PHARISEE

Quite a few people are still confused, ESPECIALLY the Christians when it comes to understanding who the Pharisees were.

Especially here in Africa…. Christians look at the Messianic followers and call them pharisees…. Lol not realizing it’s actually a compliment.

It’s so interesting because Christians actually think that it’s an insult…..

When in reality MOST Christians could only DREAM of becoming that devoted to God.

So today I’m just gonna make it very simple for you in this teaching…. Enjoy this teaching

PHARISEE

Old and New Testament References are:

Sh’Mot / Exodus 39-40

Mattiyahu/ Mathew 23: 23-29

 ” Brothers,  My heart’s deepest desire and my prayer to God for Israel is for their salvation;

for I can testify to their zeal for God. But it is not based on correct understanding; “

Romans 10: 1-2 CJB

Before we begin I want to point out why it is important to have a proper translation of scripture…..

In the above verse from the Complete Jewish Bible…. Notice the last word is “understanding”

If you read this in the New king James translation,   It says “knowledge “

There is a HUGE DIFFERENCE between KNOWLEDGE and UNDERSTANDING……

The pharisees were filled with MUCH knowledge…. But did NOT grasp the proper understanding.

So let’s begin with the question …what is a PHARISEE ?

It began as a movement about 400 years before what the Christians call “the end of the Old Testament era”.

 This was when Israel had been taken into exile in Babylon as punishment and judgment for their disobedience. 

Then after, Babylon was overrun by Persia, Who were actually very kind to those Territories they occupied…. 

And so they allowed many of the Israelites to go back 2 their land of origin.

Many of them went back to Israel under the leadership of Ezra and Nehemiah.

Upon their return, There was a group of people who resolved they would never allow this situation, where Hashem  / God / YHVH  would be able to judge them for their disobedience,  they would never be exiled again.

These people called themselves “Pharisees”,  Which is an Aramaic word that means  ” SEPARATED ONES ”  They were intended to be separated unto God, Set apart from the nations of the world, away from evil and sin.

And for you Christians who want to judge…  IMAGINE all of your people being slaves to Babylon for so many generations….  Only having the first 5 books of the Bible to go by….

Are you going to tell me you would do anything different ??

People set on being obedient is definitely NOT something we should ridicule !

 The PHARISEES recommitted themselves to the Torah/ Books of Moshe/ Moses and  Took the 10 WORDS / COMMANDMENTS  Seriously by qualifying and expanding it to the 613 commandments.

There are what some call 365 negative ones that said ” YOU SHALL NOT “

 And what many call the 248 positive ones … “YOU SHALL”.

The problem started where even though 613 commandments were there to guide them….. they became nervous, and we’re not content with how they would keep them in proper obedience.

So because of their paranoia they built fences around those rules and regulations… so that NO ONE could get close to breaking them.

Here’s a great example…. Sh’Mot/ Exodus 20:10 says: ” but the seventh day is a SHABBAT for Adonai your God. On it you are not to do any kind of work “…..

What is work and how do we define work… they asked themselves.

The Pharisees decided that 1 could not pick up anything that weighed more than 2 dried figs. 

What about how far one could move ?

The Pharisees came up with what they called ” A Sabbath’s Day’s Journey, ”  Which was about 2000 cubitcs,  or 1 km in distance.

The one thing that never occurred to them was that just having to learn and remember all of these rules and regulations was actually more work on the Sabbath and taking away from their time with, and focus on Hashem.

Now, It’s real easy for us to point fingers and say that the pharisees were a bunch of phonies and hypocrites, BUT THAT IS NOT TRUE !!Was there hypocrisy among them ?…

of course there was !…..

But definitely no different than the hypocrites I see in most churches today !

Their hypocrisy laid in their stubbornness to not give up…. Even though they could not live up to the very laws that they wanted to keep ….  They were never going to give up trying….. they were very genuine in their intent.

They were EXTREMELY ZEALOUS for God… The problem was, their zeal got in the way of their understanding.

They created rules so that they never strayed from Hashem/ God….

But because they were so focused on how to keep these rules…. without realizing  ….this focus became their barrier that pushed them away from God.

Remember what it says in scripture too much knowledge puffs up…. And this is what happened to them.

Pharisees tried to regulate right behavior so as to never fall under God’s judgment again.

But all their efforts led them astray…..

Not wanting to fall under God’s judgment is NOTHING we should EVER rebuke people about…

Because we can’t really blame them it was a HUGE FEAR that they would be put back into bondage.

This is why Yeshua had to come….

He had to demonstrate perfectly ….

And this is why he spent so much time teaching them…. Rebuking them…. Because for those CHRISTIANS who really don’t know….YESHUA/ JESUS  WAS A  PHARISEE !!…. 

This is what he meant when he said he came for the lost sheep of Israel…..

They had lost their way getting caught up because of fear…. Their intentions were pure…. And this is why He said on the cross forgive them for they know not what they do !!

Baruch atah Yeshua Hamashiach Adonai !!

Our prayer….

Heavenly Father,  we come before You in confession for times we become like the Pharisees. ..  Caught up in the minor details…. And not focusing on the major things. Instead of being obedient to your law…

Sometimes we become legalistic in our obedience. For this we repent…  And we ask you through your Holy Spirit to continue to guide us and direct us….. So that we may become more like Yeshua. …  And break free of our stubborn Misunderstanding.

May we rest upon the truth that salvation is a gift…. That we never take for granted….. And remember that it is your grace and not by our merit….. that we are saved….

We pray and believe in the mighty Name above all names Yeshua Hamashiach Adonai Amein