We need to beware of apostasy, which means to leave the way of God and to take another way to follow things other than God, and to do things for the self under the name of Jesus Christ and under the cloak of worshipping God.
When we as God’s people forsake God as our King, our Head, and our Husband, apostasy comes in.
The Lord, however, comes to us to serve us and bring us back to God in love.
We see this in the book of Judges and also in other portions in the Old and New Testament, that God comes to His people as the Angel of Jehovah to admonish them and bring them back to Himself in love.
God Himself is the Sender, and He sends Christ, the Son of God, to be the Angel of Jehovah to care for His people.
And He comes to us not in His majesty and glory but as a man, even as a servant.
When the Lord Jesus came to be incarnated, He did not come in a glorious way, being revealed in glory from the heavens. Neither did He live in a luxurious and glorious way outwardly.
He simply embodied God and was born to serve man. He even told us that He came not to be served but to serve, even to give His life as a ransom for many.
We are the many, the many sinners that disobeyed God, offended God, and forsook God; Christ came to serve us, and He served to the uttermost by laying down His life for us.
He laid down His soul-life for us, denying Himself and taking the Father’s will, even to the death of a cross, so that He may gain our affection, draw us to Himself, and make us children of God through faith in Christ.
He also laid down His human life, taking the will of the Father and obeying Him to the uttermost. How we love this One!
When we look at Him, we cannot but love Him and open to Him. And even today, He comes to us not to rebuke us or condemn us – He comes to us to shepherd us, care for us in love, and admonish us.
We all can testify that many times, the Lord meets us where we are at, and He just ministers life to us according to our need; He doesn’t criticize or condemn us but rather, He loves us, admonishes us, and does all kinds of things for us and in us to bring us back to God.
How we love the Lord Jesus, the One who came as the Servant of God to serve us, admonish us, and bring us back to Himself again and again!
We need to Beware of Apostasy and Remain on the Way of the Lord in the Church Life
Judges 17 and 18 reveal the apostasy of Israel in the worshipping of God. Apostasy means a deviation, a departure from the way.
What happened among the people of Israel is that, at a certain point, they forsook God and chose to take another way. They deviated from the central line.
They were the people of God, but they forsook the way of God and they left God Himself. We need to beware of apostasy, that is, beware of leaving the way of God to take another way to follow things other than God.
We need to beware of doing things for the self under the name of Jesus Christ and under the cloak of worshipping God (Acts 9:2; 18:26; 2 Pet. 2:2, 15, 21; Jude 11; Judg. 18:30-31).
Under God’s full salvation in His New Testament economy, God takes a way to dispense Himself into His chosen people, that is, in us as His believers.
There is also a particular way for us to partake of God’s salvation – it is through Christ’s redemption and through the Spirit’s anointing to partake of God, to enjoy God. God has set forth such a way.
Also, the New Testament shows us the way for the believers to worship God, giving us a clear way to build up the church as the Body of Christ to express God.
Saul of Tarsus knew that there was “the way”, for he went about to persecute those who were of “the Way”.
The Way is not a movement; a movement is something of man, organized by man, but the Bible reveals something called the Way, a pathway for us to live, for us to go on with the Lord as Christians and as the church.
The New Testament in particular mentions the Way at least seven times, giving a description of the Way.
First is the straight way in 2 Pet. 2:15; it is the straight way, not the crooked way.
Second, it is called the way of righteousness, see 2 Pet. 2:21; this way is of righteousness, being right with God and right with man.
Third, it is the way of peace, mentioned in Rom. 3:17. Fourth, this is the way of salvation, mentioned in Acts 16:17.
Fifth, this is the way of God, mentioned in Acts 18:26.
Sixth, this is the way of the Lord, mentioned in Acts 18:25.
Seventh, this is “the Way” mentioned in Acts 9:2.
In the church life in the Lord’s recovery, we take the Way; we are in the Way.
We are not in a movement but in the Way. We choose to take the straight way, the way of righteousness, the way of the Lord, the way of peace, the way of God, and the way of salvation.
As we walk on this way, the unique way, there’s a risk – a danger – that we would veer off, that we would deviate.
If we walk on a certain way and we veer off just a little bit, a few miles down the road our deviation will be quite great, and we may not even reach the destination.
As we live in the last part of this age, not too long before the Lord’s return, we need to beware of apostasy, beware of veering off the way.
How do we walk this way? The apostasy is still here, and we need to see this, realizing that apostasy is more prevailing, more prevalent, than ever before.
If we fall from God’s hand, we will easily find ourselves just veering off a little bit, and we will end up in apostasy. Oh, Lord!
If we look back at our history, both the history in Christianity and the history among us in the Lord’s recovery, some have veered off and went their own way, forsaking the Way.
We need to beware of apostasy. We shouldn’t be so naive to think that, by being in the church life in the Lord’s recovery, we are fine.
We shouldn’t think that, as long as we remain in the church life, for we were raised up here as children and we’re here now, everything will be alright. Oh, Lord!
The book of Judges paints a clear black background of the apostasy of God’s people, and we need to beware of apostasy. It is good to be before the Lord concerning this and tell Him,
Lord Jesus, we want to remain on the way – the straight way, the way of the Lord, and the way of righteousness! Keep us on the right path, the way of peace, the way of God. Save us from veering off even a little from the Way, Your way as revealed in the Holy Word of God. Keep us in the central lane of God’s New Testament economy. Keep us enjoying Your divine dispensing and being one with You so that we may live Christ for the building up of the church. Amen, Lord, we take Your way and we want to walk on this way, not forsaking the Way set forth before us in the Word of God. Save us from trusting in ourselves or in our own ability to preserve ourselves on the Way; keep us walking on the way of the Lord day by day for the building up of the Body of Christ!
Seeing the Mixture and Apostate Situation related to the Worship of God in Christianity today
In Judges 17 we see this person, Micah, who stole some money from his mother, and then returned this money back. The mother didn’t seem to rebuke him but just took this money and used it to make an idol, to do something for God.
She said that this is an offering to God, but actually, she did something in and by herself for the worship of God to make a sculptured idol.
Micah did this, and set up this molten image in his house, and also made an ephod (a piece of garment upon which there were the shoulder plates and breastplate) and a teraphim (images of false gods).
Then he consecrated one of his sons to be his priests; priests are to be ordained by God in a very specific way to serve God in God’s ordained place, but Micah set up his own priest in his own house – how convenient.
So the house of Micah became a house of gods, and he hired a Levite to be his priest.
This whole situation portrays the apostate situation related to the worship of God among Christians today.
All idols are a replacement to Christ. Only Christ and Christ alone we worship – besides Him we have no idols.
Satan tried to tempt Christ by bringing Him to the mountain and showed Him all the glories of the world, asking Him to worship him if He wants all these.
Anything of the world, anything of the things of this world is an idol in replacement to God; only God we worship.
But what we see with Micah here is an idol, a hired priest, and a worship place in his own house.
We see a clergy-laity system and apostasy, the leaving of the way of the Lord. Such a situation can be seen everywhere today.
What we see in Christianity today is the replacement of Christ, the usurpation of the authority of Christ, and the clergy-laity system replacing the functioning of all the members of the Body.
Judges 17-18 is not just a story that happened many years ago; it portrays the apostate situation related to the worship of God among Christians today – it is vividly played out before us.
And if we ourselves are not careful, even we who are in the Lord’s recovery, certain elements of this apostasy may still be in us.
Anything that we have to replace Christ, however good, positive, and spiritual they may be, is an idol.
Any kind of authority that we exercise besides the authority of Christ is like trying to utilize the ephod to exercise our own human authority to rule over, to control others, and to usurp God’s authority and suppress God’s people. Oh, Lord!
And there are many donors in Christianity today; we cannot say they do not love God – they love God, that’s why they give big sums of money. But their names are engraved on that church, to remind everyone who donated and who “loves God” so much.
This is such a mixture of loving God and apostasy and degradation. This is not the way that we know in following the Lord; this is not the way of righteousness, of salvation, the straight way.
We may apply the picture of Micah’s “house of gods” to the situation of Christianity.
For example, the Catholic Church is full of idols, and many denominational churches, though they may not have physical idols, they have crosses, the picture of Jesus, and things and practices they exalt above Christ.
There are grandiose buildings, megachurches, organizations, and grand cathedrals, with someone going on the stage to sing a beautiful song for all people to admire. Oh, Lord Jesus!
They are singing holy songs, spiritual songs, but the person idolized – not Christ being worshipped.
May we beware of apostasy, may we stay away from any mixture in the matter of worship, and may we remain on the way of the Lord, enjoying Him and worshipping Him in His way and according to ordination.
Lord Jesus, save us from having any replacement of Yourself in the church life. Save us from having any clergy-laity system. Save us from deviating from the central line of God’s economy. Save us from being degraded into an apostate situation or from seeking any glory for ourselves in what we are doing for You. Oh Lord Jesus, we worship only You. We do not want to allow anything else to become preeminent for us. May we beware of apostasy and remain on the way, the Lord’s way, the way of righteousness, the way ordained by God in the Bible!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. James Lee for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Judges (pp. 53-60), by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of Joshua, Judges, and Ruth (2021 summer training), week 6, The Intrinsic Significance of the Book of Judges and the Apostasy of Israel in the Worshipping of God.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Our faith to God-ward must in these days spread abroad / To show we’ve turned from idols to the living God. / We’ll mix His Word with faith by answering “Amen!” / And to Christ in the Word turn again and again. (Hymns #1305)
– Idols once they won thee, charmed thee, / Lovely things of time and sense; / Gilded thus does sin disarm thee, / Honeyed lest thou turn thee thence. / Captivated by His beauty, / Worthy tribute haste to bring; / Let His peerless worth constrain thee, / Crown Him now unrivaled King. (Hymns #437)
– One Body universal, / One in each place expressed; / Locality of dwelling / Her only ground possessed; / Administration local, / Each answ’ring to the Lord; / Communion universal, / Upheld in one accord. (Hymns #824)
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