June 30, 2022
The works of His hands are verity and justice; All His precepts are sure. They stand fast forever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness. He has sent redemption to His people; He has commanded His covenant forever: Holy and awesome is His name. Psalm 111:7-9
One of the end-time delusions being propagated today says, in effect: “God is teaching a different set of life principles in connection with the New Covenant that negates the Old Covenant.” This notion creates a false division between the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. In actuality, there is a building process occurring as we move through the word of God. Jesus, the Master Teacher, is the Builder; and He is the Cornerstone. The dedicated disciple of Jesus will “study out” apparent discrepancies. It is the goal of Satan to create the illusion that God changes like shifting shadows. But our faith in Him—and our witness for Him—will only strengthen as we contend for His steadfast character and abiding truth, living day-by-day in obedience to Him who loves us.
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; A good understanding have all those who do His commandments. His praise endures forever. Praise the LORD! Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who delights greatly in His commandments. Psalm 111:10 – 112:1
The question raised by the Pharisees in Matthew 15 and Mark 7 regarding eating bread with unwashed hands, was posed to make it appear that Jesus was advocating disregard for His word. It is true that Jesus did not heed the multitudinous man-made laws that had been added by oral tradition. Jesus was out to set the record straight; to disentangle the plain truth of His word from the elaborate (and meaningless) rituals that religious leaders were commanding the common man to carry out. This infuriated the rabbis who held their traditions above God’s Word.
When pressed by them over one such law, Jesus wisely captured the opportunity to make a distinction between God’s law and man-made customs and rules. The real emphasis here is on the condition of the heart and the subsequent words and actions that result. Bear in mind that the original question is about the man-made tradition of ritual hand-washing (see Mark 7:5 & Matthew 15:2).
Many modern English translations have a parenthetical statement added to Mark 7:19 that does not appear in older (pre-1915) English versions, nor is it in pre-1915 translations of other languages. It reads: “Jesus declared all foods clean.” Regardless of the questions that have been raised about this added parenthetical statement, the key word is foods. It is a well-established and foundational principle that unclean animals are not food (Genesis 7:2, Leviticus 11, Deuteronomy 14, & Isaiah 66:17).
At the end of this age, Jesus communicates through His beloved disciple John that the standard marking clean and unclean animals has not changed (see Rev. 18:2). The bread that the disciples were eating with unwashed hands did not defile them, despite not having performed the ritual washing of hands as prescribed by the religious leaders. Satan wants to destroy our health; his wily ways have people citing the Mark 7:19 addition as license to eat scavenger animals. The real lesson here: we must guard against replacing God’s instructions with our traditions, which are often solidly rooted in paganism! Our love for God should compel us to compare the habits and traditions we practice to His Word. If any of our practices override God’s instructions, then we have accepted what has been handed down to us without checking it out for ourselves (see Acts 17:11), and we are included in this rebuke:
“For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men—the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do. . .making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down. And many such things you do.” Mark 7:8,13 (see also Matthew 15:8-9)