Bible Study from July 13, 2020 - Colossians 2:16-23 Part 3

This study begins with a brief review of what we talked about in the previous study, issues of eating and drinking and the general freedom we have about such issues under the new Covenant in Christ, in comparison with the Old Testament and what quite a number of groups still require of their members today - sometimes even for salvation. We also were reminded that this additional study of more Scripture passages helps understand why Paul mentions these issues as ones that can lead us away from the centrality of Christ our Savior.

Then we focused on the issues of "a festival or new moon or sabbath." These were important in the Old Testament as days and festivals that the Jewish people were to follow on a regular basis, and were based upon a lunar calendar and cycles of the moon. Examples we looked at were Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, remembering God’s rescue of the people from slavery in Egypt described in Exodus 12 and 13. Note the command in Exodus 13:10 to follow these festivals year after year.

We also saw in Exodus 31:12ff the importance of sabbath days and the weekly Sabbath, from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, the seventh day of the week. The Sabbath was part of the 10 Commandments and was to be observed “throughout their generations, as a covenant forever” (v.16). A summary requirement to follow these days “required of them, regularly “ is described in 1 Chronicles 23:24ff, using the same listing that Paul has in Colossians 2:16, “Sabbaths, new moons, and feast days” (v.30).

How then can we set aside these things so clearly spoken of in the Old Testament? It is Jesus and the New Testament writers who free us again from these Old Testament regulations and many other human traditions added within Judaism, as with the eating and drinking requirements. See Mark 2:23ff, where Jesus and his disciples do things considered “unlawful” to Jews. Jesus gives an example of the same sort of thing being allowed in the Old Testament and call Himself “Lord even of the Sabbath.” As true God, as well as true man, He can interpret God’s true will and even change things, because of the New Covenant He brings in. He reminds, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” We still need time for rest and to hear and focus upon God’s Word, but we are freed from the exact day and ways we do this. See the story in Mark 3:1-6, too. Note also such New Testament Scriptures as John 20:19, Acts 20:7, 1 Corinthians 16:1-2, and Revelation 1:9-10, where the day for worship is switching to Sunday, seemingly in remembrance of the resurrection of Jesus on a Sunday. Paul also warns in Galatians not to go back to Old Testament rules and regulations, including observing “days and months and and seasons and years.” See Galatians 4:8-11.

This last passage also seems to indicate a danger from the ancient non-Jewish world, too, which had a fascination with the sun, moon, and stars, and wrong ideas about them. Think about how religious and other ideas about observing the sky were mixed together at Stonehenge in England and ancient Americas and people like the Aztecs and with astrology and horoscopes and signs of the Zodiac - some of which are still a danger today. See the warning in Isaiah 47:1, 9-15, to nations like ancient Babylon and other nations wrapped up in sorcery and enchantments and star-gazing, in order to predict the future (v.12-14, especially). See the warning of Paul in Romans 1:18ff and especially v. 25, about worshipping parts of the creation, instead of the Creator. Many people worshiped the sun, moon and stars as “gods” and thought they had control over us in some way, depending on when we were born. All of this is wrong.

In Colossians 2:17, Paul goes on to explain that the things listed in Colossians 2:16 were only a “shadow” in the Old Testament, pointing forward to the reality, the substance, our Lord Jesus Christ and what He would do for us. We know the difference between a shadow and the real person who casts a shadow. Paul does not explain more here; but many other Scriptures help us understand this more, using similar imagery, especially in Hebrews in the New Testament. Hebrews is largely a comparison of the Old Testament and the New Testament. (Testament and Covenant mean about the same thing. Note in Hebrews 8:4-5 that the earthly priests at the temple in Jerusalem were only doing “a copy and shadow of the heavenly things.” But Jesus brought a better and more excellent way when He came with the New Covenant (v.6ff). The prophecy of a New Covenant is quoted from Jeremiah 31:31-34, right in Hebrews 8:8-12. Note especially what is said then in v.13. The old covenant is “obsolete” and “ready to vanish away.” That includes the rules about eating and drinking and festivals and sabbaths, etc.

In Hebrews 9:9-10, we hear of the “present age” of the first century AD, which dealt only with the Old Testament shadow activities - until Jesus came with the new covenant and new life through His own sacrifice for us. See Hebrews 9:11-15 and 25-28. This is what Hebrews calls “the time of reformation” (Hebrews 9:10). Hebrews 10 gives us the same message. Verse 1 says that “the law has been but a shadow of the good things to come.” The good things come through Christ Jesus, when he came into the world (Hebrews 10:10-18). Note the emphasis on the fact that Jesus came with a real body (the substance, the reality, not the shadow). And through the sacrifice of that real body for us, we are forgiven and sanctified (counted holy) before God.

In all this, Christ Jesus is the key and our hope, and we are called to “hold fast” to Him, as the “Head” of His body, the church, including the church at Colossae and our own churches still today. The study ends with a quick note that Lutherans have traditions and festivals, etc., that we value, but only if and because they help us remember Jesus and His life and work for us. There will be more about that next week, along with other dangers that Paul speaks of in Colossians 2:18ff.