Keeping the commands of God over our traditions and impulses

<p>Exodus 19:5 – “Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice, and <strong>keep my covenant</strong>, then you shall be my own possession from among all peoples…”</p><p>In this passage, God made it clear that those who obey him by keeping his covenant would be his people. The word we translate as keep or to keep in English comes from the Hebrew root word <i>shamar</i> which at its most rudimentary level means to observe and watch. In its primary sense, it means to heed, pay attention to, or observe (in practice) the covenant and the commands of God. This is the generally accepted meaning when it is used.</p><p>However, it also means to guard, preserve, or protect. This is a huge concept in Hebrew thought as it relates to the commands of God. Based on passages like Exodus 19:5 that we just reviewed, both the ancient and modern Israelites have understood themselves to be the receivers of God’s wisdom above all other nations in the world. As such, it was their responsibility to preserve his words through oral traditions and written records. Thankfully for all believers today, it was due to this dutiful caretaking of God’s words that we even have a Bible today.</p><p>But over the centuries some of the caretakers of the written records had taken this instruction to the extreme by making additional traditions and rules which were intended to guard the Torah even further, to prevent people from violating the original commands. The original intent of creating these extra rules may have been sincere enough, but soon the traditions and rules became equivalent, or even superior to, the original command of Yahweh and they ended up elevating the man-made traditions above the word of God itself. By the days of Yeshua, there were so many rules and regulations <i>about</i> the rules and regulations of God that it had become a hot mess of traditions mixed over the top of the original commands of God.</p><p>In our practice of watching carefully over God’s Word, ourselves, and each other, we must ensure that our vigilance in ke