Is the Torah for Today - Part 2

However one views the Torah, there is an unavoidable issue. That issue is over what to do with the sacrificial system. The sacrificial system is central to the Torah. Not only were sacrifices an ongoing, daily activity, they were associated with so much of life: festivals, childbirth, disease, sins, thanksgiving, etc. To remove or ignore the sacrificial system from the rest of the Torah is to end up with something very different from what God originally intended. I imagine there may be some people (I haven't heard of any) who try to fulfill the sacrificial requirements, but it is widely accepted that God directed the sacrifices to be done at the Temple in Jerusalem, and has not directed otherwise. No temple, no sacrifices.

Each of the various approaches to the Torah that I outlined in my last post in some way deals with this issue. But however one deals with it, there needs to be an acceptance that we cannot fully keep it as it was intended. While those who completely reject the Torah's current relevancy don't have to address this issue, the other approaches need to do something with the implications of the loss of the sacrificial system.

This is all to point out that if we believe that the Torah has something to teach us today (as I do), it cannot be in exactly the same way as originally intended. Due to the Temple's destruction and the absence of the sacrificial system some things have had to have changed.

Religious, non-believing Jewish people deal with this by substituting a variety of religious traditions in the place of God's prescribed rituals. They think they are fulfilling the Torah – but they are not – they are simply pursuing something of their own concoction. Instead of seriously facing the implications of the loss of the sacrificial system, which can only be resolved through what Yeshua the Messiah has done for us, they have created their own religion.

Sadly many New Covenant believers look to a rabbinical model of Torah observance in their desire to fulfill Torah. It is sad because the "torah" they are fulfilling is not God's Torah, but a man-made one.

In order to fulfill God's Torah, we need to adequately deal with the implications of the loss of the sacrificial system, which we will seek to do next time.