April 4 and 5

"From its earliest years the Jewish child was surrounded with the requirements of the rabbis. Rigid rules were prescribed for every act, down to the smallest details of life. Under the synagogue teachers the youth were instructed in the countless regulations which as orthodox Israelites they were expected to observe. But Jesus did not interest Himself in these matters. From childhood He acted independently of the rabbinical laws. The Scriptures of the Old Testament were His constant study, and the words, "Thus saith the Lord," were ever upon His lips.

          Desire of Ages, page 85 from the chapter, 'Days of Conflict'

    We have moved on. A new chapter starts, but the theme of the last few pages remains. Jesus could have been brought up in Jerusalem. He could have had all the advantages of the libraries there. Jesus could have observed the regular worship. He could have learned from the best and the worst of Hebrew society.

     God chose a better place for a young man to grow up; Nazareth. Something good had to come from there.

     I love the comment that Jesus was a constant student of the Scriptures who could be found with a “Thus saith the Lord” on His lips. That doesn’t, we see, lead to an easy-going relationship. Jesus acted independently of the rabbinical laws.

     Take your average teenager. There are those unspoken, unwritten, laws in church and society. The average teenager may well challenge those laws asking for proof and evidence. “Because I say so” is usually a red rag to a bull!

     No-one is suggesting Jesus behaved badly in His independent actions. On the other hand we need to be pretty careful about our unspoken, unwritten laws. The rabbis had cut their laws off from the Word of God. We need to be careful that our way of keeping order is not divorced from the Word.

     We also need to be careful that we provide the opportunity for our young people, who may know the Word of God well, who may see flaws in our arguments that we are able to say, “We got it wrong”. Jesus never had that opportunity. The rabbis would never say sorry. Hence the theme we will follow for the next few days; ‘Days of conflict’.