If you believed Moses

Yeshua in the Torah

Sometimes as we read the scriptures it can be easy to get lost. We may forget who is “speaking”, who is being spoken to, and what is going on. Sometimes as we read it can seem if it is just major even after the next as if entire chapters take place over the course of a few hours. Naturally this can cause confusion and we can misunderstand what is recorded. If you have ever felt that way it is OK. I want us too look at a few passages is the Brit’ Hadashah today that is commonly hard to understand. As we read it I want us to think critically about what is recorded. The purpose of us doing this is to practice being able to read and study and understand what is written for both the surface value and a deeper meaning.

Let us look at . To give a preface Yeshua has healed a man on the Sabbath. A group of pharisees has chastised him for doing so. Yeshua in turn challenges them on the authority of Torah. The discussion gets to a point in which Yeshua addresses the problem with the Pharisees that are accusing him of breaking the Sabbath by healing a man.

39 “You search the Scriptures, because you think you possess everlasting life in them. And these are the ones that bear witness of Me.

40 “But you do not desire to come to Me in order to possess life.

41 “I do not receive esteem from men,

42 but I know you, that you do not have the love of Elohim in you.

43 “I have come in My Father’s Name and you do not receive Me, if another comes in his own name, him you would receive.

44 “How are you able to believe, when you are receiving esteem from one another, and the esteem that is from the only Elohim you do not seek?

45 “Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Mosheh, in whom you have set your expectation.

46 “For if you believed Mosheh, you would have believed Me, since he wrote about Me.

47 “But if you do not believe his writings, how shall you believe My words?”

The first thing for us to think about is who is the “you”? Who is Yeshua talking to? Some times we can feel like the you in some scriptures is us. Admittedly sometimes it is figuratively and literally us. I know I have definitely felt convicted of some SIN, particularly anger, in reading some scriptures, I feel like they are talking directly to me. In this case we are not the you Yeshua is talking to literally. So here Yeshua is speaking to Pharisees. Which Pharisees? Is it all of them in Israel, all of them in Jerusalem, only the ones standing before him, or then ones that share a common understanding of these?

To me it seems the most reasonable explanation is either the ones standing in front of him and those that share the common understanding that they do. I do not think it is every Pharisee in the world. I did at one time. It was easy for me to think these guys represented the entire group and everyone else that was a member of that group was just like them. We call that stereotyping at worst and grouping at best. Often times we as humans will do this. We group like things together because it helps us to think and process information. So in this case some people will unconsciously group all Pharisees into this group that stand before Yeshua. For the sake of the lesson let us discard that grouping and just think of these Pharisees standing in front of Yeshua and those that share their understandings as the the specific Pharisees he is speaking about.

What is Yeshua saying to them? If one was crass and just reading this in English they might think Yeshua is calling the Pharisees fools. Does that sound like him though? Would he just call someone a fool? The Yeshua that I read about is patient and kind. If we apply that filter we might see he is imploring them to see their mistake. The mistake they have made is not that they do not know the Torah or that they do not keep it, the mistake they have made is they have forgotten why. Since they have forgotten why they keep Torah the miss the point of Torah.

Yeshua makes the case that they are keeping Torah so that they can have everlasting life. Keeping Torah was never about ever lasting life it was always about loving Adonai and loving our neighbor. Yeshua confirms this in 36 “Teacher, which is the great command in the Torah?”

37 And יהושׁע said to him, “ ‘You shall love יהוה your Elohim with all your heart, and with all your being, and with all your mind.’

39 “And the second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’

40 “On these two commands hang all the Torah and the Prophets.”

38 “This is the first and great command.

39 “And the second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’

40 “On these two commands hang all the Torah and the Prophets.”

So Yeshua is not accusing them of not knowing the law and he is not telling them not to keep the law he is making the case that they have forgotten the point of the law.

Yeshua continues to explain that they claim to love Adonai, if they did why do they not greet one who comes in the name of Adonai? If some one claims to love me but they hate my children how could they honestly love me? It is a dissonant pattern of thought and ultimately falls apart. This is also key to the return of Yeshua and the millennial reign. If one continues to read in this is the same crowd and group at the same time as Yeshua just told everyone the point of the Torah is to teach us to love first Adonai and second everyone else. At the end of chapter 23 verse 39 Yeshua tells everyone “39 for I say to you, from now on you shall by no means see Me, until you say, ‘Blessed is He who is coming in the Name of יהוה!’”

Yeshua has come in the name of his Father and they rejected him. One day the whole world will rejoice at the coming of he who comes in the name of the Father.

David Prophecies of this in 26 Blessed is He who is coming in the Name of יהוה!

We shall bless you from the House of יהוה.

The next error that Yeshua advises them on is that they are seeking esteem from each other rather than from Adonai. What does that even mean they are seeking esteem from each other? This is another aspect that can make study difficult is trying to understand what is even being said. We do not typically use words like esteem. Other translations may even use the word glory. So what are is being said they seek glory or esteem from each other. Well it seems to me it means 2 things 1st it seems they mean honor 2nd they seem to me enablement or power. They seek honor and power from each other rather than honor for Adonai and power from him. As such they looked to each other to confirm they where accurate in their understandings rather than to Adonai.

The next error that Yeshua advises them on is that they are seeking esteem from each other rather than from Adonai. What does that even mean they are seeking esteem from each other? This is another aspect that can make study difficult is trying to understand what is even being said. We do not typically use words like esteem. Other translations may even use the word glory. They seek glory from each other rather than glory for Adonai. As such they looked to each other to confirm they where accurate in their understandings rather than to Adonai.

Institute for Scripture Research, The Scriptures (South Africa: Institute for Scripture Research (Pty) Ltd, 2000), .

The next error that Yeshua advises them on is that they are seeking esteem from each other rather than from Adonai. What does that even mean they are seeking esteem from each other? This is another aspect that can make study difficult is trying to understand what is even being said. We do not typically use words like esteem. Other translations may even use the word glory. They seek glory from each other rather than glory for Adonai. As such they looked to each other to confirm they where accurate in their understandings rather than to Adonai.

Do to their misunderstandings they misapplied the Torah. They used it as a way to separate and divide people instead of uniting them. The Torah was an excuse to subjugate instead of healing. Instead of being priests unto the nations they used the Torah to exclude the nations.

It is no wonder they missed the purpose and the message of the Torah which is this: Love Adonai whom loves you, Love his children of which you are one. Love his son whom he sent. Love his spirit which lives in us.

It was not all of the Pharisees though. Some pharisees did accept Yeshua and his message. Some pharisees did see that the nations where to be ministered to. There is a story of 2 Rabbis Shammai and Hillel that relates to this idea.

"The gentile came before Shammai and requested, 'Convert me on condition that you teach me the entire Torah while I stand on one foot.' He [Shammai] pushed him out with the ruler in his hand. He then came before Hillel, who converted him. Hillel addressed to him the immortal words, 'That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the entire Torah; the rest is commentary. Go and learn.'" Afterwards, the successful convert declared in the presence of Hillel and Shammai that it was Hillel who had been his salvation.

So as we can see with a few simple questions it is possible for us to have a better understanding of the scriptures. When you study ask your self who is being spoken to? What is really being said? What is really the issue? How does this fit with other scripture? They ancients read Hebrew, spoke in Aramaic and where recorded in Greek. They may have even thought in any of these or other languages. We live in America reading in English their words. It is absolutely OK if we get confused or do not understand something . If we make a mistake and become convinced of something in error we have grace. Let us be diligent in study for it is good and well pleasing to our heavenly father. If we do not study we run the risk of seeking the esteem or glory of others and not the esteem or glory of Adonai.

So in closing we see that some of the Pharisees