Daily Devotional: Monday, Sept 28

Speaker: Ben Sigman

Theme: Religious Baggage

Weekend Music links on iTunes: My Savior Lives by New Life Church; Majestic by Lincoln Brewster; How Can I Keep From Singing by Chris Tomlin; Today is the Day by Lincoln Brewster
 
 Read: Deuteronomy 6:4-9

Think: It's pretty easy to pick on the Pharisees.  In this week's eDevos, I'll probably pick on them quite a bit.  They made some big mistakes.  However, in order to really understand their mistakes, we need to see that they had some important things right.  We can learn good things from the example of the Pharisees.

First, the Pharisees knew their scripture.  They studied the Law and the Prophets intensely, and could quote scripture at length.  They sought a depth of intellectual understanding of God's word that, I fear, exceeds our own passion.   We don't value memorization of scripture the way they did, and we rarely study and debate the deeper meaning of difficult passages. 

Believe it or not, the Pharisees also attempted to live out the commands of scripture. They took God's word extremely seriously.  Taking Deuteronomy 6:8 not just seriously, but literally, the Pharisees tied leather boxes containing scripture passages to their hands and foreheads (a practice that is still followed today by many Jews).  No one valued the scripture more highly than the Pharisees.

In these respects, Jesus was like the Pharisees.  Jesus knew scripture inside out and loved it greatly.  His life was a living out of the essence of all that the scriptures contain.  We need to follow the example of Jesus - and the Pharisees - of learning the Bible, and working to live it out properly. 

Do:  Memorize a Bible passage.  How about Matthew 22:37-39?  "Jesus replied: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'  This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"

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