Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
The Independence Podcast helps everyday people discover that true freedom isn’t found in self-reliance but in total dependence on Jesus Christ. Each episode blends honest conversation, biblical truth, and practical application to help listeners move beyond emotional devotion toward consistent, daily surrender. Whether you’re new in your faith or longing to grow deeper, you’ll find encouragement to trust God fully, live from His grace, and follow Christ with courage in a world that celebrates independence but neglects dependence on the One who truly sets us free.
Bryan Dunham (00:01)
Welcome to the eighth episode of the Independence podcast where we discuss becoming fully dependent followers of Jesus. am your host, Brian Dunham. And today we continue with our third installment of the series. Let's talk about text. And if you want to actually hear me serenade you, you're going to have to go listen to the first two episodes, which I do actually sing, not that you come on here to hear me do that. So
Not today though, my friends. In this one, I'm not really sure how long it's going to be. Typically these episodes run 25 to 30 minutes. This one may be shorter than that. ⁓ And only shorter because the next step of this particular series is a bigger one. And so in lieu of having a quite a long episode, I think it's probably makes sense to do a bit of a setup here today and then get into. ⁓
more than meat perhaps if you want to think about it that way next week Okay, so just a quick recap of last episode and let's talk about text. So the Bible is not an owner's manual, doesn't work that way, but it is a book about life here and now almost exclusively. again, my estimate, very conservative, 95 % of the Bible is about how to live here, about how to live now.
lives that are connected to God and connected to our fellow human beings that God has placed around us. And as Christians, we're not just believers. you're gonna find that in the Bible, somebody who is a believer but is not actively attempting to follow Jesus's teachings. We are apprentices of Jesus. That is what a Christian is. And so today we're gonna talk about
like practically understanding how to use the Bible as we follow Jesus, as we learn to live in full dependence on Him. And that begins with understanding interpretation. I had mentioned this last week on the podcast. There were a couple of folks that took a bit of an exception to the idea that scripture has to be interpreted. They felt like it was already pretty clear. And while I would agree that
the Bible's commands are clear, they also often require an explanation. so just as an example, the Ten Commandments. Ten Commandments is an obvious, very clear instructions in the Bible for us when it comes to how to live our lives. But the Ten Commandments are really only ten of
what the Jewish people would tell you are 613 commandments that exist in what you and I call the Old Testament. Some are extremely clear, like do not steal. I don't think that there's a lot of interpretation that needs to go into stealing. Like you know what it means to steal, I know what it means to steal, taking something that doesn't belong to me, whether that's a physical object or an idea or anything, right, that doesn't actually belong to me, that is a
theft or stealing, but others raise some immediate questions like, I could do no work on the Sabbath. Okay. So what, what is work? Does that just mean my nine to five job or what about cooking? what about walking? And if, if walking is not work, unless I walk too far, then how far is too far? What about lighting a fire?
or tying a knot. You can get really granular with the definition of work because it's a bit open.
This is why rabbis existed or what we know today as rabbis. Early on, they wouldn't have used that term. That term came about in late BCE, early CE, when the Pharisees and Sadducees really came into prominence as schools of religious learning in the Hebrew culture. And that term began to be used about those people.
The history of interpreting and teaching the Old Testament, or what a Jewish person would call the Tanakh, that's actually an acronym, the word Tanakh. Ta means Torah, or the first five books of the Old Testament, which is the law. And then Na, which is Neveim, which is the prophets, the prophetic books of the Bible. And then the k, like the k part of Tanakh is the writings, or basically everything else.
So ta, Torah, na, Nevi'im, which is prophets, and then kk being everything else. The interpretation of the Torah begins with Moses, who was the first to receive the Torah, and then primarily taught by the priests during that first temple period. And then like the time after the exile to Babylon, that's when you really started to see the actual compilation of the Torah.
in its semi-current form. And eventually, you know, this led to wider and wider circles of interpretation and schools of learning in the Second Temple period, which was beyond the priesthood. So now not just the priests teaching the Torah, but expanded to scribes as they wrote the
like they would become experts in the law just by simply writing. And then there were those that taught the law, right? You have the ones that write it and then the ones that teach it. So scribes, teachers of the law, scholars, sages who devoted their life to understanding and studying the Torah. And so their job was simply not to repeat scripture, but to interpret scripture, to say, you know, hey, here's what this command looks like when it's lived out.
in the period specifically leading up to Jesus was marked by vigorous debates and different schools of thought on how to interpret the Torah. And again, at that time, namely the Sadducees and the Pharisees, and they debated the text on a regular basis, wrestling with what they thought was the best way to live out God's commands.
And even Jesus does this. You can see it throughout the New Testament. And Jesus is a rabbi. He gets referred to as a rabbi in the New Testament. so, you know, someone asked Jesus about how to inherit eternal life. And Jesus answers him by asking him questions. He says, well, what is written in the law? How do you read it? Jesus is asking him, well, how do you interpret what it says there?
about inheriting eternal life.
Or when Jesus heals someone on the Sabbath and the religious leaders accuse Jesus of violating the Torah because healing to them would have been work, Jesus tells them that, you know, if your donkey fell into a hole on the Sabbath, you wouldn't just leave it there, you would get it out. And so Jesus is saying, well, if that's true of a donkey, shouldn't a man be able to be healed on the Sabbath?
Jesus then offers his own interpretation by saying that it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath. It is lawful to save life on the Sabbath, regardless of whether or not you want to call that work. Jesus is saying that's okay to do on the Sabbath. He then proceeds to tell them that they as human beings, like us, we weren't made to serve the Sabbath. We weren't made to be the ones to
to serve it in that way that the Sabbath was created for us. God said, you know, work for six days, but you need a day of rest. You need a day away from work each week. And you need that rhythm in your life to reset and understand your life is not completely about work. And like this is a lot of what Jesus taught when it revolves around the Sabbath. That was his interpretation. when Jesus also, Jesus heals this man,
who was a paralytic. He was laying on the ground on a mat. Jesus heals him and he tells him stand up, pick up your mat and walk. Well, this happened to also be on the Sabbath and the man does. He picks up his mat and walks. Well, the religious leaders of the day had interpreted work to include carrying something like a mat. And so.
This guy goes strolling by the religious leaders carrying his mat and they accost him and they say, Hey, you were breaking the law. You cannot be carrying this mat on the Sabbath. And they said, why are you doing that? And he said, that guy over there told me to do it. know, Jesus knew full well what the common interpretation was. He was reinterpreting it. And we'll talk more about that in just a second. so rabbis again, engaging in the debate around how to interpret.
Scripture, what is the correct way to interpret it? So what does it look like when it's properly lived out? And Jesus as a rabbi engages in that debate in his day. And so very common way of a rabbi agreeing or disagreeing with another when they're engaged in this debate, very common phrase that was used was the concept of abolishing Torah or fulfilling Torah.
So when one rabbi thought another's interpretation was missing the mark or even potentially dangerous, he would say, you have abolished the Torah. Like by interpreting that scripture that way, you have abolished the Torah. But when he believed the interpretation was faithful, he would say, you have fulfilled the Torah. So this idea of abolishing and fulfilling, we actually hear that in Jesus's language.
In Matthew chapter 5 when he talks about why he came and this is Matthew 5 17 He says do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets again the law being when you think of the Tanakh or the What you and I call the Old Testament the law being the ta or the Torah the prophets being the nah part the neb I'm do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets or You know you and I should hear there too
misinterpret them. Jesus says, I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. a rabbinic Jewish person, particularly at this time, would have understood that to mean Jesus saying, I've come to actually interpret the scripture correctly for you. I'm coming to tell you what God meant by this. So.
That is the idea of abolishing or fulfilling the Torah. And so, as a rabbi in the first century, a rabbi again, devoted their life to the study interpretation of the Torah, and then they would develop their interpretation of the Torah and then teach it. And so if you wanted...
to live like a particular rabbi, you would need to adopt that particular rabbi's interpretation or teaching of the Bible. And those people were called the rabbi's disciples, the ones that were the apprentices, the practitioners of the rabbi to learn, not just to learn what the rabbi knew and not just to live how the rabbi lived, though that was included, but really the concept was more to become what the rabbi was. And so,
part of that was marinating in that rabbi's teachings, so much so that it goes from the head to the heart to the hands, right? You understand it intellectually, then you understand it in your life and apply it to your own heart and it emanates through your hands and your actions and what you do. And so a rabbi's interpretation of the Torah, the way that he taught to live those laws out in everyday life,
was called that rabbi's yoke. Not like an egg yolk, like yolk for oxen, Y-O-K-E. And it actually comes from that idea that you are willing to submit to this yoke, to this thing that's going to connect you to someone or something else, and you're going to begin to plow together, right, when you think about that. So like the rabbi's teaching or interpretation was called his yoke.
particular set of teachings, his way of understanding the Torah that shapes real everyday life. And so if you became a disciple of that rabbi, you were submitting, voluntarily submitting to that rabbi's yoke. And again, the goal, not just to learn information, to become what the rabbi was.
Jesus was a rabbi and he speaks explicitly about his yoke in Matthew 11, 28 through 30. You've surely heard these verses before in your life. I'm just gonna read them to you one more time. Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and lowly in heart.
and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Jesus has a yoke and interpretation.
So Christians are those who willingly submit to Jesus' yoke, not just believers, apprentices, students, practitioners. We follow Jesus' interpretation of how humans should live with God in right relationship with God, in right relationship with each other. So, okay, well then what is Jesus' yoke? Like, where am I supposed to find that teaching? Well, primarily,
when you look at scripture, the largest kind of consecutive collection of what would be considered Jesus's yoke is in Matthew chapter five, six, and seven. It's the most cohesive summary of Jesus's interpretation of Torah. And it's commonly referred to as the Sermon on the Mount. And you know it's Jesus's interpretation because throughout this section, like in the very beginning, again, he says, I've come to ⁓
not abolish but to fulfill the Torah, the very rabbinic language about this is my interpretation. And then at the very end of it, of Matthew chapter seven, he says, he's talking about the building your house upon the rock. And then at the very end, he says,
everyone who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell and the winds floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house but it did not fall because it had its foundation on the rock. So this is a entire section, these three chapters of Jesus's yoke.
how he teaches to live. And also throughout it, you hear him say, you have heard that it was said, but I tell you that refrain happens over and over again, because he's saying, okay, here's what you've heard about these verses, but I tell you, or in other words, but my interpretation of that is this. So Jesus goes to great lengths here to say, he's not, you know, preaching anything new. He's just interpreting this correctly, essentially saying this is what God always meant.
by the law and he deepens them. Like we'll talk about this more in the next episode, but he goes beyond just the surface, just beyond just the physical keeping of the law and deeper to the motivations, like deeper to the heart motivation around why a person keeps the law almost every single time Jesus is pointed at the heart and not just the external religious action.
And his interpretation is about life here now. It's about living here and now. It's not about how to get saved someday. They're about how to live as children in the kingdom today. And therefore, like when we think about all of this, what does this have to do with living in dependence on God? Well, it means that we learn Jesus's yoke.
trying to understand what Jesus was teaching about how to live here and now and see what it demands of our hearts. And then we practice the oak. We practice it. We willingly submit to it. And then we attempt to put it into practice. Notice again, Jesus says, everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice, not everyone who agrees with them, not everyone who studies them, but everyone who practices them.
And then we trust that Jesus's interpretation and attempting to live that out, having the intention and the application of living that out leads to real life. Jesus himself says in John 10, 10, I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly. And that's talking about life here and now. So next time in this series, we're going to jump into that yoke, the sermon on the mount and start to peel it apart.
verse by verse and see what we can learn about how to live here and now in full dependence on Jesus. So if you found this episode or this podcast helpful, subscribe, share, more the merrier. Until next week, grace and peace, my friends.