The Year of Living Biblically

I just finished reading the year of living biblically by A.J. Jacbos.

Jacobs is secular, meaning he is not religious. Technically he is an agnostic. He is not sure whether he believes in God or not. There could be a God, there could not be. As his two year old son is growing up, Jacobs gets concerned about the lack of religion in his life. It may be a flaw, and he does not want to pass this on to his son. He wants to seek out religion for his self, by living by the Bible as literally as possible for an entire year.

This means keeping several moral laws like no stealing, lying, lusting, or gossiping, as well as following more obscure laws such as not eating pork, abstaining from touching women on their period, growing his beard out, and stoning adulterers.

He interacts and learns from several facets of Judaism and Christianity: Orthodox Jews, the Hasidim, Fundamentalists, Evangelicals, Red-Letter Christians, and Snake-handlers.

I learned a lot from the book and here are some things I learned:

1.  A lot of secular people must view Christianity as pretty weird. 
Let's face it, as a whole Christianity can be pretty strange. There are people who rally against abortion and homosexuality. There are the fire and brimstone type. There are the Amish. Jehovah's Witnesses. Mormons. Pentecostals. Mennonites. Catholic. Episcopalian. Lutheran. Methodist. And snake handlers.  The list goes on, not to mention all the sects of Judaism that relate to Christianity. (Some people don't consider all of these Christian, as with Jehovah's witness and mormon).
The  religious history is huge. It's crazy how diverse it is and I never really grasped that until Jacobs decided to look into the faith. I can understand how people might not get it. The taking of bread and grape juice to represent the death of a guy who died about 2000 years ago. The praying. The raising of hands in worship. It can all look pretty strange to those who did not grow up with it. I will have to be aware of this and be sensitive to it, as I interact with non-Christians.

2. The Jewish Background of Christianity.
I didn't really grasp the Jewish background of my faith. Reading about how Jacobs followed all these laws helped me put into perspective how the Law affected Israelite faith. It affected the entire way they live. Their eating habits, interaction with women, their work schedule, their speech, and their interactions with others. This same should be true about Christianity, just in a different way. We treat women with respect because of Christ. We keep our speech pure because of Christ .We love others because of Christ. And because of his love for us.

Also, did you know there is talks of building a Third Temple? It seems pretty far off, because a huge mosque is in the place where the Temple used to be. The end times imply the building of a Third Temple. And if it happens, they would have to somehow get rid of the mosque. Could cause a huge problem in the Middle East. That could be disastrous. It sounds almost end-times ish. I'm not prophesying anything. Just observing. Here is a site that tells more about the temple.

www.templeinstitute.org

3. If you try to legalistically follow all the laws, you could easily miss the point.


Towards the end of the book, one of Jacobs' neighbor dies. She was an old woman, who didn't have family, or close friends. She would talk to Jacobs and be friendly. She wanted to write a book on Jimi Hendrix, because she knew him and did an album cover for him. Jacobs said he would help, but he never got around to it. Jacbos himself said he never invited her over to dinner. He never bought gifts for her when she bought gifts for his son. He never helped her with her book. She was his next door neighbor.
I think this is what happened to the Pharisees. They got so caught up in all the laws and what they meant, how to interpret them, how to follow them, that they completely missed the point.

When asked what the greatest commandment is, Jesus said this:
Mark 12:
²⁹"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. ³⁰Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' ³¹The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'There is no commandment greater than these."

All the Old Testament hangs on these two commandments. We need to Love God and Love Others. That is the point. The Point is: Love.