CONTROVERSY TIME PART THREE – The Foundational Reason The Jews as a People Including Messianic Jews Should Obey Torah In some naïve areas of Christian consensus people imagine that Jews obey Torah because they believe that this will save them. However, a simple conversation with the average religious Jew, or reading in books by religious Jews will demonstrate this to be a fantasy. And which of us has not heard the proposition that Judaism is a religion of law and Christianity a religion of grace, with Judaism being pictured as Mount Sinai covered in thunderbolts, and Christianity, the grace of Jesus dying on the cross. People forget, or never seem to get, that it was on that very same Mount Sinai that God revealed himself as “the LORD, the LORD, merciful and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.” What does the Bible say about why Jews should obey Torah, and does this have anything to say to Messianic Jews today? The answer to both question is “Very much indeed.” Scripture tells a story in the life of Jeremiah that makes clear something that I never hear anyone speak of except me. It is time to change that. In Jeremiah 35, Jerusalem is under siege by the forces of Babylon. People from the surrounding countryside have come into the city for protection from Nebuchadnezzar and his armies, and things have gotten quite bad. Among the people who have come into the city are a group called the Rechabites, a nomadic group. What the text says about their encounter with the Prophet Jeremiah tells us something that most people miss about why Jews should, as a people and not just individually, obey Torah. God tells Jeremiah to bring the Rechabites into one of the chambers of the Temple area and offer them wine to drink. Here is what happens. Then I set before the Rechabites pitchers full of wine, and cups, and I said to them, “Drink wine.” But they answered, “We will drink no wine, for Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father [probably, ancestor], commanded us, ‘You shall not drink wine, neither you nor your sons forever. You shall not build a house; you shall not sow seed; you shall not plant or have a vineyard; but you shall live in tents all your days, that you may live many days in the land where you sojourn.’ We have obeyed the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, in all that he commanded us, to drink no wine all our days, ourselves, our wives, our sons, or our daughters, and not to build houses to dwell in. We have no vineyard or field or seed, but we have lived in tents and have obeyed and done all that Jonadab our father commanded us. But when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against the land, we said, ‘Come, and let us go to Jerusalem for fear of the army of the Chaldeans and the army of the Syrians.’ So we are living in Jerusalem.” Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Go and say to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Will you not receive instruction and listen to my words? declares the Lord. The command that Jonadab the son of Rechab gave to his sons, to drink no wine, has been kept, and they drink none to this day, for they have obeyed their father’s command. I have spoken to you persistently, but you have not listened to me. . . . you did not incline your ear or listen to me. The sons of Jonadab the son of Rechab have kept the command that their father gave them, but this people has not obeyed me. What point is the Holy One Blessed be He making here? Just this: that the Jewish people have failed to show to Him the honor and respect due him. While the Rechabites show honor to their father Jonadab by obeying his rulings, the people of Israel dishonor God by not obeying his Torah. And THAT is the reason we should as a people, and as a movement, be far more concerned with Torah living than we are, infinitely more—because we as a people honor God when we obey Torah, and we dishonors him when we do not. For a longer version of this post, with much further documentation see interfaithfulness.org/?p=508
Posted on: Tue, 29 Oct 2013 01:20:41 +0000
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