SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/8/2022 10:03 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-3 “The
Incident”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew 12:1
Message of the
verse: “1 At
that time Jesus went on the Sabbath through the grainfields, and His disciples
became hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat.”
In
yesterday’s SD I said that I would not write about all the rules that were for
the Sabbath according to what is found in the Talmud, but after thinking about
it I have decided to quote that portion from MacArthur’s commentary in order to
show why the Lord spoke about in verses 29-30 of Matthew eleven: “29 "Take My yoke upon you, and learn
from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and YOU SHALL FIND REST FOR YOUR
SOULS. 30 "For My yoke is easy, and My load is light.’”
MacArthur
writes “Certain objects could be lifted up and put down only from and to
certain places. Other things could be
lifted up from a public place and set down in a private one, and vice
versa. Still others could be picked up
in a wide place and put down in a legally place—but rabbis could not agree
about the meanings of wide and free.
“Under
Sabbath regulations, a Jew could not carry a load heaver than a dried fig; but
if an object weighed half that amount, he could carry it twice. Eating restrictions were among the most
detailed and extensive. You could eat nothing larger than an olive; and even if you tasted half an olive, found it to
be rotten and spit it out, that half was considered to have been eaten as far
as the allowance was concerned.
“Throwing
an object into the air with one hand and catching it with the other was
prohibited. If the Sabbath overtook you
as you reached for some food, the food was to be dropped before drawing your
arm back, lest you be guilty of carrying a burden.
“Tailors
did not carry a needle with them on the Sabbath for fear they might be tempted
to mend a garment and thereby perform work.
Nothing could be bought or sold, and clothing could not be dyed or
washed. A letter could not be
dispatched, even if by the hand of a Gentile.
Nor fire could be lit or extinguished—including fire for a lamp—although
a fire already lit could be used within certain limits. For that reason, some orthodox Jews today use
automatic timers to turn on lights in their homes well before the Sabbath
begins. Otherwise they might forget to
turn them on in time and have to spend the night in the dark.
“Baths
could not be taken for fear some of the water might spill onto the floor and ‘wash’
it. Chairs could not be moved because
dragging them might make a furrow in the ground, and a woman was not to look in
a mirror lest she see a gray hair and be tempted to pull it out. You could carry ink enough to draw only two
letters of the alphabet, and false teeth could not be worn because they
exceeded the weight limit for burdens.
“According
to those hairsplitting regulations, a Jew could not pull off even a handful of
grain to eat on the Sabbath unless he were starving—which, of course, is often
a difficult thing to determine and would be cause for considerable differences
of opinion. If a person became ill on
the Sabbath, only enough treatment could be given to keep him alive. Treatment to make him improve was declared to
be work, and therefore forbidden. To
determine just how much food, medicine, or bandaging would be necessary to keep
a person alive—and no more—was itself an impossible burden.
“Among
the many other forbidden Sabbath activities were: sewing, plowing, reaping, grinding, baking,
threshing, binding sheaves, winnowing, sifting, dying, shearing, spinning, kneading,
separating or weaving two threads, tying or untying a knot, and sewing two stitches.
“The
Sabbath was anything but a time of rest.
It had become a time of oppressive frustration and anxiety. The people were sick to death of this system
that had been imposed on them by ungodly, worldly legalists, and they were
indeed ‘weary and heaven-laden’ (Matt. 11:28).
“At
that time (cf. 11:25) does not necessarily indicate that the events about to be
described occurred directly after those just mentioned, but rather that they
occurred in the same general period of time (from kairos, season).”
It
is my hope that after quoting this section that you will get the idea of why
Jesus said what He said in the last portion of chapter eleven.
1/8/2022 10:33 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment