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.
“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.
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