The Gospels & ActsDiscussion of texts from Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Acts These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name. (John 20:31)
...It is actually quite natural that the Pharisees would be concerned about the Sabbath. The fraternity of the Pharisees was originally founded for the purpose of seeking to take seriously the Law of God after the Babylonian captivity. In the Law of God, God had commanded that the Nation of Israel celebrate a Sabbath Year once every 7 years. Israel was in captivity for 70 years because the Nation had disregarded the command of God to give the land a rest one year in every seven for 490 years. And so God judged the Nation by taking them out of the land and giving the land rest for the 70 years they had neglected to celebrate.
Thus the Pharisees, after the captivity were like a child who had burned his hand on a hot stove. A hot stove is very useful but if you touch the burner it is quite painful. A child, properly disciplined, will return to the stove someday and use it properly. But one way around never getting burned is to never go near the stove again.
That’s the nature of the fleshly approach to Law keeping: set up an entire set of man-made rules that put a fence around the Law. One way to keep away from violating the Sabbath was to put a big fence around it and tell everybody to never go near the Law by keeping all the regulations. Keeping the regulations, then, replaces actually keeping the Law because, if the Law is all about not crossing a certain line, then drawing closer lines is even better. Eventually, the fences erected were the only things the Rabbis meditated upon. Pharisees became experts in the regulations. The rabbis drew up a catalogue of thirty-nine principal works, subsequently subdivided into six minor categories under each of these thirty-nine, all of which were forbidden on the Sabbath. On this list of regulations was a prohibition against picking heads of grain. That was considered to be “reaping”...
...Beloved, God created the world in 6 days and all very good. On the 6th day, He stooped down and, with special care, created man out of the dust of the Earth. With a tender love, He put His mouth up to the first man and breathed life into Him and, with that breath, His very image. As the man opened his eyes, the first thing He saw was the face of God. Oh, the vision that Adam saw! What a loving Father!
When God rested the next day, the first Sabbath, and invited Adam to rest with Him, do you suppose Adam complained that he got to spend the whole day in communion with His Father?
When Adam fell, and we with him, mankind ran away from God and tried covering himself with leaves to protect himself from the Holiness of God. Gone was face to face communion with the God of the Universe. But God, even then, was gracious to His foolish children and, in their presence, slayed an animal and covered them.
Man fell from communion with God and the enjoyment of rest. All was toil. Pagan societies like France after the Revolution tried to go to 10 week days and it crushed men under the weight of toil because we’ve been designed by our Creator to rest one day in seven. We foolishly think we know better and, in our folly, would work ourselves to the bone headlong into the hell. There, we would deservedly face the wrath of God for our disobedience.
No Sabbath.
No communion with God.
For eternity.
But God is rich in mercy. While we were still His enemies, while our flesh hated the sight of Him, while we groped in the darkness in the futility of our self-worship, God the Son took on our weak flesh. He was hated and despised. He walked alone in obedience that was foreign to us. He preached to men and served the Law of God with a holiness and compassion that our flesh hated and so, in men’s hatred, they put Him to death for it.
But, to our amazement, Christ was there willingly. He was our High Priest offering His sinless flesh as a propitiation for our filthy Sin. Dying on the eve of the Sabbath, our Lord remained in the grave throughout the Jewish Sabbath, working for our benefit and putting to death Sin and death. On the third day, the Lord’s Day, death could not hold Him! He rose from the grave in victory over death and we were raised in newness of life with Him!
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Thus the Pharisees, after the captivity were like a child who had burned his hand on a hot stove. A hot stove is very useful but if you touch the burner it is quite painful. A child, properly disciplined, will return to the stove someday and use it properly. But one way around never getting burned is to never go near the stove again.
Creative picture, Rich. I look forward to listening.
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Paul Korte
OPC
Flint, MI
They who perceive in themselves discoveries of the divine goodness, so full and absolutely perfect, and who make them the subject of earnest meditation, will never embrace new doctrines, by which the very grace they feel so powerfully in themselves is thrown into the shade. --John Calvin
This was the first time I've listened to you teach. Well done! After hearing that, you'd have a difficult time convincing me that your heart is truly in what you do for the Corps...
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Ben
Chaplain, US Army
Ft. Riley, KS
TE Ohio Valley Presbytery, PCA
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Thanks Ben. Let's just say the study and teaching of the Word of God is my first love but I do enjoy IT as well. I appreciate the encouragement. I'm working on my M.Div. deliberately to see where Providence leads because I have so many external encouragements for the ministry that I need to prepare my heart for it, if the Lord wills.
I look forward to listening to your message tonight. Interesting that for the last couple weeks from time-to-time this part of the passage has come to mind, and made me wonder:
3 And Jesus answered them, Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: 4 how he entered the house of God and took and ate the bread of the Presence, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those with him? 5 And he said to them, The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.
It may be touched on in the message, but here's what I was wondering. Why was it ok for David to do what he did if it was not lawful. I don't have time now to dig up the verses, but I was wondering why this was ok, but when others did unlawful things it wasn't ok - I'm thinking of 1) the passage where they're transporting the ark of the covenant on the cart and somebody reaches up to steady it and 2) the time when the guy was picking up sticks on the Sabbath. All three are unlawful, but...
In parallel passages, the answer is essentially that one aspect of the Law takes precedence over the other. In this case the ceremonial aspect of the the Showbread being for the priests is trumped by the necessity of the preservation of human life. One of the interesting things that Christ notes in Matthew 12:5 is that the priests in the Temple "profane" the Sabbath because they work on a day of rest but that work is a work of necessity and mercy. You actually see Christ doing quite a few things in the Scriptures that a Jew would not do if all they cared about was their ritual cleanliness - he touches lepers to make them clean and, in a later passage, stops a funeral procession and touches a dead body to resurrect the boy and restore him to his mother. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, the two people that pass by on the other side of the road are doing so for ritual purity reasons and so the Samaritan is the only one that is said to fulfill the Law to love neighbor.
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I enjoyed listening to your sermon (both times). It was one of those sermons that, after you hear it, makes me want to dig deeper into the scriptures to learn more. Well done. Thanks for posting it.
2But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day.
3But he said unto them, Have ye not read what David did, when he was an hungred, and they that were with him;
4How he entered into the house of God, and did eat the shewbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priests?
5Or have ye not read in the law, how that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless?
6But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple.
7But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless.
8For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day.
It seems that in relation to the priests, at least (v. 5) their work which was commanded by parts of the Levitical Law, was not a violation of the fourth commandment.
I have heard that called an exception of "piety" but see also how it is work of necessity and mercy (must be done for corporate worship on the sabbath). So that work, at least, was never a violation of the Sabbath. If I'm understanding that correctly, it's not that it was "work" and got an exception but that works of this kind, being both of the nature of true necessity and mercy and specifically commanded by Scripture are, from the beginning, not sabbath violations- never were.
It seems though David's actions were violations, from the beginning, sabbath violations but then "excepted"?
David's violation was not a Sabbath but a ceremonial one. In this case Christ is focusing on the High Priest and commending his actions. The story is an interesting one to bring up because David withheld some information from the High Priest in that particular scenario. Without getting into those particular details, I do think the application primarily addresses a preservation of life over the violation of a ceremonial ordinance.
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David's violation was not a Sabbath but a ceremonial one. In this case Christ is focusing on the High Priest and commending his actions. The story is an interesting one to bring up because David withheld some information from the High Priest in that particular scenario. Without getting into those particular details, I do think the application primarily addresses a preservation of life over the violation of a ceremonial ordinance.
When David and those with him ate the shewbread, how would they have known it was ok to eat it? Or did they know?
Some commentators think he had the authority to do so but it seems as if he's really asking the High Priest for permission here and he concedes after David assures him that the men are all clean.
When you think about it, there are times when certain ceremonial things have to be broken. If you could never go near a dead body then you'd have to skip the funeral of your own parents. If you avoided sexual relations with your wife all the time in order to remain clean then you would end up having the whole nation die out.
I noted in my exhortation the case of Christ touching lepers and dead people to note Christ's willingness to become ritually unclean for a larger purpose. The Pharisees seem to care more about the ritual than the person forgetting that Law is meant for good.
Some commentators think he had the authority to do so but it seems as if he's really asking the High Priest for permission here and he concedes after David assures him that the men are all clean.
When you think about it, there are times when certain ceremonial things have to be broken. If you could never go near a dead body then you'd have to skip the funeral of your own parents. If you avoided sexual relations with your wife all the time in order to remain clean then you would end up having the whole nation die out.
I noted in my exhortation the case of Christ touching lepers and dead people to note Christ's willingness to become ritually unclean for a larger purpose. The Pharisees seem to care more about the ritual than the person forgetting that Law is meant for good.
So, what we have was ceremonial law in both cases:
1) David taking bread reserved for ceremony for the priests
2) The Levites (priests) doing work- the worship act of sacrifice on the sabbath
So neither were fourth commandment violations, ab initio (from the beginning)
That's interesting because these passages are often described as "exceptions" established, de novo by Our Lord in the New Testament.
We know from reformed theology moral law like the forth commandment is binding on all men in all generations whereas the ceremonial law was fulfilled in Christ and is therefore its general applicability was abrogated by Him and in His Resurrection.
Rich, when you hit the gospel, man, just fed my soul...powerful, what a testament to the power of Law and Gospel and how it transforms us...I thank God for His message through you...I thank you for standing up and delivering it!
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Trevor
Christian/Husband/Father/Writer/Teacher--
--In that order.
Bethany Church
CALIFORNIA
God is my King
Love God--Live Large
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