Make two cherubim of gold—make them of hammered work—at the two ends of the cover.
Exodus 25:18 (JPS)
Make – There is no question in what is going on here. God has just instructed the fashioning of two cherubim, an entity found in heaven. The people are to make a graven/sculptured image of something in the heavens. Does this cause you to ponder? Was there not another commandment directly forbidding this?
Continue reading “Absolute, but Flexible”These are the weekly Torah portions along with the Haftarah and New Testament counterparts. The instruction and schedule of the Torah portions is believed to be given by Ezra the Scribe. To know which Torah portion is read this week, one must consult a Jewish calendar.
Continue reading “Parshah (Weekly Torah Readings)”Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee.
Deuteronomy 31:26 (KJV)
Book of the law – There’s considerable study in comparative analysis with the relationship of the Israelites to their surrounding cultures.* One interesting conclusion is that deity and kings never legislated actual law. This is difficult to comprehend and I may not do it justice here, but suffice it to say, covenant is different than law and it behooves us to understand how. Continue reading “Covenant or Law”
Thus saith the LORD: For three transgressions of Judah, yea, for four, I will not reverse it: because they have rejected the law of the LORD, and have not kept His statutes, and their lies have caused them to err, after which their fathers did walk.
Amos 2:4 (JPS)
Law – The law was not replaced by grace. Yeshua supports this, Paul supports this. It aligns with their Hebraic worldview. But it doesn’t fit so well with our Greek worldview does it? Continue reading “Torah, the Teachings of God”
Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord.
Psalm 119:1 (KJV)
Law – We know this word; it is Torah in Hebrew. But “law” is probably not the best translation. “Law” turns people away. Who needs the law of God when we have the grace of Jesus? All those commandments and judgements were just too much. We live with love now, right? Continue reading “Easier to Swallow”
In the law it is written, With men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people; and yet for all that will they not hear me, saith the Lord.
1 Corinthians 14:21 (KJV)
In the law it is written – I find it interesting that Paul, a man who had Torah memorized from Genesis to Deuteronomy (and possible other books) refers to this quote which is clearly from Isaiah 28 and speaks as if it’s in the nomos (the law). Does that strike you odd at all? Isn’t Torah (which is the Hebraic equivalent of the law) just the five books that Moses wrote? Continue reading “Separation Destroys Us”
