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The essence of Mishpatim, is that G-d is not giving us
a set of legalistic rules to do or not to do, but instead,
He is giving them to us to show us how to live a full
life. When Moses went up Mount Sinai to receive Torah,
he was actually establishing a link between G-d and us.
G-d was showing us that He will be with us through His
Word, His Torah. The book of Yochanan begins with "In
the beginning was the Word…" and we as Messianic
Jews understand that he was showing us that Torah is alive
and abides in us through Yeshua, the Living Torah.
One
of the issues which our sages have problems with is in
the chronology of chapter 24 of Exodus. It is important
to know that the book of Exodus is not chronological.
It is not a systematic book instead it demonstrates to
us that G-d is speaking in the past, present and the future.
He was speaking as much to those who stood at the base
of the mountain with Moses as He is speaking to us today.
The main intention was that G-d would give us something
that would set us apart from the rest of the nations-His
teachings, rules and regulations to live by so that we
could have the wisdom to avoid life's many problems if
we would only follow them.
How
can we understand the statement in chapter 24:10…"and
they saw the God of Israel…" knowing that no-one
can see G-d without dying. The Hebrew language is replete
with euphemisms. It is not a systematic language, it is
a holistic one. It is a language which paints pictures
to bring images to the mind of the hearer and cannot always
be taken literally. In this case, it is being said that
they saw the glory of G-d, His Presence, a manifestation
of G-d similar to what Yeshua said in several places in
the book of Yochanan that when we saw him we were seeing
the Father for he and the Father are one (Yochanan 10:30).
The
idea of the Theophany is common in the Scriptures. When
Moses came down from Mount Sinai, his face was shining.
The rabbis wrote in Jewish folklore that Moses became
like an angel, a super-special human being. This is how
the people could understand this super quality of Yeshua
when he came to earth. It was already in our folklore,
in the legends about Moses who was borderline elevated
to the position of an angel. Our sages write that even
the angels were upset about this position of Moses for
he was made higher than them. Isn't that what was written
about Yeshua in the Messianic Writings? Yeshua used the
words of Moses to show us that he was indeed the Messiah.
In
Christianity we find the title describing Yeshua as "Moses
Redivivus" or the revived Moses (Deut 18:18-19).
Messiah would fulfill all that Moses wrote about and all
that he himself could not be for the people. Moses brought
us Torah and Yeshua was the living Torah. The next step
would be for G-d to fulfill what was written in Ezekiel
36:27 and Jeremiah 31:31-33 where He would take the Torah
and write it on our hearts. He was not writing a new covenant
as the misnomer would imply; He was going to take the
covenant which He made with our forefathers and He would
make sure that this last time, it would be finally kept.
He would change our hearts of stone and give us a heart
of flesh with Torah engraved in them.
The words New Testament and Old Testament
do not exist in the Scriptures and mislead the reader
into thinking that a new one replaced the old. This is
false and dangerous. This idea leads people to believe
that the Torah was improved with Yeshua, instead of seeing
that Yeshua brought us back to true Torah. By changing
the understanding we have done something that NO ONE is
permitted to do- to change the Torah or the Word of G-d,
replacing it with his own understanding. We all need to
do a lot of soul searching where we allow our own personal
interpretations to invalidate the Word of G-d (Deut 4:1-2;
Is 29:13-14; Ps. 78:36 ff; Matt 5: 17-20; Matt 15:8-9).
We
need to come to grips with the fact that the Word of G-d
cannot be changed to accommodate a different era or according
to our whims because of our so called tolerance, acceptance,
egalitarianism, political correctness and now theological
correctness. Let's put attention to what Shimon Kefas
has to say in II Kefas (2 Pet. 2:1 ff) and keep our eyes,
ears and hearts open to follow G-d's Word and not man's
word. "But
false prophets also arose among the people, just as there
will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly
introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master
who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves."
Remember
what Yeshua said in Matthew 5:17-20, "Do
not think that I came to abolish the Torah or the Prophets;
I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I
say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the
smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Torah until
all is accomplished. Whoever then annuls one of the least
of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same,
shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever
keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the
kingdom of heaven. For I say to you that unless your righteousness
surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees you will not
enter the kingdom of heaven."
May
G-d add blessings to His Word!
Rabbi
Percy Johnson
Netanel
ben Yochanan
[nxy
[b lantn
©
2008 Use by Permission
Kehilat
She’ar Yashuv
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