SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/10/2020 10:43 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
“The Perversion of Rabbinic Tradition”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew 5:33
Message of the
verse: “33
"Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not
swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord.’”
I have mentioned that what the
Pharisees have said from old does not totally match that what is found in the
Old Testament, as there are several flaws that made it fall short of exactly
what the OT taught. The first thing is that
it had a missing ingredient, and then second, it has a misplaced emphasis.
MacArthur states that the missing
ingredient was a proper circumstance for making an oath. Virtually any kind of oath that was used for
almost any kind of purpose was acceptable as long as it was, and this is very
important, not false and the person would fulfill it. Do not use a vow to deceive another person. It
seems to me that back in the days just before and during the time of Christ
that people were giving flippant vows, not really meaning what they were
saying, and this is still happening in our country today, especially in the
political world we live in. What this
does in not prompting confidence but prompting skepticism.
MacArthur writes “The misplaced
emphasis was in limiting the honest oaths to ‘vows to the Lord,’ to oaths made
directly to Him or in His name. The
keeping of those oaths was mandatory, whereas the keeping of others they made
optional.”
I remember a story in the Old
Testament that had to do with the Southern King of Israel and the Northern King
of Israel. The Northern Kingdom was not
faithful to the Lord, while the Southern Kingdom was more faithful to the
Lord. As the two kings met before going
into battle the northern king brought prophets in to predict who would win the
battle with the enemy. They all gave a
wonderful prediction. The Southern King
asked if there was not a prophet of the Lord to hear from. They brought one in and he to stated that
there would be a great victory. The
Northern King said to the prophet that he had forgotten to say his prophecy “in
the name of the Lord.” The prophet prophesied
that not only would the king lose the battle, but that he would be killed. That is exactly what happened. My point is that during the time of Christ
many of these games were played like swearing to the temple, or to the gold of
the temple, as it was all a bunch of games that they were playing.
Lev. 19:12 states “’You shall not
swear falsely by My name, so as to profane the name of your God; I am the LORD.” The Pharisees of the day taught that you
could swear falsely by any other name and this was allowed. There are no loopholes in the Word of God,
and sometimes we try to find them just like the Pharisees have done here. Numbers 30:2 states “"If a man makes a
vow to the LORD, or takes an oath to bind himself with a binding obligation, he
shall not violate his word; he shall do according to all that proceeds out of
his mouth.” This verse was
interpreted as permitting the reneging of oaths made to anyone but God.
MacArthur concludes this
section: “Thus, through rabbinic
tradition, God’s standard of absolute truthfulness was contradicted and lowered
to a level that accommodated the sinful, selfish capacities and purposes of the
people. They wanted to lie, and they did
not want to be hampered by God’s absolute standard of truth. Instead of calling
on the Lord to help them live up to the divine standard, they reduced that
standard to suit their own carnal abilities and interests.”
Again they were looking for
loopholes and the ones that they thought they found were not there.
We look at the fourth point under
the third main point, “The Battle of the Incarnation” in today’s SD.
4. The storm Upon the Sea of Gennesaret was the next scene of
conflict. Jesus had been preaching and
healing all day and now the night comes on.
He enters into a boat with His disciples and away they start across the
lake. Wearied with His labors, Jesus
falls asleep in the boat. What a
chance! And Satan was not slow to
perceive it. Suddenly a terrific storm
broke upon the lake so terrible in its fury that those experienced fishermen
believed their end had come. But Jesus
arose and rebuked the wind and all was calm.
Query—Who sent the storm? You
will say God sent it. Why, the, did our
Lord rebuke the elements for obeying
the request of their Creator? Who sent that storm? I suggest that it was sent by the Prince of
the power of the air in effort to
‘swallow the ship where
lies
The Master of ocean and
earth and skies.’”
9/10/2020 11:17
AM
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