“Nevertheless, to this day Adonai has not given you a heart to understand, eyes to see or ears to hear!”-Deuteronomy 29:3
Today I want to share an interesting quote from a very highly acclaimed Torah scholar named Jeffrey Howard Tigay.
He is a modern biblical scholar best known for the study of Deuteronomy and for his contributions to the Deuteronomy volume of the JPS Torah Commentary (1996).
He earned his B.A. from Columbia University in 1963 and continued his rabbinic ordination at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.
Afterwards he earned his Ph.D in Comparative Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies from Yale University.
In other words, the man knows his stuff.
Here is what he had to say commenting on verse Deuteronomy 29:3:
“This seems to imply that God does give the heart the capacity for faith, but that He does so only for those who seek it…..man must have the desire to obey God and only then will God help him to do so.”
Wow!
What Tigay is saying is that faith and trusting God was the key as opposed to legalistic Torah observance.
In other words, the Law wasn’t given to Israel because they were seeking or because they were faithful (they weren’t, in fact they had rebelled).
Nope, the Law was given to Israel because HASHEM Himself was faithful.
The giving of the Law at Sinai did not cure the Israelites of their spiritual blindness.
It was only those Hebrews who had faith and trusted in the Lord who were given the supernatural key to unlock the mysteries of the Torah.
That’s right.
It was only those who loved God and desired to be obedient who were given the minds to comprehend, the eyes to see, and the ears to hear.
Listen to what Paul had to say because it’s pretty similar to what Tigay is saying.
“I want to know from you just this one thing: did you receive the Spirit by legalistic observance of Torah commands or by trusting in what you heard and being faithful to it?”-Galatians 3:2
Interesting.
Both Paul and Tigay are making a distinction between receiving the Law and the ability to comprehend and obey the Law.
God has given the Law even to those folks who were not looking to receive it.
But the gift of understanding is only divinely given to those who personally seek the Lord with all of their hearts, souls and minds and sincerely want to do His Will.
It is to those who are faithful to whom the gift of understanding will be provided.
When HASHEM has opened our hearts to the point where we accept Messiah, we are then given the unlock code to the Word of God which is the Holy Spirit.
We may be able to read the words of Scripture and even memorize and recite them from now until doomsday.
But until we receive the Holy Spirit that illuminates our minds and guide us, we will never really be able to understand Scripture, yet alone obey it.
Mechanically performing the instructions of the Law minus trusting God is a hollow and meaningless work and it does not please HASHEM.
This also happens to be the true biblical definition of legalism.
I’m done.
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