Job 36-37
The problem I have with the views of Job’s friends is that they are judging people based on their circumstances. If bad things are happening to you, you are being judged by God, so you must be wicked. How does this viewpoint help a person to love their neighbor, to care for the widow and the orphan, and to do for “the least of these”? Jesus, in contrast, “had compassion” for the suffering.
Matt. 15:1-20
Wow – a couple things here… One is that I catch the reference to that parable Jesus told about the wheat (those whom the Father planted) and the weeds (those whom the evil one planted) growing together until the harvest so that the wheat isn’t pulled up with the weeds. Here, Jesus declares the religious leaders to be weeds – planted by the evil one – that will be rooted up at harvest.
The other thing – let me see if I can put what I see into words… The Old Testament is full of rules intended to keep God’s people from defiling His pure and holy Temple. This is where the hand washing comes in. But in truth, all those laws are really there to serve two purposes, as far as I can tell. One is to make us aware of our unrighteousness and our need for God and His cleansing. The other is to paint a picture, if you will, of God’s plan for our cleansing or redemption. All of the feasts, all of the rituals, all of the religious practices are a picture of Jesus and our relationship to God through Him. With Jesus present, we have the real thing and no longer need all those laws for that purpose.
Washing the hands never cleansed anybody – it was symbolic of our need to be made pure before coming into God’s presence, which happens through Christ. And, as Jesus points out in this passage, our impurity is not in our hands, but in our hearts. The religious leaders fail to see this. They are so focused on the laws (and how to use them for their own benefit), that they fail to see the purpose of those laws – they can’t see the forest for the trees.