Don’t Throw the Baby Out with the Bathwater

 

Come, everyone! Clap your hands!
….Shout to God with joyful praise!
For the Lord Most High is awesome.
….He is the great King of all the earth. Psalm 47:1-2 _NLT

John 5:1-15 (<<click here to read the passage)

Most of us are familiar with the old idiom, “Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater”. Wikipedia states that it is an expression for an avoidable error in which something good is eliminated when trying to get rid of something bad, or in other words, rejecting the favorable along with the unfavorable.

It is one of those phrases that has been around for a very long time. If it helps us realize how long, Martin Luther used it in his writings in the 1500s

In this passage of Scripture, Jesus had healed a man who had been sick for thirty-eight years. He was one of many sick people—blind, lame, or paralyzed—that laid on five covered porches by the pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem. vs2-5

Supposedly healing could be had by getting into the waters at just the right time but when Jesus asked, “Would you like to get well?”, he replied, “I can’t, sir…for I have no one to put me into the pool…”

So, Jesus extended His favor with His third miracle recorded in John’s Gospel by telling the sick man, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!”

The big point of conflict was when the Jewish leaders took offense at him carrying around his mat…for it was the Sabbath! “You can’t work on the Sabbath! The law doesn’t allow you to carry that sleeping mat!”

Instead of rejoicing in this poor man’s miraculous healing, all they could see was that he was breaking the rules. And it must be noted that, yes, at the core of this rule was the commandment,

Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God. On that day no one in your household may do any work. Exodus 20:8-10 _NLT

But the Jewish religious leaders had expanded it way beyond God’s intention. They in their zeal had “thrown the baby out with the bathwater”.

We are to obey the commands God has given us, but Jesus clearly lived out the importance of people over rules…especially when they are contrived, man-made rules. Many times, He was quick to point out that those kinds of rules have no bearing when placed beside God’s holy statutes.

God has rules, yes, but His heart is all about redeeming us. He loves beyond comprehension! The Apostle Paul writes in Romans 6:23 that the wages of sin is death, that is the rule, but God in His great mercy doesn’t leave us there. Paul continues, but the free gift of God [that is, His remarkable, overwhelming gift of grace to believers] is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. _AMP

God always saves the baby (us) but can eliminate the bathwater (sin), no problem! All praise to our heavenly Father for His amazing love and grace!

May 13^th, 2021, Thurs, 7:33 pm