A Company of One
One ordinance shall be both for you of the congregation, and also for the stranger who sojourns with you, an ordinance forever in your generations; as you are, so shall the stranger be before the Lord. One Torah and one code shall be for you, and for the stranger who sojourns with you. Numbers 15:15-16 (Hebrew World)
One – The redemptive plan of the Scriptures depends on the concept of ehad (one). This word about essential unity not only governs our thoughts about the single Creator and King of the universe (God is ehad as noted in the Shema), it also should direct our thoughts toward the unity Yeshua prays for in the Garden (John 17:22), the unity intended in the reunion of marriage (Genesis 2:24) and the necessary unity required to provoke God’s people to stand apart as one Body (Romans 11:14). Just as God is one, so His plan is one. It is precisely the same plan for any child of Abraham, whether Jew or Gentile. Long before there was any division among followers concerning “law and grace,” God already instructed His people that all who resided within the camp had the same ordinances and the same Torah. Belief and practice didn’t depend on family of origin, only on family of adoption.
If God tells us that all those who are called by His name are to have the same worldview, the same code of conduct and the same understanding of His purposes, then can there really be any debate about diet, legal rulings, sacrifices, worship or social and civic responsibilities? If Torah is the same for anyone who is adopted into the family, does that mean we can pick and choose which Torah instructions we want to follow? Aren’t God’s instructions valid for everyone who claims Him as Father and King? It certainly seems as if this is the posture prior to Augustine, Tertullian and Marcion. If God tells Moses that everyone in the assembly (the qehelah) has the same code of conduct, why do Christians and Jews seem so different today? Could it be that both groups have departed from the single set of instructions?
From the end of the Apostolic age to the time of Constantine, Hellenism made significant inroads into the mixed congregation of Jews and Gentiles who followed the Way. By 200 AD, Gentile believers far outnumbered Jewish believers. At the same time, following the destruction of the temple in 72 AD, Judaism began to move from its eclectic conglomeration of different schools of thought as certain branches of Pharisees became the voice of the people without a temple. These men redefined Judaism and established the trajectory that Judaism follows today. Neither Christianity nor Judaism attempted to maintain the unity found in the first century followers of the Way. In spite of the fact that there is historical evidence demonstrating that the early believers in Yeshua as Messiah were congregations of both Jews and Gentiles until perhaps the fourth century, contemporary Judaism and Christianity are now worlds apart.
But that isn’t what God intended. What God intended is a Body unified by His Torah. The critical question for followers of the one true God today is this: Will I take steps in my own life to bring about this unity? If I am a Christian, will I begin to live a Torah obedient life so that I can recover the ground lost between my Jewish brothers and sisters and me? If I am a Jew, will I recognize that Yeshua is Jewish, that He advocated Torah obedience and that He calls all His followers to Torah? If I am a Christian, will I take on Torah as a sign of my commitment to the God of Israel? If I am a Jew, will I read Sha’ul without the baggage imported by theologians after Augustine?
How will I begin to heal the breach? How will I show that I understand ‘ehad? What must I do today to bring God’s people closer to His purposes?
Topical Index: ehad, one, unity, Torah, Numbers 15:16
REMINDER: If you are going to Israel with Skip and Bob, you need to let us know.
“What must I do today to bring God’s people closer to His purposes?” What a powerful statement!
“What God intended is a Body unified by His Torah.”
Without attempting to diminish the important of written Torah, Is not Yeshua, the living Torah, the Torah made flesh (John 1:1ff), the unification point of biblical theology? See John 14:1, esp. v.6.
Yup, and he taught us to keep the Torah in both forms, written and in the flesh (his example).
Hi Skip
I have been away with no internet connection but on returning today I found this word based on Numbers 15 excellent – is it permissable to print of some copies to give to a couple of people who have expressed interest but are of the mindset that there is one way for Christian and another for Jews! This says it so well and answers some of the questions I have had asked the other day. Some may not have internet otherwise I would send them to your site. Let me know. Just read the other three days ‘word for today’…..wow very thought provoking and lots of interesting comments. This is a great site.
Christine
Use anything I write as the Lord leads you. Perhaps others will be encouraged to join us.
OK Skip, will do. Thanks
Even within the groups who do follow Torah, there is still a plan of the enemy to bring division. So many labels that do nothing but bring hostility and division. When my eyes were opened to the truth re: Torah, I was so excited to find others like me. What I found were as many sects within Torah observant people as denominations within Christian community. There are a few like, Skip, who steer clear of labels, and try to promote what we DO have in common instead of how we might differ. Thank you for that, Skip.
Hi Glory,
I am finding the multitude of Messianic “sects” as well. This has been disheartening to me at times, but we carry on and go forward in our learning and doing as He leads.
As the song goes, “…though none go with me, still I will follow…”.
Skip I recently bought a beautiful book which you and others may be interested in reading….with your ‘study’ background you may have read it. It is called ‘Resurrecting Hebrew’ by Ilan Stavans. It is recommended by Eli Wiesel, Howard Schwartz and others. ISBN 978-0-8052-4231-7. I have been learning the beautiful language by myself!!! And although have just started the book…fiction entwined with story of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda…it is a masterpiece and if you havent read it I think you/others who are lovers of the language would really enjoy it.
Christine
From ev’ry stormy wind that blows,
From ev’ry swelling tide of woes,
There is a calm, a sure retreat:
‘Tis found beneath the mercy seat.
There is a place where Jesus sheds
The oil of gladness on our heads;
A place than all besides more sweet;
It is the blood-bought mercy seat.
There is a scene where spirits blend,
Where Friend holds fellowship with friend;
Though sundered far, by faith they meet
Around one common mercy seat.
There, there, on eagles’ wings we soar,
And time and sense seem all no more;
And heaven comes down, our souls to greet,
And glory crowns the mercy seat.
Oh, let my hand forget her skill,
My tongue be silent, cold, and still,
This bounding heart forget to beat,
If I forget the mercy seat!
Ah! Whither could we flee for aid,
When tempted, desolate, dismayed:
Or how the hosts of hell defeat,
Had suff’ring saints no mercy seat?
Ah! there on eagle wings we soar,
And sin and sense molest no more:
and heav’n comes down our souls to greet,
While glory crowns the mercy seat.
Lyrics:
Hugh Stowell, 1799–1865