In addition to the political wrangling about who’s version of the lie is better, mankind is ready to fight wars over oil, greed, and false religion.  Iran is setting the stage for their false messiah to enter the scene. Israel is attempting to maintain their residency in the land of Israel, apart from observing the Torah and accepting the Living Torah, Yeshua. And then I read that man in his foolish arrogance believes he can grow meat for food, in culture dishes, in labs, to feed the world.

This is all a part of the same lie that began in the garden. Man believes that he is evolving into something better than the dust of the ground from which the Creator molded him. Man thinks, in his arrogance, that he can live this life, a gift from the creator (Yahweh gives and Yahweh takes away), by his own self-defined righteousness and standards, that those given by the One who created him. He has listened to the lying voice that says, “surely you will not die,” for transgressing the Law of GOD.

There is famine in the world. People need food to eat. Yet the land given to grow food is used for fuel. What is grown, being called food, is nothing more than dangerous food additives that bring slow death through cancers, heart disease, diabetes, and auto-immune diseases. The real famine, that is causing the famine for food in the world, is the famine for the Word of our Creator.

In His Torah, His Loving Instructions for us, His creation, He told us how to live and be blessed. But we have chosen, as corporate mankind, to listen to the voice that says, “Did GOD really say?”

As the people who profess to be of GOD go, so goes the world. The lie is sold as Truth. It is not a new lie, though. It is simply the same old lie repackaged.

The church and Judaism have rejected the Moedim – the Appointments of Yahweh in favor of her own holy days.It’s why the prophets said that Yahweh couldn’t bear with their feast days. They had made them theirs by their additions and subtractions from the pure commanded appointment He made. It’s why Yeshua called them “the feasts of the Jews.” He said they were His feasts, in Leviticus Chapter Twenty-three. The result is that Judaism is still looking for a messiah to come, but one of their own making. The Traditional church has constructed a false messiah in her own image. She has rejected the commanded appointments; the Feasts of the LORD, and has brought in destructive, lying heresies in Christmas, Easter, Sunday as the LORD’S day, and much more.

The result of all of this is that the world is disintegrating into wars, rumors of wars, famine, and judgement is present. Man’s disregard for the earth, in polluting the waterways and seas, spreading poison on the farmlands, and spewing toxic gases into the atmosphere, is growing worse. The disregard for life in the millions of babies who are murdered under the guise of women’s rights are continuing unabated. And why professing Christians are even debating the Biblical legitmacy of homosexuality, that GOD calls an abomination is amazing. Is it any wonder that John was shocked at what he saw when he was shown the last days. What the professing church has become was so foreign to the teaching of the Torah observant Messiah, the Son of Yahweh.

Because of these things we are heading headlong into the days foretold. The final judgement is coming.

Hebrews Chapter Ten is clear. We’ve neglected the days of the gathering, beginning with the Biblical Sabbath, and the other Holy Appointments commanded by Yahweh. We carry Bibles that tell us the Truth. We are without excuse.

Judaism and Traditional Christianity have rejected the New Covenant offered by the LORD. Judaism rejected it at Sinai, and still does today. The traditional church says she is in the New Covenant, but rejects the terms of the covenant, being an adulteress. Judaism and Traditional Christianity have a form of godliness yet deny the power. The power is the Word. And in the New Covenant, the Word of GOD, specifically the Torah, is written on the heart and put in the mind of the disciple of GOD, through Yeshua, the Messiah.

“THIS IS THE COVENANT THAT I WILL MAKE WITH THEM
         AFTER THOSE DAYS, SAYS THE LORD:
         I WILL PUT MY LAWS UPON THEIR HEART,
         AND ON THEIR MIND I WILL WRITE THEM,”
         He then says,

“AND THEIR SINS AND THEIR LAWLESS DEEDS
         I WILL REMEMBER NO MORE.”

Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin. 

Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near. 

For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and THE FURY OF A FIRE WHICH WILL CONSUME THE ADVERSARIES. Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY.” And again, “THE LORD WILL JUDGE HIS PEOPLE.” It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” -Hebrews 10:16-31

Some are waking up to the Truth, as the lie is exposed. Some are making the wise choice to hear what Messiah said through John, in Revelation Chapter Eighteen, to come out of Babylon before the final judgement comes.

“I heard another voice from heaven, saying, “Come out of her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues; for her sins have piled up as high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.” -Revelation 18:4-5

The practices of Babylon are alive and well in the world today. They are propagated by the religions of the world, including traditional Christianity. The world, as a whole, is in rebellion to the sovereign Creator. She is Mystery Babylon. American and the western church appears to be the business district of Babylon. She will not submit, but boasts in her adultery, while the GOD and Messiah, promises flaming judgement on her.

“Pay her back even as she has paid, and give back to her double according to her deeds; in the cup which she has mixed, mix twice as much for her. To the degree that she glorified herself and lived sensuously, to the same degree give her torment and mourning; for she says in her heart, ‘I SIT as A QUEEN AND I AM NOT A WIDOW, and will never see mourning.’ For this reason in one day her plagues will come, pestilence and mourning and famine, and she will be burned up with fire; for the Lord God who judges her is strong.” -Revelation 18:6-8 

Corporately, the traditional Church, and Judaism will not submit to the Truth of GOD’S Torah/Instruction. But as individuals, we can, in Messiah Yeshua. In Him we can be set free from the lie and bondage of lawlessness/sin.

The choice is to each of us. We must choose wisely. The liar is talking loudly. The still small Voice is speaking to those who have ears to hear.

Last time we looked at Verse Nineteen. Now let’s move on, maintaining our context, through Verses Twenty through Twenty-Two.

We read that “the Law which came four hundred and thirty years later does not invalidate a covenant previously made by GOD.” The covenant made with Abraham was made long before Abraham was circumcised, as Torah tells us, and Paul points out to us. We know that the Law of circumcision was given because of transgressions. Paul is not making a blanket statement concerning Torah here. We know that because Moses writes, as Yahweh instructs him and tells us the exact timeline of the Law of circumcision given four hundred thirty years later, in Exodus Chapter Twelve.

“Now the time that the sons of Israel lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years. And at the end of four hundred and thirty years, to the very day, all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.  It is a night to be observed for the LORD for having brought them out from the land of Egypt; this night is for the LORD, to be observed by all the sons of Israel throughout their generations. The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the ordinance of the Passover: no foreigner is to eat of it; but every man’s slave purchased with money, after you have circumcised him, then he may eat of it. A sojourner or a hired servant shall not eat of it. It is to be eaten in a single house; you are not to bring forth any of the flesh outside of the house, nor are you to break any bone of it. All the congregation of Israel are to celebrate this. But if a stranger sojourns with you, and celebrates the Passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near to celebrate it; and he shall be like a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person may eat of it. The same law shall apply to the native as to the stranger who sojourns among you. Then all the sons of Israel did so; they did just as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron. And on that same day the LORD brought the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their hosts.” -Exodus 12:40-51

I include this as a refresher. We need to remember what Paul is talking about. We know that Torah, the loving Instruction of our Creator, predated Sinai, and really was spoken to mankind from the time of creation. Torah was written down, by Moses, under the direction of the Spirit of Messiah, for the first time, beginning at Sinai. But the Voice of the LORD, the Spirit of Truth was speaking it to men who had ears to hear, since Abel. And, clearly, by what we read in Galatians Chapter Three and Exodus Chapter Twenty, the Law that came four hundred thirty years later was the Law of circumcision.

Next we read that the Law was given “having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator, until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made.” The Law, concerning circumcision, that was given “four hundred and thirty years later,” was given to Moses and Aaron by the LORD, according to Exodus Chapter Twelve.  When we read the word, “angels” we are conditioned to think of angels as in celestial beings, created by GOD. And they sometimes are. But the word, translated as “angels” can also mean “messenger.” Aaron and Moses were the messengers of GOD, in Egypt, and while the people wandered in the wilderness. They were the messengers who brought the Law of Circumcision, concerning eating the roasted Passover Lamb, according to the ordinance of Yahweh. The Greek word, translated as “angels” is “aggellos.” It can mean an angelic being, but it can also mean a human messenger.  The Hebrew word, used in Torah, is “malak,” which can also mean, a prophet, or a priest,or teacher, in addition to an angelic being. The context would have to dictate whether it is an angelic being, or a human messenger.

I can’t be dogmatic about the Galatians Three reference being Moses and Aaron, but it sure fits the context of the text, and the story from Torah that it references.

The mediator between GOD and man is Yeshua. We see the human element, in being a mediator, in Moses; when the people said they no longer wanted to hear the Voice of the LORD/Yahweh. They wanted Moses to go for them, and to hear the Voice of Yahweh and bring it back to them. But the real Mediator is always the Spirit of Messiah, for those who are willing to come hear His Voice. This, as I consider it now, open to being wrong, is that the Spirit of Messiah/Truth, is the Voice of Yahweh, by whose hand/agency, the Law was given to Moses and Aaron, who passed it down. Moses representing Yeshua to Aaron, and Aaron, along with the priests who served under him, and after him, were to be the messengers of the Voice of the LORD. All the prophets were messengers of the LORD. Each of them preached repentance to Torah, at the Instruction of the Voice of the LORD. So did the apostles.

Moses was a mediator given because the people refused to hear the Voice of the LORD directly. The Spirit of Messiah -who spoke to all the prophets, including Moses – told Moses to tell the people that He was going to raise up another Prophet, like Moses, from among the people, and that they were to hear Him. This Prophet, foretold by Moses, at the Instruction of the Voice of the LORD, the Spirit of Messiah, was about Himself. He is the promised Seed that Yahweh told Abraham would come from him. Moses was given in the interim, until the promised Seed, the Prophet foretold, would come. Just as Aaron, and the Levitical priesthood, was given until the Eternal Great High Priest would come, perform the ultimate sacrifice, once for all, and enter into the holy of holys, forever. By doing this He made a way that all of us can come before His throne of grace, to seek grace to help in time of need. This is what the Book of Hebrews is all about.

Now a mediator is not for one party only; whereas God is only one.” 

A mediator is given to intercede between two parties. Traditionally a mediator represents both parties and there is a give and take, with both sides giving a little here and a little there, to come to an agreement. Not so with GOD. GOD is One and His covenant and Torah was given on His terms. He made the covenant with Abraham, gave Abraham the terms, and Abraham chose to enter into the covenant with GOD. The one who is the mediator, sent from Yahweh, is One who only speaks the Word of the Father. There is no give and take. There is an intercessory role. That is Messiah.

The Greek Word for mediator is:

G3316
μεσίτης
mesitēs
mes-ee’-tace
From G3319; a go between, that is, (simply) an internunciator, or (by implication) a reconciler (intercessor): – mediator.

You can see that this word means far more than just a mediator in the sense that we understand it. Our understanding is based on a human mediator, such as one who mediates between two warring nations, or a union and the company, trying to find a compromise in wages and benefits for the workers. The word “mesites” perfectly describes Messiah Yeshua. He is a reconciler, and intercessor.

This appears to fit the understanding I’ve arrived at, for now, that the Spirit of Messiah, the Spirit of Truth is the mediator who gave the Law of circumcision to Moses and Aaron, who were the messengers (angels) who communicated it to the people. But we have to maintain the context of what Paul is talking about. He is not saying that the Spirit of Truth first communicated all of Torah to Moses at Sinai. He is specifically talking about the Law of circumcision in Galatians Chapter Three. The Torah – the Instruction of Yahweh – was given first, to Adam, in the garden. Moses was instructed to write it down. However, it was the same Spirit of Truth, the Spirit of Messiah, who began to speak Torah from the beginning, who instructed Moses to write it down.

The Spirit of Messiah is the Spirit of Truth. He is the Voice of the LORD/Yahweh. He began speaking in the beginning, when He spoke the everything into existence. It was at His Word that everything was created. And we know who that is, by the testimony of John, in John Chapter One, and Paul, in Colossians Chapter One. The Spirit of Messiah, therefore, is the Lawgiver, who began to speak Torah, the Instruction of Elohim/GOD, to man, in the garden. He speaks Torah to every man who will hear Him. The root word for Torah is ‘yaw-raw, rara,’ which means to teach or instruct. The Torah is the loving Instruction of the sovereign Creator. And it was given by the Spirit of Messiah, the Voice of Yahweh. Just as we read, concerning the Mediator; GOD is One.

This Law of circumcision was given “until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made.” 

The Law of circumcision was given concerning eating the roasted Lamb and unleavened bread of the Passover, given by the LORD, to deliver the people from bondage in Egypt. But, when the Seed (Messiah) came, to whom the promise was made. the Law of circumcision was no longer needed. The Passover Lamb of Yahweh, Yeshua, The Promised One came. He shed His own blood, died and was resurrected by the Father, into newness of life. The sacrifice of innocent lambs were no longer required. The Lamb of GOD has been sacrificed. Observing the Passover by eating a sacrificed lamb is replaced. Yeshua said, in John 6:41-58,  ”unless you eat of my body, and drink of my blood, you have no part in me.”

“Is the Law then contrary to the promises of God? May it never be! For if a law had been given which was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on law.” 

The Law of circumcision is not “contrary to the promises of GOD.” Why? Because GOD gave it. But He gave it for a particular purpose. That purpose has been fulfilled in Messiah Yeshua. The problem was the misapplication of of the Law of circumcision, taking it to mean that it “was able to impart life.” Only eating of the “Bread of Life that came down from heaven,” can impart life. We eat of Him and we live forever. We feast of the Word of GOD and we have eternal, abundant life, in Messiah. He is the Living Word, the Living Torah. The Law of circumcision was not given to “impart life.” If it had been then righteousness would have been based on being circumcised. And the Gentile would only have life in Israel, through becoming circumcised and becoming a part of Israel. But righteousness does not come through the Law of circumcision.

How do we  obtain righteousness. Romans Chapter Ten tells us. And, by the way, the context is the same. The law spoken of in Romans is the Law of circumcision, with the additions to and subtractions from Torah. Just as the Judaizers in Galatians were attempting to bewitch Gentile believers with.

“Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation. For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. For not knowing about God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. For Moses writes that the man who practices the righteousness which is based on law shall live by that righteousness. But the righteousness based on faith speaks as follows: ‘DO NOT SAY IN YOUR HEART, ‘WHO WILL ASCEND INTO HEAVEN?’ (that is, to bring Christ down), or ‘WHO WILL DESCEND INTO THE ABYSS?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).’ But what does it say? ‘THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART’—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, ‘WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.’ For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; for ‘WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.’ -Romans 10:5-13

Paul is clear, in Romans Chapter Ten, if we read it in the context of the Scriptures and within the context of all of Paul’s letters. Israel, for who Paul’s desire is that they be saved, established their own righteousness, based on physical lineage. And the sign of that physical lineage is circumcision. But it is a self righteous position, because it is not based on faith; believing what GOD said. GOD never said that righteousness was based on circumcision. In fact, in Deuteronomy 6:25, Moses writes, under the Instruction of the Spirit of Truth, the Spirit of Messiah, “And it will be righteousness for us if we are careful to observe all this commandment before the LORD our GOD, just as He commanded us.”

Righteousness come by faith. Hebrews 10:38 says “My righteous one will live by faith. Romans 10:17 tells us that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of GOD. Faith is believing the Word of GOD – what GOD said. Faith, therefore, does not come by a self established righteousness through the misapplied Law of circumcision. Had they believed the Law of circumcision, as it was given by GOD, apart from their traditions of additions to it and subtractions from it, they would have received the Messiah, who is its intended purpose, or goal.

Messiah is the “end of the Law” of circumcision, “for righteousness to all who believe.” He is the point of the Law of circumcision. He is the Seed promised, not the sons of Israel. And, therefore, He is the point reached, the purpose of the Law of circumcision. Now He has come and fulfilled it. Circumcision was never given for righteousness. Circumcision was given because of transgression. It was given to Abraham, after he entered into covenant with Yahweh. Consider that the rite of circumcision was given to Abraham after he had transgressed the command of the LORD, trying to fulfill the promise of the Seed through Hagar.

Believing GOD is the point. GOD said it would be a son born to Abraham and Sarah. Abraham was guilty of adding to what GOD told him. The reminder of the covenant was circumcision, applied directly to the very body part at issue. It is through the lineage of Abraham, but it is only by believing the promise, and allowing GOD to accomplish it, without adding to or subtracting from what He said. Faith is believing and doing what GOD said. Abraham was such a man of faith. Although he transgressed, he repented of it, and submitted to GOD, and GOD accomplished His promise through Abraham. It was not through the circumcision, but through Abraham’s faith, and GOD’S faithfulness.

“But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.”

What “Scripture” is Paul referencing here. It is academic. It is Torah. Torah is the Holy Scriptures, the Instruction of Yahweh that defines righteousness and unrighteousness. Torah exposes lawlessness, which is sin, according to John, in 1st John Chapter Three. The misapplied Law of circumcision was sin. It is lawlessness. The Law, or Torah of GOD shuts the mouth of the liar. His words are of no value. But the Spirit of Truth, the Promised Seed, Yeshua Messiah is the One we are to believe. The One we are to believe is the One who has spoken the Truth of Torah from the beginning. We need to hear His Voice. He will never add to or take away from what He has always said. Is it any wonder, now, that He said “You’ve heard it said, but I say to you,” in Matthew Chapter Five? And can you understand, also in Matthew Chapter Five, why He said that He did not come to destroy the Torah and the Prophets, but to fulfill (literally to fully preach) them? AND why He said that the one who does and teaches Torah is blessed?

The Law of circumcision was given by the Spirit of Truth. It is to be applied in sincerity and truth, not in a lie, whether sincere or not. The traditions of the elders, in believing and propagating a false application of the Law of circumcision, made the pure commandment of the Law of circumcision ineffective. Messiah is not the end (the purpose, the goal, the point reached) by the Law. The false version, with its additions and subtractions from the GOD given version, made Israel the purpose.

The misapplied Law of circumcision is what Paul is condemning in Galatians, because it leads people into a different gospel, than the gospel of Messiah Yeshua. The gospel of Messiah Yeshua is according the Word, the Torah of GOD, that He spoke to Adam, to Abel, to Noah, to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, to Moses, and to Paul, and every one who chooses to come to Him and hear His Voice. The Law of circumcision, according to the pure Torah is good, holy, and just. But when man decides to add to it and subtract from it, it no longer has its GOD given purpose realized. The Word of GOD will not return void (Isaiah 55:11), but will achieve the purpose for which it was given. But it won’t achieve His purpose in my life, or yours, if we don’t believe it for what He said, apart from man’s intrusion.

Attitudes towards the Sabbath vary.

Some are completely unaware that there is a Sabbath. They just go to church on Sunday, sing the songs, half way listen to a feel good message from the preacher, while thinking about where, or what they’re going to have for lunch. Going to church is just part of the weekly ritual and Sunday is the day set aside for that, in the morning, and the afternoon is theirs to do with as they please. But they are oblivious to the fact that the Seventh Day, the True Sabbath of the LORD was the day before their Sunday pilgrimage.

Others, however, are aware that the Sabbath is the Seventh Day. Yet they choose to ignore it, explain it away, or reject it outright, even though they will give intellectual assent to the fact that the Bible says that the Seventh Day is the Sabbath Day. They are devoted to the First Day of the week, a work day given by Yahweh, as their Sabbath. It is in reality a day set aside to the venerable sun god, therefore the name Sunday.

Either one of these two groups, or the subgroups of varying interpretations and versions of the gospel, will tell me that Sabbath is bondage. They call me a “legalist” for wanting to obey the Sabbath Commandment. Yet they ignore the Scripture, that gives clear Instruction as to keeping the Sabbath of Yahweh. They will twist verses in the so-called “New Testament” to make them appear to say that Sabbath is annulled, even though Yeshua, called Jesus by those in the traditional church, said that none of the Torah Commandments would pass away until heaven and earth pass away.

To those in the first group, I ask, why are you playing this game, going to church each Sunday, maybe even carrying a Bible that you never open outside of the church meeting, and aren’t interested in knowing what the GOD who gave the Bible said? Your weekly ritual and appearance of godliness will do you no good. To follow the GOD of the Bible you must know what He said in order to know how to follow.

To the second group; why do you read the Bible, give intellectual assent to its Truth, yet set it aside in order to maintain and propagate the traditional commandments and doctrines of men. Your weekly, and daily ritual will do you no good. Your intellectual assent to the Truth of the Bible is useless.

The Bible tells us that the demons know the Truth, but it is of no use to them. They rejected the Truth and that’s why they’re no longer angels who are sent by Yahweh. They rebelled with the liar from the beginning, Satan. They, even though they know the Truth, are devoted to the lie, and devoted to inspiring men to maintain and propagate the lie. The practice of Sunday as the LORD’S Day is inspired by the devil, the liar from the beginning. To say that Sunday is the the LORD’S Day, meaning the Day of Yahweh, and His Son, Yeshua, is a lie. And that lie did not originate with the Holy Spirit who only speaks what Yeshua said. And Yeshua only spoke what His Father said.

That second group that I describe above, they know the Truth, in the sense that they see what the Bible says. Yet they make a conscious choice to ignore the Truth in their practice. They choose not to obey the Truth so that their lives do not have to change. Even though they know the Truth they choose not to believe the Truth. It’s one thing to know what the Bible says, and even give vocal assent to it, saying that you believe. It is another thing to believe. The former is man’s idea of belief. The latter is GOD’S concept of belief. GOD’S concept of belief is called faith. As Paul tells us in Romans 10:17, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of GOD.” Hebrews Chapter Eleven is filled with examples of those who are of faith, beginning with Abel. Every one of them is depicted as showing their faith by their obedience to what GOD said, not to what they determine to do in their own sight. One of those listed, in that Hall of Faith Chapter, is Abraham.

Abraham, as we have been looking at in our Galatians Series, is the father of those of faith. He believed GOD and it was accounted to him as righteousness. He was justified by obedience to the Instruction, the Torah of Yahweh. He did not just know what GOD said, and give intellectual assent to it. He did what GOD said!

In James Chapter Two we see Abraham’s faith, that produced his works, being expounded on by Yeshua’s half brother, Yeshua, the Messiah, the Living Word – the Living Torah.

“But someone may well say, ‘You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.’ You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected; and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “AND ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS,” and he was called the friend of God. You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. In the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.” -James 2:18-26

Notice that those who are of the camp that believes that faith is apart from works are likened to the “demons who also belie, and shudder.” These are those who say they believe the Bible, and would agree that the Seventh Day is the Sabbath, given by the Creator. Yet they choose to not obey what He said. They choose to ignore the clear Instruction/Torah of Yahweh. They have become rebellious to GOD, just as those demons followed their master, Satan, in rebellion to GOD. They have been on a mission since that time to deceive GOD’S creation – you and me. James tells us, in James Chapter One, that it’s the lust that is already in our hearts that the devil uses to draw us into sin. And sin is transgression of the Law/Torah, as John states in John Chapter Three.

Now, Scripture tells us, that rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. Notice the context of this passage, written by Samuel the prophet, under the inspiration of the Spirit of Messiah.

“Samuel said,
         ’Has the LORD as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
         As in obeying the voice of the LORD?
         Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
         And to heed than the fat of rams.

         For rebellion is as the sin of divination,
         And insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry.
         Because you have rejected the word of the LORD,
         He has also rejected you from being king.’” 1st Samuel 15:22-23

The NASB uses the word “divination.”  Divination, as the definition of the Hebrew word, “qesem”- H7081, is witchcraft. The context of what Samuel writes is about obedience to the Commandments of Yahweh. Samuel writes, “To obey is better than sacrifice.” Sacrifice was given because of transgression of the Torah. The ritual of sacrifice to the one who said that they believed what Yahweh said, yet ignored it, refusing to obey His Torah Commandments. Keeping the Commandments of Torah does not mean that we will always do it perfectly. We will fail. But the sacrifice was given for those who have a heart to obey the Commandments, commit to doing what GOD said. The sacrifice is given in mercy, to restore the one who has Bible believing faith, who wants to obey GOD. There is no sacrifice given for intentional transgression; for the one who says in his, or her heart, “I will do what is right in my own eyes.”

Sin, transgression of Torah, is rebellion, as rebellion is as witchcraft. Think about this.

The rebellious know what GOD said and choose to ignore it. The rebellious go through the rituals while choosing to not even learn what GOD said, thereby ignoring Him.

It is not enough to say you believe. It is not enough to say you’ve been baptized and attend all the church meetings. It is not enough to say that GOD’S Word is true, if you choose to disobey it.

The Word of GOD is clear. Sabbath is the Seventh Day, set apart by the Creator, who is Yeshua according to John Chapter One, and Colossians Chapter One. It was the Spirit of Messiah who spoke to Moses, in Exodus Chapter Twenty, commanding that His Sabbath, established at creation, be remembered.  This same Spirit of Messiah embodied the Word made flesh, Yeshua, who came over 2000 years ago to destroy the works of the chief rebel and liar, Satan. But Satan still speaks. He is still asking that diabolical question, “Did GOD really say?” And those who have lust in their hearts, are filled with the pride of life, who seek to do what is right in their own eyes, listen to that lying rebellious spirit.

Call me a legalist is you will. But I choose to walk lawfully, according to Torah, rather than rebel against Torah. When you stand before Him, on the last day, what you rather say to Him when you’re asked about whether you believed what He said? Would you rather say, “I chose to not be a legalist, one who committed to keeping Your Torah/Law, and relied on faith and grace,” or would you rather say, “Father I chose to believe what You said. Your Torah is Truth and every man is a liar. I chose to believe you instead of the chief liar, Satan, and commit to walking obedient to Your Truth. I relied then on Your mercy, and the sacrifice of Your Son, as the Passover Lamb of GOD, who set me free from lawlessness/sin, and who’s blood cleansed me every time I confessed my transgression and repented?

In Matthew Chapter Seven, as we’ve looked at many times in Torah Perspective articles, we see the response of Yeshua to those who choose to rebel against His Torah Commandments.

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you;DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’” -Matthew 7:21-23 

The Sabbath is the Commandment of Yahweh’s Torah. It is His Instruction. His Son’s sacrifice is only for those who believe what He said in His Torah, which includes the Sabbath Commandment, from creation. You cannot rely on the blood of the Passover Lamb of Yahweh, Yeshua, known as Jesus by the traditional church, while walking in rebellion to what GOD said. As Hebrews Chapter Ten says, there no longer remains a sacrifice for you. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living GOD. His judgement and wrath is reserved for the “sons of disobedience.“ -Colossians 3:6

Professing Christians often quote this portion of Scripture, proclaiming that this is what they will do. It’s a bold statement, but do they understand the context of it when Joshua made this proclamation and challenge to the people that he led?

Today it has a rather vague, self-defined meaning. Today’s Christian defines serving the LORD according to tradition and a self-established righteousness, apart from what God said. Not Joshua. He was drawing a line in the sand. But the line he drew he simply, and boldly traced the line that Yahweh had already drawn. He was declaring to the people that he was going to follow Yahweh, according to what Yahweh said, and lead his family in like manner, whether anyone else went along or not!

Joshua says they are to fear the LORD. Do you fear Yahweh? Or have you become so familiar with the title “God” as a name you just toss about on a daily basis, while it has become void of Biblical meaning to you? The Biblical God is defined by the Bible. Today he is defined as a personal god (household god?) by most professing Christians, and he looks and acts and speaks as they do. They’ve made a god for themselves in their own image.

Joshua says to serve HIM in sincerity and Truth. I’ve no doubt that many professing Christians are very sincere in their devotion. But is it according to Yahweh’s Truth? We know that David says the Torah is Truth, in Psalm 119:142. “Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and Your law is truth.” Jesus, who’s real name is Yeshua, prayed to the Father to sanctify us by His (the Father’s) Truth. He said, “Your Word is Truth (John 17:17.”

The Word of the Father, that Yeshua came proclaiming, as He has always done as the Living Torah/Word, is the what Joshua was committing to. He knew that sincerity alone is not enough. We can be very sincerely wrong! When Yeshua came over 2000 years ago, Israel, as a whole, was sincerely wrong. They had taken what GOD said, added to it, taken away from it, until they had established their own righteousness apart from Torah, as Paul clearly tells us in Romans 10.

Paul writes.

“Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.” -Romans 10:1-4

What was lost was the knowledge of what GOD said. They had leavened it, perverted it, until they had made up a gospel and messiah that was self defined, and therefore they had a self established righteousness that they sincerely held to and proclaimed they would follow. Today’s traditional Christian is much like that.

Joshua writes, defining what is Truth, by saying “and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”

You can’t follow the GOD of the Bible while having devotion to the gods that Abraham’s father, and their fore-parents served in Babylon. Abram had crossed over, being a Hebrew. He had left Ur, but Ur was still entrenched in many of their hearts. Egypt was still in many of their hearts, because the pagan gods and their practices crossed tribal and national boundaries. Joshua is calling them out.

The Word of GOD is calling you and me out today, if we care to listen. Joshua is writing under the inspiration of the Spirit of Messiah, the Spirit of Truth. But we have become defiled with the lie from the garden, “Did GOD really say?” Yeshua came to destroy the works of the chief liar, the devil. He came to set us free from the lie, and the associated bondage to it/sin. It is lawlessness, and lawlessness is sin.

Today’s traditional Christianity has added to and subtracted from what GOD said, and established her own righteousness, just as did Israel. It is devoid of pure Torah. So she has erected Asherahs, observing pagan festivals, of Easter, Christmas,, venerating the sun god on his day, Sunday, and set aside what GOD gave as HIS Appointments each Sabbath and throughout the year.

When you read what Joshua writes, and are tempted to proclaim it for yourself. Go back and read the context of Joshua’s bold statement. It is based on following the Torah. The Torah is the line in the sand that GOD drew. One side is life, the other side is death. Moses writes about that choice in Deuteronomy.

“For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it. See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; In that I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it. But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong yourdays upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it. I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.” -Deuteronomy 30:11-20

You will notice that Verse Eleven, the first part of this passage, is what Paul quotes in Romans 10, about salvation. The connection, in context, is to follow Torah. Paul taught Torah, and what he upheld was Torah. Salvation is in the context of Torah, as he told Timothy, that the Holy Scriptures he had been taught from his youth was able to save him, and make him complete for every good work (2nd Timothy 3).

“Now, therefore, fear the LORD and serve Him in sincerity and truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” -Joshua 24:15

The common thought about the Book of Galatians is that the Apostle Paul is teaching that disciples of Messiah Yeshua are set free from the Law/Torah of GOD. As we’ve seen, contextually, this cannot be the case. Paul would be a false prophet were he rejecting the Torah of Yahweh, personally, and teaching others to reject Torah.

We’ve already seen, in Deuteronomy Chapter Thirteen, that any man who teaches the people to disobey Torah is not to be listened to, and is to be killed.

“If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes true, concerning which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods (whom you have not known) and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams; for the LORD your God is testing you to find out if you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.” -Deuteronomy 13:1-3

Does this sound vaguely familiar to you? It should. Moses writes, as instructed by the LORD, “the LORD your God is testing you to find out if you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.”

“And He said to him, “ ‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ 38“This is the great and foremost commandment.” -Matthew 22:37-38

Yeshua says, in Matthew Chapter Twenty-two, that the “greatest Commandment is to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” He is making reference to the number of times He spoke this through Moses in Torah, just like we just read in Deuteronomy Chapter Thirteen.  Not only does Traditional Christianity believe and teach that Paul broke Torah, and taught men to not keep Torah, Yeshua is also accused of being rebellious against the LORD’S Torah.

Let’s look at Deuteronomy Chapter Seventeen.

““If there is found in your midst, in any of your towns, which the LORD your God is giving you, a man or a woman who does what is evil in the sight of the LORD your God, by transgressing His covenant, and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or the sun or the moon or any of the heavenly host, which I have not commanded, and if it is told you and you have heard of it, then you shall inquire thoroughly. Behold, if it is true and the thing certain that this detestable thing has been done in Israel, then you shall bring out that man or that woman who has done this evil deed to your gates, that is, the man or the woman, and you shall stone them to death. On the evidence of two witnesses or three witnesses, he who is to die shall be put to death; he shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness. The hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.” -Deuteronomy 17:2-7

According to professing, traditional Christianity, Paul and Yeshua are worthy of death. The rulers of Judaism thought so as well. The killed Yeshua, and Paul! But, not because they broke the Torah of Yahweh, but because they broke their traditions of additions to and subtractions from the Torah of Yahweh. Had they been guilty of breaking the Torah, the Word of GOD, then we can’t listen to either one of them, and we need a new Savior!

And now, Deuteronomy Chapter Eighteen.

“The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him. This is according to all that you asked of the LORDyour God in Horeb on the day of the assembly, saying, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, let me not see this great fire anymore, or I will die.’ The LORD said to me, ‘They have spoken well. I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. It shall come about that whoever will not listen to My words which he shall speak in My name, I Myself will require it of him. But the prophet who speaks a word presumptuously in My name which I have not commanded him to speak, or which he speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die. You may say in your heart, ‘How will we know the word which the LORD has not spoken? When a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.” -Deuteronomy 18:15-22

Notice, again, the description of the Prophet to be raised up. He was to be like Moses. Yeshua was. He was to speak the Words of of Yahweh. Yeshua did. But the prophet who speaks “presumptuously in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak in My name, I Myself will require it of him.” Yeshua only spoke the Words of His Father. And lest you say that the test is only that what the prophet say should come to pass – remember Deuteronomy Chapter Thirteen, which tells us, that even if the word spoken comes to pass, yet they lead you to rebel against Torah, don’t listen to them, and stone them to death!

Now, let’s fast forward to Matthew Chapter Five.

“Do not think that I came to abolish the Law 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 Law 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.” -Matthew 5:17-20

Yeshua upheld Torah and the Prophets. He says clearly that He did not come to do away with either the Law/Torah, or the Prophets. The Torah was given to a prophet; Moses. The prophets that came after Moses preached repentance to Torah. And then we see the clear statement that, “whoever 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, you say, at “least” that person is in the kingdom of heaven. Are you sure about that? Notice the very next verse.

“For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” -Matthew 5:20

The scribes and the Pharisees held to the traditions of the elders. And, as Yeshua said, in Matthew Chapter Fifteen, they made the Commandments of GOD ineffective by their traditions. So, unless you, I, or anyone who professes to follow Yeshua, and to proclaim His Truth, has righteousness that “surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” There’s always a qualifier. You have to read everything in context. He does not give lawlessness a wink and a nod, EVER!

Notice, as we’ve highlighted several times, John Chapter Five.

“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life. I do not receive glory from men; but I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves. I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, you will receive him. How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God? Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?”” -John 5:39-47

Quite unlike Yeshua, and Paul, these scribes and Pharisees did not believe what Moses wrote. Yeshua believed it because He told it to Moses! Paul believed it because He took Yeshua at His Word. He met the Living Torah on the Damascus Road and saw that He was the Prophet foretold in Torah. He laid down his belief in the lie of Judaism. He repented of it and returned to the Torah, as given to, and written by Moses. He believed Moses.

We read Paul’s testimony to this fact, of his zealousness for his “ancestral tradtions,” in “Judaism,” in Galatians Chapter One, and that we looked at extensively in our first installment of this Galatians Series.

So Paul has told us how zealous he was for his ancestral traditions, prior to coming to know the Messiah. So how do we know that he isn’t talking about the “ancestral tradtions” being Torah? Well, again, Yeshua’s denouncement and condemnation of the traditions of the elders, is pretty solid, don’t you think?

But Paul has something to say about this as well. Let’s look at Acts Chapter Twenty-four. Paul was giving his defense before Felix on the charge of breaking Torah and teaching others to break Torah. Read what he says.

“When the governor had nodded for him to speak, Paul responded: ’Knowing that for many years you have been a judge to this nation, I cheerfully make my defense, since you can take note of the fact that no more than twelve days ago I went up to Jerusalem to worship. Neither in the temple, nor in the synagogues, nor in the city itself did they find me carrying on a discussion with anyone or causing a riot. Nor can they prove to you the charges of which they now accuse me. But this I admit to you, that according to the Way which they call a sect I do serve the God of our fathers, believing everything that is in accordance with the Law and that is written in the Prophets; having a hope in God, which these men cherish themselves, that there shall certainly be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked. In view of this, I also do my best to maintain always a blameless conscience both before God and before men. Now after several years I came to bring alms to my nation and to present offerings; in which they found me occupied in the temple, having been purified, without any crowd or uproar. But there were some Jews from Asia— who ought to have been present before you and to make accusation, if they should have anything against me. Or else let these men themselves tell what misdeed they found when I stood before the Council, other than for this one statement which I shouted out while standing among them, ‘For the resurrection of the dead I am on trial before you today.’” -Acts 24:10-21

Paul says that he is not guilty of the charges laid upon him. They had no witnesses to prove it (a Torah precept of the need for two or three witnesses to convict). He talks of going up to the temple to keep the Torah commanded Nazarite vow. Very clearly Paul says that he believes “everything that is in accordance with the Law and that is written in the Prophets” It is just as Yeshua said, in Matthew Chapter Five. Yeshua did not come to destroy the Law/Torah and the Prophets, and neither has Paul!  He then speaks plainly that he is being accused because he is following the Way (Messiah), “which they (these scribes, Pharisees, and priests) call a sect.” Paul goes on to tell them that he is “blameless.” There is no fault against Torah to be found in him.

So, as we continue in Galatians, let’s remember these very plain portions of Scripture that tell the Truth about Paul’s devotion to Yawheh and His Torah. He didn’t teach against Torah. He taught against the traditions of the elders of Judaism. And if Paul was here today he would be teaching against the traditions of the so-called “church fathers,” Bible commentators who set aside Torah, and pastors and teachers who do the same, every Sunday, in pulpits around the world. Judaism, Messianic Judaism, and Traditional Christianity have added to and subtracted from the Torah as given to, and written down, by Moses, to the point that when John was transported to the future to see what would happen in the end (The Book of The Revelation), he was shocked by what he saw. It bore no resemblance to the Truth of Torah that Messiah came to fully preach, and that Paul, John, Luke, Mark, Matthew, Jude, James, Peter, and James all upheld and preached repentance to.

I’ve seen posts on Facebook where pastors are having Valentine’s Day dinners and parties for their married couples in their churches. While others who don’t profess faith are busy buying all kinds of lingerie, chocolates, and sex toys to observe this holiday. Why? Why does this holiday, that many will argue is in honor of a saint, be all about sex? Because of the true origin of the day. It is a satanically inspired, perverted holiday that may professing disciples of Messiah think nothing of being involved in, in ignorance, and in some cases, total disregard of what GOD has to say about being involved with these abominations.

Here is the article….

In Galatians Chapter One Paul brings a Torah precept to bear on the subject of his letter to the Galatians.

“I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!” -Galatians 1:6-9

Deuteronomy, Chapters Twelve and  Thirteen provide the basis for what Paul writes in Galatians 1:6-9. I wrote of this in a previous Torah Perspective post, entitled, “The Seder – Is it according to Torah or is it pagan?” It deals with not adding to or taking away from the Torah of Yahweh, and not listening to anyone, even your mother, wife, son, or bosom buddy, if they entice you to walk away from the Torah of Yahweh. We also looked at the fact that the gospel, good news, was preached to those who came out of Egypt, with Moses. And that the gospel they heard was the same one that has been preached to us, according to Hebrews Chapter Four. The problem the latter had was that they didn’t believe it, just as Yeshua said to them. Because, He said, if you believe what Moses wrote you would believe Me. Why? Because He spoke it to Moses in the first place and came speaking the same Words of His Father. Notice the very same precept being used by Paul to talk about this false gospel that was being propagated, and turning these new Galatian believers away from Messiah, the Living Torah/Word. The false teachers are teaching a false gospel that is a lawless mix of tradition and Torah. It is a leavened Torah. Lawlessness leavens the Law, making it ineffective, just as Yeshua said, in Matthew Chapter Fifteen.

Remember that Paul is talking about Judaism, and his ancestral traditions, according to what he wrote in Chapter One, Verses  Thirteen and Fourteen.

“For you have heard of my former manner of life in Judaism, how I used to persecute the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it; and I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions.” -Galatians 1:13-14

And, as we have seen by the testimony of Yeshua, in Matthew Chapter Fifteen, the Scribes and Pharisees (rulers of Judaism) kept to the traditions of the elders of Judaism, and made “the Commandments of God ineffective.” We also read, in John Chapter Five, that the Scribes and Pharisees did not believe what Moses wrote. This makes it very clear that they were not bent on requiring Gentiles to convert to keeping the Torah of Yahweh that they didn’t believe or practice themselves. Their religion was, and is Judaism. We saw that Judaism is a mix of the Torah of Yahweh and the additions to, and subtractions from Torah. This, we know because it still exists, became the Talmud; a collection of far more added commandments and man-made doctrine, beyond the Commandments given by the Spirit of Truth to Moses at Sinai. Clearly, by the testimony of the Living Word/Torah of GOD HIMSELF, and Paul, we cannot, with intellectual honesty, say that Paul is speaking disparagingly of Torah.

If you have been reading each installment of this series, you will have the context of what I’m saying here. If you haven’t, I encourage you to stop, go to the Galatians page, here on Torah Perspective, and begin with the first installment, entitled “What is Judaism?.” Then move on to Part 1, through the previous 13 installments. They are replete with Scripture references.

And now, with this background in mind, let’s look further into Galatians.

“Why the Law then? It was added because of transgressions, having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator, until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made.” -Galatians 3:19

We must be very careful here. If we are tempted to walk away from Paul’s letter believing that he is telling us that we are set free from the Word/Torah of God, then we have a real problem, because the Torah/Word of God says that no one should do that. Anyone who does that should be stoned to death (Deuteronomy 13). So what is Paul talking about? He is talking about additions to and subtractions from a Torah Commandment.

“Why the law then?” What law is Paul asking about? We’ve already determined that. He is talking about the Law of circumcision that was given by Yahweh. But, as we looked at in the Galatians Series, “Circumcision – The works of the law – Judaism 101″ Part 12 and Part 13, those in Judaism added to the pure Torah Commandment of circumcision, giving it an application and meaning far beyond what Torah actually says. It had nothing to do with justification of anyone, especially Gentiles. Justification is by faith – believing what God said and doing it – just as Abraham, the father of those of us who are of faith today.

The Law of circumcision that was added, because of transgressions, was for the eating of the Passover Lamb that was slain to deliver the people from the bondage of Pharaoh and Egypt. True, circumcision was given to Abraham, but this application of Torah had to do with something other than justification. First of all “it was added because of transgressions.” What transgressions? The transgressions of the Commandments spoken to the people, who said, “Yes we will do them.” But, they didn’t! They refused to come to the Voice of the LORD and hear Him. Therefore the judgement upon them because of their sin. Had they decided to come to Him and hear His Voice, as He commanded them to, they wouldn’t have needed anything more. But they didn’t.

Yahweh was offering them a personal relationship, just as He had that personal relationship with Moses. They chose to hear what God said through a man instead of directly from Him. The result is the giving of the priesthood, who had the unenviable job of continual slaughter of innocent lambs in sacrifice, bearing the iniquity of the sons of Israel. Eating the lambs slain at Passover was part of that bloody task. It was given to them “until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made.” Passover was a shadow of the coming Passover Lamb of Yahweh, the Eternal Great High Priest, Yeshua, who serves in the true tabernacle not made with human hands. He is the Seed that Abraham was promised. It was not seeds, as is the descendants of Abraham, the seeds of Jacob/Israel.

The Seed finally came, being the Passover Lamb of Yahweh. His name is Yeshua, the Messiah foretold, the Lamb of Yahweh that takes away the sin-transgression of the world. The promise was fulfilled. The need to eat a slain innocent lamb is forever gone. We are to eat of the Lamb of Yahweh, the Bread of Life that has come down from heaven – Yeshua – who died to set us free. His blood is on the doorposts of our hearts, if we have applied His blood.

“Now a mediator is not for one party only; whereas God is only one. Is the Law then contrary to the promises of God? May it never be! For if a law had been given which was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on law. But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.” -Galatians 3:20-22

Is the Law of circumcision “contrary to the promises of God?” Paul says it very plainly, “May it never be!” Yahweh will never establish a Law contrary to His promises and His Covenant! But, man, in his traditions of additions to and subtractions from Torah make the Commandment ineffective for the purpose for which it was given. Every Commandment of Torah is effective and will not return void, accomplishing the purpose for which it was given, if it is applied in context and in the Truth, as He gave it, without our putting our spin on it. Read Isaiah 55:11 for the context of this precept.

The Mediator is Messiah. He was the One who told Moses to teach the Law of circumcision to the children of Israel, 430 years after Abraham was justified by faith, prior to his own circumcision. He is the only Mediator between God and man, both for Israel and for the Gentile. He is the Mediator of the New Covenant, and in the New Covenant there is no Levitical priesthood, no lambs slain and sacrificed, and no need for Gentiles to be circumcised. There never was a need for a Gentile to be circumcised to gain access to the kingdom of Yahweh, and the promises of the Covenant. That was a misapplication through additions to and subtractions from the Torah given to Moses, and this misapplication of that tradition made the Commandment of Yahweh ineffective. Context makes it clear. Ask the Father to open up the Truth to you, by His Spirit. Be willing to lay down pre-conceived notions and long held traditions and see the Word for what it really says.

Judaism, unable to practice the Passover due to the temple being destroyed, has resorted to a man centered way of accomplishing the command to observe Passover. The temple was destroyed, as Yeshua said it would be, because He has come as the Passover Lamb. There is no longer a need to observe Passover as was once practiced.

Since then, those who have accepted Yeshua as the Passover Lamb no longer roast a lamb, remembering deliverance from Egypt. The One depicted and foreshadowed by the Passover observance has come in fulfillment of the Passover. We now observe Passover (not pagan Easter)  in remembrance of His sacrifice to set us free from the bondage of sin/lawlessness. We don’t eat leavened bread at Passover and during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because there is still leaven in us that Yahweh wants to remove. He is cleansing His house of leaven, as we submit to His Torah and His Spirit’s work of grace. But Judaism will not accept Yeshua as the Passover Lamb, and the Messiah foretold by Torah. They don’t believe what Moses wrote, therefore they don’t believe Yeshua, just as Yeshua said to them, in John Chapter Five.

Today, many in Messianic Judaism hold to observing Passover, not according to the Torah, but according to the Talmud that rejects the Living Torah, Yeshua, and does not believe the Torah of Yahweh, as written by Moses.

The Seder is practiced instead of memorializing the death of Yeshua, as He commanded we should. Continuing to try and find the right day, while rejecting the time that He fulfilled the Passover, and unable to sacrifice a lamb according to the prescribed practice (In His mercy He destroyed the temple and set aside the Levitical priesthood), Judaism has adopted pagan, Hellenistic practices to replace the Torah sanctioned observance of Passover, that Yeshua set aside. He is the Passover Lamb. He is the Great High Priest, and we are priests in His kingdom. We are to remember His death (Passover) and His resurrection (Firstfruits) and submit to His Torah, and work of grace to cause us to walk as He walked. We are to allow Him to cleanse us (His Temple) of leaven (The Feast of Unleavened Bread) which is a type of sin/lawlessness.

Those who say they are a part of Messianic Judaism need to stop and think about what the term “Messianic Judaism” really is saying.

Messianic would be referring to the Messiah, who is Yeshua, the Passover Lamb, the Messiah who came as foretold in Torah, by Yahweh, through Moses. However Judaism rejected the Passover Lamb, Yeshua, the Messiah foretold in Torah, because they really didn’t believe Moses’ writings. The mixture of Judaism with Messiahism (Did I just make that term up?) is unholy. Paul, as we are seeing in our study of Galatians, was formerly in Judaism, and rejected it in favor of the Truth of Torah, being found in Messiah Yeshua, the Passover Lamb. Think about it, you who say you are of Judah and of Messiah. The two do not mix!

Judaism is a lie. Torah is the Truth. How much of the lie to you have to mix with the Truth to cause the Truth to no longer be effective? Any little bit of the lie makes Torah no longer effective in the purpose Yahweh in which Yahweh gave it. It was given to reveal sin and reveal Messiah. When it becomes mixed with the leaven of additions to and subtractions from Torah, it conceals sin/lawlessness, and reveals a false messiah and a false gospel, as Paul speaks of in Galatians Chapter One.

Yeshua told the Scribes and Pharisees that they made the Commandments of GOD of no effect by their traditions. Those were the traditions of Judaism. Seder is a tradition of Judaism. It is as pagan as Easter! It is as pagan as Christmas! They come from the same origin – the liar who began to draw men away to worship other gods – in the garden!

Do some research yourself. Don’t be deceived any longer. You may begin by reading an article on About.com by Rabbi Professor David Golinkin, entitled “The Origins of Seder.” He finds no problem in practicing Seder, even though he admits that it was appropriated from pagan Hellenism. His hopes are that Judaism will be as successful at adopting the pagan practices of the people around them, as the sages did with Passover and the Seder. Read an excerpt of what Rabbi Golinkin writes.

“What can we learn from all these parallels? The Jewish people throughout the generations did not live in a vacuum; it absorbed much from its surroundings. But it did not absorb blindly. The Sages absorbed the form of the symposium from the Hellenistic world, but drastically changed its content. The Greeks and Romans discussed love, beauty, food and drink at the symposium, while the Sages at the Seder discussed the Exodus from Egypt, the miracles of God and the greatness of the Redemption. The symposium was meant for the elite, while the Sages turned the Seder into an educational experience for the entire Jewish people. 

William Meade Jones lived over 150 years ago. He was a renowned for his research. Mr. Jones became convinced of Seventh Day Sabbath from the Scriptures and set out to show that the world has known of the seven day weekly cycle set forth and established on the last day of creation, by the sovereign Creator Himself. In an article about Jones, and his Sabbath research, we read the following.

“In the study of the many languages of mankind you will find two important facts:

1. In the majority of the principal languages the last, or seventh, day of the week is designated as “Sabbath.”

2. There is not even one language which designates another day as the “day of rest.”

From these facts we may conclude that not only those people who called the last day of the week “Sabbath,” but all other peoples and races, as far as they recognized any day of the week as “Sabbath,” rested on the seventh day. In fact, it was recorded by the great historian, Socrates, that in his time the whole known world, with the exception of Rome and Alexandria, observed the seventh day of the week. (Socrates, “Ecclesiastical History,” Book 7, chap.19.)” -Angel Fire

The Sabbath was given in the garden, by the Creator. Adam was there and heard the Voice of Yahweh (Yeshua the Creator – John 1, Colossians 1) declaring the Instruction/Torah of Yahweh. Adam told his sons about Sabbath, and the other Commandments of Torah, such as what is clean, and unclean among animals, proper sacrifice according to Torah among them. Adam’s sons passed it on to their sons, and so on it went, with each successive generation forgetting or setting some of the Truth aside, and sometimes adding a little bit to it, making it “their own.” This perversion of the Torah/Instruction Truth of Yahweh, including and specifically Sabbath, continued until Noah. At that time Yahweh destroyed all living things on the earth, except Noah, his wife, his sons and their wives, and some of all the animals, both clean and unclean. He destroyed all mankind because of man’s lawlessness, in rejecting His Torah/Instruction.

Noah was a reset. With Noah’s sons Yahweh begin to replenish the earth, and the cycle began again, until Moses, with the same perversion of the Truth still being propagated through the generations. And then Yahweh chose to write the Ten Word, that included the Commandment to “remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy,” referencing the six days of creation and His cessation of work on the Seventh/Sabbath Day. As we looked in a previous Sabbath Day Update, we saw that Yahweh tested the people PRIOR to Sinai and His Voice speaking to them from the mountain the Ten Word/Commandments, including Sabbath. He tested them as to whether they would keep His Sabbath in connection with gathering enough manna each of the first five days; just enough for each day, but gathering enough on the sixth day to have for the Sabbath Day as well. He didn’t give any manna on the Sabbath Day. He had given all they needed in six days, just as He gave everything we need for life and godliness in His Creation and Instruction,by His Voice, in the six days of creation.

This all proves that Sabbath is eternal in nature, being the very nature of the Creator GOD. It was passed down from generation to generation, as man was dispersed throughout the world, carrying vestiges of the seven day weekly cycle, and the Sabbath with them.

Note the following excerpt from the Angel Fire article.

“In the study of the many languages of mankind you will find two important facts:

1. In the majority of the principal languages the last, or seventh, day of the week is designated as “Sabbath.”

2. There is not even one language which designates another day as the “day of rest.”

From these facts we may conclude that not only those people who called the last day of the week “Sabbath,” but all other peoples and races, as far as they recognized any day of the week as “Sabbath,” rested on the seventh day. In fact, it was recorded by the great historian, Socrates, that in his time the whole known world, with the exception of Rome and Alexandria, observed the seventh day of the week. (Socrates, “Ecclesiastical History,” Book 7, chap.19.)” -Angel Fire

The languages of the world testify to the Truth of the Sabbath of Yahweh, as being given to all mankind at creation, and not just given to Israel. It was given before Israel was ever in existence. Scripture teaches us this in Genesis Chapter Two. And the languages of the world bear witness to that inescapable Truth. Notice the list of languages and the word “Sabbath” from around the world, as shown in the article at the Angel Fire Website.

The evidence is solid, both historically, from the Bible, and even now, in the languages of the world. We are told to remember the Sabbath Day. It is a commandment. Will you remember the Sabbath Day? This is His Day, the LORD’S Day, His Sabbath, today February 11th, 2012, not tomorrow, the first day, set aside as the venerable day of the sun god Mithra, called SUNday in his honor.

Read Isaish 56 through Isaiah 58. Pay close attention to who is blessed to be a part of the covenant because the keep the Sabbath, and notice the admonition at the end of Isaiah 58 concerning keeping the Sabbath and resulting blessing.

I pray that today you will remember His Sabbath Day, submit to it, cease from speaking your own words, going your own way, and seeking your own pleasure on the LORD’S Day, the seventh day, the Sabbath of Yahweh. Will you rest from your six day (our Sunday through Friday work week) just as He did, and rest on His set apart day (Sabbath) as He did? Read Hebrews Chapter Three and Four with this in mind. Will you remember? I pray you will.

Sabbath Peace,

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At the end of the previous installment, in the Galatians series, I said, “Circumcision and conversion to Judaism is the issue Paul is dealing with in Galatians. It is not the Christian’s declaration of independence from the Torah of Yahweh. Torah faith, believing what God said, preceded Sinai, and preceded circumcision. Torah began in Genesis, as far as mankind is concerned. But in reality Torah is eternal, being the very nature of the Creator. Paul would never have spoken disparagingly of Torah. His problem is with men who twist Torah, and because they twist Torah they twist what Paul wrote. There are two laws, as there were two trees in the garden. We must choose wisely.” Furthermore, there are two voices. Who we listen to matters immensely.

Of these two voices, one speaks the Word of the Father. He is Yeshua Messiah. The other voice is the liar from the garden. He inspires men to add to and subtract from the Word of the Father. One upholds and teaches men to walk in Torah, and one perverts Torah to draw men away from the Truth that sets them free. Keeping Torah, by grace through faith, is not bondage as some in traditional Christianity teach. The liar has done a spectacular job in deceiving people with the lie. The Truth lies 180 degrees from that lie. He keeps those who listen to his voice in bondage to lawlessness, which is sin. And we know that the wages of sin/lawlessness is death.

There are some things in following the GOD of the Bible that are not negotiable. Of them all, none is more non-negotiable than the Word of GOD. If the Word of the Father is not firm and unchangeable we have nothing that we can believe. We have a serious problem. If His Word moves, shifts, and evolves then we are left on shaky ground. A couple of passages of Scripture come to mind that we need to really consider, in light of this.

First of all, we see Yeshua’s view of the sound foundation of the Word, in Matthew Chapter Seven.

“Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thornbushes nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you;DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’  Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. “And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. “Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall. When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching; for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.” -Matthew 7:15-29

I’ve highlighted portions to show the context of what Yeshua is saying here. He is talking about “false prophets.” These false prophets are teachers, purporting to be teachers of the Word. Notice that they tell Him that they prophesied, or taught in His name, and cast out demons and performed miracles, in His name. Even though the said of themselves that they were men of His name, He tells them that they are not men of the Torah, His Word – the Word of the Father. He tells them to “depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.” He then says that those who don’t “hear these Words of mine, and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand.” We either build our house on the solid rock foundation of the Word of the Father, that Yeshua spoke, or we build on shifting sand, leaving us with a shaky foundation. The context is clear. The subject is the Torah and a picture of those who practice Torah versus those who do not practice Torah.

Notice that He says to those who do not practice Torah to depart from Him. He has never known them. The basis for Him knowing them is Torah, the Word of His Father. Remember that He said that those who do the will of His Father are His family. What is “the will of who do the will of My Father, who is in heaven?”

 “While He was still speaking to the crowds, behold, His mother and brothers were standing outside, seeking to speak to Him. Someone said to Him, ‘Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside seeking to speak to You.’ But Jesus answered the one who was telling Him and said, ‘Who is My mother and who are My brothers?’ And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, ‘Behold My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother.’” -Matthew 12:46-50

The will of the Father is clearly given in Torah, “Keep My Commandments.” Yeshua, Jesus, knows His family, not by human blood lineage, but by the knowledge that they keep the Commandments of His Father. Now we know that His mother and, at least two, of His brothers (James and Jude) came to the knowledge of GOD, but at the time that this happened, they had not, as yet.  Notice that he qualifies which father he was talking about. It wasn’t the one who raised Him from a little boy – Joseph. It was His Father, of whom He was the only begotten Son. It was His Father, who’s Word He spoke from the foundation of the world. It was His Father whom He was One with.

Now look at Hebrews Chapter Twelve.

“See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven. And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, ‘YET ONCE MORE I WILL SHAKE NOT ONLY THE EARTH, BUT ALSO THE HEAVEN.’ This expression, ’Yet once more,’ denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.” -Hebrews 12:25-27

Who is the writer talking to, and who is He talking about listening to? Well, he is talking to Hebrews who had come to the Truth of Torah; faith in Messiah Yeshua. And, therefore, the writer is speaking to us, if we have come to the Truth of Torah; faith in Messiah Yeshua. The Truth is the Torah given to Moses, by Yeshua. The Truth, from the mouth of One who spoke it, the Voice of Yahweh, Yeshua, cannot be shaken. It didn’t come from the mouth of one created by the Creator. It came from the mouth, the Voice of the Creator Himself. He began to speak to the Truth/Torah to man in the garden. The Truth is the Word of the Father, as Yeshua tells us plainly in John Chapter 17.

“I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. Now they have come to know that everything You have given Me is from You; for the words which You gave Me I have given to them; and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me. I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours; and all things that are Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine; and I have been glorified in them. I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are. While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled. 
But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves. I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.” -John 17:6-19

Notice that Yeshua/Jesus “manifested Your name.” Yah is Salvation. That is what Yeshua means. And these that belong to the Father, that He gave to Yeshua; they kept the Word of the Father. Notice that the Words that Yeshua, the Voice of Yahweh (the LORD) gave those men, and that they received/believed/faith was the Word of the Father. That would be Torah. These men belong to the Father, who gave them to Yeshua, who says they belong to both He and His Father. Remember, they are One GOD. The world hates these men of God because they received and believed the Word of the Father/Torah that Yeshua, the Voice of Yahweh, gave them. He then prays to the Father for them, and us too, if we have believed and received the Word of the Father, that the Father would sanctify them, and us, by His Truth. He qualifies that by saying “Your Word is Truth.” David tells us that the Truth is Torah, in Psalm 119:142.

Paul tells Timothy, in 2nd Timothy Chapter Three, that the Holy Scriptures that Timothy was taught from the time he was a child was able to save him and make him complete for every good work. The Holy Scriptures are Torah and the Prophets, the Psalms and the historical books of what is mistakenly called the “Old Testament.” The Word of God, the Torah is not negotiable. It is the foundation of faith.

Faith is believing what God said, and doing it. Just as Yeshua said in Matthew Seven, where we read “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. “And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock.”

Paul did not believe that the Word of the Father, the Truth of Torah was, or is negotiable. He recognized that it is the foundation of faith, when he wrote in Romans 10:17, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” The Word of Messiah, as we’ve already seen contextually, in Scripture, is the Word of His Father. It is Torah that He spoke to Moses, and the other prophets, and came speaking Himself. Torah, again, is the Instruction of a loving Creator, given to His creation that they might do what He says and be blessed. It is simple. We’ve made it hard.

Now, to revisit, briefly, our last post in Galatians Chapter Three.

“Brethren, I speak in terms of human relations: even though it is only a man’s covenant, yet when it has been ratified, no one sets it aside or adds conditions to it. Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as referring to many, but rather to one, “And to your seed,” that is, Christ. What I am saying is this: the Law, which came four hundred and thirty years later, does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise. For if the inheritance is based on law, it is no longer based on a promise; but God has granted it to Abraham by means of a promise.” -Galatians 3:15-18

The Law that came 430 years later did not invalidate what God said to Abraham What God said to Abraham was Torah. It was His Instruction. The law that came 430 years later, given by Yahweh, was twisted by men to say something it didn’t say. That is the voice of men, under the inspiration of the liar from the garden. The Law that came 430 years later isn’t talking about Torah as a whole, being given for the first time. Torah is from the beginning. Clean and unclean animals were known all along. Cain and Abel knew what an acceptable sacrifice was, otherwise Cain could not have been held accountable for not doing it as Yahweh gave it. Genesis 26:5 tells us that Abraham kept the Commandments of Torah.  The word translated as “law” in Genesis Chapter Twenty Six is literally Torah.

Notice Exodus Chapter Sixteen, referencing Torah and Sabbath, prior to the speaking of Torah from the mountain and it being written on stone by the finger of God.  First of all, we see that Torah is the thing that the LORD is testing them about. The word “Instruction, in Exodus Chapter Sixteen, is literally “Torah.”

“Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether or not they will walk in My instruction.” -Exodus 16:4

And, likewise, in the following portion of Exodus Chapter Sixteen, the word “Instruction” is literally Torah. And we also see the Sabbath being the Torah/Instruction Commandment that is central in determining the heart of the people.

“Now on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one. When all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses, then he said to them, ‘This is what the LORD meant: Tomorrow is a sabbath observance, a holy sabbath to the LORD. Bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over put aside to be kept until morning.’ So they put it aside until morning, as Moses had ordered, and it did not become foul nor was there any worm in it. Moses said, ‘Eat it today, for today is a sabbath to the LORD; today you will not find it in the field. Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, the sabbath, there will be none.’ It came about on the seventh day that some of the people went out to gather, but they found none. Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My instructions? See, the LORD has given you the sabbath; therefore He gives you bread for two days on the sixth day. Remain every man in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.’ So the people rested on the seventh day.” -Exodus 16:22-30

That the Torah/Instruction of Yahweh, preceded Sinai is clear. He didn’t change His mind, or His Word, from the beginning, and add to or subtract from what He said at creation. That’s why He set apart the Sabbath Day, the seventh day, after His six days of work/creation. It’s why He says remember it. Its why Moses and the people knew about it enough that the LORD could hold them accountable for it.

When Paul says, “the Law which came 430 years later,” he is not talking about the Torah in its entirety. He is talking about the specific application of circumcision of the flesh. It was in context with those who came out of Egypt, to eat the Passover meal in commemoration of that event. It foreshadowed – looked forward to the Passover Lamb of Yahweh, Yeshua Messiah, who came to take away the sin/lawlessness of the world. In order to sit down and eat the lamb that was prepared, as Instructed in Torah, the gentile had to be circumcised. But that did not invalidate the covenant made with Abraham, who was a gentile, before he became circumcised. Faith is the key, with circumcision of the heart the goal. Abraham received the circumcision of the heart, made with the hand of God, not in the flesh by the hands of men. Therefore, as Paul writes, the children of Abraham are those who have faith, as Abraham did, apart from being circumcised.

The Passover foreshadowed the coming Passover Lamb of Yahweh, Messiah. Until He came the lamb was slaughtered each year, hopefully as Instructed. Each year, if they truly kept the Appointed Time – the Feast of Passover, along with the other Feasts – Appointed Times of Yahweh, He would reveal Himself, and His plan, layer by layer, to them. And finally He came! And when He fulfilled His mission, as the Passover Lamb of Yahweh, there was no longer a reason to continue to slaughter a lamb and eat the Passover as had been done for centuries, while the people were awaiting His arrival. He had/has fulfilled the Passover. In Him, since we don’t eat of that shadow, we now eat of His Body. We do it by faith, believing Him. There is no need or requirement to be circumcised to eat of the Passover Lamb of Yahweh, who is the One that pattern was taken from on the mountain.

But Israel misapplied the Law of Circumcision. Believing that access to the covenant that Yahweh made with Abraham was through them, the children of Jacob, and therefore Abraham, they blindly began to teach that gentiles could not have access as long as they were identified as of any other nation than Israel. They were of the nations, literally the meaning of the word “gentiles.” Circumcision isn’t the requirement for being a child of Abraham. Faith is. Now that the object of the faith/belief has come, and fulfilled the Passover, we no longer eat of the roasted lamb and bitter herbs. We now keep Passover in memorial of what He did.

Just as Israel was told to keep the Passover in memorial of their freedom, through the Passover, from Egypt, we now keep the Passover in remembrance of Yeshua’s death; through His shed blood, applied to the doorposts of our heart, we’ve been set free from sin/lawlessness.

Israel was to be set free, as Moses said repeatedly to Pharaoh, that they might worship Yahweh as He Instructed. While they were enslaved to Pharaoh they were not free to do so. They couldn’t choose to obey Torah. But once set free from the shackles of a lawless power over them they could choose to worship according to Yahweh’s Torah. Some chose to obey, while many didn’t. We have the historical record of it, given as a warning to us, as Paul says in 1st Corinthians 10.

Just as Israel was set free from a lawless despotic king who held them in cruel bondage, so we, if we have accepted Yeshua as the Passover Lamb of Yahweh who died to set us free, are free from the bondage to lawlessness and lies, that are spoken to us by the liar from the beginning. We are free to worship Yahweh, in Messiah, by grace through faith, keeping His Instruction. We are set free to no longer live lawlessly. Therefore, if we submit, in the last day, when we stand before Him we will hear “well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter in” rather than “depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.”

Paul is contrasting the Torah of Yahweh, rightly applied in context, with the Torah, PLUS the additions and subtraction of the elders of Judaism. The Torah of Yahweh brings life. The commandments and doctrines of men, under the inspiration of the devil, brings death, because they and their doctrine are lawless/sin. And the wages of lawlessness is death.

Peace,

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