Study Notes Week 23

Torah Study Notes for Week 23 of the Torah Reading Cycle

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• Torah (T): Bereshiyt (Genesis) 23:1-20
• Prophets (P): 1 Kings 1:1-31
• Apostolic (A): Acts 7:1-8; Galatians 4:22-31
• Additional (ADD): Jubilees 19:1-9

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Prophets Summary
Context and coherence (Nehemiah 8:8)

1 Kings 1:1-31

1. As we look at the beginning of the book of Kings, it is clear that David is at the end of his reign and a successor will take over. Will it be by force or by God’s divine appointment?
   1. David is advanced in years and his body is unable to keep warm – even with heavy clothing
   2. At their wits end and possibly wanting to remain in David’s favor, the servants (physicians) suggest a young beautiful girl to serve him and keep him warm. Some commentaries indicate it was a common practice in this period for a young person to provide warmth to an elderly person.
      1. Ecclesiastes 4:11 tells us “Furthermore, if two lie down together they keep warm, but how can one be warm alone?”
   3. However, while this act does appear to conflict with the 7th commandment – “You shall not commit adultery” (Exo. 20:14), scripture tells us that David did not know Abishag sexually.
      1. “The young lady was very beautiful; and she cherished the king, and served him; but the king didn’t know her intimately” (1 Kin. 1:4).
2. Later in chapter 2, Adonijah asked Bathsheba to ask Solomon for Abishag’s hand in marriage. It can be assumed that if Adonijah would have been given the right to marry Abishag, he could have used this marriage as a way to undermine Solomon’s kingship, thereby claiming the throne. This could be why Solomon had him killed.
   1. Adonijah Exalts himself
   2. Copied his brother, Absalom prepared for himself a small armyas a show of strength.
      1.  (2 Samuel 15:1). Now it came about after this that Absalom provided for himself a chariot and horses, and fifty men to run ahead of him.
   3. Later, Adonijah puts on a show of sacrifice and a banquet to crown himself king and  gain support from the people. However, it appears that David did not know that Adonijah was perpetrating this act.
      1. 1 Kings 1:6 And his father had never rebuked him at any time by asking, “Why have you done so?” 
      2. 1 Kings 1:11 Then Nathan spoke to Bathsheba the mother of Solomon, saying, “Have you not heard that Adonijah the son of Haggith has become king, and David our lord does not know it?
3. True to the principle of scripture, David’s sin with Bathsheba led to his iniquity being passed down to his sons.
   1. Exodus 20:5, Exodus 34:7, Numbers 14:18 …visiting the iniquity (#5771) of the fathers on the children, to the third and the fourth generation.
      1. H5771. avon – “perversity, evil”
      2. Word Origin: Derived from the root עָוָה (avah), meaning “to bend,” “to twist,” or “to distort.”
   2. David lusted after Bathsheba, had relations with her, and ordered her husband, Uriah killed. 2 Samuel 11
   3. Amnon lusted after his sister, Tamar, raped her, and then despised her. 2 Samuel 13:1-19
   4. Absalom orders his servants to kill Amnon for raping their sister. 2 Samuel 13:28-29
   5. Absalom conspired to overthrow and kill David. 2 Samuel 15
   6. Joab kills Abasalom. 2 Samuel 18:14

Key Point: 

David failed to restrain his own passions, and it appears that David failed to teach his own sons discipline. Lack of self-control and failing to teach our children well can result in our own iniquity being passed to the next generation leading to potentially disastrous outcomes. 

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Apostolic Exhortation
Counsel, comfort, and encouragement (Acts 13:14-15)

1. The letter to the Galatians is probably the most influential book of the Bible when it comes to discouraging Believers from keeping Torah. 
2. As Messianics, we can spend a lot of time studying what Paul wasn’t saying in order to defend our position against critics.
   1. However, our primary aim is to understand what Paul was actually teaching his audience in the church of Galatia. 
3. Today we’re going to try to find this balance as we look at our portion today.
   1. We’ll begin with some summary points on the entire book that will provide clarification for those of us that have been taught from an anti-Torah perspective.
      1. “The long-standing interpretation of Galatians among Christian scholars and commentators is that Paul is answering a Jewish insistence upon obeying the Torah with a clear message of freedom: the Christian has been freed from the Torah and is therefore at liberty to be led by the Spirit” (Hegg, p.16).
   2. Second, we’ll briefly look at the context of chapter 4 leading up to our portion.
   3. Lastly, we’ll do a verse-by-verse study of Galatians 4:22-31.
4. The following are some common misconceptions among Christian scholars about the book of Galatians:
   1. The dispute in Galatia was between followers of Messiah with different ethnic, cultural and religious backgrounds, not between Jews and Christians.
      1. “This was an ‘in house’ debate, not a ‘synagogue vs. Church’ struggle” (Hegg, p.17).
         1. Key Point: We create misunderstanding and confusion when we read back into this epistle the divisions between the Synagogue and Church that did not develop until the late 1st- and early 2nd-century.
   2. The heresy of the Influencers (e.g. “Judaizers”) was not instructing the Gentiles to keep God’s commandments (i.e. the Torah), but rather to accept man-made laws and rituals (i.e. Oral Torah) in a way that subverted the true Gospel.
      1. “The message of the influencers is not the ‘gospel of Yeshua plus Torah’ (as the vast majority of Christian commentators have asserted) but a ‘message of good’ that denies the central and unique role of Yeshua (though such a denial may have been subtle to the outsider)” (Hegg, p.17).
         1. Key Point: This is a fundamental difference between a Messianic community like the Cord and the 1st-century church of Galatia. 
   3. Pressure to “convert” the proselytes (i.e. Gentiles) was a driving factor for the Influencers.
      1. “The influencers who were disturbing the Galatians were those who most likely were members of the community, but who were committed to the prevailing, rabbinic theology of the day, and were therefore attempting to persuade the non-Jewish believers to undergo the ritual of a proselyte in order to be fully received within the covenant community… They were apparently undergoing some form of persecution from the established Jewish communities on account of their willingness to associate with a community that allowed Gentiles full participation” (Hegg, p.18).
         1. “Those who desire to make a good showing in the flesh try to compel you to be circumcised, simply so that they will not be persecuted for the cross of Messiah” (Gal. 6:12).
   4. Equating Torah-keeping with slavery is a fundamental misunderstanding of Paul’s message and ignores numerous passages to the contrary in his other epistles.
      1. “The freedom that Paul enjoins upon the believing non-Jews is not freedom from the Torah, but freedom to live within the protection of the Torah as prescribed by God, not man” (Hegg, p.20).
5. Let’s now explore the surrounding context for our portion in Galatians. 
   1. In chapter 3, Paul mentions Abraham by name eight times.
      1. The focus of these references is on lineage and how the Gentile Believers in Galatia secure their connection to Abraham as his sons and heirs.
         1.  “Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham” (Gal. 3:7).
         2. “For if the inheritance is based on law, it is no longer based on a promise; but God has granted [the inheritance] to Abraham by means of a promise” (Gal. 3:18).
         3. “And if you belong to Messiah, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise” (Gal.3:29).

KEY POINT:

Paul’s gospel affirms that spiritual lineage, and inheritance is based solely on faith in Yeshua. 

1. In Chapter 4, Paul’s continues his argument regarding lineage and inheritance with a new analogy.
   1. “Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave although he is owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by the father” (Gal. 4:1-2).

(Hegg, T. “Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians”, p. 220)

1. In Roman society, a son had no legal rights as an heir until the age of emancipation.
   1. “Physical lineage alone could offer no legal status. This time of emancipation and adoption was set at the age of 14, but even then, the father had some discretion as to whether the son would be named an heir” (F. F. Bruce, Galatians, p. 192).

KEY POINT: 

Apart from faith in Messiah Yeshua, there was no genuine claim to being heirs of Abraham’s promise (covenant). Therefore, non-believing Jews had the same status as slaves.

1. In verses 3 through 20, Paul is likely addressing the pagan philosophies that had influenced the Judaisms of his day, specifically, Stoicism.
   1. “So also, we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things (#4747) of the world” (Gal. 4:3)
      1. G4747. stoicheion – “element, principle, rudiment”.
      2. For a more detailed study on the philosophy of Stoicism and its effects on both Judaism and early Christianity, see the notes from Week 1: https://thecord.life/notes/week1/ 

KEY POINT:

Paul was confronting errant pagan mixtures within Judaism that denied the salvific work of Messiah and enslaved their adherents.

1. Our portion this week begins with a question: “Tell me, you who want to be under law, do you not listen to the law?” (Gal. 4:21)
   1. The term “under the law” is commonly misinterpreted to mean “keeping Torah”. However, more accurately it describes the human condition apart from the covenant of salvation through faith in Messiah.
   2. Paul’s message to the Galatians was that trusting in the authority of ritual conversion to secure covenant status was equivalent to coming back under the custody and confinement that Torah mandates for the unbeliever.
      1. “But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed” (Gal. 3:23).

KEY POINT:

Being “under the law” means being under the condemnation of the Torah without atonement in Messiah. 

1. “Yeshua died to redeem those who were under the condemnation of the Torah—a condemnation rightfully deserved, and thus justly administered by the Torah. When the Torah condemns sin, it is functioning exactly as God intends it to function. It is therefore accomplishing its Divinely ordained purpose, meaning it is righteous. Far from a misuse of the Torah, it’s condemnation of sinners is one of the Torah’s purposes” (Hegg, p.26).

1. In Galatians 4:21-32, Paul employs the use of an allegory to further his argument about sons versus slaves and heirs versus outcasts.
   1. Allegory is like an extended simile. Whereas in a simile one notes that one thing shares qualities with another thing (“a” is like “b”), in allegory, one thing represents another thing (“a” represents “b”).
      1. “For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother” (Gal. 4:21–26).

Sarah	Hagar
“Free woman”	“Bondwoman”
Her son (Isaac) comes through the promise	Her son is produced by the “flesh” (i.e. Abraham’s own efforts)
“Promise” corresponds to “faith”	“Flesh” corresponds to “works of the Torah”
Covenant status is through faith in Yeshua	Covenant status is based upon one’s flesh (i.e. ethnicity, and in particular, the cutting of the flesh in circumcision).
“The Jerusalem above”	“Present Jerusalem”
Covenant membership is through the new birth and available to both Jew and Gentile	Covenant membership exclusively through birth or proselyte ritual.
Born of the Spirit through the miraculous conception in Sarah’s dead womb.	Born of the “flesh” through the self-effort of Abraham with Hagar.

KEY POINT:

Because the message of the Influencers was that covenant status depended on Jewish identity, Paul uses two women (Sarah and Hagar) and two sons (Isaac and Ishmael) to reinforce his argument that faith in Messiah is the key to lineage and inheritance. 

1. One rhetorical but important question is the following: “Isn’t Paul saying in verse 24 that the covenant of Sinai, and by extension, the keeping of Torah, leads to slavery?” 
   1. “This is allegorically speaking, for these women are two covenants: one proceeding from Mount Sinai bearing children who are to be slaves; she is Hagar” (Gal. 4:24).
      1. Excerpted from Benson’s Commentary (1857):
         1. “The Jews are very properly said to have been brought forth into bondage by the covenant from Sinai, because the worship enjoined in that covenant was extremely troublesome and expensive; particularly their frequent separations on account of uncleanness, their purifications and washings, their numerous sacrifices, and especially their three annual journeys to Jerusalem;” all which things were the more grievous, in that they did not obtain for them justification before God, or peace of conscience; but with whatever anxious care and trouble the Jews that were piously disposed performed these things, their sense of sin and dread of punishment remained as great as before, Hebrews 9:9-10; Hebrews 10:1-3.
         2. “Besides, the covenant from Sinai rendered all that were under it slaves, by the rigor of its precepts, and the terror of its curse. But the covenant or law, which went forth from mount Zion, (Isaiah 2:3,) the gospel covenant, by abolishing these ineffectual rites of worship, and by erecting the Christian Church with its spiritual worship, makes all its members freemen and sons, who obey God from love, and who can address him with confidence by the endearing appellation of Father.”

KEY POINT:

By focusing on the false dichotomies of law versus grace, old versus new covenant, and Synagogue versus Church, this commentary, and many like it, ascribe to Paul a false interpretation clouded by centuries of anti-Nomianism and anti-Judaic theology.

1. Paul has already made it clear that the covenant at Sinai does not and cannot nullify or change the Abrahamic covenant.
   1. “To give a human example, brothers: even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified…This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void (Gal. 3:15,17).
2. Moreover, the Father gave the Torah at Sinai for a good and specific purpose; namely, to demarcate sin and keep everyone confined under the just condemnation of His righteous authority.
   1. “Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions…Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not…But the Scripture imprisoned everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe” (Gal. 3:19,21,22). 

KEY POINT:

If we too have placed our complete trust in Messiah, “we are not children of a bondwoman, but of the free woman” (Gal. 4:31). Moreover, for Paul there was no other path of discipleship for the Believer apart from God’s teaching and instructions (e.g. Torah).

For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, sold into bondage to sin (Rom. 7:14)

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Does anyone have specific questions or need any clarification from what was said during the Summary or Exhortation?

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Application & Discussion
Living the Word and following Yeshua (Acts 2:37; Romans 2:13)
Questions, input, and sharpening (Proverbs 27:17; Luke 2:46)

Romans 2:13 For it isn’t the hearers of the Torah who are righteous before Elohim, but the doers of the Torah will be justified.

James 1:22 But be doers of the word, and not only hearers, deluding your own selves.

1. 1. What questions or comments came up during your family’s discussion of this week’s study?
   2. “What other related Scriptures did you find during your study of this week’s portion?”
   3. Have you ever experienced something from this study or something related to it?
   4. “What changes do you need to make in your life to align with what you learned during this week’s Torah Study?”
   5. How has this study affected your understanding of the book of Galatians?
   6. What do you think Paul is saying in our Apostolic portion?
   7. What do you think Paul isn’t saying?
   8. What application(s) can we take away from the book of Galatians for our present generation?

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Additional Study Notes