A warning from Ezekiel: Woe to the Pastors....

Eze 34:4 NET  "You have not strengthened the weak, healed the sick, bandaged the injured, brought back the strays, or sought the lost, but with force and harshness you have ruled over them."

This passage in Ezekiel begins with this statement found in verse four b: "Woe to the shepherds of Israel who have been feeding themselves! Should not shepherds feed the flock?" I have written several blog posts over time that deal with spiritual abuse. I want to emphasize the portion of Eze 43:4 that speaks of ruling over the flock with force and harshness. I have known pastors with what I would call a pastors heart which DO NOT rule with force and harshness, but there are all too many who DO. Furthermore, there is a natural tendency among congregations to worship the pastor and elevate him or her above what should normally be the case. Some pastors demand it but many more simply do not discourage it. I realize that the main thrust of Ezekiel's message is focused on the kings of Israel and their leaders. But, there is also a way in which this warns about future events, and one could make the case that in the church, the pastors who are spiritually abusive fit the intent of this passage. 

It is important to introduce the concept of fractals at this point. If you are unfamiliar with the term, it means that exact things and sometimes similar things are repeated over and over again. If you would like a better understanding of fractals you can google the term and find the definition on the web. This is a passage that illustrates the concept of fractals because while the intended audience was Israel and the intended subject was about Israel's kings, the church is definitely spiritual Israel and the pastor's are very similar to a monarch.

Paul stated his prime directive in 1 Cor 2:2. He determined to not know anything except Jesus Christ and Him crucified (the gospel.) If the great apostle of the Gentile Church had decided that the gospel was his only edict, how much more should pastors have the same prime directive. The gospel of grace should be paramount in all they do. It should be the foundation of everything they are called upon to do for their particular flocks. Sadly though, the reality is that the gospel plays very little in the week to week ministry of most pastors. They erroneously believe that they must continually pressure their followers to be more obedient by focusing on a legal constitutional, read and do approach to scripture. They should instead be proclaiming the gospel of grace all the time. They should be pointing out that it is the grace of God that leads to a repentant heart. They should explain the foundational pristine operation of the gospel. What is that you ask? It is that peace with God through grace is established by reinforcing and explaining that they are justified by the faith of Jesus.

The pastors should be emphasizing that their followers can rest in the gospel twenty-four-seven. In not doing this, they are actually perpetuating the job that was relegated to the devil. They become the accuser of the brothers and sisters. In fact, they accuse them day and night before God, angels and the assembly. How many times have you attended services where the pastor left you accused? There will come a day of reckoning of that you can be sure, however that day will be far to late for all of the spiritual abuse laid at the feet of the saints of God who should be daily encouraged in the gospel.

The yoke that neither we nor our ancestors could bear, Peter and Acts Fifteen.

Act 15:10  So now why are you putting God to the test by placing on the neck of the disciples a yoke that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear?

What was the yoke that neither Peter or his ancestors could bear? This is an interesting question with a most important answer. Let's begin by stating what it is not. It was not temple service and sacrifice. They were able to bear that. It was not the dietary laws. They were able to bear that. It was not the study of Torah. They could bear that. The yoke that they could not bear was the yoke of gaining righteousness from obedience to the law. No matter how hard they tried, and Paul stated that as a Pharisee, when it came to righteousness that came from the law he was blameless, he/they could not cleanse their conscience from dead works. The yoke Peter spoke of in Acts chapter fifteen was trying to gain acceptability to God from obedience.

The yoke can best be understood by two passages from Deut 28. They are Deut 28:1 & 15. Deut 28:1-14 gives all the promises for doing ALL the law, and Deut 28-15-68 explains in great detail all the curses for not doing ALL the Law.. I find it interesting that their are fourteen verses of blessings and fifty-three verses of curses. Therein lies the yoke. So many modern day pastors, especially of the Pentecostal ilk, are happy to speak of the blessings, but do not really explain the curses, but alas people can read, and there in lies the yoke. The twenty-eighth chapter of Deuteronomy explains in detail the yoke Peter was speaking of. Furthermore, many of the Pentecostal Pastors that emphasize Deut 28 do use verses 15-68 to try to whip their congregations into shape placing the yoke that Peter described in Acts fifteen and according to Peter put God to the test.

Many of the Messianic Jews movement look at Deuteronomy twenty-eight, and say that all doesn't really mean all but rather means to try with all your might to do all of the Law. Let's look at the passages from the JPS (Jewish Publication Society) Old Testament. Deu 28:1 JPS  "And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all His commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all the nations of the earth." AND Deu 28:15 JPS  "But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee." Notice that it reads to observe to do all his commandments, but the Hebrew word translated observe is shawmar which means to be careful to do ALL. To do all is plainly the meaning and cannot be any other way.

The remainder of protestant pastors would say that the yoke was not the decalog (ten commandments) but the temple and dietary laws. They would say that one must obey the ten for sure and would argue that the Spirit enables one to obey the Ten Commandments, and additionally all that they call the moral law. Again they are putting on the necks of their followers the yoke Peter warned all who read it not to. The reason he gave was that none of the first century Jews and Jewish Church, nor any of their ancestors could bear that yoke.

It is a yoke by virtue of the legal constitutional relationship of the covenant to the Jewish People. This is precisely why Jesus changed the legal constitutional focus of the scripture to a redemptive one. It was not to make people lawless. Quite frankly, people are already lawless, and a law unto themselves, yes, even the most religious. Observation can easily show that the more religious, and the more committed to religion a person is, the more judgmental, self righteous, and unloving they are. The truth is that the yoke cannot produce loving righteous individuals. That can only be accomplished by the uncompromised peace that accompanies the gospel of grace. Sadly, religion and religious orthodoxy has perpetuated the yoke for two thousand plus years. Isn't it time to really explore the gospel and set aside the yoke once for all time?