Monday 2 January 2017

Do We Provoke the Lord to Jealousy?

When Eli's sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were contaminating the tabernacle and robbing God's people of their vision and hope, Eli should have known better. He did know better. Though he voiced his disapproval, the high priest's failure to zealously take action against his rebellious sons was to dishonour Yahweh and His precious heritage.
Why then do you scorn My sacrifices and My offerings that I commanded for My dwelling, and honour your sons above Me...? 1 Sam 2:29
What a travesty. Young, unrestrained, professional priests using the tabernacle and the people of God for material gain and self-gratification. They badly misrepresented the Lord of hosts and showed great contempt for His people. So great was the sin of Eli's sons that people lost faith and abhorred the offering of the Lord.
Wherefore the sin of the young men was very great before the LORD: for men abhorred the offering of the LORD. 1 Sam 2:17
The fear of God had long been abandoned by Hophni and Phinehas and their father was far too heavy and blind to gird himself in Yahweh's defence (1 Sam 4:15,18). Under Eli's watch, and at the mercy of his unspiritual sons, God's people became naked and exposed to their enemies as surely as they had hundreds of years earlier under Aaron's watch at Mt. Sinai. (Ex 32:25)


Judgement came swiftly on the Eli administration. No talisman-like employment of the ark of the covenant or superstitious appeal to the presence of God could save them from their enemies. In one day, thirty thousand Israelite footsoldiers fell before the Philistines and Hophni and Phinehas were slain in battle. Before the sun had set, the ark of the LORD had been captured and Eli's neck was broken. In the midst of the turmoil, Eli's daughter-in-law went into childbirth and died while delivering a son. Her final words were, “The glory has departed from Israel.” Eli and his sons had corrupted the true worship of Yahweh and, in one appointed day, all the chickens came home to roost.
And she called the boy Ichabod, saying, “The glory has departed from Israel,” because the ark of God was taken and because of her father-in-law and her husband. 1 Sam 4:21
As harsh as it was, the judgement on Eli and his sons, and the ensuing upheaval, made way for the deliverance of a grieving remnant of faithful Israelites. God had his man in waiting. At the appointed time, Samuel was brought out of the quiver and sent forth to restore dignity and vision to God's people.

Truly, in our day, there is a contaminating of the church of God and a grand theft of vision and hope taking place. Like Hophni and Phinehas, there is a new generation of leadership in many churches that do not know the fear of the Lord. Their mentors and fathers, like Eli of old, are too heavy and dim of sight to exercise discernment and bring correction. As in the days of Eli, the word of the Lord is rare (1 Sam 3:1). As in the days of Ezekiel, the waters are being muddied and the pastures trodden down (Ezek 34:17-19). Again, the sin of the young men is very great.

At no time is the contamination more clearly visible than during the month of December. At this time, Christmas (or Christ's Mass) – the high point on the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar – is embosomed by churches everywhere. Every year, church leaders in the Protestant, evangelical tradition prepare a Christmas table for the people – a polluted smorgasbord of paganism and Catholicism that would have been eschewed by the apostolic leadership of the early church. Our fathers should know better. They do know better. 

Church carols event 2016

Without any apostolic mandate and, in complete submission to the world's passions and desires, church leaders shamefully invite the sham Santa Claus and his elves into our gatherings. In blatant idolatry and paganism, decorated evergreens are erected in otherwise godly homes and church buildings. Songs of truth about our Lord Jesus Christ are mixed with songs about fabled drummer boys and the like and are carolled for the world's entertainment. December is the time when church leaders serve up a toxic brew of winter solstice paganism and Catholic tradition to sensually primed congregations. The new generation of church leaders value large congregations and they'll readily serve up confusion and mystery Babylon religion if it means pleasing the crowds.

The rot has to stop. It is abhorrent. The fathers should move quickly from voicing private disapproval to acting decisively, if they care about the chastity of the Bride they were entrusted with. If the fathers are too heavy and dim of sight to act, they will be removed to make way for a Samuel generation of leadership who know the Lord and whose words do not fall to the ground.
And Samuel grew, and the LORD was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground. 1 Sam 3:19
It's abhorrent what is happening in church meetings at this time of year. December does not belong to Santa or Satan or Christ's Mass. Not as far as the living, organic church is concerned. December is the Lord's, along with every month of the year. We do not follow pagan seasons or Roman Catholic liturgical calendars. In the words of Watchman Nee, Christmas is an unclean bird that “flew from the Roman Catholic Church into the Protestant Church” [1]. We are above days, and months, and seasons, and years (Gal 4:10) or at least we should be after 2000 years of church history. We must follow the Holy Spirit over the sensual desires of carnal congregations. The rot must stop. In the midst of our 'sanctified' Christmas revelry, we are naked and exposed to our enemies and our leaders glory in our shame.

Church service 2016

It's high time we repented of our Christmas participation. Every year things degenerate further in churches. Christmas really has become an annual celebration of how worldly and compromised and contemporary we are – of how cool we are. It's abhorrent to the lowly disciple of Christ. The church has more to offer the world than an annual, polluted Christmas carols event. Our leaders need to repent. When judgement and upheaval come, no amount of shameful misuse of the anointing or 'entertain me' style of worship will deliver us. Only repentance can turn this around. Hophni and Phinehas marched brazenly to their own destruction and so will all who refuse to heed the prophetic call to repentance.

Another church service 2016

When we see the exchanging of gifts and Christmas trees and Santa and his entourage and we hear tepid carols – and it's all mixed together with the story of Jesus' birth – we are witnessing Jezebel-type religion. Likewise, when we see Easter eggs and rabbits all mixed in with the Gospel account of Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection, it's Jezebel-type religion. It's Babylon. The church does not need, nor should we be held ransom to, Christmas or Good Friday or Easter Sunday – Catholic/pagan high days that they are. We have, in the book of Acts, a living demonstration of the church's path to growth and her means of accessing grace. “They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching, and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer” (Acts 2:42). The Word, fellowship in the Gospel, the Lord's Supper, prayer – these are our means of grace.


We abhor 'special' days  contaminated with paganism – foisted on us to 'help' us worship. We cannot honour the Lord while we observe these days. We have no apostolic mandate or Scriptural authority to do so. To honour these days, is to dishonour God. Let us repent for our idolatry and Jezebel-type adultery with the world. Let us return to the pure streams of Christianity and the power in simple church. May God help us.
But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and the table of devils. Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He? 1 Cor 10:20-22
The baby in the manger – Jesus Christ our Lord – grew up and cleansed His Father's house. He made for Himself a whip out of cords and overturned tables in the temple courts. Why? His Father's house had become a den of thieves – true worship had been polluted by money interests and opportunists. The place that should have been a house of prayer for those close and those afar off, had been trampled underfoot by a generation of leaders not unlike Hophni and Phinehas. As it was in Eli's day, again the lowly followers of Yahweh were bullied out of His house to make way for avarice and all the trappings of dead religion.


And they came to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves; and He would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple. And He taught, saying unto them, “Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? But ye have made it a den of thieves.” Mark 11:15-17
The oppressed and hurting in this world do not need Jezebel-type idolatry and religion. They need Elijah's repentance preaching and his healing balm. They need pure waters and Gospel power. Sovereign Lord, let us walk again in the devil-routing power of Jesus Christ. Let us settle for nothing less. Give us the courage to overturn tables that You have not prepared. God, help us.
Thus says the LORD of hosts, “I am exceedingly jealous for Zion, yes, with great wrath I am jealous for her.” Zech 8:2
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References:

[1] Nee, Watchman (1978) The King and The Kingdom of Heaven. Christian Fellowship Publishers: Virginia. pg.170

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