"Going"

WHAT GOD HAS AUTHORIZED (PART 2)

Simon Says is a children's game in which all who play must do only whatever actions accompany the phrase, Simon Says. The person conducting the game tries hard to get players to do something that Simon did not authorize. For example, Simon says, "Take one step forward." Everybody takes a step forward. Simon says, "Take another step forward." All the players advance one more step. The leader then says thoughtfully, "No, take one step back." The few who do are out because Simon didn't say that. Although it is a children's game played for fun, it does illustrate the adult concept of authority. God authorizes what He wants in worship and in service, and those who love Him will do only what He specifies.

In the book on Bible geography, The Bible in 3D, B.J. Clarke elaborates on this principle when he describes the way Rahab was saved in Jericho. In order for her and her family to be saved, she was instructed to have all her relatives in her house and to have the scarlet cord in her window. Clarke writes:

There was only one house in the entire city where they were promised salvation and that was in Rahab's house, the house with the scarlet cord in the window (Josh. 2:18-21). One house was not as good as another and one color was not as good as another for the cord. The pathway to safety for Rahab and her household was to follow the pathway mapped out for them by God. Fortunately, they followed God's directions and made it safely through (592).

He points out the same thing about Naaman being cleansed of his leprosy. Abana and Pharpar, the cleaner rivers of Damascus, would not have worked because God specified the Jordan. What if Naaman determined that dipping three times ought to be sufficient? He would have retained his leprosy. The instructions that God gives, to be saved from an attack, to get rid of leprosy, or to worship correctly must be followed as given in order to be effective. Worship that is not in spirit will not impress God. Worship that is not according to truth angers Him, and He refuses to accept it. If we learn nothing else from Nadab and Abihu (who used unauthorized fire), it should be that principle.

This principle can be applied to every incident in the Bible. God told Noah to use "gopher wood" to make the ark. What if he decided another kind of wood floated better and used it? Or maybe some other trees were easier to cut. What if Noah had monkeyed around with the dimensions? Or decided to have only two stories? What if he had become haughty, and thought, "I'm all that God has; what's He going to do—destroy me, too?" How grateful we are that the text reads, "Thus Noah did; according to all that God commanded him, so he did" (Gen. 6:22).

Division

Generally speaking, most of us believe that unity is greatly more to be desired than division. But God Himself has been the author of division when it suited His purpose. At the Tower of Babel, He changed the one-world language into several—so that people could not communicate with each other. He also drove them to settle into different parts of the world. He either created the different races at that time, or they developed shortly thereafter. These three things (language, country, and race) form barriers to unity. God introduced these divisions into mankind because in their unity they defied His command to "fill the earth" (Gen. 9:1).

On a second occasion, God divided what would thenceforth be called Israel and Judah. He sent Ahijah the prophet to Jeroboam and told him, "Behold, I will tear away the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and will give ten tribes to you" (1 Kings 11:31). God provides the reason that He took this action:

they have forsaken Me, and worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the god of the people of Ammon, and have not walked in My ways to do what is right in My eyes, and keep My statutes and My judgments, as did his father David (1 Kings 11:33).

So the kingdom split after Solomon's death, in the days of his son, Rehoboam. Again, it was sin that caused the split. One more passage related to this subject is found in the New Testament. Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians, wrote: "For there must also be factions among you, that those who are approved may be recognized among you" (11:19). So, God can cause division; the one thing it does is enable people to see the truth more clearly.

Therefore, if division exists, we should ask ourselves, "Whose side are we on?" Are we on God's side—or the wrong side? Are we on the side of darkness, which causes the light to stand out even more? Those in error serve a useful function—but not one that is helpful to themselves.

Jeroboam

Some may look at what Jeroboam did after he became king and conclude that it is no big deal. One would think that introducing the golden calf would have sent a huge warning signal throughout the entire country. Why did people not rise up and challenge their new monarch by calling attention to the second commandment? Surely, they could not have forgotten the words: "You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath…" (Ex. 20:4).

God shows mercy to those who keep His commandments (Ex. 20:6)—not those who disobey by fashioning two golden calves (one set up in Dan and the other in Bethel). Why did no one remind Jeroboam what happened with the last golden calf—the one that Aaron made? Moses ground it up into powder and made them drink of it (Ex. 32:20). Those who persisted in the rebellion (about three thousand of them) were put to death (Ex. 32:28).

Certainly, Jeroboam should have known better than to violate an important precept of the law. Most people today would know this was wrong and take issue with what he did. But what about the other changes he introduced? The Israelites were supposed to travel to Jerusalem for worship; Jeroboam made Dan and Bethel the new centers. Some might wonder, "So what's the big deal? One city is as good as another." Does such an attitude respect God's authority?

These first two alterations are described in 1 Kings 12:26-29. Regardless of the way the people felt about it, verse 30a states God's viewpoint: "Now this thing became a sin…." In verse 31 the reader learns of a third departure from God's commands: Jeroboam "made priests from every class of people, who were not of the sons of Levi." "Well, where does it say members of other tribes could not be priests? No Scripture specifically states that." That attitude is the wrong perspective. The point is, "Where were men from any other tribe authorized to be priests?"

A parallel to this, in case anyone missed it, is for someone to ask, "Where does the New Testament say you can't use instruments of music in singing praises to God?" No such verse exists. But it too is the wrong question. One ought to ask, "Where does the New Testament authorize instruments to accompany the singing of praises to God?"

A fourth change that Jeroboam made was in having a feast day on the 15th day of the eighth month instead of the 15th day of the seventh month. "So what's the big deal? Seventh month? Eight month? It doesn't matter." No, it would not matter to many people, but it mattered to God. The Holy Spirit inspired the writer to show the contempt that Jeroboam—by this action—had for God. "So he made offerings…at Bethel…in the month he had devised in his own heart…" (1 Kings 12:33). We should always ask, "Are we worshipping the way God authorized—or the way someone else devised in his own heart—the way we may prefer?"

These four sins are repeatedly mentioned as the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which God never forgot (1 Kings 16:31; 2 Kings 3:3; 10:29; 13:2, 11; 14:24; 15:9, 18, 24, 28). For more than 200 years Israel walked in the sins that Jeroboam the son of Nebat introduced. Those sins did not become acceptable after 50 years, 100 years, or 200 years. The longevity of a sinful practice does not change error into truth. Just because one's great, great-grandparents partook of a sin does not somehow sanctify it.

Here is the upshot of the situation; anyone who thinks that God's authorization is not that important should read the following Scriptures very carefully:

And the Lord rejected all the descendants of Israel, afflicted them, and delivered them into the hands of plunderers, until He cast them from His sight. For He tore Israel from the house of David, and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king. Then Jeroboam drove Israel from following the Lord, and made them commit a great sin.

For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they did not depart from them, until the Lord removed Israel out of His sight, as He had said by all His servants the prophets. So Israel was carried away from their own land to Assyria, as it is to this day (2 Kings 17:20-23).

Just as God warned Israel through His prophets, preachers of the Word today continually warn against false worship, which includes various practices not authorized by God (such as the use of instrumental music in singing), but people frequently reject, disregard, or discount those warnings. They are, then, headed for spiritual destruction the way Israel faced physical punishment and captivity.

The Priests and Authorization

In connection with Jeroboam making priests of any tribe, as already pointed out, the selection of those from other tribes (not authorized) was a sin. God would not even make an exception for His own Son. Jesus, while upon the earth, could not be a priest. God had to change both the law and the priesthood before Jesus could be our High Priest. As long as the Law of Moses was in force, the Lord was not allowed to be a priest. Why? Because God had not authorized those from the tribe of Judah (from which Jesus descended) to serve as one. This is not a manmade argument; God made it.

"For it is evident that our Lord arose from Judah, of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priesthood" (Heb. 7:14). The text is explaining that God never authorized anyone from Judah to be a priest. Therefore even Jesus could not be one until the Law and its priesthood were changed. Under the Christian covenant, instrumental music is never authorized. It is as unauthorized as the strange fire of Nadab and Abihu.

Nor is this a New Testament principle. God simply repeated it there. The fact that it was a sin for Jeroboam to have unauthorized priests shows that God has always possessed this disposition towards authority. Only this is not a children's game like Simon Says; it is a life principle by which we must live—doing only those things that God authorizes. God knows what He wants. He is able to communicate what He wants. It is presumptuous of man to refuse to give what He requires or to substitute something we enjoy in its place. Are we offering Him what He desires, or what pleases us?