APOSTASY - ITS BEGINNING
APOSTASY — ITS BEGINNING
Man is an object of blessing, and God is the source of it; but if the blessing becomes man’s object, then God, the source of it, is overlooked, and that through His own gift. Satan insisted in Job 1: 9 that God’s gifts were Job’s object, and not God himself, from whom they came. This tendency in man is characteristic [p. 204] of the fall. It was by proposing a benefit that Satan ensnared Eve. The gain was made the prominent thing before the mind, and in order to secure it, God was overlooked, and sin entered. If in an innocent happy state this snare was so successful, how much more likely is it in our present fallen state, that the blessing should occupy the heart more than the source of it — that there should be an eager grasping at the blessing because of the benefit it confers, and engrossment with it. To divert the heart from God is the very thing Satan aims at, and the moment the heart is directed to that side, then there is a beginning of that slipping away of the soul from God which is in principle apostasy. It is of great moment to discover the root and cause of our declension from God. The natural man looks only for gain, and it will be found that the first step downwards is when one considers for oneself, and not for God. God is left out, and man is an object to himself; and the blessing is appropriated as conducing to this. Noah fails by indulging himself with the blessings conferred on him; he forgets God in his self-indulgence; Genesis 9: 21. Abraham, though in the path of faith and in a true position, is led away by his natural feelings, and overlooks the promise of God, and what is due to His glory, when he says, “O that Ishmael might live before thee!” The father of the faithful considers for himself, but when Isaac is weaned he is required to cast out the bondwoman and her son; the rival can no longer be tolerated; Genesis 21.
Now the thing for us to discover is, where does the falling away begin? It begins where we are in any way an object to ourselves; for when this is the case, God is not before us. The greatest blessings can be received, and yet the evil may have begun in the midst of them if we make ourselves an object with respect to them; and it has been where the greatest blessings have been conferred that the deepest declension has occurred. The word of Peter to our Lord, ‘Pity thyself’, is the [p. 205] suggestion which when acted on leads to a falling away; Matthew 16: 22. The Lord instantly rebukes Peter, and tells him that he savours of the things which be of man and not of the things which be of God. It is altogether so specious a snare that, unless girt about with truth that is, with the mind of God as it has been revealed, one is easily diverted into this channel. It seems so natural, when one is surrounded with blessings, and thus sensible of being an object of divine favour, that one should think of oneself. But whenever it is so, the eye is turned from God to oneself; for when God is before one, self gets no place, though there be the deepest consciousness of His favour. Hence it is the saint who is the object of the greatest favour who needs most to be on his guard, that he allow not his eye to rest on himself where the favours are sent, but on God from whom they come. If his eye turns to himself because of the favour, then the favour has been the means of turning the heart from God to a mere gift of His.
Against this the children of Israel are warned when they come into the land. “Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein; and when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied ... then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage”, Deuteronomy 8: 12 - 14. And thus it happened. The blessings conferred did turn their hearts to themselves, as the objects of God’s favour, instead of to God Himself; and the consequence was that God was forgotten, and eventually a false and corrupt worship was introduced. But the beginning of it all was forgetting the Lord who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. And this entailed a forfeiture of the very blessing which had drawn them away: “... and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit; and lest ye perish [p. 206] quickly from off the good land which the Lord giveth you”, Deuteronomy 11: 17.
There is a striking example of this in Jacob’s history, in Genesis 33. Returning to the land, after his deliverance from his brother Esau, and after the night of wrestling at Peniel, where he received the name Israel, he settled down at Shalem, forgetting his own pledge to God to return to Bethel; Genesis 28: 21. He had been largely blessed, and after much suffering and exercise had reached the land again; but he gave way to the suggestion which so easily sways the heart, and thinks only of himself. He thinks of what would suit himself, and not of God; and though he is not ungodly, the name of his altar betrays that he was occupied with himself, as an object of God’s favour, instead of with God who had made him an object. He built an altar and called it El-elohe-Israel. Here he suffers so much that he says to his sons, “I shall be destroyed, I and my house”. The blessings, apart from God, like flowers detached from their roots, soon fade away, and corruption succeeds beauty and fragrance. Now the Lord says to him, “Go up to Beth-el”. And see the effects of turning to God’s side in chapter 35: 2. First, there is holiness, a true sense of the holiness of God. Things that could be suffered at Shalem cannot be tolerated now. Jacob says to his family, “Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments.... And he built there an altar, and called the place El-beth-el: because there God appeared unto him, when he fled from the face of his brother”. And mark! it is when he is thus occupied with God that his own blessing is most fully secured. The source of the blessing must necessarily always deepen and strengthen the blessing, and hence he hears now for the second time, “Thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel”. Moreover, he was blessed both as to posterity and possession; see verses 11, 12.
[p. 207] It is of great moment to see what is the point of departure; for if the recovery be true, that must be the point to be reached, as it is said, “Remember from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works”, Revelation 2. If we trace every apostasy to its beginning, we shall find that the saint got occupied with himself instead of with God. Abram was the first to go down into Egypt; Genesis 12. He thinks of himself and leaves the land, and when he returns he builds an altar where he had it at the beginning. Achan in the very moment of greatest favour — at the fall of Jericho (Joshua 6 and 7) — thinks of himself, and, without any pressure, connects himself with that great sin, Babylon, from which there was no recovery but through the valley of Achor (Hosea 2) where Achan was stoned.
The children of the captivity, when restored to the land, with all zeal and purpose of heart on their first return began to rebuild the temple; yet when hindered (Ezra 4: 24) they fall into this very snare, and say, “The time is not come ... that the Lord’s house should be built”, Haggai 1: 2. They are occupied with their own blessing in the land, and the house of the Lord lies waste; and though they could not have accounted for the poverty of their state, the word of the Lord discloses to them that the reason is that they have lost sight of God and His interests. They looked for much and brought in little; they were very zealous to secure blessing, true blessing too, for earthly blessing was true blessing for them; but they forfeited their own, because their eye was turned to themselves, and not to God and His things. To Israel in the land all the blessings were earthly and human, hence occupation with them, though real, had the effect of turning the eye from the Blesser. Now in the New Testament there is no room or sanction for seeking anything on earth, for, as the man in Christ is heavenly, there is no room for maintaining place or position on earth; and when [p. 208] such is attempted, it is an open departure from christian ground. This we see in christendom, in those who say they are Jews and are not. But besides this, there is a turning to one’s own side, and thus losing the source of all blessing. Thus it was with the church at Ephesus, the most highly favoured of all. Where most light had been received, there they turned to their own side, and though they manifested a true and earnest purpose of heart, in that they could not bear evil men, and had tried those who say they are apostles and are not, yet they had lost their first love, they had lost Christ as the sole object for their hearts; and hence, they are threatened with the loss of their candlestick — that on which the light was set — unless they repent. No kind of works on our side could be more commendable than the works of the church at Ephesus, and yet with all this the Lord says to them, “Remember ... from whence thou art fallen”. They have lost their first love; and the end of their falling away is the Laodicean state, glorying and satisfied with their own doings. The subtlety of the “wile” is that one is diverted from Christ by what is essentially useful; and this is not discovered until, as with Jacob and others, the consequences of departure proclaim the fact.
In the history of the church there is no true effort to recover until Philadelphia, when there is a little strength, which is acquired by abiding in Christ. And there the saints are characterised by two things; “thou ... hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name”. There is practical occupation with Christ, according to the mind of God; and the rewards are in keeping, associating one with the highest spheres of God’s testimony through all ages. There are works in Philadelphia, but the great object before the faithful is Christ in His word and name, that which concerns Christ; and the works necessarily bear this stamp, and are the evidence of the “little strength”. Individually or collectively, the source of all strength is Christ. “Without me ye can do nothing”, and the moment the eye is turned from Christ to self-occupation, be it either satisfaction with or condemnation of self, one has begun to fall away. Hence in personal things, necessary things connected with our very existence here, we are enjoined, “seek not what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind ... but rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you”, Luke 12: 29 - 31. The sum is simple and blessed. Make God’s side your interest and concern, and your own side will be fully and perfectly ensured; but turn your eye to your own, and, with much apparent effort and work, like the Israelites in Haggai’s time, you will look for much and bring in but little. This explains the little progress in many souls in the present day, notwithstanding the amount of truth and light they have received. May Christ in His word and name be more simply the object of our hearts in this evil day!