... why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the [Gentile] disciples a yoke that neither we [Jews] nor our fathers have been able to bear? -- Acts 15:7ffIt seems clear that the Jews of Peter's day realized that the Law of Moses was an onerous law, impossible to observe completely.
Tonight, while reading from Ezekiel, I was struck to learn that God intentionally gave them a set of bad laws. The whole of chapter 20 is basically God reiterating how he'd extend his loving arm toward Israel, and Israel kept rebuffing God's advances, slapping him in the face. After so many rejections, God's response?
I also gave them over to statutes that were not good and laws they could not live by. -- Ez. 20:25Wow. What a concept. Centuries of living under an unworkable system because they wouldn't do right.
And by "they", I wonder if I mean "we".
And by "we", I wonder if I mean "I".
2 comments:
Looking at this a few years later, I think perhaps I misunderstood what this passage is saying.
It's not saying that God's laws were not good, and that the Israelites could not live by them.
It's saying that because they didn't live by God's laws (v. 21), He decided to scatter them among the nations, where they would be subject to pagan statues that were not good and pagan laws they could not live by.
"statutes", not "statues"
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