02/12/13

The Law that destroyed the Jews

Isaiah 58:13,14 - If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.


The one Law that caused the destruction of the Jews is the Law of Sabbath. This Law by itself was just impossible to keep. It called them to literately stop everything (it means 'cease') in life. It did not command just the person to refrain from any work but also commands all those working under him including his animals to refrain from doing any work. If one of these is broken the Law is broken.

The Jews knew it was just impossible to keep this commandment so they tried all their cunningness to find all kind of loopholes or ways out from doing things and still showing they have kept the Law.

An example was a person was not allowed to carry anything on this day, so the Jews thought of a solution, they would tie a string and drag the object from one house to another if they needed something very necessary. All these do and don'ts were written in a book that was fatter than the Torah and more important than the Torah.

They feared this Law because the consequences of breaking it, was death by being stoned. One may wonder why God made such a dreadful commandment.

If you look this is the only commandment that evolved with time. It started with them collecting Manna in the wilderness. As they kept on disobeying this Law, God started making this Law more and more difficult to keep, and its punishment more severe. Later God added to the Sabbath, even a Sabbath year and Jubilee year which came every 7th and 50th year respectively. Every feast was also considered a High Sabbath.

Did God take pleasure in making life difficult for the Jews?

Let us see this with Jesus.
Jesus was hated by the Jews because He did not keep the Law of Sabbath as they understood it. What is interesting to note, we see Jesus in the Gospels had a thing of during miracles especially during the Sabbath. They would tell Him, there were 6 days in a week for Him to heal people, why did He venture out to heal people especially on a Sabbath (like the man near the lake who did not even know Jesus).

There were some things Jesus did knowingly, aware of its consequences, like He knew by healing Bartimaeus He would damage His good relationship with the Romans. That is why the last miracle He did was to heal Bartimaeus since history shows Bartimaeus was not born blind or medically blind, but was punished and made blind by Caesar (Rome) for revolting against the Romans. Jesus also went against the Jewish High Priest who is equivalent to the Catholic Pope by healing the man with a crippled hand. This man too like Bartimaeus was punished by the Jewish High Priest for working on a Sabbath (that is why when He healed this man they were out to kill Him with rage which they could not otherwise, since they were under Roman rule).

When the Pharisees confronted Jesus for breaking the Sabbath, Jesus always pointed to their lack of understanding on the Law and how they used their cunningness against God while they did break the Law according to their own understanding. Around the end we see Jesus pointed to scriptures wherein He showed them the Priests broke the Law every Sabbath and so did David as King once yet were found guiltless by God (we too in the Lord are called both priest and royal like David).

Purpose or spirit of the Law is more important than the text of the Law. If the person breaks the spirit of the Law while obeying the text the Law lands up being broken (for God is not man to make foolish / worldly laws).

If one studies the Ten Commandments, they all were not commandments, for the Lord Himself refers to them as Law and Commandments. Jesus expounded them to us as there being only 2 Commandments and the rest were Laws under them. If one keeps the 2 the rest are automatically kept in spirit. That is why Jesus worked on the Sabbath but yet did not break any Commandment or Law.

Today the Lord is telling us if we love the Lord with all our hearts, minds, strength and understanding and totally rest (mentally and spiritually) in Him at His given time (not a specific day of the week) we would be blessed abundantly in every area of their lives.

And yes the consequences of breaking this Law is death like the other Laws, but that would be on Judgement Day; that is why Jesus did stone the woman who committed adultery, who according to the Law had to be stoned to death. That is why Jesus asking if anyone there was worthy to sit in the Judgment seat caused them to move out. It was not a wise or witty move of Jesus but a Godly move of Jesus for He had the understanding of scriptures.



[ Prayer Starter ]
Lord, You are spirit and Your Kingdom is not of this world. Lord, we pray your people keep your Laws and Commandments in spirit and truth and not in the flesh like the Jews did and will perish for not accepting You. Lord, give wisdom and discernment to your people who like the Jews try to keep your Commandments and Laws in the flesh...

This prayer we make in Jesus' Name, Amen.


[ Reference ]
Exodus 24:12 And the LORD said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them.

Genesis 2:1-3
1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
[Did God really rest? He still works in us and through us, if He does not, then who is Jesus and who does miracles, heals, provides and forgives us?]

Exodus 16:21-31

Exodus 20:8-11
8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

Exodus 31:14-17
14 Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people.
15 Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death.
16 Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.
17 It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.

Exodus 35:1-3
1 And Moses gathered all the congregation of the children of Israel together, and said unto them, These are the words which the LORD hath commanded, that ye should do them.
2 Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you an holy day, a sabbath of rest to the LORD: whosoever doeth work therein shall be put to death.
3 Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the sabbath day.

Leviticus 25:2-27

Numbers 15:31-36
31 Because he hath despised the word of the LORD, and hath broken his commandment, that soul shall utterly be cut off; his iniquity shall be upon him.
32 And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day.
33 And they that found him gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all the congregation.
34 And they put him in ward, because it was not declared what should be done to him.
35 And the LORD said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp.
36 And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died; as the LORD commanded Moses.

Matthew 12:3-8
3 But he said unto them, Have ye not read what David did, when he was an hungred, and they that were with him;
4 How he entered into the house of God, and did eat the shewbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priests?
5 Or HAVE YE NOT READ IN THE LAW, HOW THAT ON THE SABBATH DAYS THE PRIESTS IN THE TEMPLE PROFANE THE SABBATH, AND ARE BLAMELESS?
6 But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple.
7 But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless.
8 For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day.

1 Peter 2:9 - But YE ARE A CHOSEN GENERATION, A ROYAL PRIESTHOOD, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:

The Word of God was given free to us, therefore we should also share it freely with others. (All rights are with God)