When you prick your finger on something sharp, or touch something that is hot, you react without thinking: you say “Ouch!” and you pull your hand away. That’s because your nervous system is telling you that there is something dangerous to your health and to get away from it NOW!
If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.
God designed us physically with a nervous system to protect our bodies, and in the same way he gave us the Torah, to protect our souls.
Before the Torah there were still some basic rules that people knew; not to kill, for instance, or to take another’s wife for themself if the husband was still alive (Gen. 12:10). There were the Noahide Laws that came after the Flood, and other rules people knew about being able to survive in a society.
The Torah, however, was given to the children of Israel for a purpose- they were to learn it and then teach it to the Goyim (nations), which is why God told Moses the Israelites would be his (God’s) kingdom of priests (Ex. 19:6).
In his letter to the Romans, Shaul (Paul) explained how the Torah sort of defined, and thereby, created sin, and as such it allows us to know, absolutely, what is right and what is wrong. He adds later that the wages of sin are death; therefore, we can say that knowing and obeying the Torah keeps us healthier than disobeying the Torah, which is a sin, and which results in death.
Now, when we talk about life and death, with regards to the Bible, more often than not (and this is determined by the context in which those words are used), to a spiritual life and death: spiritual life being in the presence of the Lord, God, Almighty for all eternity, and spiritual death being out in the cold, where people groan and gnash their teeth.
That’s why the Torah is a spiritual nervous system: when you know it, it keeps you from touching something that will burn you (such as sin) or cutting yourself on something sharp (such as committing adultery). And when we have an indwelling Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Spirit, we are able to react quickly when we are about to sin.
Well, we hope to react quickly, but as with the human nervous system, certain illnesses can delay that message to the brain when we touch something hot. Some people suffer from peripheral neuropathy, which blocks the signals from the nerve endings to the brain, so they could be touching something hot and burning their skin, but not feel it.
If you chose to ignore the Torah, or if a Christian religion teaches it is only for Jews, you will have a spiritual neuropathy. In other words, you will be hurting yourself and never realize it.
Do you really think that God has different rules for different religions? Does the Bible tell us, anywhere, that these things are for Jews, but Gentiles don’t have to do that because they have different rules?
No! In fact, God says that any Gentile who sojourns with the children of Israel will live the same way, have the same rights, and be subject to the same laws (Numbers 15:29). Whereas the technical definition of sojourn is a temporary stay, in the Bible we can see, based on the context where it is used, that it means to attach oneself, to live with others where they live.
To any Gentile who accepts Yeshua as their Messiah, Shaul says they are now grafted onto the Tree of Life, that is the Torah (Romans 11), so a Christian is also a sojourner with the children of Israel (remember that Yeshua was, and still is, a Jewish Messiah) and, thereby, subject to the same laws that the Jews are, i.e., the Torah.
Hey! Don’t blame me- take it up with God because it’s his rule.
So, let the Torah serve as your spiritual nervous system, or you just may end up finding yourself burned.
That’s it for this week, so l’hitraot and (an early) Shabbat Shalom!
