Repulsive Instructions
“Though I wrote for him ten thousand precepts of My law, they are regarded as a strange thing.” Hosea 8:12 NASB
Strange thing – “Don’t talk to strangers!” we tell our young children. Why not? Well, for one thing, strangers may be dangerous. Strangers may not wish you shalom. Strangers are to be feared and avoided.
Apparently Israel once felt the same way toward God. Hosea voices God’s concern. “No matter how many precepts I write for you, no matter how carefully I instruct you for your own good, you act as if my efforts are repugnant, distasteful and only worthy of being treated as alien.” The same word (zara) that means loathsome is used here for “strange thing.” This isn’t just about something unusual or odd. This is about something hateful. Israel doesn’t just reject God’s direction. Israel hates God’s direction.
You will complain, “But this isn’t true of everyone in Israel.” Of course it isn’t, but it is true enough of the majority for God to focus His attention on the fact. That means that when Hosea portrays a living picture of the spiritual adultery and consequent divorce between God and Israel, Israel is in a really terrible condition. Israel considers God’s instruction something vile. Israel learned a great lesson in the Captivity; a lesson that has stuck with Israel ever sense. God’s precepts matter! They aren’t strange. They are essential, near at hand and filled with grace.
OK, we get this. Israel needed correction. But what does that have to do with us? My guess is that God could say exactly the same words to the Christian community today. “I wrote ten thousand instructional guidelines for living, but you Christians have treated them as if they are completely alien to you.” God gave us a plan for worship. He gave us interpersonal ethical guidance. He gave us commands about property. He provided us with a diet. He offered instruction on handling money and contracts. He told us what to do about court proceedings, divorce, marriage and sex. He gave us guidance on farming, buying and selling and business negotiations. He told us when to rest.
And we have treated nearly all of His instructions as if they were completely foreign, worthless, antiquated nonsense. In fact, we have even gone so far as to suggest that God’s plans were inadequate to bring about His desired end and had to be modified to fit our needs.
Makes you wonder, doesn’t it? Just who is the stranger here?
Topical Index: strange thing, precept, zara, Hosea 8:12
Don’t Be A Stranger
You used to be dead (separated) because of your sins and acts of disobedience. You walked in the ways of the ‘olam hazeh and obeyed the Ruler of the Powers of the Air, who is still at work among the disobedient. Indeed, we all once lived this way – we followed the passions of our flesh and obeyed the wishes of our flesh and our own thoughts. In our natural condition we were headed for God’s wrath, just like everyone else. But God is so rich in mercy and loves us with such intense love that, even when we were dead because of our acts of disobedience, He brought us to life along with the Messiah – it is by grace that you have been delivered. That is, God raised us up with the Messiah Yeshua and seated us with Him in heaven, in order to exhibit in the ages to come how infinitely rich is His grace, how great is His loving-kindness toward us who are united with the Messiah Yeshua. For you have been delivered by grace through trusting, and even this is not your accomplishment but it is the gift of God. You were not delivered by your own actions; therefore no one should boast. 1For we are of God’s making, created in union with the Messiah Yeshua for a life of good actions already prepared by God for us to do. Therefore, remember your former state: you Gentiles by birth – called the Uncircumcised by those who, merely because of an operation on their flesh, are called the Circumcised – at that time had no Messiah. You were estranged from the national life of Isra’el. You were foreigners to the covenants embodying God’s promise. You were in this world without hope and without God. But now, you who were once far off have been brought near through the shedding of the Messiah’s blood. For He Himself is our shalom – He has made us both one and has broken down the m’chitzah which divided us by destroying in His own body the enmity occasioned by the Torah, with its commands set forth in the form of ordinances. He did this in order to create in union with Himself from the two groups a single new humanity and thus make shalom, and in order to reconcile to God both in a single body by being executed on a stake as a criminal and thus in Himself killing that enmity. Also, when He came, He announced as “Good News” shalom to you far off and shalom to those nearby, news that through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.
So then, you are no longer foreigners and strangers.
On the contrary, you are fellow-citizens with God’s people and members of God’s family. You have been built on the foundation of the emissaries and the prophets, with the cornerstone being Yeshua the Messiah Himself. In (blood-covenant) union with Him the whole building is held together, and it is growing into a holy temple in union with our LORD. Yes, in union with Him, you yourselves are being built together into a spiritual dwelling-place for God!
If I want to be freed from the ‘curse of my marriage’, I am not necessarily wanting to be free from my marriage. I just need to be freed from the conflict and negativity that plagues my marriage.
Similarly, if Yeshua has ‘abolished the enmity’, it is not the same as ‘abolishing the Torah’. Unless all those directives were simply arbitrary — Yeshua showed the sweetness of following Torah which was then, and is now, the clearest way of learning about and seeking God.
There was a treatment of Ephesians 2:14-15 here:
https://skipmoen.com/2011/08/01/a-comma-here-a-comma-there/
No amount of law-keeping can bridge the gap between our sinfulness and God’s holiness. God says through Isaiah that all of our righteous deeds are like a “polluted garment,” and Paul reiterated to the Romans that “no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law” (3:20).
After that, we need some good news! Jesus doesn’t fail. He promises to all who come to Him that He will give them rest from the heavy burden of trying to earn our way into heaven and rest from the oppressive yoke of self-righteousness and legalism. Jesus encourages those who are “heavy laden” to take His yoke upon them and in so doing they will find rest for their souls. The yoke of Jesus is light and easy to carry because it is the yoke of repentance and faith followed by a singular commitment to follow Him. It is finished. He has made peace. Believe. That is the “work” we must do to be saved.
Hi Dorothy,
I would agree with your statement that “No amount of law-keeping can bridge the gap between our sinfulness and God’s holiness” but how can one equate “our” righteousness with what YHWH has revealed as His righteousness?
No equation possible at all. Our ‘righteousness’ is a stinking mess before Him. Eeeewwee
Mary, hang on, I’m going to answer what I think is your real question in a long trip around the mountain. Lol.
“He spoke a new parable to them; no man rends a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment; else he will rend the new, and also the piece will not agree with the old.” Luke 5: 36
Notice He said: ” no man no man rends a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment.”
Well, suppose he did, what then? He will cause a rip in the new garment, and with the gap being removed from the old one, it is now torn, as well. In that case nothing is fixed, but both would be ruined.
“The new wine must be put into fresh wineskins”
We can learn from a wine maker:
When wine is completely fermented–it can be put into any bottle, old or new–it will not burst them.
Hold tight to that thought.
Wine in the process of fermenting, or that which is inteneded to become fermented, would burst any bottle, old or new, in the process.
Wine, unfermented can only be kept in new bottles.
If we put the unfermented wine into the old, where the fermented has been, it will be infected by the old, and will burst them.
The new wine Jesus is talking about here is the new wine of the Kingdom, unfermented, pure wine.
He says you cannot put that back into your old bottle, the old has already been contaminated with fermented juices.
In essence, the lesson is: you cannot put God’s new wine, the unfermented wine of the Kingdom, into these same old bottles,
because if you do, it will become fermented too, and break the bottles and everything will be lost.”
What is the great teaching here? It is that He did not come to mend, but to end the past and start the new; and that the things of
His Kingdom, the things He had come to initiate, cannot e contained within the formula of the past.
It requires new forms, new methods, new laws, new rules, new wineskins for the new wine.
When He had said that [5: 36 given above], He added,
“No man having drunk old wine desires new; for he says, the old is good.” (vs. 39)
It was a satirical condemnation of these men. You are satisfied with the old; you have been drinking the old, you are drunk; you are saying we like the old best!
THAT is why they crucified Him!
[[*parts above from C. Campbell Morgan commentary on Luke titled: The God Who Cares]]
The new thing is the wonder of Christ’s grace, that He would call a publican to be His disciple and follower. It is a wonder of his grace, that He came to call sinners to repentance, and to assure them of pardon. It is the wonder of His grace, that He so patiently bears with the contradiction of sinners against Himself. It is a wonder of his grace, that He fixed the services of His disciples according to their strength. It is the wonder of His marvelous grace that He will show us His loving kindness forever and ever throughout the ages to come.
Jesus does not simply represent a new way of doing things. Rather, He is SUPREME.
He is the actual fulfillment of the old way of doing things and is therefore greater than those ways. The book of Hebrews spends a great deal of time telling us this.
(Heb. 8:6). In essence, Jesus is greater than the Old Testament system. He both encompasses and supersedes the old way of doing things.
His is a permanent Priesthood. Therefore He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, because He always lives to intercede for them.
The word “priest” carries a couple of primary meanings. It denotes one who mediates in religious services. It also means one who is Holy or set apart to perform those services.
Like Melchizedek, Jesus is ordained as a priest apart from the Law given on Mount Sinai (Heb. 5:6). Like the Levitical priests, Jesus offered a sacrifice to satisfy the Law of God when He offered Himself for our sins (Heb. 7:26-27). Unlike the Levitical priests, who had to continually offer sacrifices, Jesus only had to offer His sacrifice once, gaining eternal redemption for all who come to God through Him (Heb. 9:12).
Dothory, I think the point that you made is good one and a necessary one; that a new way, a new and living paradigm shift of epic proportions and eternal ramifications has occurred, but here, to me, is where many in the traditional church (and perhaps yourself) fall short of the very goal you espouse. Messiah didn’t come to DO salvation for us, (yes, He did die for our sins, which we couldn’t do) but just as important, He came to show us the way (still Torah, but without the added burdens and restrictive fences added by the rabbis). And, most importantly, He now gives us the ability by His Spirit to do so fully, freely and fervently, (Ezekiel 11,18,& 36. Jeremiah 24:7) but make no mistake, once thus “saved” by trusting in His blood, we aren’t immediately raptured into heaven (possible, but unlikely) so we still have to live in this world and DO so by following His commands, precepts, right rulings and ways (Torah). We will be judged on this basis; even our entry and place in the soon coming millennial Kingdom will be along this line. (Matt 5:19). To believe that ‘Jesus has done it all’ and that we only need to believe on the finished work to gain entry to “heaven” is one thing, but to espouse that it is the end of the story or that a new way has been given to walk in this life that contrary to Torah, one that Jesus supposedly taught, is a grave error. I’m not accusing you (or others whom I don’t know) of such easy believeism, but I’m making an assessment based on my past errors, my personal conversations with those who believe this way and the zeitgeist of this church age. As always; Shalom, Michael
Amein! Love your comments, Michael.
We do need to work out our salvation through fear/reverence, and trembling,
while YHWH completes HIS work in us, in restoring us back to HIS ways.
Hello again Dorothy,
Sorry for the delay in my response. Quite possible you weren’t even expecting one, though. 😉
My position is this: all the obvious references to the Law/Torah/Words/instruction…display the righteousness of The Sovereign. If we do according to His precepts with proper heart, loving and adoring Him as HE says, it is His righteousness. If I do my own thing or what someone else tells me is right, and it differs from what He says, that becomes MY righteousness. The latter, it appears to me, is what stinks.
May I be very quick to add, I fall wayyyy short farrrr too often! I can’t argue your comments, but I don’t accept those “new” teachings and patterns anymore. I will agree to a point, but the position that the abolished Law sets us free is incongruent with the totality of Scripture. The old wineskins may refer to unflinching Jews who refused to accept Yeshua’s Messiahship OR it could very well refer to others who so staunchly refuse to have their eyes opened to something else that the veil cannot be lifted from their vision. Somewhat like a person who hardens their heart through disobedience and then God hardeining it. He then gives them over, at some point, to what their heart chooses to desire.
The ancient path is as relevant today as it was then. I see no gap in theology between OT/NT
except for the misguided opinions of anti-semite expositors who are so affectionately referred
to as “early church fathers”. My problem is how to live it out while my husband struggles with
all this.
I think it is time to let the pig out of the poke and let’s be about our Father’s business. HE has
the plan…AND He has not withheld it. Some with “another gospel” have crept in and ….we are living in the result. Shalom, Dorothy
Hosea 1:2
King James Version (KJV) 2
And the Lord said to Hosea
Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms
and children of whoredoms:
for the land hath committed great whoredom,
departing from the Lord.
Hosea 6:6
What I want is love
not sacrifice
knowledge of God
not holocausts
Hmmm
At this point in time
Yahweh appears to have his nostrils flared
Looking for a manifestation of Himself
Yeshua obviously has Hosea in mind
With his message of peace, love, and fidelity
Yes, I love dwelling on the peace and love part, too!
Jesus’ teachings support the concept of God as a God of wrath who judges sin.
Jesus said in John 3:36, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on Him.”
The one who believes in the Son will not suffer God’s wrath for his sin, because the Son took God’s wrath when He died in our place on the cross (Rom. 5:6-11). Those who do not believe in the Son, who do not receive Him as Savior, will be judged on the day of wrath (Rom. 2:5-6).
God has definitely done all He is going to do to make peace with us. Provided the Perfect Lamb, gave His only Son. Oh, that was/is sufficient! Thank You, Father. Thank You, Thank You, Thank You.
echo into infinity . . . [the loud voice in heaven will be mine]
The one who believes in the Son will not suffer God’s wrath for his sin, because the Son took God’s wrath when He died in our place on the cross (Rom. 5:6-11). Those who do not believe in the Son, who do not receive Him as Savior, will be judged on the day of wrath (Rom. 2:5-6).
Hi Dorothy,
In my Bible, Romans 5:6-11 says “He will repay each one as his works deserve”
And that those who have been sinful will suffer the wrath of God
For me, “sin” is an ambiguous term, so I don’t like to think in those terms
We were designed with sinful desires so, theoretically, we could be sinning all the time
And not even be aware of it
But our actions are typically fairly clear to ourselves and to others
So I tend to think in terms of behavior, but I’m not a “behaviorist”
Rather I tend to think our behavior reflects our faith
Jesus thought of himself as a servant of God
That is a very clear concept to me
This blog, the lessons the comments to it are inspirational! Before finding it I was just muddling along, but now find myself plunged into directed and intense study. The book of Roman, this GOD, His words are thrilling. What a treasure trove. I have read it many times, but it never fails to be fresh, and more exciting than finding a gold mine!
Thank you all for coming here and thinking together. This is better than any sermon I ever heard. I get as much, maybe even more, out of what I disagree with than what I agree with, it sends me on voyages of discovery and wonder! Now I am not just idling along, I have my direction back.
Ann, You wrote: “I have my direction back.” Yeah! Sounds like more than that even! Zeal perhaps? Good for you. This site has a way of doing that, both Skip and those commenting. Thanks to all, but especially to Yah for making all this possible; Skip’s ability and willingness to serve, the freedom he gives to us freely share with the community uncensored, for Patrick-Skips “tech geek” for his behind the scenes workings and for allowing us the privedledge of reading, wrestling, posting, and growing via of TW and His Torah. Thank you for sharing from your heart; it made me conscious of my own gratitude, growth and giving. Shalom, Michael
Well said, Skip, may I add to it?
Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, [even] the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto my words, nor to my law (Torah), but rejected it. Jeremiah 6:19
And the LORD saith, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein; But have walked after the imagination of their own heart, and after Baalim, which their fathers taught them: Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will feed them, [even] this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink. I will scatter them also among the heathen, whom neither they nor their fathers have known: and I will send a sword after them, till I have consumed them. Jer. 9:14-16
Sidenote: Have any Christians ever compared the NT admonition of “following the Spirit” to the above “obeyed my voice” ?
In answer to your question Randy, I believe there are Christians who have well-meaningly followed the Spirit and obeyed His voice. I have personally witnessed (and in the past been a part of) a group who takes very seriously hearing, following and obeying God’s Word – believing that this is “following the Spirit.”
The unfortunate side-effect of this is that this particular group (like so many others) draws a tight circle around themselves and thinks internally, sometimes even expressing outwardly, that they’re the only ones who are truly saved – that they are God’s elect, the remnant, the faithful, the saints. All others are lost and need their truth in order to be corrected and placed on the path to salvation & heaven.
Though well-meaning, this is a slippery slope indeed, and leads to cultish thinking and behavior.
“Following the Spirit” and “Obeyed My Voice”, as somewhat equivalent sayings?
I like it.
There is so much “spiritual” instruction in the Torah, it makes sense. Comparing them both brings out both the outward and the inward aspects of love, obedience, loyalty, ect.
My point was antithetical to the commonly held viewpoint that the First Covenanters did not “follow the Spirit”, yet here in the text we have mentioned following Torah and obeying
G-d’s voice. If this isn’t following the Spirit, what is it?
Exactly. And blessed are the peacemakers,… peacemakers who like you, also make peace between the “Old” and “New” testaments.
P.S. ARGGHHHH!!! I’m going to pirate your insight for my own use later.
Isn’t one of the main questions the “divorce” that occurred between God & his people (Israel), exacerbated by their rejection of Yeshua as Messiah?
How far does that divorce go? And how is it balanced with “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Deut 31:6,8; Josh 1:5, Heb 13:5)?
I have heard it taught that when the curtain of the temple was torn in half from top to bottom (something only God could’ve done) at the moment of Yeshua’s death (Mt 27:51, Mk 15:38, Lk 23:45) it symbolized the abolition of the Old Covenant, ushering in the New and amplifying the divorce of God from Israel.
Today, especially in America, the Jews are as far from God as ever. By my observation, most of the Jews I know (and they are many) leave no place for God in their lives. Even those that Bar Mitzvah their children, attend synagogue regularly, etc., profess to not even believe in God. It is astonishing!
Clearly this “divorce decree” (for lack of a better term) and separation of God from Israel has been used historically to distance the Christian world from their Jewish brothers, as you’ve articulated in so many ways, Skip.
How does this “divorce” apply today?
~ How does this “divorce” apply today? ~
God instructed Hosea to marry a harlot. Why? This picture or parable of the prophet is -even though we have gone whoring after other gods, God (our Husband) is (always) faithful.
I am so blessed to be amoungst like mined believers! This is my frist time I have logged onto this page and am certianly going to study it. Trust we will all be a blessing to oneanother. As steel sharpens steel. All in love and to His glory