Twelve Tribes of Israel

Q. Why is the list of the twelve tribes of Israel in Rev 7:5-8 (Judah, Reuben, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh, Simeon, Levi, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, Benjamin) different from other places in the Bible? Where is Dan? What about Ephraim?

A. The list in birth order includes Levi, Dan and Joseph. However, Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons (Gen 37:3), and gave him a double portion for his inheritance by adopting Joseph’s sons as his own:
• Gen 48:5 Now your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are mine; Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine, as Reuben and Simeon are.

By replacing Joseph with Ephraim and Manasseh, the list becomes 13. But God chose the sons of Levi to serve in the tabernacle and they have no inheritance among the sons of Israel:
• Num 18:23-24 Only the Levites shall perform the service of the tent of meeting, and they shall bear their iniquity; it shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations, and among the sons of Israel they shall have no inheritance. For the tithe of the sons of Israel, which they offer as an offering to the LORD, I have given to the Levites for an inheritance; therefore I have said concerning them, ‘They shall have no inheritance among the sons of Israel.’
So Levi received no land and the list becomes 12 again.

In Rev 7, both Dan and Ephraim were dropped because of idolatry:
• Judg 18:30 The sons of Dan set up for themselves the graven image; and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh, he and his sons were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day of the captivity of the land.
• 1 Kgs 12:28-29 So the king consulted, and made two golden calves, and he said to them, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem; behold your gods, O Israel, that brought you up from the land of Egypt.” He set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan.
• 2 Kgs 10:29 However, as for the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel sin, from these Jehu did not depart, even the golden calves that were at Bethel and that were at Dan.
• Hosea 4:17 Ephraim is joined to idols; Let him alone.

Bethel was allotted to Ephraim:
• Josh 16:1 Then the lot for the sons of Joseph went from the Jordan at Jericho to the waters of Jericho on the east into the wilderness, going up from Jericho through the hill country to Bethel.
So Dan housed the graven image and together with Ephraim the golden calves which led Israel into idolatry and were disqualified. Joseph therefore replaced Ephraim to retain the double portion. Dan was replaced by Levi, possibly because land inheritance is no longer the issue and the Levites will share in eternal blessings.
• Heb 7:11 Now if perfection was through the Levitical priesthood (for on the basis of it the people received the Law), what further need was there for another priest to arise according to the order of Melchizedek, and not be designated according to the order of Aaron?

God rewards everyone according to what he has done, both good and bad:
• 2 Co 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
• Rev 22:12 “Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done.

Dealing with Idols

Q. Many years ago my uncle gave me an ivory-head statue. I was told it had been prayed over in a Buddhist ceremony (開光). It is more than 50 years old, about 1 ft. x 10 in. diameter. Since it is very difficult to destroy ivory, it has been kept in my closet. Is it proper for me to donate it to the museum, or should I just bury it in my back yard? I have other carvings too which I have taken as art pieces. This particular one gives me a creepy feeling. It is just a piece of very dead ivory. Am I being superstitious? Some have suggested that even colored candles, a sword with a dragon head, Chinese dragon statues are satanic doorways.

A. Your problem has bothered many people who came out of an idol-worship background. First, let me give you the biblical teaching on the subject:

• Acts 15:20 but that we write to them that they abstain from things contaminated by idols and from fornication and from what is strangled and from blood. (Also 15:29)
• Acts 21:25 But concerning the Gentiles who have believed, we wrote, having decided that they should abstain from meat sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from fornication.
• 1 Co 8:4, 7 Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that there is no such thing as an idol in the world, and that there is no God but one. … However not all men have this knowledge; but some, being accustomed to the idol until now, eat food as if it were sacrificed to an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled.
• 1 Co 10:19-20 What do I mean then? That a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God; and I do not want you to become sharers in demons.

At first it seemed Paul was contradicting himself in 1 Co 8 and 10, but he did not. There is only one God (1 Co 8:6; Eph 4:6; 1 Tim 2:5). All idols are only “so-called gods” (1 Co 8:5); they are not really lesser gods at all. However, not all people have this knowledge (1 Co 8:7), and demons take advantage of man’s ignorance and superstition by impersonating as gods behind the idols to deceive people. So what is sacrificed or dedicated to idols are in fact directed to demons (1 Co 10:20), not gods as the pagan worshippers thought.

That’s the knowledge part of the teaching. The other part has to do with love. Paul knew that idols are nothing. He knew that we are neither the worse if we do not eat [food sacrificed to idols], nor the better if we do eat. (1 Co 8:8) But he cautioned us to take care that this liberty does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. (1 Co 8:9) His bottom-line is “if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble.” (1 Co 8:13) His love for his weaker brother overrides his freedom to eat meat sacrificed to idols, though he has perfect right to do so. This is consistent with the teaching in Acts 15 and 21.

How does that apply to your case? As you yourself pointed out, the statue is just a piece of dead ivory. Monks have prayed over it and devoted it to Buddha, and demons may or may not have associated themselves to it. We just don’t know for sure. Since your conscience bothers you, for your conscience’s sake I urge you to get rid of the statue. Do not give it away to friends or relatives, even if they are unbelievers, as it would become a stumbling block to them. I don’t think donating it to a museum to be admired is a good idea either.

In the OT idols are uniformly cut down, smashed and broken e.g. Ezk 6:6; Micah 1:7. Since ivory is difficult to destroy, you can do what Dr. Sun Yat-Sen did when he was young – he broke off the arm of an idol to demonstrate that it can’t even protect itself. First pray for God’s protection from any harm to you or your family for doing the right thing. Then break any weak part of the statue as a symbol of God’s power over evil. Lastly bury the broken pieces on land or in a lake where others can’t use it again. If you don’t feel comfortable doing this, ask your pastor to help you. Most Chinese pastors have experience removing and destroying idols from home, though mostly porcelain and not ivory ones. Hope this helps.

Visiting the Iniquity of the Fathers on the Children (2 of 2)

(Continued from yesterday)

I believe this is only an apparent contradiction, since the Bible is God’s word and He does not contradict Himself. The difficulty is in the phrase “visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generations“, which on the surface does not seem fair. What exactly does it mean?

First, let’s tackle the issue from the perspective of “cause“. Notice from the first set of verses the following:
• The LORD is abundant in loving kindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin i.e. He is compassionate and willing to forgive.
• He will by no means clear the guilty and leave them unpunished i.e. He is just and will always punish the guilty.
• Thousands is contrasted with to the third and fourth generations i.e. His loving kindness far exceeds His severity.

Then note from the second set of passages that:
• The person who sins will die. Each and everyone shall be put to death for his own sin. There are no exceptions.
• Fathers and sons shall not be put to death for each other’s iniquity. Each bears his own responsibility. There will be no miscarriage of justice.

The logical deduction then, for both sets of proposition to be true, is that when the Lord visits the iniquity of the fathers on the children, those children themselves are NOT innocent but guilty. Of what? Of the sin they learned from their fathers. What sin? Ex 20:5, 34:7 and Deut 5:9 are all in the context of the 10 commandments, in particular dealing with idolatry.

These fathers hate God (Ex 20:5; Deut 5:9). In what sense?
• Disrespectful and ungrateful – Even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks (Rom 1:21).
• Idolatrous – They exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures (Rom 1:23). They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator (Rom 1:25).
• Ignored God – They did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer (Rom 1:28).
In so doing they become haters of God (Rom 1:30).

Not only did the fathers do this themselves, by their example they taught their children to do the same (Rom 1:32). The children are therefore guilty of the same sin and deserve the punishment. They are the “cause” of their punishment. God had not treated them unfairly by punishing an innocent “next generation”. Beware of what you are teaching your children. It need not be explicit instructions. They learn far more from your actions and attitudes than from your words.

Secondly, let’s look at the issue from the “effect” angle. Some children suffer the consequences of their parent’s guilt through no fault of their own. For example, parents with AIDS give birth to HIV-positive children. Drug addicts give birth to babies who may be addicted to the drug. They did not ask for it, they did nothing to deserve it, but they are affected nonetheless.

The iniquity of the fathers is visited on the children, who in this case could not exercise free-will to avoid it. Is that fair? Of course it’s not fair, but that’s what sin does. Sin robs and destroys, and through the hereditary principle infect the next generation. But our God is a gracious and merciful God. Even such sad cases could be redeemed through the compassionate action of people who care, or the suffering cut short in infant mortality. Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world (Jas 1:27). I hope we can all do our part.