Torah The Arrow That Points to Messiah

This Book of the Torah (Teaching) will not depart from your mouth, but you will meditate on it day and night, so you can observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Jos 1:8

The Hebrew word TaNaKh (Old Testament a Christian term) is an acronym formed from the first letters of: Torah/five books of Moses, Nevi’im/Prophets, Ketuvim/other writings, Psalms, Proverbs, etc. After His resurrection Yeshua joined friends on their journey to Emmaus.  As they walked together, He taught them from the Tanakh, i.e. from Moses’ writings, the Prophets and Psalms. He opened their eyes to see their Scriptures were prophetic arrows that pointed to Him, the Living Torah/Tanakh. Tanakh was the only term for the Scriptures until Marcion, an anti-Semitic, antinomian, second century Gentile Church Father coined Old Testament. He established multiple groups teaching heresies such as, the Old Testament should be removed from the Bible, as it is obsolete since the coming of Christ. The ghost of Marcionism continues to influence Christian thinking even to our very day.

There are well-meaning believers, Jew and Gentile, who suggest that the Torah is a document of the past. Hence they hold that the Torah no longer has any authority over believers. These and other similar declarations have served to take believers away from Torah, teaching that it was written for the Israelites for a particular time frame, called the age of the dispensation of law. Others pit Torah against the concept of “grace.” However grace is clearly operative in the Tanakh, as seen when the Israelites come out of Egyptian bondage and in multiple other similar instances. To the Torah-observant Hebrew mind, Grace is seen as the precious and lovely words of the Torah.

Ariel and D’vor Berkowitz write, “If there is one area of misguided theological thinking for [New Testament] believers, it is the study of Torah. In fact, most evangelical Bible colleges and seminaries do not even have an area of study called ‘Torah.’ This means, according to Messianic Jewish scholar David Stern, that at least one third of the material studied by potential rabbis is hardly even considered by evangelical believers. Is it any wonder that when the followers of Yeshua [Jesus] get together with Jewish people who do not yet know their Messiah, there is very little to talk about? Stern crystallizes the need for believers to wake up to the necessity of understanding the Torah when he comments, ‘I believe that Christianity has gone far astray in its dealings with the subject and that the most urgent task of theology today is to get right its view of the law [Torah]. ’ ”

Our Father’s Word and Name are Eternal; they will never change or be out of date. The power of the Torah is seen and heard in His awesome words spoken to Joshua, This Torah shall never depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, then you will be blessed and then you will prosper. Amen. Jos 1:8