Torah of Messiah - My Torah
1. My Torah - God's law - says Yahweh in Genesis 26:5
That's why, that Abraham
obeys my voice and watched my
Regulations, my Commandments,
my Statutes and my Laws.
The word law תורה (To-rah´ H8451) can be found here for the first time in the Holy Scriptures, that it is not the law of Sinai here is obvious, because that was brought about 430 years later by Moses. The verse quoted above is part of God's speech to Isaac. God tells the son of Abraham about his law, about his Torah.
How does Isaac react to the law of God? We can deduce from his actions: Isaac has understood the law of God. The following verse makes it clear: "So Isaac stayed in Gerar". Such a simple sentence, but it has it in it. We can also translate the verse as follows: "And so Isaac rested in the land of rolling away". Gerar means rolling country. Only through the root of the word do we understand how Isaac reacted to the message. גרר (Ga-rar) means:
- What was dragged away?
- Isaac has continued to be concerned with the speech of God;
- was seen or recognized.
Gerar's interpretation is then something like this: There is a country in which sin is carried away. This fact is constantly being considered, and God's actions are more and more recognized and understood.
Isaac rested in Gerar. This is a tender reference to the gospel of Golgotha. We can rest in the sacrifice of the Lord because He, the scapegoat, carried away the guilt and made peace. We are allowed to look again and again at his work and thus recognize his love more and more from the depths of the Scriptures. God's friendly action is revealed when we study. This is the Torah of which God speaks in Exodus 16. The people did not want to live according to these laws.
The uselessness of the Mosaic law?
We read about this in Joshua 24:19: "And Joshua said to the people, "You cannot serve Yahweh; for he is a holy God, he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions and your sins.
This is a destructive word and is like a death sentence. The people cannot serve God. They can do whatever they want, everything is in vain, everything completely useless and irrelevant. Joshua gives them an unequivocal reason: God is holy. To be holy means to be separated from evil. Conversely, this means that people are not holy, they are evil from their youth. And yet: Joshua describes the heartwarming desire of the people of God: Israel wants to serve the Lord no matter what it costs. And so Joshua seeks and finds the solution to the problem:
And so Joshua made a covenant with the people on the same day, and set statutes and judgments for them in Shechem. And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God; and he took a great stone, and set it up there under the tree, which is by the sanctuary of the LORD.
Joshua made a new covenant with Shechem. In this other covenant the people will be enabled to live in the new law by being born again of water and the Spirit.
The established law points to the new covenant. Why? The covenant proclaimed here is different from the covenant of Sinai. The special of the new becomes clear in comparison: Joshua establishes statutes and the right to Shechem. All can see and recognize Joshua's law if they only want to. But from the covenant of Sinai we read the opposite:
- put in the ark the testimony,
- and the lid on top,
- and the two cherubim on it,
- and get her behind the curtain,
- into the Blessed Sacrament.
The description from Exodus 25 and 26 form a contrast to Joshua 24. The law of Sinai is not erected and is therefore not visible to all. The law of Moses becomes as it were:
- behind the curtain,- before the eyes of men,- hidden.
The new covenant that Joshua is building can be seen and understood by all. Both the rock and the terebinthe, pointing to Golgotha, can be seen by any passer-by. The rock points to the site of the skull, the hill of Golgotha, at the same time the rock speaks of Christ. The Terebinthe points to the wood on which the Messiah was hung, the cross of Golgotha, at the same time the Terebinthe points to the root trunk from which the Messiah should emerge, the root of David. Jesus is the offspring of the cut tree trunk.
Also the place of the events 2000 years ago is mysteriously mentioned: Both, the rock and the terebinthe, stood at the sanctuary and point to the second temple. Golgatha is not far from the temple district. This gives us a hidden indication that God the Father was present during the crucifixion. The sanctuary is what Jesus calls "my Father's house".
Joshua not only established the covenant, but wrote all the words of this covenant in the book of the law of God.
Now two important questions, the first: Where are the words that Joshua wrote? Joshua 24 already gives us the answer: In the Book of the Law of God! Second question:
Where can we find the Book of the Law of God? The second question is a little more difficult to answer, isn't it?
The law of Moses, now not the ten words on the two tablets, but the whole book of the law, was kept next to the ark in the holy of holies. Deuteronomy 31:5: Take this book of the law, and set it beside the ark of the covenant of Yahweh your God, that there be a witness against you.
This book also, like the two tablets of the law, disappeared behind the curtain, making it invisible to all. Only once a year, on the feast of the Day of Atonement, could the high priest see the book. This was the only day in the Jewish calendar on which Aaron and his followers were allowed to enter the room of the Blessed Sacrament. And only on this day could the high priest catch a glimpse of the Book of the Law.
The curse of the law already lay in God's instruction to place the book next to the ark. And the LORD said, That the book there might be a witness against thee. Why the curse of God? Let us read God's reasoning in the fifth book of Moses, chapter 27:26: "Cursed be he who does not keep up the words of this law to do them! And all the people said, Amen!
Has any man ever fully kept the law of God? If we are honest, we must answer the question with a clear NO, because if one of the elders or prophets had kept the law, he would still be alive today, because the verse from the book of Leviticus would have become reality for him: man, if he does it, will live. I am Yahweh - the Eternal Being.
God promises eternal life to the perfect man. But because none of us is perfect, the perfect man had to come to redeem those who know that they deserve the curse, because they are imperfect. But the one who confesses his sins is given forgiveness and made perfect by Jesus.
Well, the law of Moses disappeared behind the curtain and testified against us. In contrast, the Book of the Law of God is in Christ or on the hearts of those who were made righteous and perfect through Christ. To be even more precise: The Lord Himself is this law. He writes it on the two tablets of the heart of every righteous person. Through his life Jesus gave form to the new law; it can be read, among other things, in the New Testament. And through the prophet Jeremiah he lets us know:
But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord, "I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they will be my people. Jeremiah 31:33
This is the new covenant, for verse 31 says, "Behold, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.
The law of God, which is the law of the new covenant, is written on our hearts. And so Christ, who is the Word of God, will gain more and more form in us. Our life is, as it were, an image of Himself and of His law, the law of God. This is the Torah of the Messiah and so the circle to the Father of all believers closes, because Abraham also carried the Torah of the Messiah on his heart and lived in it. He could only live out of and by this law because the Lord Himself had written it on the tablets of His heart. God was only allowed to write on the tablets of his heart because Abraham fulfilled the only but necessary condition: He believed God with all his heart and all his mind and with all his soul. Through this faith he was born again. The rebirth from above, i.e. from heaven, happens out of water and spirit.
The rebirth actually could have always been known in Israel. But during the time of Joshua as well as during the time of Jesus this knowledge had been buried, so that even Nicodemus seemed to know nothing about this birth. Nicodemus, the teacher of Israel, had to be taught of the birth from above by the rabbi Jesus.
Jeshua HaMashiach, the teacher of Israel, took the teaching material from the law of God.
In Joshua 24:26, the expression "the law of God" is used in Hebrew תורת אלהים (Torat Elohim). In Genesis 25:5 we read (additionally) "and my laws" ותורתי (we-to-ro-´Tai). It is the only time that the word Torah is to be found in the first book of Moses and is also called "my laws" by the Lord.
Why is it important to know that the word Torah is already mentioned in the first book and is also called my laws. Well, the first book of Moses is called Genesis in Greek and means beginnings. God already revealed "his laws" in the beginning. Also the Hebrew name for the book Genesis means "In the beginning" - Bereshit. A man could already do justice in the beginning by faith. Not only the ancestor of Israel received light, but also the women and men who lived before the flood and believed in the law of God were righteous spoken by God through faith.
Examples:
- Noah was a righteous and perfect man among his contemporaries; Noah walked with God.
- And Enoch walked with God.
- And Abel also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of their fat. And Yahweh looked on Abel and on his offering.
But the righteous one will live by faith - Habakuk2,4
The verse quoted above is in one of the last books of the Old Testament, Habakuk. The fact that a man becomes righteous by faith can therefore be found both at the beginning and at the end of the Old Testament. This is a highly significant circumstance which confirms that the law of God, the Torat Elohim, should have been known to his people by the time of Abraham at the latest.
This fact serves us as a weighty argument against false teachers, because if we know that the term Torah in the book of Genesis is linked to the faith of Abraham, then we also know that the word Torah is not limited to the law of Moses alone. The demand that we must return to the Torah, that is to say to the law of Moses, can be clearly rejected in Genesis 25,5. And not only with this scriptural passage, but also the other laws which God gave us before the law of Sinai can be extraordinarily helpful in this regard. They provide the best ammunition for the destruction of human conclusions.
Well, the first book of Moses is called Genesis in Greek and means beginnings. God already revealed "his laws" in the beginning. Also the Hebrew name for the book Genesis means "In the beginning" - Bereshit. A man could already do justice in the beginning by faith. Not only the ancestor of Israel received light, but also the women and men who lived before the flood and believed in the law of God were righteous spoken by God through faith.
Examples:
- Noah was a righteous, perfect man among his contemporaries; Noah walked with God.
- And Enoch walked with God.
- And Abel also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of their fat. And Yahweh looked on Abel and on his offering.
But the righteous one will live by faith - Habakuk2,4
The verse quoted above is in one of the last books of the Old Testament, Habakuk. The fact that a man becomes righteous by faith can therefore be found both at the beginning and at the end of the Old Testament. This is a highly significant circumstance which confirms that the law of God, the Torat Elohim, should have been known to his people by the time of Abraham at the latest.
This fact serves us as a weighty argument against false teachers, because if we know that the term Torah in the book of Genesis is linked to the faith of Abraham, then we also know that the word Torah is not limited to the law of Moses alone. The demand that we must return to the Torah, that is to say to the law of Moses, can be clearly rejected in Genesis 25,5. And not only with this scriptural passage, but also the other laws which God gave us before the law of Sinai, can be extraordinarily helpful in this regard. They provide the best ammunition for the destruction of human reasoning.
Back to the Torah?
If those who demand "back to the Torah" would refer to the laws of Genesis 25, 6 and Joshua 24, then one could rejoice, because then they would refer to the eternal law of God. But if they come to us with the Mosaic law of Sinai, with all its detailed regulations, then we will counter their request with the law of God, the Torah Elohim, which Abraham already knew and loved and to which God refers in Exodus 16.
The Epistle to the Galatians also serves as a prophetic warning sign for us Christians and protects us from conversion to the law of Moses. Paul rings the alarm bells violently when he warns Christians against the seduction of Jews from Satan's synagogue. While the godless will make progress in their godlessness and lead the world, especially the Christian world, into the antichristian system, they will lose both the battles and their lives; and their end will be eternal torment.
And so Paul urges and warns the Galatians. They should not let themselves be "confused" and return to the cult of the Old Testament.
The Greek word for confused means "murky water". It was polluted and made inedible. An evil spirit is at work and makes the water foam milky. In addition, a passage from the Old Testament speaks of cloudy, milky water. Ezekiel 32,2 (dalach H1804). The king of Egypt, Satan, is compared to a young lion who mutates into a sea monster and clouds the water with his feet (raphas H7515). The word raphas, with the aforementioned Strong-No, appears three times in the AT.
1. in Proverbs 25, 26,
2. in Ezekiel 32, 2 and
3. in Ezekiel 34, 18.
Clouded eye and decayed well (dug with earth): so is a righteous one (-Zadik: from the priest class of the Zadokides-) who staggers in the face of immoral action or immoral proclamation.
So that no misunderstandings arise: There is no talk here of a righteous man in the sense of the New Testament, a sincere and therefore righteous one, Hebrew: Jaschar. The righteous man, who is called Zadik here, belongs to the righteous only because of his descent, but his heart strives for something higher. And besides: He builds on his self-made righteousness.
Son of man, raise a lamentation over Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say to him, "You were compared to a young lion among the nations; and yet you were like a sea monster in the seas, and you broke before in your rivers, and clouded the waters with your feet, and stirred up the rivers.
Is it not enough for you to graze the good pasture and to trample the rest of your pasture with your feet, and to drink the clarified water and to cloud the remnant with your feet?
Why do we find the word raphas three times in the Old Testament? There are three prophetic references to the antichristian system at the end of days. The three passages in front of us we point to :
1. the false prophet of the Jews, Proverbs 25;
2. the Roman ruler (and Satan), Ezekiel 32;
3. the antichristian people, Ezekiel 34.
With murky waters we cannot recognize anything and certainly cannot see to the bottom. But we can see clearly in the crystal-clear water and, moreover, the sun blinks at us to greet us with a few golden stars on the surface of the water.
Cloudy water is not for fish, it is a poison to them that makes them sick and in the worst case causes their death. They die if cloudy water is not replaced in time by clear and clean water or the polluted water is purified.
And my law - ותורתי we-to-ro-tai - says the Lord, makes the simple wise. God's law is clear and simple and transparent for the sincere.
Dear reader, no university degree is necessary. Neither a Bachelor's or Master's Degree enables us to correctly understand the eternal law of God. Basically, it is quite simple to do what the Lord has said: He who seeks me finds me. Or as King Solomon puts it in the Proverbs: "God's glory is to hide things; King's glory is to explore them, that is, to find them. Proverbs 25:2.
What has God hidden? Actually, one should ask: Who has God hidden from us? Our answer is: Happy are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with all their heart.