When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God". (Mark 12:34)
After the children of Israel are exiled, their religious leaders had a lot of time to debate what went wrong in the exile. The prophets had told them that they were too lax on their spiritual life. They took the things of God too lightly. They treated his worship with contempt. They offered sacrifices that were blemished. They gave greater value to the passing things of this life than the wonder and awe of God himself.
Therefore, the teachers of the Law decided to enact barriers around the Law in order to serve as warning signs of impending danger. The indictments in Matthew 23 against hypocrisy, titles, artificial tithing, greed, self-indulgence, self-righteousness, and spiritual disconnectivity arose from a warped understanding of God’s laws and standards. Their additions to the laws of Moses so obscured the original laws that the teachers effectively nullified and made irrelevant God’s teaching. The fundamental principle of all the Pharisees, a common factor with all modern orthodox Jews, is that by the side of the written law was an oral law to complete and to explain the written law.
The written law was regarded as a summary of the principles and general laws of the Hebrew people given to Moses on Mount Sinai and transmitted by him by word of mouth. The first portion of the Talmud, called the Mishna or "second law," contains this oral law. It is a digest of the Jewish traditions and a compendium of the whole ritual law, and it came at length to be esteemed far above the sacred text.
For Reflection:
1) How close am I to God's original intention for my life?
2) How much do I discount my own sin when wrong?
3) What barriers do I have in my life to protect me from sin and separation?
Thank you for listening and learning together,
Boyd
