The Three Things You Are Taught in the Torah and the Four Things You Learn
The first five books of the Bible are also known as the Torah. It is the teaching of God through Moses, often called the Law of Moses. It is the foundation for all the other books of the Bible and provides concepts and definitions of our faith. I use the term “our faith” because it is not just for the Jews or Judaism. It is instructions of righteousness for all those who believe in the Creator—Almighty God—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—the God of Israel—and King Messiah of the Universe.
The Torah is for every believer. We make this statement knowing that many “believers” dispute it. Some in Judaism say that Torah is just for the Jews—that the Noahide laws are for the Gentiles. Some in Christianity say that the Law was replaced by Grace that came through the Messiah. They further believe learning and keeping the Commandments in the Torah is an affront to the sacrifice of the Christ and seeking salvation by works.
Both positions are false. The Messiah instructs us to keep His Commandments if we love Him, and the sacrifice of the Messiah is based on the sacrificial system established in the Torah. Most churches do not teach the Torah, so most of their members do not know what the Torah instructs. In the days of the Apostles, every city had a Torah teacher (Acts 15:21), and James told the believers to seek them out.
The Torah teaches that the covenants and commandments are for all believers from the Creation to the Kingdom (when the Messiah dwells with us).
The Torah begins with the assumption of God. It does not explain how God came to be or how He was formed. Instead, it begins by telling us something God did.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and earth.”
The teaching of the Torah begins by explaining how we came to be and about the world we find ourselves in. This includes both plant and animal creatures along with seasons and cycles of the world. It begins with the first man and woman, the purpose of mankind, and the disruption that all face in life. His name was Adam, he was made from the elements of the earth and with a spirit breathed into him by God to become a “living soul.” Woman came from the flesh and bone of that man. Man and woman are told to “fill the earth and subdue it.” God wanted man to prosper and increase, to grow and expand, and most of all – LIVE. But something happened to disrupt God’s plan and the life of men. Temptation leading to sin was introduced by the one who revolted against God’s plan. His name is satan. Sin means “missing the mark.” Torah guides us in shooting straight, hitting the target.” We are aiming to follow God Instructions in righteousness.
When one begins to teach the Torah to God’s people there are three things the teacher is to do. He is to teach you to love God, obey God, and cling to God. This is embodied in the words of the “Shema” from the Torah and specifically taught by the Messiah (Matthew 22:37-38, Mark 12:29-30).
“Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
Deuteronomy 6:4–5
Moses also makes the “love, obey, and cling” a goal of the teaching of the Torah.
by loving the LORD your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast [cling] to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.”
Deuteronomy 30:20
Each of these teaching goals (love, obey, and cling) are expressed in the Torah many times with the Messiah emphasizing the same in His teaching. One of the greatest misconceptions of love that it is just an emotion. A popular singer once sang, “What’s love but a second-hand emotion?” Love is not a second-hand emotion in the Torah or in our faith. It is better defined as an action, an action that begins with kindness and reaches to the level of adoration. The final level of love is the giving of one’s life, sacrificial love. The Scripture uses the term “lovingkindness” to express it. Kindness leads to love and love requires kindness.
The love that God wants requires all your soul, heart, and strength. The soul is your identity. We are living souls. It is true that our heart has all the emotions such as anger, hatred, love, gentleness, all our desires… and the heart is key to how our emotions are expressed. Some are “wholehearted” and God wants us to be wholehearted with Him in all we do. Some are “half-hearted” about their efforts and still others lack the heart to do anything. Your strength or might is about your will. If you are strong-willed, you have courage; if you have no will or courage, you are full of fear and unable to go forward. Just because you know what is the right thing to do is not sufficient to act unless you have the heart to do it.
Obeying the Lord is where our will is used to follow God. First, we learn what God has commanded. The Torah teacher shows you the commandments and explains how to keep them, to what standard and under what conditions. Then you commit to follow God’s instructions. Keeping the commandments is likened to keeping a garden. The ground is prepared, seeds are planted, and it is watered and nurtured until there is a harvest.
For example, the commandment of Sabbath seems to generate many questions on how to keep it. The basic objective of the commandment is to rest. But, is it just one day out of seven that we rest, or does the Scripture set a standard that is to be the seventh day (the last day of the week)? Yes, it does. We are commanded to keep the seventh day holy (separate from the other days of the week). The Scripture goes further and sets the conditions for those who work for us, spending money, travel, and assembling ourselves together. At the same time, there is an exemption condition for saving the life of a person or an animal. Sabbath does not limit us from helping an ox out of the ditch or fighting a fire. All civil servants and members of the military are exempt because of their duties to protect life even on the Sabbath day. Even further, we are not forbidden to do good on the Sabbath day. Consider the priests and those who teach the Torah. It is not a rest for them!
Clinging to the LORD is another goal in teaching the Torah. We have all seen a small child standing beside their father or mother when a stranger approaches and attempts to converse with the child. The child’s first reaction is to move closer to their parent, grabbing the trousers of the father, or wanting to be picked up and held by them. Still further, we often see the child hide their face into the parent. In the case of the father, trying to pull the trouser around their face and placing themselves behind that leg. Children in the arms of their mother will turn away, putting face into the neck and the shoulder. That is a pretty good definition for “clinging.” God wants us to cling to Him with every concern we have.
The Torah will teach you that God has made promises and covenants with us. We belong to Him and we possess Him. He is the LORD OUR God; we are HIS people. Furthermore, clinging to the LORD involves waiting on the LORD and a lot of prayer. When a person prays, he is reaching out to grasp the attention of God – this is clinging to Him.
This is the goal of the Torah, to teach you to love, obey, and cling. But how are we are to apply the Torah teachings? The answer may surprise you. It is about walking. In Hebrew it is called Halacha (the walk). It is about where we go and who we walk with.
The most profound goal or end result of all Torah teachings is about our relationship with the Messiah.
For Messiah is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
Romans 10:4
Some say the law was “ended” by the Messiah. This is a profound error. The Torah is the instructions in righteousness leading us to His forgiveness of sin and how to walk in the light with Him. The Messiah Himself addressed the teaching of Moses and what He was attempting to accomplish.
“For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe [and understand] My words?”
John 5:46–47
The Apostle Paul also taught Torah and the teachings of Messiah. He had been discipled by a Torah teacher before he came to know the Messiah. He gave attention to the “public readings” (the systematic way of teaching the Torah) and instructed his disciple Timothy to do the same. He said the instruction in the Torah is the way a godly man is thoroughly fit for every good work.
All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
2 Timothy 3:16–17
When this was written, the New Testament did not exist. He was referring to the Torah, the Prophets, and the other Writings in what is called “the Old Testament.” He summed up all of his instruction in the Torah from the Father, the testimony of Yeshua, and infilling of the Holy Spirit with this statement:
I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Messiah Yeshua.
Philippians 3:14
What did Paul understand about his walk of faith from his instruction from the Torah? The answer may surprise you. You can summarize the results with these four things:
The wonder of God’s creation
How to obey God
How to give others the benefit of the doubt
You are a mortal
Let us examine these results one at a time.
The wonder of God’s creation is viewed by most as a vision of a majestic mountain, or a coastline in a tropical setting. Maybe it is a stately tree or the design of a flower with its petals, or they stare at the stars and the heavens. These are not what is being referred to from the instruction of the Torah. Instead, you see the Creator who brought all this about. Consider this example for a moment: a painter paints a masterpiece piece of art. Those who praise the painting do not praise the elements of the painting; they praise the painter! They praise the inventor, the designer, the builder while appreciating what they done. The Torah has taught us about the Creator, not the creation. We are to see the WONDER and amazement of His power and glory.
Torah teaches you about God’s power, glory and holiness. You learn about His character and His faithfulness. Everywhere we look at the creation we see the Creator’s intelligence, His order, and His rules for everything to exist. Scientists are learning about His laws of creation. They call it mathematics, physics, and chemistry. The Scripture says that the person who says there is no God is a fool. Quite simply, he cannot see what is front of his nose.
When I hear someone praising a sunset or a beautiful picture, I think to myself the Creator is even more wonderful. The prophet Isaiah refers to the Messiah as “Wonderful” (Isaiah 9:6).
Learning how to obey the Lord is more than reading off commandments, statutes, and ordinances of God. It is not just a list of do’s and don’ts. Just knowing all the 613 commandments, how many are positive and how many are negative is not the goal. The fact is that the commandments are structured for who you are in your station of life. If you are a man, then you keep the commandments for men; not the ones for women. If you are a priest, you have some other commandments to follow. If you are the High Priest, you have still more. If you are a Master, you have some specific commandments, whereas a servant has different ones. Everyone, no matter their station in life, has the basic ten commandments.
Now this is where it gets interesting about learning Torah and being a believer of the Messiah. The Messiah has set us free from the slavery and debt of sin. He has made us free men. When we eat the Passover meal, we lounge around as free men. We are instructed to do that! But in contrast to what free men do, the Messiah taught us a NEW commandment – to love another. Wait a minute!?! That is not a new commandment; that is the second greatest commandment - to love our neighbor as ourselves. What is Messiah trying to say?
The Messiah went on to say that loving our fellow brethren is how we show ourselves to be the bond-servants of the Messiah. He was teaching the commandments for servants. We are to give up our freedom to become His servants. There was an ancient law that said if you are saved from death, you are to be the servant of that savior for the remainder of your life. This is what we learn from Torah.
The Torah teaches us the Law of Bond-Servants. Bond-servants are free men who put themselves voluntarily into servanthood for the reason of love. The first commandment taught after the 10 Commandments is the Law of the Bond-Servants. It is for everyone also. Briefly, it is the instruction for a freed slave to publicly declare that he loves his Master, his wife, and children, and for the reason of love (he wishes to remain in service); he does not go free. The Messiah added the requirement to identify His bond-servants with the additional declaration and action to love the brethren of the Master. This is embedded in the second greatest commandment to love your neighbor as yourself.
When the Apostle John taught the Master’s teaching about the New Commandment, he said it was the same commandment as before but emphasizing the love of the brethren.
Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning;
1 John 2:7a
Giving others the benefit of the doubt is about learning how God’s grace and mercy works as we deal with others. The Torah teaches that we cannot establish a truth without the confirmation of two or three witnesses. The Apostle Paul said that no accusation should be heard concerning an elder except with the evidence of two or three. Even the Messiah stated He could not declare Himself to be the Messiah without confirming evidences that come from God.
If we learn to wait for the confirmation (giving the benefit of the doubt), we keep ourselves and the accused from harm until the truth is established. There are many examples where someone saw or heard something but didn’t have the full understanding and acted on that hearsay to the harm of the person in question and the embarrassment of the reporting person. They did not follow the instruction of Torah, usurped God’s authority as our Judge, and missed the mark. They transgressed the Law and are themselves guilty. They have become false witnesses. In a dispute between two persons (he said/she said) there is insufficient evidence to make a proper judgment according to the Torah. But how many times have you seen presumptive judgments being made?
The Torah teaches how to make just decisions. It teaches us how God judges all of us and we are not to usurp Him. Even when God has the confirming evidence, He may extend mercy to us because of the redeeming work of the Messiah. God is long-suffering and forgives sin of a repentant heart. He also instructs us to give grace and mercy to others (even if they do not deserve it). Giving others the benefit of the doubt is the first step toward granting mercy.
All of us have had to endure accusations against us from others. It is not a pleasant experience, particularly when no explanation has been sought from you and you are innocent. Had they given you the benefit of the doubt there would have been time for the explanation and other evidence to come forth.
God’s justice must be done in a just way. Jumping to conclusions is not a just way. We are to learn God’s justice and be grateful for His mercy.
The Torah also teaches about judgment that comes with punishment. God does not allow the guilty to go unpunished. The Torah teaches us about atonement and how reconciliation is accomplished. The Torah teaches us about forgiveness and restitution. Apologies without restitution are not accepted by God. These are Torah concepts of “eye for eye and tooth for tooth.” How many times have you heard how an offender declared they were forgiven but no apology or restitution was done for those they offended?
The redemptive work of the Messiah did not change God’s laws for justice. Consider for a moment our loving Messiah who died for us what is to happen when He returns. His judgment is called the “The Day of the Lord.” The Messiah oversees Hell and who goes there. His judgment is just and it is measured out justly.
Consider our last result from the instruction of Torah. We are mortals. We all understand that mortals are born, live awhile, and then die. While this is obvious to us, it is not understood well concerning our relationships with God and others. God is God; man is man. God is eternal; man is mortal and will die. Mortals make the mistake of thinking they are a god and they make rules and laws for themselves and others, lording it over others, and rendering judgments and punishments on others. Whoa! Big mistake. They forgot that they are mortal with death and judgment waiting for them. God is the One and only God.
Those who have not been instructed in the Torah set these simple facts aside and make themselves god in their own eyes. As a result, they do not understand anything beyond themselves nor what happens after their mortal life. But those instructed in Torah know about the afterlife and eternal life. They understand their future. Everyone in the world sees what I call road signs as they live their lives. Traveling down a highway you see these road signs telling what you are approaching and letting you know the direction you are going. In like manner, walking out your life having been instructed in Torah, you can see what is coming, the direction you are traveling, and how far you are on your journey. Without Torah, the road signs and warnings are soon forgotten, or not visible to the unbeliever, and it becomes a lonely road leading to accidents and disaster. The Torah, on the other hand, teaches us the cycles of life. We learn to count our days, remember the past, make decisions today, and hope for the future. There is one indisputable conclusion. Without God’s help we cannot make it or be successful. Joshua spoke of the Torah and our need to understand it, so that our way would be successful.
“This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.
Joshua 1:8
The Torah teaches us that we are a people with a beginning and an end. We are part of the family of Abraham and Israel. One day, we will live in the land promised by God. We are mortals now, but we will be immortals in His Kingdom.
Abraham was the first Hebrew. When he was asked who he was and where he came from, he said he was not from there, but from across the river. This is meaning of the name Hebrew. The Torah teaches we are the promised descendants of Abraham. We do not belong in this world of mortals, but we are in this world as mortals for now. But the day is coming when we will be immortals, raised from the dead or caught up with them at the resurrection.
The Torah teaches us that there is a cycle to all living things. It begins with seed that comes forth, bears fruit, and returns to the ground it came from. If we live a full life, we experience our youth, adulthood and producing new seed (children), and old age. The Torah gives us knowledge, understanding, and wisdom for every cycle and stage of life.
The most profound thing about understanding we are mortal is that we are NOT God. God is smarter than us. God has a plan and has rules for us to live by. Obeying God leads to blessings and what we desire. Disobeying God leads to curses, disappointment, and loss.
Those who have dedicated their lives to teaching the Torah say there are 70 faces to the Torah, meaning that you must learn the Torah for 70 years before you can complain about the repetition in learning it. I am still learning. I am about halfway through.
As we continue through this year’s teaching cycle, we pray that you will be taught (or realize) the truths that are sweeter than the honeycomb, to love, to obey, and to cling to God. Then, we hope you will come to understand the wonder of God, how to obey Him, to extend grace and mercy to others as He has done with you, and finally you will know He is the Lord your God. ■
Shalom
* Scripture references from the NASB95
