HumbleDisciple

One of the biggest shifts in my walk with Scripture came when I stopped asking, "Which commandments still apply?" and started asking, "What does God actually say?"

I realized I had been reading the Bible through categories I couldn't find in the Bible.

We often hear about "moral laws," "ceremonial laws," and "civil laws." The problem is that Scripture never divides the Torah that way. Moses doesn't. The prophets don't. Yeshua doesn't. Neither do the apostles.

Instead, Scripture speaks about commandments, statutes, judgments, testimonies, and instructions. Together they describe the one Torah God gave His people.

That doesn't mean every command is lived out in exactly the same way. A priest serving in the Tabernacle had responsibilities I don't have. Israel's judges had responsibilities I don't have. But that's very different from saying those commands were canceled or belong to a lesser category.

Yeshua never taught us to separate the Torah into permanent and temporary sections. In Matthew 5:17-19 He said He did not come to abolish the Torah or the Prophets. The Greek word plēroō ("fulfill") means to fill up, bring to its full meaning, or fully preach. It reflects the Hebrew idea of lekayem: to uphold or establish correctly, not to cancel. Then He immediately adds that not even the smallest letter will pass from the Torah until heaven and earth pass away. And He warns against relaxing even the least commandment while commending those who do and teach them.

That has always challenged me.

When Peter writes, "Be holy, for I am holy" (1 Peter 1:15-16), he's quoting Leviticus. The same section of Torah that teaches holiness also includes God's instructions about clean and unclean animals. Scripture keeps those ideas together. We often separate them.

So these days I try to let the Bible define its own categories instead of bringing mine to the text.

Not every command has the same function. But every command reveals something about the character of the One who gave it.

Maybe that's where the conversation should begin. Not with labels we inherited, but with the words God actually inspired.

Some people claim that the Ten Commandments are God's law, while the rest of the Torah is Moses' law.

I understand why people say it. I used to accept explanations because they sounded convincing. But at some point I had to ask myself, 𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘉𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘴𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵?

Usually the argument comes from the Ark of the Covenant. The stone tablets were placed inside the Ark (Deut 10:5). The Book of the Torah was placed beside it (Deut 31:26).

From there, people conclude that they must represent two different kinds of law.
Except... that's not what Moses says.

When he tells the Levites where to put the scroll, he also explains why: "Take this book of the Torah and place it beside the Ark of the Covenant of Yehovah your God, so that it may remain there as a witness against you."

If you keep reading, Moses explains that after entering the land there would come a time when Israel would turn away from Yehovah (Deut 31:16-21). The Torah would stand as a permanent witness that God had made His covenant and His instructions known to them. If they later broke that covenant, they could never say, "We didn't know."

Nothing in that passage says the scroll was placed beside the Ark because it was merely "Moses' law."

How can you separate the two anyway? The Ten Words are written right there in the Torah itself. Exodus 20 records them. Deuteronomy 5 repeats them. They're part of the same.

And all through the Torah you keep reading the same pattern: "Yehovah spoke to Moses..." followed by, "Speak to the children of Israel..." Moses wasn't making up laws of his own. He was faithfully passing on what Yehovah commanded him to give to His people.

Then Nehemiah says something I don't think we notice often enough. In Neh 8:1 the people gather to hear "the Book of the Torah of Moses, which Yehovah had commanded Israel." A few verses later, in verse 8, that same book is called "the Torah of God."

I don't want to create distinctions that Scripture itself doesn't make. If God intended us to see two different laws with different levels of authority, He could have said so plainly. Instead, the Bible consistently presents one Torah.