Mark 7:1-7 Wash your hands!
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: February 3, 2018, Mark 7:1-7
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders, and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.) And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “‘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.’
(Understanding the Text) The Rabbis from long before had invented all kinds of rules to surround God’s word, and their descendants had revered those rules rather than the words of God. The Pharisees of Jesus’ day had not invented the rules that they revered. However, they made new rules to add to the old. When some organization or activity begins it is full of possibilities and open to various styles, but the organizers have to pick one style to fit their present needs. At the beginning, it is easy to change to a new style as needs change; however, people begin to revere the original style as a holy tradition that should not be changed by later innovations. I think Satan has used this aspect of human nature a lot. The first rabbi who added his opinion to God’s word probably did not think that he was paving the way to the rejection of the Messiah, nor did the next and the next. However, the end result of all these layers of tradition was to steadily lead people away from God and His word to revere men’s words above God, so that ultimately the Pharisees were criticizing God Himself for not following the rabbi’s rules. The very God they claimed to worship was with them, and they were attacking Him as not being religious enough. Their standard of worshipful living had diverged so far from the original standard that it was not recognizable as the same worship anymore. In some ways, they were committing idolatry again, this time with ancestor worship.
The Christians of Mark’s day must have needed an explanation of Jewish traditions. He may have been thinking of the Gentile Christians as he wrote this passage since he explains that there were many different traditions that had made a burden on people. I think traditions and “rules” that apply to Christian living-the don’ts-have made a burden on people. We need to know You rather than focus on the do’s and don’ts and abuses made of good counsel to specific people.
(Application / Prayer) Unfortunately, Christians have made the same mistake as the Jews. We have developed traditions around our religion that interfere with understanding God’s word and our relationship with God. We revere some of these traditions as set in stone and act like it would be a betrayal of God to change them. God grant us the wisdom to see when we need to change organization, the way we act in church, and the methods we use to reach people. Teach us to get rid of the extra and focus on the heart of the message that you gave us. Turn our eyes away from our traditions and toward you. We need to see you and the messages that you have for us rather than each other and loyalty to the traditions of an organization. Purify your church I pray. I usually think of the traditions that have crept into the Adventist church, but I am seeing these traditions elsewhere in other Christian churches also. Only they have the complication of starting out with false doctrines so that the error can get compounded with human traditions surrounding the false doctrines. I pray for my brothers and sisters both in the Adventist church and in other churches who want to love you that they are not sidetracked by traditions that have been put in place years ago. Instead, I pray that they will see you more clearly and more clearly. I pray that you will shine through the falseness that obscures our view.
(Revelation of God) God is not honored by man-made traditions that cause hardships for His children. God wants us to live as freely as possible while still treating each other with love. He is not a God of restriction, no matter how the devil, the world, and even many Christians depict Him. Instead, He is a God who wants to be with us and who will sit in the slime with us in order to be close. He is a God who innovates and finds new ways around problems. He is not a God of traditions, and He never gets stuck in a rut.