Matthew 12:1 At that time Jesus went on the Sabbath through the grainfields, and His disciples became hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat.

Matthew 12:2 But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, “Behold, Your disciples do what is not lawful to do on a Sabbath.”

 Matthew 12:3 But He said to them, “Have you not read what David did, when he became hungry, he and his companions;

Matthew 12:4 how he entered the house of God, and they ate the consecrated bread, which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those with him, but for the priests only . . .

 Matthew 12:5 “Or have you not read in the Law, that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple break the Sabbath, and are innocent?

 Matthew 12:7 “But if you had known what this means,

 ‘I desire compassion, and not  sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.

Matthew 12:8 “For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

 Two laws are being referenced here…man’s law and God’s Law . . .They had elevated man’s law above God’s Law and, today, in mainstream denominational settings, most are ignorant of God’s Law so we establish and adhere to our own  system. . . The Scripture says – For all Israel does what is ‘right’ in their own eyes’ . . .and we continue to this very day.

 In Matt 12:7 Yeshua sends them to read Hosea 6:6 . . .

Why did He send the inhabitants of the Southern Kingdom  to read a prophecy that was given to the northern kingdom ? Because Judah was ‘disobeying’  in the same manner that caused Ephraim ( the nothern kingdom) to be sent into dispersion . . . the same for Adam when he was put out of the garden . . . and Judah was on the fast-track to being put out of the land ( 70 AD ) , just as had happened to the northern kingdom.

Matthew 23:23 ^a“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and ¹cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.

 Notice, at no time does Yeshua tell them not to keep the Law ( Torah ) or that it no longer applies.         ( Matt 5: 17-20 )

Instead, He admonishes them to keep God’s Law ( Torah ), instead of man’s law, showing that mercy / compassion is the underlying foundation of Torah . . .

( Love your neighbor as yourself  – Lev 19:18 )

 Man’s law says that picking fruit off the tree ( or from the grainfield ) on Sabbath is forbidden. . .

But God’s Law says that ‘If you are going through the field and are hungry, pick and eat                          ( mercy/compassion – the weighter part of the Law )  .

Man’s law says it is forbidden for a jew to enter the house of a gentile.

God’s Law says that Israel shall be a light to bring the nations in and that God’s House will be a house of prayer for all peoples . . .

The pharisees stated that He was breaking the ‘law’, but according to Deut 23:25 He was not.  He was actually following what the Word ( Law – Torah ) states .

They, the Pharisees, were the ones ‘breaking’ the Law by ‘adding to . . .’ ( Deut 12:32 ) and not extending mercy and not allowing mercy to be extended, thus putting heavy burdens on the people . . . burdens that were never part of God’s instructions. Of course the religious system of today is on the other end of that verse . . . not only do we ‘add to’ but we are experts at the ‘taking from’ part. . .

Paul, in Romans, says that because they did not comprehend the ‘ways’ of God and the purpose for those ‘ways’, they proceeded to establish their own Laws.  Shamefully, the religious system of today is woefully ignorant of God’s instructions and so we established our own set of instructions . . .not good.  The ‘religious hierarchy’ of  Yeshua’s  day  did the same and ‘we’ have not learned a thing from their mistakes . . .

As a rule, in the mainstream denominational setting,  it is said that the ‘Law’ is all about ‘works’, but interestingly enough the Apostle Paul tells us that the Law is spiritual . . . hmmm.

 And when we get to the point that we think we have learned something and perhaps have ‘arrived’ , just remember, we are dependent on the Root and not the other way around . . .

 . . .hope you and yours have a great week. . .Shalom  – J & R