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Every teacher of the law who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.
A man owns a house. He likes to collect valuable things. He has a room in his house to store his treasures. He collected some of his treasures in the past. He continues to collect new treasures. When he finds a new treasure, he puts it in the storeroom along with the older treasures. When he finds new treasures, he doesn’t get rid of his older treasures. And he brings his old and new treasures out of his storeroom to show them to others so they can enjoy them too. This is easy to understand.
Now for the truths that are harder to understand. In the time of Yeshua, there were teachers of the Law. While they may have focused their teaching on the Torah, meaning the Five Books of Moses, they didn’t just teach the Law in its most limited sense – Genesis through Deuteronomy. They taught all of the Bible – the Law and the Prophets and the Writings. All of the Tenach, the Old Testament, can be considered to be the Law.
In the Law, there are many precious truths. For example, each year when we start a new cycle of the Torah readings, I teach the first weekly reading from the Torah, Beresheet.
There are so many treasures in those first six chapters of the Torah. Here are some:
In the very first verse of Genesis, the word “Eloheem,” which means God, is a plural noun which is almost always followed by singular verbs. This hints at God’s singular yet plural nature. And this is reinforced by these words, later in this chapter: “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness.”
God created the heavens and the Earth, bringing form and filling to that which was formless and empty by speaking. This is a hint that the Son of God, who is the Word of God, was the One who did the work of creation.
God made man, the highest of His creation, in His image, to rule everything else. He created mankind with two genders, and only two genders – male and female.
He created the universe and everything in it in six literal 24-hour days, and then on the seventh day He rested. He blessed the seventh day and made it special. He made it part of the identity of the Jewish people. He set us an example that He wants us to follow.
The Lord planted a garden in the east, in Eden. He placed two special trees in the middle of the garden – the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. This reveals that there is good and there is evil, and that it’s possible to live forever; and the way to live forever is by knowing and choosing good and rejecting what is evil. And what is the essence of good? Knowing the true God and trusting and obeying Him and His Word.
From the marriage of Adam and Eve, we learn the principles for a successful marriage.
From these first chapters of the Law, we learn about Satan’s temptation, the Fall of Man, the curse, and the first prophecy of redemption through the Seed of the Woman, the Messiah.
And we learn the principles for redemption. In place of Adam and Eve’s inadequate efforts to cover their nakedness with fig leaves, the Lord made garments of skin. Animals were killed, their blood was shed and their skins were used to provide a better covering. The garments of skin provided more than physical covering. An exchange of life took place when the animals died. The innocent animals received the sin of Adam and Eve and the animals died. Adam and Eve received the life of the animals and were able to live. This temporary and partial spiritual covering that came from sacrificed animals covered Adam and Eve, and all of the righteous, until the arrival of the Seed of the Woman, whose life, death and resurrection made full, perfect and eternal atonement possible – for Adam and Eve and for the righteous of all the ages.
We learn about other consequences of the Fall. Abel, whose offering had the blood of innocent animals and provided the exchange of life that resulted in atonement, was killed by his brother, Cain.
We learn about advancements that took place in the arts and sciences over the next generations. And we learn that although mankind advanced technologically, the majority worsened morally and spiritually.
We learn about Enoch, who walked with God, and who was taken by God to be with Him – which reveals that there is another place, Heaven, where the faithful remnant who walk with God will be taken to.
We learn that the “sons of God” had sexual relationships with women, which further corrupted humanity.
These are some of the treasures found in the first six chapters of the Law. These truths are so beneficial, valuable, precious.
What would our understanding be like without these treasures?
Every teacher of the law who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.
The teachers of the Chosen Nation had known the Law for hundreds of years. However, the greatest new revelation accompanied the arrival of the Seed of the Woman, the Messiah, the Son of God, Immanuel.
Yeshua didn’t want the teachers of the Law who became His disciples to disregard the truths that came before. He wanted them to integrate them with Him and His teachings.
He wanted old and new to be considered one, coherent, cohesive book, with Him as the focus.
And that is what Yeshua wants still for the Bible teachers of His Community today.
We come into this world ignorant and confused. We need knowledge. The greatest knowledge is the knowledge of God and His Word.
One of the leadership positions in Messiah’s Community is teacher. God gifts people to be teachers. It’s God’s will for us to learn from those God-gifted teachers.
Those teachers need to integrate the truths from the old and the new.
They must not go to one of two extremes: They must not disregard the old. And they must not teach that we’re required to keep all of the old, since the old laws were specifically designed for the Jewish people living under the Sinai Covenant.
There are bad teachers today who insist that we must follow all the laws of the Sinai Covenant. They make the same mistakes as those to whom the book of Galatians was written.
One of the weaknesses of Messiah’s Community today is that many of the teachers rarely bring out those old treasures from the storeroom. They rarely teach from the Old Testament. They don’t try to integrate old and new. In fact, some are hostile to the old. Would it surprise you to hear that the senior pastor of a megachurch in Georgia recently said this to his congregation:
“(First Century) Church leaders unhitched the church from the worldview, value system, and regulations of the Jewish scriptures.” Wow. And this: “Peter, James, Paul elected to unhitch the Christian faith from their Jewish scriptures, and my friends, we must as well.” And how about this beauty? “Jesus’ new covenant, His covenant with the nations, His covenant with you, His covenant with us, can stand on its own two nail-scarred resurrection feet. It does not need propping up by the Jewish scriptures.” No. No. No. No. No!
Every teacher of the law who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.
Here at Shema, we are committed to be those teachers of the Law who bring out from the storeroom old and new treasures to be enjoyed by all. May we be never be legalists. And may we never disregard or be hostile to the old treasures. Amen?