Q & A

My beautiful friend, Tammy, on her wedding day
2007

Jesus warned, "What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore the more important aspects of the law - justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things!" (Matt. 23:23)

I love my dear friend, Tammy's, thought-provoking questions. She recently asked, "How did the Israelites in the Old Testament who'd grown so cold and defiant against God (specifically Judges) become so legalistic when Jesus came in the New Testament?"

I prayed, pondered, studied, thought some more and then answered: 

Oh the wanderings and revival cycles of God's people - doing what seems right in our own eyes, getting ourselves into deep trouble, crying out to God, and the Lord delivering us.

Chronologically, after Judges came the kings, the exile of Israel and Judah, and then the return and rebuilding of Jerusalem. By the time Jesus came on the scene in the New Testament, I've read that the Pharisees had made 631 "laws". It's said that the initial intent was to clarify God's 10 Commandments, but in the depravity of man, their external, legalistic rule-keeping overruled an internal relationship with God. In Matthew 23 and Luke 11, Jesus warned those white-washed-tombs-full-of-dead-men's-bones of the dire consequences of their hardened hearts.

In a nutshell, the problem was and continues to be a heart condition.

Are you asking hard questions, beloved? Search for God's  answers in His Holy Word, the Bible.