Soil from Stone

Or at least that’s what the church teaches. They quote Paul’s sermon on Mars Hill in which he said, “And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commands all men every where to repent.” (Acts 17:30) Then they quote Yeshua’s statements along the lines of “You have heard it said thus, but I tell you differently.” The end product is a teaching that God’s law no longer applies and at least partly consisted of God winking at sin. The Law was incomplete and Jesus fixed it.

They don’t know what they’re talking about. That’s not hyperbole. I have to wonder if those theologians have ever actually read their proof texts before. Neither Yeshua nor Paul was addressing the Law of God. Yeshua was correcting the traditions of men, which misrepresented the Law, and Paul was speaking of the total ignorance of the Law, which, for the sake of your faith in him, God overlooks until you are able to learn it.

The idea that God deliberately designed his Law to overlook certain sins means that God hates his own people whom he claims to love.

You shall not hate your brother in your heart. You shall always rebuke your neighbor, and not allow sin on him. (Leviticus 19:17)

If God compromised his Law in deference to the prevailing culture (you know, that Egyptian culture of idolatry and incestuous marriage), then, by his own standards, he hated Israel even while he proclaimed his love. If the church is right, that God established sin in his Law, then God is a liar and a hater of mankind.

What man is there of you, if his son asks a loaf, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks a fish, will he give him a snake? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father in Heaven give good things to those who ask Him? (Matthew 7:9-11)

Which, of course, means that Yeshua was also a liar and evil. His execution was deserved, and we have no hope of salvation. Ever. The entire history of God’s interaction with man has been a long, cruel joke. The manna was poisoned, and the lamb was diseased.

But I don’t believe it. I believe that David knew of what he spoke when he said that “The Law of Yahweh is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of Yahweh is sure, making the simple wise. The Precepts of Yahweh are right, rejoicing the heart; the Commandments of Yahweh are pure, giving light to the eyes.” (Psalm 19:7-8) I believe that when Yeshua said, “If you love me, keep my commandments,” he meant all of his commandments, and not only the ones that he had to tell us twice.

I believe that God loves his people, that his Word is true, that obedience to his Word brings life, and that he never changes. What was a sin three thousand years ago remains a sin today. What was not a sin three thousand years ago is still not a sin today.

Because God is love.

Technorati Tags: torah, law, grace, yeshua, paul, k’doshim

When Peter asked the Pharisees, “Why do you tempt God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples, a yoke which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear,” he was not talking about God’s Torah as written by Moses. He was talking about the traditions, the rules of the so-called Oral Torah, which the rabbis had built up around the written Torah. Moses told the Israelites, “The secret things belong to YHWH our God, but the revealed things belong to us and to our sons forever, so that we may do all the words of this Law….For this commandment which I command you today is not hidden from you, neither is it far off. It is not in Heaven, that you should say, Who shall go up for us to Heaven, and bring it to us, so that we may hear it and do it? Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, Who shall go over the sea for us to the region beyond the sea, and bring it to us, so that we may hear it and do it? But the Word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, so that you may do it. Behold! I have set before you today life and good, and death and evil, in that I command you today to love YHWH your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, so that you may live and multiply. And YHWH your God shall bless you in the land where you go to possess it.” To keep His commandments, including remedies for failures, is not beyond our reach. Peter did not call Moses a liar.

Most of the Torah is very simple. It can be summed up in two commands or in ten. This week’s Torah portion begins with another summary of the law: Be holy for I am holy. “Holy” means separate or different. Moses followed that summary with another summary:

• Be respectful of your parents.
• Do not employ idols.
• Express your gratitude. Don’t fake it. Don’t make a show of it.
• Leave a little extra for the poor and the traveler.
• Don’t steal, cheat, or lie.
• Don’t take unfair advantage of others.
• Don’t punish the rich for being rich.
• Don’t gossip.
• Don’t retaliate, and don’t hold a grudge.
• Love your neighbor as yourself.

These rules aren’t entirely unique to the Torah. Except for the part about idols, they are pretty standard religious fare. (As far as I know, only the religious traditions that grew out of Judaism prohibit the making and use of idols.) Other than the rules themselves, there are two vitally important things to understand about being k’doshim to God.

1. God doesn’t care all that much about ritual or prayer or self denial. All those things have their place, but what’s really important is love. Not feelings, but real, active love.
2. It isn’t the content of our rules that separates us from the world; it is their source and our obedience to them.

Technorati Tags: k’doshim, kadoshim, kedoshim, torah portion, legalism, judaism, christianity, judaizers, torah, law, grace, holiness, law vs grace