FENCE LAWS - Matthew 15:1-9

FENCE LAWS - Matthew 15:1-9
What Does it Say? The Pharisees asked Jesus why his disciples didn't wash their hands before they ate as was the elders’ tradition.  Jesus asked them why they didn't honour their parents as God commanded. Instead of providing for their needy parents, they said they were giving their money to God instead. They claimed to honour God, but their hearts were far from Him.
What Does it Mean?  The Pharisees were all upset because Jesus disciples didn't wash their hands before they ate.  God did not ask them to wash their hands, but He did tell them to provide for their parents.  Washing their hands was a good thing to do, but God did not ask them to do that.  Jesus confronted them for not honouring their parents as the law requires in Exodus 20:12.  They claimed to have made a commitment to give the money to God instead.  I once met a Messianic Jew that observed fence laws, which are rules put in place to make sure they did not get close to breaking God's laws. In Genesis 2:17 God told Adam and Eve not to eat fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  In Genesis 3:1 Satan tried to erode Eve's confidence in God's goodness by suggesting they could not eat fruit from any of the trees in the garden.  In Genesis 3:3 Eve said that God told them they could not even touch the fruit or they would die.  She added 'or even touch' to what God said.  Satan is still at work trying to distract us from following Jesus by adding fence laws.  We are often guilty of putting our own spin on what we think is the right way to live out what we believe.  We add rules to what the Bible actually says and think we are doing it (?) right and everybody else should follow our lead.  We judge those who are not following our rules instead of paying attention to what God asks us to do just as the Pharisees did.  The Bible says we are not supposed to judge. We may claim we are honouring God, but in reality we are pushing our own agenda and our hearts are far from Him.  Be careful not to be distracted from following Jesus by someone else's judgements.  What does the Bible actually say?