John 7:19-24 – “Did Moses not give you the Law, and yet none of you carries out the Law? Why are you seeking to kill Me?” 20 The crowd answered, “You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill You?” 21 Jesus answered them, “I did one deed, and you all are astonished. 22 For this reason Moses has given you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and even on a Sabbath you circumcise a man. 23 If a man receives circumcision on a Sabbath so that the Law of Moses will not be broken, are you angry at Me because I made an entire man well on a Sabbath? 24 Do not judge by the outward appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.”
“Did Moses not give you the Law, and yet none of you carries out the Law? Why are you seeking to kill Me?” Moses is venerated by the Jews. He gave them The Law by which they know how to follow the Lord and the prophecy to recognize Him. The problem is that they do not strictly follow The Law, they don’t even try to. What they follow is The Law plus what their respected men of old have added to it. They equate to The Law their opinions of how to keep it. Yet in their own scriptures from God in Deuteronomy 4:2 it states not to do what they have done “Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you.” Additionally we are warned in Revelation 22:18-19 that we are not only not to add anything to scripture but also not to take anything from it. With this verse comes the strictest of warnings against doing so “God will take away from that person any share in the tree of life and in the Holy City.” So in both the Old Testament and the New Testament we are not to add or take away from scripture. As if men have the ability or license to edit God. What a travesty! Perish the thought, and yet, this is what the Jews have done. They claim Moses as their high hero yet they don’t heed what he said.
If the Jews had taught what they thought was best but had not made it equal to The Law, then that would have been okay. After all our teachers and preachers give to us advice from their understanding. It is believable that their attempts to add understanding of The Law were sincere and admirable. But to equate their teaching to the Word itself, what hubris is that!
“The crowd answered, “You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill You?” We could take this statement by the crowd as accusing Jesus of having a demon but actually they were saying something more like “Are you out of your crazy mind?” Likely not all, or maybe even only a few, knew that the Jewish authorities were indeed out to kill Jesus.
“Jesus answered them, “I did one deed, and you all are astonished. 22 For this reason Moses has given you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and even on a Sabbath you circumcise a man. 23 If a man receives circumcision on a Sabbath so that the Law of Moses will not be broken, are you angry at Me because I made an entire man well on a Sabbath?” The fourth commandment (of the ten) is to keep the Sabbath day. The Lord God gave mankind six days to accomplish their work in a week and the seventh day is to be a day of rest in which the Lord is honored and gratefulness to Him is expressed. It is day of tilling the abundant and rich blessings we have received from God to bring a harvest of love and gratefulness to Him. And yet this is not an inflexible commandment. The command to do no work can be broken if necessary to keep the law concerning circumcision. Circumcision is reflective of having the world cut away from us to live unto the Lord. We are to reject the ways of the world and cling to the new life in Christ as led by the Spirit. So keeping the rite of circumcision trumps doing no work on the Sabbath. Jesus said to them that if doing a ritual to separate oneself unto God trumps not working on the Sabbath, then certainly the completion of the cleansing of man also trumps it. Jesus was saying that His act of love and salvation trumps any work of The Law. Still, we remember that Jesus did not come to do away with the law but to fulfill it. (Matthew 5:17) And that is what He was doing. Jesus taught us that the greatest commandments were that of love and in rejecting Jesus for loving they show that they not only didn’t have Jesus, but they also didn’t have the Father. (1 John 2:23)
“Do not judge by the outward appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.” We see that God does not judge by appearance and neither should be. 1 Samuel 16:7 states that while people look at outside appearance, the Lord God looks at the heart.” Isaiah 11:1-3 states that the shoot they were waiting for one bears fruits of righteousness, the Spirit of the Lord would be with Him. He would have the wisdom and understanding of God, He would be able to give counsel and would have the might to do the works He was called to. He would have knowledge from the Holy Spirit and He would respect His God. Not only would He respect the Lord God, but that He would delight in doing do. Family and Friends, read Isaiah 11 and see that it describes Jesus. There was, and is, no excuse not to know that Jesus is indeed the promised Savior, first to the Jew and then to the Gentiles. (Romans 1:16)
Psalm 150:6 – Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!
Micah 7:7 – But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will Hear me.
Micah 6:8 – He has shown you, Oh man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
Numbers 6:24-26 – The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; 26 The Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.