Law Breaker?
Matthew 12:1-4 At that
time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were
hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. 2 When the Pharisees
saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on
the Sabbath.” 3 He answered, “Haven't you read what David did when he and his
companions were hungry? 4 He entered the house of God, and he and his
companions ate the consecrated bread — which was not lawful for them to do, but
only for the priests.”
DOES Jesus disobey the 4th Commandment stated in Exodus 20: 8 "Remember the Sabbath day by
keeping it holy.” And does he allow his disciples to disobey the 8th
commandment in Exodus 20:15 “You shall
not steal” as they took grain not their own? Commentator Spiros Zohiartes explains
Matthew 12:1-4 in this way:
“The
fourth commandment set apart the Sabbath. But as noted in the last chapter,
Christ promised inner rest, in the new covenant, not structural rest. The
Sabbath rest of the age to come, is rest and peace of soul in the midst of hard
labors for the Kingdom of God.
The
Pharisees criticism of the disciples picking grain was not that the disciples
were stealing. God’s laws gave permission for hungry persons to eat grain or
corn in a field so long as they did not harvest it in quantity (Deut 23:25). Instead,
the Pharisees faulted the disciples for working on the Sabbath.
In
response, Jesus reminded the Pharisees that David and his men once ate
showbread (bread offered to God) in the tabernacle that was forbidden to all
but priests (1 Sam 21:1-6). David’s circumstance, too, was a case of the
priority of hunger over ritual. Acts of mercy are not the ordinary work
forbidden on the Sabbath.”
LIFE Link: God’s Law leads to
rest.
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