Joshua 1:8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may 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.
We who understand the power of God’s grace do not like to think about the law or Torah. The law brings bondage and grace brings freedom. The law condemns and grace liberates.
Yet there is something very important that is missed if we dismiss the writings of Moses. It is found in the word Torah, the Hebrew word translated law. It literally mean direction or instruction. The root word for Torah means throw or shoot an arrow, to hit the mark. It is descriptive of a journey.
God told Abram in Genesis 17:1 to “walk before Him.” Genesis 6:9 says that Noah walked with God. In Genesis 5:22 Enoch walked with God for 300 years and in verse 24 finally disappeared.
A journey is where we are to be constantly moving farther away from where we started from. It is not about the desination. It’s about the journey!
The Torah was not meant to bring labor and hardship upon man. It was not meant to be books of laws to restrict man. Man turned it into a beast. The leaders hated Jesus because He tried to make corrections to the teachings they had made out of it. The Torah had become more about doctrine then a journey, rules than a relationship.
God is not all about do’s and don’t’s. He is about the journey. Yes, there are guidelines and boundaries in a journey, but it is all about the journey.
The word Torah is spelt Tav, Vav, Resh, Hey.
- Tav – means mark or covenant.
- Vav – means nail or joining, “and”.
- Resh – means person.
- Hey – means behold or “the”.
The Torah, the journey, is a covenant that has been nail between God and Man. Who is between God and man? Jesus. John called Him the Word.
Concerning the last letter, it is said that the Hey represents the Holy Spirit, the breath of God. Thus, you have the breath sound when you pronounce it, much like an “h”. The covenant in the Torah is through the Holy Spirit.
It is man that takes the living Word of God that is meant to maneuver man through a journey of a lifetime and transforms it into rules and regulations. The Torah is a book of journeys. That is why God told Joshua that it will make his way prosperous and give him success.
Try reading the first five books of the Bible as a relationship journey with the creator of the universe rather than read it as stories and rules.
May you find yourself in a river of God where you are always moving down stream.
Filed under: Challenge, Hidden in the Hebrew or Greek | Tagged: journey, Torah | 1 Comment »
Word Nuggets 