Superstition

I thought I knew God. All my life I tried to do the right thing and claimed that I was a Christian. It's funny in hindsight, because I was deep into the occult and also a very mean, very vengeful person. I wouldn't deny that God existed, and that's about the extent of my devotion. I agreed, the ten commandments made sense. But you'll notice the ten commandments don't (directly) say anything about loving people, and I certainly didn't. Looking back, I don't even know how I simultaneously hated myself and also thought I was better than everyone around me. Logically, I don't understand that. But spiritually I do, because that's exactly what the devil does to your mind.

 I was judging everyone around me for not making the decisions that I made, which aligned with the Word of God (or so I thought). I wouldn't lie, I wouldn't steal, I wouldn't cheat, etc; although I did still do those things, just to people that didn't count. Because when you think you're better than other people, some of them aren't people to you anymore (sound familiar? The Jews calling gentiles dogs and pigs and treating them as such?) This is where following the laws written in the Bible will get you, IF you don't understand the meaning behind them. And it's exactly what the Jewish people and the Pharisees did, they followed the law to the letter, for all the wrong reasons, while the entire point went so far over their heads that they couldn't even see God when He stood before them as a man. 

I remember when I finally met God in 2016, it was such a humbling experience I couldn't even walk outside without hanging (bowing) my head. I was compelled to do so, it seemed supernatural. I can't say I felt shameful, because Jesus bared that burden for us. It's a hard feeling to describe, other than sheer awe and reverence and love; and it compelled me to bow to perfection and acknowledge my fallen state as a human, and person. 

I remember within that week that I met God, we had a visitor at our house. Someone I absolutely loathed and detested and wanted to be gone forever. Someone I had previously prayed that God would strike dead, because I did that frequently (he was an awful person after all). Imprecatory prayers, if you will, but misguided. But God told me to be kind to him. My flesh was appalled, but my spirit, being born again, told me to show him kindness. If you could have seen the look on his face when I was kind (for probably the first time ever), it was shock, and a little sinister smile as if I must have lost my mind. Don't mistake me, God did eventually remove him from our life. But that was God's job to do, on God's timeline. Clearly, he was being used to teach me a lesson, at least. 

Then, I started reading my Bible. Really, reading my Bible. I had read it before, memorized chunks of it, but I was only reading the words on the pages. Let me tell you, when I got to the Exodus... The Levitical laws. I told my husband we had to observe the Sabbath, we had to let the garden/ground rest every seventh year and not plant, we couldn't eat pork, we couldn't celebrate Christmas anymore; the list went on. For two years this was my mindset, until we bought our first home in 2018. I was reading my Bible, but I was again missing the point. Still trying to achieve what God wanted from me through my own works. 

Why isn't love, in the ten commandments? It is. It's wrapped up in the first command. "You shall have no other gods before me". But if you don't know God, you won't know that. 

Matthew 22:36-40

36 `Teacher, which [is] the great command in the Law?'

37 And Jesus said to him, `Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thine understanding --

38 this is a first and great command;

39 and the second [is] like to it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself;

40 on these -- the two commands -- all the law and the prophets do hang.'

The physical aspects of the Levitical laws are never what God wanted from anyone, they were merely shadows of the spiritual tenets He was trying to put in our hearts. In Jeremiah 7:22-23 God point blank tells us this:

 

22 For I did not speak with your fathers, Nor did I command them in the day of My bringing them out of the land of Egypt, Concerning the matters of burnt-offering and sacrifice,

23 But this thing I commanded them, saying: Hearken to My voice, And I have been to you for God, And ye -- ye are to Me for a people, And have walked in all the way that I command you, So that it is well for you. 

He explains clearly, that while he did command them to do offerings and sacrifices, that is NOT what he wanted and not REALLY what he was commanding them to do. 

The Israelites and (later) Pharisees, whom God calls foolish and evil, only saw the law as something that governed their flesh, they had no idea what the intent and purpose of the law was for their spirit. It went right over their heads. Romans 8:1-8 details this, the key being verse 8, ..."and those who are in the flesh are not able to please God." 

The purpose of the Levitical laws was to point to the Jews to their need for a savior. It was instituted because of pride; because God's people thought they were good enough in their own works, they thought they didn't need Him. So, he instituted a law that no man could possibly follow, that none of them ever did follow perfectly. To show them they were not perfect. But they only saw the law as words on a page. The same way many people see it today. When I thought I had to get rid of my Christmas tree for example, I was reading words on the page (Jermiah 10:3-4), completely missing the intent of the words on the page, which was forbidding idolatry. God loves trees, he uses them to beautify his own sanctuary (Isaiah 60:30). Objects, things, aren't a problem. Our attitude towards things is the problem. God is not superstitious. 

The Levitical laws were a type and shadow of Jesus Christ, true perfection. They were meant as a guide for the Israelites to be able to recognize God when he arrived as the son of man:

31 Lo, days are coming, an affirmation of Jehovah, And I have made with the house of Israel And with the house of Judah a new covenant,

32 Not like the covenant that I made with their fathers, In the day of My laying hold on their hand, To bring them out of the land of Egypt, In that they made void My covenant, And I ruled over them -- an affirmation of Jehovah.

But those who only saw the law as words on a page, never seeing the intent, never saw Jesus as God. They are superstitious, performing rituals and feasts because they think the power lies in the rituals and foods, and objects. Salting their food because they think it wards off demonic attacks. Not at all unlike, witches and pagans. Sage smudging their home, because they think the sage holds power over evil spirits. Carrying crystals for protection. They are superstitious, and they don't know God. The only thing that wards off demonic oppression, attacks, and possession is the blood of Jesus Christ, the son of man, YHVH in the flesh. It's the only thing that ever had that power. Matthew 26:28 for this is my blood of the new covenant, that for many is being poured out -- to remission of sins

Hebrews 8:6 and now he hath obtained a more excellent service, how much also of a better covenant is he mediator, which on better promises hath been sanctioned,7 for if that first were faultless, a place would not have been sought for a second.