August 13, 2026
Thursday, August 13
Yesterday, we saw the purpose of the Law: To enable Israel to be a Kingdom of priests, a holy nation that would draw other peoples to salvation. Modern-day Christians are quick to point out that Israel failed at this calling. But that’s not entirely true. The longest chapter in the entire Bible is Psalm 119. In that Psalm, David says, again and again, how much he loves the Law of God. He was excited to show love for His God by keeping His commands. The Israelites sang that song together in Sabbath worship, and so I’m sure David wasn’t the only one who felt that way. The Old Testament tells the stories of many Gentiles who were drawn into the family of God: Rahab, Ruth, the Queen of Sheba, Namaan, Nebuchadnezzar, and Darius, to name a few. The New Testament tells us that in the time of Jesus, there were many Gentiles who had begun to follow the God of the Jews (Cornelius in Acts 10 is one example).
But overall, the people didn’t live as God’s treasured possession, His Kingdom of priests or His holy nation. They exploited the poor, cheated their neighbors in business, shed innocent blood, and were unfaithful to their wives. They also chased after other gods, repeatedly, like addicts who couldn’t say no to their self-destructive tendencies. By the time of Jesus, they had overcorrected. In the Gospels, instead of having idols in their homes, their idols were in their hearts. They idolized their own racial pride and their devotion to the Law itself.
On one of my trips to Israel, our group visited Mea Shearim, a little community right outside the walls of the old city of Jerusalem where the Haredim, or ultra-orthodox Jews, live. Our guide stopped a young man on the street. Like all Haredim, he wore a black hat, a beard, and long side curls. It turns out was from Brooklyn, and in his early twenties. He had moved to Jerusalem to study the Talmud.
I need to interrupt the story and explain: The Talmud is the first five books of the Bible plus the commentaries written by rabbis over the centuries since then. Essentially, rabbinic Judaism took the Law God gave to Moses and said, “Let’s make this more specific.” So over hundreds of years, they have come to a consensus on nearly every possible scenario a child of God could face, and how to apply the Law to that scenario. The Talmud is not a book; it’s multiple volumes, an entire library. For example, God’s Law says, “Don’t work on the Sabbath.” But what activities count as work? In Mea Shearim, for instance, families won’t cook on the Sabbath. Some won’t even turn on the lights in their house, since that’s a form of lighting a fire, which according to Talmud is work. If you drive through Mea Shearim on the Sabbath, you might get rocks thrown at you for breaking their Law.
Our guide asked this young man what his life’s dream was. He said and he hoped to marry a righteous Jewish girl with a wealthy father who would pay their bills, so that he wouldn’t have to work and could study Talmud all day long. The guide then asked him what he thought about non-Orthodox Jews. He scoffed and said, “They’re no better than Christians.”
You can imagine what such people thought when Jesus showed up and said in Mark 7:19 that all foods are now clean, and told the religious leaders that His disciples could break the rabbis’ Sabbath laws because God made the Sabbath as a gift to man, not as a way to restrict him. He was saying parts of the Law don’t have to be followed anymore. As if that wasn’t enough, Jesus praised the faith of certain Gentiles, and predicted the Temple—the very center of their worship and national identity--would be torn down within their lifetimes. Is it any wonder they hated Him?
Then Paul came along and wrote that the Law of Moses wasn’t meant to bind us forever. He said Christians who ate whatever they wanted had more faith than those who held strictly to the old dietary restrictions, and that “Christians” who required circumcision were not from Jesus. He said the Law had its purpose, but it couldn’t save us. Our hope is in Jesus alone. This made Paul almost as infamous among His own people as Jesus had been. But today, we who are His children see this truth as the best news we’ve ever heard. Tomorrow, we’ll get back to the question with which we started the week: What then do we do with the Law of Moses?
“Lord Jesus, you came to be my obedience, since I could not fully obey the Law. You were my atonement, since I could never pay for my sin. And you are my life. Let me never get over that good news. In your name, amen.”
Senior Pastor
First Baptist Conroe
More from Pastor Jeff at his website: jeffbergerwriting.com
