MAY 02 JQ#12.5 The Jesus Questions

LIVING FOR JESUS --- Daily Devotional

MAY  02  JQ#12 - Who decides what is legal, God or man?

365 Prayers to JESUS 

Jesus, You said we have not because we ask not — Lord I ask for physical healing for my sore ribs but Lord I pray for spiritual healing and forgiveness for my weakness displayed during my physical pain, Lord I know that I should have been mentally prepared for the “attack” but I wasn’t — so now as I seek forgiveness that I KNOW you will give me, I pray firstly that Your Grace will extend to my Precious Deb for the angry words spoken during my physical pain. Lord, this is just a very small “bump in the road” and keep me always focused on “getting home” and not the “bumpy road” that I must travel to get there!  AMEN

The Jesus Questions

JQ#12.5 — “Who decides what is legal, God or man?” (Matthew 12:4,5,10,11,12). When the “accusation” of the Pharisees was made against Jesus and His disciples: “And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, ‘Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!” (Matthew 12:2) we must consider the “source of authority” that the Pharisees were using to declare the “legality” of the actions of Jesus and His disciples who were walking through the grainfields eating grain because they were hungry. When the Pharisees stated “Your disciples are doing what is not lawful” they were referring to the Halakha which is the Jewish religious law and specifically to the part of Halakha referring to the Jewish Sabbath called the Shabbat laws which contains 39 prohibited activities. “The Hebrew word shabbat comes from the Hebrew verb shabbat, which literally means ‘to cease’’’ {{quoted from http://www.thenazareneway.com/sabbath/39_prohib_sabbath.htm The Nazarene Way internet article: “The 39 Prohibited Sabbath Activities}} . “The Pharisees were at various times a political party, a social movement, and a school of thought in the Holy Land during the time of Second Temple Judaism.” {{quoted from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharisees}} The question of “legality” of the Shabbat was immediately addressed by Jesus Himself as he addressed the Pharisees: “But He said to them, ‘Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God and ate the showbread which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests?’”  (Matthew 12:3-4  JQ#12A) Jesus was referring to King David when King David had gone into the house of God and asked  Ahimelech the priest  for bread for him and his men because they were hungry and the Bible states in 1 Samuel 21:6 “… so [Ahimelech] gave [David] hallowed bread…” which according to the Jewish Halakha that it was also unlawful for anyone but the priests to eat the showbread. So Jesus is answering the “not lawful” charges of the Pharisees with references to King David, Jewish History, and the Jewish Halakha. Jesus continues to question using Hebrew law to establish “legality” over God’s Law as Jesus immediately follows the first question with a similar second question, “Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are blameless?” (Matthew 12:5   JQ#12B). Jesus is making His point of “determining legality” with the Pharisees by essentially asking the implied question,”Who decides what is legal, God or man?” (JQ#12). You might ask what a little Jewish Law has to do with your daily life so I’ll remind you that it was a Jewish Law that was the reason for the Crucifixion of Jesus! It is up to you to decide if the Crucifixion is important enough to put on your “daily concerns” list.