Article 2016-04 - Financing Idols, or Missions
Chapter 19: Financing Idols, or Missions?
Introduction
God’s instructions to Israel were few and simple: He expected His people to be holy, obedient and to serve no other gods. Unfortunately the people ignored these first revelations and sinned in all three areas. The principle in the story below is, that affluence without vision leads to idolatry; and idolatry among God’s people causes unnecessary and premature deaths. People give sacrificially when they have vision for God living among them. Only His presence on earth will effectively terminate all world problems. His presence, through His return, will only happen when all people groups on earth have been evangelized and world evangelization will only be completed with enough missionaries at the job. Therefore, church-mobilization and missionary-recruitment should have utmost priority in the acts of the Church.
Scripture reference
[God said to Abram] ‘But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterwards they will come out with great possessions’ (Gen. 15:14)
The Israelites … asked the Egyptians for … silver and gold and for clothing. The Lord had made the Egyptians favorably disposed towards the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians (Ex. 12:35,36)
The story
Shortly after their liberation, God gave Israel its missionary purpose. He said ‘If you will obey My voice in truth and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own peculiar possession and treasure from among all peoples: for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation’. He told the people to serve no other gods. He then called Moses to Mount Sinai and instructed him about the law and the tabernacle.
The people knew they were called to be a royal, holy nation of priests. They also knew that obedience was the main requirement and that they should serve God alone and no other. But they had a problem: they were very rich. They had bags full of gold, silver, gemstones and expensive cloth from Egypt, which they carried through the desert. The temptation of riches is that it breeds an independent spirit and a false sense of power.
Moses stayed on the mountain for a long time and the people, not knowing or understanding God’s plan in detail, ignored the few revelations they had received. They feared the desert, wanted to go back to Egypt and felt they needed a visible god. So they urged Aaron, the high priest-designate, to make a golden calf, and then worshiped it.
Scripture reference
When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, ‘Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him’ (Ex. 32:1)
The story, continued
God sent Moses back from the mountain. He knew. A little later Moses knew too. God said He would wipe out the people and start all over, with Moses. But he could not bear to enjoy such an honor at the cost of God’s honor in the eyes of the Egyptians. He pleaded that God would spare His people. God heard his prayer. Moses went back to the camp, destroyed the golden calf and lectured the people severely, Aaron in particular. Although the people were not wiped out entirely, many Israelites died that day.
Moses was invited by God to come up to the mountain the second time, where he received again the law he had smitten in his anger. When Moses came down he shared with the Israelites the vision he had received about the tabernacle, its function, and how to construct it. He must have spoken to the people with much enthusiasm.
He explained, that what God had showed him was beautiful. He had told Moses that He wanted to live among the people. They would see His glory day and night. He would be with them always, give them victory over their enemies, heal their sicknesses and provide them with food and drink. This would be the biggest blessing the people would ever see. When he mentioned the needed materials to build the sanctuary, people brought it to him by truck loads. Within days the construction people told Moses they had received more than plenty. Moses had to command the people to stop contributing. Incredible!
Scripture reference
‘Everyone who is willing is to bring to the Lord an offering of gold, silver and bronze; blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen; …’ (Ex. 35:5,6)
‘No man or woman is to make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary.’ … the people were restrained from bringing more, because they already had more than enough to do all the work (Ex. 36:6,7)
Comment
The people had no vision to live holy, obedient lives in order to fulfill God’s purpose, to be an example of a Godly nation to the surrounding peoples. Neither did they envision at first for God to live among them and because this lacked, idolatry came easy as it was facilitated by affluence. Wealth without faith in God’s plan about how to use it, inevitably leads to idolatry of wealth and power.
What happened here is of great significance for our modern mission movements. Without sacrificial giving of the church world missions will remain a poor sideshow and the accomplishment of its goals endlessly delayed. The problem of missions is unwilling human hearts, not money. Unwilling to deny self, take up one’s cross daily and follow Him. Unwilling to sacrifice time, career, plans, certainties, salaries and other comforts.
What we need in world missions is more people because there are still large areas in the world where the gospel has never been preached, where it is unavailable. Jesus spoke the truth when He said that ‘the gospel of the Kingdom will be preached to the uttermost parts of the earth and that then the end will come’. He will not return before the great commission has been finished. He will not return as long as there is one people group in the world that has never been reached with the gospel. He said that Himself. Paul said it too: he did not want to build on someone else’s foundation, but rather preach the gospel where it had not been proclaimed before
Scripture reference
Then he said …: ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me’ (Luke 9:23)
‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field’ (Matt. 9:37,38)
Comment, continued
We will not have ‘God in our midst’ – when Jesus returns – if we do not first meet His conditions. How can we speed up His second coming? By prioritizing unreached and least-reached people groups. They must be evangelized first! Why should people hear the gospel twice as long as there are those who have never heard it once?
The Church must be re-acquainted with the blessings of Jesus, being back on earth. When that happens, wars will stop, weapons changed into agricultural tools, famines cease, natural disasters no longer occur, sick people being healed, demon-possessed be delivered, and the devil will be locked up. When this vision of Jesus’ return really comes back to the Church, people will sacrifice anything to make that happen.
Scripture reference
It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known … (Rom. 15:20)
Summing it up: we need more missionaries who concentrate on the remaining unreached people groups. When all of them have been reached with the gospel, the Lord returns and ends all suffering. Therefore, mobilizing churches and recruiting missionaries to the unreached is an extremely strategic ministry. Back to the terms of Moses: it is time that once again God’s tabernacle will be among men.
Maybe, when this becomes your message to your church, you too, will see the day that you can ask people to ‘please stop giving, because there is plenty to do the work’!
Discussion & dialogue
- When asked what the main problem of missions is, many people answer ‘Money’. Discuss whether this is true, and if not, what the main problem is
- Discuss why priority should be given to unreached people groups
- Discuss why many missionaries evangelize without training their disciples as new missionaries, and what should be done to remedy that omission
- Which eight of the ten themes reoccur in this chapter? Describe how. (Answers are in the Teacher’s Guide)
