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Introduction To Torah-Instructions
The greatest Torah Teacher of all times is the Lord YESHUA the
Messiah. It is necessary to recognize Him as our Teacher to let Him teach us.
But you must not be called Rabbi, for One is your teacher, Messiah,
and you are all brothers.
(Matthew 23:8 MKJV)
First we need to know that the Hebrew word, Torah, means
"Instructions". This word was mistranslated as "law" but it
means "instructions". The Hebrew language has a word for
"law", this is the Hebrew word "Chok" (Eg. Psalm
94:20;81:5). Elohim (God in Hebrew) calls the instructions that He gave to
Moses "The Torah", it is not man's name for the first five books, it
is Elohim's name for them. (See Malachi 4:4, Psalm 119).
The Messiah is the Alef and the Taf (First and Last letter of the
Hebrew alphabet as we see in Psalms 119), He is the Word of Elohim, that's why
He is the Torah. There is only one way, YESHUA the Word, this includes the
Torah.
Let's see some facts about the Torah.
The Torah can be scientifically proved to be written by Elohim. A
brother called Jacob Rambsel found that in every prophecy about the Messiah
there is an encoded message about Messiah! (Bible Codes are something that
man could not have planned to put in the Scriptures).
The original Torah doesn’t have punctuation or commas and no
periods, not even capitols and even some vowel sounds are omitted.
The letters used in the Torah today are not the same as used in
the original writings, there is a difference, not in the number of letters, but
in the symbol that represents each letter.
Between the years 500 and 900 AD the Jewish Masorets added
punctuation to the Hebrew letters establishing in this way vowel sounds today.
Some truths about Torah
Torah is not synonymous with bondage. Elohim didn't take the sons
of Israel from Egypt (slaves) to make them slaves of the Torah. The Lord
delivered Israel from being slaves to be free, the Torah set the sons of Israel
free! To have and live by the Torah-Instructions is part of the freedom.
"So shall I keep thy "Instructions" (KJV "law") continually for ever and ever.
And I will walk at liberty: for I seek thy precepts". Psalm
119:44-45
To keep the instructions of Elohim is not to be legalistic; to
keep man's commandment is to be legalistic.
The knowledge of The Instructions helps us to understand the work
of the Messiah.
In the times of YESHUA the religious Jews didn't believe in the instructions.
"For
had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. But if ye
believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?" John 5:46-47
In the times of YESHUA the religious Jews didn't keep the Torah.
Neither today does rabbinical Judaism keep it. YESHUA kept Torah. He was the
perfect sacrifice, blameless, therefore He kept Torah. If He hadn't keep the
Instructions it would mean that He wasn't the perfect sacrifice, that's wrong!
He was born under the Torah, He kept all the instructions including Shabbat.
The Pharisees didn't kept Shabbat, they kept man's commandments a Shabbat made
by man's laws.
"Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you
keepeth the law? Why go ye about to kill me?" John
7:19
There is not even one commandment in all Torah that instructs us
to keep traditions.
Torah is not difficult and not complicated to keep.
"For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is
not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven,
that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto
us, that we may hear it, and do it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that
thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us,
that we may hear it, and do it? But the word is very nigh unto thee, in
thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it." Deuteronomy
30:11-14
YESHUA said that he didn't come to destroy but to fulfill the
Torah
"Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets:
I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven
and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till
all be fulfilled." Matthew 5:17-18
YESHUA encourages us to keep and teach Torah. In Matthew 5:17
until the end of chapter 7 we can find how He taught the deep message of the
Torah to His disciples.
"Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least
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." Matthew
5:19
The commandments of God are good because God is good.
"And YESHUA said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there
is none good but one, that is, God." Mark
10:18
The Spirit of the Torah is Love and Mercy.
YESHUA is the Word of Elohim and He said,
"… the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit,
and they are life." John 6:63
"All" Words of Elohim are Spirit. The Word of Elohim
(YESHUA), when He speaks, He speaks "Spirit", that includes all the
Scriptures, also the Torah of Moses. And because Elohim is Spirit (Jn 4:24),
and Elohim is Love (1 Jn 4:8), The Torah of Moses is "Love". All
being One.
If we will stop loving or being
merciful for the sake of keeping one of the commandments of the Torah, we will
not be keeping Torah anymore because Torah is Love and Mercy.
YESHUA didn't make the Torah of Moses null and void.
"Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets:
I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." Matthew
5:17
In the book of Acts we see that against Stephen they put up
false witnesses, they lied against Stephen and against YESHUA.
"And set up false witnesses, which said, This man ceaseth not
to speak blasphemous words against this holy place, (The Temple) and the law
(The Torah): For we have heard him say, that this YESHUA of Nazareth shall
destroy this place, and shall change the customs which Moses delivered
us." Acts 6:13-14
YESHUA didn't come to destroy the Temple, not to change the
customs which Moses gave us.
How can we keep Torah?
Which part of the Instructions of Moses are still valid? The
answer is simple: All of them, because Elohim is eternal and His Words are also
eternal (Mt 24:35). But we need to better understand this issue and see how the
Torah is applicable in our lives today. It is not through religion or
traditions that we can keep Torah. We are in a New Covenant with Elohim. But
the previous covenants still stand, they are fulfilled or keep it in a way that
we need to understand spiritually.
Let's see by the following examples how the Torah is kept today.
- The instructions for the
service of The Altar give the redemptive power to the sacrifice of the
Messiah YESHUA by His Blood.
- The instructions for the
Red Heifer open a fount of living waters coming out of our bellies that
purify us from the unclean in us. (Numbers 19)
- The instructions for the
Passover Lamb gives us protection, and life through the sacrifice of
Messiah YESHUA the Lamb of Elohim, that was sacrificed according to the
instructions for Passover. (Exodus 12)
- The instructions for the
Day of Atonement, with the Blood of the Messiah intercede continuously for
the sins of Israel the Olive Tree. Giving us a pattern of intercession for
Israel. (Leviticus 16)
- The
instructions for judgment with the death sentence (or other sentences) are
not applicable to us because we become servants when we receive YESHUA and
the Judgment was given to Him, the Messiah. He commanded us not to judge. (Judge
not, and in no way be judged. Do not condemn, and in no way you will be
condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Luke 6:37 LITV)
- The instructions for
clean and unclean food and dead bodies can limit the move of unclean
spirits (or demons see Luke 4:33) against us and give us understanding
about how the enemy works. That's why the New Covenant book speaks in it's
original language about "unclean spirits" ("evil
spirits" is a wrong translation) they move trough unclean things!
(Leviticus 11, Mark 1:26)
- The instructions about
physical uncleanness for man and woman that we find in Leviticus 15 can
also limit the demonic activity against us. We can use this knowledge to
know when we need to pray and how. But it is necessary to know that a
person born again from water and from the Spirit cannot produce
uncleanness because living waters come out of them.
- The
instructions about leprosy (Leviticus 13,14) were a sign to the priests of
Israel that the Messiah has come, no one can heal leprosy except the
Messiah! (…Going, show yourselves to the priests … Luke 17:14 LITV)
- The instructions about
Elohim's appointed times or what we called also the feast of the Lord can
be kept but with wisdom and understanding. Without the altar service or
sacrifices, that of course is pointing to YESHUA's sacrifice. Tradition is
not necessary. The feasts are full of prophetic meaning.
As we can see, there are not many commandments that we need to
keep, thanks to the work of YESHUA. At this point we now start to understand
the work of the Messiah when He said that He came to fulfill the Torah (the
definition of fulfill includes to keep) any commandments that we don’t need to
keep is because YESHUA fulfilled them. AlleluYah.
Who is in the histories of the Torah
If we seek in each one of the histories of the Torah we will find
Messiah, sometimes easily, sometimes we will need to pray and wait but we will
see YESHUA in any portion. From the first verse of the Torah (Genesis 1:1) we
see in Hebrew the Alef and Taf of Revelations 1:8.
The histories of the Torah are prophetic. For example the life of
Yosef is a picture of the Messiah, the picture of Moses delivering the sons of
Israel with a rod is a picture of YESHUA our Shepherd delivering us from sin,
the history of the sacrifice of Isaac the promised son is also a picture of
YESHUA giving His life even in the same mountain. The book of Numbers
chronicles Israel in the dessert and is a picture of the House of Faith in the
end times, etc. If we understand that what happened to the fathers happened to
the sons we will find a sea of prophecies fulfilled and many that will soon be.
Conclusion
The direction of the Ruach HaKodesh/Holy Spirit is necessary to
understand and keep His commandments, without Him we simply cannot do it. We
have all the Grace to keep His commandments today. YESHUA is the one that teaches
us how, but He will do it only if we open our hearts and invite Him to teach
us.
Finally the New Covenant is not opposed to the Torah, the Torah
of Moses is part of the New Covenant, as the Scriptures says.
"But this shall be the covenant that I will make with
the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my Torah in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and
will be their God, and they shall be my people."
Jeremiah 31:33
For the Glory of YESHUA hour Teacher.
Brother. David
Note: Unless otherwise indicated the verses from the Bible are in "light blue" and taken from the translation called "The King
James Version 1769", the literal translations are in "dark blue", the Name YESHUA has been kept in his original Hebrew
form, the Greek word Christos has been kept as Messiah his real meaning.
(*) The expression "the LORD" has been kept
also in his original form of four Hebrew letters, in English Yhuh where
"U" is a "long U", this is the transliteration of the
Hebrew letter "Vav", that YESHUA in His big mercy has revealed to us
was the old way of pronouncing.
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