Post by Mark on Nov 17, 2008 6:51:33 GMT -8
When Alexander the Great conquered the Mediteranian world, he introduced Greek thought and philosophy into the cultures that were subject to him. Jerusalem was no different. In fact, he ordered an entire garrison of Roman officers to marry Jewish women and settle down so that the people could begin to accept Greek thinking as their own. The strategy was highly successful: so much so that even the priestly writings of the day referred to the Greek understanding as "superior".
The most devout of the day, of course, saw a bit of a problem with this; but understood that they had no way of holding back the tide of this new perspective and culture. To preserve what they could of the Hebrew system of worship, they adopted a legalistic and absolutely concrete interpretation of the
. If the did not state or command such and such in exactly so many words, then it was not applicable to biblical understanding. This method would allow to the Greek understanding and Hebrew worship to co-exist without much conflict. Hebrew worship was done in the Temple and home while Greek philosophy governed most of civic and community issues. This order called themselves the Sons of Zadok, after the High Priest during the reign of King David, in Hebrew, Benai Tzadokim, later to known as Sadducees.
This appeared to be working fine until the reign of Antiochus, who demanded that all Hebrew ro Jewish religious practices be abandoned. What was shocking to the most devout was the greater population had little aversion to the new demands that they not circumcise their children and that they practice worship of the Syrian gods, including feasts on pork, and other violations of the. The Macabean revolt which re-established Temple worship and a re-dedication to the obedience of Adonai’s Laws, introduced another strain within the Jewish religious understanding. These people saw , the things of God, touching every area and aspect of a person’s life. Every act and thought could be considered an act of worship or an act of rebellion against God. Unlike the Sadducess who could isolate theological worship from every day life, every aspect of every day life was to be wholly committed to Adonai. Since by this, these people distinguished themselves even from other Jews, they became known as "Separatists", or in Hebrew, "Parushim" transliterated into many of our Bibles as Pharisees.
In their effort to make every aspect of their life a thing of holiness, the Pharisees, over the next 150 years, developed a catalog of conduct which identified and discussed every function and circumstance a person could be involved in. This process was by no means authoritative; but zealously debated at every level. It wasn’t so important that everything be done perfectly right; but that God be taken into consideration with every detail. Eventually, those with greater scholarship developed a following into specific schools of ideology. These schools would battle against each other until the consistently prevailing position became law.
The Pharisees were, for good reason, understood to be the most righteous people of Israel. Every aspect of their lives was committed to living in obedience of. The message of our Messiah was not that their obedience was worthless nor that the observance was of no value; but that they simply could not see the forest for the trees.
If our obedience to the commands of Scripture is about us, about how we look and about how others consider us, then it has ceased to be tool that our God created for us to use. It can’t be a matter of checking off one particular practice from our list as being a sin that we no longer participate in, or a good practice that we now consistently observe. It must be a vehicle for walking in humble obedience with the Most High God.
He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
(Micah 6:8)
We have a way of "practicing" our religion… practicing without really putting it into practice. We tend to walk somewhere between the Sadducees who drew complete distinction between their religion and their daily lives and the Pharisees who defined their daily lives according to their religion. Messiah teaches us that it is not about practicing but about living in the presence of the Almighty. Instead of arguing and debating amongst ourselves as to who has the most righteous opinion, Yeshua suggests maybe we should ask God, involving Him in the discussion, walking with Him in humility; as opposed to walking in a way that appears better than the other guy.
This in no way suggests that the Law of God is irrelevant or that the questions the Pharisees would burden over were futile. Rather, the purpose of getting closer to Adonai should be the focus, rather than just being higher than the other guy.
It’s really the way that we are put together: that intrinisic sin nature that we contracted in the garden through our father Adam. It is the "knowledge of good and evil" that suggests that we can be like God, that says, "Okay, God, I can take it from here." We begin our Christian walk by recognizing who He is in relationship to us; but hold onto the things of the world that we have always loved so dearly. We are Saducees. Then we learn the value of obedience and our encouraged to change our behavior to what is more appropriate for those who are identified with His name. We become Pharisees. Messiah says that we’re still missing it. He says, "Walk with Me."
We could make a huge banquet feast with all the trimmings, get everything just right: the temperature, the timing, the mood; but of it never makes it to the table, if the dinner bell is never rang, it is all for naught. Such is our obedience to the commands, such is the understanding of the Pharisees. If we stop short of coming to the presence of Adonai, we have not made the journey at all.
Messiah didn’t say, "except your righteousness follow a different understanding from that of the Pharisees. He used the word "exceed", to go farther, to go all the way, to come to the presence of the Father.
The most devout of the day, of course, saw a bit of a problem with this; but understood that they had no way of holding back the tide of this new perspective and culture. To preserve what they could of the Hebrew system of worship, they adopted a legalistic and absolutely concrete interpretation of the
. If the did not state or command such and such in exactly so many words, then it was not applicable to biblical understanding. This method would allow to the Greek understanding and Hebrew worship to co-exist without much conflict. Hebrew worship was done in the Temple and home while Greek philosophy governed most of civic and community issues. This order called themselves the Sons of Zadok, after the High Priest during the reign of King David, in Hebrew, Benai Tzadokim, later to known as Sadducees.This appeared to be working fine until the reign of Antiochus, who demanded that all Hebrew ro Jewish religious practices be abandoned. What was shocking to the most devout was the greater population had little aversion to the new demands that they not circumcise their children and that they practice worship of the Syrian gods, including feasts on pork, and other violations of the
. The Macabean revolt which re-established Temple worship and a re-dedication to the obedience of Adonai’s Laws, introduced another strain within the Jewish religious understanding. These people saw , the things of God, touching every area and aspect of a person’s life. Every act and thought could be considered an act of worship or an act of rebellion against God. Unlike the Sadducess who could isolate theological worship from every day life, every aspect of every day life was to be wholly committed to Adonai. Since by this, these people distinguished themselves even from other Jews, they became known as "Separatists", or in Hebrew, "Parushim" transliterated into many of our Bibles as Pharisees.In their effort to make every aspect of their life a thing of holiness, the Pharisees, over the next 150 years, developed a catalog of conduct which identified and discussed every function and circumstance a person could be involved in. This process was by no means authoritative; but zealously debated at every level. It wasn’t so important that everything be done perfectly right; but that God be taken into consideration with every detail. Eventually, those with greater scholarship developed a following into specific schools of ideology. These schools would battle against each other until the consistently prevailing position became law.
The Pharisees were, for good reason, understood to be the most righteous people of Israel. Every aspect of their lives was committed to living in obedience of
. The message of our Messiah was not that their obedience was worthless nor that the observance was of no value; but that they simply could not see the forest for the trees.If our obedience to the commands of Scripture is about us, about how we look and about how others consider us, then it has ceased to be tool that our God created for us to use. It can’t be a matter of checking off one particular practice from our list as being a sin that we no longer participate in, or a good practice that we now consistently observe. It must be a vehicle for walking in humble obedience with the Most High God.
He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
(Micah 6:8)
We have a way of "practicing" our religion… practicing without really putting it into practice. We tend to walk somewhere between the Sadducees who drew complete distinction between their religion and their daily lives and the Pharisees who defined their daily lives according to their religion. Messiah teaches us that it is not about practicing but about living in the presence of the Almighty. Instead of arguing and debating amongst ourselves as to who has the most righteous opinion, Yeshua suggests maybe we should ask God, involving Him in the discussion, walking with Him in humility; as opposed to walking in a way that appears better than the other guy.
This in no way suggests that the Law of God is irrelevant or that the questions the Pharisees would burden over were futile. Rather, the purpose of getting closer to Adonai should be the focus, rather than just being higher than the other guy.
It’s really the way that we are put together: that intrinisic sin nature that we contracted in the garden through our father Adam. It is the "knowledge of good and evil" that suggests that we can be like God, that says, "Okay, God, I can take it from here." We begin our Christian walk by recognizing who He is in relationship to us; but hold onto the things of the world that we have always loved so dearly. We are Saducees. Then we learn the value of obedience and our encouraged to change our behavior to what is more appropriate for those who are identified with His name. We become Pharisees. Messiah says that we’re still missing it. He says, "Walk with Me."
We could make a huge banquet feast with all the trimmings, get everything just right: the temperature, the timing, the mood; but of it never makes it to the table, if the dinner bell is never rang, it is all for naught. Such is our obedience to the commands, such is the understanding of the Pharisees. If we stop short of coming to the presence of Adonai, we have not made the journey at all.
Messiah didn’t say, "except your righteousness follow a different understanding from that of the Pharisees. He used the word "exceed", to go farther, to go all the way, to come to the presence of the Father.
