It’s that time of year when ‘everyone’ decorates their homes with lights, wreaths, Satans (I’m sorry, I meant to type Satans . . . maybe my auto-correct is broken) Santas, and numerous other pieces of secularism and paganism.
There is the odd Nativity scene every other block, but 95 percent of the homes in any given neighborhood will have a decorated tree and something in a ‘Santa’ hat (e.g. Santa, the Grinch, a Minion, a polar bear, penguins, etc . . . my neighbor has an inflatable unicorn in a Santa hat in their front yard).
There are neighborhood contests for the ‘best’ display, which is horrendous because most people cannot distinguish between tasteful and tacky. More stuff is seldom better.
My last two blogs (Party Like a Pagan and Really, Awful Worship) delve into the pagan roots of the rituals we use to celebrate Christmas. The Word is very specific concerning Yahweh’s displeasure at those who chose to follow man’s traditions rather than His Word.
A good friend of mine (Jon McPheron – he writes a wonderful blog entitled Berean Breadcrumbs. You should read his studiously-researched articles before wasting time reading mine) tells me he wants to put a marque sign in his front yard that proclaims, in six-foot letters, “Mark 7” to counter the tacky displays in his neighborhood.
Before you conclude that he is advertising for someone to buy him a fancy Iron Man suit (two generations better than the ‘Mark 5’ suit), maybe we should check out chapter 7 from the Gospel of Mark:
1 Then came together unto him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes, which came from Jerusalem. 2 And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashen, hands, they found fault. 3 For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders.
Mark 7:1-3
Chabad.org explains one version of Meal Hand-Washing that includes the specific sequence for the washing of hands (step 1 is to make sure your hands are clean before you wash them); prayers for hand washing; and a lovely, little ditty from Rabbi Chisda, who says, “Don’t skimp. Fill your hands with water and G‑d will fill them with His goodness.” Other versions have the person washing one hand completely and then the other.
The tradition supposedly comes from King Solomon’s directive to the Levites to wash their hands before eating the sacrifice. I would hope that the priests were already smart enough to clean the blood off their hands before eating the sacrifice. Since they were already instructed to wash their hands before approaching the altar (Exodus 30:17-21), they should not have needed one of the smartest guys who ever lived to remind them.
After the Romans destroyed the second Temple in 70AD, the Jews began to consider their dinner table to be a temple-substitute in order to maintain the disciplines (including hand-washing) that had been taught to them, until the day that a new temple would be erected (https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/hand-washing). This sounds good, but the Pharisees were heaped in traditions while the Temple still stood . . . as we will see.
4 And when they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not. And many other things there be, which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups, and pots, brasen vessels, and of tables. 5 Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands?
Mark 7:4-5
Jealousy at the adulation Christ was receiving forced them to find fault somewhere because they could not dispute Yeshua’s doctrine (which was, and is, Torah) nor with his miracles. It’s like when today’s media ignored the miraculous economy and the many Mideast peace treaties and focused on President Trump’s brusque manner of speaking and tweeting.
No, I am not comparing the President to Yeshua . . . only the way that the ruling elites held them in contempt and constantly sought to discredit them rather than admit they might be right on occasion.
6 He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me [Isaiah 29:13]. 7 Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. 8 For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do. 9 And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.
Mark 7:6-9
Every time we ignore the expressed commandments of God and cling to our traditions that we have put our own “God” or “Jesus” stamp on, we ‘worship Him in vain’ and ‘our hearts are far from him’. It would be like picking up your socks and telling your parents, “I have conducted a quintessential clean of my room” – yet, your underwear, your muddy shoes, and several scrabble tiles lay strewn about your room.
You know their standards but you decided to only do your substandard habit. . . and, to add insult to injury, you labelled it as something better than what your parents instructed (“torah”) you to do.
Hand washing was far from the Pharisees’ only tradition that Yeshua (and, of course, Yahweh) objected to.
10 For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death: 11 But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free. 12 And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother; 13 Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.
Mark 7:10-13
Doing right by our parents is not a ‘gift’ . . . it is an obligation. The Pharisees wanted people to give more to the Temple (i.e., the Pharisees) and spend less of their money to care for their parents.
Your parents gave you life and raised you to an adult – you are required to respect them and help care for them when they become infirmed. I know there are some wicked parents out there and this blog is not about how honour your parents in every situation. The Word says to do it, not how to do it. Your safety and that of your family is always paramount.
The Pharisees used their traditions to impress upon ‘ordinary’ people that the Pharisees were more pious and, therefore, closer to Yahweh’s heart. Matthew 23 contains Yeshua’s list of the many vices that the Pharisees committed to give the appearance of religious purity, but ignored the expressed Will of Yahweh.
- They made sure their tzitzits (tassels) were large and conspicuous (verse 5);
- They used exalted titles (verses 7-11);
- They gave prominence to the styling of oaths (verses 16-22);
- They made a show of tithing everything down to the spices in their cupboard (verse 23); etc.
The bottom line is that the most significant issues in the Law were lost in the trivial details of Pharisaic tradition. A system that is governed by rules and ignores the moral underpinning of those rules will ultimately fail. We are witnessing that today in the United States.
14 And when he had called all the people unto him, he said unto them, Hearken unto me every one of you, and understand: 15 There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man. 16 If any man have ears to hear, let him hear. 17 And when he was entered into the house from the people, his disciples asked him concerning the parable.
Mark 7:14-17
Even Yeshua’s disciples could not understand the errors of the Pharisees because they had been raised their entire life to believe that the oral traditions were as holy as the Torah (first five books of the Bible or ‘the books of Moses’) and that the Pharisees ruled them because they were more pious than themselves.
18 And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him; 19 Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats? 20 And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. 21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 22 Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: 23 All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.
Mark 7:18-23
Yeshua compares physical defilement with spiritual defilement. When we take the traditions of man to heart, we spew those traditions upon others . . . for there is nothing else there for us to share.
We are raised with the traditions and instructions of our parents – we are programmed to believe one thing and not another. It is not a question of truth or error, it is the way of child-raising.
When we are old enough, we must examine whether those traditions and instructions are in line with the Word of Yahweh or not. When we find error in our traditions, we must root it out and replace it with the pure instruction of Yahweh.
As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the LORD is tried: he is a buckler to all them that trust in him.
2Samuel 22:31ff
Maintaining error makes the next error easier to swallow. How many times did your parents chide you by saying, “Two wrongs do not make a right”? Ironically, they were teaching you that:
- pork is wonderful (“And the swine, because it divideth the hoof, yet cheweth not the cud, it is unclean unto you: ye shall not eat of their flesh, nor touch their dead carcase” – Deuteronomy 14:8; Leviticus 11:7-8);
- Sunday is the Lord’s sabbath (“But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates” – Exodus 20:8-11); and
- you should celebrate the birth of the Messiah during the winter solstice when many pagan gods are worshipped (despite the evidence that he was born in the Fall) by adorning evergreens with decorations (“3 For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. 4 They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.” – Jeremiah 10:3-4) and numerous other pagan rituals (see my blog Party Like a Pagan – Christmas)
Don’t hate your parents for teaching error – they were probably programmed that way. I love my parents, but I have had to cast off many of their traditions. Thank the Lord that I have a solid group of believers (Eric, Jon, Matt, Mike, Wayne, et al.) that make me return to the Word in everything.
If your church is telling you that following the Instructions of Yahweh is a burden (“44 So shall I keep thy law continually for ever and ever. 45 And I will walk at liberty: for I seek thy precepts” – Psalm 119:44-45; also 1John 5:3) and/or that the ‘Law’ was done away with after the sacrifice of Yeshua (“3 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. 4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5 But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him. 6 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.” – 1 John 2:3-6) they are probably a victim of the traditions that they were taught their whole life.
A quick and easy guide that can start you on the path of aligning yourself with Torah is my book, Grafted: Embracing Torah. This sounds like a shameless plug (probably because it is), but I looked for a simple guide that used the Word to break down what I should eat, how I should dress, how I should worship, etc. I couldn’t find one so I wrote one. The Kindle version is free for a short time.
If you find something different, then great. Any guide like this is not an end unto itself, but only a starting point. You will have to do the hard work of proving all things to the Word.
Don’t be a Pharisee – do like the Apostle Paul and learn to root out all the traditions of men so you can focus on what Yahweh would have you do.
