Subject: Why did God test Adam and Eve ? |
Bible Note: Hi Swerv, I think my answer to your question would be that I believe G-d wants us, Jewish or Gentile, to be responsive to His Spirit. He says in Jeremiah 31 A New Covenant 31 "Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah-- 32 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, *though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more." G-d says He will, through His Spirit, put His law in our minds and write them on our hearts. G-d does that in a progressive way with us as we walk along with Him... and He does this as it seems best to Him. Some of us are called to a Messianic lifestyle and live according to the Jewish calendar in order to reach out to the Jewish people and demonstrate that within our synagogue, a Jewish person can remain Jewish and follow the Jewish Messiah, Yeshua. If a person is Gentile, that person is also free to honor G-d by obeying any of the laws He puts in their hearts. For example, at my synagogue, we don't serve pork or shellfish or give them out as part of our food ministry. However, if individual members, whether Jewish or Gentile, choose to eat that treif ( sorry :) ), then that is between them and G-d, and we do not look down on each other. However, most of us eat in a biblically kosher way so as to be able to offer hospitality to each other. Others come to our synagogue because they have a personal conviction that they want to worship G-d on Shabbat (Saturday) and also to attend the Feasts that G-d invites believing people to come to. We see and celebrate Messiah Yeshua in all of the feasts. We honor and talk about the traditional meaning of each feast as well as how we see Yeshua in the feast. While we enjoy the beauty and rich meaning of the Feasts and wish that others in the Body of Messiah also were benefitting from the times G-d has set aside and invited people to meet with Him, we don't have a "Messianic chip" on our shoulders which says, "We have it all together and understand everything" because we don't. Rav Shaul (Paul) shows very clearly in Romans 14 that as far as G-d is concerned, obeying Him and honoring Him from the heart, according to one's best understanding, is most important and acceptable to Him. Please read Romans 14 again and again. The principle there is that it is not so much which day we worship G-d as that we worship Him on whatever day we believe He is asking us to. Rav Shaul says that we are not to find fault with each other in these matters because G-d has accepted us as His servants through Yeshua.. and we are responsible to Him for our service. Yeshua is the perfect atonement for every way in which we have fallen short of perfect obedience to G-d's requirements and commands. Yeshua is the offering for all time for all people. I personally love worshipping on Shabbat and attending the Feasts. I personally have a conviction about not buying stuff at the store on Saturday as my normal habit (although if there is a need for hospitality-- a "donkey to get out of the ditch"-- I might sometimes stop to meet the legitimate need of someone else.) But G-d does not love me more (or less) than any other member of the Body of Messiah. I am not any more or less righteous than any other member. I am just responding to what G-d has written on my heart about how to honor Him... and that is the highest call of all... to love Him with all my heart and to love my neighbor as myself. I do love His Torah (which Yeshua mentioned as including the Prophets and the Writings as well). I love how Rav Shaul said that everything written in the Bible is for our benefit... and I have found that by ignoring things in the Bible, I have caused hurt to myself and others. However, the freedom to follow G-d in the matter of personal conviction is important for us to extend to each other as believers... and not to play "Holy Spirit" and tell others what to do. Romans 14 remains the foundational chapter about how the believer is to be responsible to G-d about honoring Him with his best understanding as G-d continues to do what He promises in the New Covenant-- to write His laws on our hearts. Shalom to you and thank you for waiting patiently until I responded. Beseder |