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Basics: Why is the Torah Important!
Learning How To Have A Biblical "Love Life"
By Shiloh357
In order restore a Torah-positive perspective to modern Christianity is incumbent upon me to first begin by correcting some misconceptions about what true biblical Torah observance is. Too many Christians have been misled to believe that the Torah is irrelevant, that it has set aside by God in favor of the New Testament. Too often we hear people speak as if the Old Testament is a failed system, as if the Torah was somehow flawed or impotent to accomplish its purpose. This stems, in part, from a misunderstanding as to the purpose of God has for the Torah. In this post I will discuss what the Torah is, What is its purpose, and what truly constitutes biblical Torah observance, and some of the Scriptures that have been misunderstood where the Torah is concerned.
What Is The Torah?
The word Torah is word that means "teaching" or "instruction." It is often rendered as "law." But that is the least of its roles. It comes from a root word in Hebrew yarah which gives us the word picture of a man throwing a spear at a target. From this root, we see that Torah is instruction on how to hit the mark or target. More specifically how to accurately do those things which are pleasing to God. The Torah teaches us how to please the heart of God.
Often, especially, among the Jewish people, "The Torah" refers to the first five books of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy (Bereshit, Shemot, Vayikra, Bamidbar, and Devarim). That is the Torah in its most narrowest sense. We who are believers in Yeshua though, understand that since Torah is really instruction, the WHOLE Word of God is "Torah." We are treat all 66 books of Scripture with the same reverence, the same importance. There is not one word come from the heart of God that is less worthy of our consideration than another. Every book, every chapter, every verse, is for our edification and and education.
You will, I hope, be able to distinguish by my word usage, the times when I am referring to the Torah proper (first five books) and The whole Torah (the whole Bible). I have, in times past, for the sake of convenience, allowed myself to use the term law since it was convenient for those who were reading my words. However, I cannot correctly or accurately articulate the true purpose of the Torah by referring to it as law, since "Torah" and "law" communicate two different concepts.
What Are The Purposes Of The Torah and What is True Torah Observance?
In a different thread, I enumerated for main purposes for the Torah, in no particular order:
The Torah demonstrates Lifestyle (Matt. 5:17-21) Yeshua in the sermon on the mount set about revealing the Torah to his hearers. He did exactly what the ancient Rabbis thought He would do. He began expounding the true meaning of the Torah. He did NOT set about to abrogate it.
The Torah leads us to Messiah (Rom. 10:4, Gal. 3:24) Messiah is the telos (goal, main focus) of the Torah. It is also the schoolmaster to point us to Messiah.
Torah sets boundaries by teaching what is right or wrong, pleasing or not pleasing to God. (Rom. 7:7) The Torah essentially defines, or brings a knowledge of, sin. It holds up the standard of righteousness. It does not make anyone righteous, but rather shows us what righteousness, love, holiness, etc. looks like. In doing so, it shows us the difference between what is sinful and what is right in the eyes of the Lord.
The Torah teaches about redemption and how Yeshua accomplishes our redemption. (Luke 24:44, John 5:39, 46)
In point one, I said that Torah demonstrates lifestyle. More to the point the Torah teaches us about Biblical love. We know that God is love. Everything He does has love as its chief motive. The Greatest commandment in the Torah according to Yeshua is "Hear O Israel!! The Lord your God, the Lord is one!! And you shall Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your strength." (Deut. 64-5). The second greatest commandment is similar. "Love your neighbor as yourself." (Lev. 19:18) Yeshua went on to say in Matt. 22:40 that all of the other commandments in the Torah hang on these first two commandments.
In other words, the Torah teaches us how to walk in love towards our Heavenly Father and towards those around us. Easier said than done sometimes, isn't it?? (IMG:http://www.worthyboards.com/style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) Yet that is what the Lord is trying to teach us about. He is trying to teach us to imitate HIM. He has given us the Torah, the instructions on how to have a biblical "love life." That is the lifestyles that Yeshua is talking about. Everything Yeshua did was to demonstrate the love of the Father for each of us, and how to walk in Love before our Father and with others. He was the Torah incarnate, the living Word.
There is nothing about how to attain personal success in the Torah. There is nothing in the Torah about how to get rich. Everything in the Torah is about servant-hood and sacrifice. It is about how to live for others, not merely for self. It is about biblical love. The Hebrew word for "love" is ahavah it is not an emotional kind of love, but an active kind. It is love that is operative in nature, always doing, always serving. True biblical love is a servant. Yeshua demonstrated this love in His earthly ministry. Even when He was weary and fatigued, he still served. Even in His most weary moments, He saw the multitudes and had compassion on them. He could not turn anyone away who sought His help. It wasn't in His nature to turn away from a cry for help. It still isn't. He was the living Torah.
True biblical love is the primary attribute to a Torah-based life. It is the kind of love that is always serving always seeking to be a blessing and benefit to greater society. It is not focused on self awareness but on the awareness of the needs of others. Love is expressed in 8 different ways: Joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and self control. All of the fruit of the Spirit is wrapped up in the Torah proper, and are illuminated for us in even greater ways in the rest of the Scriptures.
Love cannot be defined without the Torah. To define love without the instructions of the Torah would be like trying to describe "red" to a blind man who has never seen color before. It simply cannot be done. The New Testament in this way, is an extension of the Torah. It adds further illumination to our understanding and practice of God's commandments.
1John 3:4 tells us that the sin is the transgression of the Torah. That brings us to next important point, namely that the Torah defines what sin is. The Torah's mitzvot (commandments) can be divided up into two parts, positive and negative. There are 248 positive commandments (what things we should do) and 365 negative commandment (things we should NOT do). The Torah sets boundaries, and defines what constitutes sin. This is right, this is wrong, this is kosher this is not, etc. The Torah sets the bar for what does, and does not please the Lord.
But it goes further than that. It shows us that no matter how hard we try, we are incapable of meeting the God's standard of absolute righteousness. Even if we were to obey every commandment properly, our observance would be tainted by the sin into which we were born. It is like holding a diamond crested Rolex watch in your hand. It is an amazing gift, but your hands are covered in motor oil, disease tainted blood, animal dung, toxic mold, and mud. It is the same with us. It is not our observance of the commandments that gains God's favor. It is when our obedience to Him is a outworking of our faith in Him through Yeshua our Messiah that God is pleased. This is so, because it is Yeshua who according to Romans 8:3,4 is fulfilling the righteousness of the Torah in us. It is when we accept Him as our savior that our works will be pleasing to God due to Yeshua's living within us in the person of the Holy Spirit.
In the Book of Hebrews we are told that the continuous act of bringing sacrifices would not make the offerers perfect, hence the need to continuously offer the same sacrifices year after year. No matter how hard we try, our efforts to obey God will not bring us closer to Him. Simple observance does not have the power to make us clean or acceptable to God. The Torah was not designed to make us perfect, but rather show us God's standard of righteousness and our helplessness to reach that standard in our own strength.
Thus, the Torah performs its third purpose, and that is to show us the Messiah, and our need for Him. It was meant to drive us to Yeshua and seek redemption and salvation through Him. Romans 10:4 tells us that Messiah was the "end" (telos) of the Torah for righteousness for every one who believes. The Greek word telos means goal. Messiah was the goal of the Torah for righteousness (rightstanding) for those who believe. Telos is like the finish line in a race. The goal of the runners is to cross the finish line. When we have received Yeshua as our savior, that particular goal of the Torah has been accomplished.
Until we have received Yeshua, we are kept as prisoners under the Torah's condemning sentence of death. Death is the curse of the Torah according to Galatians 3. We under this curse, but it was Yeshua who bore the curse on our behalf. He bore in Himself the sentence of death which was upon us, that we would believe on Him might no longer live under it.
This brings us to the final and fourth point of the purpose of the Torah. It is shows us by patterns, types and shadows the plan of redemption found only in our Messiah, Yeshua (may His Name be blessed for ever).
I won't go heavily into detail here, but we can see in the seven annual Festivals the complete plan of redemption from the Garden of Gethsemene to the New Heavens and New Earth. We can see redemption patterned for us in all five of the Sacrifices. Each of the five Sacrifices show us a different picture of Yeshua. The order of service of the Priesthood in the Tabernacle, and subsequently the Temple show us the plan of redemption. The Sabbath is a beautiful picture of not only New Heavens and New Earth, but is a picture of our rest in Messiah. It also demonstrates how that Messiah is the only way to the Father as Yeshua said in John 14:6. The Festivals and appointed times reveal Yeshua as sanctifier, redeemer, and Savior. It is important to note that the entire New Testament is written in the terminology of the Festivals and the sacrifices. When one becomes knowledgeable in these areas, it opens up all kinds of avenues in Bible study that will bless you in ways you have not known before.
So then with the above four points in mind, how does one observe Torah? Torah observance does not amount, so much, to living like a Jew (though there is nothing wrong with that if someone chooses do so). It is not a matter of keeping a particular custom. Torah observance is living like Yeshua/Jesus, the greatest Torah observer in the history of the world. It means that we imitate our Messiah, and in doing so, we are imitating our Heavenly Father. Torah observance begins by walking in biblical love. It means living in love when everything in our nature is screaming at us to do the opposite. I think we all have room for improvement in this area, I know that I do. It means responding in love to those we don't particularly care for in the flesh. Biblical love is not based upon feelings but upon obedience to God's commandments even when we don't want to. That is when love means the most, that is when we show if we are truly a servant of the Lord, or not.
Scriptures That Have Been Misused To Abrogate the Torah
It is important to know and understand that Yeshua was not a breaker of the Torah. He did not at anytime violate ONE of God's commandments. Yeshua was the greatest Torah observer of all time. What Yeshua "broke" was the extra-biblical rules that some of the Pharisees mercilessly, and hypocritically imposed upon the people. They were hypocrites because they held the common man to a standard that they did not hold themselves to, while pretending to be pious. Yeshua saw through it all, and called them on it.
Unfortunately, the Church has developed a very unbiblical Stigma about the Torah because certain Scriptures where Yeshua was breaking a Pharisaic rule or arguing over an extra-biblical ritual have been taken to mean that Yeshua was repudiating the Torah itself. This could not be further from the truth. Some of the Pharisees had become the very antithesis of Torah observance. They had reduced "keeping the Torah" to lowest common denominator, and their entire lives had degenerated into cruelty and hypocrisy.
When Yeshua healed the man with the withered hand, and the woman who was bent over, He was accused of violating the Sabbath. Yeshua correctly responded that doing good was not a violation of the Sabbath. Yeshua did the work of His Father on the Sabbath. As Yeshua said, the Sabbath is not a rest from doing good. It is a rest from the mundane, self centered cares we engage in during the other six days. If there was a day that the Pharisees should have out and about seeing after the sick, feeding the poor, and caring for widows and orphans, it should have been the Sabbath, as these are Sabbath-worthy activities. The Sabbath is the one day when doing good should be amplified, augmented. The Pharisees knew this, and yet persisted to accuse Yeshua of being a Sabbath breaker.
In the next portion of this study, I will bring forth Scriptures often used to repudiate Torah observance. I will attempt to explain them and demonstrate why they do not abrogate the Torah, but in fact establish the Torah, when understood in the light of what Torah really is.
Until then, Chaverim!!
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