The Change of Torah?
According to the prophecy of Jeremiah, the Torah from Sinai given through Moshe (Moses) is not the final covenant, nor is it the final form of God's regulation on earth.
'Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah. Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; forasmuch as they broke My covenant, although I was a lord over them, saith the LORD. ' (Jeremiah 31:30-31)
So the prophet speaks about changing the Torah! Is it possible? Is it compatible with multiple directions of the Torah like '...it shall be a statute for ever unto him and unto his seed after him.' (Exodus 28:43). Not only that, but even in the New Testament we read Yeshua himself saying: 'I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Torah until everything is accomplished.' (Matthew 5:18)
Do we find new commandments in the New Testament? Not really. 'A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.' (John 13:34). Essentially it is the repeated commandment of the Torah of loving one's neighbour.
'Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining. Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble' (1 John 2:7-10)
John (Yohanan) leaves it for us to comprehend: it is an old commandment, but it is a new one. There is certainly no new content in the new Torah: what is good for Moshe is good for Yeshua, and what is bad for Moshe, is also bad for Yeshua, and the demand remains the same: choose the good and reject the bad.
So what is new in the New Covenant?
Personal encounter with God:
'But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the LORD, I will put My law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people; and they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying: 'Know the LORD'; for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more.' (Jeremiah 31:32-33).
This very generous gift bears in itself very dramatic social consequences: people of high social position due to their knowledge of the Torah and their skills in interpreting the Scriptures, who had never been touched by the Holy Spirit shall be challenged by simple uneducated people knowing much better the Torah because God put it into their hearts. In such situation persecutions and hatred are promised.
To be, not just to do
The Torah of Moshe enforces good behavior on people with an evil nature. Even the most diligent and scrupulous obedience to the commandments of the Torah does not change that evil nature and makes the person similar to a prisoner perfectly following the jail's regulations: this does not make him good for freedom.
Under the Torah of Yeshua a believer receives access to God's help in transforming his evil nature into a good one. This change is achieved step-by-step through separate victories over the forces of evil by newly developed little virtues which replace piece by piece the old nature. The whole process takes a lifetime. Its final goal is explicit: to become fully obedient to God and thus enter His Kingdom:
The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it. (Luke 16:16). 'But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it- he will be blessed in what he does.' (James [Yakov] 1:25)
Personal responsibility vs collective responsibility
Torah is essentially the Constitution of the State of Israel. Many of its commandments are impossible to keep individually, and it's blessings and curses are also collective. Therefore, under Torah of Moshe the fate of the nation is largely in the hands of its leaders. But the new covenant brings new situation:
'In those days they shall say no more: 'The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge.' But every one shall die for his own iniquity; every man that eateth the sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge.' (Jeremiah 31: 28-29) '...for each one should carry his own load.' (Galatians 6:5).
Based on ultimate sacrifice
Yeshua offered himself to God as a final sacrifice on the cross, thus providing a moral basis for complete forgiving of sins. He who was actually implementing the act of creation, including the creation of evil, assumed the responsibility for that evil and also stood against that evil while wearing flesh of an ordinary human, so that now nobody can tell him: "Who are you to judge me? Have you ever been in my place?". Conversely, anyone can turn to him for forgiveness of sins, because only the one who assumed the responsibility can remove it from others. Yeshua sacrificed himself as an act of ultimate love. He completed exactly what Adam failed to complete in Eden: unlike the latter, he assumed the position "It's all my fault" instead of pointing to us. That was the victory.
Love, not stick-and-carrot
'Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.' (John [Yohanan] 13:1)
The Messiah is not neutrally observing our lives, he loves those who are his own. So his attitude is not calculating positive/negative points for our good/bad actions, but rather doing his best to help us grow into his perfection. That is why we can feel secure and concentrate on the essential and not tremble in fear of doing something not exactly as prescribed.
Standard of absolute perfection
No longer "I'm just a simple mortal"! With the Messiah you get real power but also real responsibility:
'For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven' (Matthew 5:20)
'You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, "Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment." But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, "Raca," is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell.' (Matthew 5:21-23)
The list could be continued, but it seems enough to conclude: the Torah had not really been changed, it had been completed by the Messiah.
Copyright © 2009 Shlomo Vinishsky
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Torah of the Messiah |