Torah

By; Dan Fraley

 "And then I will declare to them, I never knew you;

depart from Me you who practice lawlessness"

Matthew 7:23

       This scripture is very strong, because it is spoken to those that are believers and even drove out demons in Yeshua's name. They know the power of Yah/God and profess to be followers of Yeshua/Jesus. We can not ignore this scripture or "spiritualize" it. It is better that we are "shocked out of complacency" or be honest with ourselves than to receive this terrible "greeting" from our Lord and Savior, Yeshua, when we appear before Him.

       The word "law" can be interpreted as "Torah", But when mainstream Christendom thinks of Torah he has been programmed into thinking "Old covenant legalism" . Torah is the first five books of our Bible and the Jewish TaNaKa, it is not the Talmud, Kabbalah or other Rabbinical writings. In the scripture above, what do you think Yeshua/Jesus meant by lawlessness? The Torahless beliefs! When we give our hearts to Him and receive salvation, we have a desire in us to please our Master/Yeshua, and the Rucah Ha'Kodesh/Holy Spirit works in us to enable us to fully understand the scriptures. Milk first, and as we study,then the meat is revealed to us. The finish line in"THE RACE", is not salvation. It is only the starting line. Many of us (and I felt this way for a long time until Yah/God woke me up) obtain salvation and get ourselves into a "comfort zone" and not go to work in His fields. "If you do not work you do not eat" my Bible says, and I think it applies to spiritual food as well as Physical. If we are lazy in salvation, can Father Yah do a work in us? If He is the one who gave us the Torah/law and He never changes, why do we look at it as legalism?

        This brings to mind another scripture that is strong; Matthew 5:17-18, "Do not think that I came to abolish the Torah/Law or the prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill (or fill full) for truly I say to you, until Heaven and Earth pass away (look around, is the Earth still here?) Not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass away from the Torah/Law until all is filled full/fulfilled". Do you want to be great in His Kingdom? Read on;  "Whosoever therefore shall break one of the least of these commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven. For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven". This scripture goes right along with Matthew 7:23, "doing things" in His name without the foundation of the Torah/Law, which are the Father's instructions in righteousness.

       Verse 17 has been misinterpreted for many centuries to say that because the Lord "fulfilled" the law then we that believe in Him are now  "free from the Torah/Law". The only difference from the Old Covenant and the new, is the New Covenant is a renewal of the Old. Rather than the Law being written on stone, it is written on our hearts. Jeremiah 31:31-33, "Behold the days are coming says the Lord, that I will make a New Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah...(read my article entitled "The Two Houses") ....But this is the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel/the 10 lost tribes scattered into the nations/the grafted; "After those days", saith the Lord, "I will put My Law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; And I will be their God/Yah and they will be My people."

       Back to the misinterpreted word "fulfill", that I call "fill full"; When Yeshua said "Do not think that I came to destroy the Torah/Law or prophets I think what is meant is "I came in order to interpret them to the full." or I am the only one that can fully interpret and explain all the laws and prophecies. Without Me you can not have the full understanding. (read Mat. 5:21-22) When you read this scripture you will see He is interpreting the Torah/Law to the full here. Verse 27-28 He does it again, He expands on the commandment to fully explain it.

       While we are on the word "fulfill", I want to elaborate on the time of the gentiles being fulfilled, Romans11:25,26. I know what you are thinking right now, you say here we go again into Romans 11, the most unread chapter in the Bible by Christians (Isaiah 53 being the chapter not read by Jews). For Messianic believers, who believe Law and Grace will come together in Messiah, it is one of our favorite chapters. Anyway.........Romans 11:25,26 "For I do not want you brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery, least you be wise in your own estimation, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the gentiles has come in; and thus all of Israel will be saved". What is the identity of the "Church"? Do we base our foundation on changes made by Constantine in the 4th century, or on the 1st century roots. People who are estranged from their real identity, or from their family roots, have many more problems in life than people who know where they come from and belong. It is the same with Christians. I would like to quote from a book called "The healing Power of the ROOTS" by Dominiquae Bierman. "The disconnection from the Jewish Roots, and through that from the Old Testament/TaNaK, has brought us to a place of ' spiritual schizophrenia'. It is impossible to fully reconcile the God of Grace with the God of Judgment. The New with the Old. That causes great confusion and a sense that we can't trust God fully because we do not know who He is. Is He a God of wrath? Is He a gentleman? Is He our Judge? Is He our Father?  Is the Church something which just happened unrelated to the prophecies of God to Israel? Is the Church Israel? If so, who are the Jews? Are they also Israel?  If so, then is God marrying two brides: The Church and Israel? Is God a bigamist?  If He is, how can I trust Him? And if He gave Israel up, how can I trust Him not to give up on me? Am I a Jew by faith? Am I a Christian? What is a Christian?  In order to start answering all these questions and bring back sanity to our identity problem and health to our souls and spirits let me give you some interesting figures: The word Israel is mentioned 2601 times in the Bible. The word Christian is mentioned only 2 times! After the word for God and Lord, Israel, is the most often mentioned word in the Bible."       

       Back to the "Fullness of the Gentiles"; I think that what is meant by this is when the gentiles fully realise the importance of the "Jewish Roots" and turn back to the first century foundation of our Covenant. When we embrace our brothers in Yah/God and become one new man the power will flow again as it did in the first century. 

Be back soon.........