Have you ever wondered why Jesus told the listeners to his Sermon on the Mount that they needed to be “perfect?”
He had spent the day teaching the crowds about a new way to live, where the wisdom of the world is turned upside down: in God’s kingdom, the poor in Spirit are blessed. We shouldn’t hate our enemies, but instead love and pray for them.
For Jewish Believers in Jesus, understanding the Jewish roots of their faith in Jesus is clear. For Gentile Believers, the Jewish roots of Christianity may not be as evident. Since about the third century after Jesus walked the Earth, there has been a marked division between Judaism and Christianity. In general, Jewish people view the New Testament as the Christian Bible that has nothing to do with them. Likewise, some Believers in Yeshua (Jesus) consider the Old Testament irrelevant.
I am holy. I contain exactly 304,805 letters. To be kosher, I must be hand-written.
I’m made of parchment sheets – the washed and stretched, dried and thinned hides of kosher animals. Before the next step in creating me, a reed is used to gently score precisely spaced lines into my sheets.
You think you know it, but you really don’t.
I’m referring to Matthew 5:17, the verse where Yeshua (Jesus) says, “Don’t think I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill.” (CSV)
“See?” you declare, “Right there, Yeshua says He didn’t come to do away with the law, so that settles the issue as to whether the Old Testament was to be thrown out or not!”
Newsflash…. there never was an issue. That was never the issue.
I am seven miles wide and 13 miles long. I am 150 feet deep. I’m located in the Jordan River Valley in Israel, and many cities are situated around my edges.
People all around me have depended on me for food. I’ve provided many with a trade that sustained their families.
