SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/7/2020 8:48 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2
“Authored by God.”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew 5:17
Message
of the verse: “17 "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the
Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.”
We are
going to look at more of the things that were traditions that came from
different laws that God had given to Moses.
We have been talking about things that could be done on the Sabbath
according to what the Scribes and the Pharisees added to that law from
God. Was in unlawful for a tailor to
leave his house with a needle stuck in his robe? Well according to the Pharisees it was. Was moving a lamp from one place in the room
to another considered work? MacArthur adds “Some strict interpreters believed
that even wearing an artificial leg or using a crutch on the Sabbath
constituted work and argued about whether or not a parent could lift a child on
the Sabbath. The decided that to heal
was work, but made exceptions for grave situations. But only enough treatment to keep the
treatment to keep the patient from getting worse was allowed; he could not be
fully treated until after the Sabbath.”
All of
these “crazy rules” were external laws that had become the essence of religion
for the scribes and the Pharisees and also for many other Jews as well. To the strict religious leaders and others
during the time when Jesus came to earth the law was a plethora of
extra-spiritual rules and regulations.
Now when
it came to the phrase the Law and the
Prophets, this however was always understood to refer to the Jewish
Scriptures themselves and not the rabbinical interpretations. We find that this phrase is used some fifteen
times in the New Testament as it reflected the common Jewish
understanding. (Matt. 11:13; Luke 16:16;
compare Luke 24:27, 44 and other passages.)
With this in mind when Jesus said “Do not think that I came to abolish
the Law or the Prophets,” His Jewish hearers knew He was speaking of the Old
Testament Scripture.
I think that
is important for me to quote the following two paragraphs from MacArthur’s
commentary in order to help us understand an important truth: “The foundation of the Old Testament is the
law given in the Pentateuch, which the prophets, psalmist, and other inspired
writers preached, expounded, and applied.
That law of God was composed of three-parts: the moral, the judicial, and the
ceremonial. The moral law was to
regulate behavior for all men; the judicial law was for Israel’s operation as a
unique nation; and the ceremonial law was prescribed to structure Israel’s
worship of God. The moral law was based
on the Ten Commandments, and the judicial and ceremonial laws were the
subsequent legislation given to Moses.
On the plains of Moab Moses reminded Israel that ‘He declared to you His
covenant which He commanded you to perform, that is, the ten commandments; and
He wrote them on two tablets of stone.
And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments,
that you might perform them in the land where you are going over to possess it’
(Deut. 4:13-14).
“Because
Matthew does not qualify his use of ‘Law,’ we are safe to say that it was God’s
whole law—the commandments, statutes, and judgments; the moral judicial, and ceremonial—that
Jesus came not to abolish but to fulfill.
It was also the other Old Testament teachings based on the law, and all
their types, patterns, symbols, and pictures that He came to fulfill. Jesus Christ came to accomplish every aspect
and every dimension of the divinely authored Word (cf. Luke 24:44).” “Now He said to them, "These are My
words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which
are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must
be fulfilled.’”
7/7/2020 9:17 AM
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