How would one capture and put the Lion of the Tribe of Judah in a cage? We seek to cage things we fear, animals, criminals, those with mental diseases, anyone who might hurt us. Most of our laws are meant to cage people, i.e. to prevent them from hurting others. This is what the gun control debate is about. We spend lots of energy trying to protect ourselves from others. There is a fine line between fear and respect or reverence. If we are afraid of God then we will try to protect ourselves from him. Most idol worshippers did that. They were afraid of their gods and established elaborate rituals, incantations, special words to say, and the like to cage their gods. They knew that a god who could make your crops grow could also hurt you. But, if you could find the right rituals, rules and traditions to follow, this god could be pacified and controlled. How silly! Yes, but real. The Jews were doing the same thing. Remember at Sinai, the mountain was on fire, shaking, billowing smoke. The Jews were fine with Moses and Joshua going up to speak with God, but they were terrified. They began to formulate very strict ways to containing this God. As long as He stayed on the mountain it was OK, but they did not want to take Him home. Just as I am content to look at rattlesnakes in a cage, don't ask me to establish a close, personal relationship with one.
In Matthew 15 and Mark 7 Jesus quotes Isaiah 29:13 to make his point about their use of traditions. Reading the text in Isaiah we have "Because these people draw near with their words and honor me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts from Me, and their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote,...." (NASB) He goes on to say that the only solution to this wrong headed way of drawing near to Him, he will have to deal marvelously with them while destroying the wisdom and discernment of their wise men who got it all wrong. But, notice the phrase: "their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote." The word "reverence" is yirah a word meaning fear of God. This fear is essential to a proper relationship to God, but is subject to being distorted. When this happens the entire relationship is distorted. In Isaiah 11:2,3, a messianic prophecy, Jesus is described one who has the spirit of the fear of the Lord in which he delights. Jesus had it on right. He understood the proper way to reverence His Father. His fear of God drew Him into close personal relationship that honored the Father.
However the Jewish leaders were busy building cages to contain God. They wanted Him around to show off to others, but they didn't want to get too close to Him. So systems were put in place. They contained God in rituals and formulas. They also wanted to lead others to do the same. It was all about lip service. If we don't say God's name we are safe. He won't bite us. If we wash our hands, He won't bite us. If we swear using the right words He won't bite us. Jesus saw through this and knew that it was not God who was in a cage, it was the ones who built the cage. In trying to contained God they had contained themselves and shut themselves off from God. They were the ones captured and penned up, serving time. (More to come)
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