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2 Peter 1:4
He has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature …. In ancient times in Israel when a young man wanted to marry, he first consulted with the local matchmaker. He then went to the prospective girl’s father or guardian and agreed to a price. Once this agreement was sealed by a glass of wine, the young man went to ‘prepare a place’, or build a house for them to live in. During that whole time the validity of the union was as solid as marriage itself. A ketubah was also written. A ketubah is a legal document written in beautiful calligraphy which outlines the bride-price paid for the girl and incorporates all the conditions of the marriage, especially the responsibilities of the groom towards his wife. It serves as a prenuptial agreement and deterrent in case the husband would leave her as it also mentions of the money owed to the wife in case of divorce, unless of course the divorce was the wife’s fault due to her marital unfaithfulness. During the ceremony held under a ‘chupah’ which is a cloth held by four poles above the couple, the terms of the ketubah/contract are sealed through the sharing of a glass of wine. The glass is then placed at the foot of the groom for him to smash with his foot saying, ‘thus be done to me if I do not honor the words of this contract’. The ceremony is usually followed by a celebration with music, dancing and a copious banquet. When the Almighty wanted to marry Israel He was His own matchmaker. He also had already prepared a place for them: The Promised Land of Israel. He then brought His prospective wife to a solitary place under the shading of Mt. Horeb so He could have her attention and bare His heart to her. After the Heavenly Bridegroom made His proposal, Israel agreed and said, ‘all that God said we will do’. The engagement was then rendered valid. Moses along with seventy-three other people (witnesses) climbed Mt. Horeb to get the ketubah/contract written in stone by the finger of God Himself. The whole thing was sealed in blood and followed by a meal with the Almighty Himself (Exodus 24). When God took Israel.as a bride, He entered a covenant with everlasting legal promises. Whereas it can be agreed that the marriage has been ‘rocky’, God is not a man that He should lie, and unlike many men, He is compassion and forgiveness itself; He repents from the evil He wants to do to His people. We Israel need to cling tightly to that ketubah, to the term of the marriage found in the Torah. We need to study it so we can hold our Bridegroom to His terms and to His promises. On the other hand, we also need to be a faithful wife and hold to our terms of faithfulness and obedience. A very wise mother one day instructed her kingly son in the choosing of a wife and said, An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels (Proverbs 31:10). In his search, her son ended up with almost a thousand women. As the Israel of the end, let us put on the regeneration offered by the Righteous One, Yeshua the Messiah and become the excellent wife so sought after by the Almighty God.
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Hebrews 13:8
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” "For I the LORD do not change” (Malachi 3:6). In his mystical Gospel, John introduces us to the Messiah in the following words, ‘In the beginning was the Word” (John 1:1). This ‘Word’ John speaks of is actually the ‘Memrah’ presented to us in the Aramaic version of the Pentateuch called The Targum in its attempts to explain the nature of Messiah. John then continues with, “And the Word became flesh …” (John 1:14). By all recognitions, this Memrah that became flesh to dwell among us, is the Torah itself, which is not only a legal document but also the direct revelation of God’s nature and character to mankind. The problem we face today is that the Torah was given about 3,600 years ago to a Semitic nomadic desert tribe of the M. East. Whereas the injunctions concerning slavery, the buying and selling of children, and the vendetta style of justice it promoted consisted of an actual improvement compared to the ways of the nations around them, these rulings seem pretty barbaric to us today. Many have then resolved this problem by adopting the idea that the Torah has since been annulled by Yeshua and is therefore now obsolete. But how does this fit with the words of John? John speaks of this Torah becoming flesh through the Messiah who Himself proclaimed that he came to teach us how to obey it better. How could it then be obsolete? A proper contextual study of these commandments helps us discover the beautiful nature and character of the Almighty Creator. We discover that in fact His rulings constitute the same basic ideals for which we fight today. They include healthy concepts of child protection; women’s and worker’s rights; proper criminal justice; equal opportunity; financial ethics, as well as healthy dietary standards. These are in essence all things we find in the Torah. Why consider them obsolete and then go on re-inventing the wheel by recreating these same laws by our own means? Something is wrong with that picture! However we feel about some of its injunctions, we need to remember that the Torah is the revelation of God’s nature and character. Every commandment is a distillation of His essence, a pure revelation of His person. The study of the commandments is the study of God. When we say then that it is now annulled and obsolete, technically speaking, we abolish God. Maybe this is why the world cannot get control of its social issues. Through their misguided theology, they’ve rendered God obsolete! Our so-called evolution has distanced us from the oracle given on the mountain but without it we are as stars endlessly roaming through space in search of an orbit. It may take a life time, but may we repent from the heresy that denies the value of God’s commandments even in our day. May we also learn to find our orbital stability within the beautiful Words spoken at Horeb. 1 Corinthians 15:52
… At the last trumpet. Paul, Yeshua’s emissary speaks to us about the ‘last blow of the shofar’ (1 Corinthians 15:52). If there is a last blow there must also be a first, and in our case the last blow of the shofar is an echo of the first at Horeb through the passage of time. The first shofar is blown at Horeb to herald the grand entrance of the King in the lives of men. God entered the created dimension and His feet touched the mountain (Exodus 19:11). The Almighty Creator of the universe also enjoyed a meal with Israel sitting at His feet (Exodus 24:9-11). In the same manner, the last shofar will herald the arrival of the King whose feet will touch the mountain and who will also recline with His disciples for a meal (Zechariah 14:4; Revelations 19:7-9). In Exodus, while Egypt drowned and licked its wounds from the results of a series of plagues, our fathers were placed under the legislation of God’s eternal Instruction. By these, they were to be a light to the nations. At the last shofar, while the worlds also licks its wounds from the plagues of God’s judgments, those of the nations who remain will also be placed under the legislation of the Light of Torah which is the constitution of the Word to Come. When a man blows the shofar, he starts out strong then grows weaker as he runs out breath. It is not so with the God whose breath (in Hebrew: ruach meaning: spirit or /breath) is infinite. The mighty El-Shaddai doesn’t run out of breath as the text in Exodus tells us, As the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder …(Exodus 19:19). Looking at our sad world today, it can easily be concluded that all of its problems are the result of breaking the fundamental instruction taught at Mt Horeb. One of the sages of Israel defined that just by keeping the last of Horeb’s Ten Statements we keep all the rest of them. Indeed if we (10) do not covet the things that we do not have or even need, (1) we worship our One God and (2) are not tempted the dainties offered us by idol-worshipping; (3) we do not need to lie so we do not need to take His Name in vain by swearing falsely (Matthew 5:33-37); (4) we do not find it binding to take a day off from lucrative activities to spend it with God and those created in His image such as family and friends, and (5) we have no qualms about morally and financially supporting our aged parents. The absence of covetousness also negates the need for (6) murder, (7) adultery), (8) stealing, and (9) lying. Thus is the legislation of the Messianic Era now and in the World to Come. May it come soon Adon Yeshua, even in our days! |
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