Can The Torah Instruct Us Or Is It Just A Powerful Historical Account?
If there is anything more divisive in the body of Christ it is the use of absolutes in speech to emphasize a matter. The enemy has clearly brought confusion and division that is needless in the body of believers with the sole purpose of defeating the one who is easily snared by arguments on the validity of the Torah to those who are not of Jewish lineage or belief. The minute one brings even the slightest question they are attacked viciously as though it is God Himself fiercely condemning the use of the ‘Torah’ as anything other than a ‘historical account’. I quote because I have encountered this rather frequently here on Facebook and it has become a Paul and Apollos thing, to say the least.
The Word of God is valid from Genesis to Revelation, and it is the modern Christians agreed set of books that are meant as a guide to the character of God and as a manual of instruction. I have seen people adamantly say that the ‘Old testament’ is nothing more than a historical book and cannot be used for instruction to the believer. The early believers, including those who were not Jews, clearly had none of the letters and accounts that we call the New Testament today, yet for hundreds of years referred to the ‘Old Testament’ for a reference towards how to interact with God and the promises He had made in the Torah leading to the New Covenant. Notwithstanding that early generation had the greatest impact on history, as shown by the presence of the Holy Spirit in their midst and their love for one another and the Word. Indeed they received power and became witnesses even through great persecution and hardship.
Wisdom dictates that we are very clear when we say the Torah is just a historical book, because history can be a good teacher as well. Just because a covenant does no longer apply to us, or never did, does not negate the learning within and the revelation of the character and nature of Jehovah. It does not change His name, or names, for that matter. It does not change His character, and neither does it change His purpose. The two camps of Old and New are locked into this never ending cycle of misunderstanding and misrepresentation that does not seem to be building the body, but rather tearing it apart.
The Torah can be summarized as God’s love letter to the world given in a promise to Abraham for all mankind and Yeshua fulfills that promise. To place emphasis on either Old without understanding that it had a purpose or only on the New without understanding that it came out of the Old, is to confine the understanding of God to an inferior place where many blessings are missed for simple plain ignorance and I dare say even conceit. You cannot fully learn the character of God just by opening the New Testament, and even though Christ is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being (Hebrews 1:3), we still find that being described in the Torah as a shadow and Christ himself saying he came to fulfill it. So in the Torah we are actually to learn about Christ, and the blueprint for mankind’s redemption through the Jews.
We must be firm with rightly divining the word of truth but let us also be as gentle as doves. Social media unfortunately can easily be a place where we pour out emotional statements that inflame rather than build. I am almost certain that some will immediately attack me on this and they know themselves, but again I would ask what benefit is it to deny a believer who trusts your judgement and doctrine the deep knowledge available in the Torah?
It may be that those who deny the Torah’s ability to instruct are merely emphasizing the misuse of the Torah in that we are clearly in a New Covenant, thanks to the work of the Passover Lamb in this season of Easter. That same Torah talks of promises that we as believers are enjoying today. How can I not be encouraged by the account of Elijah, when even Paul uses him to talk about faith while ‘instructing’ those he writes to? And what about Abraham, the father of faith? Can I learn nothing from the accounts of his life as written by Moses in the Torah? What about the Psalms? Is the book of Daniel merely a historical book? If so, why would Jesus refer to it when talking of end times?
I dread the day when many of us will miss out at the judgement of our works simple because we did not teach the full gospel, and become the least because of that.
(Matthew 5:17-19 NIV
[17] “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. [18] For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. [19] Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.)
Mine is not to extend these arguments for I know whom I have believed and whom I serve, and His Word is my beacon and standard, and it will be the one that judges me on that day, not people’s opinions and doctrines. To either say that the Torah is what one born of the Spirit should follow to the letter implies that Christ did nothing on the cross, apart from fulfill a historical purpose.
Picking and choosing scripture can also be detrimental to one’s walk in Christ, as well as being a tool for bigotry and hatred of those whom we think commits sins as though we ourselves are without fault. The common thread of rejection of the Torah is the use of the work of the cross to establish the New Covenant, but even after that on the day of Pentecost Peter quotes Joel 2:1.
The disciples taught from the Torah and how Jesus had explained it to them as a reference to the promise of salvation through the seed of Abraham. They also clearly saw that the Law of Moses was not directed at those who were not Jewish, but as a lasting ordination to the Jews, and with that insight made a proclamation that as long as people did not eat of food sacrificed to idols and engage in sexual sin, they were free to not observe the law to the letter. But they still taught the faith by using the Torah and how Christ is revealed in it.
This is why it is by grace we are saved, through faith and not by works or our personal effort, and that is the work of the New Covenant. Let us in this season of contemplating the work of the Cross not engage ourselves in mocking one another or pointing out what we think is wrong with each others doctrine’s, but build one another by allowing the Holy Spirit to fill us with love for one another and for our neighbors that surround us so that the truth will prevail and peace will preside over our relationships. God bless us all and may His Shalom prevail!
