Friday, October 30, 2009
Roots - Love Your Neighbor
Part 2
Now, taking what we learned about how we love YHVH, we are told to love our neighbor as ourself. John said, “If a man say, 'I love God,' and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” (I John 4:20) We must love our neighbor as passionately as we love ourselves and even as we love God.
But who is our neighbor? Is the one who's address is next door to you? Or is it the person you work with? Who is your neighbor? In Luke 10:30-37, Yahshua tells us of a Jewish man who was on his way to Jericho. Along the way, thieves and robbers mugged him, taking his clothing, beating him and leaving him for dead. By chance, a priest was passing by and when he saw the man, he crossed to the other side of the road, so not to defile himself. Later, a Levite passed by and when he saw the dying man, he, too, passed on to the other side of the road so as not to defile himself. Later, a Samaritan – who I might add, was at enmity with the Jewish people over disputes of lineage much as the Palestinians and Israeli's today – passed by. However, he, taking pity on the dying man, bound up his wounds, pouring in soothing oil and wine, then put him on his donkey and paid an inn keeper to look after him.
After relating this parable, Yahshua asked the scribes and Pharisees, “Who do you think was his neighbor?” Was it the priest or Levite, who kept the letter of law, who performed daily services in the Temple, who kept kosher lives and didn't risk defiling themselves with the dead. No, it was the one who had mercy on the dying man.
Romans 13:10 states, “Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” Yahshua summed up in Matthew 7:12 the whole message of the law and the prophets, “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.”
Thus, if we love YHVH with all of our heart, with all of our soul, and with all of our might, then we will love our neighbor as we love ourself. And if we love our neighbor as ourself, we will not bear false witness against our neighbor, nor covet anything that is our neighbors. And if we love YHVH with all of our being, we will not swear falsely by His Name, nor will we practice idolatry or worship other gods. Again, this is the law and the prophets.
Now, taking what we learned about how we love YHVH, we are told to love our neighbor as ourself. John said, “If a man say, 'I love God,' and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” (I John 4:20) We must love our neighbor as passionately as we love ourselves and even as we love God.
But who is our neighbor? Is the one who's address is next door to you? Or is it the person you work with? Who is your neighbor? In Luke 10:30-37, Yahshua tells us of a Jewish man who was on his way to Jericho. Along the way, thieves and robbers mugged him, taking his clothing, beating him and leaving him for dead. By chance, a priest was passing by and when he saw the man, he crossed to the other side of the road, so not to defile himself. Later, a Levite passed by and when he saw the dying man, he, too, passed on to the other side of the road so as not to defile himself. Later, a Samaritan – who I might add, was at enmity with the Jewish people over disputes of lineage much as the Palestinians and Israeli's today – passed by. However, he, taking pity on the dying man, bound up his wounds, pouring in soothing oil and wine, then put him on his donkey and paid an inn keeper to look after him.
After relating this parable, Yahshua asked the scribes and Pharisees, “Who do you think was his neighbor?” Was it the priest or Levite, who kept the letter of law, who performed daily services in the Temple, who kept kosher lives and didn't risk defiling themselves with the dead. No, it was the one who had mercy on the dying man.
Romans 13:10 states, “Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” Yahshua summed up in Matthew 7:12 the whole message of the law and the prophets, “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.”
Thus, if we love YHVH with all of our heart, with all of our soul, and with all of our might, then we will love our neighbor as we love ourself. And if we love our neighbor as ourself, we will not bear false witness against our neighbor, nor covet anything that is our neighbors. And if we love YHVH with all of our being, we will not swear falsely by His Name, nor will we practice idolatry or worship other gods. Again, this is the law and the prophets.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Roots - The Great Commandment
We find a very interesting scene in the book of Mark chapter twelve. The Pharisees were a devout religious sect of Jews who not only believed in the written law of Moses, but also clung to what is known as the Oral law of Moses. The Oral law had supposedly been passed down from generation to generation – father to son since the time when Moses received it on Mt. Sinai. These were the “commandments of men” that Yahshua preached against in Matthew 15:3-9. The Pharisees had tried to trip Yahshua up by his doctrines, but when they did not succeed, they tried to bring him down with a legal matter. When Yahshua passed this test, the Sadducees step up.
Now, the Sadducees were also a religious sect, but they differed from the Pharisees in that they rejected the “Oral law” of Moses and only clung to the law and the prophets. The Hebrew word for Sadducee is “Tzad'i'Keem” which means Righteous Ones. They didn't believe in the resurrection of the dead. And after they had tested Him with their question, Yahshua was tested by yet another religious man – a scribe.
Now, a scribe was very religious and knowledgeable in the fact that his full time job was to transcribe the Law and the prophets from one scroll to another. It takes about 1 – 2 years to hand write one Torah scroll (the five books of Moses). They are very meticulous and cannot write one jot or tittle from memory. If they are right handed, then they must only write with their right hand. And the scroll must be copied from another Kosher Torah scroll. They perform a Mikveh (ritual purification bath – like a baptism/immersion) prior to the onset of writing a Torah scroll.
So the scribe asked Yahshua, “Which is the first commandment of all?” Now, in our Western “christianized” thinking, many would have answered, “Thou shalt have no other god's before me,” which is the first of the “Ten Commandments”. But to Yahshua, who was raised as a Jew, He answered, “The first (or most important) commandment is, 'Hear, O Israel, YHVH is our God. YHVH is One. And you shall love YHVH your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength' This is the first commandment. And the second is similar, precisely this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these.” In Matthew's recounting of the story, Yahshua added, “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” What does this tell us?
By looking at Exodus chapter 20, we see that the first of the commandments start off telling us how we should serve or love God. The second half deals with how we treat our neighbor. Yahshua tells us in John 14:15, “If you love Me, keep my commandments.” The book of first John teaches that if we don't love our fellow man who we see in flesh, how can we say that we love God, who we cannot see in the flesh? Paul (Sha'ul in Hebrew), in Romans 13:8-10, gives us the commandments that deal with “loving one's neighbor”. He sums the commandments up by saying, “therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”
What does it mean to love Him with all of your heart? We know that the heart is the seat of the emotions. It is more than the most vital organ of our body. It is emotionally, who we are, our affection, our love, our joy, peace, etc. The heart was also used throughout Yahshua's teachings as the center for our intellect. “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.” (Luke 6:45) Or in the book of Proverbs 23:7, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” So then, our intellect must love YHVH in every aspect.
What does it mean to love Him with all of your soul? This word soul, in Hebrew, is “Ne'fesh” means, breathing or breath. So basically, we must love YHVH with every breath of our body, right? Of course, right. However, so much the more, this word soul also is used in another context. Throughout the Old Testament, we see this word used in place of appetite. Isaiah 58 is a well known chapter that talks about fasting or “afflicting one's soul”. So then, to love YHVH with all of your soul is to love Him with all of your appetite or your desires.
When we look at the word, might in Hebrew, we find it means much more than loving YHVH with all of your strength. That's just scratching the surface. We find it has a much deeper meaning. Might translates provision or resource. So when we love YHVH with all of our might, in essence, we are loving him with all of our resources and provisions. Remember, “YHVH loves a cheerful giver”.
Now, the Sadducees were also a religious sect, but they differed from the Pharisees in that they rejected the “Oral law” of Moses and only clung to the law and the prophets. The Hebrew word for Sadducee is “Tzad'i'Keem” which means Righteous Ones. They didn't believe in the resurrection of the dead. And after they had tested Him with their question, Yahshua was tested by yet another religious man – a scribe.
Now, a scribe was very religious and knowledgeable in the fact that his full time job was to transcribe the Law and the prophets from one scroll to another. It takes about 1 – 2 years to hand write one Torah scroll (the five books of Moses). They are very meticulous and cannot write one jot or tittle from memory. If they are right handed, then they must only write with their right hand. And the scroll must be copied from another Kosher Torah scroll. They perform a Mikveh (ritual purification bath – like a baptism/immersion) prior to the onset of writing a Torah scroll.
So the scribe asked Yahshua, “Which is the first commandment of all?” Now, in our Western “christianized” thinking, many would have answered, “Thou shalt have no other god's before me,” which is the first of the “Ten Commandments”. But to Yahshua, who was raised as a Jew, He answered, “The first (or most important) commandment is, 'Hear, O Israel, YHVH is our God. YHVH is One. And you shall love YHVH your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength' This is the first commandment. And the second is similar, precisely this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these.” In Matthew's recounting of the story, Yahshua added, “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” What does this tell us?
By looking at Exodus chapter 20, we see that the first of the commandments start off telling us how we should serve or love God. The second half deals with how we treat our neighbor. Yahshua tells us in John 14:15, “If you love Me, keep my commandments.” The book of first John teaches that if we don't love our fellow man who we see in flesh, how can we say that we love God, who we cannot see in the flesh? Paul (Sha'ul in Hebrew), in Romans 13:8-10, gives us the commandments that deal with “loving one's neighbor”. He sums the commandments up by saying, “therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”
What does it mean to love Him with all of your heart? We know that the heart is the seat of the emotions. It is more than the most vital organ of our body. It is emotionally, who we are, our affection, our love, our joy, peace, etc. The heart was also used throughout Yahshua's teachings as the center for our intellect. “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.” (Luke 6:45) Or in the book of Proverbs 23:7, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” So then, our intellect must love YHVH in every aspect.
What does it mean to love Him with all of your soul? This word soul, in Hebrew, is “Ne'fesh” means, breathing or breath. So basically, we must love YHVH with every breath of our body, right? Of course, right. However, so much the more, this word soul also is used in another context. Throughout the Old Testament, we see this word used in place of appetite. Isaiah 58 is a well known chapter that talks about fasting or “afflicting one's soul”. So then, to love YHVH with all of your soul is to love Him with all of your appetite or your desires.
When we look at the word, might in Hebrew, we find it means much more than loving YHVH with all of your strength. That's just scratching the surface. We find it has a much deeper meaning. Might translates provision or resource. So when we love YHVH with all of our might, in essence, we are loving him with all of our resources and provisions. Remember, “YHVH loves a cheerful giver”.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Roots of the Torah
Tree of Life
I view the Torah as a Tree of Life. It's roots are in Genesis where "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" and then God began to build upon creation day by day, until on the seventh day "He rested from all His work." He created everything that would ever be in the earth at that time - in seed form. And the Tree began to grow. First, God taught Adam and Eve morals of life, then He entrusted the Seven Laws to Noah and his sons, through Avraham He gave the covenant to the Jewish people and blessed the nations of the earth. Finally, He established His Torah with the Jewish people by Moses in the Wilderness.
He placed leaves on the tree by the prophets reminding the people of His Word. The fruits are the actions of the people who live according to His Torah - such as the Writings and the New Testament.
The Apostle John started his gospel by stating, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God," and then he goes on later to state, "and the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us." This signifying that the Torah had taken on human form.
We will later discuss how that applies in a posting on "God is Love". Please continue to follow along with my postings and I will do my best to faithfully share my studies. If you do not agree with something I have written, please understand that this is only my views. I do not encourage nor attempt to persuade you to accept my point of view as Gospel.
Thanks
JoNathan
I view the Torah as a Tree of Life. It's roots are in Genesis where "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" and then God began to build upon creation day by day, until on the seventh day "He rested from all His work." He created everything that would ever be in the earth at that time - in seed form. And the Tree began to grow. First, God taught Adam and Eve morals of life, then He entrusted the Seven Laws to Noah and his sons, through Avraham He gave the covenant to the Jewish people and blessed the nations of the earth. Finally, He established His Torah with the Jewish people by Moses in the Wilderness.
He placed leaves on the tree by the prophets reminding the people of His Word. The fruits are the actions of the people who live according to His Torah - such as the Writings and the New Testament.
The Apostle John started his gospel by stating, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God," and then he goes on later to state, "and the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us." This signifying that the Torah had taken on human form.
We will later discuss how that applies in a posting on "God is Love". Please continue to follow along with my postings and I will do my best to faithfully share my studies. If you do not agree with something I have written, please understand that this is only my views. I do not encourage nor attempt to persuade you to accept my point of view as Gospel.
Thanks
JoNathan
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