“YHWH will fulfill His purpose for me. O YHWH, Your loving devotion endures forever – do not abandon the works of Your hands.” Psalm 138:8
Since waking up to the whole of God’s Word, walking in obedience has been freeing not burdensome. Resting, truly resting in Messiah and honoring the Sabbath day has released stress. The passages of God’s Instruction being called a delight are true.
So many call God’s instruction or as it is poorly translated, law, a burden and unlivable. “No-one can do all the law”, they will say, “That is why Jesus had to die. He fulfilled the law so we don’t have to.” This is a real argument, made by folks who make studying the Word their life’s mission, so they say. They will use Paul as their source and use his words to supersede the rest of Scripture.
Psalm 1:2 says: “But his delight is in the instruction of YHWH, and on His Torah he meditates day and night.” Torah and instruction are interchangeable. These are the principles in which we are to aspire to. The key, if we want to come even remotely close wisdom, is to delight in Gods instruction; to meditate on it. If we spend all our time saying they are burdensome, unachievable, impossible or done away with, they will never be a delight.
When we cast off the Tanakh (Old Testament) we marginalize God’s Word and read it as history. History we are doomed to repeat if we do not delight in it. If we don’t read it as instructions on honoring and loving our Heavenly Father, it isn’t going to change us in away that is honoring to YHWH. We might as well be masquerading as angels of light if we say we love God but do not walk according to His instruction.
When we spend the majority of our time trying to justify our sinfulness, we become lawless. The actual identifying mark of the AntiChrist, is lawless. Not lawless as in he will not adhere to the law of the land, no he will be without God’s instruction. Without God’s Torah, he will not delight in it, but rather, he will call it burdensome, useless, done away. How is aligning with the spirit of antichrist in balance with loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. How can we honestly love our neighbor if we despise God’s instruction?
I heard it said once, “Life is too complex for formulas, we need ALL the wisdom books together to get the bigger picture.” The wisdom books referenced are Psalms, Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes. Together, the heart beat of God is revealed, His desire for His people. It begins with reverent fear, “the fear of Adonai IS the beginning of wisdom.”
The sin in the garden of Eden was disobedience. The same sin many seem to think is now suddenly okay. It is not. Yet, the devil whispers in the ear, “the law is fulfilled.” Somehow, this nullifies obedience in the heart of the disobedient. But is that really what God said?
We are given a promise in Philippians 1:6 – “being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to its completion until the day of Yahoshua Messiah.” The day of Yahoshua, is the day He comes to rule and reign as King of kings and Master of masters. And He will rule by the instruction of the Father, for Yahoshua’s delight is in obedience. That is what He said, that is what He demonstrated, that is what He calls us to imitate.
Ecclesiastes ends on this note: “The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; they are given by One Shepherd. My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh. The END OF THE MATTER; all has been heard. FEAR GOD and KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS, for this is the whole duty of man.”
Yahoshua said, “Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the Kingdom of heaven, but whoever DOES THEM AND TEACHES THEM will be called great in the Kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:19
Those who would subvert the word of God and water it down for the weak willed will point to verse 20. They will say see, Yahoshua said, “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of heaven.” What they fail to recognize is the fact that the scribes and Pharisees had elevated man’s tradition over the Word of God. They put undo hardship and burden of the people. This was the burden, mans tradition.
Righteousness is the word dikaiosynē which means: integrity, virtue, purity of life, rightness, correctness of thinking feeling, and acting. It is walking in the obedience of God’s instruction: the doctrine concerning the way in which man may attain a state approved of God. Which is found throughout scripture and can be simplified in two commands.
“You shall love Adonai your Elohim with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the Shema. It isn’t new but it does require obedience. You cannot say that you love your spouse and then turn around and commit adultery. That is what we do when we say we love God but then walk in disobedience to His Word.
The second is like it Yahoshua continued, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” How can one love their neighbor without God’s instruction? He teaches us in His word how to love one another. And it begins by being obedient to His Instructions.
The whole of scripture, the instruction of God and the writings of the prophets rest on these two. These do not supersede them, they are the foundation upon which Torah is understood. Yahoshua being the manifestation of the Word. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” He did not come to abolish Himself, to make Himself obsolete, by no means, He came that we might have life and that abundantly. He brought wholeness to God’s instruction, a path, a light, a way. He came to reveal the Fathers Word by giving it breath and body.
He revealed the cost of walking in true obedience and the delight. That honoring God, living by His instructions, walking by Faith, as Yahoshua, and in Yahoshua. This is what brings the resurrection unto everlasting life in the Kingdom to come.
“Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.” He is not going to abandon the works of His hands, the Words of His mouth, or the Instruction He has set forth for His people. The question then is will you join together with His people by placing yourself under His Instruction? This is true righteousness, and only the righteous will enter. One who walks in obedience is not boasting in his achievements or working for his salvation. On the contrary, he is acknowledging the Greatness of God by walking in His instruction, the way He designed us to walk.
The “reformed” church will say: ‘Salvation comes by faith alone in Christ alone.’ But they fail to define faith. Faith in Hebrew, which would have been the faith Yahoshua was teaching means something totally different than it does in the greek. You can read this post here for more on that – Understanding Faith: Beyond Belief and Action – here is an excerpt of that post:
**When we read about faith in the Tanakh, (Old Testament) we see it as active obedience. Hebrews 11 gives us a quick account of the pillars of Faith. The writer makes it a point to say, by Faith, “By Faith, Noah . . . in reverent fear constructed”, “By Faith, Abraham, obeyed . . .”. The word Faith in Hebrew is אֱמוּנָה – Emunah. It means a steadiness, as in a steady walk of obedience. A steadfastness, faithfulness in keeping the ordinances of God.**
How can we say that we love God, if we don’t do as He instructed? How can we say we honor Him, if we don’t keep His Commandments? How can we say that we commune with God, if we don’t meet Him on His Holy Days, His Sabbath, His Feast Days, His appointed times? How can we say we are close to God, when we focus more on mans traditions and sayings, than we do on the WORD of GOD?
Something to think about . . .
You are loved, cj
