The Jews, even after they had believed in Jesus, kept the law. They still wanted to keep the law which was a type of him who had come and fulfilled that type. As Brother Carter mentions in his book “Letter to The Galatians”, the letter to the Hebrews was written as an appeal to them to come ‘without the camp’, or to leave the law ; explaining how all the foreshadowing of the law had been fulfilled in Jesus. So, as they began to grasp these things ; to come to a fuller knowledge of Jesus’ relationship to the law and how it was in God’s purpose; they gradually got away from it or gave it up. But, as Brother Carter says, “If the preaching of the gospel had first been accompanied by a demand to abandon the law, it would have closed all Jewish ears to God’s invitation.”
There are some comparisons that can be made to this in the preaching of the gospel today. We would not in our preaching start by bringing up some subject that would at once antagonize our listeners and possibly close their ears to anything else we would have to say. First it would be the things that would ‘give us their ear’, so to speak. Then, as they grew in knowledge, the things which they could not bear at first, when now presented to them would be considered in the light of the knowledge they had gained. Now they would see the wisdom in giving them up or leaving them.
So, we have seen that it was by a broader knowledge of Jesus as the anti type of the law and of God’s purpose, that the Jews were enabled to leave the law behind—to give it up. Also in the preaching of the truth, it is by a greater knowledge of the truth that people are able to give up what might be called ‘the hard things’.
Now let us consider what we might call the third phase of this thought. After we are baptised, if someone was able to tell us of some of the things which we would give up as we studied, we would probably think they were mistaken. But, as we continued to study and grow in what we might call the ‘deeper things of the truth’, we would see that it was still necessary to give up or leave behind many things.
Jesus says, (Mark 9:43-47) “If thy hand offend thee, cut it off,—If thy foot offend thee cut it off,—If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: It is better to enter into the Kingdom of God.” So any place we go, or if anything we see tends to draw us away from God and the hope he has given us—”cut it off” or give it up. And it follows that after we are baptised, if we do not grow in truth and make a strong effort to follow Jesus, we may still be hanging onto the things which we should give up.
Let us consider part of the parable of the sower as recorded in the 8th chapter of Luke. We are not attempting to explain it, for Jesus explains it. All we want to do is take a thought from it. It is the 14th verse that we have in mind. Here we see that the seed fell among thrones that choke the word. The thrones are—”cares of this world”, “riches”, and the “pleasures of this life”. Yet these are only thrones because they choke the word—stop our spiritual growth. Young Concordance gives the meaning of the word “cares” in this instance as meaning ‘division-distraction’. This is a very good definition as to something that would choke the word — to make it unfruitful. For we cannot be divided in our allegiance to Christ and the distractions of the world must not have any hold on us.
Few of us have the riches of this life, in that we would be called wealthy and how much better off we are, for they can choke the word if not used rightly. One who is seeking the kingdom of God has no time to seek riches. Better for us to follow the advice of Paul who says, “having food and raiment, let us therewith be content”. (1 Tim. 6:8)
We of course have pleasures in this life, but it is up to us to determine for ourselves when and how far to pursue them. To determine what effect they have on the growth of the seed. Let us think of an example—We are living in a world of many enticing pleasures. No doubt the one that is the most common among us is the television set. Have we ever watched a television program and then right afterwards tried to do the readings ? It may be better to keep them as far apart as possible.
Suppose we were doing the readings and someone reminded us that program ‘so and so’ comes on in a short time. So, we hurried through the readings so as not to miss it. Or suppose that as soon as we finished the readings, we reached over and snapped on the television, soon being deeply absorbed in some drama, driving out of our mind any chance we may have had of meditating upon anything we had read. Wouldn’t we say in such cases that the television was choking the seed ?—that it had become a throne ? Anything that becomes a throne should not only be cut down but should be taken out by the roots.
Being the weak creatures we are, it may not always be possible to pull out all our thrones by the roots, we may only be able to cut them down even with the ground and in time they spring up again —but let us keep cutting them down. The Lord says “draw nigh unto me and I will draw nigh unto you.” Unless we keep prodding ourselves we may at times think in terms of how far we can safely draw away from the Lord, instead of drawing nigh.
For example, let us say that over here is the centre to which we are to draw nigh. But instead of drawing nigh, we draw a line over there and tell ourselves that as long as we stay on that line and keep the centre in sight we will be all right. Staying at such a line would be like doing only the things we thought were absolutely necessary. We also might call the line ‘things there is no specific command against’. We can see that staying at such a line would keep us from drawing nigh unto the Lord. It would be like keeping the letter of the law but not the spirit of the law.
This is what the Jews did. The sabbath was given to them for delight, a chance to meditate upon God. But, even as they were keeping it they were saying in their hearts, “When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn ? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat ? (Amos 8:5) The sabbath was a burden for them instead of a delight and they looked forward to when they could go about their worldly business.
God intended for the Jews to learn from the sacrifices he required. Not that he had any delight in the act of offering the animal. This we learn in Hosea when he says, “I desired mercy and not sacrifice ; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.” (6:6) So today, we all know it is when we love to seek out God through his word he has given us and to walk humbly before him, that we please him.
We all have our weaknesses but let us not try to listen to that old serpent-desire when it would deceive us. Let us honestly examine ourselves at all times and do away with anything that would draw us from being near to God. “Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and Hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One