the weekly eDrash at ffoz seems to provide a timely counterbalance to a lot of speculation I’ve been listening to on the podcast “Beyond The Box” questioning whether God really commanded everything that the OT says he did. A conversation with my friend Jeremy retrieved a similar conversation he had with Peter Davids where Peter confided his own doubts that a lot of what the OT claims as being God’s will or instruction actually was God’s heart in the matter. The other side of the pendulum is this reminder that Jesus fully put his trust and confidence in the Torah and endorsed it in every detail. In fact, the messianic perspective is that Christ was himself the living embodiment of Torah, or Torah made into flesh. He walked in complete consistency with the Torah and clarified every point of contention over the heart of it by his words and his example.
About Korach’s rebellion (Link to article):
They challenged the authority of Moses. To oppose the authority of Moses is to oppose the Torah. In the words of the Jerusalem Talmud, Korach declared, “The Torah was not given by God, Moses is not a prophet, and Aaron is not the high priest.” (j.Sanhedrin 50a)
In one way or another, we believers in Yeshua have often come to the same theological conclusions. It would seem that Korach’s theology has had some influence on our thinking. Throughout our history, it has been common to assume that the Torah is not really God-given. Rather it is considered to be a burdensome maze of laws, rules of men and rules of condemnation, never intended for believers. It is often said, “The Torah is not given by God, at least not to believers in Yeshua.” This was the very counsel of Korach.
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But Messiah endorses the Torah of Moses saying, “For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Torah until all is accomplished. Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:18-19) On another occasion, He says that unless we believe Moses, we can not believe in Messiah. He says, “For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?” (John 5:46-47)
If we are to be believers in Messiah, we must first acknowledge the authority of the words of Moses. We must not join in Korach’s rebellion.