Caution in Understanding

Alex Howard

Shabbat Teachings • Sermon • Submitted 6 years ago

Humility

Understanding

Wisdom

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When we trust in our own understanding of the commandments, we must be cautios to allow

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The danger in Understanding

Last time we met we discussed choosing a Mitzvah to concentrate on. The idea was that we would study and focus on this Mitzvah to the best of our ability while also trying to keep the others. It is not that the Mitzvah of choice was more important it was simply an exercise in developing a better understanding and experience with this chosen personal Mitzvah. If you are doing this I hope it has been helpful and is blessing you.

I want to discuss today a caution as we gain understanding or wisdom with regards to the Mitzvot. It is easy to fall in to a trap that honestly most academics fall in to. That is trusting the wisdom we have gained as absolutely correct, accurate, and complete. When this happens then sometimes we think we can violate a commandment because we can mitigate the consequences of it.

I want us to look at 2 examples today of times when Mitzvot where violated because the person or people thought they could mitigate the consequences. I want us to learn from these instances as cautionary examples so that we ourselves do not repeat the same mistake.

The first place we are going to look at is the beginning. Bereshit

Holy Scriptures: Tree of Life Version Chapter 3

1But the serpent was shrewder than any animal of the field that ADONAI Elohim made. So it said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from all the trees of the garden’?”

2The woman said to the serpent, “Of the fruit of the trees, we may eat. 3But of the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat of it and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ”

4The serpent said to the woman, “You most assuredly won’t die! 5For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

6Now the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a thing of lust for the eyes, and that the tree was desirable for imparting wisdom. So she took of its fruit and she ate. She also gave to her husband who was with her and he ate. 7Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they knew that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made for themselves loin-coverings.

If we look at this we see a couple of things that are interesting. Notice Eve says she “must not Eat or touch the tree or you will die.” This is her understanding. Her understanding maybe based on what Adam shared with her or it maybe based on her own thoughts an deductive reasoning. Either way know that Eve atleast expresses that if she where to eat of or touch the tree of knowledge she would die. Was she correct? Surprisingly not really. In we read:

Holy Scriptures: Tree of Life Version Chapter 2

15Then ADONAI Elohim took the man and gave him rest in the Garden of Eden in order to cultivate and watch over it. 16Then ADONAI Elohim commanded the man saying, “From all the trees of the garden you are most welcome to eat. 17But of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil you must not eat. For when you eat from it, you most assuredly will die!

Adonai did not say that if they touch the tree they would die only if they eat it. So the understanding of the sages is that the serpent kind of nudged Eve in to touching the tree and then she did not die. What do you think went through her mind then? She had 2 rules do not touch the tree and do not eat of the tree. She knew the consequences of violating those rules, death. What happened when one of the rule she “knew” to be true did not have the consequences as she expected them to have, that is an immediate death? She questioned everything then. At the same time the knowledge from the snake that “She would know good and evil as Adonai” was also something she now “knew”. Is it that far of a leap to say she may have thought she could mitigate or avoid the consequence of death if she had knowledge of good and evil as Adonai did? She would know what the creator would know if he had power over everything would she have power over everything too? Of course not, yet she trusted in her own brand new knowledge and wisdom more than than what Adam and Adonai had told her. In other words she followed after her heart and her eyes and disobeyed the Mitzvot, because she thought she understood it and could avoid the consequences.

Let us look at the story of Jephthah found in

Holy Scriptures: Tree of Life Version Chapter 11

30Then Jephthah vowed a vow to ADONAI and said, “If You will indeed give the children of Ammon into my hand, 31then it will be that whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me when I return safely from the children of Ammon, it will be ADONAI’s, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering.”

32So Jephthah crossed over to the children of Ammon to fight against them, and ADONAI gave them into his hand. 33So he utterly defeated them from Aroer until you come to Minnith—20 towns—and as far as Abel-cheramim. So the children of Ammon were subdued before Bnei-Yisrael.

34Now when Jephthah arrived at his home in Mizpah, behold, his daughter was coming out to meet him with tambourines and with dances. Now she was his only child. Besides her he had no son or daughter. 35Upon seeing her, he tore his clothes and said, “Alas, my daughter! You made me bow down in grief—you’ve made me miserable! For I have opened my mouth to ADONAI, and I cannot take it back.”

36“My father, you have opened your mouth to ADONAI,” she said to him. “Do to me what proceeded from your mouth—since ADONAI brought vengeance on your enemies, the children of Ammon.” 37She said further to her father, “Let this thing be done for me. Let me be alone two months, so that I may go on the mountains and mourn my virginity, I and my companions.”

“Go!” he said. So he sent her away for two months. So she left, she and her companions, and mourned on the mountains because of her virginity. 39Then at the end of two months she returned to her father, who did with her according to his vow he had made—so she was never intimate with a man. So it became a custom in Israel, 40that the daughters of Israel would go annually to commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year.

When we first look at this we might be a victim of our own understanding and mistakenly believe that Jephthah actually offered his daughter as a burnt offering to Adonai. There is much indication that he did not. I do not want to go in to all the reasons at this time suffice to say 2 reasons is a human sacrifice on the alter was not acceptable as a sacrifice and and verse 39 and 40 we see the word commemorate then word in the original text actually is something akin to remember with the person. So it is possible the daughters of Israel would go spend a few days with Jephthah’s daughter and to do this she had to be alive.

What I would have us review is the actual actions of Jephthah. He thought he understood oaths and he thought he understood what would “motivate” Adonai. Jephthah made an oath and thought he could not get out of it. Yet it is common understanding from the sages and others that an oath made in ignorance is not valid. In other words you can not be tricked in to an oath. If he was not tricked in to it and did understand this was a possible repercussion of his oath then he still did not understand Adonai. Adonai already stated how to plead for deliverance in

Holy Scriptures: Tree of Life Version Chapter 26

40“But if they confess their iniquity and that of their fathers, in the treachery they committed against Me, and how they walked contrary to Me 41—in return I walked contrary to them and brought them into the land of their enemies—and if at that time their uncircumcised heart becomes humbled, so that they accept the punishment for their iniquity, 42then I will remember My covenant with Jacob and also My covenant with Isaac and My covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land. 43But the land will be deserted by them and will enjoy its Shabbatot while it lies desolate without them, and they will accept the punishment of their iniquity, because they rejected My ordinances and their soul abhorred My statutes.

44“Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, nor will I hate them into utter destruction, and break My covenant with them, for I am ADONAI their God. 45But for their sake I will remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God. I am ADONAI.”

Jephthah’s understanding was that he could motivate Adonai with oaths of sacrifice yet what Adonai wants is obedience more than sacrifice.

These are not the only times we have int he scriptures of when someone trusted their own Wisdom or understanding as absolute or complete. One must allow that they could be wrong in order for them to be able to learn more. Simply the truth does not mind being questioned that is how it is confirmed as the truth. As we approach studying and learning the Mitzvot we should not be dismissive of things because “We understand better than them” instead we should evaluate things we learn about the Mitzvot to determine if it is helpful and good for promoting the Mitzvot and does it encourage us in our relationship with our Heavenly father.

Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society, Holy Scriptures: Tree of Life Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2015), .

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