Traditions and Commands

(Today's reading - Numbers 18-20; Mark 7:1-13)

In Numbers, we read about God's rules for the priesthood and of Moses' disobedience in striking the rock. As always, I am overwhelmed by His specificity in matters of faith. He tells them exactly what He wants and He expects them to do just that. When they don't do exactly as He has commanded, there is a penalty to pay. In this case, Moses and Aaron are excluded from those that would enter the Promised Land. (For more on that, read this -  http://dalesdailybible.blogspot.com/2011/02/leaders-failure.html) Clearly, the message is this... where God is specific, we are to be obedient. Anything less is not acceptable by Him.

Our "Mark" reading is a short read with a big message. It goes right along with our OT reading (but why wouldn't it?... same God, same message) Jesus' disciples are eating without washing their hands. (I know, your mom taught you better than that) Some Pharisees and teachers from Jerusalem see this and ask Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with ‘unclean’ hands?” (vs 5) Jesus responded clearly and with authority, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: “‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.’ (vs 6,7)

The easy way out would be to tell his disciples to wash their hands, after all that was the "traditional" thing to do. But Jesus doesn't take the easy way out of anything. He speaks truth and expects those that hear Him to listen and be obedient. These verses set up a real conflict between "tradition" and "command". Those that were wanting to keep traditions, were doing so at the expense of commandments. They had elevated human "tradition" above God's "commands". You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men.” And he said to them: “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! (vss 8,9)

Jesus calls this "vain worship". What does that mean? The Greek word used here is "maten" and it carries with it the idea of "folly, to no purpose". Jesus is saying that worship that is based on human tradition is worthless. It has no purpose. Jesus tells us the end result of this, "Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that." (vs 13) Are traditions all bad... absolutely not. They have much value to us. We are bonded together as families, as churches and as a nation by traditions. What we share in common makes us united.

But here is the rub... if we are not careful, we can become so attached to our traditions that we allow them to "nullify the word of God". "What we want" becomes more important to us than "what He has commanded". So, what shall we do about this? First, I think we need to identify our "traditions". If it is not found in scripture and we are doing a thing regularly, it is tradition. Someone, sometime started doing something a particular way and it became the way to do it. That is tradition. Secondly, we need to identify God's commands. What we do that is directly from His word is a command. In this effort, we will probably find things that we are doing that are in direct conflict with His commands. That is when our honesty will be tested, that is when we choose... my tradition or God's command. Which will it be? Vain worship? Follow traditions? Or, keep His command? The choice, as always is ours. Choose wisely.