Relevant Life

Judges 18:29-31  And they called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father, who was born unto Israel: howbeit the name of the city was Laish at the first.  (30)  And the children of Dan set up the graven image: and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh, he and his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan until the day of the captivity of the land.  (31)  And they set them up Micah\’s graven image, which he made, all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh.

The People of Israel had crossed the river Jordan and were on their way to take the Land the Lord had promised them. The 12 tribes had separated in order to settle in the area God had planned. The tribe of Dan had reached their area and promised acres. They sent out scouts to see who was in their land. The five scouts discovered the city named Laish was filled with people who were pacifists. The tribe of Dan took over the city, killed it’s inhabitants and renamed the City Dan. The tribe of Dan also decided to not worship the one true God but to worship idols. What is interesting to note is that Moses’ grandson Jonathan became a priest for the false idols. Jonathan was surely old enough to remember what his grandfather had accomplished through the one true God. However, he decided to leave this truth and allow false images in the daily worship of the Danites.

How could a family member so close to Moses remove himself from the Holiness of God and turn his back on the truth? Remember Aaron allowed the people of Israel to worship a false God when Moses was occupied up on the Mount top with God. Maybe Apostasy ran in the family? Moses did not have a great past either. He was once an adopted prince to the Egyptian processes and religious ceremonies. He was also a murderer who fled the crime scene.  He was not perfect by any means; however, God had positioned him to be His spokesperson to the people of Israel.

What is apostasy anyway? Apostasy is the abandonment of a prior religious belief. Jonathan and his family were the examples for the people of Israel in their pursuit of worshiping the one true God. However, Moses’ sons and their offspring left the family’s belief system and settled for a life of idolatry. What did Moses do wrong to have part of his family fall to apostasy? Why would his family abandoned their God? The God , they saw do amazing things before their very eyes.

Family apostasy can happen to any family. I don’t care how strong you are in the Lord or how biblically you have raised your family to follow the Lord. Human beings have a choice to follow the Lord or not. This goes for those in our family. The one scripture that is misquoted about this subject leads many families believing that their children who have left the faith will come back. This is not always the case.

Proverbs 22:6  Train a child in the way he should go, and even when he is old he will not turn away from it.

Train a child in what? In wisdom? In the gospels of Jesus? Which at the writing of Proverbs have not been written yet.

At the writing of this article, I have two sons who have abandoned the truth they were raised in. They have abandoned God. One does not claim there is a God and one chooses to worship Satan through the deceitful practices of the Wiccan faith. I pray for them constantly and pray that they will return to the truth. However, I know they have a life of choice. I understand how powerful choice really is and how the enemy uses it daily for his plans. Many people fall for Satan’s deception like a herd of cattle being led off a cliff. I love my sons and miss them very much. I pray for them constantly and I am determined to have some type of relationship with them regardless of their abandonment of the faith. I will still love them no matter what even when their deception causes a riff between us.

Jesus declared that in the last days that Family Apostasy will be a major issue.

Luke12:49-53  \”I have come to throw fire on the earth. I wish that it had already started!  (50)  I have a baptism to go through, and I will suffer until it is over.  (51)  \”Do you think I came to bring peace to earth? No! I can guarantee that I came to bring nothing but division.  (52)  From now on a family of five will be divided. Three will be divided against two and two against three.  (53)  A father will be against his son and a son against his father. A mother will be against her daughter and a daughter against her mother. A mother-in-law will be against her daughter-in-law and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.\”

This Gospel of truth is powerful and offensive to those who choose to not follow it. This truth reveals the lies in the world and many hate the revelation. For this, families will fall more and more into Apostasy in the last days. Are we prepared? Are we prepared in the fact that our children may never come back to Christ? I am not saying give up on them. I truly am not. However, are we prepared that they will not come back just like Moses’ children did not return? Jonathan and his family became priests to idols for many centuries.

So what can be done?

1. Never stop praying for your family. The Devil is like a hungry lion seeking who he may devour. Prayer is the shield of Hope we can put up and around our family.

2. Don’t be afraid to preach the Gospel of truth to your family members who have left the truth. Many families fall into the thought process “ All we can do is pray for them” Then they misquote Proverbs 22:6. We are preachers and teachers of the Gospel to everyone; even our family members.

3. Live your life fully in the things of God. Keep serving the Lord whether your family does or not. Jesus made it clear that the Gospel takes precedence over anything else in life. Don’t be religious about it.  Be a true believer following the Lord.

4. Don’t be afraid to show your wayward family your humanity. We are imperfect beings on a path to perfection by a perfect God. We are human and we have emotions. They don’t lead us but they do affect us.

5. Don’t let the religious people stop you from pursuing your call. Many religious people misquote scripture. If you have rebellious children then it must be your fault as a parent. If you can’t lead your family then you can lead his church. If this was true, then Moses should have been fired early on.  Jesus should had been fired too because most of his immediate family did not fully follow and believe in his teachings at first. If you remember his brothers and sisters tried to stop him from doing ministry.