There are so many people hungry for true intimacy with God, coming from every denomination and faith tradition. Personally, I've spent the past few years very focused on Torah and learning how to love Him by keeping His commandments. My focus this year is to search, read and study all of scripture now that I have the Torah foundation -- The goal being to truly follow the example of our living Torah, Yeshua HaMashiach, Jesus, our Messiah. My hope and prayer is that this blog entry blesses you as much as it has me.
Sadducees Among Us?
by J.K. McKeeThis evening, many of you will be remembering Simchat Torah, a traditional Jewish observance conducted at the end of Sukkot and Shemini Atzeret, whose name means “Joy of the Torah.” It is meant to commemorate the end of the yearly Torah cycle, as the Book of Deuteronomy ends and the Book of Genesis begins. The last letter of Deuteronomy is a lamed, and the first letter of Genesis is a bet, which spells lev or “heart.” I have remembered Simchat Torah for many years, and have often enjoyed it. This year my feelings are a little different…
Please believe me when I say this: I rejoice that many Believers over the past ten years or so have returned to a diligent pattern of weekly Torah examination. The Torah is a part of the living and active Word of God! The Psalmist says, “Those who love your Torah have great peace; nothing makes them stumble” (CJB). The Apostle Paul speaks of the person who says, “For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man” (Romans 7:22). It has been a useful practice for the Messianic movement to examine the weekly parashah on a consistent basis.
But however important examining the weekly parashah is, I cannot help but have the following word from Yeshua echo in my mind: “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled” (Luke 24:44). Messianics have done their best to see Yeshua in the Torah of Moses—but what about the Prophets or the Psalms? When was the last time we examined the weekly Haftarah reading, or something else from the Tanach Scriptures? How many of us only address the weekly parashah at our Messianic congregations and fellowships—and nothing more?
The ancient Sadducees, as attested by history, were a First Century Jewish sect that only accepted the Pentateuch as Scripture. Consequently, the testimony of the Apostolic Writings is that they did not believe in the doctrine of resurrection (Matthew 22:23; Mark 12:18; Luke 20:27; Acts 23:8) because it is not necessarily spelled out in the Torah. One of the most explicit passages referring to the resurrection is Daniel 12:2: “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.” Other references may include: Isaiah 26:9; Ezekiel 37:13-14; Hosea 6:1-2. While it can be debated over whether or not there are hints or clues to the doctrine of resurrection in the Torah, it is by no means as direct as it appears in the Prophets.
Many of you have wondered about the progress I have been making on the forthcoming A Survey of the Tanach for the Practical Messianic. I am pleased to say that all I have left is to survey Ezekiel, Psalms, Proverbs, and write the Introduction. It has been a great learning experience for me, and has stimulated me to write more “Message of…” articles on specific books of the Tanach, as well as more exegetical papers on intriguing or difficult-to-understand passages. Yet it was very sad to have to write—on too many of the composition sections for books of the Tanach—something along the lines of:
“There is no current Messianic engagement/very little Messianic engagement with Book X…”
As much as I dislike Messianic Believers staying from the Apostolic Scriptures or New Testament, it has become clear to me that as a faith community we stay away from much of the Tanach or Old Testament as well. This Simchat Torah many of you are going to finish the Book of Deuteronomy, and you are going to begin the cycle all over again with Genesis. I would challenge you to do something new.
In the Apostle Paul’s visit to a synagogue at Pisdian Antioch in Acts 13, we see that the order of service was not like many of the Messianic services we see today: “After the reading of the Law and the Prophets the synagogue officials sent to them, saying, ‘Brethren, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say it’” (13:15). Here, Paul as the visiting rabbi—after short teaching(ettes) on the Torah and the Prophets—was actually asked to get up and preach a sermon. You heard me right! A sermon. And what did Paul do? He used the opportunity to speak of the Messiah who had come (13:16-43).
Paul was a Pharisee who believed in the resurrection, and unlike the Sadducees accepted the books from Joshua-2 Chronicles (or Malachi) as authoritative Scripture. I know most of you accept those books as inspired of God, as well as the Apostolic Writings as inspired of God. Yet, I am worried that there are a few in our midst who can be classified as semi-Sadducees. They do not deny the resurrection, necessarily, but they certainly do not focus on it (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:14). Their relationship with God is actually a relationship with the Torah, and it is not really a relationship with the One who gave it. It is not a relationship with God based on His unfolding plan of salvation history that begins with the Torah—but certainly does not end there. Consider how Scripture builds upon itself and how the five sections of our Bible reveal a unique quality that we should be considering if we are well-rounded Believers:
- The Torah/Chumash/Pentateuch – Foundation
- The Prophets – Exhortation
- The Writings/Wisdom Literature – Motivation
- The Gospels – Salvation
- Apostolic Epistles – Application
This past weekend, I wrote an article for Sukkot entitled, “The Message of Deuteronomy.” Please read it if you have not already. The Book of Deuteronomy has a very unique quality to it, which in my opinion makes it second only to the Book of Exodus within the Torah. It warns against sin and should convict people who read it of their sins. But the message that Deuteronomy holds does not end with Deuteronomy. An entire series of Biblical books, specifically those of Joshua, Judges, and Samuel-Kings, all classify as being “Deuteronomic.” Why do we never read these books as Messianic Believers? Is it because everything Moses warns about in Deuteronomy comes true? The Promised Land wasn’t the paradise everyone thought it would be?
My friends, the Holy Scriptures are a great treasure trove of revelation and insight from our Heavenly Father. As important as the Torah has been to many of us in the past few years of rediscovery and learning, let us not forget that it is but the first part of God’s continual plan of salvation. An important part, yes—but not the only part. I encourage all of us to return to a pattern of studying more than just the Torah this coming year, as we are molded into that Messianic force for His holiness and righteousness in the years to come! We do not need any Sadducees among us…
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