apostasy

Idol worship

During the Israelites 400 years of slavery in Egypt, they became immersed in a culture of idol worship. It wasn’t long after God had delivered them that the people of Israel’s tendency to worship material objects became evident. It says in Exodus 32:1-4, “When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, ‘Up make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ So Aaron said to them, ‘Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.’ So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’” Aaron offered the people idolatry as an alternative to worshipping the true God who had spoken to them on Mount Sinai. Exodus 19-20 tells us that God came down on Mount Sinai and spoke the words of the Ten Commandments directly to his chosen people. Exodus 20:1-6 states:

And God spoke all these words, saying,

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

You shall have no other gods before me.

You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.”

When Moses came down from the mountain and saw the calf and the dancing, he threw the tablets on which God had written the Ten Commandments “out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. He took the calf that they had made and burned it with fire and ground it to powder and scattered it on the water and made the people of Israel drink it” (Exodus 32:19-20). “Moses had just been given the law by God (Exodus 32:15, 16), and it strictly forbade the worship of false gods. Even though the Israelites had promised earlier, ‘All the words that the LORD has spoken we will do’ (Exodus 24:3), they had forsaken him while Moses was on the mountain with God” (note on Exodus 32:26, 27).

The Israelites were instructed to take possession of the land that God had given them and to clear away the nations that were living there. Moses said, “When the LORD your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them. You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, for they would turn away your sons from following me, to server other gods” (Deuteronomy 7:2-4). Moses told the people of Israel not to pity the inhabitants of the land that they were going in to take possession of because, “that would be a snare to you” (Deuteronomy 7:16). The Hebrew word that is translated snare, moqesh (mo-kasheˊ) means “a noose…a snare, a trap, bait. The proper understanding of this Hebrew word is the lure of bait placed in a hunter’s trap. From this sense comes the primary use of the term to mean the snare itself. It is used to signify a trap by which birds or beasts are captured (Amos 3:5); a moral pitfall (Proverbs 18:7; 20:25); and anything that lures one to ruin and disaster (Judges 2:3; Proverbs 29:6)” (H4170).

The angel of the LORD reinforced Moses’ message to the people of Israel after they had failed to complete the conquest of the land of Canaan. Judges 2:1-3 states:

Now the angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, “I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land that I swore to give to your fathers. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you, and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall break down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed my voice. What is this you have done? So now I say, I will not drive them out before you, but they shall become thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you.”

Israel’s unfaithfulness was primarily attributed to a lack of personal experience with the wars that were fought in the early years of Israel’s entrance into the Promised Land (Judges 3:1). It says in Judges 2:10-13, there arose another generation after Joshua’s death, “who did not know the LORD or the work he had done for Israel. And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals. And they abandoned the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods, for among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed down to them. And they provoked the LORD to anger. They abandoned the LORD and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth.”

“Canaanite deities, such as the Baals and the Ashtoreths, remained a problem for Judah until the Babylonian exile. Other Canaanite deities included the Asherahs (Judges 3:7) and Dagon (Judges 16:23). It took seventy years of captivity to finally cure the Israelites of their idolatrous ways. Recent archeological discoveries have clarified some facts about the region of Canaan in the days of the judges. Baal and Ashtoreth were the names of two individual gods in a much larger and complicated system of polytheism, but they were also community gods whose names differed from region to region. For instance, there was the Baal called Baal of Peor (Numbers 25:3), Baal-Berith (Judges 8:33), and Baal-Zebub (2 Kings 1:2). It is for this reason that Scripture describes the Israelites as serving ‘Baal’ in some instances and ‘Baals’ in others. Overall, the religion of the Canaanites was extremely corrupt. It was characterized by the practices of human sacrifice, ritual prostitution and homosexuality, and self-mutilation. These religions taught that these practices were prevalent among their gods, so it is not surprising that the people became equally debased. Many false gods were particularly connected with agriculture (the seasons, weather, and grain) and some of God’s judgments against these people would ultimately discredit the supposed abilities of these Canaanite ‘gods’ (1 Kings 18:18-40; Hosea 2:8-13; Amos 4:4-12)” (note on Judges 2:13).

After Gideon’s supernatural victory over the Midianites, it says in Judges 8:22, “the men of Israel said to Gideon, ‘Rule over us, you and your son and your grandson also, for you have saved us from the hand of Midian.’ Gideon said to them, ‘I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you; the LORD will rule over you.’” Gideon’s refusal to take God’s place in the lives of the Israelites was commendable, but he made the mistake of taking a portion of the spoil from the war that he had fought and made an ephod which was put in his hometown of Ophrah (Judges 8:24-27). “The ephod mentioned here may have varied from the priestly ephod (Exodus 28:6-30) or may have been a mere copy of Aaron’s ephod, It came to be a form of idolatry because the object itself was worshiped rather than God” (note on Judges 8:27). It says in Judges 8:27, “All Israel whored after it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and to his family.”

Gideon’s direct assault to the altar of Baal that his father had erected may have caused him to become a target of spiritual warfare. It says of the incident in Judges 6:28-32:

When the men of the town rose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was broken down, and the Asherah beside it was cut down, and the second bull was offered on the altar that had been built. And they said to one another, “Who has done this thing?” And after they had searched and inquired, they said, “Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing.” Then the men of the town said to Joash, “Bring out your son, that he may die, for he has broken down the altar of Baal and cut down the Asherah beside it. ”But Joash said to all who stood against him, “Will you contend for Baal? Or will you save him? Whoever contends for him shall be put to death by morning. If he is a god, let him contend for himself, because his altar has been broken down.” Therefore on that day Gideonwas called Jerubbaal, that is to say, “Let Baal contend against him,” because he broke down his altar.

Joash’s conclusion that Baal would contend against Gideon because he had broken down his alter was true in the sense that there is a real spiritual force that contends against God’s followers. The Apostle Paul said in his letter to the Ephesians, “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). The name that Gideon was called, Jerubbaal was said to mean, “Let Baal contend against him” (Judges 6:32) suggesting that Gideon became a target of the spiritual forces that were behind Baal worship.

Gideon’s construction of an ephod (Judges 8:27) may have opened him up to satanic influence. It states in Judges 8:29, “Jerubbaal the son of Joash went and lived in his own house.” The use of the name Jerubbaal might indicate that Gideon was acting according to the epithet that was associated with him. The passage goes on to say, “Now Gideon had seventy sons, his own offspring, for he had many wives. And his concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son, and he called his name Abimelech” (Judges 8:30-31). A concubine was the illicit partner of a married person and therefore, Abimelech was not considered to be one of Gideon’s own offspring. Judges 9:1-2 states:

Now Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem to his mother’s relatives and said to them and to the whole clan of his mother’s family, “Say in the ears of all the leaders of Shechem, ‘Which is better for you, that all seventy of the sons of Jerubbaal rule over you, or that one rule over you?’ Remember also that I am your bone and your flesh.”

Abimelech was identified as the son of Jerubbaal even though he was Gideon’s illegitimate child. Abimelech’s question, “Which is better for you, that all seventy of the sons of Jerubbaal rule over you or that one rule over you?” (Judges 9:2) points out the fact that he was not among “all the seventy sons of Jerubbaal,” but was identified with his mother’s relatives. Abimelech said to them, “I am your bone and your flesh.”

The Hebrew name that is translated Abimelech, Abiymelek (ab-ee-melˊ-ek) is derived from the words ab (awb) which means “father” (H40) and melek (mehˊ-lek) which means “a king” (H4428). “The word melek appears 2,500 times in the Old Testament. In many biblical contexts, this term is simply a general term, denoting an individual with power and authority…In pagan worship, the worshippers of idols attribute this term with it connotations to their idols (Isaiah 8:21; Amos 5:26). Abimelech’s suggestion that there should be only one ruler over the people of Israel implies that he was willing to take God’s place as the spiritual leader of the Israelites and viewed himself as a type of deity. This mindset is indicative of antichrist and is aligned with Satan’s objective of overturning the establishment of God’s kingdom on earth. It says in Judges 9:3-6:

And his mother’s relatives spoke all these words on his behalf in the ears of all the leaders of Shechem, and their hearts inclined to follow Abimelech, for they said, “He is our brother.” And they gave him seventy pieces of silver out of the house of Baal-berith with which Abimelech hired worthless and reckless fellows, who followed him. And he went to his father’s house at Ophrah and killed his brothers the sons of Jerubbaal, seventy men, on one stone. But Jotham the youngest son of Jerubbaal was left, for he hid himself. And all the leaders of Shechem came together, and all Beth-millo, and they went and made Abimelech king, by the oak of the pillar at Shechem.

“The house of Baal-berith” (Judges 9:4) refers to an idol temple. “An obvious contrast is made between Baal-Berith, which means ‘lord of the covenant,’ and the true God, with whom the Israelites had made their covenant. The Israelites were essentially exchanging one covenant for another. This apostasy was centered in Shechem, and Gideon opened the way for it by making the gold ephod” (note on Judges 8:33, 34).

Jotham, Gideon’s youngest son, escaped the slaughter of all Gideon’s male descendants. When he was told what had happened, Jotham went to a Mount Gerizim to confront the leaders of Shechem. Mount Gerizim was the designated location for Israel to receive God’s blessing after they entered the Promised Land. After the Israelites defeated Ai, Joshua renewed the Israelites’ covenant with God. Moses had commanded the people of Israel to erect “an altar of uncut stones, upon which no man had wielded an iron tool” and offer burnt offerings to the LORD (Joshua 8:31). Joshua 8:32-34 states, “And there, in the presence of the people of Israel, he wrote on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written. And all Israel, sojourner as well as native born, with their elders and officers and their judges, stood on opposite sides of the ark before the Levitical priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD, half of them in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, just as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded at first, to bless the people of Israel. And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse according to all that is written in the Book of the Law.” The reading of the blessing and the curse was meant to remind the Israelites of the choice they had made to keep the Ten Commandments and to love the LORD their God with all their hearts and with all their souls and with all their might (Deuteronomy 6:5). The mountains where the reading took place, Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, were symbolic of the two choices that Moses offered the Israelites at the close of his ministry. Moses said:

“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.” (Deuteronomy 30:15-20)

Moses encouraged the people to choose life, but realized that not everyone wanted to obey God’s commandments. Mount Gerizim represented the blessing that would result from obedience and Mount Ebal the curse that was associated with idolatry. When Jotham confronted the leaders of Shechem from the top of Mount Gerizim, he told them a parable that was later revealed to be a curse (Judges 9:57). Jotham may have done this intentionally to confuse his listeners or he may have wanted to remind the people that they still had the option to choose life.

Jotham’s parable (Judges 9:7-15) “is one of the few parables in the Old Testament” (note on Judges 9:7-15). Jesus frequently spoke in parables and when he was asked why he did it, Jesus told his disciples:

“To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says:

“‘“You will indeed hear but never understand,
    and you will indeed see but never perceive.”
For this people’s heart has grown dull,
    and with their ears they can barely hear,
    and their eyes they have closed,
lest they should see with their eyes
    and hear with their ears
and understand with their heart
    and turn, and I would heal them.’

But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. (Matthew 13:11-17)

Jesus referred to the things that he was sharing with his disciples about God’s kingdom as secrets and said that many prophets and righteous people were not given access to the same information. The Greek word that is translated secrets, musterion (moos-tayˊ-ree-on) is where the word mystery comes from. From a biblical standpoint, a mystery is “something into which one must be initiated or instructed before it can be known; something of itself not obvious and above human insight.” Musterion is used “specifically, of the gospel, the Christian dispensation, as having been long hidden and first revealed in later times (Romans 16:25; 1 Corinthians 2:7; Ephesians 3:3, 4, 9; Colossians 2:2; 4:3; 1 Timothy 3:9)” (G3466).

Jotham’s parable was a type of gospel message in that it gave the people of Shechem an opportunity to repent and change the course of their actions, but it was delivered to the people as a pronouncement of judgment because the leaders of Shechem had already made Abimelech king (Judges 9:6). Jotham said, “If you have acted in good faith and integrity when you made Abimelech king…then rejoice in Abimelech, and let him also rejoice in you. But if not, let fire come out of Abimelech and devour the leaders of Shechem and Beth-millo” (Judges 9:16-20). God dealt with the apostasy that was centered in Shechem by letting Abimelech become the source of his own family’s demise (Judges 9:46-49). It says in Judges 9:55, “And when the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, everyone departed to his home.” The anticlimactic ending of Abimelech’s life not only showed that the false god Baal-berith was unable to protect his followers, but also that God would indeed execute the curses on his people that were promised for idol worship. Judges 9:56-57 states, “Thus God returned the evil of Abimelech which he committed against his father in killing his seventy brothers. And God also made all the evil of the men of Shechem return on their heads and upon them came the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal.”

Led astray

Moses’ summarization of the law in the book of Deuteronomy was focused on a key commandment that was intended to guide the Israelites into a successful relationship with God. What Jesus referred to as the greatest commandment is recorded in Deuteronomy 6:4-5, which states, “Hear O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” In order to love the LORD and obey his commandments, Moses pointed out that the people needed to deal with the hardened condition of their hearts. Moses said, “And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD which I am commanding you today for your good?…Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart and be no longer stubborn” (Deuteronomy 10:12-16). The Israelites had quickly established a pattern of turning away from the LORD because of a rebellious heart (Deuteronomy 9:12) and were susceptible to being led astray by the people that occupied the land that God intended to give them (Numbers 25:1-5), so Moses commanded them to circumcise their hearts, which meant they needed to open themselves up to God’s spiritual influence and pay attention to the things they were doing that were not consistent with the Ten Commandments.

Moses warned the people of Israel about following the example of the nations around them. He said:

“When the Lord your God cuts off before you the nations whom you go in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, take care that you be not ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods?—that I also may do the same.’ You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way, for every abominable thing that the Lord hates they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.” (Deuteronomy 12:29-31)

Moses indicated that following the religious practices of other nations was a trap that the Israelites needed to be careful to avoid. The Hebrew word that is translated ensnared, yaqosh (yaw-koshˊ) “always refers figuratively to the catching of a person in an undesirable situation” (H3369). Moses’ statement, “they even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods” (Deuteronomy 12:31) was intended to point out that idolatry was a dangerous path to follow because of its association with the depravity of the human heart.

Moses went on to identify three scenarios that were associated with the people being led astray. The first scenario involved the LORD testing of the Israelites’ faith. Moses said:

“If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him.” (Deuteronomy 13:1-4)

Testing does not always suggest tempting or enticing someone to sin. The Hebrew word nasah (naw-sawˊ) also means “to try, to prove” (H5254). The purpose of a spiritual test could be to strengthen one’s faith. In the situation where a prophet was able to perform a sign that indicated he had been sent by God, but told the people to serve other gods, the message was to be disregarded because the first of God’s Ten Commandments stated “You shall have no other gods before me” (Deuteronomy 5:7). The Ten Commandments were authoritative and set a precedence for everything else that was in the Mosaic Law. Moses said, “But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has taught rebellion against the LORD your god who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of slavery, to make you leave the way in which the LORD your God commanded you to walk” (Deuteronomy 13:5-5).

Leaving the way was a habit that the Israelites established early in their relationship with the LORD. Moses reminded the people before they entered the Promised Land that they didn’t deserve God’s blessing. Moses said, “Know therefore, that the LORD your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stubborn people. Remember and do not forget how you provoked the LORD your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the LORD” (Deuteronomy 9:6-7). The Hebrew word that is translated rebellion in Deuteronomy 13:5, sarah (saw-rawˊ) means “apostasy” (H5627). In simple terms, apostasy is a false teaching that is intended to undermine one’s faith in God. The result is a lack of confidence in God’s word and a tendency to look for the answers to life’s problems in other places. The phrase leave the way comes from two Hebrew words, nadach (naw-kakhˊ) derek (dehˊ-rek) that together convey the root cause of most sin, getting off on the wrong track. Among the laws for sin offerings that were identified in Leviticus 4 were sins that were committed unintentionally (Leviticus 4:2). An unintentional sin was one that was considered to be a mistake or one that was committed through ignorance of God’s laws (H7684). The Hebrew word that is translated sins unintentionally in Leviticus 4:13, shagah (shaw-gawˊ) means “to stray” (H7686).

The Hebrew word shagah appears three times in Proverbs 5 which focuses on the sin of adultery. Proverbs 5:1-6 states:

My son, be attentive to my wisdom;
    incline your ear to my understanding,
that you may keep discretion,
    and your lips may guard knowledge.
For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey,
    and her speech is smoother than oil,
but in the end she is bitter as wormwood,
    sharp as a two-edged sword.
Her feet go down to death;
    her steps follow the path to Sheol;
she does not ponder the path of life;
    her ways wander, and she does not know it.

The adulteress or forbidden woman as she is referred to in Proverbs 5:3 does not know what she is doing and is therefore a danger to those around her. Proverbs 5:5 states, “Her feet go down to death; her steps follow the path to Sheol.” The son is warned to stay far away from her (Proverbs 5:8) and to “rejoice in the wife of your youth” (Proverbs 5:18). In this particular instance, shagah is translated twice as intoxicated and at the end of the proverb as led astray. Speaking to the son about the wife of his youth, the proverb states:

Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight;
    be intoxicated always in her love.
Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden woman
    and embrace the bosom of an adulteress?
For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the Lord,
    and he ponders all his paths.
The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him,
    and he is held fast in the cords of his sin.
He dies for lack of discipline,
    and because of his great folly he is led astray. (Proverbs 5:19-23)

The illustration of being intoxicated with love makes it clear that being led astray is associated with having an emotional response to a pleasurable situation. It could also have something to do with being open to the influence of another person.

The second scenario that Moses presented to the Israelites about being led astray had to do with people that were close to them, members of their own households. Moses said:

“If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or your daughter or the wife you embrace or your friend who is as your own soul entices you secretly, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which neither you nor your fathers have known, some of the gods of the peoples who are around you, whether near you or far off from you, from the one end of the earth to the other, you shall not yield to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him, nor shall you conceal him. But you shall kill him. Your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. You shall stone him to death with stones, because he sought to draw you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” (Deuteronomy 13:6-10)

The extreme response of stoning to death a member of your own family shows that the influence of a person that is close to you can be a significant threat to your spiritual well-being. If a loved one tries to turn you away from the LORD, it seems likely that he or she will succeed.

The final scenario that Moses talked about had to do with the corruption of an entire city. Moses said:

“If you hear in one of your cities, which the Lord your God is giving you to dwell there, that certain worthless fellows have gone out among you and have drawn away the inhabitants of their city, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which you have not known, then you shall inquire and make search and ask diligently. And behold, if it be true and certain that such an abomination has been done among you, you shall surely put the inhabitants of that city to the sword, devoting it to destruction, all who are in it and its cattle, with the edge of the sword.” (Deuteronomy 13:12-15)

Devoting a city to destruction was an indicator of the severe judgment of God. It was important that the Israelites keep themselves separated from things that were devoted to destruction (Deuteronomy 13:17) because they were considered to be a deadly threat to the formation of God’s people. (H2764).

Moses referred to the Israelites as “the sons of the LORD your God” (Deuteronomy 14:1) and said, “For you are a people holy to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth” (Deuteronomy 14:2). The Hebrew word that is translated sons is ben (bane) which generally refers to a son as “the direct male offspring of human parents,” but ben is also a relational term that can express an adopted child (H1121). The Israelites’ special role as the chosen people of God was intended to be a testimony to rest of the world of not only God’s existence, but also his involvement in the affairs of men. The Israelites’ obedience and loyalty to the LORD their God was a critical pieces of God’s plan of salvation. By the time Jesus was born, the Israelites’ sacrificial system had been perfected, but the people seemed to be completely ignorant of what their religious practices actually meant.

Jesus continually criticized the religious leaders of his day for leading people astray. On one occasion, Jesus pronounced seven woes on the scribes and Pharisees because they were abusing their power. Jesus said, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger” (Matthew 23:2-4). The sharp contrast between the Pharisees’ teaching and their day-to-day activities showed that they were faking their devotion to God. Jesus said to them:

“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.” (Matthew 23:13-15)

The phrase child of hell was likely intended to convey the distinction between a person that had a relationship with God and a person that did not have a relationship with God. The people of Israel thought that being a descendant of Abraham guaranteed them access into the kingdom of heaven, but Jesus pointed out that a relationship with God was required. Jesus told the Jews:

^“I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.” They answered him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works Abraham did, but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. You are doing the works your father did.” They said to him, “We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father—even God.” Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.” (John 8:37-47)

Jesus’ warning to the Pharisees was followed by a sermon that focused on a period of time that he referred to as the end of the age. Matthew’s gospel tells us:

As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” And Jesus answered them, “See that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. (Matthew 24:3-14)

Jesus indicated that one of the signs of the end of the age was that his followers would be led astray, just as the Israelites were.

The Book of Hebrews contains warnings against apostasy and advice for believers that want to keep themselves from being led astray. It states:

About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits. For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. (Hebrews 5:11-6:6)

According to Paul, the safest way for believers to keep themselves from being led astray is to have your “powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil” (Hebrews 5:14). The phrase powers of discernment refers to spiritual perception and suggests that the only way we are able to distinguish good from evil is by training our minds to do so on a regular basis. In order to do that, Paul said that we must “leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity” (Hebrews 6:1). The Greek word that is translated go on, phero (ferˊ-o) signifies being impelled by the Holy Spirit’s power, not acting according to our own wills, or simply expressing our own thoughts, “but expressing the mind of God in words provided and ministered by Him” (G5342). Jesus explained the Greek word phero in the context of bearing spiritual fruit and said in his parable of the sower, “other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding (phero) thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold” (Mark 4:8). Jesus later revealed to his disciples the secret of yielding spiritual fruit; when you hear the word of God, you must accept it as the truth (Mark 4:20).

A stumbling block

A major concern Paul addressed in his first letter to the Corinthians was the influence mature Christians had over those who were relatively new in their faith. The problem Paul pointed out was that those who knew better than to engage in certain activities weren’t setting a good example for others. Referring back to his analogy of laying a foundation for others to build on, Paul stated, “Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge, knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth” (1 Corinthians 8:1). The Greek word translated edifieth, oikodomeo (oy-kod-om-eh’-o) means “to be a house builder that is construct or (figuratively) confirm” (G3618). What Paul was saying was that understanding the things of God should cause us to want to help others to grow in their faith, not hinder them from spiritual growth.

Paul went on to explain that a person’s conscience could be built up or torn down by the behavior of others. He stated:

As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one…Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge: for some with conscience of the idol unto this hour, eat it as a thing offered unto an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled…For if any man see thee which has knowledge sit at meat in the idol’s temple, shall not the conscience of him which is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to idols; and through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? (1 Corinthians 8:4,7,10-11)

Paul’s argument against believers eating food that was sacrificed to idols was that it could make a Christian that was addicted to idolatry think it was okay to continue with his immoral behavior. Even though it might not have been sinful for a Christian to practice idolatry, the demonic beings associated with idol worship were very real and dangerous spiritual forces that could possess and/or ruin an individual’s life. Paul was concerned for the well being of all of the Corinthian believers and didn’t want anyone to suffer as a result of a believer’s careless use of his liberty or freedom in Christ to pursue pleasure (G1658).

Paul warned the Corinthians, “take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to them that are weak” (1 Corinthians 8:9). The Greek word translated stumbling block, proskomma means “a stub that is (figuratively) occasion of apostasy” (G4348). Apostasy in Christianity is the rejection of Christianity by someone who formerly was a Christian. One of the reasons I believe Christians renounce their faith is because of the hypocrisy they see in the church. They get turned off by people that call themselves Christians and yet they do not live the kind of life that Jesus taught his followers to live. Paul’s comment, “Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth” (1 Corinthians 8:1) was probably meant to point out that charity or the attitude of God toward His Son, the human race, and to believers on the Lord Jesus Christ (G26) should be evident in our behavior toward other believers. “Self-will, that is self-pleasing, is the negation of love to God.”