For most Christians, they see the Old and New Covenants as completely separate books, the practices appear to be different, the traditions, the language, the terms…it’s like two completely different religions almost. This is in large part due to transliterations from Hebrew to Greek to English. For example, the Old Covenant talks about ritual baths and ceremonial washing in living water for purification, the New Covenant
talks about baptism. They’re not different, in fact they’re the same. For many years, I thought baptism was a new tradition that came about because of Christianity, but it’s all in the names given…ritual bath or baptism…we’re talking about the same thing.
Another thing that many Christians mistake, is that Jesus did everything totally different from all the rabbis and religious leaders who’d lived before Him. Not so. In fact many of the things Jesus said and did were very familiar to the religious leaders and the general public because it was a regular form of teaching that they were all familiar with, however, the content of His preaching and the miraculous works He did, left them stumped and amazed because they were a huge step beyond all they’d ever seen or heard before.
1 Samuel 16:7, ‘The Lord said to Samuel, “Don’t look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I’ve rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.’
I realise that this verse may seem completely unconnected to what we’re talking about, but it’ll make sense shortly.
I’ve mentioned this before, but I want to talk about the rabbinical practice of building fences. I’ve mentioned the sacred Jewish writings such and the Talmud and the Mishna before, these are interpretations and commentaries of the Bible, and the practical advice on how to obey it. Kind of like Biblical commentaries and explanations that Christians have used to better help them understand Scripture.
In the Mishna, Avot 1:1, it says this: “The sages said, ‘Three things: be deliberate in judgment, raise up many disciples and make a fence around the Torah.” What does that mean?
I read about this in an article at the Israel Bible Center, by Pinchas Shir and he explained what building a fence around the Torah means. He said, “Just like a physical fence, a fence around the Torah is a protective enclosure around a commandment; in other words, an extra layer of rules. First one has to scale the protective fence, and only then be in a position to transgress the actual holy commandment. This way, it will be more difficult for people to transgress the Torah.”
The rabbinic practice of building fences around the Torah came from a good motive, to stop men from breaking the commands of God. That’s great. However, the additional rules didn’t actually deal with the root of sin and rebellion, it simply added to the burden of more rules to obey.
What’s the first thing a person does when they read a sign that says, “Keep off the grass?” They walk on the grass. What’s the first thing a person does when they see a sign that says, “Wet Paint?” They touch the surface to see if it’s really wet. It’s our innate response to do the very opposite of what the rules tell us, because our innate nature is sinful and rebellious and that sinful state is deep in our heart, at the very core of our nature. So additional rules simply make us more burdened, more rebellious and all that does is add to our guilt because we just can’t obey them all.
Jesus got quite angry with the religious leaders of His day for all the additional rules and traditions they’d heaped upon the people, they’d become so overwhelming that they were undermining God’s Laws altogether, and the people were carrying a burden they were suffocating under. God’s Law is more than enough to prove our sinful state without adding more on top of it.
Well, Jesus was a Jewish Rabbi and He also built fences around the Torah. The fence that Jesus built, cuts sin off at the knees because it stops it at its root…which is in the heart.
Matthew 7:21-23, Jesus said, “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.”
Pinchas Shir explained what Jesus did this way, “First, Yeshua quoted the original commandment in Exodus 20:14, and then added, “But I say to you…” and then comes Jesus’ fence: “avoid lustful gazing.” (Basically) According to Jesus’ wisdom, adultery and unfaithfulness come from looking at someone or something that is not yours, and suddenly the desire is born. Jesus says that this is already as sin. But merely looking at people is not prohibited in Torah. The fence is to avoid inappropriate gazing that leads to inappropriate desires, so that one will not commit the actual sin of adultery. This is an example of Jesus building a fence around a Biblical commandment, as was the practice of other rabbis of His day.”
Perhaps if King David hadn’t indulged in inappropriate gazing, he wouldn’t have become an adulterer with Basheba, whom his inappropriate gazing was focused on, and then become a murderer of her husband when he tried to cover up his sin.
The people weren’t shocked at Jesus’ teaching methods, but at the authority and wisdom that He taught. He cut right to the very heart of the issue, something the other rabbis and sages couldn’t understand because they weren’t God. Jesus was agreeing with the Word of God, that I read earlier in 1 Samuel 16:7, when God said very clearly that unlike human beings, He looks at the condition of a person’s heart, rather than what they look like on the outside. Why? Because it’s from deep in the heart that sin is born and develops to the point an outward act of sin takes place. If you cut that thing out at its root, it can’t grow up and destroy you. The action, or the pathology of sin is actually a process.
James 1:14-15, ‘Each one is tempted when he’s carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.’
Jesus built a fence around the Torah, just like the other rabbis did to prevent people from breaking God’s commandments, but He did it based on the establishment of God’s already existing Word, rather than just adding another rule or tradition that would never have the power to deal with the human heart condition.
We condemn the Jews in Jesus day for adding extra rules and traditions, that still occur to this day, but if you look through church history, you see so much of the same thing, absolutely felonious laws and rules that did absolutely nothing whatsoever to bring about holy lives, but rather, burdened believers and gave power to prosecute by those in charge.
Shalom
Mandy
