Law of Moses – Yahweh’s Teachings
Part I – Is The Law Against Us or For Us?
–
Yahweh’s laws are similar to parent’s laws, He gave them to us for our own benefit.
On the first day of July, the parents of a three-year-old boy bought a new wood stove. They put it in their den with a stern warning to him that he must never touch it. The boy wondered why he was able to touch the sofa and the table, he could even touch the TV and the bookcase, but he couldn’t touch the stove? What was so special about it he thought? A couple of weeks later, as he was playing in the room, he stopped in front of the stove and being tempted, he reached out and touched it. Nothing happened! He touched it again and still nothing happened. Well now, he thought, his mom’s and dad’s warning had all been for nothing. They didn’t realize he was a bigger boy than they gave him credit for and that he could touch the stove, just like them, and it wouldn’t harm him either. In the next few weeks he would touch the stove off and on with the same harmless results. Soon he forgot all about his parents warning and hardly even noticed the stove, it was just another piece of furniture to him. Then one cold January day, as he was playing in the house, he placed his hand on the stove to reach for something and felt a terrible pain shoot through his hand. He had badly burnt his hand on a stove that he always knew to be harmless. The boy’s parents could have explained to him that he was not to touch the stove only when there was a fire on. Instead they felt it was best to forbid him to touch it at all, feeling he was too young to judge for himself when it was or was not safe. The parents were not in the wrong, if the boy had been obedient he would not have been burnt. After all, he was not being burdened with a difficult task and was not deprived of anything.
Mr 2:27 He said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath.
Why would Yahweh burden us with a 24 hour period every week where we couldn’t work or do what we want to do but have to rest and think on Him? Do you think that maybe if we did rest one day a week there might not be as much stress, families might become closer, children and parents would enjoy being together? Or do you think He instituted the Sabbath just to test and annoy us?
I believe we make two payments for breaking Yahweh’s law, 1. Death, for being disobedient. 2. Physical and mental sickness for doing, or not doing, things that were meant to help us, in ways, even today we are not aware of. Can man say, “We’re in fine shape, we don’t need help from anyone, we know what we’re doing?” If you think that, you should stop and take a long, hard look at the world.
Experts tell us the spruce budworm used to come every 50 years, but now, since spraying began, they come every 10 years. If man had rested the land every jubilee, the year of the budworm, would there be a problem? If man followed the other laws, would there be land erosion, fires, flooding, storms, disease – such as Aids, pestilence, drought, famine and all the rest of it? If the law was given to benefit humans, how could it be good for the Jews in the Old Testament but not be for our good today? Like children who think they know as much as their parents, we feel we can judge for ourselves what is good or what is not good.
The Law: Holy, true, just, good, righteous, spiritual, perfect, pure, light, desirable, truth, sweet.
De 4:8 What nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?
Ne 9:13 Thou camest down also upon mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments, and true laws, good statutes and commandments.
Ps 19:7 The law of Yahweh is perfect, converting the soul: 8 The statutes of Yahweh are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of Yahweh is pure, enlightening the eyes. 10 More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. 11 Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward.
Ps 119:142 Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and Thy law is the truth.
Pr 6:23 For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light.
Ro 7:12 Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.
Ro 7:14 For we know that the Law is spiritual.
Ro 7:22 For I delight in the law of Yahweh after the inward man:
1Ti 1:8 But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully;
When Did the Law Cease?
Lu 16:17 It is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail.
Mt 5:17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.18 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.
Mt. 22:37 Yahshua said unto him, Thou shalt love Yahweh thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 40 On these two commandments hang (*kremannumi) all the law and the prophets.
*Strong’s #2910 ~ kremannumi – KJV – hang 7; total 7. Definition: to hang up, suspend; used of the Law and the Prophets, they are summed up or hanging on two precepts.
He. 10:26 (NIV) If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left.
Ex. 12:49 (NIV) The same law applies to the native-born and to the alien living among you.” Nu. 15:15& 29; Lev. 24:22;
Many people believe the law has ceased even though the Bible stresses it certainly has not.
Yahshua’s Only Commandment
Jn 13:34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
Jn. 15:12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
Le 19:18 Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am Yahweh.
Ga 5:14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Jas 2:8 If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well:
Even Yahshua’s commandment, the only new law he gave, was not all that much different then what was covered by Moses.
Zealous, Keepest, Devout, Doers of the Law
Ac 21:20 When they heard it, they glorified Yahweh, and said unto him, Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they are all zealous of the law:
Ac 21:24 Them take, and purify thyself with them, and be at charges with them, that they may shave their heads: and all may know that those things, whereof they were informed concerning thee, are nothing; but that thou thyself also walkest orderly, and keepest the law.
Ac 22:12 Ananias, a devout man according to the law, having a good report of all the Jews which dwelt there,
Ac 24:14 But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets:
Ac 25:8 While he answered for himself, Neither against the law of the Jews, neither against the temple, nor yet against Caesar, have I offended any thing at all.
Ro 2:13 (For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.
Ro 2:14 For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: 15 Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)
Ro 3:31 Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish (*histemi) the law.
*#2476 ~ histemi -KJV – stand 116, set 11, establish 5, stand still 4, stand by 3, misc. 17, vr stand 2; total 158. Definition: to cause or make to stand, to place, to make firm, fix, establish; to cause a person or a thing to keep his or its place; to uphold or sustain the authority or force of anything.
After the resurrection all believers were passionate for and obeyed the law, including Paul. Look at Ro 3:31 in the RSV, “Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.” Faith in our Messiah and Saviour will inspire us to obey the commandments more then ever. If we continue to deliberately sin after receiving the knowledge of Messiah his sacrifice can’t help us (He 10:26).
Not Under the Law
Ga 5:4 Messiah is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.
Ro 3:28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds (*ergon) of the law.
*#2041 ~ ergon – KJV – work 152, deed 22, doing 1, labour 1; total 176. Definition: business, employment, enterprise, undertaking, an act, deed, thing done: the idea of working is emphasised.
Ro 6:14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under (*hupo) the law, but under grace.
*#5259 ~ hupo – KJV – of 116, by 42, under 48, with 14, in 1, not tr. 6, misc. 3; total 230. Definition: by, under of, with, in.
Ro 6:15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
1Jn3:4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
Now read it this way. “What then? shall we transgress the law, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.”
More on what it means to be “under the law” later.
Serve the Law
Ro. 7:1 Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? 2 For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. 3 So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law (of her old husband); so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man (now under the law of her new husband). 4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Messiah; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto Yahweh. 5 For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. 6 But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.
Serve what? Serve the law. Do we serve the law in the newness of the spirit by disregarding it (= disobedience) or are we more committed to the commandments because they are written on our heart? When the woman’s husband died was the law of adultery abolished? Of course not! Just as when we become dead to the law (that is dead to the debt we owed the law) all the commandments are not abolished and we can do anything we please.
Ro 7:25 I thank Yahweh through Yahshua Messiah our Master. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of Yahweh; but with the flesh the law of sin.
1398 ~ douleuw – KJV – serve 18, be in bondage 4, do service 3; total 25. Definition: to be a slave, serve, to obey, submit to; in a good sense, to yield obedience, in a bad sense, give one’s self up to.
The End of the Law
Ro 10:4 For Messiah is the end (telos ) of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.
#5056 ~ telos – [from a primary tello (to set out for a definite point or goal)]. KJV-end 35, custom 3, uttermost 1, finally 1, ending 1, by 1; total 42. Definition: end, termination, the limit at which a thing ceases to be (always of the end of some act or state, but not of the end of a period of time), eternal, the end to which all things relate, the aim, purpose.
The word Paul favored to describe the effect Messiah had on the Law was telos. Telos was for years translated “end”. A better word would be “goal”, or “target”. Back in 1611, the word ‘end’ literally meant “goal”. If you aim an arrow at a target, the point in which the arrow will strike is “telos“. Did the arrow “end” its flight? Yes, it did. Did the arrow then cease to exist? No, it did not. If you look up “telos” in most Greek dictionaries, you’ll still see “end” as the definition. Remember, it meant the same as “goal” four hundred years ago. Look up the definition of the conjugation (verb inflection) of “telos” and you’ll see that unlike “telos“, they translate to “goal”. For instance, “teleos“, a conjugation of “telos“, is often translated “made Perfect”, not “made ended”. Does it change just one or two verses? No, it changes 41 verses! Such as: Rom 6:22, 10:4; 1 Cor 1:8 , 10:11, 15:24; 2 Cor 1:13, 3:13; 1 Tim 1:5, Heb 3:6 & 14, 6:11; James 5:11; 1Pe.1:9, 3:8, 4:7. A.T. Robertson: “Christ is the goal or aim of the law.” p. 388, v. 4 Word Pictures in the N.T. Our schoolmaster’s goal was to bring us to Yahshua to receive our diploma (Gal. 3:24). Check out the following verses that use telos:
Ro 6:22 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end (telos) everlasting life.
1Ti 1:5 (NIV) The goal (telos) of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.
Ja. 5:11 Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end (purpose JB, RV) of Yahweh; that Yahweh is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.
1Pe 1:9 (NIV) For you are receiving the goal (telos)of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Keep My Traditions
1 Cor 11:1 Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Messiah. 2 Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances*, as I delivered them to you.
2 Th 2:15 Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions* which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.
2 Th 3:6 Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Master Yahshua Messiah, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition* which he received of us.
*#3862 paradosis – KJV – tradition 12, ordinance 1; total 13. Definition: transmission, i.e. (concrete) a precept; specially the Jewish traditionary law:–ordinance, tradition.
See how Paul applies this Greek word when describing how he persecuted the church in Gal. 1:14, “being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions* of my fathers.” What traditions is Paul talking about? It’s quite obvious, he was definitely zealous for the law then and he still is.
Those Against Are Condemned – Those For Are Blessed
Ja. 4:1 Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.
Ps 119:1 Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of Yahweh.
Pr 6:23 For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life:
Pr 28:4 They that forsake the law praise the wicked: but such as keep the law contend with them.
Pr 28:9 He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination.
Isa 2:3 Many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of Yahweh, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of Yahweh from Jerusalem. see Mic. 4:2
Isa 5:24 As the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of Yahweh of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
Translators Added to Scripture
Ac 15:24 Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, {saying, Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law:} to whom we gave no such commandment:
Ac. 21:25 As touching the Gentiles which believe, we have written and concluded {that they observe no such thing, save only} that they keep themselves from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from strangled, and from fornication.
In the above two verses the underlined words in brackets are disputed additions. Footnotes in 26 translations read, “Now recognized as not adequately supported by original manuscripts.” See RV and NIV.
Anomia – Against Law
Even after proving that Messiah does not cancel the Law, but rather brings it to perfection, some people still want to ask, “Do I really have to keep the Law?” Let’s look again at the verse that defines exactly what sin is.
1Jn 3:4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
So many of the words in the New Testament that the Bible translators translate as “Evildoers”, “Iniquity” or even “Wickedness” are from the Greek word anomia. Anyone who knows a little Greek will tell you that the prefix “A-” means “Against, in opposition to…”. A simple check of the Greek Old Testament will show you the Greek word for Law is nomos. So, that would mean that Anomia means “Against the Law, in opposition to the Law.”
#458 ~ anomia – iniquity 12, unrighteousness 1, transgress the law + 4160 1, transgression of the law 1; total 15. Definition: the condition of without law because ignorant of it or violating it contempt and violation of law, iniquity, wickedness.
Want an eye opener? Here are the Biblical verses where the word anomia can be found.
Mat 7:23 Then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity (anomia – transgress the law).
Mt. 13:41 The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity (anomia- transgress the law).
Mt. 23:28 Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity (anomia – transgressions).
Mt 24:12 And because iniquity (anomia- transgressions) shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
Ro. 4:7 Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities (anomia – transgressions) are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.
Ro 6:19 Ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity (anomia – transgression) unto iniquity ; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.
2 Co. 6:14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness (anomia – lawlessness) ? and what communion hath light with darkness? 17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith Yahweh, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,
2Th 2:7 For the mystery of iniquity (anomia – lawlessness) doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
Tit 2:14 Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity (anomia – transgressions), and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
Heb 1:9 Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity (anomia – lawlessness); therefore Yahweh, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.
Heb 8:12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities (anomia – transgressions) will I remember no more.
Heb 10:17 And their sins and iniquities (anomia.- transgressions) will I remember no more.
1Jo 3:4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth (anomia) also the law: for sin is the transgression (anomia) of the law.
According to the Apostle John if you are not obeying the law you are sinning because “sin is the transgression (anomia) of the law.”
Gentiles Kept the Law
Ro 2:26 RSV So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts (*dikaioma) of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? 27 Then those who are physically uncircumcised but keep the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law.
#1345 dikaioma ~ KJV – righteousness 4, ordinance 3, judgment 2, justification 1; total 10. Definition: That which has been deemed right so as to have force of law, what has been established, and ordained by law, an ordinance.
Other Bible versions translate dikaioma as commandments (JB), righteousness (KJV), ordinances (ASV) requirements (NIV), precepts (RSV).
So the Gentiles, or uncircumcision as Paul called them, kept the Law and in many cases put to shame many Jews who disobeyed. Those who have been deceived into thinking disobedience is alright because the Law was only for the Jews are in for a rude awakening. They will ask themselves how did Satan convince us disobeying the commandments was preferred over obeying them?
vs. 27 (RSV) Then those who are physically uncircumcised (Gentiles) but keep the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law.
Also the NIV and even the NKJV confirms this. See Ro 3:30, 4:9; Gal 2:7; Ep 2:11; Col 3:11.