APRIL 03 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#12 *Who decides what is legal, God or man?* “What man is there among you who has one sheep and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out? Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep?” (Matthew 12:11-12a)

 APRIL 03  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#12 *Who decides what is legal, God or man?*  “What man is there among you who has one sheep and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out? Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep?” (Matthew 12:11-12a)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily  Prayer   

JESUS, Lord I thank You for this ongoing “physical trial” for it is making me more aware of just how much we depend on things we take for granted when we are “healthy”.  Jesus, I thank you mostly today for the immediate answer to my prayer for “spiritual healing” as my wife and I awoke to our usual “honeymoon” attitude and Lord You know I have never taken that “special blessing” You have bestowed on our “God-honoring  marriage” and I know it was Your Spirit that quickly resolved the issue. Lord I do not pray for You to take my pain away but I do pray that You will grant me healing and keep me aware of these wonderful blessings that I see already as a result of my situation, like being able to “share Jesus” with the medical help you have surrounded me with during my physical ailments whom I lift up to You in prayer today and ask Your blessings as they are Your healing hands for those You place in their paths.     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus, being All-Knowing and the Master Teacher asked this most important Question because one can easily see that it is the most important Question that any society can ask of the government which the society elects to rule them. History reveals that government always rises from or eventually becomes the “elite ruling” class in any society. It is either kings and queens or presidents or governors but there are very, very few large societies that are not ruled by a set of officials normally called the “government”. We all know that the single purpose of “government” is to “govern” and we all know “who” they govern. In the United States of America our “government” was established as a symbolic “Trinity” with three main branches, each having a specific responsibility but all all three deal with laws and legality as the three branches are known as the Judicial, Legislative, and the Executive. The fact that Jesus confronts the Pharisees on issues of “legality” should get our attention and we should pay close attention because Jesus addressed “government” and “legalism” several times in His Teachings. Jesus, as always, is consistent in His Teaching of Lessons that are universal and timeless so that all societies, all races, all nations, and all peoples of the world can benefit from studying the Lessons Jesus puts forth, especially when He Teaches on such an important issue such as is addressed in Matthew Chapter 12 where Jesus calls out the “ruling judicial class” of the Jewish community that called themselves Pharisees. We can easily demonstrate that Jesus was asking the specific root Question of “Who decides what is legal, God or man?” because  the Pharisees were declaring that the actions of Jesus and His disciples were “unlawful” according to the Jewish religious law called the Halakha and referring specifically to the Jewish Sabbath called the Shabbat laws. First of all the Jewish nation is a nation founded by God through a man named Abraham, who had a son named Isaac, who had a son named Jacob and Jacob had 12 sons who became known as Israel. We know of this man named Abraham because God of the Bible called out Abraham to “go to a land that I [God Himself] will show you” and later God promised Abraham that He would give the land to Abraham’s descendants as a “possession”. Further evidence that proves the point of the “legality” Question asked of the Jewish law by Jesus is that (1) God called Abraham (2) God gave Abraham sons whom God said would inherit the land God gave them (3) God changed the name of Abraham’s grandson Jacob to “Israel” and Jacob’s twelve sons became known as “the twelve tribes of Israel” thus firmly establishing the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as the God of the land and nation of Israel and the Jewish people. Add to the fact that the Halakha is called Jewish law (but of “legal note” here: all the laws in the Halakha are “man’s” interpretation of “God’s Law”) and then it becomes obvious that Jesus is asking the Pharisees, “What takes precedent — what ‘God’ declares as ‘Right’ or what ‘man’ says is ‘legal’?”  the Question Jesus asked the Pharisees over 2000 years ago should be asked today, or do you think the US government can “legally” take God out of our schools, our public places, and out of government itself?