It never ceases to amaze me that when I actually have a “Shabbat Reflection” written or at least know what I want to write that God changes it!
I had been studying this week about “leaven” and how Jesus used it in a positive manner of teaching--as well as a negative. However, as I was studying the Bible I got reading in Matthew, where Jesus gives the Parable of the House built on a firm foundation and one on sand.
Have you ever really studied that question in light of Jesus’ other teachings? Just prior to telling this story, Jesus tells us that He had not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill, complete it (Matthew 5:17). Then He tells His disciples that you can’t judge others, and about the fruit in others lives.
So let me tell you how God spoke to me through Matthew 7:21-27. I love how “The Message” paraphrases this scripture:
21-23 "Knowing the correct password—saying 'Master, Master,' for instance— isn't going to get you anywhere with me. What is required is serious obedience—doing what my Father wills. I can see it now—at the Final Judgment thousands strutting up to me and saying, 'Master, we preached the Message, we bashed the demons, our God-sponsored projects had everyone talking.' And do you know what I am going to say? 'You missed the boat. All you did was use me to make yourselves important. You don't impress me one bit. You're out of here.'
24-25 "These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit—but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock.
26-27 "But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don't work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach. When a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards."
Basically what Jesus is saying here is that “Yeah, you can know the right things to say, and you can know the right way to walk, but if you aren’t doing these things...what good are you doing?”
So what is the firm foundation? Personally I have found it in obedience to God’s word as exemplified by Jesus. He not only fulfilled the Torah, but He also FOLLOWED the Torah. Not only was Jesus loved by people He UNCONDITIONALLY loved others. He didn’t condemn their beliefs, He didn’t give them a rock upon which to stumble. Rather He liberated them!
I have chosen to follow Torah, but not because I believe it will lead to salvation (I am already a Child of God through my acceptance of Jesus Christ) rather I follow the Torah, because it provides me protection in my life.
According to Ariel and D’vorah Berkowitz in their book Torah Rediscovered “The mishpatim, mitzvot, chukim, and torot function as a protective border for the people of God.” Also pointed out is that the “Torah tells us the truth and describes the difference between holy and unholy, between clean and unclean, between life and death, it is, therefore, a protection for us and a written revelation of the grace of God. Every man, woman, or child who chooses not to live within the teachings of God, which produce life, is consigned to a place outside of the blessing and protection that these teachings establish. (Remember Deuteronomy 30:19-20.)”
Okay so following the Torah produces a firm foundation in our lives. Then when we get saved, we have a foundation on which to build, but it doesn’t mean that we don’t take care of that foundation. Do we not take care of the foundations that our homes are built on? Then we must take care of the foundation that our faith is built upon. We do this through study of both the Tanakh and the Brit Hadasah (Old and New Testaments).
I know what you all are thinking, didn’t Paul tell the Galatians that law and grace cannot co-exist? Yes, however, he was talking about the legalistic form of Torah observance. During this time gentile believers were being faced with the demand the "Judaizers", those Jewish Believers from Jerusalem who wish to compel the Gentile converts to Christianity to follow the Law of Moses as they do.
Paul told them, in Galatians 5:1-6:
For freedom did Christ set us free: stand fast therefore, and be not entangled again in a yoke of bondage. Behold, I Paul say unto you, that, if ye receive circumcision, Christ will profit you nothing. Yea, I testify again to every man that receiveth circumcision, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Ye are severed from Christ, ye would be justified by the law; ye are fallen away from grace. For we through the Spirit by faith wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith working through love.
I, myself, do not see anywhere that Paul tells them NOT to follow the Torah, rather he’s telling them aside from Christ there is no means of salvation. Your obedience, no matter how great, can ever save you from certain death--however there is a way to be saved. That is through belief in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Paul in Colossians 2:16-23:
Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a feast day or a new moon or a sabbath day: which are a shadow of the things to come; but the body is Christ's. Let no man rob you of your prize by a voluntary humility and worshipping of the angels, dwelling in the things which he hath seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast the Head, from whom all the body, being supplied and knit together through the joints and bands, increasing with the increase of God. If ye died with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, do ye subject yourselves to ordinances, "Handle not, nor taste, nor touch,"
(all which things are to perish with the using), after the precepts and doctrines of men? Which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will-worship, and humility, and severity to the body; but are not of any value against the indulgence of the flesh.
We are told here that NO MAN can judge us because we choose to respect a certain feast day or a Sabbath, because the BODY belongs to Christ. And we are also told that no man can rob us of a prize for our voluntary humility in obedience to Christ’s word.
So no more will I let someone’s unjust reasoning about my obedience to what God has placed in my heart bother me, no longer will I let someone say “Rachel, you only have the letter of the law...you need more (which translate, you don’t have the Spirit of God in your life) hinder me from obedience to what God has placed in my heart.
I will continue to take care of my FIRM FOUNDATION through obedience of God’s word...all of it, not just what I pick and choose, and through the following of the example of Jesus Christ.
I encourage all of you to do the same!
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