The true meaning of ‘Torah’ is something which is rarely talked about in our modern day churches.  As the Apostle Paul said “we are no longer under the Law” but did he mean that we are now free to be ‘lawless’?  Did the God of the Old Testament decide to abandon Plan A when he sent Yeshua to fulfil the ‘Law’?  Let’s look at the evidence with some fresh eyes?

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Issachar was known as the ‘Torah Tribe’ and we probably imagine that they wore black and refused to do anything fun – other than reminding everyone of what they were doing wrong!  Please do not be offended – I am not trying to be deliberately facetious; I am simply trying to stir up our thoughts.  Issachar is one of our ‘Tribes’ or ‘Houses’ and it is good for us all to ‘get’ what makes each Tribe uniquely different so that we can appreciate what each brings to the table.

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Hopefully, by the time you have read this article, we will have been able to address 3 important areas that are closely related and I promise this will bring significant revelation to what is largely ignored as too ‘difficult’ a topic to be relevant today:

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• What is the Fear of the Lord?
• Why was it wrong to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil?
• What does the original version of the Torah say?

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We will begin with the ‘Hand of God’.  I’ve never watched a football match but the world sat up and took notice in 1986 when Diego Maradona scored an ‘impossible’ goal in the quarter finals of the FIFA World Cup.  With the benefit of hindsight, and some fairly grainy camera footage we can now see that as Maradona jumped to head the ball his right hand also directed it into the net.  None of the referees were in a position to confirm a penalty so the goal was allowed and after the match Maradona boldly stated “it was a little with the head of Maradona and a little with the Hand of God!”  Incidentally, the No.10 shirt that Maradona wore was swapped with England midfielder Steve Hodge following the match and sold at auction in 2022 for £7.1 M!

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How would you have felt on that day?  Elation, if you were on the Argentinian side at the divine intervention of God!  Or frustration, if you were an England supporter, and indignance at the injustice that God would turn the ‘fate’ of the match in Argentina’s favour?  If a ‘hand’ ball should have been disallowed, then God’s hand should have been disqualified too!

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What is the ‘Hand of God’?  If you were into astrology then you might be familiar with the expression ‘Yod’ which they believe to be the ‘Finger of God’ – or ‘Finger of Fate’ to those unwilling to recognise a Supreme Being.  In Exodus 8 we read that when the 3rd Plague struck the land and Egypt struggled with the biting insect infestation, Pharaoh summoned his magicians to replicate the plague, thereby proving that it was all ‘smoke and mirrors’.  Exodus 8:19 the magicians held up their hands in defeat and said ‘This is the finger of God!’ but Pharaoh remained stubborn.

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Yod is not an astrological word – it is actually the Hebrew word for the hand.   The hand is an important concept, hence there are several words found in Biblical Hebrew and they each symbolise something quite unique:

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Yod = the hand (often referring to the hand of God)

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Kaph = the palm (usually of man, expressing availability/vulnerability)

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Etsba = finger

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Yamin = right hand (as in Benyamin/Benjamin = son of my right hand)

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Semol = left hand

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We too, in the UK, equate the right hand with greetings, for example, we shake or salute with the right hand.  Engagement and wedding rings are worn on the left hand, here too, as the left hand is believed to be closer to the heart.  In Poland, and other countries, the wedding ring is worn on the right hand and then moved to the left following the death of a spouse.

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The right hand is a very important biblical concept.  Ben-Yamin, son of my right hand, was Jacob’s right-hand man in old age.  He could be relied upon to do the ‘right’ thing at the ‘right’ time.  In the New Testament Jesus described how ‘sheep’ would be positioned on the right hand of the Father and ‘goats’ on the left.

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Sheep follow the Shepherd; goats do their own thing!  Sheep know the voice of the Shepherd; goats have their own agenda.  Goats may appear to follow the Shepherd for a time because they can see that he is leading the flock towards good pasture but there is no commitment or submission to the Shepherd.  Breeds of goat in the UK are fairly distinguishable but in many countries it is hard to tell the difference.  I was informed once, by a tour guide, that sheep hold their tails down while goats lift their tails up; but I am no expert!

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Sheep to the right, goats to the left.  God’s right hand is often used as a metaphor for His power extended towards His chosen ones as divine intervention i.e. to provide and protect.

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• The right hand was used to give the special double blessing usually awarded to the firstborn son; which is why Joseph was annoyed that his father, Jacob, gave the double-blessing to his grandson Ephraim instead of his older brother Manasseh ( Genesis 48:17).

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• The right hand is the hand of power: for example, speaking of how Pharaoh’s chariots were destroyed in the Red Sea: Exodus 15:6,12 “Your right hand, Yahweh, has become glorious in power. Your right hand, Yahweh has dashed the enemies in pieces”….”You reached out with Your right hand and the earth swallowed them”.

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• When Aaron and his sons were consecrated as priests (Exodus 29) the blood from the ram that was sacrificed was placed upon the right ear lobes of Aaron and his sons, and on their right hands, and on the toes of the right feet (v20). Similarly, the wave offering included the right thigh of the ram of ordination (v22) (Also see Leviticus 7:32,33, 8:25.26, 9:21).  The right side was often deemed to be the favoured side.

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• New Testament – Acts 2:33-35 “Therefore, since He has been exalted at the right hand of God, and has received the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father, He has poured out this which you both see and hear.  For it was not David who ascended into heaven, but he himself says: ‘THE LORD SAID TO MY LORD,“SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND, UNTIL I MAKE YOUR ENEMIES A FOOTSTOOL FOR YOUR FEET.”’

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A place of double blessing, a place of power and deliverance.  A place of favour.  This is where Jesus sits at the right hand of God and we can easily miss the nuances without an understanding of the Hebrew concept of the right hand of God.

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The Yod is the Hebrew word for a hand, but Yod is also a letter in the Hebrew alphabet and it looks like an apostrophe.  Like a hand reaching down to intervene.

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The Hebrew word often used for the ‘Fear of the Lord’ is Yarah and it is derived from the root word YR – which is spelt Yod-Resh.  Hebrew root words ‘contain’ the DNA meaning like building blocks spelling out a message.

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Quite simply,

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Yod = hand of God or divine intervention

Resh = the head, thoughts, mindset

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Together, they mean the intervention of God that impacts the mindset.  To those walking in the ways of the Lord and who have witnessed the goodness of God’s intervention and provision; Yarah will mean ‘respect’, ‘admiration’, ‘awe’.  The terror filled opposite may be equally valid to those who walk according to their own understanding and care less for the Lord as they will become aware of the awesome fear of divine retribution.  Both interpretations are equally valid and give some insight into the expression – ‘the fear of the Lord’.

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The word ‘Torah’ is actually derived from this very same root word.  Torah does not mean ‘Law’ – it means ‘instruction’ or ‘teaching’.  The word ‘torah’ is used both of the instruction and guidance given by a parent and the instructions given to Moses on Mt Sinai – there is no difference in the Hebrew.

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Proverbs 1:8 “My son hear the instruction of your father and do not forsake the teaching (torah) of your mother”.

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Proverbs 6:20,23; “My son keep the command of your father and do not forsake the teaching (torah) of your mother”… “For the command is a lamp and the teaching (torah) a light and reproofs of instruction are  the way of life”.

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Inevitably there will come a season when a toddler throws a tantrum refusing to obey the ‘rules’ jeopardising their health and well-being by running onto a busy street, or striking out at their siblings – but it doesn’t mean that the ‘rules’ were bad.  Similarly, a teenager may want to stretch the boundaries by staying out later or having their boyfriend or girlfriend stay over and it may become necessary for the parent/s to ‘lay down the law’ – but it doesn’t mean that the parents were being ‘legalistic’ or harsh.

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We are told that Moses spent 40 days up the mountain leaning in to Yahweh, hungry to learn how to lead His people.  We assume that Moses fasted, but we are never told that he deprived his body; indeed he returned for a further 80 days and his face was shining!  We know that our bodies cannot survive even a week without water so Yahweh must have provided for Moses just as He provided manna for 40 years in the wilderness.  God provides and sustains His people.

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I believe Moses would be shocked, today, to discover that those incredible months spent with Yahweh when he was coached and instructed by God and given all the answers to how to move forward as the people of God might be ignored and relegated to the back shelf as irrelevant!  To those who had an encounter with God, this instruction, this torah, was precious.  Psalm 19:7, 9, 10:

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The laws (torah) of the Lord are perfect, converting the soul.  The testimony of the Lord is pure making wise the simple…. The fear of the Lord is pure enduring forever, the judgements of Yahweh are true and righteous altogether.  More to be desired than gold and fine gold and much sweeter than honey and honeycomb.

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Just as the ‘hand of God’ and the ‘fear of the Lord’ can understood very differently, depending on the relationship of the person on the receiving end!  To those who sought to live their lives in relationship with God, as the people of God, God’s instructions were considered a privileged insight into the ways of the Lord.  To those who were only hearing the instructions second-hand as a list of rules and regulations, but without the context of relationship; the Torah was an insurmountable challenge – made worse by centuries of additional manmade laws and clauses!

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Ever since the Garden of Eden, there has been a tendency in Man to add to God’s instructions.  Adam was told ‘of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil’ you may not eat or you will surely die.  Eve was then created and she encountered the serpent in the Garden.  We do not know whether Adam ‘elaborated’ on what he had been instructed, or whether Eve ‘exaggerated’ when she told the serpent that if they even ‘touched’ the fruit, but by ‘adding’ to God’s instruction, God was made out to be either a liar, or incapable of carrying out a threat.

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Adam may have believed that by adding another layer to the law/instruction that he could prevent either of them from even coming close to crossing over the line and eating the fruit.  Eve may have believed that touching the fruit was as bad as eating of it; but by confusing God’s instruction with a manmade additional clause she believed that the damage was done when she touched the fruit, so what harm in eating of it too!  Like a person who sabotages their healthy eating plan by overly restricting their diet and then recklessly over-eating as they have ‘failed’ to keep their own restrictive law.  God’s laws and instructions were designed to bring health and wholeness to God’s people; with not an extra ‘dot or title’ added by Man.

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Knowledge is good, knowledge brings understanding and we value both intellectual knowledge and common knowledge gained from the University of Life.  Knowledge is good, with God in the equation.  On the contrary, knowledge not born out of humility, love nor relationship, will simply cause us to become puffed up with pride, just as it was in the beginning.

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We probably might find it easier to explain the issue with eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil if it had simply been the ‘Tree of Evil’!

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I love to learn, I love to research and gain understanding, and take me to a bookshop and I am in my element!  So imagine if we could just drink a glass from the font of all knowledge, or eat something which would result in us literally ‘knowing it all’, without any effort or context or hard work!  We would become independent and need no-one to help us, we wouldn’t need to be in relationship with anyone – we would be entirely self-sufficient.  That was the problem!  The knowledge gained from eating the forbidden fruit possibly afforded Adam and Eve the wisdom to live long lives, indeed Adam lived 930 years; but along with a complete download of knowledge concerning ‘good’ and ‘evil’, they would learn that life would never be quite the same again, without God.

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Relationship is key to how we ‘fear’ God, how we regard God’s instructions/teaching, and whether we confuse God’s teaching with the vast myriad of additional man-made laws and clauses that have been added to God’s teaching over many thousands of years – since the Garden of Eden, to be precise.

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When Paul spoke of being ‘under the Law’ in 1 Corinthians 9:19-21 we possibly overlook the fact that he was well versed in the Law as he was well educated in the extra laws contained within the Talmud and the Midrash which sought to bring enlightenment to the Talmud and the Tanakh (Torah, Prophets and Writings contained within the Old Testament) and countless additional writings not contained within the canon of scripture.  So when Paul spoke of those ‘under the Law’ he was referring to those burdened with all of the additional teachings/torah of man.  He possibly would have also been clarifying that being in a relationship meant that he wasn’t ‘under’ anything – for the laws of the Lord were a pleasure to observe as a wife or husband who loves to serve their spouse.  When Paul encountered God on the Damascus Road he began a journey of realisation that the laws of man, however well meaning, had brought burden and confusion and Jesus had brought the true Torah or Law of God into proper focus when He fulfilled it for 33 years.

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Not all of the laws are relevant today, for example, there is no Temple, so we don’t need to worry about observing the sacrificial laws, but we will look next time at aspects of the torah which have been dismissed somewhat prematurely that may well be worth reconsidering.