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Many centuries before the earliest writings of the New Testament, Isaiah said: “Israel shall with Egypt and Assyria form a triple alliance, a blessing to the world around and blessed by God Who said, "Blessed be Egypt, My people; Assyria, the work of My hands; and Israel, My heritage." (Isaiah 19:24f.)
In order for you to feel the full force of Isaiah's prophecy, imagine some preacher today proclaiming, "Blessed is Russia, God's people; Red China, the work of His hands; and America, His heritage." This does put some strain on the imagination. Yet Isaiah dared. Israel's prophets happened really to believe that we have indeed all one Father. The spirit of these prophets pervades the entire Torah, the entire Pentateuch. It is to these first five fundamental books of the Bible that we now turn.
The traditional view of Biblical authorship is that the prophet Moses, in the thirteenth pre-Christian century, wrote down the Torah on Mount Sinai at the dictation of God. The Pentateuch (first 5 books of the Bible) contain the earliest literary records of the religion of Israel and are first in importance among the sacred texts of Biblical faith. "The Five Books of Moses" are the primary source of Israel's faith. To examine what the Pentateuch has to say about proselytes and the Gentiles coming into relationship with God and His people Israel is, therefore, of utmost importance for the Christian today in relation to his obedience or disobedience to the “pattern of worship” as shown in previous articles. To begin with Torah is truly to put first things first.
Many modern scholars believe that the stories of Creation, the Patriarchs and Joseph are legendary. They may be. But it is precisely in the realm of its folklore that a people reveals its elemental thought and feeling, its basic beliefs, its loftiest aspirations. The political history of Israel, as of other folk, was influenced by external circumstances—climate, geography, wars. Its myths and legends are the expression of its inward spiritual experience. Its folklore bespeaks a people's soul.
Literally, the first concern of the Hebrew Bible is not with Hebrews but with humanity. Scripture opens not with the birth of Abraham, traditional father of this folk, nor of Moses, historic founder of their faith, but significantly with the creation of the world and the advent of man.
In the religion of Israel so incomparably precious is man that whereas in Genesis God evokes every other component of His universe by mere command, saying, "Let there be" . . . light, land, sea, sky, sun, moon and stars; creatures of the waters, air and earth . . . "and so it was"—when He contemplates His masterpiece, He says not "Let there be man" but…
"Let Us make man in Our image . . ." Thus God molded-- from the dust of the ground . . . breathing from His nostrils the breath of life . . . (Genesis 1:26 and 2:7)
In the Creation story so holy is mankind that God broke with His own divine precedent of verbal command only to create man. Even the Almighty had to labor in the sweat of His brow, as it were, to fashion man. He made only man in His image; and, to do this, He literally inspired him with His own breath or spirit. That is how "man became a living being" (Genesis 2:7).
Do we have here a scientific, historically accurate account of man's origin? Hardly. But surely this is a completely accurate version of what the religion of Israel teaches about the supreme importance to God of man both during and after man's creation.
Obviously then, God is not Israel's exclusive deity. He is concerned with the fate of all mankind, even men as distant as those of India and as dissolute as those of Sodom. The peoples of Chaldea, Phoenicia, Philistia, and Ethiopia; of Tyre, Sidon, Cyprus, Rhodes and the distant isles are all part of His divine plan.
Answer for yourself: Does the Torah favor or forbid the admission of these diverse folk into the religion of Israel when formalized at Sinai when a “mixed multitude” of Gentiles stood with Jews? No.
Answer for yourself: Did Israel in Bible times discourage, tolerate or seek proselytes? That is a little harder for the situation was different at different times, but for the most part accepted Gentiles into the faith..
So much is certain: The Torah is source for the tradition that, from the inception of this folk and faith, the religion of Israel was born with and borne by converts. Julius Lewy, in his article "Origin and Signification of the Biblical Term 'Hebrew"' (Hebrew Union College Annual, 1957, pp. 1-13), has supplied some evidence that etymologically the very word "Hebrew" is itself not a proper noun designating a specific people, but rather a widely used general Semitic term signifying a resident alien or ger.
The first Hebrew was himself a convert. With his wife Sarah, Abraham left their Aramean kin and their home in Chaldea to found a new and blessed nation.
Abraham took Sarah his wife . . . and all the souls which they had made in Haran and they started off for Canaan, (Genesis 12:5)
Later rabbinic tradition has it that these “souls” were male and female converts which Abraham and Sarah respectively “made”, i.e., brought to “spiritual birth” by initiation into the new Jewish faith.
Rebecca, the wife of Isaac, began life as a heathen in Syria. So did Rachel and Leah, the wives of Jacob, as well as his concubines, Bilhah and Zilpah. On their maternal side each of the traditional founders of the twelve tribes of Israel was the son of a convert. In addition, two of them, Judah and Simeon, married women of Canaan.
Also, the tradition that Israel's founder was not born an Israelite was never permitted to die or be forgotten. To this very day it is prescribed that at least twice a year—once in spring at the Haggadah which is the reading on Passover and again in late summer during the Sabbath Torah reading in the synagogue. Every Jew will recall this tradition by reciting the words
My father was a wandering Aramean. (Deuteronomy 26:5)
Abraham was alert to the contaminating pagan influence of the ethnic stock from which he came. As Christians and followers of Jesus and "the Christ" we should be as well. In commissioning his servant, Eliezer of Damascus, to journey to Syria to fetch "from my father's house" a bride for Isaac, he warned his steward:
Beware of taking my son back there, . . God took me away from my father's house,,, If the woman is unwilling to follow you, then you are free from this oath of mine (Genesis 24:6..ff)
That Abraham's fear was well founded is apparent from the account of Rachel's theft of her father's household gods when she fled from Syria with her husband Jacob (Genesis 31:19-35). Once they are removed from their idolatrous girlhood homes, these brides of the Patriarchs become exemplary matrons. From them issue sons who father the tribes of Israel.
The Torah (and, therefore, Judaism) regarded these men and women as the flesh and blood ancestors of Israel, their marital alliances as valid, their progeny not only as legitimate but also the bearers of the religious heritage of Israel. The Torah teaches and wants its adherents to understand that non-Israelites can become members of Israel (ingrafted) and beget Israelites. Not only the Patriarchs and their Aramean consorts could do this, but peoples of any race, nation or religious origin.
Moses' wife, Zipporah, by whom he had Gershom, was the daughter of a priest of Midian. David was the husband of Maacah, daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur, and mother of Absalom. The mother of Rehoboam, Solomon's son and successor to the Judean throne, was Naamah the Ammonite. Just take a minutes to look the Gentile lineages and it quickly becomes apparent that Gentiles have been continually identifying with God and the faith He gave to all men…..which is best expressed as Biblical Judaism. It is this faith that obey the Commandments of God and sees no need to relegate them to antiquity as if they are “passed away.” Let us never forget as Christians that it is these Commandments that reveal to us how we, as God’s people, are to please Him in our responses to him. Such is called obedience and is expressed continually by following God and His plan and pattern given for not only worship, but life as well.
That most converts to Judaism have been females may, in part at least, be ascribed to the traditional requirement that full conversion of males required circumcision. This has been the physical sign of the covenant between God and the men of Israel since Abraham's day. To an adult male this was no small decision and kept many from making formal identification with Israel.
The Lord appeared unto Abraham and said . . . "Every male among you is to be circumcised.... That is the sign of the covenant between us.... Every male ... is to be circumcised when he is eight days old, whether he be born in your household or acquired from any foreigner that is not of your race." (Genesis 17:1-12)
The covenant for the Non-Jew, the Covenant of Noah, does not consist of the rite of circumcision. The covenant is that the Jew and Gentile are to serve God and be holy as God is holy. Circumcision is but the external sign of this covenant. Analogously, the bow in the sky was merely the symbol of God's compact with Noah. As the rainbow antedated the Deluge, so circumcision was a common pre-Israelitish custom. But, whatever the incentive for the practice among other peoples, for Israel it signified consecration, the casting off of spiritual uncleanliness as preparation for assumption of membership in this covenanted people.
Besides native born Jewish males, including native born slaves, the ger (the Gentile who came to faith in God and accepted His religion) who wished to participate in the Passover had to be circumcised.
When a ger with you desires to keep the Lord's Passover, let all male members of his family be circumcised; then he shall count as a native. (Exodus 12:48)
Historically, Passover is the most ancient of Hebrew festivals. Religiously, the Exodus was the most significant event in the annals of Israel—so important that it is the only historical event included in the Decalogue and there mentioned in the very first sentence. It was the sign of the fulfillment of the covenant on God's part. To participate in the Paschal celebration whereby he partook of the lamb of the Passover a Non-Jew had to identify himself completely with Israel, the people of the covenant. Circumcision was the physical sign of this identification, the external fulfillment of the covenant on the part of each Israelite and any who wished to make full identification with Israel (being grafted into the Israel of God). It was a requirement for the full-fledged male ger, the complete convert. He must be circumcised to celebrate the Passover.
The “universalism” of the prophets runs through not only the legend and lore of the first book of the Pentateuch. It also animates the principles and policies outlined in the other four books. Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy lay down the general rules. No where is God's will that Gentiles and Jews both are required to obey the Laws of God is seen more clearly than in the following passages:
There shall be one and the same law for the native (Jew) and for the ger (Gentile). (Exodus 12:49; Leviticus 24:22; Numbers 9:14, 15:15, 16, 29; Deuteronomy 1:16)
As you (Jew) are so shall the ger be before God. (Numbers 15:15)
Answer for yourself: Does this in anyway sound as if the Gentile who comes to God has a completely different covenant or a different religion from the Jew?
The ger who dwells with you shall he to you as the homeborn and you shall love him as yourself. (Leviticus 19:34)
Specifically, the ger (Gentile) was to enjoy equal freedom from injustice and oppression. If indigent, he was entitled, with the poor, the orphan and the widow, to sustenance from the gleanings of grainfield, vineyard and olive orchard (Lev. 19:10; 23:22; Deut. 24:19ff), and to maintenance from loans, tithes and other public funds (Lev. 25:6; Deut. 14:28ff; 26:12ff). The cities of refuge, in which the native Israelite could obtain emergency asylum, were open to the ger as well (Numb. 35:14ff; Joshua 20:9).
The same moral prohibitions—against unchastity (Lev. 18:26), idolatry (Lev. 20:2; Ezekiel 14:7ff), blasphemy, murder, maiming of man or beast (Lev. 24:16-22; Numb 15:30)—applied to the ger as to the native Israelite.
Answer for yourself: In the above examples cited concerning the ger (Gentile) what is it that all the Scriptures have in common? These are manifestations of Commandments and the Law of Moses as well as the Laws of Noah. We see the Gentile being the recipient of blessings from the Jews as well as obeying the Law of God.
Along with the whole community he was invited to learn Torah (Deut. 31:12; Joshua 8:33ff) and to enter the covenant with God (Deut 29: 10ff)
Deut 31:12 12 Gather the people together, men, and women, and children, and thy stranger that is within thy gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the LORD your God, and observe to do all the words of this law: (KJV)
Notice that the Gentile (stranger) who identified with Israel was to hear the words of the Law in order to learn, fear God, and observe, obey, and do all the commandments of the Law that pertained to him.
Let us turn to the Strong's Concordance and look at the Hebrew word for "hear" in this context:
8085 shama` (shaw-mah'); a primitive root; to hear intelligently (often with implication of attention, obedience, etc.; causatively, to tell, etc.): KJV-- X attentively, call (gather) together, X carefully, X certainly, consent, consider, be content, declare, X diligently, discern, give ear, (cause to, let, make to) hear (-ken, tell), X indeed, listen, make (a) noise, (be) obedient, obey, perceive, (make a) proclaim (-ation), publish, regard, report, shew (forth), (make a) sound, X surely, tell, understand, whosoever [heareth], witness.
Answer for yourself: Remembering that Jesus quoted from Deuteronomy quite a lot during his ministry, did God say that the Gentile was to hear the Law in order to understand the Law?
Answer for yourself: Does the Hebrew word for “hear” carry the implied meaning of obedience? Yes.
Answer for yourself: Does the Hebrew word for “hear” carry the implied responsibility that once you hear the Law you are obliged to proclaim, tell, and cause others to hear the Law as well? Yes
The Hebrew word for “hear” is in the Imperfect Tense.
The imperfect expresses an action, process or condition which is incomplete, suggesting a "process" preliminary to its completion. In other words the Law was to be taught to the Gentile back then and CONTINUALLY as well as a process that began in the past but has current effects. The sad fact of the matter is that little “current effects” of teaching the Law as a continual process to the Gentile is seldom seen today because the church has misinterpreted the English New Testament so often that we have lost its meaning and are totally devoid of the true message intended for Gentile believers today.
The truth is that the Gentiles were “to begin to ‘hear’” the Law and Commandments and were to continually here them because up to the time of the giving of the Law, the Gentiles of the world had fallen into sin and spiritual darkness and had lost the revelation of God. Thus, they were living as pagans and needed the Revelation of God at Sinai to begin their restoration.
The writer of the Epistle of the Ephesians sums up the condition of the Non-Jewish Gentile in the world when he said:
Eph 2:12 12 That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: (KJV)
A phrase such as "Hear", refers not only to the present (Gentiles are to hear and obey the Law), but assumes that the search has continued for some time. The Imperfect Tense relates not so much as to one occasion, as to a continued condition.
Answer for yourself: Please answer honestly. Can you say that your experience as a Christian has been one of a “continued condition” whereby you have continually heard and understood the Law in preparation for your obedience to it? Most likely not.
The Imperfect Tense also stresses an action (hearing, learning in preparation of obeying the commandments) that consist in its frequent repetition.
Answer for yourself: Has your Pastor studied the original languages of the Bible to get to the real meaning of the words of God and Jesus, or has he leaned on his own understanding and interpreted the English of his Bible based on his own cultural experiences? Most likely the latter.
The imperfect Tense is used to express the "future", referring to an action which is about to be accomplished.
Answer for yourself: How many of you can truthfully say that you expect your church this next Sunday to begin to understand these passages and begin to teach you the Law and Commandments regarding such things as how a Gentile is to worship God, what God will receive as worship and what is vanity to Him? Remember dear brothers and sisters, the whole purpose of our obedience to the Law is to please and love God in the manner He requires, and it is precisely these issues which are commanded by God in His Law for both the Jew and Gentile as I have shown so far. Lastly, remember the Law was to be taught in the future to Gentiles of all generations.
Answer for yourself: Have you been taught yet concerning the Laws and Commandments which frame your Covenant with God and which, when obeyed, determine your standing before God?
Let us continue our study.