PT-3 "The Principle Stated" (Matt. 15:10-11)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/13/2022 8:15 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  PT-3 “The Principle Stated”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 15:10-11

 

            Message of the verses: “10 And after He called the multitude to Him, He said to them, "Hear, and understand. 11 “Not what enters into the mouth defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man.’’”

 

            In the gospel of Mark he adds something in 7:19 stating that Jesus “declared all foods clean.”  In telling this Mark is overturning this superficial, unscriptural tradition of washing, which is exactly what it is.  Now Jesus teaching that Not what enters into the mouth defiles the man may therefore have been the most astounding thing that the people had ever heard, and the reason is because few things were more sacred to the Jews of that day than their dietary laws.  I think the reason for this is because of what the Pharisees and other Jewish leaders focused on even though they taught things that were from their tradition.  Now the truth is that the dietary laws came from the Old Testament and we spoke about them earlier in that the nation of Israel was suppose to be different, different in what they wore, what they ate and what they were suppose to believe, and the reason for this was so others would notice and ask them why they were so different which would give them time to introduce them to their God, but that is not what they did with what God gave them as they kept it for themselves and were proud of what God gave to them, and pride was a big part of their downfall.  Now one thing we can learn from what they were doing, and it is not the best thing, in fact it is a bad thing and that is all of what they were doing was external, which is what Jesus was trying to show them was not good, but internal things were what is best as God works on the inside of the man, for after all our bodies in the shape that they are in will never take us into heaven as Paul talks about in the 15^th chapter of 1 Corinthians, the resurrection chapter.

 

            During the time when Jesus was on earth there were so many extra Jewish laws, or better traditions, that not even the scribes and Pharisees could keep all of them.  MacArthur writes “The rabbis had therefore developed ‘the law of intention.’  If a person arose in the morning and said, ‘I intend to be pure all day,’ he could waive the ceremonies and consider them fulfilled because of his good intention.  The intention, of course, was not good at all, because its purpose was to evade rather than fulfill the tradition—showing that the Jews were hypocritical even about their own man-made standards.”

 

            John MacArthur goes on to write more fully about things I just touched on:  “In fairness to the Jews, many ceremonies and restrictions had been given to them by God as expressions of their covenant relation to Him.  The book of Leviticus is filled with prescribed rituals and procedures for the priesthood in regard to the sacrificial system.  God also declared certain animals unclean for any Jew to eat, and even many acceptable foods had to be prepared in carefully prescribed ways before they could be eaten.  Many things were forbidden even to be touched, and certain diseases, such as leprosy, and some physical conditions, such as menstruation, were considered ceremonially defiling.   But none of those ceremonially or symbolically unclean things or conditions are ever in themselves called sinful.  They were to act as vivid pictures representing sin.  Under the old covenant, being involved in or having contact with a ceremonially unclean thing rendered a person unfit to participate in certain worship ceremonies or certain social activities.  But that external unfitness is never called sin.  It needed ceremonial cleansing but not divine forgiveness.  Yet it illustrated in a practical way the spiritual defilement of sin, as circumcision illustrated the need for a heart to have the sin ‘cut away.’”

 

            Now here is a question that some may be asking at this time after reading the previous paragraph, and that is “why did God require them?”  We know that the Jews had spent 400 years in Egypt, a very pagan, idolatrous, and morally corrupt people.  The Ten Commandments were Israel’s first written communication from God, as He was the One who wrote it on stones.  Before that time they had only limited knowledge of His character and His will.  Now after God had called Abraham to be the head of His chosen people, the Lord then gave specific instructions and directions to select leaders of His people from time to time, but He had not revealed Himself in any detail.  Similar to parents as they use pictures to help teach their young children, God also used those symbols and pictures to help teach His truth to the children of Israel, who were then young in His ways.  This very thing is what I am going over in my teaching of the book of Hebrews as some of the Jews the author was writing to were stilled involved in the “pictures” of the Old Covenant.

 

            Lord willing we will continue to look more about this very important subject in our next SD.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I desire to learn about how the pictures from the Old Covenant are relevant to my life in the 21^st century.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trusting the Lord in what is found in Philippians 4:6-7.

 

7/13/2022 8:54 AM