To Obey or to Disobey - That is the Question!

Mark 7:6-13

6 And He said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocites, as it is written, “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;
7 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’
8 You leave the commandment of Yehoveh and hold to the tradition of men.”
9And He said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of Yehoveh in order to establish your tradition!
10 For Moses said, “Honor your father and mother; and, Whoever reviles father and mother must surely die.’
11 But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban” (that is, given to Yehoveh) –
12 then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother,
13 thus making void the Word of Yehoveh by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

I was having a conversation the other day with another Christian. We were discussing Christians celebrating the traditions of christmas and easter. (Not capitalized on purpose). Her stance was that it was OK to have those traditions because Christians took those pagan holidays and turned them into something good for God. I disagree on several points.

1. Only Yehoveh can turn something made for evil into something for good and only if He chooses to do so. We do not have the right to do anything of the sort. Humans cannot make something Holy – only Yehoveh can do that.

2. The Torah gives us the proper way to worship Yehoveh in His own words. There is no adding to or subtracting from that. Many Christians have been taught that the Torah has no use for us because Yeshua came. Even He said this about Torah:

Matthew 5:17 - 18:
17 Don’t think that I have come to abolish the Torah and the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to complete. (Your Bible may say fulfill).
18 Yes indeed! I tell you that until heaven and earth pass away, not so much as a yud or a stroke will pass from the Torah – not until everything that must happen has happened.

Does that sound to you that we should abolish the Torah? What it means is that Messiah Yeshua fulfilled the ultimate sacrifice to atone for sin and that there is no need for the sacrificial system. But how do we even know what sin is without Torah to tell us. We honor the Ten Commandments but those are just the basis for the 613 Torah laws. How can we do some without doing all and especially when Yeshua tells us that until He returns it will all still be valid?

3. This is what we (Israelites and Christians) have done since the beginning. Take pagan worship rituals and use them to worship the Almighty Yehoveh. He didn't like it when the Israelites did it and He doesn't like it when we do it today.

The bible is filled with testimony from the prophets warning Israel to give up the traditions of worshiping using pagan rituals. Most think that the Israelites got into trouble from Yehoveh because they were worshiping false idols. That is false for the most part. They were using the Ashteroth pole and other things to worship Yehoveh. They mixed it all up.

Read through Isaiah, Hosea and the other prophets. Warning Israel and Judah to give up those worship practices or else. The "Or Else" happened, first to the Northern Kingdom of Israel and then to the Southern Kingdom of Judah. Even after Judah came back from Babylon it happened again and as you can see by the opening verse in Mark, it was happening in Yeshua's time. Traditions of man had replaced Torah and the Bible.

We, as Christians, have the choice to obey or disobey Yehoveh. His Word clearly speaks the truth of what He wants from us. The Torah was written to believers. It was a message on how a believer should live their life in worship to Him who created us.

We can choose to learn what He wants from us and obey - by the way this is the hard choice. It may mean giving up things you love, distancing yourself from people you care about and even being persecuted. (hmmmm...didn't Yeshua say that if you follow Him to expect that?) Or you can choose to keep your traditions. Most will choose this path because it is easy and you can justify it through many means. (One person recently said, well we have to keep our ham easter dinner because we need to be a good witness for our unsaved son. UGH! How in the world is keeping a pagan ritual and eating unclean food that Yeshua wouldn't ever touch a witness for Him?)

Justify it all you want. There is Yehoveh's truth and there is your justification for disobeying it. Yehoveh's Word constantly talks about the remnant and the narrow path. How many pagan rituals can you still keep and be on that narrow path?

If you would like to learn more about Torah and what it means to Christians today please visit www.torahclass.com and click on Old Testament studies. You can do free studies starting in Genesis all the way through Torah (Genesis through Deuteronomy).

As Joshua said, “As for me and my house we will choose to serve Yehoveh”.