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POSTED 04 SEPTEMBER, 2008
Addressing
the Frequently Avoided Issues Messianics
Encounter in the Torah
by
J.K. McKee
editor@tnnonline.net
Focusing on God’s instructions in the Torah is an undeniable part
of not only the Messianic lifestyle, but also
the Messianic experience. Ever since the return
of the Jewish exiles from Babylon, the public
reading of the Torah to instruct God’s people on
what was acceptable and unacceptable behavior
has been a regular practice (Nehemiah
7:73-8:12). This is something that is also
witnessed in the Apostolic Scriptures (Luke
4:16-17; Acts 13:15) and continues in the
traditions of today’s Jewish Synagogue. The
repetition of hearing Moses’ Teaching is
important for men and women of faith,
particularly in understanding the fuller meaning
of “For
I am the
Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves
therefore, and be holy, for I am holy”
(Leviticus 11:44). The statutes and commandments
of the Torah are to make God’s people different
from the rest of the world, possessing qualities
and wisdom that attract outsiders to Him
(Deuteronomy 4:6).
The Messianic community has grown significantly in the past ten
years (1999-2008) via the great interest in
evangelical Christians embracing their Hebraic
Roots. Such people know that their (exclusive)
examination of the New Testament Scriptures
while in Church has been incomplete without a
foundational basis in the Torah and Tanach.
While the Holy Spirit has first convicted such
individuals about the need to consider the
importance of things like the seventh-day
Sabbath/Shabbat, the appointed times or
moedim, and the kosher dietary
laws—things that the Messianic movement
considers to be prime elements of Torah
observance[1]—Torah
observance is obviously much more than these
three aspects of one’s faith practice. A great
deal of Torah observance includes one’s ethics
and morality, and how a person interacts with
others demonstrating God’s kindness and love (Matthew
22:36-40; Mark 12:28-34; Luke 10:25-28; cf.
Deuteronomy 6:5; Leviticus 19:18).
The ruling of the Jerusalem Council was that after the new
non-Jewish Believers would “abstain
from things contaminated by idols and from
fornication and from what is strangled and from
blood” (Acts 15:20), that they would understand
that “Moses from ancient generations has in
every city those who preach him, since he is
read in the synagogues every Sabbath” (Acts
15:21). These were four areas of instruction
with a significant Torah background,[2]
and the need for these former pagans—now having
received salvation in Yeshua—to be trained in
the essentials of God’s Word could not be more
overstated. Most of today’s Christian
commentators on the New Testament are clearly
aware of the fact that these non-Jewish
Believers would have had to have been somewhat
familiar with the story of Ancient Israel in the
Old Testament for the Apostles’ teachings and
epistles to have made any sense.[3]
For example, the Apostle Paul appeals to the
Exodus in telling the Corinthians, “our fathers
were all under the cloud and all passed through
the sea” (1 Corinthians 1:10).[4]
Many non-Jewish Believers in today’s Messianic community do not
need the same kind of instruction in the Torah
and Tanach that the first non-Jewish Believers
had, who came out of First Century paganism and
were often totally ignorant of the God of
Israel. Most of these people in the Messianic
movement today received a basic understanding of
the stories and history of Ancient Israel from
Sunday school, even though such basic
understanding can certainly be expanded upon and
more thoroughly explored. This is being
accomplished quite well by Messianics following
the Jewish tradition of reading the weekly Torah
portion, and reading through the Torah on either
an annual or triennial cycle (whichever best
fits the local congregation’s needs).
When the Torah is examined in this way, though, and not just
surveyed for people, places, and events[5]—it
becomes quite clear that Torah observance is
much more than just
Shabbat, the
festivals, and kosher. A great number of ethical
and moral issues/commandments become
significantly conscious to the Torah reader.
Likewise, a person has to encounter a world
going not only back some 3,300 years to the time
of the Exodus, but multiplied millennia to the
Creation of the cosmos itself. The questions and
the controversies that the first five books of
the Bible present to us, not just as students of
God’s Word, but specifically as Messianic
Believers—are quite significant.
Many people
do not know what to do when the social norms of
the ancient period are different than those of
today, and are often at a loss when reading
the Torah. Not infrequently, such issues are
just avoided or outright ignored in Messianic
Torah study.
Only diligent discipleship and study can adequately address all of
the issues that the Torah presents to a person,
pertaining to what such issues meant against
their ancient context and what they mean for
modern people today. It is very good that
today’s Messianics have submitted themselves to
the instructions of God’s Torah, and people have
become familiarized, or even re-familiarized,
with its foundational accounts and histories.
Yet, as the Messianic movement prepares to enter
into a new chapter in both its spiritual and
theological development, it is clear that there
is much in the Torah that still needs to be
explored by us. Ironically enough, these are the
areas of the Pentateuch that
both Jewish
and Christian Bible scholarship have largely
resolved to one degree or another. Today’s
Messianic community need not find itself
(unnecessarily) lagging behind in these areas,
as having a better handle on them will help us
in both our Biblical Studies and in
understanding the mission that the Lord has laid
out for us—to be a kingdom of priests and a
light that can make a difference in the world
(Exodus 19:5-6; Isaiah 42:6)!
This analysis of frequently avoided issues that Messianics
encounter in the Torah by no means can be
the “end-all” of our examination of the Torah.
But this analysis does intend to provoke some
important questions. These questions should be a
part of future Messianic discussions and our
engagement as a faith community in larger
sectors of conversation on the Scriptures. I do
intend to ask some questions regarding the Torah
of today’s Messianics that, at least on the
whole, our movement is largely unprepared to
consider (in 2008). These are questions that any
reader of the Biblical text will encounter, they
are by no means hidden, and they are by no means
inappropriate as both the Synagogue and the
Church have already had to consider them. So
certainly, as a movement that has its spiritual
and theological origins in both of these
institutions, a critical part of
our
maturation process is for us to consider
them as well.
J.K. McKee
(B.A., University of Oklahoma; M.A., Asbury
Theological Seminary) is the editor of TNN
Online (www.tnnonline.net) and is a Messianic
apologist.
He is a 2009 recipient of the Zondervan Biblical
Languages Award for Greek.
He
is author of
numerous books, dealing with a wide range of
topics that are important for today’s
Messianic Believers. He has also written many articles on
theological issues,
and is presently focusing his attention on Messianic commentaries
of various books of the Bible.
NOTES
[1]
Consult the editor’s book
Torah in the
Balance, Volume I,
and the forthcoming
Volume II
(forthcoming), for an examination on the
validity of these areas of the Bible for
Believers today, and how these things
can be realistically observed today in
the Twenty-First Century.
[2]
Acts 15:20: “things contaminated by
idols” (cf. Exodus 34:15-17);
“fornication” (cf. Leviticus 18:6-23);
“from what is strangled and from blood”
(cf. Genesis 9:4; Leviticus 3:17; 7:26;
17:10, 14; 26; Deuteronomy 12:16, 23;
15:23).
For a further discussion,
consult Chapter 6 of
Torah in the
Balance, Volume I,
“What Happened at the Jerusalem
Council?”
[3]
As a simple example (of many possible
quotes) of this, commenting on
Philippians 1:1-2 and Paul’s reference
to he and Timothy being “servants of
Christ Jesus” (RSV, NIV), Gordon D. Fee
indicates, “They had entered the
‘society’ of a people whose roots were
in Judaism and whose story had its
origins in the Old Testament, a story
that the Philippians by now would have
known well in its Greek form—the
Septuagint (LXX)” (New
International Commentary on the New
Testament: Paul’s Letter to the
Philippians
[Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995], 63).
This is an academic testimony to the
fact that the early non-Jewish Believers
were being trained in the foundational
accounts of the Tanach.
[4]
Consult the editor’s article “The
Message of Exodus.”
[5]
Surveying the Scriptures is by no means
something unimportant, though, as it
provides a Bible reader with a framework
of understanding the great tapestry of
God’s Word and the people, places,
events, and concepts that it
communicates. It is just that
responsible Bible reading and
instruction cannot end at surveying the
Bible.
Consult the editor’s
workbooks
A Survey of the
Tanach for the Practical Messianic
and
A Survey of the
Apostolic Scriptures for the Practical
Messianic.
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