Good Morning Friends,
“One Sabbath Jesus was going through the
grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads
of grain. The Pharisees said to him,
‘Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?’ He answered, ‘Have you never read what David
did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he
entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only
for priests to eat. And he also gave
some to his companions.’ Then he said to
them, ‘The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the
Sabbath.’” (Mark 2:23-28)
The Old Testament contains hundreds of laws
that were given to the Jewish people by God.
Some of those laws provide some very intricate details about what God
required of man and what God forbade man to do.
In the text above Jesus answers the question: Why did God give all those laws?
Some people seem to say that God gave the
laws to show who is boss. He wanted
people to know that He is in charge and He would determine what people are to
do and not to do. The law is about
control. At least, that’s what some
people seem to say.
Some people seem to say that God gave the
laws to provide a separation among people.
On one side of a line would be those who are acceptable to Him and on
the other side of the line are those who are unacceptable to Him. The line that separates is the law God
provided. Those who keep the law are on
one side and those who don’t keep it are on the other side. At least, that’s what some people seem to say.
But neither of those points are the point
that Jesus made above. Neither of those
is the reason God gave His law. Jesus
said that God gave the laws for the good of mankind -- “The Sabbath was made
for man, not man for the Sabbath.” Jesus
used the Sabbath law as an example. Man
would be tempted to work seven days a week to get ahead. In doing so man would have little time to
spend with family, little time for the community, and little time to consider
the larger issues of eternity and God.
God provided the Sabbath laws to emphasize how important it is to set
aside time for issues that transcend making money and having fun – to set aside
time for the spiritual issues of life.
The Sabbath laws were good for man.
They still are. The Sabbath laws
have been removed, but the principle remains – man still needs time to focus on
the Lord.
And every other law that God provided fits
somehow into that philosophy, too. Every
law God provided connects in some way to what is good for the men and women to
whom the law was given. God’s laws are
not about God – they are about us – they are about God taking care of us –
providing us direction that we need, for our good.
His, by Grace,
Steve
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