I often consider how God looks at us and grades (or judges us). It seems from Scripture that God’s grading system is far different than that of man. Think of a classroom and a teacher and how that teacher grades the students. Students are usually given tests and the percentage of correct answers makes up a part of the grade. Also reports, oral and written may be part of a grade. This would look at the accuracy of the information as well as the accuracy of the presentation (how it is written or read). Demonstrations and other projects could also go into the grade with the goal of showing correct knowledge of the subject being taught. There would also be a portion of the grade based upon classroom participation as well as classroom behavior. Finally a teacher may add or subtract a bit from that based upon effort. A student who tries real hard might get a few points added based upon that effort and a student that coasts and could actually do better with more effort might lose a few points.
So that is how a teacher grades, but how does God grade us? Well, it seems to me that effort gets a much higher percentage of our “grade” from G-d. I see that what seems to get God’s attention more than how good we do at following commands is how good we do at trying to please God and when we fail to want to come back and ask him to restore us. It seems a total like of self pride is a very valuable thing with God. I think of someone like David. David is said in Scripture to be a man after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:13-14
), yet David made some serious errors in his life. Errors that if done today would be all over the front pages of the newspaper (2 Samuel 11). Think of a Pastor or Messianic Rabbi who had someone killed because he made the person’s wife pregnant. David himself felt his act deserved death (2 Samuel 12:5). Today such an act would certain lead to a loss of position and most likely jail time. Yet, God says David is a man after His own heart. How can this be? David admitted his sin, he said that he sinned not against Uriah the Hittite, but against God and God alone. David admitted his weakness and frailness before God and asked God to help him, because he could not do it himself (Psalm 51).
Compare that to Saul who when found in his sin, made excuses and never admitted to the sin (1 Samuel 15:13-15). God rejected him. Tall, good looking, yet Saul was a failure in God’s eyes no matter how many victories he won, and David was a success not because of the battles he won, but because his heart was right with God. He knew when he fell short and came to God repentant. And God not only accepted that, but seems to love it.
I also think the story of the poor widow at the Temple putting her coins in for her tithe tells much about God’s “grading” system. Yeshua marveled and her going over and beyond, not in the amount given, but in the effort it took to give more than she could even afford (Mark 12:41-44).
So, the lesson to me is to focus less on things like what foods I should eat or what is work or what is not work, or what day is important. What I think is of primary importance is to work at having our hearts in touch with God. Do our best, and when we fail, and we most likely will, go to God and ask him to restore us and to help us to do better next time. This is not to say that the commands of God are unimportant or that the Torah, etc. are meaningless, but it seems to be of a much higher value to have a soft teachable spirit and let the Holy Spirit write the Law upon our hearts (Jeremiah 31:31-34), rather than try and divide it up into good and bad things and the way to follow those commands.
This is a big difference for me. in the past I thought it a good idea to develop a Messianic Halakhah, however after looking at one I think that maybe it is nothing new, nor nothing at all important. This might not be the most popular stand today in Messianic Judaism (at least online), but I think it is the right one. If you have an opinion, chime in, either with comments or the poll question.
B”H
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2 responses so far ↓
1 George Greene // Oct 27, 2007 at 10:23 am
I believe the majority of what you wrote was excellent with the exception of your comment on the widow’s effort. If you start back just a few verses from where you indicated you will see that Jesus spoke to the disciples to warn them about the religious leaders that were “devouing widow’s homes”. Jesus then made a point of showing them the widow’s gift. Here is a situation where Jesus first explained what he wanted the listeners to hear and then had a real life demonstrtion of exactly how the reliegious leaders were plundering the poor!
There is a short write-up at http://www.nomoretithing.org and a free two part video lesson at http://www.inyourbible.com titled “The Truth About the Widow’s Gift”
George
2 B Z // Oct 27, 2007 at 8:08 pm
Thanks for your input George. I read through the write-up and found it very interesting, although I don’t know if I totally agree with it. Certainly Yeshua had some criticism of the scribes in regard to their treatment of widow’s and that does play right into the next section about the widow’s offering, however I also think there is a lesson about having a heart for God there as well. Certainly Yeshua has often made statements that were seen as pretty harsh (Hate your mother and father,(Luke 14:26
) Let the dead bury their own dead,(Matthew 8:22
, Luke 9:60
) Give to whoever asks you, (Luke 6:30
) etc.), so even though the widow may have been taken advantage of by the scribes, it was still a good thing that she had the faith to do so and to do so beyond what is required. I feel rather confident that she was blessed by God for that faith, and thus it is still something that fits with the intent I was going for in my post.
But I think you presented yourself very well, and had a very good message in your writing and videos. Thanks for sharing them.
B”H
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