A HISTORY OF STUMBLING OVER TRADITIONS
Down through the ages, religious leaders have found Biblical texts on which they could start a movement, or a church or a ministry that people will follow. People will follow almost any charismatic leader who promotes Biblical teaching because they are hungry for real spiritual food and are looking to connect with a God who promises relief from their earthly troubles and give them eternal security. They are eager enough and gullible enough to listen to the teachings of religious leaders and pay charismatic religious leaders to teach them. They do this sincerely believing that what God wants is that people should obey his literal, written word. This is the how Judaism and Christianity evolved.
STUDY TIP: The willing eagerness to follow and listen to charismatic religious leaders has its Biblical origins in two places: Garden of Eden and when Israel told God it wanted a king.
In the Garden of Eden, after Eve had eaten of the Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, God told Eve that her desire would be for her husband/man. This was part of the curse that God put on Eve when she symbolically chose to listen to a religious leader instead of listening to God’s voice (i.e. Tree of Life). That a wife should have desire for her husband does not seem to be a curse when interpreted literally and logically, but when we look at this desire with spiritual eyes and ears, we see that it is indeed a curse.
Religious leaders are elsewhere in the Bible referred to as husbands that God’s people (symbolically represented as Eve) choose over God. When people choose to listen to these men/husbands, they are considered to be adulterers as we read in Ezekiel and Hosea. Such wrong choices are also represented in Israel’s desire to have a king rule over them and fight their battles for them. In both examples, people choose to listen to false prophets instead of God.
Just as God did not intervene when Eve and Adam choose to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and also let Israel have the desire of it heart when it wanted a king, he does not intervene when his people choose to listen to false prophets. In this sense, he let Israel have the desire of its heart — even though such desire is against God’s own desires.
What we learn from these stories is that the inclination to listen to false prophets is very strong and even impossible to resist. Restating this another way, it can be said that the temptation to participate in Old/First Covenant religion is irresistible. That is a curse and it is bad news. The good news, however, is that God is calling his people out of religion so he can set them free to be New Covenant disciples.
STUDY TIP: See Literal or Symbolic Interpretation Part 1, Literal or Symbolic Interpretation Part 2, and Literal or Symbolic Interpretation Part 3 for more about obedience to the literal, written word.
The truth is, however, that following religious leader and obedience to the literal, written word of God only satisfies the Old/First Covenant religious laws, but do not satisfy the terms of God’s spiritual laws. The truth is that neither Judaism nor Christianity obey the laws that God wanted them to obey.
The religious laws that religious people obey are based on traditions that God says are lip worship without the right heart attitude. Even though both religions are based on concepts of sacrifices, festivals and rituals mentioned often in the Old and New Testaments, God says the following about these traditions:
Jesus’ understanding of God’s view about traditions is evident in his condemning reply to religious leaders who questioned why he and his disciples did not follow Jewish traditions. Christians, full of pride about their righteousness in obeying their own traditions, fail to recognize that Jesus’ condemnation of tradition applies to them and their traditions also. In their ignorance, they invalidate God’s word for the sake of preserving and advancing their religious traditions. They have stumbled over the written laws on which their religious traditions are based.