Chapter Two

MARK 7: 9 - 13 “ And He said unto them, Full will ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. For Moses said, Honor thy father and mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death: But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free. And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother; Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye. ” 2878 Corban = A consecrated present to the temple fund; which was located in a room where the contribution boxes stood. One of the ten Commandments insisted that we should honor our father and mother. This meant that elderly parents would have to be cared for. To fail to take care of ageing parents was to disobey the law of God. Still, the temples and synagogues had to be built and repaired. So the Pharisees decided if anyone wanted to help maintain the temple and pay the priests for their service, they could say the word corban. Then they were allowed to give the money they might have used to support their aging parents to supply the temple coffers. This one little word set them free of any obligation to honor their aging parents. How important is it to obey God’s Word rather then our own traditions? There are no exceptions when it comes too keeping God’s commandments. If He is the same yesterday, and to day and for ever. ( Heb. 13: 8 ) Who is the one doing the changing? JOHN 6: 1 - 2 “ After these things Jesus went over the sea of Galilee, which is the sea of Tibe’rias. And a great multitude followed Him, because they saw His miracles which He did on them that were diseased.” If you saw His miracles, would you not do the same? What if you were one of them who was diseased; and you no longer had it? Many times we go to the Lord in prayer, and after He answers them we go back doing the things we use to do. Only to find out some time later down the road what we had prayed for comes back, but a lot worst than it was before we had prayed. God will give us what we ask for; even if it’s just to see if we are who we say we are. Do you think that when we asked God for something that we might have made some promises of our own and when He did for us, we forgot to do for Him? JOHN 6: 3 - 6 “ And Jesus went up into a mountain, and there He sat with His disciples. And the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh. When Jesus then lifted up His eyes, and saw a great company come unto Him, He saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat? And this He said to prove him: for He himself knew what He would do. ”