TK Torah Keepers

My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee. ² Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye. ³ Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart. ⁴ Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister; and call understanding thy kinswoman: ⁵ That they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger which flattereth with her words. (Proverbs 7:1-5 KJV)

Solomon warns his son, and anyone else that will listen, to keep the commandments of YHWH and live.  We are to bind the Torah upon our fingers and write them on the tablets of our heart. Let us take careful note of the promise of life connected to the keeping the Torah. We are to seek wisdom as our sister and kinswoman, but we are to keep away from the “strange woman which flattereth with her words.”

We may understand this fatherly advice as a simple prohibition against marital infidelity, or sexually immoral women.  But this is clearly not the whole intent of this teaching.  Since “wisdom” is anthropomorphically described as a woman, we may assume that the “strange woman” is likewise being used allegorically.  Let us look at how Solomon describes the way of the strange woman.

For at the window of my house I looked through my casement, ⁷ And beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding, ⁸ Passing through the street near her corner; and he went the way to her house, ⁹ In the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night: ¹⁰ And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtle of heart. ¹¹ (She is loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house: ¹² Now is she without, now in the streets, and lieth in wait at every corner.) ¹³ So she caught him, and kissed him, and with an impudent face said unto him, ¹⁴ I have peace offerings with me; this day have I payed my vows. ¹⁵ Therefore came I forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee. ¹⁶ I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt. ¹⁷ I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. ¹⁸ Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning: let us solace ourselves with loves. ¹⁹ For the good man is not at home, he is gone a long journey: ²⁰ He hath taken a bag of money with him, and will come home at the day appointed. (Proverbs 7:6-20 KJV)

The strange woman is described as being loud and stubborn. The strange woman exercises her ways in the dark and cover of night. She is a vain woman of flattering words and concerned with outward appearance.  There are two particular features that should not be missed.  First, she is clearly unfaithful to her husband, “the man of the house” who is away while she seeks her lover.  Second, she has offered her “Peace Offering” and now uses this holy meat as a means to entice others into her immorality.  In other words, she has gone to the Temple to worship, and then immediately returns to her carnal ways of debauchery.  Solomon goes on to warn of the outcome of giving into her seductive ways.

Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth. ²⁵ Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths. ²⁶ For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her. ²⁷ Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death. (Proverbs 7:24-27 KJV)

Brothers and Sisters, I will confess to you that I have known this woman personally.  For a great deal of my life I had an affair with this woman.  Who is this strange woman?  She is RELIGION; as defined as legalistic, institutional, vain, ritualistic, Pharisaic piety.  There is possibly nothing quite as seductive to the young in faith as the external appearance of holiness.  So many would be disciples today are looking for the 12 easy steps of discipleship.  It seems we all have a penchant for religious traditions and customs.  Most believers are not only content with praying one hour a day, or religiously reading their daily devotional, or keeping the Sabbath, and eating kosher, wearing their tzitziot (fringes) on their clothes, but quite proud of their external holy achievements.  A part of what is seductive about rabbinic Judaism for disciples of Yeshua the Messiah, is all of the religious customs and traditions.  Performing these rituals, customs, and traditions in a legalistic or vain fashion, whether they are commanded by the Creator or created by men, can easily deceive us into thinking we have done our religious duty and are therefore holy and righteous people.  This is the lesson that the proverb is teaching us about.  The strange woman, presumably did what the Torah commanded; she made her peace offering.  The performance of external rituals and traditions can fool us into thinking that we have satisfied the righteous requirements of the Law.  Such is clearly the case of the strange woman in the proverb who made a Peace Offering and then cheats on her husband without restraint.  Note that the woman used her “religious obligation”, the Peace Offering, to seduce her next suitor.  The same may be said of many churches and synagogues today.  Their rituals, traditions, customs, and external appearances of obedience become the means of seducing the ignorant and undiscerning into their houses of religion. This same type of religious piety seems to be at the heart of Yeshua’s rebuke of the Pharisees who meticulously gave a tenth of their herbs and seeds, but neglected justice and mercy.

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. (Matthew 23:23 KJV)

When we proudly rejoice that we “have seen the light” concerning the truth of the Torah, and have begun fulfilling the commandments of YHWH—we must be sure that we are not simply replacing one religion with another.  The call to keep the Torah and the call to follow Messiah are not an invitation to a new religion. Keeping Torah and being a disciple of Yeshua are one and the same calling.  Keeping the Torah and being a disciple of Yeshua are a way of life and being not a ritual.   Keeping the Torah and following Yeshua is an inward reality that manifests itself in loving and faithful obedience, not vain ritual, and religious observances.  Being a member of the body of Messiah is a whole heart, whole mind, and, whole life commitment. While the Torah does command that the children of Israel perform certain actions, such as eating a restricted diet, circumcising their sons on the eighth day, wearing tzitziot on their corners of their garments, wearing clothes made form a single fiber cloth, keeping the aviv calendar and the cycle of appointed rehearsals (the Sabbath and the Feasts days), these actions alone are not the fulfillment of the calling.  All of the commanded actions are to be the external expression of an internal reality.  In other words, a trained monkey could be taught to wear fringes on his garments and to refrain from work on the Sabbath, but this does not mean the monkey is keeping the Torah.  Merely keeping the external symbols of faith is not the same as living in genuine faith.  YHWH has called us to a lifelong commitment that requires that we submit our lives lovingly to the yoke of the Torah. Our only desire is to manifest the image of YHWH in the world.  Like Messiah Yeshua, our Master, our only hope is to do the will of the Father and complete the work he has willed for us to do.  To accomplish this calling, the Torah must be written upon our hearts.  Our obedience to the commandments of YHWH must originate from within us, from a heart born again and restored.  Obedience for the sake of blessing, escape of punishment, or for the sake of appearing holy, is self-serving religion and belongs to the ways of the strange woman.  Yeshua called us to deny ourselves and pick up our cross daily in order to fulfill the Torah. 

And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. (Luke 9:23 KJV)

When the Torah is genuinely written upon our hearts, when our actions are motivated by pure love for the Holy One, then we will do all that he commands us and it will be with joy, peace and zeal. We will not be seduced by the strange woman’s offering of momentary religious actions followed by a return to the old ways of the flesh that we have been called from.  YHWH is not interested in religion.  Yeshua was, in fact, crucified by religion.  The simple minded are the ones who are seduced by religion’s easy and pleasant way.  Religion seeks to avoid the way of the cross.  The promise of religion is that you can please the Creator while at the same time enjoying and fulfilling your own carnal desires.  Religion promises us a balance and moderate life.  But the words of Messiah are clear,

No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. (Matthew 6:24 KJV)

 As the wife of YHWH we are not to have two husbands.  We cannot divide our time in a “balanced” way between serving the intentions and causes of the Creator with part of our time, while at the same time serving ourselves with the rest of our day and energy.  We should remember Shaul’s teaching on sexual unions.

Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Messiah? shall I then take the members of Messiah, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid. ¹⁶ What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh. ¹⁷ But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. ¹⁸ Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. ¹⁹ What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Spirit of the Holy One which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? ²⁰ For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s. (1 Corinthians 6:15-20 KJV)

We cannot be a member of the body of Messiah and the whore religion!  We cannot pretend to be holy, righteous, just, merciful and faithful—to do such is hypocrisy. While it is tempting, to heed the seductive invitation of religion to be content with merely fulfilling the minimal and external obligations of the Torah, while pursuing the carnal pleasures of a self centered life, we must remember that this easy and pleasant path of the strange woman leads even the strong to death.  Those who enter this strange woman’s house with her vain religious rituals, customs and traditions, do rightly enter into the chambers of death.

For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her. ²⁷ Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death. (Proverbs 7:26-27 KJV

To the contrary we should remember that the way of Yeshua, the way of the cross, leads to life.

Yeshua saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14:6 KJV)

For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. (Matthew 16:25 KJV)

For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it. (Mark 8:35 KJV)

For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. (Luke 9:24 KJV)

The way of Yeshua leads to LIFE.