«　WEEK 9　DAY 2　»

　　Deut. 12:8 You shall not do according to all that we do here today, each man doing all that is right in his own eyes.

　　14 But in the place which Jehovah will choose in one of your tribes, there you shall offer up your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I am commanding you.

　　Like the children of Israel in the age of the judges, who had no king among them (Judg. 17:6; 21:25), today’s Christians have no kingdom among them. In other words, there is no authority or restraint among them; each one does things according to his or her own will. They are not righteous toward themselves, they have no peace toward others, and they have no joy before God. They can laugh loudly when they tell jokes, but when it is time for them to pray in the prayer meeting or the Lord’s table meeting, they wear a sad expression and cannot be joyful in spirit.

　　One who is ruled by God and submits to God’s authority can be joyful even in his sufferings and difficult situations. He is able to say, “Although my heart is broken, my spirit still praises God….This is because I allow my God to reign in me, and I submit to His authority. I am a person under God’s restriction and rule because I am saved and have been delivered by God from Satan’s authority and kingdom of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of the Son of His love.” (CWWL, 1957, vol. 2, “What the Kingdom Is to the Believers,” pp. 409-410)

　　Moses told the people of Israel that when they entered the good land, they should not do things that were right in their own eyes but not right in the eyes of God. In the wilderness they did whatever was right in their own eyes. That was lawlessness; it was something that could never please God. He tolerated it in the wilderness, but He would not tolerate it in the good land. Then Moses told them that when they entered into the good land, they must present their burnt offerings in the very place of God’s choice. If it was according to their choice, it would again be something that was right in their own eyes. But in the good land they must do what is right in the eyes of God. The first thing they must do is to bring their offerings to the place of God’s choice.

　　This means that when we are not living in Christ, not resting in Christ, and not inheriting our portion in Christ, we may act in a loose way according to our choice. But once we are resting in Christ, inheriting Him as our portion, we should not do things according to what is right in our eyes but according to the choice of God. Praise the Lord that we are now in Christ! We are in the good land….Thus, for the presenting of the offerings, there is the need of a proper place, a place that will keep the oneness of the people of God. If the people of Israel had the liberty to choose a place for their worship to God when they went into the good land, it would not be long before they would be divided. Through all the centuries the people of Israel have been kept as one as far as their worship to God is concerned. The oneness has been kept by this unique place of worship. The only choice was God’s choice, and God’s choice was their choice.

　　Today Christians are too free; they have too many choices. Almost everybody has a certain kind of church according to his or her choice. People say, “I don’t like that kind of meeting,” or “I prefer this kind of meeting.”…We all need to say, “Lord, what is Your choice? Where is the place You have chosen?…I do not like to do anything that is right in my own eyes, but everything that is right in Your eyes. I do not like to meet according to my taste; I want to meet in the place of Your choice.”

　　There is only one proper taste and one proper choice; that is God’s choice of the one unique ground of oneness….We all need to be on the unique ground of oneness. (CWWL, 1971, vol. 2, “Christ as the Reality,” pp. 20-21)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1971, vol. 2, “Christ as the Reality,” ch. 3; CWWL, 1957, vol. 2, “What the Kingdom Is to the Believers,” chs. 1-4, 6