7/4/18 – Deuteronomy 6, Deuteronomy 7, Deuteronomy 8 Luke 11:33-54 Psalm 42:1-6
Deut 6:6-9
And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Ok so… metaphor is a wonderful thing until you start taking it literally. This does not mean you should have the law tied to your arm or head as you prayer or on the lintels of your house. Although that is how it has been taken and is still practiced in Israel today.
But that the law should be in our hearts and our homes, that it should be a very part of us. The law should be on our minds, should be how we see the world and the way we live at home.
There’s very little point to following the external and literal – such as having a little scroll on your door if you are not going to live by it.
Luke 11:42-44
“But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seat in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without knowing it.”
Getting the external right and the internal wrong.
The Pharisees did everything by the book. Tithing is a great example. They were so obsessed with making sure that they got the tithe right, they even tithed from their spice rack as if this was the way to please God.
But they’d missed the point. They’d missed that God was calling them to love others. They saved themselves the best seats in the synagogue – why? Because they thought they deserved it. I’ve never been keen on the idea of saving special seats for people in church, because it somehow gives you a misplaced sense of what success in the Kingdom is. (One day I will be worthy of sitting in the front row. Then I’ll know I’ve made it!)
We don’t tithe to make ourselves of higher standing with God – we tithe because we love God and we want to bless His work. Church should need be a race to the best seats – but a race to help people.
Luke 11:45-48
One of the lawyers answered him, “Teacher, in saying these things you insult us also.” And he said, “Woe to you lawyers also! For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers. Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed. So you are witnesses and you consent to the deeds of your fathers, for they killed them, and you build their tombs.
I love this. The lawyers say to Jesus that his teaching isn’t just insulting the Pharisees but also them. Jesus’ respond isn’t to say, “oh sorry – I just meant those guys…” – no it’s to take the level of insult up a level! Woe to you lawyers also!!!! They were also hypocrites – putting rules on people, giving them burdens and then doing nothing to help. They would glorify the past, even though the people they were glorifying were killed by people who had the same attitude these lawyers had.
Incidentally – this isn’t lawyers as in solicitors… (fun though that translation is) this is the experts in the law of God. Time and gain Jesus is bringing it back to the heart of the law and how people are misusing the word of God instead of obeying it.
Psalm 42:1-2
As a deer pants for flowing streams,
so pants my soul for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
I love this Psalm. How much is your desire for God alive? How much do you want more of Him? When you are thirsty – having water is all you can think about. That’s how our thoughts of God should be – thrusting for more of Him, never ready to say you’ve gone far enough but always desiring more of Him in your life.
