Bechuqotay (In My Statutes)
Vayiqra (Lev) 26:3 – 27:34
YirmeYahu (Jeremiah) 16:19 – 17:14
Yochanan (John) 14:15-21, 15:10-12
Back in the days of horse and buggy, our ancestors went one-stop shopping at the old general stores. Those old superstores had all the necessities of life. No cheap plastic disposable items – goods were durable. Tools were made to hold up to hard work. Foods were wholesome and were stored in bulk without the glittery packaging. Nobody checked labels for organic, gluten-free, or non-GMO. Knowing history, a health-conscience person can see that man has proven that he cannot improve on the Creator, or even on Yah’s presentations of beautiful fruits and vegetables in their raw states.
Are these not the days of the restoration of all things? The days of prophecies being fulfilled (Acts 3:21)? The days of Elijah? Even during end-times judgment falling on the nations, our God will be faithful to keep His promises to the righteous, who keep His commandments and are in relationship with Him.
Even during the great tribulation, will His covenant-keeping people ‘move out the old to make way for the new’ (Lev 26:10)?
Is Keeping the Torah the Way to be Blessed?
I’ve been told that keeping the Torah will bring you under the curse. You’re better off not keeping the Sabbath or the festivals; you can’t do them right in exile, so I’m told. Don’t even try to do them, you’ll just blow it. Now is that the deeper meaning of ‘move out the old to make way for the new’? Is that true for the New Covenant believers in Yeshua?
That’s not what the unchangeable Word of YHWH says. This Torah portion starts with a big ‘IF’ –
IF you walk in My statutes, and keep My commandments and do them... Leviticus 26:3
Then the Torah promises three common threads of blessings for His people:
- YHWH causes the land to respond with growth and abundance. The sign of this blessing is having to remove the old stored foods to make room for the new store. …You shall eat old store long kept, and you shall move out the old because of the new. Leviticus 26:10 (WEB)
- YHWH removes all threats that give cause for fear. The sign is that He always grants victory and dominance over every enemy. Be strong and be courageous. Do not be afraid or scared of them; for Yahweh your God Himself is who goes with you. He will not fail you nor forsake you.” Deuteronomy 31:6
- His Presence. YHWH dwells among His people whom He calls His own. This is His greatest blessing of all. And I will set My tabernacle among you: and My soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be My people. Leviticus 26:11-12
How can we know that we do enjoy a covenant relationship with the Father in Heaven, Who is pleased to dwell with us? How can we truly walk in the blessings of our Father?
The Little-Big Word - IF!
And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. 1 John 2:3
There’s that ‘IF’ again – IF we keep His commandments we can know that we are in an intimate relationship with Him.
The meaning of the Hebrew word ‘yadah’, to know, carries the ideas of intimacy and experience by doing. This ‘IF’ indicates we have a choice to make. As for me and my house, we will choose to know YHWH, know what He commands for us to do, and what His will is for our lives. Then with confidence, we choose to serve YHWH (Joshua 24:15)
If, for example, we do not keep the Sabbath and the festivals by doing and experiencing them, how can we know our God intimately at the appointed times He wants to visit us? How can we experience and know His plan of salvation unless we observe the mo’edim?
What ‘IF’ did our Master Yeshua teach us concerning keeping His commandments?
“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” John 14:15
Keeping His commandments is the Master’s way of demonstrating our love for our Father in Heaven. Doesn’t a good father want to bless his children, if they do what he says out of love for him? But if they break Dad’s rules, would he not discipline them, so that they would eventually choose to walk in the way of blessing, keeping his commandments?
Out with the Old, In with the New
Did Yeshua teach ‘out with the old Law of Moses and in with His new commandments’? Yeshua taught us not to even think that He was abolishing or destroying the commandments in the Torah, not one jot or tittle of them but instead came only to fill the Torah to its fullest meaning. No, do not even think the word ‘fulfill’ means to ‘abolish.’
“Think not that I am come to destroy the Law or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, ‘Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the Law, till all be fulfilled.’ ” Matthew 5:17-18
To emphasize the point that He was not doing away with even the least of the commandments in the Torah, He goes on next to instruct His disciples:
“Whosoever, therefore, shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:19
You often hear that you must ‘work out your salvation with fear and trembling,’ But is it only up to your own strong will and determination to work out the keeping of His commandments? After Paul wrote this, he qualified Who is doing the work: …for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. Philippians 2:13
Both the blessings that come with keeping His commandments, and the curses for not keeping them, are Abba’s way of working in you. Blessings and curses get our attention to choose to will and to work in ways that please Him. Without these incentives, how would we know by experience whether it is His will to keep certain commandments, or not? His Word coming into effect in our lives is a primary way for us to know His will for our lives, including whether or not to keep the least of commandments in the Torah.
Would Abba set up His children for failure? Would He dangle a carrot in front of us that we can never reach? Does the ‘New Testament’ give us a new and different way to blessing?
Now Abba did say in a nutshell – if you sin, you are cursed and you die. Paul said it like this,
‘For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.’ Romans 3:23
Knowing there is no contradiction in the Scriptures, how do you resolve this apparent contradiction? How is it possible to not miss the mark of the Torah and not be cursed, but truly walk in His Presence and the abundant life of His blessings and protection?
Who Can Possibly Keep the Torah Without Sinning?
We know that no one who is born of God sins; but He who was born of God keeps himself, and the evil one does not touch him. 1 John 5:18 (NASB)
How is it that he who is born of God does not sin? How does the Scriptures define what sin is in the first place?
Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. 1 John 3:4 (CJB)
So to sin is to be lawless, a lawbreaker. What law was John warning us about? Was it just man’s law, or God’s? Let’s read the same verse by another translation.
Everyone who keeps sinning is violating the Torah – indeed, sin is a violation of the Torah. 1 John 3:4 (CJB) This translation is in keeping with Yeshua’s teaching we just read.
These are powerful statements by the apostle John. You must be ‘born of God’, born again of the Spirit (John 3:5-16). Yeshua taught Nicodemus, a Pharisee and teacher of the Torah, how to become born again. This He taught before giving us the Gospel in a nutshell, John 3:16 – For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
The Messiah was born to be named:
“Yeshua – for He shall save His people from their sins.” Matthew 1:21
What does it mean that Yeshua saves His people from sins? Did He just save us from unforgiveness, guilt, and damnation? The Scriptures teach us that He came to save us from missing the mark of the Torah by forgiving and cleansing the repentant of their sins and by giving us His indwelling Spirit so that we can keep the Torah in a way pleasing to the Father. He who is born of the Spirit keeps the Torah without sinning when He is led by the Spirit when the Messiah has dominion over a willing servant of YHWH, Who is allowed to rule and reign on the throne of a submissive soul.
Move Out the Old, Make Way for the New:
IF we are born again by the Spirit and IF we are led by the Spirit, we do not sin, we keep the Torah pleasing to the Father.
If we love Him, we will keep His commandments. If we want to know Him intimately, we will keep His commandments. If we do not want to suffer His curses, we will keep His commandments. If we want to walk in the abundant life of His blessings and His Presence, we will keep His commandments.
What is the deeper meaning of ‘move out the old to make way for the new’? Can you agree with this interpretation? Move out the old way of keeping the Torah by the flesh and the intellect, like the scribes and Pharisees of any religious authority structure may teach you today. Make way for the Holy Spirit to fill your heart and soul, to move your born-again soul to keep the Torah and His commandments with a regenerated heart.
And whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the Name of the Master Yeshua, giving thanks through Him to God the Father. Colossians 3:17
BaShem Yeshua the Messiah and Savior from sin, the Living Torah,
David