The Story of Torah

 As a Christian, we often struggle to understand what we should do with “all those oppressive Old Testament laws” that we supposedly don’t have to live under because of Jesus.  I say “supposedly” because in practice you won’t find many Christians who say “Because of Jesus, I’m free to kill, steal, commit adultery, lie in court, all on my way to pagan worship of other gods.”  But if as a Christian I do say, “I’m no longer under the law” isn’t it consistent with saying I can live however I want?

As many have pointed out, “Law” is an unfortunate translation of torah.  Using ‘teaching’ or ‘instruction’ better prepares us for the material we meet in the first five books of the Bible.  After all, you read about 70 chapters of ‘story’ before you get material that you could call “law”.  It is true that 58 chapters of the 189 in the Torah do contain laws, but a majority of what we call “The Law” is a story. A better way to understand torah is to watch what happens in its story.

 

The opening of Torah in Genesis tells how Adam and Eve were created to subdue the earth and rule over it.  They were placed in a garden where they were to serve and keep (Gen 2:15, Hebrew: avad and shamar).  These two words are frequently used in scripture to describe what priests do (same words underlie Num 3:7-8).  Adam and Eve were to be the priests who mediated God’s presence to the world, and they were only given one instruction, to obey God about the tree.

 

While they were only given one restriction, it did not mean they could do whatever they wanted.  For example, we shouldn’t assume that one person in the garden was free to kill the other.  Rather, the account assumes they are the kind of people that don’t need to be given a multitude of “laws” in order to live in a manner that allows them to flourish.  Sadly, we know that the one given restriction is violated and the sordid story of human history unravels.

 

From the garden, we step forward to the time in the story when we see the introduction of content that looks like ‘legal material’. This is at Mount Sinai where God is going to make a covenant with Israel – just after he freed them from Egypt.  As part of the buildup to the covenant, God says he is going to make Israel a kingdom of priests.  In their covenant relationship he is going to have them mediate his presence into the world.  We hear echoes of Eden with Israel being restored to humanity’s original purpose in reach!  

 

As an analogy, in order to get married my wife and I had a wedding where we made a covenant.  Beyond the commitment to be husband and wife, we, like most couples, recited vows to one another (covenant stipulations to put it un-romantically).  While those vows are good, they can’t possibly cover every detail of how to live out every situation in our married life ahead.  What they do is introduce a vision of what marriage could be. 

 

Like vows in a wedding ceremony, Israel gets covenant stipulations.  In the garden, humans had one prohibition.  At the foot of Mount Sinai there are 10 things that Israel “shall not do” as part of their covenant relationship.  Wedding ceremonies anticipate a successful marriage.  Strange would be the wedding that gave the “what if’s” or remedies for lack of covenant faithfulness.  The Sinai covenant stipulations also anticipate a successful relationship - with no what if’s given. 

 

Even with 10 "do's and dont's" (nine more than the garden), there’s not enough to cover every area of life.  Like Adam and Eve, it’s left to the people to be the sort who will live in such a way that they would flourish and be the vessel of blessing to the world.  The covenant stipulations are the seeds of a vision of what it means to live as the people of God.  Beyond the initial 10 laws at Sinai, another 42 are given, some about how to live and some about setting up a portable shelter for God to dwell among his covenant people.  Exodus concludes with God’s presence in this tabernacle.

 

As the narrative in the Torah moves forward, we find that Israel struggles with covenant faithfulness.  There are several rebellions that occur.  After each one of these events, the mess is sorted out and “laws” follow.  Some of the laws are repeated from earlier, but in each case new ones are added.  One way to look at it is to assume the laws are a reminder of what it is to live as the people of God, but with added words to fill out more of the vision.  After all, the people aren’t getting it and need more guidance.

 

A modern analogy is air travel.  Any time a plane crashes, there is the clean-up followed by an inquiry into what caused the crash.  The result is usually a restatement of the rules or procedures that may have been ignored, and some additional rules added to prevent a future crash.  We see something similar with Israel - rebellion, clean up, old laws restated and new ones added to be the guardian for the people.  

 

In Galatians, Paul asks the anticipated question of his readers, “Why the Law” (Gal 3:19).  He responds, “it was given because of transgressions”.  The airplane had crashed and the law shines a light on where the error occurred (Rom 5:20, 7:12-13).  The “laws” in the Torah didn’t come all at once but they are added at different points in the Torah’s unfolding story – because of the transgressions.

 

Not only are laws added, but laws either morph for changing contexts or get added to address new situations not covered by previous laws.  When Israel is a nomadic people living in tents, they don’t need rules about adding parapet walls to their roof to keep people from falling off. But, on the edge of the promised land, adding such a law makes sense (Deut 22:8).  Guidance on crop planting that comes later would have meant little to people living off mana.  But as the context changes, laws get added.  

 

The Torah swells with laws as the story continues.  At its close, it still doesn’t address every area of life.  It still expects the people to imaginatively find expression for an always changing context to live as the people of God.

 

When we turn to the New Testament we look at the life of Jesus.  First Corinthians 15 describes him as the new Adam (Hebrew for human).  Jesus said he didn’t come to abolish the law and the prophets (Matt 5:17).  Instead his life embodies the vision that the Torah was projecting.  Beyond what the Torah says, he has one additional command to carry out - to obey his Father about the tree.  Unlike our parents in the garden, Jesus is the faithful adam that is obedient to the Father’s instruction about the tree.

 

Those who are put their allegiance in Jesus will get what he gets; resurrection life.  The question remains, how do we live and what do we do with the Torah now.  Paul described the law as a pedagogue which is expressed different ways in English: a guardian, a nanny, a schoolmaster or a tutor.  While the law intended to point the people towards what would bring life, it lacked the power to give life (Rom 7:10).

 

The good news is that “the last adam is a life-giving spirit” (1 Cor 15:45).  Jesus does the thing that the law wanted to do but couldn’t - give life.  Jesus followers are now led by his spirit and are re-made into the kind of people who do what the law wanted.  The New Testament proclaims this new humanity has the law on their hearts (Jer 31:31quoted in Heb 8:8).  Like Adam and Eve, they don’t need a list of written commands, because they are the kind of people who embody what the law was after.

 

The law is not in conflict with this New Testament vision.  When Paul describes the fruit of the Spirit, he concludes with “against such things there is no law”.  The law and Spirit are aimed at the same thing, but the Spirit enables humans to be the kind of people that carry out the vision found in the story of Torah.

 

In conclusion, the law was the guide/tutor that aimed people at loving God, loving others and ultimately flourishing in life.  The Spirit of God is what enables Jesus followers to actually live into those aims.  In the story of Torah, more laws were added to address new contexts.  Likewise, the people of God today find themselves facing new questions about how to live life in previously non-existent contexts.  We trust the Spirit of God to help us answer, in ever changing contexts, the question “How should we now live?”