“Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near [me] with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:” (Isa 29:13 AV)
It’s that last phrase the hit me this morning. Jesus sites this verse. He uses the words ‘commandments’ and ‘traditions’ to expound on this verse. The Pharisees added to the Mosaic law traditions, upon which the O.T. law did not elaborate. Perhaps some of it was necessary. What does it mean not to work on the Sabbath? What is work? Exactly what is supposed to be tithed? Was it only that which was produced in the field? Or were they to tithe every increase of every little thing? How small of a measurement was required to tithe a tenth of powdered cinnamon? These laws and traditions were seen as the manifestation of the fear of the LORD. The more laws and traditions multiplied, the more fear the O.T. saint could exercise. The point was not the ethical or moral nature of those laws, but the assumption that obedience to a code alone was the only definition of the fear of the LORD.
Don’t get me wrong. Law and precepts are important. Jesus said that if we loved Him, we would keep His commandments. John expounded even more on this idea in his first epistle. He echoed the words of our Master and taught obedience to the written word was the major way in which we love God. Proverbs teaches a similar principle in that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. The relationship between obedience to God’s law and love is missed in today’s Christian churches. It seems as though we are liberating ourselves from the written word and assuming God’s grace permits it. So, I am not implying that law has no part in fearing God. Just the opposite. Obedience is the beginning of the fear of the LORD. Let us be clear: fear has more than one meaning. It can mean to be terrified as one would be terrified of an authority figure. But the word can also mean te reverence and respect someone to the point of being awed by their person, character, or abilities. It is this latter understanding which we want to entertain today.
When I was a child, I was terrified of my father. I tried to obey him as best as I could. Doing as he pleased or refraining from what was not permitted indeed did affect our relationship. He enjoyed my company and sought to be a blessing to me while I was obedient to his rules. If I wasn’t obedient, our relationship changed. There came a time when obedience was no longer motivated by fear of consequences. Rather, the motive for obedience became respect for his person. As our relationship grew, being established in obedience, I learned more and more of who and what my father was. I learned of his past in the Army, as a foreign exchange student and college professor. As he aged, we had many phone conversations where I just listened to him tell stories of his younger years. Like I said, I learned a lot.
The point is, if we are stuck on rules and standards as the sole mechanism by which we fear God, then we will never really know Him. It starts there! We cannot abandon the rules and standards. What the Pharisees did was stay in the mode. They could not get closer to God, so their solution was to make more rules. There was no relationship between obedience and personal connection. They could not draw the right conclusion. Another way to put it is to note the vast majority of faith traditions are works based. The vast majority of people believe access to God is by obedience alone. Not so. God’s grace and mercy are also a part of it. The Pharisees could not grow beyond the commandments and they became an end to themselves. At some point, we have to grow beyond them without abandoning them. The outward standards we keep are only the beginning. The inward disciplines follow. But there is a depth of relationship that goes even beyond these. It is the depth of relationship, established in precepts, but grows beyond them to see the reality of who and what God is. Few there be that find it.
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