Can we love Israel and reject the Torah

Over several decades, there has been a growing awareness on the part of Evangelicals as to the importance of Israel in God’s plan. There are churches that hold Israeli Awareness Day with Israeli dancing and songs. Others are engaged in financially supporting Israel or helping Jews making Aliyah. There are groups that are committed to praying for the peace of Jerusalem. These are certainly improvements after centuries and centuries of anti-Semitic attitudes that have existed in the Church beginning with the so-called “Church fathers”. I will call them so-called because these men were not responsible for writing Scripture; yet significant importance has been attributed to them and the role they played in laying down the foundations of Church doctrine. But if we examine the statements of some of these men who were highly revered, we find them seriously lacking in the kind of love that our Messiah Yeshua talked about. I will not go into all of the implications of their influence on the second and third century believers because it is too complex for the scope of this article. I will not go into great detail about the anti-Semitic attitudes of the Catholic Church that developed by the third century Common Era either. Books could be written on this subject and already have, but I will ask this simple question: Can we love Israel and reject the Torah?

Before giving a response to this question, we need to look and see who Israel is exactly and what is the role of Torah in the life of Israel. From the patriarchs we have Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, whose name was later changed to Israel because he persevered with God. Israel had twelve sons whose names then represented the twelve tribes of Israel. Israel was a people chosen by God to be a light to the nations. We all know how many times they fell short in that role.

When Moses led ancient Israel out of Egypt with the mixed multitude, God gave him what we commonly refer to as the Law at Mt. Sinai. The instructions were very clear, that if they obeyed these laws they would be blessed, but if they disobeyed the laws they would be cursed. Many times over they were told

“Be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you are to meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and they you will have success. “ Joshua 1: 7-8 .

We know that King David also took great delight in the commands of God. He said,

“How blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord.” Psalm 119:1.

We also know that the prophets rebuked Israel time and time again for disobeying God’s holy laws and that Israel was severely punished for this disobedience just as God said they would be.

Well that was ancient Israel and now we have the New Covenant, which is through the blood of Yeshua, right? Indeed, we have the blood of Yeshua that cleanses us from our sin, but who is the New Covenant with and what is it exactly?

“Behold days are coming” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them, “ declares the Lord. “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it: and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. And they shall not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, “Know the Lord” for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the Lord, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more. “ Jeremiah 31:31-34.

In this passage, we notice several things. First of all the New Covenant is not with the Church as many have come to believe over the centuries. It is with the House of Israel and the House of Judah. The New Covenant did not abolish the Law, but wrote it on the hearts of the two houses of Israel. We see this repeated in Hebrews 8:8.

Here, we need to stop and think about why this distinction is made between these two houses. We see that the same distinction is repeated in Ezekiel 37:15 –28, and in numerous other passages in the Tanach. All the promises given are to the house of Judah and the House of Israel, as God has promised that He will write the Torah on their heart.

Again we return to the question who is Israel. We know that Israel is the descent of the twelve tribes, but in the book of Ephesians we are told that in Yeshua those who were “far off were brought near” by the blood of Yeshua and that they become part of the Commonwealth of Israel. The Torah was the marriage contract or ketubah that God gave to Israel. We know from the Book of Hosea He divorced the Northern Kingdom, which is also know as Ephraim or the House of Israel, but He promised that He would restore them. Talking about Israel God says,

“I will heal their apostasy, I will love them freely, for My anger has turned away from them.” Hosea 14:4

The Book of Hosea compares Ephraim with a harlot who commits adultery, it prophesies the exile in Assyria when Ephraim will be mixed with the gentiles and lose their identity as God’s people. It’s important to remember that Ephraim was exiled for their numerous violations of Torah. Later on we see Judah also going into exile for their violations of Torah, although Judah returns and maintains their identity. It is after Judah’s exile in Babylon that we see the expression Jews begin to be used in the Bible. There are some of the House of Israel who crossed over and became part of Judah, but we never see a corporate restoration of the Northern Kingdom that is prophesied.

Why all this lengthy explanation about the division and exile of the Northern and Southern tribes of Israel? I think it is important today for us to recognize that the restoration of all of Israel is not only for the Jews. There is a future restoration that includes the scattered tribes of the Northern Kingdom. Do we know where these tribes are? No. The whole point of them losing their identity is that they actually became just like the gentiles. In other words, they disobeyed the Torah and did not act as the light to the nations as God asked of them, so they got what they wanted. They got to be gentiles. One could view this as a punishment, but one could also view this as the accomplishment of God’s plan to make Ephraim a “multitude of nations” as was promised by his grandfather Israel. Since we know that God is sovereign, it is surely both. On the one hand a punishment, and on the other hand a fulfillment of the blessing of Israel when he deliberately laid his hand on the head of Ephraim and repeated the promise that God had given years earlier to Abraham.

What does all this have to do with Torah? I think that it is important to recognize that God’s in the process of not only restoring Judah, but also Ephraim and the nations who come into the Commonwealth of Israel with Judah and Ephraim (Ezekiel 37:15-28).

We know that through the blood of Yeshua we are no longer subject to the penalty of death, which Torah delineates. We are all worthy of death. We have all fallen short of the righteousness that the Holy One of Israel demands. Thankfully, we have the blood of the unblemished Lamb, Yeshua that was poured out for our sake as a sin offering. What about the Torah though? Yeshua was an Israelite from the tribe of Judah, who came and lived a perfectly Torah observant life so that His death would count as the perfect sacrifice to satisfy a Holy God. Did He not tell us to obey all that He commanded, down to the smallest letter of the Law? Did He not come for the lost sheep of the House of Israel and show them how to live? Was He not the rabbi who gave perfect interpretation to the Torah of Moses? How would Israel recognize Him had He not done all of that? How will Israel recognize Him know if He is any less than a perfect Torah-observant Jew, who obeyed the Torah of Moses and then laid His life down? How can we say that we love Israel, and not follow Yeshua by obeying the very same Torah that He obeyed so that the Jews will see their Messiah. What if some of those who call themselves “gentiles” are of Israelite descent and are still turning their back on the Torah by mixing Yeshua with the “ways of the nations”. How are we to set an example for those who are not yet saved if we don’t obey the Torah? These are all questions that I ask, wondering if we really understand what it means to love Israel.

To love Israel, is to do as Yeshua did, to live a life modeled after the Master Himself. To obey all that the Father commanded, not in a legalistic, self-righteous way, but in complete humility, pouring out our lives as an offering for those who need to see Torah lived out in the power of the Rauch HaKodesh.

Do we really love Israel, if we don’t love Torah? It’s not just a question of loving some things from the Jewish culture. It’s a question of understanding who Israel is and where Israel has failed. Are we not part of this same Commonwealth (those who are not physical Israelites) grafted in by the blood of Messiah? If we were, would we not want to consider it a privilege to bring Torah to the nations? The prophet Isaiah says,

“Now it will come about that in the last days, the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains, and will be raised above the hills; and all the nations will stream to it. And many peoples will come and say, come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that He may teach us concerning His ways, and that we may walk in His paths. For the law will go forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” Is 2:1-3

This doesn’t sound like language that suggests that the Law has been done away with. The Law is not our salvation. Yeshua is. Yeshua is the word that became flesh and dwelt among us. Can we say that He is the word in the flesh and deny the very word given to us by Himself? He and His Father are one. Can they contradict one another? If we who profess to love the Bible say we don’t need Torah, what kind of example are we setting for the Jews in Israel, or anyone else for that matter? Am I talking about following all the decrees of the rabbis? No. We can learn from rabbis. There are some that are better than others. The greatest rabbi however that we can learn from is Rabbi Yeshua. He never renounced the Torah. He taught only from the Torah and Prophets and pointed His disciples to Himself in it.

There are many passages and verses that people will quote to try to say that Torah has been abolished, but these verses when put in proper context can all be explained. Our salvation is by faith in Yeshua, but our walk should be based on His word in its entirety.

If we truly love Israel, we will tell them about Yeshua and His Torah. He always upheld it and so should we.

God said, “ I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you” referring to Israel. Much of what was done to the Jews in Diaspora had to do with denying them their right to practice Torah. If we examine history, we see the strong trend to denounce Shabbat. There were times where Jews were forced to eat pork, in order to cause them to violate the Torah’s dietary laws. In Morocco where they had the Mellahs (Jewish quarters), the Jews were constantly being rendered “unclean” because they were forced to touch the dead when they were required to preserve human’s heads in salt. We can see from history that the Jews were always persecuted on the basis of Torah.

In these days, as we have the nations, including perhaps many who are descendants from the Northern Kingdom and don’t even know it, many who make up “the church”, we have another trend taking place. In the last 40 or so years, many Jews have come to faith in their Jewish, Torah-observant Messiah Yeshua. Remember Yeshua did not come to abolish the Law, but to fill it up to the full measure with meaning. As these Jews have come into a relationship with their Messiah, they have not stopped being Jews. Many of them come with a great depth of understanding about Torah that the Church has lost through centuries of propaganda and sometimes poor translation from original language texts. The Jews have brought a Hebraic understanding, which was grossly lacking in the understanding of even the Apostolic Scriptures. Is it possible that God is fulfilling Ezekiel 37:15-28 before our very eyes and we are blind to what He is doing because of centuries of anti-Torah sentiment?

We need to remember first and foremost, if we belong to Messiah Yeshua, we are part of the Commonwealth of Israel. The document that was used to seal the marriage contract between God and His people was the Torah. The person who came and lived out Torah as it was to be lived out was none other than our Messiah Yeshua, who paid the death penalty that Torah imposes, for those of us who are not in Him. What He fulfilled by His death and resurrection was to take away the penalty of death. He never took away the document that taught us about the holiness of God and what He desires for His people. Granted, much of Torah does not apply to us if we are not Levitical Priests, not living in the Land of Israel, if there is no standing temple, etc., etc. The Torah still represents the marriage contract that God has with Israel, and if we love Israel, as we should if we are “grafted in”, then we should love the document, which God gave to Moses to outline the terms of our relationship. If we want to know Him and His holiness, we should want to obey the requirements that He set out for Ancient Israel, to the extent that they apply to us. These will not bring us salvation. They will just affirm that we are the people of the God of Israel, and that we do indeed love Israel with all of our heart.

Joyce Benati

joyce.benatti@earthlink.net

Joyce and Ben Benati run a Messianic congregation in Nice 06000, 4 rue Papon, France