Instructions

Many years ago my brother gave me a model car kit. I must have been about nine years old. My brother was about eighteen years old as he was nine years older than I. The model car was extremely detailed and it seemed that every part of a real car was represented in that kit. I now suspect It was designed to be assembled by an adult. I was excited to get it and could hardly wait to get started on it. I opened the instruction sheets and began with step one, then step two and on it went. As I progressed from step to step I found it more and more difficult to understand what went where and before long I was gluing things wherever I thought they looked right. I did my best to make it look like the picture of the finished model but in the end I knew I had failed to complete it correctly. It was obvious that it wasn’t assembled according to the instructions. It sat on my dresser in my bedroom for years mocking me. I had the best of intentions when I began to deviate from the instructions, even thinking my version might be better than the original. It was not.

The word that is translated “commandments” mostly in the Hebrew bible could also be translated as “instructions”. That is exactly what the commandments of YHWH are, instructions. They are instructions on how we are to live and conduct ourselves and they are instructions on how YHWH would have us worship and serve Him. They are also often referred to as “The Law” or “the Laws of Moses”. Listen to what YHWH says concerning his instructions.

Deuteronomy 12:29 When the Lord your God eliminates the nations from the place where you are headed and you dispossess them, you will settle down in their land. 30 After they have been destroyed from your presence, be careful not to be ensnared like they are; do not pursue their gods and say, “How do these nations serve their gods? I will do the same.” 31 You must not worship the Lord your God the way they do! For everything that is abhorrent to him, everything he hates, they have done when worshiping their gods. They even burn up their sons and daughters before their gods! 32 You must be careful to do everything I am commanding you. Do not add to it or subtract from it!

Deuteronomy 4:2 Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you.

I have heard people make the comment that Yeshua did not follow the Law, he changed the Law or that he abolished the law. None of these statements are true. He never condemned the Law in any way. What he did condemn was man made additions to YHWH’s Instructions.

Mark 7:1 Now the Pharisees and some of the experts in the law who came from Jerusalem gathered around him. 2 And they saw that some of Jesus’ disciples ate their bread with unclean hands, that is, unwashed. 3 (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they perform a ritual washing, holding fast to the tradition of the elders. 4 And when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. They hold fast to many other traditions: the washing of cups, pots, kettles, and dining couches.) 5 The Pharisees and the experts in the law asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with unwashed hands?” 6 He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied correctly about you hypocrites, as it is written:

‘This people honors me with their lips,

but their heart is far from me.

7 They worship me in vain,

teaching as doctrine the commandments of men.’

8 Having no regard for the command of God, you hold fast to human tradition.” 9 He also said to them, “You neatly reject the commandment of God in order to set up your tradition.

Yeshua also said,

Matthew 5:18  I tell all of you with certainty that until heaven and earth disappear, not one letter or one stroke of a letter will disappear from the Law until everything has been accomplished.

He did not change or abolish YHWH’s Law. He followed YHWH’s instructions perfectly. What he objected to was the Pharisees habit of adding to YHWH’s instructions. Today, if we look at the christian churches we can see that almost all of them have added to, changed or completely abolished YHWH’s instructions. The seventh day sabbath is one of the Ten Commandments. But, very few churches observe and teach it. Likewise, prayer to Mary or other saints is taught as a christian doctrine although it is nowhere instructed in the Law (nor elsewhere in scripture that I can find). This practice is an old pagan practice that has been repackaged as something YHWH desires from us and is exactly the kind of thing He commanded us not to do. As a kid I loved the Christmas season and as a young parent years ago, I enjoyed celebrating it with my children. But, I now realize that it is a repackaged pagan holiday and we were never instructed to celebrate it. It is something added to the worship of YHWH that is not authorized by Him and is in violation of His instruction not to add anything to His commands and to be careful to only do what He has instructed. There are many examples of things added and things subtracted from YHWH’s instructions to us by both Jew and Christian. I am sure many of these things were done with the best of intentions and others not so much. But, either way, they are not to be done. We are instructed to follow carefully His commandments without additions or subtractions. Otherwise, our lives will be much like my model car, a bad example of failure which mocks us for a very long time, perhaps for all eternity.