True and Living God and the Law that He gave to Moses?

 

This is what I ask myself about the professing church today. This is what I ask myself when I look back at my own life and see confusion and misconceptions regarding the holiness of God, the truth of Christ, the call to obedience to His Word. What idols have I made in the past? Are there idols in my life today? What idols have we, His People, set up in our corporate temple? Are we so foolish as to make idols in the name of Jesus Christ, just as Micah and his mother made idols in the name of Yahweh?

 

Keep in mind that Micah and his mother were convinced of the sincerity of their beliefs. Otherwise, why would they have invested themselves so readily and deeply in not only making the idols, but in setting up a system of worship in their family that would come to include the employment of a Levite to serve as priest?

 

This is a strange passage, but it is not so strange when we consider that it reflects the condition of the professing church, that it reflects a danger that we have faced down through the ages, and that it reflects an ever – present abyss into which the most sincere of us can fall into.

 

Now my idols may not look like your idols, just as my temptations may not be your temptations; but not only do we face the temptation to religious idolatry, we also face the temptation to make our idols a religious benchmark for others – in other words, we may find ourselves insisting that others destroy their idols only to adopt ours. Furthermore, let us not be deceived into thinking that we could never make what God once used in our lives for good into an idol, it happens all the time – consider how Israel did this very thing with respect to the bronze serpent (Numbers 21:6 – 9; 2 Kings 18:4).

 

Is it possible that we have idolized things, people, experiences in place of worshipping the True and Living God? Have we taken experiences or people or particular perspectives that God has used in our lives and made them idols in place of being wedded in purity to Jesus Christ? Are there images that we cultivate that are other than the image of our Lord Jesus Christ?

 

I need to ponder these questions.

 

What about you?