“Having faith in all things according to the Law and having been written in the prophets” (Acts 24:14).
Paul defends himself before Felix, testifying that he served God according to the Law and the Prophets. The Law and the Prophets were, and are, inseparable; the problem with Israel was that the Jews took the Law from God and made it their own. The scribes and Pharisees became the managers of the Law, directing how it should be interpreted. It became a tool for the control of the people.
The prophets on the other hand, were largely ignored; it is written that the scribes and Pharisees “….took away the key of knowledge” (Luke 11:52). Jesus here is talking of prophecy, which is the key of knowledge. The scribes and Pharisees not only ignored the prophets, but they hindered others from entering into any understanding, Jesus said. Worse still, they killed the prophets and stoned them that were sent unto them (Luke 13:34). He referred to the scribes and Pharisees as “…the sons of them that slew the prophets” (Matthew 23:31).
So the rulers of the Jews ignored the prophets in favour of micro managing the Law as a vehicle for the rulership of the people. They may have looked at and studied the prophets but they were not seeking anything that did not conform to their religious paradigm. Thus, they missed seeing that Jesus was the Messiah.
“You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that bear witness of Me” (John 5:39).
The Messiah was plainly set forth in the scriptures for His people to find; but the false prophets had brought an interpretation to the Messianic prophecies that portrayed Israel as the suffering servant of prophecy. Accordingly, they were looking for the Son of David Messiah; the One prophesied of in the Second Coming. Their traditions, “the traditions of men”, obscured their view of the truth and they perished in their ignorance.
When Jesus met the disciples on the road to Emmaus, He showed them from the Law and the Prophets that the Messiah was to suffer (Luke 24:26-27). Jesus constantly referred to the Law and the Prophets as being indivisible; it was His people who divided them.
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