Moses’ Commandments of men – a paradaox
Recently, I have been introduced to the concept that the commandments that Moses issued were the doctrines and commandments of men that Christ spoke of (Matthew 15:2-9
). I have never heard this before. It is so foreign to me that I didn't really have a whole lot to say on the matter, as defending against an enemy (not the person, their doctrine) you know nothing about, is very difficult. So, I began to read Deuteronomy, seeing that many of the things they claimed were the doctrines and commandments of men, are in Deuteronomy.
Some Cases
Note that the instance in Matthew is actually their tradition, not Moses' commands.
In Matthew 15:2-9, the pharisees asked why His disciples did not wash their hands before they ate. Jesus called it a tradition, and the doctrines and commandments of men.
Remember, there are many things that we simply do not understand about the culture of the time, or the background of why certain things were commanded by God.
In Deuteronomy, where it talks about a young woman taken from a slaughter becoming the wife of an Israelite (Deuteronomy 21:10-12). It was claimed that what was commanded was rape (more likely cultural, or some other thing we do not understand about the history), and that God would not command such a thing. It was also claimed that God would not command genocide, such as the Israelites entering into the promised land, and wiping out their enemies, men, women, and children.
Jesus' Own Words
In John 5:46, Jesus acknowledge the validity of what Moses spoke and wrote, and said that if they don't believe Moses, they will not believe Him either. In Matthew 5:17-20, Jesus also said explicitly that he did not come to abolish the LAW or the Prophets, but to fulfill them. Further, he said that not one jot or tittle shall pass away from them, until ALL is fulfilled. And, anyone that teaches otherwise, will be called LEAST in the Kingdom of Heaven. In other words, there will always be some purpose for the commandments and doctrines in the LAW of Moses. Remember, Paul taught from them continually. Sometimes those commandments have spiritual significance to us now, rather than literal significance, such as circumcision, sacrifices, incense, the Sabbaths (both normal and high Sabbaths), etc.
Awful Commands of God
Now, God COMMANDED that the Israelites were to destroy men, women, and children, when taking their land for an inheritance. Now, according to this new doctrine, this is genocide, and God would never endorse genocide. Jesus loves people, and He's not the type of person to endorse such things. Supposedly, if something in the LAW is contradictory to what Jesus said, we need to follow Jesus, and disregard what is written in the OT. But, we do not find this teaching anywhere in scripture. If Jesus teaches something that APPEARS to contradict the LAW, then we must resolve it BY HIS SPIRIT. In other words, we must rely entirely on Him to resolve the issue, and let God be God. If we try and twist the Word to mean what we want, because it makes us feel better, then we are simply deceiving ourselves.
God gave some reasons why the Israelites were to destroy men, women, and children.
- They were extremely wicked people (Deuteronomy 9:4-5).
- If any were left, they would tempt Israel to run after other Gods, thereby destroying Israel.
- They were sacrificing their children by letting them pass through the fire (burnt offerings). They still do stuff like this today.
God's Eternal Mind
Now, we must remember that God thinks eternally, and we think temporally. That means God always has the past, present, and future in mind, while we live for the moment. After all we live for a fleeting moment in comparison to eternity.
If, during Noah's time, God had decided that He's really loving (the way we do), and didn't want to destroy man kind, where would we be? Either He would have later ended the world entirely for it's wickedness, or the state of the world would be in continuous, perpetual, sin that would be unbearable for any righteous that may even exist. In fact, it may be there would be none righteous, ever, ever, ever again. But, because God is long suffering, and not willing that any would perish, He destroyed the world by flood, so that mankind would have a longer period to get right with Him, and also to fulfill His eternal plan of salvation.
Now, when viewing the genocide that God commanded of the Israelites, it becomes a little more clear that God was thinking eternally. He understood the implications of leaving the wicked among the Israelites. Namely that it would lead them astray (Deuteronomy 9:4-5), into serving other gods, as it in fact did. The Israelites did not destroy everyone, as they were commanded. And, they have remained thorns in their sides ever since. And, no doubt that God also recognized the impact on a global scale, of allowing those people to live. Perhaps the wickedness in the earth would have been so great, within a few hundred years, that not another soul could have come to know God.
Final Thoughts
Now, Moses prophesied of the coming Messiah in Deuteronomy 18:18-19. Moses also claimed that what he was speaking in Deuteronomy were the doctrines and commandments of Yahweh, in Deuteronomy 5:31 and Deuteronomy 6:1-2. He did not just claim this one time, or two times, but continually throughout the book of Deuteronomy. In fact, Moses went so far as to say that they were not to add to, or remove from those commandments of Yahweh.
Now, either Moses is a true prophet of God, or he is not. If he is a true prophet of God, we must listen to him when he claims that what he is saying is from God. If he is a false prophet, and was lying about commandments that were not of God, and they were his own commandments, then we must not trust anything that Moses said, according to Deuteronomy 18:21-22, and Jeremiah 23:30-32. If that be true, we have a bit of a paradox. The Messiah, Jesus Christ the righteous, and the whole foundation of His coming, was of the Jews (John 4:22). What I mean by this, is that what God started through Moses (and continuing through to Christ's time), is a bunch of hogwash, and therefore, the whole nation of Israel is founded on lies. Those lies would propagate throughout the centuries. The whole basis of Christ coming, to die for your sins, is completely undermined, and we cannot possibly trust a word Jesus said, especially considering that He explicitly endorsed the writings of Moses.
