“Y’hoshua said to the people,
‘Consecrate yourselves,
because tomorrow Adonai is
going to work wonders among you.'”
–Joshua 3:5
Yesterday I talked about the how the people of Israel collectively practiced their own form of “social distancing” in that they had to stay a safe distance away from the Ark of the Covenant.
And why?
Because of the extreme holiness of the Ark of the Covenant.
However, notice verse 5 where Joshua says “Consecrate yourselves” or other translations might say “Sanctify yourselves”.
We can see the idea of extreme holiness now being applied to the people themselves.
That’s right homies.
The whole congregation of Israel was be to consecrated.
The Scriptures repeatedly tell us…
“You must be holy for I, Adonai your God, am holy”.
By trusting in Hashem, Israel was given a kind of sanctity.
God declared that Israel was holy and so it was so.
However, this holiness was spiritual.
There is another level of holiness required of the believer.
I’m talking about a sort of physical sanctity that results from obeying the Lord’s commands.
When we obey God’s commands, we are actually imitating His character and attributes.
But the spiritual comes first.
The spiritual holiness we receive by the Lord’s grace oughta motivate us to express the Lord’s holiness by obeying His commands…
…especially if one loves the Lord.
This principle has never changed with the coming of the Messiah and the truth be told, it’s actually a central theme of the New Testament.
Obviously this concept is a huge threat to the church because they hold to the idea that trust in their lawless Jesus has somehow replaced obedience to Hashem’s commandments.
I’ve said it before and and I’m about to say it again right now.
The idea that grace has replaced obedience to God’s commands is a false doctrine that comes straight from the pit of hell.
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“Don’t think that I have come to
abolish the Torah or the Prophets.
I have come not to abolish but to complete.
Yes indeed!
I tell you that until heaven and earth pass away,
not so much as a yud or a stroke
will pass from the Torah
— not until everything that must happen has happened.
So whoever disobeys the least of these mitzvot and
teaches others to do so will be called the least
in the Kingdom of Heaven.
But whoever obeys them and so teaches will be
called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.
For I tell you that unless your righteousness is
far greater than that of the Torah-teachers and P’rushim,
you will certainly not enter the Kingdom of Heaven!”
-Matthew 5:17-20
This is foundation that I teach to pastors all over the world. We must teach this early to disciples. I find also teaching the concept of Adoption helps believers.
Amen! Thanks for reading. Be blessed and SHALOM!
Richoka,
I am afraid I must biblically disagree with your assertion that the spiritual comes before the physical (natural) or that the spiritual comes before the natural keeping of the Law. In fact, one needs to experience the failure of the Law by keeping it in the natural sense to realize the Law is pure in its spiritual sense.
Paul teaches the Corinthians that the spiritual does not preceed the natural but that the natural preceeds the spirit:
~ However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. (1st Corinthians 15:45)
Although Paul here was speaking directly to the question of what resurrected bodies might be like, the concept of the physical preceeding the spiritual is emphasized throughout Scripture. Again, the Law itself was designed to reveal physically the coming of the true, spiritual reality of Jesus through the physical blood of slain animals and ritualistic procedures. Truly, such rituals need not be conducted any longer. For the very person they were pointing to has appeared and has done the work that the natural Law could not accomplish. In fact, continuing such now, now that the person they were revealing has appeared, continuing the rituals is tantamount to rejecting the reality of Jesus while worshiping that which is only his foreshadow.
The Ten Word of the Covenant where physically etched into stone to reveal the hardness of men’s hearts in contrast to the day when the Covenant would be spiritually written upon the softness of men’s hearts. (Jeremiah 31:33) That is why the stone tablets are gone so as that Convenant may now be read from one’s heart.
Once again, whereas humans are born into and live in the natural world, where learning that a spiritual reality is attainable, one has the advantage of comparison — the natural vs the spiritual. And, the spiritual, being eternal as it is, will outshine the terminally natural, naturally.
Hi the Pentateuch is nothing but a mind control tactic written by the Levites there is no abrahamic god the Pentateuch can be proved to be fake it’s just trumpet blowing ass ration to make sure the fear of God gets into you and you follow these asinine laws of a monotheistic God who will be shown by the asinine Levites and who will have the access to all the tithes and offerings and will be excused from military service so stop spreading this disease we’ve had enough the God of Abraham if exists is not bothered about his Pentateuch being screwed up by the Jews who will first separate into 4 groups to find the validity and fight over it then the Christians will take the same Pentateuch and a figure of Christ who will not be accepted by Jews which is the second conflict then the Muslims will take the same rubbish and Jesus also but make him a prophet and not the son of God which is the third conflict and then the Catholic Church tells everybody Mary not Jesus is the way which is the fourth conflict and then you have 44000 denominations of Christianity the 4 sects of Jews and 4 sects of Islam all fighting over who’s right and who’s wrong grow up man think ….what bullshit is this .utter nonsense have the guts then print this let me see if you have the guts to face the truth