I am required to answer a question that
I was asked last week, however before I reveal that question, a question which
I believe is vitally important and critical to our future in Messiah and His
Kingdom, I must caution that as I allow Scripture to interpret Scripture and
lead me where It may whilst hopefully conforming to the parabolas set out and
hi-lighted in the extracted statement below as penned by Mr. Michas, my answer,
indeed this missive, may be much longer as I now envisage including the
distinct possibly that I in turn shall also need to ask a few questions and
make a statement or two of my own:
"As God
designed prophetic pictures and patterns to reveal His Messiah, He also gave
His Word for man to understand their meaning and spiritual significance. Deep study of Scripture, with the Spirit
of Truth to bring understanding, reveals God's beautiful and precise plan.
Knowing who (sic) our Creator is and what our Savior has done
for us is a solid foundation of truth, not blind faith. Total trust in God
comes from knowing who He is and what He has done for us. The greater our
understanding, the greater our trust will be and the closer our personal
relationship with Him will be"
(Peter A Michas - The Rod of An Almond Tree in God's Plan,
WinePress Publishing, Mukilteo, WA 1997, pp. 139-140).
I hope we are able to all accept the plain and simple fact that all those
called by His Name have been guilty to varying degrees in some way or the other
of polluting The Name their relationship with The Father and Redeemer of Israel.
This pollution (SIN) has been achieved through the mixing of HIS Biblically
described and mandated acts of worship leading to Truth and Life within His
Covenant Family with mankind’s humanly inspired “spiritual wishes” and “theological
dogma”, therefore this missive is not meant to be an instrument to enable
anyone, myself especially, an opportunity to throw stones, but it is precisely
because of these theological biases that there may exist the need to ask this searching
question of themselves before going any further into this matter:
Am I prepared to accept The
Truth of the Word even if that Truth does not conform to my established and
time-honoured beliefs – am I able to sacrifice my “Religion” on the altar Truth?
This is an important and potentially life altering question which I have
just posed and we, not one of us, can or in fact dare consider this question in
a light or frivolous fashion as the answer we give, no matter what it may be,
will be recorded in the Court Room of Heaven for eternity and it will stand as
a Witness either for or against us! Mat. 7:21-23.
Hopefully now presenting the question that was posed to me last week, a question,
which has inspired much, thought and study over the last 8 days or so you will
see why I have approached it in this manner:
“Does Mat. 5:19 mean that we can
disobey the Torah and still be in heaven, even though we will be the least?”
“So whoever disobeys the
least of these mitzvoth (commandments) and teaches others to do so will be called the least in the
Kingdom of Heaven….” *** Mat. 5:19 – Complete
Jewish Bible (CJB) is used in all references unless otherwise stated.
Reading Mat.
5:19 on its own would seem to support the obvious conclusion that it seems
to be OK to sin (Break the Torah – Rom. 7:7; 1 John 3:4) and still scrape into The Kingdom of
Heaven!
But can the correct answer to such a
critical question truly be found by such a simple “cherry-picking” method of
Biblical exegesis?
I for one think not, so to begin to
formulate my answer to the above question I shall need to look at the entire
message of The Scriptures as revealed to us.
Is there a possibility that the
generally accepted understanding of Mat. 5:19
that we may be able to “scrape in” by the skin of our teeth then possibly be
incorrect?
The short answer in my opinion is yes,
I believe it may indeed be incorrect; but do not trust me, let us allow HIS
Word, HIS Scriptures to shed light on this most important of matters – the Building
His Kingdom here on Earth and eternal citizenship within His Kingdom to come.
Before going any further though I shall
need to include a caveat:
I know from the feedback that I get
that these missives also go to, and are presumably then read by people who are
still within the denominational system. It would also seem that some of these
readers understandably still labour under the denominationally structured
teachings, so as strange as it may seem for some of you reading this missive
who may have already left the denominational systems with their teachings and
liturgy, there are others who may require a bit more clarity regarding certain fundamental
doctrines, and it is some of these doctrines which I believe need to be dealt
with in a little more detail within the context of this missive thus, if not
placing us all on the same page, at least assisting readers to understand where
I come from and how I arrive at my conclusions.
Firstly, and quite simply, we really
need to understand Who Yeshua, King of from The House of Judah is: Yeshua, is the
very essence and description of the Written, Spoken, Living, Eternal, Visible,
never to change Torah; The revealer of the Father and His Living Covenant to
man, The Eternal and only Lawgiver,
Judge and King, the only ONE Who can saves us from our SINS – Please
consider this for a moment – IF YESHUA IS THE ONLY KING, JUDGE AND LAWGIVER WHO
IS ABLE TO SAVE US FROM OUR SINS (Breaking of His Law/Torah/Covenant) – THEN
WHO GAVE THE LAW AT MOUNT SINAI TO MOSHE AND THE 12 TRIBES OF ISRAEL?
(John 1:1-2, 14, 18; John 14:9; Ex. 19:5-6 as
read with (arw) Ex. 20:1 & Ex. 20:19 & Dev. (Deut.) 5:22-29 & Is. 33:22 & James 4:11-12).
•
Yeshua is the Way, the Truth and the Life: John
14:6
•
The Torah is The Truth & The Word is the Truth: Ps. 119:142 & 160
•
Yeshua is The Word: John 1:1
•
The Word was made Flesh: John 1:14
•
The Torah is for eternity: Ps. 119:89
•
The Torah, The Word, Yeshua never changes: Ps.
89:34-34; Mal.3:6; Heb. 13:8
•
Yeshua IS THE WORD, THE TORAH!
Rev. 19:13 “…… and His Name is the Word of ELOHIM.”
Secondly we need to remember that at
the time Yeshua made these statements we now see recorded in The Brit Chadasah
(New Testament) there was NO “NEW TESTAMENT” YET RECORDED - the
First Brit Chadasah (N/T) epistle, which incidentally is thought to be the
Epistle of James, was written approximately 18-20 years after the death,
resurrection and ascension of Yeshua, so lets ask ourselves:
How would the real early “Church (Body)
of Yeshua Messiah” have walked, worshipped, lived and ate?
With and by what Standard did the “Early
Church (Body) of Messiah Yeshua” measure and weigh their “Religious leaders” of
the day.
What writings would the Early Church
(Body) have used to study The Scriptures as instructed by Sha’ul (Paul) in Acts 17:11? – When history tells us that ONLY
THE Tanakh (O/T) – The writings of Moshes (Moses) and the Prophets
that Yeshua refers to and which are the subject of His discourse in “The Sermon of the Mount”, Matthew 5-7:28 and specifically in the Mat. 5:17-19 - were available?
Therefore if we accept the above that
would imply that only the Tanakh (O/T Scriptures) could be accepted and
used as the Authoritative Writings by Yeshua and all His Apostles to establish
this eternal and visual foundation of righteous living as required by YHWH
Elohim and prescribed in accordance to His Word for the entire time that Yeshua
walked on this earth and for many years after His Death, Resurrection and
Ascension!
Please understand then that the Brit
Chadasah (N/T) did not bring a new religion, it was a continuation and confirmation of
the “OLD” as revealed to us by YESHUA, the Author and Finisher of Life! Heb. 1:1-3; Heb. 12:1-3 therefore
the Brit Chadasah (N/T) must line up
with the Tanakh (O/T) – NOT THE
OLD WITH THE NEW – The Word stipulates that the use of the LAW OF FIRST
MENTION IS APPLIED BY YHWH AND IS THUS OF CRITICAL IMPORTANCE IN READING AND
UNDERSTANDING THE SCRIPTURES – Ecc. 1:9; Is. 46:10; Is. 48:3.
Thirdly we need to understand and grasp
right at the very outset that there is an eternal
and irreconcilable hostility between the sinful man and the Perfectly
Holy YHWH Elohim (Rom. 8:1-8) SIMPLY BECAUSE WE
(mankind) HAVE ALL SINNED, in other words, REBELLED AGAINST YHWH ELOHIM AND HIS
PERFECT RULE, ORDER AND AUTHORITY and WHETHER IT BE BY IGNORANCE OR BY DELIBERATE
ACTION MAKES NO DIFFERENCE, WE HAVE SINNED, BROKEN HIS LAW AND FALLEN SHORT OF
HIS GLORY AND DESERVE DEATH SO to reconcile us to HIM YHWH
Elohim needed His Son to die for us. Sin,
the breaking of His Law, is so abhorrent to YHWH ELOHIM THAT HE COULD NOT EVEN
LOOK TOWARDS HIS SON AS HE, HIS SON, CARRIED THE SIN OF THE WORLD!! Please
consider this fact whilst pondering our question from Mat. 5:19 (See also Gen.
2:17; John 3:5-6;
Rom. 8:1-8; Rom. 3:23; Rom. 6:23; Rom. 7:7; 1 John 3:4; 2 Cor. 5:17-21
arw Mat. 27:46 & Ps.
22:1 etc.)
Once again if we accept what has been
presented thus far, then let us ask ourselves this:
What Scriptures should we then use to
interpret Heb. 11:6 that say that “Without FAITH IT IS
IMPOSSIBLE TO PLEASE YHWH ELOHIM”?
Note please that the Hebrew word
translated for FAITH, FAITHFUL, FAITHFULNESS, FAITHFULLY, SET, STABLE,
STABILITY come from the same root word, which is H530 – emunah = firmness, security, fidelity, stability & truth (See Hab. 2:4): in other words
faithfulness is fidelity (loyal and
faithful) to the Truth. It portrays
an action dictated by belief in a concept, P/person, thing and so forth.
And in the Greek we have 2 words
translated as FAITH as used in The Brit Chadasah (N/T) –
·
G3640
– oligopistos = From G3641 (puny, short, small) & G4102 (to obey, trust, yield, convict, rely upon, believe,
fidelity) = incredulous, that is lacking confidence – of little faith (see Mat. 6:30):
·
And
The second word translated as FAITH from the Greek is the same word used in the
compilation of the first definition of little
faith noted above and underlined – G4102 = pistis – (to obey, trust, yield, convict, rely
upon, believe, fidelity) - (See Heb. 11:6).
G4102 = pistis which is translated faith
239 times and on other occasions as belief,
believe, fidelity, so in short to have BIBLICAL FAITH IS TO TRUST
(intellectual acceptance) AND OBEY
THAT WHICH WE TRUST IN, (Luke 6:43-45) in
other words adopting a strict adherence and application of this intellectual
acceptance, whether it be good or whether it be evil – See James 2:1, 8 (KJV – “If ye
fulfill the Royal Law according to
Scripture – again what Scripture would James – Ya’akov be
referring to do you think?), James 2:10 & 14-20.
So we are able to establish that in
both the Hebrew and the Greek Biblical FAITH, as described by the Apostle
James, is a belief in something accompanied by the appropriate action
associated to that belief, for the converse of this see James 1:12-15 NB: SIN BRINGS
FORTH DEATH – SIN IS THE BREAKING OF THE TORAH 1
John 3:4.
To establish the context of our
question let us have a brief look at Matthew 5-7
which is in and of itself a massively important piece of Scripture and one
which I have heard used by religious leaders within the Denominations to justify
the doing away with of the Physical Laws of The Torah BECAUSE, ACCORDING TO
THESE TEACHERS, NOW JESUS HAS TAKEN THE LAW TO A DEEPER LEVEL OF THE HEART AND
THEREBY DOES NOT REQUIRE US TO OBEY THE LAW IN THE FLESH ANY LONGER!
Here is an example they sight to
support that teaching:
“You have heard that our
fathers were told ‘Do not commit
adultery.’ (Ex. 20:14;
Dev. (Deut.) 5:18) But I tell you that a man who even looks at a woman with the purpose of
lusting after her has already committed adultery in his heart ” ***Mat.
5:27-28
Had Yeshua indeed done away with The
Torah HE would have been no better than the Scribes and Pharisees HE so
severely admonished and warned us to beware of, as seen in Mat. 5:20 and so many other portions of Scripture, and
thus have been a sinner and hypocrite Himself all the while just PRETENDING TO BE THE MESSIAH, THUS MAKING
OF HIMSELF THE ANTI-MESSIAH – for more reading on this matter see Stone
your rebellious son.
To clarify this let us briefly look at
what actions Yeshua accused and rebuked the religious leaders of His day of
committing in regards to His Fathers Kingdom –
“Then some P’rushim (Pharisees) and
Torah-teachers (Scribes) from Yerushalayim came
to Yeshua and asked Him, “Why is it that your talmidim (Disciples) break the
tradition of the elders? They
don’t do n’tilat-yadayim before they eat!” (Ceremonial hand
washing as prescribed by the Oral Torah in order to be ritually pure). He (Yeshua) answered, “Indeed, why do you break the command of
Elohim (GOD) by your tradition? *** Mat. 15:1-3 Torah
is not, and never will be the traditions of man – IT IS FROM YHWH ELOHIM
HIMSELF
We can search the Torah and Prophets
but you will never ever find a law
from YHWH Elohim that requires the washing of hands before eating – this was a man-made
“Oral Torah” law which was being placed at best on par with the Word of YHWH
and at worst, ABOVE THE WORD OF YHWH! Where on the other hand when
Yeshua taught in the “Sermon of the Mount”
and made statements such as “But I tell you” HE WAS IN FACT APPLYING PERFECT TORAH INSTRUCTIONS
AND NOT MAKING NEW LAWS OF THE HEART FOR
THE “CHRISTIAN CHURCH” AS “TAUGHT” BY THE APOSTLE PAUL!:
Lev. 19:17: “Do
not hate your brother in your heart,
but rebuke your neighbour frankly, so that you will not carry sin because of
him.” ***
Num. 15:39: “It
is a tzitzit for you to look at and hereby remember all of YHWH’s mitzvoth (commandments)
and obey them, so that you won’t go around wherever your own heart and eyes lead you
to prostitute yourselves.” ***
Dev. (Deut.) 6:6: “These words, which I am ordering you today, are to be on your heart.” ***
Dev. (Deut.) 8:2: “You are to remember everything of the way in which YHWH led
you these forty years in the desert, humbling and testing you in order to know what was on your heart
– whether you would obey his mitzvoth (commandments) or not.” ***
Dev. (Deut.) 10:16: “Therefore, circumcise
the foreskin of your heart; and
don’t be stiff-necked any longer!” ***
Dev. 11:18: “Store these words in your heart…”
***
Dev. 15:9: “Guard yourself against allowing your
heart to entertain the mean-spirited thought..” ***
Job 31:27: “My heart was secretly seduced,
so that I would wave them a kiss with my hand” ***
Ps. 10:11; “He says in his heart, “Elohim
forgets…..” ***
Quoted in Psalm
40:7-8 we see King David speaking prophetically about the coming of
Messiah Yeshua he writes, “Here I am! I am coming! In
the scroll of the book it is written about Me. Doing Your will, My Elohim,
is my joy, yea thy TORAH is in my
heart!” ***
Ps. 51:8: “..,
so make me know wisdom in my inmost
heart.” ***
Prov. 4:23: “ABOVE EVERYTHING ELSE, GUARD YOUR HEART;
FOR IT IS THE SOURCE OF LIFE’S CONSEQUENCES.” ***
Mat. 15:18-19: “But
what comes out of your mouth is
actually coming from your heart, and that is what makes a person unclean; for
out of the heart come forth wicked thoughts, murder, adultery and other kinds
of sexual immorality, theft lies…” ***
James 1:15: “Then, having conceived, the desire gives
birth to sin, and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death.” *** Remember
sin is the breaking of The Torah 1 John 3:4; Rom. 7:7.
Things have not changed at all and it
is precisely these man made laws, the Talmud and the Mishnah for Judaism; Roman
Canon for the Catholics and the reformists writings and creeds based largely on
Roman Canon which, as Yeshua stated, had/have taken precedence over the Holy
Scriptures and subsequently have made the Law of YHWH Elohim of no consequence
and these self-same man-made traditions now dictate the conduct of Judaism WHO
DO NOT BELIEVE “JESUS” IS THE PROPHESIED MESSIAH and those saying that they worship
“Jesus” BUT WILL NOT ACCEPT HIS COVENANT LAWS, HIS TORAH, HIS WITNESSES AND
SIGNS GOVERNING AND REVEALING HIS KINGDOM AUTHORITY IN THE HERE AND NOW! Mark 7:8 arw Mat. 15:1-20;
Mat. 24:4; Mat. 24:24-25.
We really need to take time to
contemplate and ponder what Yeshua Himself says in Mat. 5:17-18 devoid of our tainted views of religion:
Yeshua says that HE “has NOT come to destroy/abolish the Torah or the
Prophets” but rather to preach, complete and make replete
(fulfill) the entire Law and The Prophets. If we acknowledge this
statement, then to assume that the word pleroo which is translated in Mat. 5:17 as “fulfill” in many translations, &
which, according to denominational doctrines, means that by “fulfilling” the
requirements of Prophecy regarding Himself, Yeshua has indeed done away with
the Law and The Prophets: Such a assertion would then in fact make Yeshua’s
statement in these two verse a contradiction in actual terms.
Here is the CJB translation of verse 17:
“Don’t think that I have come
to abolish the Torah or the Prophets. I have not come to abolish but to
complete.” See this verse
in the light of Dev. (Deut.) 4:2; Dev. (Deut.) 12:32; Heb. 1:1-3;
Jude 1:3; Rev. 22:19
– See that if we should add or take away from this Book WE WILL BE REMOVED FROM
THE BOOK OF LIFE AND BARRED FROM ENTRY INTO THE HOLY CITY!
The
word “Pleroo” deserves an entire
study in and of itself and this is not the platform for such a study, but
please see this link of only a few minutes for what I consider a good grounding on this particular word and its
use in The Scriptures.
Please also consider this, if Yeshua expected
His Disciples to comply with Scriptures such as Matt.
28:20 – “and teaching them to obey
everything that I HAVE COMMANDED YOU” and considering that
Yeshua Himself would have had to apply that same Faith as required by The Word
and explained above & as read with (arw) Heb. 1:1-3;
Jude 1:3 - then taking His statement in Mat. 28:20 and holding it up to the light of the often
misquoted testimony of Kephas (Peter), who speaks of upholding The Law/Torah by
having
never ever eaten anything unclean (un-Biblical) even to this point 15 years after
having walked personally with Yeshua during basically His entire earthly
ministry, then I would dare say that it is a pretty sure thing that
in order to give to HIS Apostles a visual and perfect “template” or “example” which
to follow and to teach to His future converts amongst all the nations for the rest of time until HIS return, Yeshua
indeed then never could have broken or set aside the Law, The Prophets and His
Scriptural requirement of Faith.
NB:
Please See Acts 10:11-20, 28-29
arw Acts 15:6-9 to see that what Yeshua was
referring to when speaking to Kephas in Acts 10 had
nothing at all to do with food but was a correction from The Ruach (Holy Spirit
John 16:12-15) of Yeshua Himself because Peter
(Kephas) was in this particular area ignorantly still applying a portion of the
added “Oral Law”, a portion shown here and pertaining to a law prohibiting
“Jews” from ever making any contact with non-Jews – these are the very “laws”
which both Yeshua and Sha’ul (Paul) spent their ministries debunking, they
never ever tried to debunk The Torah.
Now moving onto Mat. 5:18 it is patently obvious that the heavens and the earth
have not passed away; secondly, as shown above the Message (Torah/Covenant) has
never and can never change so therefore, in my opinion, I do not think it is a
massive leap of faith to state that the Law and The Prophets are still relevant
and that Yeshua would never ever have sanctioned then or now the annulment or
the “doing away” away with of
His Torah because had HE done so HE would have been annulling or doing away
with Himself and The Father Who sent Him and thus would have been classified as
a rebellious son in accordance with Dev. (Deut.)
21:18-21! John 1:1-2 & 14 - See again Stone
your rebellious son
The Bible shows the Heavens and the
earth to be signs, witnesses to the eternity of The Law (Dev. 30:19), just as the sign of the rainbow spoken of
in Gen 9:8-17 is an eternal sign or witness of
another portion of promise/covenant from YHWH Elohim to mankind and just as The
Shabbat is an eternal sign of His Covenant and His Creation Ex. 20:8-11 & Ex. 31:12-17.
“I call on heaven
and earth to witness against you today that I have presented you with life and
death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore choose life so that you will live,
you and your descendants. ***
Dev. (Deut.) 30:19 – this mirrors Gen. 2:9
& 16-17
So, let us be very careful that we do
not simply gloss over this statement of Yeshua’s in Mat
5:18 concerning the heaven and earth still being here, because if we are
truly redeemed through His Blood then Mat. 5:19, the
crux of this missive, will be initiated and instituted in, on
and through our lives from now and echoing into eternity – THE CHOICE IS OURS,
WE CAN CHOOSE WHETHER WE WANT TO BE GREAT IN HIS KINGDOM OR THE LEAST! Gen. 2:17; Lev. 26:1-13; Lev 26: 14-17; Dev. (Deut.)
28:1-2 – NB: In this verse The Voice of YHWH Elohim IS YESHUA; Dev. (Deut). 28:15 –
Again please understand that the VOICE of YHWH our ELOHIM REFERS TO YESHUA
HIMSELF; Dev. (Deut.) 30:19; Dev. (Deut.) 31:28; Gal.
3:13-14 arw Devarim (Deut.) 21:22-23; Jos. 24:15.
Again at the risk of stating the
patently obvious and being painfully repetitive, it would seem that the only
conclusion that anybody can reach is that the entirety of the Law (Torah) and
It’s witnesses against us still stand and should be applied as It prescribes
It’s own application!
Therefore if we can accept that the
entire Torah/Law/Covenant, as prescribed by Itself is still applicable and
authoritative and HAS NOT EVER BEEN DONE AWAY WITH OR ABRIDGED THEN LETS US SEE IF WE CAN MOVE FURTHER
TOWARDS A CONCLUSIVE BIBLICAL ANSWER TO Mat. 5:19:
“So whoever disobeys the
least of these mitzvots (commandments)
and teaches others to do so will be called the least in
the Kingdom of Heaven.” ***
If one is to do a study of what is
commonly referred to as Levitical Sacrificial system one will see that there
are Sacrifices for all sorts of occasions, and obviously there are the sin
offerings for restoration of fellowship with YHWH Elohim.
Blood Sacrifices were to be offered
firstly for “inadvertent sins”
or “sins of ignorance” on a
personal, corporate, ecclesiastical or leadership level (Lev.
4:2ff) and secondly for the more personal “deliberate sin” caused by
general human weaknesses of say anger, frustration, stress, fear (Lev. 5:14ff) – BUT FOR DELIBERATE, REBELLIOUS &
CONTINUAL SIN THERE WAS NO SACRIFICE - SEE Num.
15:30-31 –
“But an individual who does
something wrong intentionally, whether a citizen or a
foreigner, is blaspheming YHWH. That person
shall
be cut off from his people. Because he has contempt for the WORD
(YESHUA) of YHWH and has disobeyed his command,
that
person will be cut off completely; his offence will remain with him.”
***
I believe it would be practical to now
break this missive before going further and dealing with the Num. 15:30-31 in more detail because as I said in the
beginning this question drawn from Mat. 5:19 is definitely
taking much longer to answer than as expected, so I believe I should divide this
into 2 missives, I hope, but we shall see and with that I will conclude the 1st
portion of this missive here, and Abba willing I shall continue with the next
portion after Sabbath as Abba leads.
Please study prayerfully what I have
submitted to now not just taking my word for anything, but instead testing
everything against His Word.
Shabbat shalom
Bo’az
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