Scripture had to be over all other forms of truth and authority.
This didn’t mean that other facts were not important. However, it did mean that
God’s Word had to be above all else, judging everything that came into the
lives of the Israelites. They were to have no other God or authority above
their God:
·
Exodus 20:3-6 (ESV) “You shall have no other
gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness
of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that
is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them,
for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers
on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but
showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my
commandments.
This also meant that nothing was to compete with the Words
of God:
·
Deuteronomy 4:1-2 “And now, O Israel, listen to
the statutes and the rules that I am teaching you, and do them, that you may
live, and go in and take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your
fathers, is giving you. You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor
take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God that I
command you.” (also Deut. 12:32)
Consequently, Israel could not deviate from the Word, even
in the slightest way. When God commissioned Joshua, He instructed him that
courage and faithfulness was a matter of not deviating in the slightest from
His commands:
·
Joshua 1:7-8 “Only be strong and very courageous, being
careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do
not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good
success wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth,
but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do
according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way
prosperous, and then you will have good success.”
Since God’s Word was Israel’s guiding light and the very
foundation of their relationship with their God, God’s Word had to be carefully
followed and guarded. It had to stand above and critique every other word of
command. Consequently, any prophet claiming to speak His words had to be
examined. God promised that He would send another Prophet like Moses. He knew that
Israel would what to know how they would be able to recognize Him. Therefore,
He warned that:
·
Deuteronomy 18:20-22 “…the prophet who presumes
to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who
speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’ And if you say
in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the LORD has not spoken?’—when a
prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or
come true, that is a word that the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken
it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.
God’s Word had to be jealously protected. All future
prophecies would have to be judged according to what God had already revealed
to Israel:
·
Deuteronomy 13:1-5 “If a prophet or a dreamer of
dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or
wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, ‘Let us go after other
gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen
to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the LORD your God
is testing you, to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart
and with all your soul. You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear him and
keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast
to him. But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death,
because he has taught rebellion against the LORD your God, who brought you out
of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of slavery, to make you
leave the way in which the LORD your God commanded you to walk. So you shall
purge the evil from your midst.
Nothing could rival God’s Word. It was to be more
authoritative than even the performance of miracles. Consequently, even if a
self-proclaimed prophet was performing miracles and if his message didn’t
conform to what had previously been revealed, he then had committed a capital
offense.
Israel was to love their Savior God, but they could only
express this love in one way – by keeping
His commandments:
·
Deuteronomy 6:5-6 “You shall love the LORD your
God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And
these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.”
·
Deuteronomy 11:1 “You shall therefore love the
LORD your God and keep his charge, his statutes, his rules, and his commandments
always.”
Israel’s entire welfare depended upon their faithfulness to
His every Word:
·
Deuteronomy 11:8-9 “You shall therefore keep the whole
commandment that I command you today, that you may be strong, and go in and
take possession of the land that you are going over to possess, and that you
may live long in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers to give to them
and to their offspring, a land flowing with milk and honey.”
This same principle of loving God by keeping His
commandments above all was completely carried over into the New Testament:
·
John 14:23-24 Jesus answered him, “If anyone
loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come
to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my
words.”
Scripture had to remain the Christian’s greatest authority.
All claims and philosophies had to be judged and brought into conformity to the
Word:
·
2 Corinthians 10:4-5 For the weapons of our
warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We
destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God
[Scripture], and take every thought captive to obey Christ.
All human traditions had to be examined against Scripture.
In contradiction to this principle, the Pharisees elevated their traditions to
the level of Scripture. Therefore, Jesus castigated this practice:
·
Matthew 15:3-9 He answered them, “And why do you
break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God commanded,
‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother
must surely die.’ But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What
you would have gained from me is given to God,” he need not honor his father.’
So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. You
hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: ‘This people honors
me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”
All of this attests to the fact that Scripture must reign
supreme, the ultimate judge against all other contenders. According to Jesus, when
it doesn’t, we worship God in vain.
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