Study Notes Week 49

Torah Study Notes for Week 49 of the Torah Reading Cycle

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• Torah (T): Bereshiyt (Genesis) 49:1-33
• Prophets (P): Micah 5:1-8
• Apostolic (A): Galatians 4:1-11; Ephesians 1:1-14
• Additional (ADD): Jubilees 34:1-10; Jubilees 45:14

Genesis 49:1-33

1. Genesis 49:1 Jacob called to his sons, and said: “Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which will happen to you in the days to come. 2 Assemble yourselves, and hear, you sons of Jacob. Listen to Israel, your father. 3 “Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, excelling in dignity, and excelling in power. 4 Boiling over like water, you shall not excel, because you went up to your father’s bed, then defiled it. He went up to my couch. 5 “Shimon and Levi are brothers. Utensils of violence are their [caves].^(MTT) 6 My soul, don’t come into their council. My glory, don’t be united to their assembly; for in their anger they killed men. In their will they hamstrung cattle. 7 Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel. I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel. 8 “Judah, your brothers will praise you. Your hand will be on the neck of your enemies. Your father’s sons will bow down before you. 9 Judah is a lion’s cub. From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down, he crouched as a lion, as a lioness. Who will rouse him up? 10 The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, [until Shiloh he comes to whom it belongs].^{(LXX)(SP)(mss)} The obedience of the peoples will be to him. 11 Binding his foal to the vine, his donkey’s colt to the choice vine, he has washed his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes. 12 His eyes will be red with wine, his teeth white with milk. 13 “Zebulun will dwell at the haven of the sea. He will be for a haven of ships. His border will be on Sidon. 14 “Issachar is a strong donkey, lying down between the saddlebags. 15 He saw a resting place, that it was good, the land, that it was pleasant. He bows his shoulder to the burden, and becomes a servant doing forced labor. 16 “Dan will judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel. 17 Dan will be a serpent on the trail, an adder in the path, that bites the horse’s heels, so that his rider falls backward. 18 I have waited for your salvation, [Elohim].^(mss) 19 “A troop will press on Gad, but he will press on their heel. 20 “Asher’s food will be rich. He will produce royal dainties. 21 “Naphtali is a doe set free, who bears beautiful fawns. 22 “Joseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine by a spring. His branches run over the wall. 23 The archers have severely grieved him, shot at him, and persecuted him: 24 But his bow remained strong. The arms of his hands were made strong, by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, [by the name]^(LXX) of the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel, 25 even by the Elohim of your father, who will help you, by [El Shaddai],^(mss) who will bless you, with blessings of the heavens above, blessings of the deep that lies below, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb. 26 The blessings of your father have prevailed above the blessings of [ancient mountains],^(LXX) above the boundaries of the ancient hills. They will be on the head of Joseph, on the crown of the head of him who is separated from his brothers. 27 “Benjamin is a ravenous wolf. In the morning he will devour the prey. At evening he will divide the plunder.” 28 All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father spoke to them, and blessed them. He blessed everyone according to his own blessing. 29 He instructed them, and said to them, “I am to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, 30 in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite as a burial place. 31 There they buried Abraham and Sarah, his wife. There they buried Isaac and Rebekah, his wife, and there I buried Leah: 32 the field and the cave that is therein, which was purchased from the sons of Heth.” 33 When Jacob finished charging his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, breathed his last breath, and was gathered to his people.
   1. Genesis 49:9-12 “Judah, your brothers will praise you. Your hand will be on the neck of your enemies. Your father’s sons will bow down before you. 9 Judah is a lion’s cub. From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down, he crouched as a lion, as a lioness. Who will rouse him up? 10 The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, [until Shiloh he comes to whom it belongs].^{(LXX)(SP)(mss)} The obedience of the peoples will be to him. 11 Binding his foal to the vine, his donkey’s colt to the choice vine, he has washed his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes. 12 His eyes will be red with wine, his teeth white with milk.
      1. Matthew 1:1 A record of the genealogy of Yeshua the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
      2. John 19:15-22 Pilate wrote a title also, and put it on the cross. There was written, “YESHUA OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS.” 20 Therefore many of the Judeans read this title, for the place where Yeshua was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek. 21 The chief priests of the Judeans therefore said to Pilate, “Don’t write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but, ‘he said, “I am King of the Jews.” 22 Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”
      3. Hebrews 7:14 For it is evident that our Lord has sprung out of Judah, about which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priesthood.
      4. Revelation 5:5 One of the elders said to me, “Don’t weep. Behold, the Lion who is of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome: he who opens the book and its seven seals.”
      5. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Jehuda, thou didst make confession in the matter of Tamar: therefore will thy brethren confess thee, and will be called Jehudain from thy name. Thy hand will avenge thee of thy adversaries, in throwing arrows upon them when they turn their backs before thee; and the sons of thy fathers will come before thee with salutations. I will liken thee, my son Jehuda, to a whelp, the young of a lion; for from the killing of Joseph my son thou didst uplift thy soul, and from the judgment of Tamar thou wast free. He dwelleth quietly and in strength, as a lion; and as an old lion when he reposeth, who may stir him up? Kings will not cease, nor rulers, from the house of Jehuda, nor sapherim teaching the law from his seed, till the time that the King the Meshiha, will come, the youngest of his sons; and on account of him will the peoples flow together How beauteous is the King, the Meshiha who will arise from the house of Jehuda! He hath girded his loins, and descended, and arrayed the battle against his adversaries, Slaying kings with their rulers; neither is there any king or ruler who will stand before him. The mountains become red with the blood of their slain; his garments, dipped in blood, are like the outpressed juice of grapes. How beautiful are the eyes of the king Meshiha, as the pure wine! He cannot look upon what is unclean, nor on the shedding of the blood of the innocent; and his teeth, purer than milk, cannot eat that which is stolen or torn; and therefore his mountains are red with wine, and his hills white with corn, and with the cotes of flocks.
   2. Genesis 49:22-26 “Joseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine by a spring. His branches run over the wall. 23 The archers have severely grieved him, shot at him, and persecuted him: 24 But his bow remained strong. The arms of his hands were made strong, by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, [by the name]^(LXX) of the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel, 25 even by the Elohim of your father, who will help you, by [El Shaddai],^(mss) who will bless you, with blessings of the heavens above, blessings of the deep that lies below, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb. 26 The blessings of your father have prevailed above the blessings of [ancient mountains],^(LXX) above the boundaries of the ancient hills. They will be on the head of Joseph, on the crown of the head of him who is separated from his brothers.
      1. John 10:11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
      2. John 10:14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and I’m known by my own;
      3. Psalms 118:22 The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
      4. Luke 20:17 But [Yeshua] looked at them and said, “Then what is this that is written, ‘The stone which the builders rejected was made the chief cornerstone’?
      5. 1 Peter 2:4,7 Come to him, a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by Elohim, precious…For you who believe therefore is the honor, but for those who are disobedient, “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone,”
      6. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan My son who hast become great, JOSEPH, my son, who hast become great, and waxed mighty, that thou wouldst become mighty was foreseen. Thee, Joseph, my son, will I liken to a vine planted by fountains of water, which sendeth her roots into the depth and striketh the ridges of the rocks, uplifting herself on high and surmounting all the trees. So hast thou, 0 Joseph my son, risen by thy wisdom above all magicians of Mizraim, and all the wise men who were there, what time thou didst ride in the second chariot of Pharaoh, and they proclaimed before thee and said, This is the father of the king, Long live the, father of the king Great in wisdom, though few in years. And the daughters of kings and of princes danced before thee at the windows, and beheld thee from the balconies, and scattered before thee bracelets rings collars, necklaces, and all ornaments of gold, in hope thou wouldst uplift thine eyes and regard one of them. But thou my son Joseph wast far from lifting thine eyes on any one of them, though the daughters of kings and of princes spake one to another, This is the holy man Joseph, who walks not after the sight of his eyes nor after the imagination of his heart; because the sight of the eyes and the imagination of his heart make the son of woman to perish from the world. Therefore will arise from thee the two tribes Menasheh and Ephraim, who will receive portion and inheritance with their brethren in the dividing of the land. The magicians of Mizraim and all the wise men spake against him, but could not prevail over him; they spake evil of him before his lord, they accused him before Pharaoh king of Mizraim, to bring him down from his dignity; they spake against him in the palace of Pharaoh with a slanderous tongue severe as arrows. But the strength of his confidence remained in both his hands and his arms, and he sought mercy from the strength of his father Jakob, under the arms of whose power the tribes of Israel are led, and do come. Blessed are the breasts that suckled thee, and the womb in which thou didst lie. The blessing of thy father be added upon thee, upon the blessings wherewith thy fathers Abraham and Izhak who are like mountains blessed thee, and upon the blessing of the four mothers’ Sarah, Rivekah, Rahel, and Leah, who are like hills; let all these blessings come, and make a diadem of majesty upon the head of Joseph, and upon the crown of the man who became a chief and ruler in the land of Mizraim, and the brightness of the glory of his brethren.

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Prophets Summary
Context and coherence (Nehemiah 8:8)

Isaiah 55:8-9 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.

Micah 5:2 “But as for you Bethlehem (“House of Bread”) Ephrathah (“Fruitful”),

Too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel.

1. King of kings and Lord of lords – born in a humble town
   1. “Too little to be among the clans of Judah”
   2. John 1:46 Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good be from Nazareth?”
   3. Although Jeshua came from Bethlehem, He did not begin there
2. II. God works in mysterious ways
   1. Naaman healed in the dirty Jordan river 2 Kings 5
   2. The donkey spoke to Balaam when Balaam mistreated her.
      1. Numbers 22:28 “And the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, “What have I don’t to you, that you have struck me these three times?”
   3. God requires His people to look at the bronze serpent in order to be healed. 
      1. Numbers 21:8 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a standard; and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he will live.”
   4. Elijah outran a horse 15 – 20 miles from Mt. Carmel to Jezreel
      1. 1 Kings 18:46 Then the hand of the Lord was on Elijah, and he girded up his loins and outran Ahab to Jezreel.
   5. The Lord stopped the rotation of the earth for almost 24 hours
      1. Joshua 10:13 So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, Until the nation avenged themselves of their enemies.\
      2. Yeshua feeds 5000 men and their families (Mark 6:33-44).
   6. Yeshua heals the ear of a servant of the high priest.
      1. Luke 22:51 But Jesus responded and said, “Stop! No more of this.” And He touched his ear and healed him.
3. Personal testimony

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

1. Of all of Paul’s epistles, Galatians is the one that has created the most misunderstanding regarding the keeping of God’s commandments.
   1. Even Christians who love scripture and know that esteeming God’s Law is fundamental to their faith struggle with how to interpret Galatians.
2. Today’s portion contains several key passages that are central to established doctrine as it relates to the Believers relationship to the Law.
   1. We’re going to try and unpack this complicated topic by exploring the surrounding context and what Paul is telling us and not telling us.
   2. Then we’re going to make several applications for our own lives.

PREMISE:

Rather than nullifying or setting aside the keeping of Torah, Paul is following the teaching of the Master by restoring its proper application to the ekklesia in Galatia.

1. Let’s begin by looking briefly at chapter 3 for the context of our portion.
2. Point #1: “For all who are of works of the Law are under a curse” (Gal. 3:10).
   1. The Law exposes sin and creates a debt in the account of the transgressor.
      1. “[F]or until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not counted against anyone when there is no law” (Rom. 5:13).
      2. [Example of No Trespassing sign]. 
3. Point #2: “Now, that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident. For if a law had been given that was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on law” (Gal. 3:11,21).
   1. The commandments of Torah were never intended to justify us but to reveal sin.
      1. “[I] would not have come to know sin except through the Law” (Rom. 7:7).
4. Point #3: “[T]he Scripture has confined everyone under sin” (Gal. 3:22-23).
   1. Until Yeshua came, there was no escape for humanity from the just punishment decreed by God’s righteous Law.
5. Point #4: “[T]he Law has become our guardian to lead us to Messiah, so that we may be justified by faith” (Gal. 3:24-25).
   1. The Law is a constant reminder of our need for atonement, for some method of justification outside of our own good deeds. 
      1. Thus, it served as our pedagogue, the one legally responsible for a minor with all authority for decision-making until they come of age.

KEY POINT:

The righteous Law of God establishes an inescapable sentence of judgment and condemnation for every descendant of Adam. 

1. The bad news of our condemnation in Galatians 3 only sweetens the Good News of our salvation through faith in Messiah in Galatians 4.
2. Paul uses the metaphors of slaves, children and heirs to help explain the reality of our identity and relationship to the Torah before and after coming to faith.

Before Faith	After Faith
Minor child	Child of age
Under a pedagogue	No longer under a pedagogue
Status as bondservant	Status of legal heir
A slave	A son

1. Point #1: We are children of God (3:26) who have been given the status of Abraham’s heir (3:29).
   1. This status is not ethnic, socioeconomic or any other characteristic of the flesh (3:28).
   2. Rather, we are heirs because, “we have put Messiah on” and therefore have a status equivalent to the Seed, Messiah Himself (3:27).
2.  Point #2: “[A]s long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave” (Gal. 4:1).
   1. When a child is an heir by lineage but still only a minor, they are not legally able to receive their inheritance and have the equivalent status of a bondservant.
3.  Point #3: “So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world” (Gal. 4:3).
   1. Before coming to faith, we were like slaves and orphaned children, outside of God’s house, waiting for our adoption as sons (Gal. 4:4-5).
4. So, exactly what bondage or slavery is Paul specifically talking about?
   1. The centuries-old assumption by the vast majority of Christian scholars is that Paul is speaking of the Torah.
      1. For example, in Section 20.1 of the Westminster Confession states: 
         1. “But, under the new testament, the liberty of Christians is further enlarged, in their freedom from the yoke of the ceremonial law, to which the Jewish church was subjected” (Gal. 4:1-3,6-7).
      2. Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary on Galatians 4:1-7 reads:
         1. “The apostle deals plainly with those who urged the law of Moses together with the gospel of Christ, and endeavored to bring believers under its bondage. They could not fully understand the meaning of the law as given by Moses. And as that was a dispensation of darkness, so of bondage; they were tied to many burdensome rites and observances, by which they were taught and kept subject like a child under tutors and governors. We learn the happier state of Christians under the gospel dispensation.”
5. But is this really what Paul is teaching?
   1. A primary rule of hermeneutics is that scripture cannot contradict scripture.
   2. The following is taken from the Westminster Confession, Section 1.9:
      1. “The infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture is the Scripture itself: and therefore, when there is a question about the true and full sense of any Scripture (which is not manifold, but one), it must be searched and known by other places that speak more clearly”.
6. When Galatians is read through a lens of anti-Nomian bias, we miss obvious clues as to what Paul is actually teaching to the church in Colossae. 
   1. For example, that these orphaned children were held in bondage under the elemental principles “of the world” (Gal. 4:3).

KEY POINT:

In the same way that the Torah reveals sin, it also reveals the ways of God as distinct those of the nations.

1. Throughout the Tanakh, there is a clear dividing line between Israel and the nations.
   1. The former is governed by the commandments of God and the latter by the customs, ways, and traditions of the world.
2. Israel’s recurring sin was forsaking the commandments of their God and adopting the ways of the nations.
   1. One that provides a clear example of this is 2 Kings 17, which details the captivity of the ten northern tribes in 722 B.C., the repopulation of Samaria with foreigners from the Assyrian kingdom and the syncretism that it caused.
      1. “Now this [captivity] came about because the sons of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them up from the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and they had feared other gods and walked in the customs of the nations whom the LORD had driven out before the sons of Israel, and in the customs of the kings of Israel which they had introduced. They served idols, concerning which the LORD had said to them, ‘You shall not do this thing. Yet the LORD warned Israel and Judah through all His prophets and every seer, saying, ‘Turn from your evil ways and keep My commandments, My statutes according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you through My servants the prophets (2 Kin. 17:7-8,12-13).
   2. The king of Assyria populated the land of Samaria with non-Israelites from his own kingdom. But it didn’t go so well.
      1. “At the beginning of their living there, they did not fear the LORD; therefore, the LORD sent lions among them which killed some of them. So, they spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, ‘The nations whom you have carried away into exile in the cities of Samaria do not know the custom of the god of the land; so he has sent lions among them, and behold, they kill them because they do not know the custom of the god of the land” (2 Kin. 17:25-26).
   3. So the king of Assyria sends a Levitical priest to teach the pagans how to worship YHWH. But that didn’t go so well either.
      1. “However, they did not listen, but they did according to their earlier custom. So while these nations feared the LORD, they also served their idols; their children likewise and their grandchildren, as their fathers did, so they do to this day” (2 Kin. 17:40-41).
   4. By the 1st-century, both Jews and Gentiles alike had been assimilated and corrupted by the ways of the nations.
      1. “Lord, my strength and my stronghold, and my refuge in the day of distress, to You the nations will come from the ends of the earth and say, ‘Our fathers have inherited nothing but falsehood, Futility, and things of no benefit” (Jer. 16:19).
3. Let’s return to our text to test the premise that “bondage to the elemental principles” refers to Torah.
   1. “However, at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again? You observe days and months and seasons and years. I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain” (Gal. 4:9-11).
      1. Note that turning back to the “weak and worthless elemental things” equates to a return to paganism and slavery to idolatrous practices.
   2. Could this really refer to keeping the commandments of God?
      1. Most commentaries say that it is.
         1. “The days here referred to are doubtless the days of the Jewish festivals” (Barnes).
         2. “As to the bearing of this passage on the general question of the observance of seasons, it is to be noticed that the reference is here to the adoption by the Galatians of the Jewish seasons as a mark of the extent to which they were prepared to take on themselves the burden of the Mosaic law. It does not necessarily follow that the observance of Christian seasons is condemned” (Ellicott).
4. Paul’s worldview is rooted in the Torah, a fact that many of the early church fathers had already begun ignoring or actively teaching against by the beginning of the 2ndcentury.
   1. Proper hermeneutics require us to challenge if Paul would really refer to any of the commandments as “weak and elementary principles”.
   2. A more biblical interpretation is that he is exhorting the Galatians with the same message of “all the prophets and every seer” – namely, to reject the customs of the nations, and return to the commandments of Elohim.
5. This is same message that he taught the Believers in Colossae who were also struggling against the syncretism and false doctrine of the world.
   1. “See to it that there is no one who takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception in accordance with human tradition, in accordance with the elementary principles of the world (stochieon tou kosmou), rather than in accordance with Messiah” (Col. 2:8).
   2. Note that as in Galatia, this false doctrine related to the observance of “days, seasons, and years” (Gal. 4:9-11).
      1. “Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day — things which are a shadow of the coming things and the body is the Christ”
         (Col. 2:13).
         1. Paul is saying to the Believers in Colossae, “Do not let those holding onto the false customs of the pagans judge you for your adherence to the Torah – whether it is the dietary laws, the festivals, new moon celebrations or the Sabbath. God’s calendar will cause you to walk in the outline or shape of that which is coming, and the One who casts the shadow – i.e. Messiah”.
   3. These elementary principles (stoicheion) were also leading a false religion centered around cleanliness and other superstitious practices.
      1. “Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God. If you have died with Messiah to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, ‘Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!’ (which all refer to things destined to perish with use) – in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence” (Col. 2:18-23).

KEY POINT:

If Paul’s is referring to God’s commandments, then he would be contradicting his own teaching and directing Believers to walk in the customs of the world.

1. So, what were these false practices and how does it apply to us today?
   1. In Paul’s day, bondage to elemental principles (Gr. stoicheion) manifested in the form of Stoicism.
      1. From Week 1: 
         1. “As the predominant Hellenistic philosophy and worldview in 1st-century Colossae, Stoicism elevated wisdom, rationality and self-control as the chief means by which man can align with the elementary principles of the cosmos in which and through which God lives and manifests His will”.
   2. A more modern term for these practices would be “Humanism”.
      1. Humanism is the root system for every “self-made religion” (Col. 2:23).
2. At their core, all humanistic religions seek to 1) control creation, 2) through human wisdom, 3) out of fear and superstition.
   1. God’s creation is wild, untamed, and infinitely complex; moreover, it encompasses a spiritual realm that is feared but cannot be known.
   2. The corruption of sin and the resulting separation from God only magnified the mystery and danger of our world. 
   3. It is this reality that enslaves humanity to the stoicheion.  
3. In the 1st-century, slavery to the elementary principles manifested in self-abasement and earthly wisdom to control human passions and alleviate superstition.
   1. In Colossae, this led to restrictions on diet, hygiene and ritual cleanliness (Col. 2:16, 21).
   2. The church in Galatia seems to have been more influenced by a sect of Judaism that emphasized ritual purity to the point of superstition.
      1. This was evident when Peter “stood condemned” in following the men sent from James who viewed non-Jews as untouchable (Gal. 2:11-14).
      2. We know from Acts 10 that this was something that Peter already struggled with.
         1. “As [Peter] talked with [Cornelius], he entered and found many people assembled. And [Peter] said to them, ‘You yourselves know that it is forbidden for a Jewish man to associate with or visit a foreigner; and yet God has shown me that I am not to call any person unholy or unclean” (Acts 10:27-28).
      3. This was not the teaching of Torah but of man’s wisdom.
         1. “This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, sensual (#5591), and demonic” (Jam. 3:15).
            1. G5591. psuchikos – “soulish; natural”.
   3. Like Peter, the church in Galatia had “been taken captive through philosophy and empty deception in accordance with human tradition” (Col. 2:8).

KEY POINT:

Staying free of the bondage to the stoicheion was a clear theme in Paul’s epistles and naturally led him to instruct the communities to continue walking in Torah. 

1. If true discipleship in Christ calls us to walk in God’s commandments and not reject them, how do we do that in the proper way?  
   1. #1 – Separate tradition from truth.
      1. “Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that” (Mar. 7:13; Mat. 15:3,6).
         1. Tradition is truth that has been handed down and therefore, more susceptible to corruption.
      2. Just because something is old and widely accepted doesn’t make it right or wrong. 
         1. The question is, “Does it line up with scripture?”
      3. Even Paul had to separate truth from tradition as he matured in his faith (Read Galatians 1:11-17). 
         1. However, after more than twenty years of this process, he still did not see a conflict between being a Believer and a Pharisee (ref. Acts 23:6).
   2. #2 – Remember there is nothing new under the sun.
   3. Unredeemed humanity’s bondage to the stoicheion is alive and well today.
   4. Recall that some in Colossae were passing judgment on those who ate certain foods like meat but stayed away from biblically unclean foods.
      1. “The ancient Stoics were not great consumers of meat. Although they were not ardent advocates for vegetarianism, they did encourage people to eat more plant foods and grains in place of meat” (https://thewisemind.net/whats-the-best-way-to-eat-a-stoic-perspective/)
   5. Our modern culture is becoming more obsessed with radical diets like Veganism as the consumption of meat is further criticized
      1. This is only one symptom of man’s continued idolatry for the creation in place of true worship of the creator.
         1. “For they exchanged the truth of God for falsehood and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen” (Rom. 1:25).
   6. Many of us have felt the bondage of meticulously trying to avoid anything harmful for our bodies or those of our children.
      1. It only takes a few minutes on the web to go down the rabbit hole of another prognosticator of health doom (who just happens to offer a unique line of supplements that may or may not be part of an MLM business).
         1. “[W]hatever is not from faith is sin” (Rom. 14:23).

KEY POINT:

We will only walk in true freedom in Messiah if we remain vigilant and avoid being taken captive through philosophy and empty deception in accordance with soulish wisdom.

1. #3 – Remember the Torah is spiritual, and you are fleshly.
   1. A follower of Messiah who believes they can fulfill the Torah through mere external observance is on the same path as the Galatians.
      1. This is a sign that our mind is set on the flesh.
         1. “For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, sold into bondage to sin” (Rom. 7:14).
      2. When our mind is set on the flesh, the Torah is ineffective because our will is hostile towards God and unable to submit to His authority (Rom. 8:1-8).
   2. There are two ditches with Torah and both are rooted in pride and the deceitfulness of sin (e.g. the mind set on the flesh).
      1. One is based the belief that we can fulfill the Torah in our own strength and wisdom, apart from the Spirit of Messiah.
      2. The other occurs when we over-spiritualize the commandments of God and justify our actions as being “led by the spirit”.
   3. The question we should always ask first is: “What heavenly wisdom undergirds this commandment?”
      1. Study the Word of God in its context until you can answer this question.
      2. Keep both tradition and personal application at arm’s length until the proper time. 
   4. The Father’s solution to our bondage was not to set aside His Law but to make us spiritual.
      1. Let us live as rightful heirs by walking in covenant faithfulness to His commandments.

“For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:3-4).

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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. What thoughts and questions do you have from today’s study? 
   6. How have you traditionally understood Galatians 4:1-11?
      • Does today’s interpretation seem consistent with scripture? Why or why not?
   7. When it comes to health, how do we distinguish between fear and faith? Earthly wisdom and the wisdom from above?
   8. Why is the Holy Spirit essential to the proper application of Torah?
   9. What’s one commandment where you struggle to understand the heavenly wisdom undergirding it?

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Additional Notes