MAY 04 JQ#12.7 The Jesus Questions

LIVING FOR JESUS --- Daily Devotional

MAY  04  JQ#12 - Who decides what is legal, God or man?

365 Prayers to JESUS 

Jesus, Praise Glory and Honor to the One that is Worthy. Lord Jesus, without Your unselfishness, mankind would not know what unselfishness means for we are a truly selfish people, without your Patience with us we would not know what Unconditional Love looks like! Jesus, thank You for the Way that You have placed before me in this season, may I walk before You in a manner that Glorifies the Father and brings Honor to Your Name, the Name Jesus. Forgive us daily as we seek to walk blameless before Thee!    AMEN

The Jesus Questions

JQ#12.7 — “Who decides what is legal, God or man?” (Matthew 12:4,5,10,11,12). When Jesus called out the Pharisees on the issue of “legality” in Matthew 12:4-5 He was not only calling out the Pharisees for quoting blindly the Jewish law but Jesus was illustrating the deep “Truth of God” that all men tend to think God needs our help in explaining what He “really” meant to say! As soon as Jesus pointed to this Truth when He asked the questions by the words He used  to ask the questions in verses 4 and 5, Jesus immediately ties those words in the question to specific words in the answer that leave no room for doubt the lesson Jesus was teaching not just to the Pharisees but the bigger issue of “legalism” in general and “God vs man” in specific. In the questions Jesus used the words “read”, “David”, “entered the house of God”, “ate the showbread”, “not lawful for him”, and “only for the priests?”, (Matthew 12:4  JQ#12a) and Jesus continued in His second question, “read in the law”, “Sabbath”, “priests in the temple profane the Sabbath”, and ends with the tongue in check question   “and are blameless?” (Matthew 12:4  JQ#12b)— then Jesus teaches the lesson with His answers in the next two verses, “Yet I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the temple. But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice’ you would not have condemned the guiltless.” (Matthew 12:6-7) By asking the legalist to compare what they have “read in the law” which places “blame” on  breakers of laws written by man’s interpretation of the “True Authority” of the “One” who is greater than the manmade temple and thus greater than the manmade laws, Jesus is telling the legalists that they should be looking at “the spirit of the law” or the “intent of the law” instead of the “wording of the law”.  The fact that this problem still exists today is evident as one can pick up any modern dictionary and read a similar definition to this: “The letter of the law verses the spirit of the law is an idiomatic antithesis. When one obeys the letter of the law but not the spirit, one is obeying the literal interpretation of the words (the “letter”) of the law, but not necessarily the intent of those who wrote the law.” —Wikipedia. Jesus makes it clear that God is the Supreme Authority and that His Spirit should be followed over man’s “interpretation” of what God “meant to say” when in the very next statement Jesus summarizes clearly that God is the “First and Final Word” as Jesus proclaims: “For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” (Matthew 12:8) No one can deny that today’s modern world is still dealing with this “God vs man” issue and since government is full of lawyers and is all about “control” it comes as no surprise that all the problems we see in our modern society stems from the government imposing their interpretation of the law and are making it clear that they believe the government alone can declare what is “legal”. They declare their belief in the same breath that they declare their “authority” that there should be “separation” between God and government! Perhaps you would agree that this modern day  “spirit of separation” sets the groundwork for a Godless government? Do you want to be ruled by a set of laws written by legalists seeking control of you or a God that desires mercy for you?