“If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever you might be profited by me; he shall be free.” Mark 7:11 Jesus here sanctions the Decalogue as one of divine origin and Moses as an inspired teacher and lawgiver. God gave the law through Moses. When one has the message from God there is not higher authority they can go to for information. Jesus was introducing an example where the scribes and Pharisees had set aside God’s law for their tradition. In verse nine Christ had said; “Full well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your own tradition.” You cannot do both!! To keep the traditions of men as taught in denominationalism demands the rejection of God and His Word!! Jesus did not deny the charge leveled against His disciples, He simply ignored it, as in fact, it was not even worth mentioning. Jesus had come down from Heaven, not to do the will of the ‘elders,’ He came to do the “will of the Father who sent Him”. John 6:38 The “precepts of men” are no part of the will of God. Jesus did not keep them, because they were not commandments of God.
There are some who think they have to have their babies “sprinkled” when they are first born ‘because of the traditions of their family’. They personally have no faith in the practice, but they think it is ‘the thing to do’. Like the example shown in the text, traditions are allowable EXCEPT when they violate the law of God!! Jesus attacked tradition itself and charged His accusers with three things: hypocrisy, vanity, and conceit. It6 was hypocritical to pretend to honor God by obeying commandments He had never demanded man to obey. Such is still true today and we are free FROM THESE PRACTICES. Your heart cannot be close to God’s heart IF you continually make rules and regulations He has not made. Worshipping God ‘in vain’ meant keeping the doctrines of men instead of the commandments of the Holy One. I am often shown many of our own brotherhood have ‘Easter egg hunts’ on what is called Easter Sunday. It seems we may look a little backward by not allowing a ‘little bit of fun, when it would hurt no one’!! No, they do not remember what verse allowed them this rite; they are just being like their fellow ‘religions round about them’. Sure, the ‘egg hunt’ seems to honor Christ, but, does it? Where did this ‘rite’ come from, who started it, and what does it teach? When looked at from this prospective, we see that not only do we NOT keep the ‘hunt’; we teach our children WHY we do not keep it!! “Wherefore the Lord said, ‘Forasmuch as this people draw near Me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor Me, but have removed their heart far from Me, and their fear toward Me is taught by the precepts of men.” Isaiah 29:13 They still think God needs help!!
According to the Mosaic Law, persons could devote certain things to God with certain limitations (Leviticus 27:2-33; Numbers 30:30:2-15; Judges 13:7). To these regulations were added those of the traditions by the scribes and Pharisees. They carried it so far as even pronouncing of the word Corban over one’s property and taught it absolved him from the obligation of caring for his parents, even if this was done in anger. They who had been trusted to expound and enforce the Law had under false pretence of using that power, dissolved the bonds of the Law. If his parents were in need and their children could relieve them, this practice allowed them to annul Moses’ precepts and discharge themselves from their duty. Corban was the gold of the temple, in other words, they had already given; that meant they were not legally obligated to their parents. Was it more religious to murder or starve these old folks?
