The Torah!

The first month of the CSBS we spend primarily studying the Torah. I thought I might share with you some of what we are learning as a class.

Most of us are well versed in the narratives of the Genesis and Exodus. Leviticus is the book that often ends most of the 'I am going to read through the whole Bible' ambitions we might have. I hope providing a little background will help you grasp some deeper meaning next time you are spending time in any of the books of the Torah.

A lot of us still have in our minds the simple teachings we received as youngsters in Sunday school or what the media portrays as Bible stories. Simple teachings are great for children but many still see the narratives of the Bible through the perspective we were given by others. Just one example for your consideration might be the story of the great flood. It is for good reason that we look at the fun animals and happy side of the flood; since we are usually teaching it to children. In reality it was a horrible event. The amount of death and destruction is something we don't give a lot of thought to. Instead of smiling animals and rainbows it would be more accurate to imagine bodies of animals and people floating in filthy debris filled water, and then rainbows. More importantly the failure of man to be able to live in a way that honors our Holy God should hit hard.

It is vital to understand when the Torah was written. This will determine who the original audience of the books was and once that is understood we can go about interpreting the messages conveyed through the first five books of God's word. The content of the Torah was given to Moses by God after the miraculous Exodus and before the conquest of the promised land.

With the date of the Torah's writing being determined we must understand who the nation of Israel was at that moment in time. Genesis reveals the earliest details of mankind and the nation of Israel, the book describes the roots of a people group. The message was delivered to a homeless group who had just seen God's power in their escape from Egypt (remember the Bible was written for you BUT not to you). They were at a pivotal moment in their history when they needed to chose which direction to go, towards the promised land, an unknown path with much perceived risk and danger, or back to what was familiar to them, back to slavery in Egypt where they were mistreated but knew they had food and protection. Why did God deliver this message to these people at that time?

The ancestry of the nation of Israel is common with many of the people groups who live in the promised land. They had similar religious practices and cultures. The sacrificial system was definitely not unique to Israel, it was a custom that was inherited by Israel to use in worshipping God. Of course the book of Leviticus clearly sets apart the way that sacrifices would be done. So they shared their ancestry with people groups well documented to be extremely perverse in their pagan religious practices and they had most recently spent 400+ years soaking in the religious beliefs of the Egyptians. The Israelites would likely have known of the promises made to Abraham and his descendants but were separated by about 600 years from when the promises were made. It was a common middle eastern belief that gods were geographical, their powers were limited to certain areas. It is very likely that the Israelites had adopted many of the beliefs of the the cultures around them and were polytheistic with little understanding of who Yahweh was amongst the Egyptian and Canaanite gods.

After hearing about the history of their ancestors and witnessing the miraculous events of the Exodus these people had some bigs gaps to fill in their understanding of their identity as a nation and the identity of this god 'Yahweh'. Was this god different from the Egyptian or Canaanite gods? Why did Yahweh bring them to this place? How were they to respond to this God? The biggest question being, 'who is Yahweh?'.

God was defining himself to Israel and giving the nation of Israel it's own identity and purpose. Every part of the book was written to show that God is all powerful and He had chosen, protected and provided for Israel as He was fulfilling His promises to them and urging them towards trusting in Him and continuing on to the promised land. With that understanding then we can study these 5 books of the Torah and understand the intended message for those Israelites and further take the message and apply it to our lives today.