Hi all,
Last week we saw a Pharisee (separated one) has made a law or tradition that is honored above the law of Moses.
Barb’s dad was not one to measure medicines carefully. He wanted to obey the doctor, but figured if the prescription said ‘take 1 pill’ he would take 2. If 1 was good, 2 must be better for you. That’s kind of like the Pharisees. If God made 1 law about something, 2 laws of their own making must be better.
The Pharisees added their own laws/traditions out of a heart of wanting to please God, as with the example of washing hands mentioned last week. If God’s Word said the priests had to wash their hands before serving in the temple, then washing hands for everyone before every meal and snack will make God happy too. So let’s make them wash pots and pans BEFORE using as well.
Remember that in Matthew 15: 6 and Mark 7: 1-3, and in particular v. 8 and 13, Jesus said they ‘lay aside the commandment of God to hold to the tradition of men’, and in doing so they ‘make the Word of God of no effect.’ I hope this teaching will help readers who have followed the traditions of men, thinking they were doing what God wants, only to find themselves powerless and without sensing God’s presence in their lives, but not knowing why. Why when they do thus and so don’t they feel God is in it? They are doing all they’ve been taught, so where is God? But He is not in the traditions of man, and this series may help answer some questions.
The Pharisees began during a revival in 165-160BC, roughly 200 years before the gospel ministry of Jesus. They wanted to serve God. They wanted people to walk in the things of God. But over time rules replaced relationship.
Fence laws
My point in sharing some of the 800 laws of the Pharisees is to examine the same things happening in modern Christianity. The Pharisees added their laws as fences around the Law of Moses, to protect what God gave Moses. The Pharisees, the separated ones, started as a holiness movement as mentioned in part 1. They wanted to serve God. They were zealous and wanted everyone to be holy. For instance, when writing about God they removed the vowel lest they take His name in vain. So when you read orthodox material or very religious Messianic Christian material, you will see God written as G-d or G*d, for by removing the vowel it makes it impossible to say.
The Sabbath law in Exodus 20: 8-11 says to do no work. The Pharisees built a fence law around it, which said swatting a fly on the Sabbath was a sin, as that would be work. Another was that if your house was burning on the Sabbath you could not carry anything out of the house to save it as that would be work. But you could put on multiple layers of clothes and walk out of the burning house. You could not carry the clothes, but if you wore them it was okay. A person could not spit onto the dirt on the Sabbath because that was considered plowing or working the ground. A woman was not allowed to look in a mirror on the Sabbath lest she be tempted to pluck a gray hair, which they said, was work. It was these ‘fence laws’ Jesus took issue with in the gospels.
The ‘Sabbath’s Day Walk’ is perhaps the most famous, which was a little over 1/2 mile, or 1 kilometer. It was the limitations of distance of the Sabbath’s day walk that allowed them to start ‘gathering’ (Hebrew: synagogue) on the Sabbath. Groups of families in close proximity, totaling between them at least 10 males above age 13 could ‘gather’ or synagogue to have a meal and talk and learn and share about God and His Word. People could walk that 1/2 mile or 1 km to find a ‘gathering/synagogue’ of families meeting on the Sabbath, the limitations of distance encouraged community of faith.
The practice of meeting Friday nights (Shabbat/Sabbath) started after the temple and city were destroyed in the year 70 and the Jews were dispersed into the nations, where they remained until 1948. Without a temple or priesthood, they began gathering (synagogues) on Friday nights. Unfortunately, today some ‘Messianic’ Christians think God ordained the Sabbath to be THE time He wants us to gather, but that is not the case.
A side trip about the Sabbath – Exodus 20: 8-11: The Father does not command a weekly gathering, because the Sabbath is a person – Jesus Christ who has given God and man rest from our work/sin/striving against sin. That is why Paul writes in Colossians 2: 10-17 not to argue about Sabbaths or holy days or what you eat or drink (towards God) because Jesus brought peace and is the Sabbath. Also in Hebrews chapter 4 that the Sabbath is the person called the Word of the Father, who has given us rest and allowed us to come boldly to the Father’s throne to receive mercy and grace to help in a time of need.
The Sabbath is a person, and you have the Sabbath in you, Christ in you the hope of glory. “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not charging their sins unto them…therefore be reconciled to God…” II Corinthians 5: 17-19, Colossians 1: 20, Ephesians 2: 15 – we are peace with the Father and He is at peace with us, He has rested, Jesus cried out ‘It is finished’. The Sabbath is a person, prophesied since creation when God quit creating, bringing work to an end. It is why Paul opens his letters with ‘Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.’ (Romans 1: 7, I Corinthians 1: 3, II Corinthians 1:2, Galatians 1: 3, Philippians 1: 2, Ephesians 1: 2, Colossians 1: 2, I Thessalonians 1: 1, II Thessalonians 1: 2, I & II Timothy 1: 2, Titus 1: 4, Philemon 1:3, and John in II John 1:3).
The Father is at peace with you, with me, with us. Jesus’ work on the cross and resurrection bought that peace, bought that rest from our striving with God, and from Him striving with us. The Sabbath is the person of Jesus Christ. His broken body was the veil allowing us to go into the holy of holies (Ephesians 2).
In creation, God didn’t need to take a water break or rest from creation, as if He is a man who gets tired. No. He quit and made the Sabbath as a prophecy of a time when His creation would be reconciled to Him and at eternal peace*. Jesus brought that. We are free from religious formulas and observances, as Paul stated in Colossians 2: 16-17 – don’t let anyone bother you on Sabbaths or what you eat or drink or holy days, for the body IS Christ. We are the body of Christ, who is risen, fully at peace with the Father as a man risen from the dead. HE is our Sabbath rest. *Romans 8: 18-25
Back to those crazy Pharisees: The Sabbath day gatherings in homes were in the gospels, but the Friday night gatherings didn’t become a set tradition until after the temple and Jerusalem were destroyed and the Jews dispersed into the nations.
These ‘fence laws’ hemmed in the Law of Moses and soon became more important than God’s Word (the Mosaic Law). These are what Jesus took issue with. Every argument Jesus had with the Pharisees was about one of their laws, not the Law of Moses. Are you following a fence law today, in modern Christianity? Are you doing things or believe things you think are God, but are actually a Pharisaic law?
Next week we conclude with modern evangelical, charismatic, or other Christian laws that have been added to God’s law.
Until then, blessings,
John Fenn
