Wisdom Keys July 19

 *EXCELLENT LIFE KEYS* 🔑🗝️

Tue/19th/July/2022

*Francis Reign* (Ap & Coach) 

_"Raising excellent agents of change and transformation, well equipped with Truth and Wisdom."_ 

*UNDERSTANDING THE ACTS AND WORDS OF JESUS CHRIST (132)*

_"Or have you not read in the Law how in the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? I tell you, something greater than the temple is here"_ (Mathew 12:5-6).

Pharisees leveled accusations that Jesus' disciples broke the Law. They were plucking and eating grain on the Sabbath. Jesus responded with a series of questions. Among these was the point that priests "break" the Sabbath when they work in the temple on those days. The Law allowed this because the commands of God for the temple my be obeyed above the commands to keep the Sabbath. Jesus was showing that the Sabbath is not the most important command above all other priorities of God. The work of the temple, for instance, had priority for the priests over the keeping of the Sabbath. While God's laws have meaning and authority, they are not meant to be applied with mindless literalism. 

The significance of the Temple was the person who lived there. In the defiled world, it was holy space, set aside for the Heavenly Sovereign to live among Israel. Israel's significance derived from God living among them. In a sense, Israel was God's house. So, there's something greater than the temple: the presence of the One Who lived there. Was Jesus saying that the divine presence was here in Him? Yes, He was, but in a very Jewish way. 

There's a sense in which God was present in Israel, even when there was no temple. There's also a sense in which the kings of Israel/Judah represented the reign and  presence of their Heavenly Sovereign. God established the house of David as His representative reign on earth. David's house prepared a place for God's presence, God living among His people. And all this was so because of Jesus. Jesus is the anointed ruler who restored both God's reign and God's presence in the entire world. Something greater than the temple is here: the reign and the presence of the One the temple could only represent. The shadow can never be greater than the very person or the object. And that was the case for the temple. 

*EXCELLENCE KEY* 🗝️

_Jesus is the anointed ruler who restored both God's reign and God's presence._ 

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*Excellence is within you. Bring it out >>*

#1512 ELK.