Walking (feet). Getting this right can be a key to the whole signifying process. Expositors are unanimous that this refers to one’s “moral bearing.” “Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands?” (Mark 7:5.) A “Walk” that means “moral bearing” is standard, and a very prosaic meaning.
However, if we begin with a good “wallk” in contrast between a bad one, and we conclude that Christ is the Word and His feet are the point of His fulfillment of His Word in reality, then “walk” changes to a very transcendent kind. The feet and walking are the means of propelling that body of PW through the world and the motivation behind it. Walking is then by a righteous man not merely a moral display, but it is a moral display of particular prophetic beliefs and duties. The Pharisees, in complaining about hand washing, unconsciously complain against Messianic religion and how the religion of their choosing, though self-gratifying, cannot please God and save. This is why in Mark 7:6 Christ’s retort to the Pharisees charge that the disciples not washing their hands begins with Him using Isaiah: “He answered and said unto them, well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written (Isa 29:13), this people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Mr 7:6–7).
Isaiah, in the next verse, gives a prophecy which is now being fulfilled by the Pharisees in raising tradition over the true signification of the law:
“Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.”
With both the inhabitants of Jerusalem with Isaiah and the Pharisees with Christ, it about their stiff-necked disobedience to God’s supreme command to believe the prophesied Truth about Messiah Jesus. Disobedience of the commands of what the law signifies, which is the emerging Messiah of Scripture which He promised. God sends them a Messiah, as predicted, but one unexpected, so their guilt for breaking the law, and their corrupt “walk,” will be so sealed when Christ comes.
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