When writing about something others have not heard of or they believe they have even if what you're saying is different but similar (and it seems especially so among believers), you should expect a certain amount of resistance. It's normal, human behavior. The things which catch you off guard, when you're writing from a heart of chasing hard after Biblical truth among the many man-made ideas which you (and others) have probably accepted, is being seen as arrogant when you present the evidence you've found with the same confidence as those who believe differently. It feels as though we have become a people of tolerance, accept when we disagree. Another is the idea that because you are simply stating facts, that you aren't appealing to others in a way they can receive. This one is true to some degree, but another side of that same coin is that it isn't just that they cannot receive but that they don't want to. So they dismiss what you're presenting because they don't want to do what may be necessary to discover if what you're presenting is truth. In the Kingdom of God, there is no stalemate, either we are growing or we are growing stagnant. Streams of water that stop flowing become poison. This should be motivation enough to want to dig things out as deeply as we can, but sadly that isn't the norm. It is far more normal to write people off, and distance ourselves from them, or even label them based on a limited understanding of what we “think” they are saying.
I am retired from law enforcement. I spent the majority of my younger adult life working a job that required writing reports which could only contain “the facts”. The courts didn't care about my opinions, gut feelings, or assessments unless I could back it with previously known/discovered evidence. That is how I prefer to write today. I am not out to convince anyone of anything, only to present them with the information necessary to investigate further or make a judgment call as Holy Spirit guides them. Hopefully, everyone who reads my material (since we now see a rate of about 175-250 new/first-time website visits and Blog views per week) is allowing Holy Spirit to make their decision for them after either being convinced by the evidence or by researching further for themselves.
When I teach or preach, I am a very different person than you meet in my writing. I am passionate and emotional. I laugh, and cry, I tremble in the fear of the Lord before every speaking engagement and I intensely “feel” what's happening in the crowd (no matter how big or small). My message changes from my original outline nearly every time as Holy Spirit guides me to speak to people as they sit in the crowd. I don't usually call anyone out of the crowd I just know what to say to speak to a number of people to reach them in their place of need at the moment. I have always called this Prophetic Preaching. On one occasion I was preaching on the 3 Parts of Mankind – Body, Soul, and Spirit. As I spoke I got an inspiration to speak about how in the “Old Testament” we can discover that as the “flesh” is mentioned, it is often referring to a combination of soul and body. Also, when it says the “heart” it is often referring to an unregenerate spirit (because they weren't born again) and the soul. So the spirit being dead it has zero influence over the soul and body. Therefore if we read about someone having a heart of lust it is saying their soul has a bent toward that particular sin. If it says their flesh lusts after someone or something, it may be revealing they had a sin habit that causes their body to crave the fruit of that sin. The next day the pastor of that church told me a member of the Council who was also a Worship director resigned his positions and confessed to an emotional affair. I NEVER wanted that to happen, but the rabbit trail God took me on, revealed something in the Body which wasn't right.
Sometimes the opposite occurs. When I was preaching in Nakuru, Kenya I felt Abba leading me to reveal the host congregation had greatness waiting and God was ready to increase their influence into the regional and national levels. The young pastor of that congregation is now on radio and personally influencing a major shift against corruption within the Kenyan government.
So, as I begin to write this newest thing God has burdened me with, on the eve of Yom Kippur (The Day of Atonement), which begins at sunset today 10/07/19 and ends at sunset tomorrow, my heart is heavy. As I search myself, over these last 10 Days of Awe, in the light of Scripture, I find myself greatly wanting. I see places which in the coming year I must look much longer into the brass 'looking glass', just as the High Priest would do before entering the Holy Place for the atoning sacrifice each year on this day, and allow myself to be cleansed with the water of the Word to a much greater degree than ever before. This is the application of this very day under the Renewed Covenant in which we have a Heavenly High Priest (Hebrews 8 & 9) who was also our once and for all time sacrifice which brought those of us who accepted the offer to be grafted into the body of Covenant believers – Romans 11.
vs. 7-21 "What then? What Israel is seeking, it has not obtained; but the elect obtained it, and the rest were hardened— just as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes not to see and ears not to hear, until this very day.” And David says, “Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them. Let their eyes be darkened so they do not see, and bend their back continually.” I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be! (in other words NO they stumbled but did not fall) But by their false step salvation has come to the Gentiles, to provoke Israel to jealousy. Now if their transgression leads to riches for the world, and their loss riches for the Gentiles, then how much more their fullness! But I am speaking to you who are Gentiles. Insofar as I am an emissary to the Gentiles, I spotlight my ministry if somehow I might provoke to jealousy my own flesh and blood and save some of them. For if their rejection leads to the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? If the firstfruit is holy, so is the whole batch of dough; and if the root is holy, so are the branches. But if some of the branches were broken off and you— being a wild olive tree — were grafted in among them and became a partaker of the root of the olive tree with its richness, do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, it is not you who support the root but the root supports you. You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” True enough. They were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but fear— for if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will He spare you." [(TLV)(emphases and insert added)]
I must allow the WORD – Yeshua/Jesus – to transform me much more into His image as the days ahead in this world will not get easier, though He will empower us to overcome and sometimes even to prosper amidst the struggles of this life.
In this vein of thought, I found myself thinking much about the Christ-types we see throughout the Hebrew Scriptures (“Old Testament”). Asking myself, what are the examples of Redemption we can see in those Scriptures as a foretaste of what was to come? The one character which captured my imagination and then held my attention was Boaz.
The story of Ruth is a beautiful picture of the redemption offered by our Heavenly Father. Ruth was a pagan through and through when she married into a family of Israelites. She was a Moabite. The people of Moab got their tribal name after a figure who'd committed incest and likely had given himself over to a lifestyle of such. So, it appears incestuous behavior must have become an ancestral curse or trait upon his descendants. We find their ritualistic worship of a demonic god involved all manner of orgies. Had the behavior not continued the people would have been called by the name of someone in their lineage whose lifestyle they emulated, as this is the custom we find in Scripture.
Having married into this “Hebrew” family, imagine how relieved she must have been on some level when she found out it wasn't going to be customary for her to have to sleep with all the male members of the family! Though to her that would have probably been the norm, she was now introduced to a “New Normal”. This new normal may have started out just feeling odd, but somewhere in the midst of this, Ruth's heart was touched by this beautiful picture of loving respect. There were likely other things which pricked her heart as well, but this one would likely have been at or near the top of the list since her very nation was named after a well known sexual pervert. Perhaps this was the time at which her worldview began to take a change. Perhaps this is when she began to realize that not only were the values of this Israelite family different than what she was accustomed to, but it was powerful enough to consider an entire life change.
As the story goes, Naomi (Ruth's mother-in-law) lost her husband and two sons. They were killed, leaving Naomi and her two daughters-in-law to fend for themselves. Naomi decided to return to the land of her birth, Judah. She did not want to be a burden on these two daughters. The custom of Naomi's people was that when a son died, his widow would then take on the responsibilities of caring for the mother. They are no longer mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, but mother and daughter. Orpah, the other daughter, took an offer to return to her family and stayed in the land of the Moabites. Ruth, on the other hand, made a very bold proclamation...
Ruth declared, “Your God will be my God, and your people will be my people”. Again, there is a custom here which goes unnoticed if we don't choose to find it. This custom is that when one made a statement like “Your God will be my God, and your people will be my people”, they are proclaiming they will worship the way this new God requires and they would follow the ascribed ways of the new people. Ruth was essentially saying “I will worship the way you and your people do, and I will live as your people live”. She was adopting Naomi's religion and culture!
This made me begin to reflect on my own journey. Abba led me along a path that started in 1994 as I was finishing up an interim pastorate and helping a struggling congregation to get established and healthy. I had long been asking myself, why the modern church was so different from Judaism if we are grafted into them as Romans 11 says. I fully understood that grafting-in does not make the branch a twin of the other branches on the tree. However, I also understood the branch must be a compatible tree or the grafting may kill both. This compatibility comes only from the acceptance of Messiah Yeshua/Jesus as Savior. It is this commonality between Israeli/Jewish believers and Gentile believers which makes the grafting possible. Without Yeshua/Jesus in the equation, the grafting would be destined for failure and death – most certainly for the Wild Olive Branch (Gentile believers), but possibly also the Cultivated Olive Tree. I had to get real with myself and wonder what Shaul/Paul meant by “Wild” and “Cultivated”. There is but one difference between the Gentile and Israeli/Jewish cultures as found throughout the totality of Scripture (both “Old” and “New” Testaments) – the instructions from God on how to live for Him.
Let's look at this from one perspective of modern missions. It's known as “Contextual Ministry”. Put simply, it means to learn enough about a culture to see where God has attempted to reveal Himself to the people WITHIN their culture. Then present Scripture using that same cultural context. Showing them that it was God Himself who put certain things in the culture. You may remember from a number of my other writings that “context” is a proper method for “rightly dividing the Word of Truth” also. If cultural, linguistic, and audience-based context is valid for Scripture, then it is also valid for introducing Scripture to a people group who have not heard Scripture before. This also works for those to whom Scripture was poorly presented in their past by giving an honoring picture of God's work inside of each culture; i.e. the conquering methods of “Christianizing” the “church” has done with indigenous people groups all over the world, such as those during the Inquisition. If we now have any hope of reaching closed people groups, we must be able to show them that God has been speaking to them through parts of their own culture. Think of Paul preaching on Mars Hill when he used the statue created in honor of the “Unknown God”. He took a piece of the Greek culture to introduce who this God they did not know really was. My point is, culture is the essence of the existence of any people group. You cannot live in a group of people without a culture forming. We also cannot attach ourselves to a culture without our own cultural ideals being changed. If we willingly decide to be grafted into a culture, we are making a decision for our own culture to change. So Ruth's change was that of an exchange of cultures. Not exchanging some ideas but of ALL ideas. She switched from one culture to another and fully embraced every facet of the new culture. Her heart had been circumcised and she was no longer a Moabite, but an Israelite/Jew! Because of this she became a member of the lineage of Messiah! She was a Gentile who willingly became grafted into a God-given culture.
I want to move to something else, but before I do we need to consider one more small point in the story of Naomi and Ruth - Boaz. He was a devout man with much influence. He obviously followed the Torah with an integrity similar to that the parents of Yochanan the Immerser (John the Baptist), of whom it was said:
Luke 1:6 - And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord, blameless. (Jubilee Bible) (emphasis added)
If Boaz had any other standard by which his life was governed, then he would not have been a suitable foreshadow of Yeshua/Jesus in the flesh.
The story goes on to reveal that Boaz was watching Ruth, knowing she was a Moabite. But, he didn't just immediately engage with her. He saw something was different about this Moabite. She gathered grain from the corners of his fields - in accordance with Torah - to provide for her mother! This and this alone made her approachable. She lived according to the same standards he did, and it showed him she was serving God in the way God had prescribed in His Instruction (Torah).
Let's change gears for a little while...
Our Savior demonstrated the same thing Boaz had, when He met the Samaritan woman at Jacob's Well. She, being Samaritan had been raised with a corrupted Tanakh (“Old Testament”). You see, when the Assyrians conquered a people, they would “carry them off” and then replace them with a number of people from another nation to keep the nations they had in captivity from ever-growing big enough to rise up against them. This strategy is what kept them in place as a world power for as long as they were. In the case of the Samaritans, Biblical history would seem to indicate they were from the region of Sumer and were moved to the land they occupy even to this day. When they arrived, as pagans, they continued to worship the gods of their culture. However, they began to have trouble with “lions” killing the occupants of the cites which had been vacant for some time. Their perceived solution was to petition the King of Assyria to send them someone to teach them about the “gods of the land”. The corrupt "priests", willingly taught a corrupted form of Judaism to the Samaritans, because it was offensive to those priests to teach pagans how to add the God of Israel to their already expansive pantheon of gods. So, to this day, the Samaritan Torah contains the following as one of the 10 Commandments: “Thou shalt worship on Mount Gerizim”.
Here comes this Jew, who for ALL the reasons above, back to the beginning of this article, would normally have nothing to do with the Samaritans' religion or culture, and He sits down at the well as she comes to draw water. [To avoid too many details, we'll skip why her coming to the well alone is significant.] Yeshua/Jesus asks for a drink and uses this as an opportunity to tell her that He has water which will quench her thirst forever. THIS is the introduction He chose to initiate His very first revealing as the Messiah - whom the Jews and Samaritans were both awaiting - and it was to a Gentile Woman!! It opened a prophetic dialogue which allowed Him to minister directly to her in her area of emotional pain and difficult circumstances. In this dialogue He also takes the time to correct her corrupted 10 Commandments. In showing her the error, He is showing her the “faith once delivered to the saints” (which happened at Mt. Horeb), but He is doing something more. Her error came from man-made religion added to that “faith” which had directed all those following this hybrid religion to worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in ways that God (Abba YHVH) had not prescribed. Yeshua/Jesus was showing this woman the error so that she could then worship God properly, not as the pagans of the land her people were descendants of, but just like those of the land of Israel... let that sink in a moment.
May I ask a very personal question? Why do so many in modern Christendom preach/teach that Ruth and/or the Woman at the Well are foreshadowing(s) of the “Gentile church”, but then so easily overlook that these two were not just added (grafted) into Israel's Covenant willy-nilly, but they were added because their hearts were changed? They chose to make the God of Israel their God and to worship Him His way. The idea that Yeshua/Jesus brought a new religion, based on new Commandments is completely overruled by these two stories alone. As my friend, Tom just wrote in his Blog on this site we are commanded to “come out from amongst them”. These two women did exactly that.
“Church” history holds that “Fiona/Phiona” (the English/Latin version of her name) was the woman at the well and turned to follow Christ's advice wholeheartedly after her encounter with Him at the well. She was even 'sainted' within a number of Orthodox Traditions.
This doesn't mean that we must ardently observe Torah or else face judgment. It means that if we truly accept Him, then the promise of His Torah (instruction not law) will be written on our hearts and become a labor of Love. We will desire to honor Him by obeying His Commands. His Spirit within us doesn't end the “Law” it fulfills it, by placing it where it belonged – IN OUR HEARTS.
This isn't about fear at all. Fear is what the people chose when God offered to make them a nation of priests who would bless the entire world. They chose to fear the great power of the “God of Moses” instead of embracing it and accepting Him as their individual and personal God. So a different route came into being. I submit to you that the Plan of Redemption was the Plan all along, but Abba has no obligation to share the details with humanity, not even the Covenant people. Even still, He did share it through the prophets but due to a continually idolatrous heart, the people didn't understand. It's the same thing today.
The story doesn't end with the Samaritan woman accepting Yeshua/Jesus as Messiah though. It continues when after 2 days Yeshua/Jesus leaves to “go up” to a Feast. Many of the Samaritans had come to follow Him as Messiah. Those who had not, ultimately rejected Him because He refused to stay and celebrate the Feast on Mt. Gerizim. Maybe they wanted it their way? They liked the hybrid religion they'd been handed and it was simply too much work for them to consider having to let go of what they'd been taught... MAYBE? What do you think?
Orpah and the Samaritans who decided to stay with what they knew are really no different than those today who want to believe in the hybrid religion which started not long after Yeshua/Jesus ascended into heaven. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if the Gnostics had started their heresy(ies) before He was even crucified. If we fast forward passed the end of the 1st Century, all of the 2nd Century, and into the 3rd Century we come to Constantine and his merry band of yes men who took the teachings of the Gnostics and Marcion (a special brand of Gnostic), melded them with much of the paganism of the day, and married it all to a Greco-Roman form of “Christianity”. This Church-State so heavily changed the perspective of Scripture, to a distinctly Western/Greek mindset, that to this day the First Century Apostolic understanding of the “New Testament” has not been fully recovered. If you read my articles “Deception Denied” and “A Haunting Reminder” (they are a two-part series and the 2nd makes the 1st easier to understand) you'll see just how much of the deception the Church-State has brought into the world and which still haunts our theology today.
In the same way Ruth's change of heart posture made her acceptable to Boaz (the Christ-type), the Samaritan Woman's own circumcised heart made it possible for her to serve God, through Yeshua/Jesus the Way God designed it. Now that Yeshua/Jesus has died, resurrected, and ascended into His place as our Heavenly High Priest, we have a “new/renewed” Covenant which is higher and therefore better than before because He serves in a Heavenly Temple not made by men. THAT is also the message of Hebrews 8 & 9*.
It is known as a Kal V'Chomer Argument and Hebrews 8 & 9 proves it was written by someone who fully understood Hebraic Hermeneutics, though using those two words in the same phrase is almost an oxymoron.
Essentially a Kal V'Chomer Argument works like this: if the lower/lesser of two things is good (as Hebrews clearly states) then the greater/higher of the two must be all the better. The amount of its better-ness is equal to how much higher it is. We need to learn to view Hebrews 8 & 9 from THIS perspective, BECAUSE of the fact that it is a Kal V'Chomer (it is, after all, a book written to Israelis/Jews). Further, we need to try to avoid interpreting Hebrews 8 & 9 from the perspective of replacement theology which states the “old” has passed away, since Hebrews clearly states it is “ready” to, NOT that it has and was written post resurrection - possIbly even post 70AD, after the destruction of the Temple. The majority of the modern Body of Christ has adopted pieces of Replacement Theology and doesn't even realize it.
May I make an humble request?
Try reading Hebrews 8 & 9 from this perspective of understanding that having Yeshua/Jesus as our Heavenly High Priest is a higher and better system than the design God had to use to introduce this concept of Torah Obedience to humanity, and that this was the Plan all along. See if using this lense - minus the Replacement Theology - helps you to see that the "New" did not replace the "Old", but instead fulfilled it's purpose, but much of the "Old" had not been done away with (just as Yeshua/Jesus said) the "NEW"; so our changed/circumcised heart should naturally and willingly WANT to follow those parts of Torah which apply to each of us. (There are 613 total "Commandments" in Torah but very few actually apply to most people.)
*vs. 1-10 "Now here is the main point being said. We do have such a Kohen Gadol, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens. He is a priestly attendant of the Holies and the true Tent—which Adonai set up, not man. For every kohen gadol (High Priest) is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices, so it is necessary for this One also to have something to offer. Now if He were on earth, He would not be a kohen (Aaronic Priest) at all, since there are those who offer the gifts according to the Torah. They offer service in a replica and foreshadower of the heavenlies—one that is just as Moses was instructed by God when he was about to complete the tabernacle. For He says, “See that you make everything according to the design that was shown to you on the mountain.” But now Yeshua has obtained a more excellent ministry, insofar as He is the mediator of a better covenant which has been enacted on better promises. For if that first one had been faultless, there would not have been discourse seeking a second. For finding fault with them, He says, “Behold, days are coming, says Adonai, when I will inaugurate a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not remain in My covenant, and I did not care for them, says Adonai. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says Adonai. I will put My Torah into their mind, and upon their hearts I will write it. And I will be their God, and they shall be My people." [(TLV)(Emphasis and Inserts added)]
God even reiterates the sentiment made by Ruth in the segment of Scripture I posted above (Ruth 1:16). Are you seeing the emphasis on the fact that what is important is the changing of an earthly High Priest and Temple to Heavenly ones? THIS is what made a "New/Renewed Covenant", not a replacement, but an upgrade. Not that God changed, but how we interact with Him through His Instruction changed... it is no longer outward, but inward - if we have truly accepted Yeshua/Jesus as Messiah and God of our lives thus allowing Him to circumcise our hearts.
May we now look at this from
a practical point of view?
If Yeshua/Jesus was bringing a totally new religion, with new Commandments, then why didn't He address this with the “Woman at the Well”? Instead, He corrected an issue with Torah! Honestly, think on that for a few moments. Why would He not just tell her about the New Religion Plan a little, I mean, He had already exposed Himself to her in a way that NO ONE else received. He told her He was Messiah. The cat was mostly already out of the bag. Why not just disclose it all; if a change was coming. Otherwise imagine how she'd feel when she found out He duped her just as those who say the "Old Covenant" is irrelevant now seem to believe Israel was duped back into slavery - to theshortly Law - after being delivered from slavery in Egypt. Can you see how arrogant it really is for us to believe as Gentiles, that we have cornered the market on proper Hermeneutics of Scripture? Israel certainly didn't get it all correct, but neither have we. We have followed things which have no spiritual profit because we have carried on the traditions of men passed down to us - which have no foundation in God's actual Plan.
*Jeremiah 16:19 -
"Adonai, my strength, my stronghold, my refuge in the day of affliction, to You will the nations come from the ends of the earth and say: “Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, futility and useless things." (TLV)
"O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit." (KJV)
Before we go further, let me reiterate that the Torah is now written upon the hearts of those who believe in Him and seek to be a disciple of His Way. That's part of the package of salvation, redemption, and sanctification. We don't seek to follow the “Law/Instruction” out of fear of retribution, but from a labor of love. After all, who wouldn't want to follow the “Instruction” (a better translation of the word Torah) of a God who gave up all His Heavenly Splendor to become flesh in order to pay the once and for all-time price for the forgiveness of sin, and therefore becoming the Final Blood Covenant needed for humanity to have a way back to God? The First Blood Covenant of Circumcision had been broken by a people whose hearts were not circumcised. It was inferior because it was outward and could not assist in changing men's hearts. They had to change their own hearts. Now our Heavenly High Priest (by Holy Spirit) is able to prick our hearts, convict us of our sin, and guide us from deep within our spirits.
The change was that entry into the Final Blood Covenant was intercepted by the only worthy candidate – Yeshua/Jesus – God Himself. THIS HAS ALWAYS BEEN THE PLAN! His blood has opened the door for all who will willingly accept the offer. Going back for just a moment, it isn't that all the men of Israel had not been physically circumcised, it is that though they had, their hearts were far from God. So many modern teachers and preachers now believe that a “New Covenant” means that if we are “in Christ” we have no obligation to an “Old Covenant”, but it isn't so or Yeshua/Jesus would have left those directions before leaving – and He didn't. So then, when we think we see that in Scripture perhaps it would be prudent to ask ourselves - "Why didn't Jesus even hint at a whole new Plan?". The purpose for observing Torah has changed, not the obligation. In the New/Renewed Covenant we should have a heart which is NOT “far from Him” but instead desires to follow the “faith once delivered to the saints” (referenced at Mt. Horeb when they received the Torah - Deuteronomy 29:1 parts b and c).
Even the Revelation, the LAST book of Scripture written, tells us the virtues of those who followed their beliefs and convictions all the way to their assassination. They were killed because...
14:12 & 13 - "...they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus. And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them". (KJV)
This clearly embraces that these martyrs kept the Commandments of God AND had faith in Yeshua/Jesus. It further says their “works” followed them into eternity.
Many who are resistant to the statement "Yeshua/Jesus did not bring a new religion" will often comment that following the “Old Covenant” is a system of works-based religion. This simply isn't true – that was what mankind made of it – this was not according to His design. It was hard hearts who took a legalistic approach to the beginnings of an intimate relationship God offered at Mt. Horeb when He told them He would make them a nation of priests who would bless the entire world. When they refused it, their hearts hardened and relationship began becoming a humanistic, me-centric religion. No differently than happens now.
In Charismatic circles, we often speak of tearing down the walls of denominational religion, but we keep a religious barrier up which keeps us from seeing the actual message of Yeshua/Jesus and the Apostles.
If we dig just a little deeper, learning to use a Hebraic context to the whole of Scripture, we may very well see that we have accepted a Greek understanding of a Roman religion which was put through various Protestant filters which are now keeping us from seeing the real Yeshua/Jesus and His message.
Once again I find myself asking...
...It is ALL about Him, right?
Or will we choose a me-centric religion which picks
and chooses the parts of Scripture we will follow?
Please, someone, explain to me why He would lead just-freed slaves into the wilderness to make them slaves to His Law.
He Didn't!
He created boundaries for people who for 400 years had slowly come to accept false god's, so their hearts were far from Him. Torah was a way back into relationship with Him!
Additionally, Yeshua/Jesus is the Word Incarnate. So when He walked this earth before being crucified, He was showing the people the original intent of Torah. In other words, the spirit of Torah. Which He wanted to write upon their minds and hearts.
Many took it for the letter only and missed the spirit of Torah completely, as do those who now argue we are not to be “under the law”. But there are two errors in this logic. The first is that only those who break a law will find themselves under it. Secondly, not all words translated as law (particularly in Romans and Galatians actually speak of Torah. Sometimes it is referring to Talmud and takkanot. Otherwise Shaul/Paul was schizophrenic.
When we read English Bibles, we see Shaul/Paul made statements both for and against “the law” in Romans and Galatians. Was he undecided or is there something we are missing? (See the Graphic Below for Clarity)
