Saturday, December 19, 2009

Acts 21

1 comment:

Unknown said...

"AFter we all knelt on the beach and prayed..." v5 love that visual.

"They have heard that you tell them not to circumcise thier children and not to obey customs..." v21

"Then it will prove to everyone that what they have heard about you is not true and that you follow the law of Moses in your own life." v 24

This chapter always confuses me as to what was going on. The best I can think is that Paul was teaching the GENTILES that they didn't have to follow the law of Moses, but not teaching that Jews should not. I think in some passages he does teach that Jews are no longer bound by the law, but by conscience and conviction and the holy spirit (so if one wants to recognize holy days, he does it unto the Lord and if one treats the day as just another day granted by the Lord then he does that as unto the Lord as well.)

I guess I feel like it is very much like that comment I posted the other day, the "I've redeemed you, now act like it." It's not that the Jews would do these things anymore to be made clean, but they would do them as tradition and a form of honoring and worshiping God.

I do think there is spectacular depth and symbolism in all of the Jewish holy days and traditons (one of my favorite items of study) and when you know them, and how they relate to Christ and God's promises, you WANT to lose yourself in them, and be blessed in the reminiscing and tradition, much as we are at advent and lent.