Is Sinai Sufficient?

All the children of Abraham acknowledge Abraham’s God. But under this patriarchal unity lie deep filial fissures as defined by these three negatives: the Jews believe that Jesus is NOT the Messiah, the Muslims believe that the Jews are NOT chosen, and the Christians believe that Sinai is NOT sufficient. The family of Abraham will be united in the world to come when all three negatives are negated.Christians believe that Jesus is the Messiah and — most of them today I’d say — believe that the Jews are somehow chosen. So let’s take a moment and look into that third negative — can it be turned into a positive? Can we affirm with Maimonides (cited from the ArtScroll Stone Edition Torah):“I believe with complete faith that the entire Torah now in our hands is the same one that was given to Moses, our teacher, peace be upon him.”“I believe with complete faith that this Torah will not be exchanged, nor will there be another Torah from the Creator, Blessed is His Name.”The Husband at Sinai was GodWe in the Worldwide Church of God once thought that the God at Sinai was really the Word that was later made flesh in the person of Jesus Christ. This, of course, equated the God of Judaism with Jesus. An intriguing irony indeed, but alas! it was not to be. We hadn’t noticed how Peter at Pentecost preached (Acts 3:13), "The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus ..."OK, the God of the patriarchs was not incarnated in Christ. But then what about the God of Moses? Well, God appeared to Moses with these words (Ex 3:6): “I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God.”Moses’ God — and hence the God of the Covenant — was the same God Peter refers to in (Acts 3:13). There he had become — not a Son — but rather the Father of Jesus Christ.A second point to be made is this: When we break the Covenant — meaning the Ten Commandments (Ex 34:28; Dt 4:13) — whose law do we break? To whom do we need to be reconciled?To Jesus?No! As it says (Rm 5:10), “we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son”.And then a third point to be made involves the Fatherhood of God. God becomes our Father through his Covenant which is pictured as a marriage — (Is 54:5) “For thy Maker is thine husband” — (Jer 3:14) “for I am married unto you”.Nowhere — that I know of (better add that) — is there any TaNaKh reference that would lead one to think that this sonship precedes the anointing of the king. The Trinitarians say that the Father eternally generates the Son. This, however, is a fourth century Christian doctrine found nowhere in the Jewish Scriptures.And because we know that God was not married to Mary, we therefore know that being born to her did not make Jesus a Son of God — other than the fact that in one sense all men are sons of God (Lk 3:38).Rather, the New Testament invokes scriptures that make the King in Jerusalem God’s son. Hebrews (Hb 1;5) — "Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee" — for example, is a quote from Psalms 2. In context it reads (Ps 2:6-7): “Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.” Also cited as evidence of Jesus' sonship is (Hb 1:5) — “I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son". This is from 2 Samuel where it refers to Solomon (2Sm 7:13-15): “He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men: But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee.”So how is it that the King of Israel is a son of God? It is via God’s marriage covenant at Sinai. It is because — spiritually speaking — God became a Father to Israel. He is the Source of the whole Israelite inheritance. Thus God is not just a father to Judah’s scepter, he is also a Father to Ephraim's birthright (Jer 31:9): “for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.”A Covenant of LifeChristians generally assume that there was no promise of eternal life in the Sinai Covenant, that all its blessings were physical, and that for eternal life we must turn to another source. I have believed this and even mouthed it to others. Now, finally, I know that I have been very wrong.Repeatedly God refers to his commandments (Lev 18:5; Dt 4:1; Ezek 20:11; Ezek 20:13; Ezek 20:21; Neh 9:29) which if a man do, he shall live in them”. The greatest of God's commandments, as the rabbis say, is (Dt 30:19), “Choose life!” — a command the ACLU is determined not to allow on Florida license plates.Down with the secularists! Let him that is a Jew inwardly toast the Covenant — לחים “LeChayyim!”When Paul cites this promise of life — (Gal 3:12) "And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them" — does he mean to negate this promise? Not at all! He simply says that keeping the law — though it indeed brings life — it cannot annul the curse of past disobedience. For that we need the blood of the Lamb.But the blood of the Lamb was implicit in the Covenant from the very beginning. For did not Israel kill the Passover lamb before her deliverance from Egypt? In so doing she was accepting expiation from past sins by the blood (Rv 13:8) “of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” Indeed (1Cor 5:7), “For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us”.But it is not the blood that saves us! As it written (Rm 5:10), “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.” And as John further clarifies (Jn 1:4), “In him was life; and the life was the light of men.” The light is the truth of God which makes us free (Jn 8:32). It is tied up with obedience to God's law (Jn 3:21): “But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.”Jesus set the perfect example of keeping his Father's Law (1Pet 2:21-22): “For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: Who did no sin ...”But it is not just Jesus' example of obedience. When he says (Jn 6:63), “It is the spirit that quickeneth”, he means that it is the spirit that will bring us up out of the grave. And what is the spirit? Jesus explains (same verse), “the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” And where did Jesus get those “words of eternal life” (Jn 6:68)? Jesus makes it all so astonishingly clear (Jn 12:49-50): “For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.”When Jesus says, “And I know that his commandment is life everlasting” — is he not echoing the promise of the Covenant — “which if a man do, he shall live in them”?Before he died for the sins of the world Jesus prayed (Jn 17:3), “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” But lest we think this only emotional fluff — John clarifies (1Jn 2:3-4): “And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”Earlier Jesus had told the hypocrites in the ministry of his day (Jn 8:55), “Yet ye have not known him; but I know him: and if I should say, I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you: but I know him, and keep his saying.”Now the Torah — that most profound Book on all life and death matters — seems strangely silent on life after death.So where did Jesus find the resurrection mentioned in the Torah? Here’s where (Mt 22:31-33): “But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at his doctrine.”I too am astonished.Jesus cites the beginning of God’s revelation to Moses (Ex 3:6)! Let us recall also that the Ten Commandments begin with (Ex 20:2), “I am the LORD thy God ...” By Jesus’ reasoning this implies a resurrection -- for He that made himself Israel’s God “is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”The promise of the resurrection is right there in the Ten Commandments!And the promise of eternal life — keeping the commandments “which if a man do, he shall live in them”.Did not Jesus on another occasion say (Mt 19:17), “but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments”?A New CovenantJesus told Nicodemus (Jn 3:3), “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” [1Cor 15:50) puts this in the context of the resurrection — “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.”] And Paul speaks of a spiritual Mother (Gal 4:26), “But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.”We have physical fathers and mothers which give us physical life. What Jesus says is that there is also a Father and Mother “in heaven” to give us spiritual life.The spiritual birth is real and therefore necessitates a resurrection from the dead. Jesus was (Col 1:18) “the firstborn from the dead", and also (Rm 8:29) "the firstborn among many brethren.”Physical birth does not give us eternal life. We must be born again. The Covenant — called “a new covenant” in (Jer 31:31-33) — necessitates eternal life:“Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.”God “will be their God”? Remember that God is not the God of the dead but of the living.“Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake,” recalls (Hb 8:7-8) -- “For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. For finding fault with them, he saith ...” There was nothing wrong with God's Covenant and therefore "a new covenant" is the very same Covenant — it is simply that most of Israel has yet to taste of the fruits of that Covenant. It is the spiritual side of God's Covenant which bears the fruit of eternal life.The New Covenant has the same God as at Sinai — nothing “new” there. And it is made with the exact same people (Jer 31:31; Hb 8:8): "with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah".And the requirement that the law be written in our heart is exactly the same as at Sinai!The terms of the Covenant were very simple (Ex 19:4-6): "Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation."There was no mention of sacrifices — other than the Passover lamb — just as God later explained through Jeremiah — the Jeremiah of New Covenant fame — (Jer 7:22-23) "For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices: But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you."And remember — God is not the God of the dead but of the living.Let's just look at a small sampling of scriptures which show that the "New Covenant" intent of the Law is quite explicit in the Torah."Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.” (Dt 6:4-7)“Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him. Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.” (Lev 19:17-18) “Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the LORD he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else. Thou shalt keep therefore his statutes, and his commandments, which I command thee this day, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days upon the earth, which the LORD thy God giveth thee, for ever.” (Dt 4:39-40) "O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever!" (Dt 5:29) Another place the intent of Sinai is everywhere explicit is the songbook of Israel — no wonder the antinomians hate it so! A very few examples:"But I have trusted in thy mercy; my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation." (Ps 13:5) "Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart." (Ps 15:1-2) "The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein for ever. The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, and his tongue talketh of judgment. The law of his God is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide." (Ps 37:29-31) "Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart." (Ps 40:6-8) "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me." (Ps 51:10)So God in his mercy provides former and latter aspects to his Covenant. There were the few saved over the millennia with a partial roster provided in Hebrews 11 and a reward awaiting them in the first resurrection (Rv 20:5-6): "This is the first resurrection. ... they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years." But God is the God of them all (Rm 11:26-27), "And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins." (Is 59:20-21; Ps 14:7)And so the masses await a second resurrection (Rv 20:5): "But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. " But this is a positive thing, as Paul explains (Rm 11:32), "For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all."The latter aspect of God's Eternal Covenant is pictured in the Valley of Dry Bones of Ezekiel's vision (Ezek 37:11-14), "Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts. Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD."What is called "a new covenant" in Jeremiah is called "a new heavens and a new earth" in Isaiah (Is 65:17-18): "For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy." And again (Is 66:22-23): "For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the LORD."This imagery is picked up in the book of Revelation where it is plain that the Sinai Covenant is being opened to everyone (Rv 21:1-5):"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea [unruly nations]. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful."The imagery of heaven and earth? Let God explain (Is 66:1): "The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool".How is the Covenant New?The Covenant is perpetually new because (Is 9:7), "Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end". It is new because most of humanity has yet to (Rm 6:4) "walk in newness of life." It is new because once we have been delivered from the penalty for breaking the Covenant (Rm 7:6), "we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter." Here I can't resist including the next verse — "What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet." Interesting. The tenth commandment can be kept only in the heart — what it says is: "Now keep all the other nine in your heart".We keep the Sabbath for two reasons — one creational and one covenantal. We keep the Sabbath because (Ex 20:11) "six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it." In Exodus it says, "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy." In Deuteronomy it says, "Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it ... And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the LORD thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day."The primary creation described in the Bible is the Covenant which births the Kingdom of God. We see this in the haftarah or prophetic reading that accompanies the first parashah or Torah reading — read the first Sabbath following the Feast of Tabernacles — (Is 42:5-9) "Thus saith God the LORD, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein: I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles; To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house. I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images. Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them."The Sabbath memorializes all God's work of his great cosmic week — and not by forgetting his eternal Covenant established on the third day of that week.With God greater things are always ahead. But as God proves all things, he always holds fast to that which is good (1Thess 5:21; Gn 1:31). We must keep that in mind when we read (Is 65:17), "For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind." And (Jer 23:7-8), "Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that they shall no more say, The LORD liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; But, The LORD liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land." "And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new." (Rv 21:5)A Family — Not a TrinityIn the beginning God was the Father (Lk 3:38; "Adam, which was the son of God") and the dust of the ground was the mother (Gn 2:7; "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground"), and the son's wife was made from a wound in his side (Gn 2:22), "And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man."The Father instructed the couple (Gn 1:28), "Be fruitful, and multiply, and [fill] the earth". And so it is written (Gn 4:1-2), "And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain , and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD. And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground." Before dawn there is night, before spring there is winter, and so it is written (Gn 4:8), "And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him."Spiritually speaking (Mt 13:38), "The field is the world", and the ground that would receive seed sown by Adam was the human heart (Mt 13:19; "that which was sown in his heart"). Thus to Adam God had said (Gn 3:17-18), "Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee". And to Cain he says (Gn 4:11-12), "And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand; When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth."How do we expiate sin? It is through (Rv 13:8) "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." Therefore the inadequacy of Cain's offering (Gn 4:3): "And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD." The fruit of the ground or human heart — even if it be "the fruit of the Spirit" which is God's Law (Gal 5:22-23) — cannot forgive past sin. And thus the adequacy of Abel's sacrifice which symbolized his acceptance of Christ's blood (Gn 4:4): "And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering".Adam and Eve sinned (Gn 3:7), "And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons." Again symbolic of a very inadequate response. And so the LORD God pictured for them his own death — as would Abel's offering — (Gn 3:21) "Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them."Thus is the story of the foundation of the world at the beginning of the first millennium.Then at the beginning of the third millennium — the millennium of the Covenant — God repeats the pattern as he proceeds to build his footstool. Abraham is the father and Sarah is the mother and Isaac is the second Adam whom Abraham — like God — proves willing to sacrifice. Rebekah is Eve who is brought to Isaac as Eve was to Adam, and in her children there is d骠 vu with Cain and Abel (Gn 25:23): "And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger."Just like Cain some two thousand years earlier, Esau would seek to kill his brother.When Abraham proved willing to sacrifice his son, God swore in regard to that son (Gn 22:18), "And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice." This is the promise of salvation. Peter preached it on Pentecost (Acts 3:25-26), "Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities." Paul argued it in Galatians (Gal 3:7-8), "Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed."But Christians confuse Paul's arguments, such as what follows here in (Gal 3:16-19): "Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed [Isaac], which is Christ. And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise. Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator."Is Paul talking about the Sinai Covenant? Absolutely not! else he is contradicting Scripture. The Law was not added because of transgressions. It was given for LIFE -- leChayyim! And the law was not "ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator." There was no mediator, as we have seen , only the hand of God -- the very finger of God. Though "all scripture is given by inspiration of God," all was written by the hand of man, all, that is, except for the Ten Commendments. These alone were (Ex 31:18; Dt 9:10) "written with the finger of God."As Henry Hyde put it to Congress during the Impeachment hearings — speaking of our priceless heritage of "the rule of law" and invoking Sinai —"Israel found her freedom in law."Alan Keyes likes to quote the American Declaration of Independence — "We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights ..." All our rights come from God, Keyes says, there is no other foundation that can provide them. What are those rights? The right not to be murdered, the right not to have your wife violated, the right to private property (not to have it stolen), the right not to be lied to. These rights were endowed by our Creator at Sinai.But at the very moment that God was writing the words of life upon tables of stone (Ex 32:6), "the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play."The Law that was AddedIN NO WAY were the Ten Commandments "added" because of this transgression. When the Creator had finished endowing us with our unalienable rights, Moses was warned of what was going on down below (Ex 32:15-16) — "And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand: the tables were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other were they written. And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables." Verse 19 (Ex 32:19): "And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount."Israel was breaking them in spirit, Moses broke them in stone.Though Aaron was the chief sinner (sounding like Jesse Jackson here) the Levites came out the winner. Reading on (Ex 32:25-26): "And when Moses saw that the people were naked; (for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies:) Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the LORD's side? let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him."It was because of this that Levi was chosen for a special priesthood which was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.Moses pleaded for Israel (Ex 32:32), "Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin—; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written." God answered (Ex 32:33-34), "Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book. Therefore now go, lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee: behold, mine Angel shall go before thee: nevertheless in the day when I visit I will visit their sin upon them."Here finally we have a mediator — Moses — and there is an angel. You can look up all the relevant scriptures and you will see that the priesthood of Aaron was indeed "added because of transgressions". Though it is added forever (Jer 33:18-22), its sacrificial laws can only mirror the real blood that reconciles us to God.Paul asks and answers (Gal 3:21), "Is the law [the one that was added] then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law." Because righteousness indeed is "by the law" — as we see in many scriptures Old and New Testament (Ps 119:142; Ps 119:172; Is 51:7; Rm 2:26; Rm 8:4; Rm 9:31-32; Rm 10:3-5; etc.) — Paul has to mean that no law — sacrificial or otherwise — can atone for having broken the law. We read elsewhere (Hb 10:4), "For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins."The New Covenant is not a new covenant between us and Jesus — as the Old was between Israel and God. Rather Jesus' role is as Passover Lamb (1Cor 5:7) and Mediator of the one and only Covenant of Life that God has never rescinded (Hb 9:13-15): "For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works [breaking God's law] to serve the living God [meaning keep his law]? And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance."When Paul speaks of (Ep 3:14-15) "the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named," one recalls Genesis and the five things God named (Day, Night, Heaven, Earth, and Seas) — the five symbolic pillars of authority that God the Father reserves solely to himself — and all the creatures that Adam named ("and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof") and the woman that was made from the wound in his side ("she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man"). Jesus prayed (Jn 17:7), "And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are."God is a Family and his family is One.The Tree of Life is TorahIt was on the third day of creation — thus fortelling events of the millennium of the Covenant — that the earth first brought forth (Gn 1:11): "And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so." Among the trees were those made famous in HWA's last days (Gn 2:9): "And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil."The forbidden fruit is the fruit of antinomianism — of deciding for oneself what is good and what is evil — meaning the fruits of the flesh in Galatians 5. That prerogative — dividing between light and darkness — belongs only to God — not even to Jesus — and therefore it was God — not Adam — who (Gn 1:5) "called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night."This is the first act of creation described in the Bible.Another thing: Though the Law must be written in our hearts, it must enter our consciousness openly, publically, verbally — this is what wise men call "the rule of law". As Thomas Sowell so eloquently argues, the law must be made known publically BEFORE the fact — else we have the arbitrary rule of despots or the "private interpretation" (2Pet 1:20) of anarchists. When it says, "and God divided the light from the darkness", it is not referring to any mystical experience or so-called enlightenment of the pagans, but rather it is telling us that God makes his will as public as the light of Day, as when he thundered from Sinai, as when he sent his Son and backed it up with miracles "which none other man did", as when Jesus then commissioned his apostles to preach the Gospel to the nations with the promise of "greater works than these".But lest I be misunderstood: This is not to say that God never speaks through private visions and dreams, but rather that this is NOT how God reveals his Law and Gospel.Jesus said (Mt 5:16), "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." Well, what about our heavenly Father? Does he let his light shine through his law? Does he make his will public before the fact? or is it after the fact and subjective and situational and feelings based — as today's secularists would have it? Note that it is in the very next verse that Jesus says, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil."God found David (Acts 13:22) "a man after mine own heart" — what was in David's heart? In his longest composition he wrote (Ps 119:44), "So shall I keep thy law continually for ever and ever."When we have God's public revelation — as today we have it in Scripture — we internalize it through (1Cor 1:21) "the foolishness of preaching" of those apostles and prophets whose motto is (Is 8:20): "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them."John says that (1Jn 1:5) "God is light", which David amplifies as (Ps 118:27), "God is the LORD, which hath shewed us light", and the Proverb clarifies with (Pr 6:23), "For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life".Psalms 117 is the shortest chapter in the Bible. The rabbis say "that its brevity symbolizes the simplicity of the world order which will prevail after the advent of the Messiah." (ArtScroll Psalms) Note that word "truth" [with (Jn 17:17) in mind]: "O praise the LORD, all ye nations: praise him, all ye people. For his merciful kindness is great toward us: and the truth of the LORD endureth for ever. Praise ye the LORD." (Ps 117:1-2)Jesus said (Jn 8:32), "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." When everyone knows the law beforehand and does it — that's the rule of law — it frees us from the tyranny of despots and from the fruits of our own perversity.Such freedom was the intent of the Covenant (Ex 19:6): “And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.” Luther's (was it Luther's?) “priesthood of all believers” is possible only in the context of God's Covenant Law — not Luther's faith alone. When the law is finally written in our hearts, only then will (Jer 31:34) come to pass: “And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”When he says “for they shall all know me” — he's talking about an in advance public understanding — not the private, subjective feelings that ebb and flow as capriciously as the waves of the sea.This goal (or end) of the law is beautifully expressed in Ephesians 4. I'm tempted to quote the whole passage, but won't. Paul says not that the law is temporary, but rather that our hierarchy of teachers — those who sit in Moses' seat — will continue (Ep 4:13) “Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ”. Here Paul also touches on the idea of creation and newness that are implicit in the Covenant (Ep 4:23-24): “And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”But Adam and Eve chose antinomianism (Gn 3:22-24), “And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.”In her time Israel made the same choice, and she too was exiled from the land. Nor is the Church immune, as Paul warned the Ephesian elders (Acts 20:28-30): “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.” It is even prophesied again for the end of the age (2Thess 2:3): “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first”.Mr. Armstrong used to say that the tree of life was no less a tree of knowledge. She is Wisdom as personified in Proverbs (Pr 3:18), “She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her.”The tree of life was there in the Garden at the beginning — it was available to the Church in the 1st millennium (Rv 2:7): “To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.” And it is still there at the end of the story (Rv 22:2): “In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”When Paul speaks of “the fruit of the Spirit”, he does not mean that love, joy, peace, etc., ARE the spirit. Rather they are its fruit. People get this backwards. They think we just work up love and that that is the spirit. No, first we hear the word — the seed must be sown — and then it bears fruit in our lives. Jesus said (Jn 6:63), “the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” Paul understands (Gal 5:14): “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”That the Law is fulfilled in love is the same as saying that love is the fruit of the spirit. It is the same as saying that the tree of life bears the fruit of life.Now when the Second Adam comes to preside over his kingdom, he does not institute another Torah — as Maimonides understood. Rather God instructs him and all in his realm to partake of that bread of life which God planted in the 3rd millennium (Gn 1:29-31), “And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.”But some will quote John 6 where Jesus told his antagonists (Jn 6:32), “Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.” That, of course, is true. Moses did not give them the Torah — the Father did — as we saw earlier.Then Jesus continues (Jn 6:35), “I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.” This too is pure Torah (Dt 18:15-19): "The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken; According to all that thou desiredst of the LORD thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not. And the LORD said unto me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken. I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.”Yes, the fundamental Bible truths are beautiful and — when you understand them — far simpler than the heresies that obscure them. Nevertheless the Bible is a coded book, and parts of it are quite difficult to understand (2Pet 3:15-16). And great intelligence and vast education and mastery in this world are no guarantee to understanding. In fact they seem to guarantee just the opposite. Jesus prayed (Mt 11:25), “I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.” And to Nicodemus he marveled (Jn 3:10),“Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?” God says (Is 5:21), “Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!”When we’re weary of wisdom we sometimes quote Paul (1Cor 2:2): “For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” But is this not in accord with the Jerusalem council where James declared (Acts 15:21), “For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day”? Against this Torah backdrop Paul simply had nothing to add except “Jesus Christ, and him crucified”. But Jesus Christ and him crucified, let us agree, is no small subject. And it is one which is meaningless apart from God’s Covenant of Life.לחיםLeChayyim!28 Aug 2000

Email the author