Torah Faith Is Supernatural Faith

Lightfoot commentary John 16

I. The law teaches faith; that is, that we believe in God. But the gospel directs us to proceed 'from faith to faith,' viz. from faith in God to faith in Christ: for true and saving faith is not a mere naked recumbency immediately upon God, which faith the Jews were wont to profess, but faith in God by the mediation of faith in Christ.

II. In the law the righteousness of God was revealed condemning, but in the gospel it was revealed justifying the sinner. And this is the great mystery of the gospel, that sinners are justified not only through the grace and mere compassion and mercy of God, but through divine justice and righteousness too, that is, through the righteousness of Christ, who is Jehovah, "the Lord our Righteousness."

MAHX note:
Lightfoot's statements are true but partial therefore misleading. This is the nature of replacement theology.  In order to correct this, we need to understand: The Torah is not just condemning —otherwise the people who received the Torah would have had no hope. Lightfoot's reading of the Torah, like so much traditional Christian reading of the Torah, is a partial reading of Paul taken as the whole.  Based on statements from Paul, like, "The Torah was the administration of condemnation," they paint a picture that when God gave Israel the Torah he simply condemned them as being sinners.  Again, if this is all the Torah did Moses and all those who truly heard it would have had no hope.  But they did have hope, not just in establishing their own righteousness. The natural mind did get in the way, but as well as a conviction of sin from the Torah they also had a hope of righteousness through the Torah, righteousness from God and in God.

Their Torah based belief in God was not simply just natural. Among the fathers and mothers and many individuals in Israel, it was supernatural in looking for the resurrection and the World To Come right from the beginning. The Exodus immediately made it a supernatural faith for the nation as a corporate entity.

Yes there was and is reactionary and regressive thinking from the natural mind the talks about Abraham being the first monotheist and the first commandment as being a commandment not to. E an atheist and the second not to be a polytheist, etc. The truth is that the Exodus is the setting of the giving of the Torah and that it is given within the covenant made with Abraham and the fathers. Within the covenant of promise the Torah is an element of hope and the source of faith itself.

When Paul says, "What the Torah could not do..." he does not because it was weak because it was only condemning. But this is essentially what Lightfoot says. Paul says it was weak through the flesh. According to Paul, the Torah is not only strong, it is perfect. R7. But it was given on the basis of a covenant promise. Therefore it was given as promise to a chosen branch of the family tree of the natural Adam. Because it was still promise it's power to be realized could be realized only through the natural Adam. Paul calls this "the flesh" and says it was through this that the Torah was weak. Because it was weak while in the form of promise it could not do what needed to be done. For this reason God sent his son to fulfill the promise enabling the power of the Torah to do what needed to be done.

So it is that the supernatural revelation of God in the Exodus which is already and always embedded in Israel is now continually overcoming more and more the natural mind and its thinking about the Redemption of Israel from Egypt and the nations, always redeeming that thinking itself and regenerating it together with the whole heart and mind and soul of Israel and every child of Israel, natural born or adopted.

Thus we see that the Torah and the Gospel are one, not two.

THE ISRAEL BIBLE Mahx Comments File - Genesis 3

THE ISRAEL BIBLE Mahx Comments File

GENESIS 3

THE TEXT

3:17  And unto Adam He said: ‘Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying: Thou shalt not eat of it; cursed is the ground for thy sake; in toil shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.

Rabbi Tuly Weisz:

3:17   Cursed is the ground for your sake

The land is not cursed because of Man’s sin, but, ‘ba’avurekhah,’ for you. According to R’ Samson Raphael Hirsch, this means for the sake of man, in order to rectify his actions. Following Adam’s sin, the land’s prosperity became a means of measuring man’s adherence to God; for the Jewish nation this means following the commandments and keeping God’s Torah. When they do so, God shows his approval through the land’s flourishing. This is especially true in the Land of Israel. Scholars and historians alike note that the Land of Israel lay fallow and uninhabitable until the Jews returned, and in just a short time the Jews of Israel, following the commandments set out in the Torah, have turned a wasteland into a blooming, prosperous country.

Mahx Comment:

When we read that G-d said to Adam, “Who told you that you were naked?” we are ourselves pricked by the sharp point of G-d’s word. We are aware that we are somewhere in the background, in the audience, and are also somehow being addressed as we listen to G-d speak these words to Adam. Jewish sources, such as the Zohar, help us to understand that when a husband and wife are one flesh, in their intimacy they have no shame of being naked, but here the first husband and wife, due to their sin, their reliance upon their own intelligence instead of having obedient trust in the commandment of G-d, made them mistrust one another and seem like strangers to one another, so that they were ashamed to be naked in one another’s presence. Only sin has the power to create alienation between a husband and wife and between all people.

What is G-d’s true remedy for this? Where can the repentance be found that leads to the rectification of all things? Jesus was a teacher in Israel and there are many people throughout the world who have been influenced by him to study the Scriptures of Israel to find the answers to these questions. Rambam takes note of this and comments on it. However, there are many who would dismiss Israel as the witnesses of the one true G-d and replace Israel as a whole with Jesus. One cannot imagine that Jesus himself did anything like this. 

However, Israel has suffered greatly through many ages on account of such ideas that have claimed authority in his name. Even today these kind of ideas provide some of the background for the oppression of the people of Israel in the Land of Israel. When people post comments in discussion of the texts of a Bible devoted to Israel and to the Land of Israel, therefore, it seems appropriate that great sensitivity be shown toward these issues. Such a great alienation there has been between the Jewish People, the people of Israel, and the majority of the followers of Jesus! The owners and moderator of this site should be highly commended for their tolerance and willingness to engage in such open dialogue.

Read more 

THE ISRAEL BIBLE Mahx Comments File - Genesis 1&2

THE ISRAEL BIBLE Mahx Comments File

GENESIS 1

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."

Blessed be Hashem Elohim, the G-d of Israel, the creator of the heavens and the earth, who graciously provides all things good for life.

Read more

GENESIS 2

“0f every tree of the garden you may freely eat…” Trust G-d with all your soul to provide and care for you. “And of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it…” Do not depend upon your own intelligence to sustain your life, instead of the wisdom of G-d. “For there is a way that seems right to a person but its destination is death.”

Read more 

G-d's Answer To Abraham

The one eternal covenant is the answer that G-d gave to Avraham's question, How can I know that I will inherit the land?  In order to truly understand what G-d said to Avraham, to know it in its essence, we must understand it as the answer to this question. 

Genesis 15

13  And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not their's, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;

14  And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance.

15  And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age.

16  But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.   

Of what does this remind us?  "All the plants of the earth were not yet on the earth, and the herbs of the field had not yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and ther was not an adam to till the ground. " (Gen. 2:5)

The Land of Israel could not reveal its potential until Israel became Messianic Israel. What then was G-d's covenant of assurance which he gave to Avraham?

The Eternal Torah of Paul The Apostle’s Faith

From Bereishit Rabah:

https://www.sefaria.org/Bereishit_Rabbah.1?lang=en&layout=lines&sidebarLang=all&with=Sheets

And the Torah said "In the beginning God created" and there is no beginning (reishit) except for Torah, as it is written: "God made me the beginning of His way" (Proverbs 8:22).

Some students of the Bible may not yet fully understand how it is, in truth, the Torah that Solomon referred to as the Wisdom of God in Proverbs 8.  However, there is no reason to think that Paul the Apostle would not have both agreed with this teaching of Bereshit Rabah and also been ready to expand upon it to anyone who was ready in their understanding to receive such teaching.

How could anyone at all, however, think or say that Paul, when teaching about the Torah, means to say that God made the Torah as it is in heaven a thing of the past, as if Paul believed that God did not want to redeem creation at all but rather replace it with something else.

Why does Paul use the language that he does when teaching about the Torah?  His language can seem to say that on the one hand the Torah was commanded to Israel and on the other hand the grace of God come to Israel in Mashiach?  There is a need for further education about this. 

There is a certain measure of abbreviation in Paul’s language when he speaks of the Torah.  His language in speaking about the Torah was already everyday language to him before he became a follower of Yehoshua.  Just as in the case of every other Jew, and especially a well educated Jew as was Saul of Tarsus, the word, “Torah”, could be used with a slightly different meaning in different contexts.  In one context it meant the wisdom spoken of by Solomon in Proverbs 8.  In another context it meant the Torah as given to Israel on Mount Sinai in God’s covenant with Israel.  This is the same Torah but in different expressions and applications.

When Paul teaches in Romans 8 that the Torah was not able to fully liberate Israel from the slavery of sin he is not speaking about the the Torah as the Wisdom of God as King Solomon wrote about it in Proverbs.  Instead, in abbreviated language, he is teaching that Adam did not attain to the full level of the Wisdom, the Torah, by which God created all things for time and eternity, because he disobeyed God.  Likewise, without the work of Mashiach, Israel could not fully rectify Adam’s disobedience and attain to that level of the Torah, because, no matter how high Israel might ascend in this effort, there always remained an element of the weakness of the disobedience of Adam that Israel could never rectify.  And even though the Torah as given to Israel would elevate Israel generation after generation, the element of weakness of the disobedience of Adam that remained would cause Israel to fall again, generation after generation, into corruption and captivity.

In every case where Paul wrote a letter to a certain assembly of followers of Yehoshua, he did so with the intention that his teaching in the letter would be fully explained in person to the people of that assembly by individuals who he himself had taught.  In this way, there would be no misunderstanding through his abbreviated language, on the one hand, and no confusion, on the other hand, due to the mysteries of the ultimate redemption of Israel, which was yet to be revealed, and to which Paul continually alluded.

Much more can be said about Paul's language in speaking about the Torah.  However, until the history and psychology of misunderstanding Paul's language about the Torah is explored, (as it has manifested in the whole gentile messianic community through the centuries and among all the various nations), the eternal Torah of Paul the Apostle's faith will not be fully appreciated in the gentile messianic community.

On Parasha Shemoth

Excerpt from Parasha Shemoth

ד  וַיַּרְא יְהוָה, כִּי סָר לִרְאוֹת; וַיִּקְרָא אֵלָיו אֱלֹהִים מִתּוֹךְ הַסְּנֶה, וַיֹּאמֶר מֹשֶׁה מֹשֶׁה--וַיֹּאמֶר הִנֵּנִי.

4 And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said: 'Moses, Moses.' And he said: 'Here am I.'

יא  וַיֹּאמֶר מֹשֶׁה, אֶל-הָאֱלֹהִים, מִי אָנֹכִי, כִּי אֵלֵךְ אֶל-פַּרְעֹה; וְכִי אוֹצִיא אֶת-בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל, מִמִּצְרָיִם.

11 And Moses said unto God: 'Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?'

יב  וַיֹּאמֶר, כִּי-אֶהְיֶה עִמָּךְ, וְזֶה-לְּךָ הָאוֹת, כִּי אָנֹכִי שְׁלַחְתִּיךָ:  בְּהוֹצִיאֲךָ אֶת-הָעָם, מִמִּצְרַיִם, תַּעַבְדוּן אֶת-הָאֱלֹהִים, עַל הָהָר הַזֶּה.

12 And He said: 'Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be the token unto thee, that I have sent thee: when thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain.'

COMMENT:  

We will look at these verses as recording Moshe caught in Avraham's question:

    "How can I know that I will inherit the land?"  *

Hashem's answer to Avraham is to make with him the eternal covenant. How can Hashem's answer to Moshe here be understood as an application to Moshe of that covenant, and therefore the same answer that Hashem gave to Avraham?

And how does this answer to Moshe expand upon the meaning of the covenant as it was explained to Avraham?  See my further comments at the end of this post.

The following is based on the Study series by Shabbat Shalom's Avigdor Bonchek's "What's Bothering Rashi?" It is a product of the Institute for the Study of Rashi and Early Commentaries. An opportunity to receive a subscription to this series can be found here:  http://mail.shemayisrael.com/mailman/listinfo/wb-rashi_shemayisrael.com
 

 Avigdor Bonchek

On verse 12) And He said: "Because I will be with you and this shall be for you as a sign that I have sent you."

RASHI

And He said: "Because I will be with you: Rashi: He answered on the first (question) first and the last (question) last. What you said 'Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh - this is not your matter rather it is Mine because I will be with you.

And this vision which you have seen, the bush, it is a sign that I have sent you. That I am capable of saving, as you have seen that the bush has done My bidding and is not consumed likewise when you do My bidding and neither will you be harmed. And regarding what you asked: What merit does Israel have that they should be taken out of Egypt? It is a big matter for Me this exodus because they are destined to accept the Torah on this mountain three months after the exodus. Another interpretation:  Because I will be with you and that you will be successful in this missions will be for you as a sign for another promise - that which I promise you that you when you will take them out of Egypt you will serve Me on this mountain that you will receive the Torah on it. And that is the special merit that Israel has.

WHAT IS RASHI SAYING?

This is a complicated Rashi. He bases his comment on this verse on the previous verse. In that verse Moses asks two questions. G-d's answer relates to these two comments.

What are the two questions?

TWO QUESTIONS ACCORDING TO RASHI

Answer: Moses asks rhetorically "who am I that I should go to Pharaoh" meaning I am not worthy to be the one to go to Pharaoh.

The second question is: Are the Jews worthy of being taken out of Egypt?

How G-d does answer these questions according to Rashi?

TWO ANSWERS ACCORDING TO RASHI

An Answer: Moses need not necessarily be worthy; because this is G-d's mission and He will be with Moses.

The Jews are worthy of being taken out of Egypt because they have an important mission - to receive the Torah at Mt. Sinai.

In this comment Rashi explains something that is difficult in the verse.

What do you see as difficult in this verse?

WHAT IS BOTHERING RASHI?

An Answer: The verse says "And this is a sign for you that I sent you - when you take the people out from Egypt you will serve G-d on this mountain."
Do you see the difficulty?

Moses fears the People (or Pharaoh) will not accept him as a G-d appointed leader and thus will not follow him out of Egypt. If the sign is you will serve G-d on this mountain, what good is a sign that will only be known months after the Exodus? When the time for the Exodus comes, the truth of the sign will not yet be known!

How does Rashi's comment deal with this?

UNDERSTANDING RASHI

An Answer: Rashi gives two answers to this question. In his first interpretation he says the sign is to show Moses that he has no reason to fear not succeeding in G-d's mission. The burning bush is the sign - just as the bush did G-d's will and was not harmed, so too Moses will do G-d's will and not be harmed.

In his second interpretation Rashi says the sign is Moses' success in taking the People out of Egypt and this is the sign that Moses can accomplish another mission which is to take the People to Mt Sinai and receive the Torah there.

So in both interpretations the sign is meaningful. It is not as we thought originally - that the sign was receiving the Torah at Mt. Sinai.

RAMBAN'S UNDERSTANDING

The Ramban has a different answer to the question we asked - what was the sign?

Ramban says that Moses had two fears. One was that he was too insignificant to influence Pharaoh to let the People go. And the second fear was that while the People would gladly follow anyone to leave Egypt and get out of their slavery, but why would they follow Moses all the way to the Land of Canaan (and have to fight the strong nations there)?

The sign was, says Ramban, the People hearing G-d at Mt. Sinai and receiving the Torah there. Once they saw this happen that would be a sign that would convince them to follow Moses all the way to the Promised Land.

Sounds convincing! Unfortunately even after the miraculous event at Sinai the People could still make trouble for Moses! A stiff necked People they were. _____________________________________

* 
This is from http://www.shlomoyeshiva.org/eretz-yisrael/
Avraham avinu said to G-d, “How shall I know that I shall inherit the land?” I am always asking on this: Avraham didn’t inherit the land – his children inherited the land! Avraham should have said to G-d, “How do I know You will give me the land?” not “inherit.” My answer is, Avraham was given Eretz Yisrael on the level of kedushat ha-aretz, the holiness of the land. But, Eretz Yisrael, on the level of clal Yisrael, that Avraham Avinu inherits from us.

Basically, a father doesn’t inherit from his children unless, G-d forbid, his children die in his lifetime. Everybody knows that Avraham saw the galut. The exile, and saw that Mashiach is coming. All the Jewish children who died in exile, in Auschwitz, all the children who died – Avraham avinu inherits Eretz Yisrael from them. That is what he meant when he asked, “How can I know that I will inherit the land?”

Avraham asked G-d, “Who will be the last one before Mashiach comes?” G-d answered, “You will be the one.” All those souls who died, giving Eretz Yisrael back to Avraham avinu, Avraham gives it over to us. The way he gives it to us is: “Go thou from thy land, from thy father’s house.” When I inherit through my zaida (grandfather) I inherit because it belongs to me. But, when it goes back to Avraham, it goes back to “go thou from thy Iand.” Our generation inherits from Avraham.  The whole teshuva (return to Judaism) movement began after Auschwitz, after the children gave Eretz Yisrael back to Avraham avinu, and Avraham gave it back to us. The way he gave it back to us is “Lech lecha” – (“Go thou out”) – G-d should give us the strength to leave the whole world behind us, and run to Eretz Yisrael.

 
COMMENT: Avraham's question was:

    "How can I know that I will inherit the land?"

Hashem's answer to Avraham is to make with him the eternal covenant. We might say that Avraham's pronoun, "I" was corporate.  Moshe's question was how could he know that he would be worthy to lead Israel to the fulfillment of the covenant.  Just as Avraham's soul would inherit the land, and thereby give true testimony to the true G-d, so Moshe's soul would lead All-Israel to the realization of her true testimony to the true G-d, in receiving the Torah and wholly fulfilling it in the whole land of Israel.  

As G-d's covenant was that he would be with Israel in exile, so he would be with Avraham's soul and with Moshe's soul in whatever aspect of the exile remained in the process of coming fully into the inheritance of the land, whatever short-falling that occurred in Israel it would not prevent the final fulfillment.  For G-d was present with Israel at the lowest point and did not leave her, so he would also be with her at ever point of her elevation.  

Indeed, it was his assurance to Avraham and to Moshe that it was he, G-d himself, who brought Israel down into Egypt, to her lowest point, that he might be there with her, in order that they might have assurance that their witness of Torah service to him might be certain in the land on the day of her testimony. 

And what does this mean for those whose spirit is alive in the spirit of Mashiach, who are the heirs of Avraham according to the promise?  For those who are disciples of Moshe it means that their souls are exiled to their lowest points without being separated from G-d's presence, even if they, like Avraham and Moshe, need reassurance of this. And it is this very exile from the place of promise, this exile together with G-d's word and his Spirit, which suffer according to his covenant with us, which is our assurance that we will wear the word of G-d upon our forehead and upon our arm in the Land of Israel in the day of her testimony. 

Rashi in summary 

G-d says "I am G-d" -- Rashi says that G-d is saying here to Moshe
that G-d is competent to send Moshe.  Or as it has been said:  "When
you are doing what G-d wants, you have infinite power.

COMMENT: When G-d says to testify to the world that his covenant with Israel is kept through the blood of Mashiach nothing will be able to prevent you from testifying in the power of his grace. 

_______________________________________________
Wb-rashi mailing list

http://mail.shemayisrael.com/mailman/listinfo/wb-rashi_shemayisrael.com

The Concealment and Revelation of Mashiach

See:

The Concealment and Revelation of Mashiach and The Good News

After that Yehoshua made atonement for his own people Israel who did not receive him, he was taken up into heaven and concealed there from the world.  This concealment is the aspect of grace which is created in his offering for Israel and continues on.  Read more...

See Recent Posts

On 

Web Notes of Max Carl Kirk

gathering thought ~ starting new work

http://webnotesmax.blogspot.ca/2014/08/the-body-update.html?m=1

The Universal Commandment and Trust in G-d

No one should think that they can obey the seven Noahide commandments without first repenting of the broken relationship between Humanity and G-d. 

A person must know what such repentance means and how to return to the true trust in G-d that was lost when we broke the universal commandment to receive all that we needed for life only from G-d. 

We can't be humane to all life forms everywhere if we do not trust G-d. 

We cannot become free from taking and giving what is not ours if we do not trust G-d. 

We cannot become free of all unfaithfulness if we do not trust G-d. 

We cannot become free of all acts of murder and hatred if we do not trust G-d. 

We cannot be always just and restore justice to all the earth if we do not trust G-d. 

We cannot bow our knee only to the one true G-d, the Creator of heaven and earth, if we do not trust him. 

We cannot speak of the one G-d and his one name in truth if we do not trust him. 

We can obey no commandment nor do anything that is fully and completely right if we do not trust G-d. 

For if we trust G-d we will ask him to provide what we need for life, that he should live in our midst, in our relationships, in our conversations, in our hearts, in our society and in all efforts of obedience to his commandments. 

We will ask him, if we trust him, to send his anointed teacher of his Torah to Israel to teach all nations quickly, even in our day. 

For death desires to consume the whole world, and without the help of G-d's anointed teacher of his Torah we may be fooled into becoming the servants of the great appetite of death. If we trust G-d we will ask for help and salvation for all the earth. 

There Is One Covenant of God

The promise of the seed and the promise of the land given to Abraham are one and are included in one convenant — not in a manner that replaces the physical definition of the seed through physical circumcision with a spiritual definition of the seed through spiritual circumcision, but in a manner that upholds the physical through the spiritual.* For the covenant was made as an assurance to Abraham that the nation of his seed would be brought out of a decent into bondage up to a place of service to G-d.

__________
*(Thus, any covenant theology that would lead to the idea of another people superseding the nation of Israel will be a theology that is to be corrected in the end.)  

Indeed the covenant made with Abraham is the Good News and the realization of the promise of that covenant is the same Good News -- only now realized. 

Let us understand therefore that there is only one covenant of G-d, for there is only one Good News of G-d. 

How then is the covenant G-d made with Noah this same covenant of the Good News which he made with Abraham?

There was already a promise of the seed of the woman, but this promise was not yet given in the form of a covenant to Adam or the children of Adam. It had not been a promise given directly to Adam, but had been a promise which was against the serpent made to the serpent. 

And how is the covenant that G-d made with all Israel at Mount Sinai, which was conditional, the same covenant that he made with Abraham, which was unconditional?

The covenant that G-d made with Abraham, which was only made under Abraham's name, could be made with Noah and all the earth ahead of time, because it was a promise at that time that the covenant of the seed of the woman would be made under Abraham's name. 

Accordingly, the covenant made with Noah was conditional for Noah and his children. How was it conditional? Only if Abraham would come to be counted as their father would it be said that the covenant was good news to them. For it was good news that they would not be destroyed by water only if afterword they would not be destroyed by fire. 

And this conditional nature of the one covenant of G-d that applied to Noah remained the same conditional nature of the one covenant of G-d when he made his covenant with all Israel at Mount Sinai. For not all who were present in Israel were counted as Israel. 

As God made Adam corporate, so only God

is able to separate the corporate into the

individual, the one into the two and the many.

So also, the redemption and the resurrection

of the Adam are corporate and only God

is able to distinguish the many, 

one from another, for salvation.

Only The Creator is able to judge and create

what will be the eternal redemption of 

Corporate Adam,

who will be the one and who will be the two

and who will be the many.

This is the testimony of the two witnesses

who stand before the Ruler of the whole earth.

Israel As Defined By The Covenant of G-d is Israel in the covenant made new. 

This is Abraham and his seed in Torah service to G-d, in the Holy Spirit of Mashiach. And all who bless Abraham in accordance with this covenant are blessed with Abraham. 

1 Eternal Covenant, Not 2

How could there be 2 or more covenants if the 1 is eternal?

The lamb was already there as the guarantee for Isaac.

We are now living in the world of the one who was the guarantee for Adam.

It is now time for the corporate soul redemption, Adam must be re-defined in terms of the seed of the woman, instead of the woman and her seed being defined in terms of Adam.

This means the 70 roots will be re-defined in terms of the chamber of the souls of Israel.  When Adam called his wife Eve, the Mother of All Living, he was prophetically calling her the mother of the souls of Israel.  He did not call her Eve  until after the fall and after the word of sentencing of him, of the woman and of the serpent.

Many do not want or choose to recognize this.  They will say that he did name her before, even before the sin... but they miss the glory of the narrative.  For where sin abounded, grace abounded far more.

The Covenant Anew

The covenant of grace is the one eternal covenant and there is no other, which is the covenant that created Israel in the beginning and creates Israel now.  When G-d promised blessing to and through Abraham no previous promise of grace and blessing had been given to anyone in the world, not even to Noah.  Only mitigated judgment had been promised to Noah, and to sinful Adam nothing had been promised but a curse.  Noah was only promised that the world would not be destroyed by water.  He was not promised that it would be blessed and not forever destroyed.  Only Abraham was promised this.

It is true that a promise of the seed of the woman had been made, but this promise was made to the serpent as a threat, a certainty of judgment.  It was necessary to interpret it, to read into it, to hear hope in it for Adam-kind.  G-d arranged for the man and the woman to overhear the promise he made against the serpent and the seed of the serpent, but He did not directly address either of them in doing so.  Only with Abraham and his seed, and to Abraham and his seed, was a promise given that the curse would be turned into a blessing.  This covenant of grace and blessing was then made to be the covenant of circumcision.

When by the prophet Jeremiah G-d stated that Israel had broken His covenant, He also promised that He would make His covenant anew with Israel.  This is the only translation in English that accurately reflects the Biblical revelation of he covenant of G-d.  It is the one eternal covenant made anew.

If it is eternal, why does it need to be made anew?  Although G-d speaks of His covenant with Israel as being eternal, He also speaks of it as being broken.  How are we to understand this?  We must begin by stating clearly that G-d announced His covenant with Abraham unilaterally, and made it unilaterally and unconditionally.  Abraham was only required to be Abraham.  His seed was only required to be his seed. Israel was only required to believe G-d and accept His covenant.  It is here where G-d found the problem which He called the breaking of His covenant.  Israel did not believe in Him to obey Him as children.  Instead they turned to worshipping idols.  Only a portion of Israel adhered to Him.  When it came about that they did obey Him, but without faith, as slave servants, this He called breaking His covenant.

Then He said to them, You have broken my covenant by not adhering to it from the heart.  Nevertheless, I will make my covenant with you anew.  I will circumcise your heart.  Although G-d alone guaranteed the covenant of grace and blessing which He made with Abraham and his seed, He treated the seed of Abraham as though everything depended upon Israel.  When Israel's heart failed and turned away from Him, He then began to win her heart back and put a new spirit within her.  By treating Israel as having the power to break the covenant that could not be broken, G-d actually gave her this power, but He did so only in His Messiah.

For in His Messiah, G-d was able to be, as it were, broken Himself, to have Israel break His covenant and His heart, but without ever breaking her heart, or His covenant with her.  He did this simply by saying, Though you have broken my covenant, I am simply going to repeat my covenant with you.  I am going to make my covenant anew with you, just as I made it with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all Israel at Mount Sinai.  For from the beginning it has been my covenant of grace and forgiveness, and the covenant of the blessing of my Instruction.  Through it you will again become one whole Adam.  For I am the G-d who heals you.

The Way of Love Is Prepared

God designed you to think together with Him in love.  Why would you desire to think any other way?  God designed you to walk together with Him in love.  Why would you desire to walk any other way?  God did not design you to be alone.  He made all people everywhere to be of one blood.  The soul of life which God created is in the blood.  All people were made to be together, together with God, to think with God, to walk with God, to be born, to live, to practice love with one another with God and not to die.  Why would we desire to go it alone without God, so that when we fail and fall not be able to rise up again?  Read more...

Series: What Is The Meaning of the Word, "Corporate," When Applied to Humanity? #1

From Adam to Abraham
Anthropology may speak of Individualistic or Collectivist cultures.  The meaning of these terms can help us think about the Biblical definition of Humanity.  The Bible defines Humanity as being corporate.  In the Bible the individual human being is not the definition of what Humanity is or is all about.  The Torah states definitively about the creation of the first Adam that it was not good for Adam to be a solitary individual.  The narrative is teaching that the solitary individual human being does not represent God's design of Humanity.  A cultural norm that is built on this idea is therefore not based on the Bible.  Nor is a collectivist cultural norm based on the Bible that is an expression of an attempt to counter or correct individualist alienation in a social structure by collecting many individuals together through human artifice in some hierarchical structure or some other structural network.

The Bible does not reveal a design of Humanity that establishes a whole by collecting individuals together but a design of Humanity that grows individuals out of an original organic corporate whole.  The male/female structure of Humanity, the marriage structure, is the basis of the corporate nature of Humanity.  As Paul said in Athens in Acts chapter 17, God made all Humanity of one blood.

When God made His One Eternal Covenant with Abraham and with Israel He began the corporate redemption of Humanity.  This introduces a great mystery and difficulty into the challenge of understanding the corporate nature of Humanity itself, into the very meaning of the word, "corporate," in relation to Humanity, as defined by the Bible.


The Galut as Helping To Define the Meaning of the Word, "Corporate"

The promise of the land to Abraham is at the heart of the One Eternal Covenant. That the Land would itself expel the people if they did not prove faithful to the covenant is also therefore of the essential nature of the covenant.  In terms of the Covenant and the Land, both in receiving the people of Israel and in expelling them if they prove unfaithful, the Land only recognizes the people corporately.

When Israel came up on G-d's eagle wings, so to speak, out of exile, the galut of Egypt, a representative corporate part of Humanity, of Adam, was being redeemed, in accordance with G-d's one eternal covenant.  When Israel camped before the mountain to receive the Torah, Israel did so as if one person, one body.  This is made clear by the singular form of  חנה Chanah (khaw-naw')   in the expression,  וַיִּחַן-שָׁם יִשְׂרָאֵל  "and encamped there Israel" in Shemot/Exodus 19:2.  This says that Israel received the Torah in the singular, corporate form.  In Israel's receiving the Torah, it was not every individual being addressed first in isolation and then asked if they would, or even told to, come together, form a collective and create a nation.  Every individual was addressed because the corporate whole of the nation was addressed as the nation was defined by the word of G-d, by the one eternal covenant of G-d.  There would be laws that were only for priests, laws that were only for kings, laws that were only for judges, etc.  All 613 commandments would have to be fulfilled, all at their proper times, forever, and it would require one corporate nation to do this.  Thus, taken as one, the whole Torah was a commandment of unity and a definition of Humanity as G-d defined it.

When Israel came up out of Egypt and received the Torah as one corporate entity, she was in the process of being redeemed.  This stage of her redemption was only fully accomplished when she actually crossed the Jordan river and entered into the Holy Land.  We will see that just as the exile, the galut, can only be a corporate action, so redemption can only be a corporate action.  Theories of redemption and of atonement that centre on the individual human person, at best, only point toward the truth.  Adam was not yet fully Adam, not yet the finished creation of Humanity, when he was alone.

How Could Abraham Know He Would Possess The Land?

The promise of eternal, universal blessing which G-d gave to Abraham, overthrowing the curse of death, was made to be the one eternal covenant to Abraham and his seed in response to Abraham's question asking G-d how he could know that he would possess the land.  Abraham had fully believed God, now he desired to add knowledge to his faith.

How are we to understand Jeremiah 31:1-4  and Jeremiah 16:14-15 with Isaiah 42:13 - 44:23 in light of the covenant that G-d made with Abraham in answer to Abraham's question?

Here is the premise of our understanding as brought to us through Jeremiah's prophecy of a new, fresh form of the covenant:  As Israel went into captivity to the nations under the form of the covenant given at Mt. Sinai, it could not be that same form of the covenant by itself that would draw them out of the captivity of the nations, but must be a new, fresh form of the covenant of the Torah, one that revealed salvation not only from Egypt and the nations but from sin itself.

It should be recognized from this that the terms of the covenant that G-d made with Abraham were themselves making reference to the terms of the covenant that would be given at Mt. Sinai, and at the same time, to the new, fresh terms of the covenant that would be made with the house of Judah and the house of Israel at a later time.  In other words, when G-d expressed the terms of his covenant with Abraham, saying that after his nation was in captivity in a foreign nation they would be redeemed and brought out from there to serve Him, he was referring to Mt. Sinai and to the Torah form of the covenant to be revealed at that time to the whole house of Israel.  It would be that Torah form of the covenant that would literally draw Israel up out of Egypt to Mt. Sinai to receive it.  But though Israel would receive the Torah, how would Abraham know that his nation would go on to observe the Torah and inherit the Land and serve God there in fulfilling the eternal, universal promise of blessing?

It is the answer to this question that the prophets spell out for us.  A new, fresh form of the covenant that would write the Torah on the heart and hearts of Israel would draw them up out of all nations and out of sin itself, to serve God in the Land of Promise.  It is in this way that G-d's one eternal covenant with Abraham assured Abraham that he would inherit the land, that not merely his converts would inherit it, but his own seed would inherit it.  For it is in this way alone that the blessing could overcome the curse.

Link here to go to the Hearing Seven Thunders site and link into the series on The Judgements in Exodus and The Revelation.

Peah

From Tractate Peah, Babylonian Talmud

{See my notes below}


Mishna one

   These are the things that have no measure:
    The Peah of the field, the first-fruits, the appearance,
    [at the Temple in Jerusalem on Pilgrimage Festivals],
    acts of kindness, and the study of the Torah.

   These are things the fruits of which
    a human being enjoys in this world,
    while the principle remains for them in the World to Come:
    Honouring father and mother,
    acts of kindness,
    and bringing peace between a man and his fellow.
    But the study of Torah is equal to them all.

Explanation

The first part of the mishnah lists things that have no measure: the size of a field’s “corners,” whose produce is left for the poor; how many “first fruits” to bring to Jerusalem as an offering; and how often to appear at the Temple during Pilgrimage Festivals, or how large an offering to bring when one appears. “Acts of kindness” and “study of the Torah” also have no predetermined legal measure, but rather each person decides how much to do.

The second part of the mishnah lists acts which benefit a person both during his lifetime and in the World to Come. The “principle” of the heavenly reward for these deeds is reserved for the World to Come, while the “fruits” (i.e. the profits or interest) are enjoyed during his lifetime.

That have no measure: That is, they are things whose value cannot be measured.

Peah: The namesake of this tractate, the Peah is the "corner" of a farmer's field that must be reserved for the poor.

First-fruits: When the Temple in Jerusalem was standing, Jews would bring the first fruits of their produce to a kohen on Shavuot in the early summer, after which the kohen would ask them to explain the Torah. The amount of first-fruits that would be given to the kohen would be up to the individual, hence its inclusion here in things which lack measurability.

From Wikisource > http://bit.ly/hoOTza

Mishna two

   One should not make the Peah less than 
    one-sixtieth of the entire crop,
    And though there no definite amount is given for Peah.
    It is all based upon the size of the field,
    the number of poor who will be collecting it,
    and the abundance of the crop.


Explanation

This Mishna says that when one fulfills the commandment of Peah he is obligated to give at least one-sixtieth of his crop (In Jewish law, one sixtieth is a common basis number for giving a minimum) as Peah. The Mishna goes on to say that if one has a big field with only a few poor coming to pick up food the sixtieth is based on the size of the field. If though one has a small field and more poor people coming to pick up food, one should base the sixtieth on the number of people coming. Additionally one with the later case should try to give more than the bare minimum. The Mishna concludes with the fact that one may not choose the Peah from only the inferior part of the crop and must include better produce also.

From Wikisource > http://bit.ly/fWBFrO


My notes =

Since the Torah is Written on the Heart

Since the Torah is written on the hearts of believers who follow Yehoshua the Messiah of Israel they look from the heart for how they might leave the corners of their fields of work for the poor.  This requires rectification on the corporate level.  Why?  Because it is a mitzvah of the land of Israel.  This is the blessing of Abraham.  In order for the blessing of Abraham to be realized the time is come for the need of all the families of the earth to be blessed through Abraham to be realized and satisfied.

How do we know this?  Mashiach is come, having given himself a ransom for Israel, though concealed for the sake of salvation by the gentleness of grace, until the hour when "the iniquity of the Amorites is full".


Peah is a Mitzvah of the Land of Israel

What does it mean that the mitzvah of peah is a mitzvah of the land of Israel?  Simply, the Torah is commanded to Israel and the mitzvah of peah cannot be carried out in exile by the Jewish people.  Nevertheless, insomuch that hope is in the heart of every Torah-hearted believer, Jew or Gentile, there is a desire for social justice.


Poverty and Inequity Are Not the Normal Design of Corporate Adam

What does the desire for social justice imply?  It implies the lack of social justice.  Poverty and inequity are not normal to the design of corporate Adam.  This is the primary shofar cry of the Torah.  What then is this cry for?  It is for restorative justice.  Wherever there is desire for social justice there is at the heart of this desire the root desire for restorative justice.  Before there can be complete Biblical social justice, there is a need for the wrong that has come into the world to be rectified through the manifestation of true Biblical restorative justice.  The need for the justice that can rectify the unrighteousness of corporate Adam is revealed by the desire found in all Torah-hearted people for the social justice promised by the Prophets.


The Refreshed Covenant

The Torah is in our hearts.  This is the fist part of the Refreshed Covenant.  The second part is "You will no longer say, 'Know the Lord!' They will all know Me - from the least to the greatest."  This second part builds on the first part.  This second part begins with the regeneration of the spirit of all Israel and goes on from this to the manifestation in all matters of complete equity in the practices of life which are involved in knowing the Lord, complete equity between the least and the greatest souls in Israel.  The Vine with all its branches will be fully alive and bearing its complete abundance of fruit.  This is the whole covenant that God made with Abraham and with all Israel on Mount Sinai refreshed in the blood of Mashiach.


The Regeneration of the Spirit of All Israel

What does it mean to speak of the regeneration of the spirit of all Israel? Even while the Torah is written on the heart of believers in the covenant word of God, of Jewish and non-Jewish believers, while Mashiach is concealed in heavenly places, the corners of the field of the whole land of Israel do not yet come together in covering the whole land.

What is this saying?  It is saying that perfect social justice is not yet accomplished, even in any one particular act where it is whole-heartedly intended. Even in that righteous act social justice is not perfect yet.  For no act of justice is complete until all is complete in all the land.  This means that the regeneration of the spirit of all Israel, though it exists now cannot be entirely seen now.  This does not mean that its power is any less.



Biblical Restorative Justice:  The Blessing of Abraham

We still struggle from the heart for a Torah-true social justice that can prepare us for the dissolution of this world and the translation of all redeemed life into the new heavens and the new earth, where selfishness is gone and cannot return.  That we still have this struggle is representative of the truth that Abraham is not fully blessed until all the families of the earth are fully blessed by blessing themselves through Abraham.  That is to say, through the one covenant of God, the covenant that God made with Abraham.

There is, so long as Mashiach is concealed and revealed only to faith a need for restorative justice in the earth to be revealed, a justice that can manifest the rectification of the wrong that exists between Adam and God that is brought about by Adam, by the whole family of Adam.  Only when this Biblical restorative justice is manifested can the hoped for social justice be manifested.  The revelation of Mashiach is the midpoint between these two.


Seeing From the Vantage Point of The World To Come

Until then we continue to struggle with the exile wherein Israel is divided into two houses and one of those houses is constitued by the word of God for the time being as being non-Israel.  Only from the vantage point of the world to come can it be seen that this "half" of Israel, which is under the branch of Joseph, has always been truly constitued as Israel, just as the other "half" which was openly preserved in this world under the branch of Judah.

From the vantage point of this world it cannot be seen. For this is a matter of the resurrection of the dead.  Nevertheless, it is seen by God and by anyone who sees with God by faith that both houses are already as one in Mashiach.  But again, this is concealed from sight as Mashiach is concealed from sight in the present hour.


Let Us Go On

This does not diminish the salvation that is in him, nor the unfolding of that salvation wherein the nations are corpartely blessed in that they are attached to the branch of Joseph, all under the name, Egypt, and Abraham's covenant is eternally refreshed.  So, let us go on, toward the hour of the removal of the blindfold that is upon the world, when the justice of God that restores all things will be seen and God's social justice can be estabished in all the land of Israel, when the Redeemer reigns in Jerusalem, and brings his justice in all the earth, and the four corners of the field of righteousness in all the earth are all made to overlap one another, when in the Land of Israel Adam is restored whole, through the justice of God.

The One Eternal Covenant in Psalms 20

May He send your help from the Sanctuary and support you out of Tziyon.  Psalms 20:3

ישלח-עזרך מקדש  ומציון יסעדך

May He send your help from the eternal Sanctuary above and support you out of the eternal Sanctuary below.

Much confusion and destruction has come into the world due to guess-work readings of the words in the Bible that speak about the one eternal covenant - guess-work readings that have been taught with assumed authority, as if they were not guess-work readings at all but explanations of the truth.  Virtually all of these guesswork readings are based on the idea that there is more than one covenant of God.  This notion can arise when we listen to the sound of the language in the Bible about God's covenant making instead of listening first and foremost to what is said.

Especially in English and in other foreign languages, (much more than in Hebrew), the sound of the language can lead the natural mind to jump to the conclusion that because there is more than one covenant making event on the part of God there is therefore more than one covenant of God.  Bible interpreters can easily assume that because the language sounds like God is making a covenant with Noah, a covenant with Abraham, a covenant with Israel at Mount Sinai, a covenant with David, and promising a new covenant by the prophet, Jeremiah, and because human beings will sometimes make various covenants, that God is just like human beings and makes more than one covenant.  To come to this conclusion is to misunderstand the nature of the covenant of God.

In fact, it is possible to speak accurately of God making a covenant with Abraham on the one hand, and then to speak, say, of God making a covenant with David, on the other hand, but it is the act of making that is distinct and different, not God's covenant itself.  Indeed, the nature of a covenant is that it is essentially a promise.  It is essentially giving one's word to another.

If God had simply said to Noah, to Abraham, to Israel, to David, "I give you my word", we would not think that there was more than one eternal word of God.  The only difference in God making a covenant is that in making a promise to someone God is saying to them, as it were, "I am not only giving you my promise, I am giving you myself, my whole person, in my promise.  If my promise is not true, then neither am I true."

This is the meaning of God making a covenant.  He illustrates this clearly in the form that He uses to make a covenant with Abraham.  When God makes a covenant He is pledging His word, and His whole being with His word.  It is not then that there is more than one eternal word of God, that God should pledge a different part of Himself to different parties on different occasions.  God is one.  His word is one. The promise of God is one.

What is different is what the promise of God means to different people at different times and on different occasions.  For God to pledge Himself to Noah meant that Noah and his children did not have to fear that the end of the world would come through dissolution by water.  The world would indeed end, but it would not end by being dissolved back to the condition where it was empty and formless.  However it would end it would end with some of its characteristics still in place.  God was pledging Himself to Noah to say that He was committed to redeem something of the world that He had preserved Noah and his family to live in.  There was a reason to live and to try to build a better world.  In the end, there would be something that would be saved.

When God pledged Himself to Abraham it was on a much higher order of revelation.  He pledged Himself to Abraham as though He were a man pledging Himself to a spouse.  As God had made the heavens His sanctuary in Creation, so Abraham and his offspring would be God's sanctuary on earth.  This level of the revelation of God's word, His promise, His pledge of Himself, His covenant, was so high that it would require many generations and events and further expressions of His covenant in order to teach human beings the consciousness that they would require in order to fully receive it.  Nevertheless, it was a pledge that was as certain as God's very existence.  It was His covenant.

Still, someone will say, But was not the covenant at Mount Sinai different?  Was not that covenant conditional, dependent on Israel keeping the commandments?  Whereas God's covenants with Noah and with Abraham were unconditional.  The appearance of conditions has caused anyone who asks this question to overthrow the revelation that God is one and His covenant, His word, is one.  God is not a God who can give His word here unconditionally and there conditionally.  At Mount Sinai God gives His word unconditionally, just as He gave it unconditionally to Abraham.

It is immeasurable grace that God should reveal, wholly and in great detail, the nature of His wisdom, His mind, His will to Israel in the form of His Torah.  When they do and believe His commandments, if they believe and do His word, they will know that His covenant is one, unconditional and eternal.  When they sin they will be corrected.

This is also the way the apparent conditions of God's giving His covenant to David and to his house are to be understood.  This covenant that God is making with David and his house is, and can only be, the one covenant that He made with Abraham and with All-Israel.  When any son of David serves God in the work of God keeping His word to Israel they will know that God's word is a word of unconditional grace.  When any son of David sins and strays from this service they will be corrected.

Even so, someone will say, But does God not say to Israel by the prophet that they broke His covenant? If it is only one eternal and unconditional covenant, how could Israel be in a position to break it?  Anyone who asks this question has allowed the sound of words to overthrow the understanding of those words in their mind.

If we know that God is one and that His word is one and that He has pledged His whole Self to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob, and to their offspring, then we must understand that this language is divine metaphor, like all language that seems to limit God, but does so only for the sake of our understanding.  What, then, is this like?

What are we to understand when we read that God said to Israel, You have broken my covenant? We are to understand this as though it said, You have broken my heart.  You have treated me as though my word was nothing, as though I did not exit, as though I were nothing.  But all of this is metaphorical language.  For we know that God's word cannot be broken.

Someone will still ask, But if there is only one covenant, why does Scripture speak of a new covenant?  Again, the Scripture speaks with divine poetry, the poetry with which God is redeeming the world.  It is as if to say, Because in your heart, My Israel, you did not believe My word, you made my word to be as if it were old.  You made my covenant as if it were a thing of the past.  Therefore, I will make my covenant forever new.  I will write my Torah upon your heart.  I will pledge of Myself to you to bring forth new heavens and a new earth, where no sin can enter in, where righteousness dwells alone.

There is no other help.  There is no other support, than the one eternal covenant of God.

May He send your help from the Sanctuary and support you out of Tziyon.  Psalms 20:3

ישלח-עזרך מקדש  ומציון יסעדך

May He send your help from the eternal Sanctuary above and support you out of the eternal Sanctuary below.