Daily Bread 3/17/2023

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    Daily Bread – March 17, 2023 (The Sixth Day – Genesis 1:24-31) Mark 7:7 – In vain they worship me, teaching human concepts as doctrines. When we look into the Old Testament, we are presented with two witnesses to this quote: one in the Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) which seems to read a little closer to the way Mark quotes this verse and one in the Hebrew Text (Masoretic Text). The Septuagint reads almost verbatim with what appears here in Mark with the exception of “draws near (eggizo)”, but the Hebrew Bible is slightly different and says, ” For this people with the mouth draw near to me, and with the lips, they glorify me; but their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is to learn human commands.” The Stone edition of the TANACH reads, “Inasmuch as this people has drawn close, with its mouth and with its lips it has honored Me; yet, it has distanced its heart from Me – their fear of Me is like rote learning of human commands.” When we look at the context, something deeper than just the tradition of washing one’s hands before supper is being addressed. Jesus is pointing to the reason that the Word of God was given to men. The Word of God was not given so that men can learn their respective ideas and concepts about Who God is intellectually. It was given so we can know God personally. The Word of God was not given so we can all memorize the Scripture and understand all the concepts of the ages. Rather, it was given so we can walk in the ways of the Spirit of God, and live like God lives, and do what God does. These men Jesus is referring to were watching Him and saw that He had a relationship with God they themselves did not have. They beheld as He set the captives free by driving out devils and healing the sick. They knew from the Scripture that this was the manifestation of the love and character of God. However, they also knew they did not have this kind of relationship. To accept the witness Jesus gave, they would have to recognize that their leadership was false. The only way they could hold on to their positions was to find a way to condemn Jesus. Blessings Pastor Mark Spitsbergen