Simply put, the pull of Torah is a lifeline to keep us from destruction.
Torah gives us a hope. Torah gives us something to cling to. Will we go through the life of a disciple without a rope, without a lifeline?
If it was so wretched, I would not crave it.
If you’ve been told that Torah is burdensome, you’ve been lied to. The scripture says that His commandments are NOT a burden. They are to be loved. As Jesus is to be loved, we are to love His instructions.
It is because of that love, we are sustained during affliction, famine, disease, and destruction. We can be held up from the death of the sinners.
It is a Tree of Life
Cling to that central root of the olive tree. If you were grafted on, do not push off. Do not be as one who is pruned off the tree. Live and learn from the Yeshua (salvation) of your soul.
Prayer:
Thank you Oh Father of fathers. Thank you King of kings. You have sent me a lifeline. You sustain me in persecution and distress. Keep your servants in your Way. Help us cling to your lifeline. Help us wander not away. Give us strength to pursue the truth. Thank you that there is joy, and not pain in Torah. Amen.
For those of us who have added the honoring of Torah to our Christian walk, we understand.
Christians, in general, are targeted all around the world, but try being Jewish. Yep. Jews have been persecuted since there was such a thing. What is that? Well, it can be a long discussion, but the point I want to bring out is that anyone, Christian or Jewish who honors “real Torah” will find themselves as a subject of scorn.
The one who honors Feasts and Torah is dishonored by friends and family. The main-stream Christian often speaks of Torah followers as “too Jewish.” On the other hand, the Orthodox Jewish person looks to one who simply follows the living Messiah as a threat. Messianic believers in Israel are often discriminated against.
Arrogance Happens
It takes tremendous humility to look deeper into our own lives and make a huge change. Most Christians live under the construct of a Jewishness out there that threatens the very cross and resurrection of Messiah. Much wind is expelled in fighting Judaism in the church. My friend, Judaism in most forms and Jews themselves are not a threat to your Jewish Messiah.
Arrogance can be a real problem. Arrogant atheists can join hands with Muslims, we are watching that in a significant way right now in this world. But many, many Christians are doing the same; making themselves busy laying traps for the Torah followers. The zeal can be misplaced when one nestles into his religion with a sword and a machine gun.
We only have to look at the pride displayed in the Nazi war machine of the 30’s and 40’s Europe.
Embracing Automatic Curses
If you press against children of Abraham, you instantly accept a curse. This curse was a forever promise. Why not seek the blessings and reject that curse. That’s one of the easiest blessings to add to our being. At the very least, honor children of Abraham. Support Jewish organizations, ministries, and individuals.
Another way to receive the blessing is to lay ahold of, embrace the nature of your Salvation (Hebrew word YESHUA) as being from “the Jews.”
You worship that which you don’t know. We worship that which we know; for salvation is from the Jews.
John 4:22
At the very least, we can say, according to today’s scripture, that those who are laying a trap for the people of God’s kingdom are without Torah, and arrogant.
Perhaps we should humble ourselves in the sight of YHWH. Perhaps we should realize that if we follow God’s true Torah (not the so-called torah of the Babylonian sages) we are on the winning side.
Instead of being in a hole. And more than simply standing on level ground, we will be lifted up.
Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you.
Jacob (James) 4:10
We Will Be Lifted Up
In more ways than one, we will be exalted… By King Jesus. Lifted up in authority as His ambassadors, plus lifted up in the sky to join Him in Jerusalem.
In more than one way, as well, the wicked will be brought low. They will fall into disease and death. They will also be judged guilty, and places physically into the pit with Satan and the evil angels.
We all broke Torah by sinning. We all need a Savior. May the world repent of evil against others. Through God’s grace, I have been saved. I now walk (and sometimes run) the very path that God has set out for me in Torah (God’s instructions for righteous living).
If you are a Christian who has bounced back and forth with a desire to please God (natural) and serve Him. I urge you to humbly look at your inheritance as being more than a Salvation from hell. I offer to you that Torah has always been part of our discipleship learning. And we are always learning.
The arrogant will scheme their plot. But, thanks to our blessings, they will receive their own curse.
Prayer:
Father we love you and lift you up. We ask that you save us from the snare of the evil one and the arrogant ones. Please grant us safety under your wings. Send your angels to provide guard over your righteous ones. May all the world know your true Torah. May there be no false Torah or false sense of a new gospel that is void of Torah. Thank you for bringing me to the humble place where I saw what I was missing as a Christian. Give me endurance as a runner in the race. Let me obtain the prize laid before me. Blessings for your kingdom are many. I receive in the name of Yeshua. Amen.
“May Your compassion come to me that I may live, For Your law is my delight.” — Psalm 119:77
Am I a broken record.
If so, I’m a true record, even in my brokenness. In my life, as gracious Father let me repent and be made new, I was brought to my knees. I was at a point that if I knew one thing, I could at least go to paradise with that one thing in my brain. At least I know that God’s law is truth.
Why do I keep saying Torah is a gift, Torah is a benefit, Torah is, simply good? Because the Bible keeps saying it. God keeps saying it. It wouldn’t be repeated so much if it was insignificant or detrimental.
Halleluyah. I can be like a tree planted by the river. I can bear fruit, even as an old crickety dad.
Compassion is undeserved. Life is borrowed. We have zero life in ourselves. We get breath from God. He is the author of life. He is the giver of life through His loving compassion. And our God has given us a way to live. That way is in Torah. Why would I be like the one who walks in the counsel of the ungodly? Why listen to scornful? I guarantee, demons and deceptive spirits do NOT like God’s principles for living.
Do you like, do you delight in Torah?
this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. His commandments are not grievous.
1 John 5:3
We don’t understand every precept instantly. Let’s be like the new converts in the time of the Jerusalem council. Let’s start following Messiah, then read through and incline our ears to Torah as we go.
“It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. For the law of Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.”
Acts 15:19-21
First Things First
As Mike Sundin of One In Messiah, Tallahassee points out. Modern churches don’t really teach the first part of the Jerusalem council conclusions. Take a look and ask yourself if you’ve been taught to be careful of any of these food guidelines.
What about verse 21? Are you hearing the Torah each week? The new converts from Paganism (former gentiles) in that time were being taught Torah. It is not warned against. It is not important, or even possible to make sure a pagan is fully observant before coming to Messiah – entering into the fellowship of Israel.
Let them come to Messiah and turn from immorality, then learn as they go. We all do this. Unless we tell ourselves that Torah dishonors YHWH.
I found Messiah, but many years later, I found His delight in Torah. Guess what. Still not perfect. Good thing I didn’t hold off until I was perfect.
But I know YHWH. I breathe His spirit in my lungs. The Messiah is in me and I am in Him. His Torah is a delight. And this won’t be the last time I tell you that.
Prayer:
Father, I love you and delight in your presence. Thank you for rest, and health. Thank you for shalom in your Way. Keep me inside your compassion and love. I do not call your ways a burden. I call it a delight. Dwell in me and let me forever be in your faith and provision. Amen.
The proverb says that wisdom is more valuable than gold and silver. Where do we start with wisdom? Reverence for Yah.
The psalmist tells me that Torah is worth more than gold or silver. More than thousands of pieces. Have you betrayed the Savior’s teaching? His Torah? If so, how many pieces of silver did it take?
Cha-Ching
Do you think, with all the prophecy in Psalms, David could have known that Paul would abolish the Torah? Sarcasm. Did David know that preaching would depend upon a philosophy of the law being a curse and being done away with in the new testament? Sorry, sarcasm again.
My purpose in this series is to define Torah with the very words of Yahweh. What is Torah? What is its purpose and benefit? For me to know this, I want to know what God thinks of it. Was Paul working against the grain? Or have contemporary Christians largely misunderstood him? Have we misrepresented the Torah from the lecterns across this world?
How can the law be such a blessing and be such a curse at the same time? Perhaps we should cling to the many biblical praises for Torah and dissect the sayings of Paul in Galatians.
Who are the lawless ones?
The ones who get literally locked out of the Kingdom of Heaven. The lawless ones. Jesus doesn’t even know them. Why would we preach lawlessness? Why would we practice lawlessness?
Lawlessness? Gulp!
Doing the will of God is an evidence of relationship. We want to heal, to prophesy, we want to cast out demons? All those things are possible without a relationship. What? Matthew 7:21-23 tells us. Messiah tells us this will happen. Who wants to ignore this warning? Not me. I want to be His friend. His servant. I know I’m not perfect, so does He. I want Him to claim me. I want to stand strong in the judgement.
Yes, I want to please Him. Is this legalism? Not according to the Word of God. According to God, that’s being rich. That is to be sought as precious gold and silver. Have you ever, perhaps unknowingly, turned away from Torah, seeing it as legalism? Why? What have you been taught regarding the Torah of Yahweh?
Some people delight in their riches, in their Feasts, in their pretend kingships. We are so blessed to have the richness of Messiah and His Torah.
Their heart is covered with fat, But I delight in Your Torah.
Psalm 119:70
And he replied: Go and say to this people: Listen carefully, but do not understand! Look intently, but do not perceive! Make the heart of this people sluggish (literally: fat), dull (literally: heavy) their ears and close (literally: blind) their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and their heart understand, and they turn and be healed.
Isaiah 6:9-10
In this passage, I believe fatness of heart is contrasted again, with an obedient spirit to God’s Torah.
Cure For A Fat Heart
What is a fat heart? Well, as I understand, it’s not like a heavy heart. It’s one that is satisfied and not in need of any nurishment. Self satisfied or even self-satiated.
We would not want a fat heart because we wouldn’t see that we need the Bread of Life. The Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well did not have a fat heart. She was hungry and she found Messiah face to face.
If you have been where she was, with a hungry heart, you likely had that moment where you realized, “I need a Savior. I need Messiah. I need Him to open my eyes as well.”
Then, you invited Him in. How amazing. We are so blessed to not have a fat heart. We are so blessed to hear from the mouth of God through His Torah. What a delight it is to partake.
Communion is a visual representation of our receiving of the Bread of Yeshua and the saving blood. Next time you have kiddish (communion) think about the fruit of the vine (grape juice) first as a representation of his washing of sins. Then the bread which sustains us as we walk in His Way. Halleluyah!
Here is a long (really long) study of this term as well as “hardened heart” and more. By the way, it’s long. Can you tell I have ADD (or AMG attention multiplication gift)?
John Oswalt writes: “The faculties of perception and response (eyes, ears, and heart) will be dulled and apathetic,” and “A ‘fat heart’ speaks of a slow, languid, self-oriented set of responses, incapable of decisive, self-sacrificial action.”
Scielo.org
Don’t let your heart get fat. You have Torah. Let it be the lamp that leads your path as you follow Messiah the true King.
Prayer:
Father, King of my heart, creator of the world. I worship you. Thank you for the delight of Torah. You have given it to your chosen seed. Thank you Father for your matchless grace, for saving me through the blood of Yeshua. Bless your Name. Please feed me with the bread of Messiah.
Let the world do what they do. Let it not bring pain to my family. I pray for the famine. Let them see that they need Messiah. Amen.
The cords of the wicked have encircled me, But I have not forgotten Your law. — Psalm 119:61
I think of Jonah. He was pulled down by the kelp and the weight of his sin.
The waters closed in over me to take my life;
the deep surrounded me;
weeds were wrapped about my head
Jonah 2:5
Be gracious to me, O Lord! See my affliction from those who hate me, O you who lift me up from the gates of death,
that I may recount all your praises, that in the gates of the daughter of Zion I may rejoice in your salvation.
The nations have sunk in the pit that they made; in the net that they hid, their own foot has been caught.
The Lord has made himself known; he has executed judgment; the wicked are snared in the work of their own hands.
– Psalm 119:13-16
This is great. I love how Jonah tells us of the parallel. Death wraps around us. Evil tries to ensnare us and bring us down into the depths. But YHWH saves. His Torah is a lifeline.
But the evil will be brought down in the end. The wicked will be caught in their own trap. The end will be a literal pit. The pit that the fallen angels experience now will one day be a forever pit of fire.
This same pit will be the judgement of all the evil ones. No longer will they have a hand to touch the chosen (us). No longer will we be a target.
But we have hope. We have it now. We have it eternally. We follow His Torah. We receive comfort. We grab onto the inheritance through the bloodline of the Messiah.
Embrace your adoption. Your heritage and draw near to Him with teaching (Torah) that brings life, that brings light.
Prayer:
Father, you are beautiful. May we flee from evil. Keep us from the wicked that we not be ensnared. Keep us in your love. Keep us in your covenant. Redeem us and feed us through the bread of Messiah.
Father, thank you for the hope in your Torah. Thank you for the promise of your eternity, your kingdom come. May your will, your Torah, be done in our hearts and in our hands. Amen.
My friend. Cling to Torah. It is a life-saver. Have you ever been snared by the cords of death and evil? How did you find the shore and safety?
Torah Is 