Guard And Do

(I originally wrote and posted this to my previous blog on 03/12/2007.)

Reading: MattithYahu (Matthew) 21-24

Mat 23:1 Then Yeshua spoke to the crowds and to His taught ones,
Mat 23:2 saying, "The scribes and the Pharisees sit on the seat of Mosheh.
Mat 23:3 "Therefore, whatever they say to you to guard, guard and do. But do not do according to their works, for they say, and do not do.

What is the "seat of Mosheh"? And why did Yeshua Messiah instruct his followers to "guard and do" whatever the scribes and Pharisees say when they are sitting on the seat of Mosheh?

Mosheh is representative of Torah, which is the Word of YHWH, so when the scribes and Pharisees are teaching from the "seat of Mosheh" (as Mosheh taught), then Yeshua Messiah wants His followers to guard and do what they say, i.e. follow Torah, which is following Him since He is the Living Torah.

Yeshua Messiah goes on to reveal the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees and why we are not to do as they do, but rather only guard and do what Mosheh and Messiah teach and not all the man-made laws that the scribes and Pharisees added to the Torah, which He calls heavy burdens:

Mat 23:4 "For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men's shoulders, but with their finger they do not wish to move them.

In contrast, His Torah is a gentle yoke and light burden:

Mat 11:30 "For My yoke is gentle and My burden is light."

Yeshua Messiah goes on to describe the hypocrisies of the scribes and Pharisees:

Mat 23:5 "And they do all their works to be seen by men, and they make their t'fillen wide and lengthen the tzitziyot of their garments,

He criticizes them for unnecessarily enlarging their tefillin and tzitziyot (to be better seen by men), but He doesn't criticize them for wearing tefillin and tzitziyot because the wearing of these is Scriptural:

Deu 6:6 "And these Words which I am commanding you today shall be in your heart,
Deu 6:7 and you shall impress them upon your children, and shall speak of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up,
Deu 6:8 and shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.

Num 15:38 "Speak to the children of Yisra'el, and you shall say to them to make tzitziyot on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a blue cord in the tzitzit of the corners.
Num 15:39 "And it shall be to you for a tzitzit, and you shall see it, and shall remember all the commands of YHWH and shall do them, and not search after your own heart and your own eyes after which you went whoring,
Num 15:40 so that you remember, and shall do all My commands, and be set-apart unto your Elohim.

Tefillin are small scrolls of selected Scriptures bound to the hand and forehead. Tzitziyot (plural of tzitzit) are tassels worn on the corners of garments. It was the tzitzit of Yeshua's garment that the woman with the issue of blood was reaching for:

Luk 8:43 And a woman, having a flow of blood for twelve years, who, having spent all her livelihood on physicians, was unable to be healed by any,
Luk 8:44 came from behind and touched the tzitzit of His garment. And immediately her flow of blood stopped.

Yeshua describes yet another hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees:

Mat 23:23 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you tithe the mint and the anise and the cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the Torah: the right-ruling and the compassion and the belief. These need to have been done, without neglecting the others.

He affirms that the Torah of tithing is to be done, but He condemns their failure to guard and do the rest of Torah.

The scribes and Pharisees had become blind guides and hypocrites, a brood of vipers, because they failed to guard Torah. They added to it the commands of men, forsaking the command of YHWH.

Mar 7:6 And He answering, said to them, "Well did Yeshayahu prophesy concerning you hypocrites, as it has been written, 'This people respect Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.
Mar 7:7 And in vain do they worship Me, teaching as teachings the commands of men.'
Mar 7:8 "Forsaking the command of Elohim, you hold fast the tradition of men."

Yeshua Messiah wants us to guard His commands:

Joh 14:15 "If you love Me, you shall guard My commands.

Yochanan (John) tells us that this is how we know that we are in Him:

1Jo 2:3 And by this we know that we know Him, if we guard His commands.
1Jo 2:4 The one who says, "I know Him," and does not guard His commands, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
1Jo 2:5 But whoever guards His Word, truly the love of Elohim has been perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him.
1Jo 2:6 The one who says he stays in Him ought himself also to walk, even as He walked.
1Jo 2:7 Beloved, I write no fresh command to you, but an old command which you have had from the beginning. The old command is the Word which you heard from the beginning.

The key to understanding the Ketuvim Netzarim (Nazarene Writings, also known as the New Testament) is to study Torah (the commandments of YHWH) in order to discern the commandments of YHWH from the commandments of men.

Heb 13:8 Yeshua Messiah is the same yesterday, and today, and forever.