Beneficiaries
All the LORD’s paths are kindness and truth for the keepers of His pact and His precepts. Psalm 25:10 Robert Alter translation
Keepers – Think of the covenant like a trust fund with conditions. All of God’s kindness and truth is available as a result of the trust He established. But the benefits aren’t for everyone. The requirement for enjoying the benefits of this fund is simple: be a keeper of His “pact” and “precepts.” The Hebrew words are berit (covenant) and ‘edut (testimony).[1] The fact that ‘edut is a “God-only” word and is associated with the tabernacle and the ark should tell us that it is intimately connected to God’s revelation of instructions for men and women. It describes the place of worship and promise. In other words, if you want to benefit from God’s faithfulness and reliability, you must live according to His covenant agreement and His legal provisions. Obedience = benefits. Disobedience = no benefits. What could be more straightforward?
It’s worth noting that David begins this thought with “all.” In fact, kol is part of his acrostic poem, beginning with the letter kaf. All of God’s paths, not just some of them, not even the majority of them. All of them. Every way that God leads, guides and directs is tied to obedience. Yes, grace is available to all but once accepted, everything depends on obedience. There is absolutely no room for Luther’s idea that obedience is optional. There is no place for grace as a substitute for Torah, for forgiveness in lieu of expected submission. There is no beneficiary clause for the disobedient.
It takes enormous theological arrogance to disregard this consistent theme of all Scripture (including the New Testament). In fact, as John Gager suggests, “For when Luther’s antithesis between Law and Gospel is applied to the relationship between Judaism and Christianity, the result is a conglomeration of falsities in which the ‘facts’ of history disappear altogether behind a cloud of religious polemic.”[2] As we know, Gager isn’t the only modern voice insisting that the age-old dichotomy between “law” and “grace” is not only bad exegesis, it isn’t historically supported by the earliest believers. Something happened on the way to Rome and the philosophically inclined Gentile converts reshaped Paul’s arguments so that Paul’s rabbinic commitment to Torah obedience was literally turned on its head. The result has been the complete denial of verses like this one in the Psalms.
But we are awake now. We see that the New Testament view is no different than David’s view; that one is simply the extension of the other. We are awake to the theology, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t asleep in practice. We know Gager’s analysis. We understand Eisenbaum, Young and Gaston. But are we actually living like God’s men and women? Do we do or do we just say? Have we committed ourselves to discovering how Torah applies to us today or is it just historical curiosity? The “keepers” inherit the benefits. The rest may be unpleasantly surprised.
Topical Index: Torah, covenant, berit, testimony, ‘edut, grace, Psalm 25:10
[1] “This word is always used in reference to the testimony of God. It is most frequently connected with the tabernacle (Ex 38:21; Num 1:50, 53), resulting in the expression ‘tabernacle of the testimony,’ and with the ark (Ex 25:22; 26:33, 34; 30:6, 26), resulting in the phrase ‘ark of the testimony.’” [TWOT 1576]
[2] John Gager, The Origins of Anti-Semitism, p. 33.
PRAYER REQUEST: Today my youngest son, Michael, will have surgery. While the surgery is not life threatening, the rehab is very long and very painful. Please keep him in your prayers this morning. Thank you.
Prayers for Michael’s surgery and speedy recovery.
As we pray today for Michael to endure a shorter and
less painful recovery, lets also pray for those among us
whose flirtation with disobedience will also endure their
less than long and painful realization that the benefits of
keeping the truth still patiently await their repentance.
I among them.
We will remember Michael in our morning prayers!
Praying for Michael today and in weeks to come. May this be a time of profound growth.
I know exactly what you mean. The congregation that my husband attend they believe
That Torah is done and away with, that only grace is what matters.
But I understand that all the word of Yehovah still apply even today.
Thank you so much for bringing so much clarity to so many of us who for many years has walk
in darkness, that we also were blind to the “ALL THE PATH OF YEHOVAH”.
Amen.
First: Hoping and praying Michael’s surgery went well and that he has a speedy recovery.
Second: Thank you for the encouragement in today’s post. Just two nights ago we had our neighbors over for dinner. Part of the discussion was about how excited they were to be expanding their new rabbit operation and just how much meat one rabbit could produce in a year, how tasty the “meat salad” she served to their kids was and how they thought it was chicken salad etc etc. They have said we should come over for stew, or fried rabbit sometime…
Biblical food instructions are pretty clear and I am pretty sure rabbit isn’t considered food for a follower of the God of the Bible. So, as they were leaving I followed them out the door and said I needed to tell them something. I said “I wouldn’t say we would never eat rabbit, because if we were starving we might (weightier matters of Torah???), but as a general rule we wouldn’t because Biblically it is in the same category as Pork…” He looked confused and she understood and even quoted Leviticus about not having a split hoof and eating cud… So really it went well, BUT I felt so bad afterward!
I was afraid I had offended him, and at the very least took away some of his enjoyment of having built new pens and done all his research. I really tried to be loving, and said I wasn’t trying to be difficult etc etc but later I did question whether or not I should have spoken. Some reassurance came after reading through the verses in Leviticus again. Just the same, today’s post is encouraging and it boggles my mind how something that really is clear to me caused me so much grief! I really have trouble determining how to handle tzitzit, tefillin, etc and have gone back and forth in “practice” of those instructions and do not look forward to the “tension” of trying to explain them! 🙂
Anyway, I am so grateful for your teachings that cut right through the doubt and indecision and encourage us to be who we are and to “live like God’s men and women.”