In Mark 12:28-34, Jesus was approached by a man with a question. Although simplistic in its nature, the question was deep in its response. What does God want from His people? What expectations does God have for us in our lives in how we live and follow Him? Here is a man who asks the question in a grammatical sense. He was a scribe, an expert in writing, the law, and ensuring the nature of God is correctly inherited from one generation to the next through His word. In the Greek they are called “grammateus”, where we get the word “grammar”. This is important because it gives insight into the question asked. “Which is the first (primary) commandment of all?” (v. 28)
613 commandments, each of them used to guide His people through danger and into His will. Each commandment represents the character of God, His nature through Law. Society tries to make His commandments sound like a bad thing, like a wedge that can bring you further from God. For God’s people this is not so! His people cherish the law, love His word! That is a defining characteristic of the acting Christian. We see the light as a lamp, a guiding force to keep us from harm and into His will. For the scribe, the law is what he wrote and the law is what he sought. Psalm 119 shows how important His word is and is gracefully presented through poetry.
But his humble attitude was not always shown in Christ’s ministry. In Matthew 22:34, a lawyer approached Jesus asking the very same question, but his motives were impure. Here was a man who did not cherish the law to understand God, but used the law as a means to gain power and prestige. But in each instance the answer remained the same. God wants our worship of Him to be complete, reaching every facet of our lives, inside and out. When the scribe asked this question, he desired to know the true path to be in God’s will. But God’s answer was not what he expected.
In verses 29-31 of Mark “Jesus answered him, ‘The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.’” Jesus presents a different perspective for those listening.
“Hear, O Israel”
I recently met a lady on a flight to Idaho. I will not go into too much detail about all of her outlooks into biblical truths, but one particular belief that I covered was God’s place for His nation of Israel. She believed that after Christ's death, the covenant with the Jewish people was changed to all Christians and Israel was no longer in God's future. 2,000 years ago Jesus walked this earth a sinless man born through the Spirit of God as God. He was Jewish, the family coming from the line of Moses, David, and some of the most passionate people that had the privilege of leading God’s people. Each individual was chosen not only by name, but also by His Spirit, which was given to the select few who were chosen to lead His people. During the times spoken about in the Old Testament, God had a special heart to show Himself through Israel, no matter how often they forsook the leading of God in their lives.
But does the entrance of Jesus overrule God’s love for His people? I do not think that is possible, and I will tell you three reasons why this is so. First, throughout Christ’s ministry he followed all the traditions and laws sent down from His Father. He was at the synagogue every Sabbath, He quoted the scriptures to define the intent of God’s law, and He even performed the ceremonies that were given to Israel (IE: Pentecost, Passover). If God were to forsake Israel, then God would not have followed the rules that were created for Israel and He would have proclaimed the replacement of His law. Rather, Jesus proclaimed the redefinition of the purposes of God's law. As Christ proclaims Himself, he is not here to destroy the law, but to fulfill it.
The second point is the prophetic visions that were given to His apostles were filled with His desire to reconnect with His people. Let us take the 144,000. As the text clearly states, each of the 144,000 were direct descendants from the tribe of Israel (Rev 7:4). Some make the argument that in Revelation 14:1 it is stated that those “having His Father’s name written on their foreheads” means that the 144,000 are not just Israelites. But it is an artificial argument because in Revelation 7:9, John proclaims that he sees an innumerable multitude of people from all tribes and tongues before the Lamb at His throne (which is in heaven). This proclamation of salvation for the 144,000 is for His people, not including those who have repented and come to faith in Christ previously.
But this all leads to the final reason. Does God forsake His own people? Can God, who spent thousands of years leading His people through war, famine, pestilence, slavery, and into the Promised Land, really give up on His nation? For me that is a scary thought. What if God can give up on you? Does He even have a “limit”? How about the ultimate question: If God is all knowing and eternal, foreseeing all future events: would there ever be a limit to reach? Hmmm. But those who claim this seem to forget the true nature of God. God is not like us! We cannot understand God by trying to understand ourselves.
One example: to say that God gets impatient would be a contradictory term. He knows when and where the end will arrive. If that were so, would he be watching the world to see what would happen? If you knew what would happen, how could you be impatient to begin with? Better yet, God is outside our time domain! If there is no time in Heaven, then there would be no "waiting" at all! If He knows how the end will come, why would we think that His coming is dependent upon the alignment of our circumstances? These are just a few questions we could ponder! But in our flesh we tend to shrink God into an easy to understand box. I do that myself, but I would say that His truth goes beyond anything I could possibly know and see!
But in this particular verse God proclaims His truths to the nation of Israel, who is given the honor to carry God's law. But now, because of the finished fork of Christ, we are accepted into God's family through repentance and faith in Christ for forgiveness of sins. Because of Christ's sacrifice we have the privilege to become one of God's people and are able to learn from His words just as His people have since the beginning of time. This opens the door for us to truly understand the Lord our God in spirit and in truth. Plus we are given one important aspect of God, He will never forsake us just as He never forsook Israel!
613 commandments, each of them used to guide His people through danger and into His will. Each commandment represents the character of God, His nature through Law. Society tries to make His commandments sound like a bad thing, like a wedge that can bring you further from God. For God’s people this is not so! His people cherish the law, love His word! That is a defining characteristic of the acting Christian. We see the light as a lamp, a guiding force to keep us from harm and into His will. For the scribe, the law is what he wrote and the law is what he sought. Psalm 119 shows how important His word is and is gracefully presented through poetry.
But his humble attitude was not always shown in Christ’s ministry. In Matthew 22:34, a lawyer approached Jesus asking the very same question, but his motives were impure. Here was a man who did not cherish the law to understand God, but used the law as a means to gain power and prestige. But in each instance the answer remained the same. God wants our worship of Him to be complete, reaching every facet of our lives, inside and out. When the scribe asked this question, he desired to know the true path to be in God’s will. But God’s answer was not what he expected.
In verses 29-31 of Mark “Jesus answered him, ‘The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.’” Jesus presents a different perspective for those listening.
“Hear, O Israel”
I recently met a lady on a flight to Idaho. I will not go into too much detail about all of her outlooks into biblical truths, but one particular belief that I covered was God’s place for His nation of Israel. She believed that after Christ's death, the covenant with the Jewish people was changed to all Christians and Israel was no longer in God's future. 2,000 years ago Jesus walked this earth a sinless man born through the Spirit of God as God. He was Jewish, the family coming from the line of Moses, David, and some of the most passionate people that had the privilege of leading God’s people. Each individual was chosen not only by name, but also by His Spirit, which was given to the select few who were chosen to lead His people. During the times spoken about in the Old Testament, God had a special heart to show Himself through Israel, no matter how often they forsook the leading of God in their lives.
But does the entrance of Jesus overrule God’s love for His people? I do not think that is possible, and I will tell you three reasons why this is so. First, throughout Christ’s ministry he followed all the traditions and laws sent down from His Father. He was at the synagogue every Sabbath, He quoted the scriptures to define the intent of God’s law, and He even performed the ceremonies that were given to Israel (IE: Pentecost, Passover). If God were to forsake Israel, then God would not have followed the rules that were created for Israel and He would have proclaimed the replacement of His law. Rather, Jesus proclaimed the redefinition of the purposes of God's law. As Christ proclaims Himself, he is not here to destroy the law, but to fulfill it.
The second point is the prophetic visions that were given to His apostles were filled with His desire to reconnect with His people. Let us take the 144,000. As the text clearly states, each of the 144,000 were direct descendants from the tribe of Israel (Rev 7:4). Some make the argument that in Revelation 14:1 it is stated that those “having His Father’s name written on their foreheads” means that the 144,000 are not just Israelites. But it is an artificial argument because in Revelation 7:9, John proclaims that he sees an innumerable multitude of people from all tribes and tongues before the Lamb at His throne (which is in heaven). This proclamation of salvation for the 144,000 is for His people, not including those who have repented and come to faith in Christ previously.
But this all leads to the final reason. Does God forsake His own people? Can God, who spent thousands of years leading His people through war, famine, pestilence, slavery, and into the Promised Land, really give up on His nation? For me that is a scary thought. What if God can give up on you? Does He even have a “limit”? How about the ultimate question: If God is all knowing and eternal, foreseeing all future events: would there ever be a limit to reach? Hmmm. But those who claim this seem to forget the true nature of God. God is not like us! We cannot understand God by trying to understand ourselves.
One example: to say that God gets impatient would be a contradictory term. He knows when and where the end will arrive. If that were so, would he be watching the world to see what would happen? If you knew what would happen, how could you be impatient to begin with? Better yet, God is outside our time domain! If there is no time in Heaven, then there would be no "waiting" at all! If He knows how the end will come, why would we think that His coming is dependent upon the alignment of our circumstances? These are just a few questions we could ponder! But in our flesh we tend to shrink God into an easy to understand box. I do that myself, but I would say that His truth goes beyond anything I could possibly know and see!
But in this particular verse God proclaims His truths to the nation of Israel, who is given the honor to carry God's law. But now, because of the finished fork of Christ, we are accepted into God's family through repentance and faith in Christ for forgiveness of sins. Because of Christ's sacrifice we have the privilege to become one of God's people and are able to learn from His words just as His people have since the beginning of time. This opens the door for us to truly understand the Lord our God in spirit and in truth. Plus we are given one important aspect of God, He will never forsake us just as He never forsook Israel!
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