Musing – Are Rituals good or bad?

Hebraic Musing – Are Rituals good or bad?

There was no ‘musing’ last week because Irene and I celebrated our wedding on the 13^th and just returned from our honeymoon – an enjoyable, purposeful and meaningful ‘ritual’!

God clearly does not want meaningless rituals. Let’s start with a concern that God expressed through His Prophet Hosea.  Ephraim has built many altars, but they are not to worship me! They are altars of sin!  Even if I gave her ten thousand laws, she'd say they weren't for her-that they applied to someone far away.  Her people love the ritual of their sacrifice, but to me it is meaningless! I will call for an accounting of their sins and punish them…  Hos 8:11-13  TLB   And He had Isaiah say something similar.  "Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for people to humble themselves? Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?  Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?" —Isaiah 58:5 NIV 

The Jews have many rituals or customs that seem weird to Christians, like mezuzahs, phylacteries, worshiping on Saturday, and on and on the list could go. However , is the Jewish dedication to rituals much different than the customs traditional church-goers go through without understanding why, or the scriptural reason behind the rituals. How often is the blessing with holy water, making the sign of the cross, genuflecting, lifting our hands, receiving communion, anointing with oil, speaking blessings, going to church, etc. done without even thinking of why we just did it?

May I submit that rituals and customs are inherently good because they have been established to remind us and draw us closer to Almighty God?  But rituals and customs can be bad or meaningless when we do them without understanding why or without using them as a way to acknowledge God or to think about our relationship with Him.

Point to Ponder

How might our relationship with God improve
if we slow down to think about what our rituals represent?

Why was it established in the first place?   Or…

What is the scriptural reason for this ritual?   Or…

Is there an underlying meaning for the other person’s strange ritual?

Shalom                                                                                    October 23, 2012

Yosef   a.k.a.  Joe Brusherd