Laws of Moses

Summary

The video script explores the 613 commandments in the Torah, which are part of a larger narrative about God's creation of a people capable of loving God and others. Jesus is presented as the fulfillment of this story, embodying the law's purpose through love and compassion. His teachings simplify the commandments to loving God and others, showing their depth and demanding nature. Jesus' life and the promised spiritual transformation through the Holy Spirit aim to enable true adherence to these commandments, completing the story of the law and the prophets.

Takeaways

• 📜 The Bible contains a total of 613 commands given to ancient Israel, which are part of the first five books known as the Torah.
• 🔍 The word 'Torah' is often translated as 'the law', but it is fundamentally a narrative about God's creation of a people capable of loving God and others.
• 🤔 The purpose of the laws within the Torah is to set Israel apart and to demonstrate God's nature to other nations through social justice and morality.
• 📚 The Torah's narrative pattern shows a cycle of God giving laws, Israel rebelling, and the need for a transformation of the heart to truly follow God's law.
• 👴 Moses, in his final speech, acknowledged that the people of Israel were incapable of following all of God's laws due to their hardened hearts.
• 📖 The Prophets reflect on the story, with some like Ezekiel and Jeremiah foreseeing a need for a transformation of the heart to obey God's commands.
• 🌟 Isaiah prophesied a future leader, the Messiah, who would lead the people in obedience to the law.
• 🕊 Jesus saw himself as the fulfillment of the Torah's story, agreeing with its laws and the need for a new heart to truly love God and others.
• ❤️ Jesus taught that the essence of the law could be summarized by the Great Commandment to love God and love others, showing that love is more demanding than it seems.
• 🔥 After his resurrection, Jesus promised to send God's spirit to transform the hearts of his followers, enabling them to fulfill the law's purpose of love.

Q & A

What are the Ten Commandments and where are they found?

The Ten Commandments are a set of biblical principles relating to ethics and worship, which play a foundational role in Judaism and Christianity. They are found in the Torah, the first five books of the Bible.

How many commands are there in total in the Torah?

There are 613 commands in total in the Torah, which are part of the laws given to ancient Israel.

What is the purpose of the laws in the Torah?

The laws in the Torah serve as the terms of a covenant between God and Israel, setting them apart from other nations, guiding them in social justice and morality, and showing other nations what God is like.

How does the pattern of laws and rebellion in the Torah reflect the nature of the Israelites?

The pattern of laws followed by stories of rebellion in the Torah reflects the Israelites' inability to follow God's laws due to their hardened hearts, indicating a need for transformation.

What does Moses say about the Israelites' ability to follow God's laws in his final speech?

In his final speech, Moses acknowledges that the Israelites are incapable of following all of God's laws due to their hard hearts, and they will need new, transformed hearts to truly follow God.

What do the Prophets in the Jewish tradition reflect on regarding the story of Israel?

The Prophets reflect on the story of Israel, recognizing their failure to obey the law and prophesying the need for a transformation of their hearts and a future leader, the Messiah, who would lead them in obedience.

How does Jesus view the law and the prophets in relation to his mission?

Jesus sees himself as continuing the story of the law and the prophets, agreeing with their teachings, and coming to solve the problem of the human heart's default setting, which is not aligned with God's law.

What does Jesus mean when he says he came to fulfill the law?

Jesus means that he came to embody and complete the moral and spiritual demands of the law by loving God and others perfectly, and by offering a way for others to have their hearts transformed to fulfill the law's purpose.

What is the 'Great Command' according to Jesus, and how does it relate to the Torah's laws?

The 'Great Command' according to Jesus is to love God and to love others. He teaches that all the laws of the Torah can be fulfilled by adhering to this command, which is more demanding than it initially appears.

How does Jesus' teaching on love extend beyond the command 'Do not murder'?

Jesus extends the command 'Do not murder' to include not only physical harm but also disrespect and harboring resentment towards others, emphasizing that true love should extend even to enemies.

What role does the Holy Spirit play in the fulfillment of the law according to Jesus' teachings?

According to Jesus, the Holy Spirit will transform the hearts of his followers, enabling them to love God and others as part of fulfilling the purpose of the law.

Outlines

00:00

📜 The Ten Commandments and the Purpose of the Torah

This paragraph introduces the Ten Commandments and the larger body of 613 laws given to ancient Israel in the Torah. It explains how the word 'Torah' is often translated as 'the law,' but the Torah is actually a story about God creating people capable of fully loving Him and others. Jesus’ teaching brought this story to its fulfillment, highlighting the true purpose of the Torah as something deeper than mere laws.

05:01

📖 The Story Behind the Torah’s Laws

The second paragraph walks through the narrative of how the laws fit into the Torah. It begins with God rescuing the Israelites from Egypt and forming a covenant at Mount Sinai. The laws given by Moses served as the terms of that covenant, but the story shows how Israel constantly rebelled, breaking the laws. Moses acknowledged that Israel would need transformed hearts to truly follow God’s law, as mere adherence to rules was insufficient.

🛑 Israel’s Continued Failure and the Need for a New Heart

Here, the narrative explains how the Israelites repeatedly broke the laws after receiving them. Even as more laws were given, the rebellion continued, highlighting a deeper issue within the human heart. Moses warned that the people were incapable of fully obeying the law, as their hearts were hardened. He foresaw that only transformed hearts could enable true obedience, which later prophets like Ezekiel and Jeremiah echoed.

🔮 The Prophets’ Vision of Heart Transformation

This paragraph connects the Torah with the prophetic books, which reflect on Israel’s failure to obey the law. Prophets like Ezekiel and Jeremiah envisioned a future when God’s Spirit would transform the people's hearts, enabling them to obey His law effortlessly. Isaiah prophesied about a Messiah who would lead the people in obedience to God’s commands, moving from external rules to an internal transformation.

❤️ Jesus' Fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets

Jesus is presented as the continuation and fulfillment of the story told in the law and the prophets. He identified the human heart as the source of rebellion against God’s commands and emphasized that true love—love for God and others—could fulfill the entire law. Jesus’ teachings showed that love is far more demanding than mere rule-following, even extending to love for enemies.

✝️ Jesus’ Acts of Love and the Role of the Holy Spirit

The final paragraph explains how Jesus fulfilled the law through acts of compassion, mercy, and ultimately by loving His enemies, even unto death. His resurrection and the sending of God’s Spirit to His followers enabled them to have transformed hearts, thus fulfilling the law's purpose: to love God and love others. The Apostle Paul summed this up by saying, 'the one who loves fulfills the law.'

Keywords

💡Ten Commandments

The Ten Commandments are a set of biblical principles relating to ethics and worship, which play a fundamental role in Judaism and Christianity. In the video, they are mentioned as the starting point of a larger set of 613 commands given to ancient Israel, serving as a moral guide and a reflection of God's will. The script discusses how these commandments are part of a broader narrative about God's relationship with humanity.

💡Torah

The Torah refers to the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, traditionally believed to have been revealed to Moses by God. It encompasses the Ten Commandments and a total of 613 commandments. The video script uses the term 'Torah' to illustrate the foundation of Jewish law and its significance in the narrative of God's creation of a people capable of loving God and others.

💡613 Commands

The number 613 represents the total count of commandments given to the ancient Israelites in the Torah. The video script highlights these commands as part of the covenant God made with Israel, serving as a constitution that defined the terms of their relationship and how they were to live among the nations.

💡Covenant

A covenant in the script refers to the agreement made between God and the Israelites at Mount Sinai, where the terms of their relationship were established through the giving of the laws. The concept is central to understanding the contractual nature of the relationship between God and Israel, and how it forms the basis for their identity and conduct.

💡Golden Calf

The golden calf incident is a story from the Torah where the Israelites, shortly after receiving the commandments, fashioned a golden idol to worship, thereby breaking their covenant with God. In the video, this event symbolizes the pattern of rebellion against God's laws and the ongoing struggle of the Israelites to adhere to the covenant.

💡Social Justice

Social justice is a recurring theme in the script, referring to the laws within the Torah that address fairness and the equitable treatment of individuals within society. These laws are part of God's intention for Israel to model a society that reflects divine characteristics, such as compassion and fairness.

💡Moses

Moses is a central figure in the video script, known as the prophet who led the Israelites out of Egypt and received the Torah from God. His role is pivotal in conveying the laws and the covenant, as well as recognizing the Israelites' inability to fully adhere to God's commandments without a change of heart.

💡Prophets

In the context of the video, the Prophets refers to the books of the Hebrew Bible that follow the Torah, which continue the narrative of God's interaction with Israel. These books, such as those attributed to Ezekiel and Jeremiah, reflect on the story and prophesy the need for a transformation of the heart to achieve true obedience to God's law.

💡Messiah

The Messiah in Jewish tradition is a future leader prophesied to come and restore Israel. In the video, the concept of the Messiah is tied to the fulfillment of the law, where a future leader (Jesus, in Christian belief) would lead the people in perfect obedience to the law, embodying the ideal of love for God and others.

💡Fulfillment of the Law

In the script, the fulfillment of the law refers to Jesus' role in completing the narrative of the Torah and the Prophets by embodying the ideal of love for God and others. He is portrayed as the one who perfectly loved God and others, thus fulfilling the moral and spiritual demands of the law, and paving the way for others to do the same through the transformation of their hearts.

💡Transformation of Hearts

The concept of a 'transformation of hearts' in the video script refers to the spiritual change needed for people to genuinely follow God's law. It is tied to the idea that the laws alone are insufficient; a deeper internal change is required to truly love God and others. This transformation is seen as the solution to the pattern of rebellion and failure to adhere to the commandments.

Highlights

The Bible contains a total of 613 commands given to ancient Israel, not just the well-known Ten Commandments.

The word 'Torah' is often translated as 'The Law' in English, but it is fundamentally a story about God's creation of a people who can love God and others.

Jesus taught that he was bringing the story of the Torah to its fulfillment.

The Torah's narrative begins with God creating humanity, who then rebel, leading to God choosing Abraham to bless all nations.

God rescues the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and makes a covenant with them at Mount Sinai, establishing the laws as the terms of the agreement.

The laws in the Torah serve to set Israel apart from other nations and demonstrate God's nature through social justice and morality.

The pattern in the Torah shows a cycle of Moses giving laws, Israel rebelling, and then more laws and rebellion, indicating a need for something beyond laws.

Moses acknowledges that the Israelites are incapable of following God's laws due to hard hearts,预示着 a need for transformation.

The prophetic books reflect on the Torah's story, with some prophets like Ezekiel and Jeremiah foreseeing a transformation of the heart as necessary for obedience.

Isaiah prophesies a future leader, the Messiah, who will lead the people in obedience to the law.

Jesus sees himself as the fulfillment of the Torah and the Prophets' story, agreeing with their teachings but offering a solution to the human heart's default.

Jesus teaches that the great command to love God and others fulfills the entire Torah, showing that love is more demanding than not just murder.

True love, as taught by Jesus, extends even to enemies, which is a challenge for human hearts not equipped to fulfill God's command.

As the Messiah, Jesus fully loves God and others, demonstrating God's nature through compassion, mercy, and even to the point of death.

After his resurrection, Jesus promises to send God's spirit to transform the hearts of his followers, enabling them to love and fulfill the law.

The Apostle Paul summarizes that love fulfills the law, encapsulating the culmination of the Torah and the Prophets' narrative.

Transcripts

you're most likely familiar with the ten

commandments in the bible stuff we

generally

take as good advice don't murder don't

steal honor your parents

the list goes on and those are just the

first ten they're actually a total of

613 commands all given to ancient israel

found in the first five books of the

bible which in hebrew are called

the torah now the word torah is usually

translated in english as

the law because it has all of these laws

in it

and as you read through them you wonder

am i supposed to obey some of these

all of these i mean what's the purpose

of the law

well that translation is kind of

confusing because while the torah has

laws

in it the book itself is fundamentally a

story about how god is creating new

kinds of

people who are fully able to love god

and love others

and when jesus taught about the torah he

said that he was bringing that story

to its fulfillment so walk me through

the story and

how it's fulfilled so the story begins

with god creating humanity who rebels

and god chooses abraham to bless all of

the nations through his family

who end up in slavery down in egypt and

so god

rescues them then at mount sinai god

makes a covenant with israel like an

agreement

and all of the laws that moses gives to

israel are the terms of that agreement

they're like a constitution

so some of the laws they're about

rituals and customs that set

israel apart from the nations other laws

are about social justice or

morality and by following these israel

would show the other nations what god is

like

okay so the rest of the torah is just

the complete list of laws that moses

gives israel

no the rest of the torah just continues

the story and the 613 commands are only

a selection from that original

constitution

and even these have been broken up and

placed at strategic points within the

story

now pay attention because you'll see a

really clear pattern moses gives the

first laws to israel they don't worship

other gods don't make idols

and then right after that there's a

story of israel breaking those very laws

yeah they worship the golden calf

and so moses gives some more laws and

then you get more stories

of rebellion some more laws rebellion

against more laws more rebellion and you

start to see the point

right no matter how many laws they're

just gonna continue to rebel

so at the conclusion of the torah's

story moses gives this

final speech to israel as they prepare

to go into their new home and he tells

them you guys

i know that you're not going to follow

all of god's laws

you've proven to me that you're

incapable and moses says

the problem is that their hearts are

hard and that they're going to need

new transformed hearts if they're ever

going to truly follow god's law

and he was right i mean the story goes

on to recount israel's total failure

they go into the land

they break all the laws right now the

next section of books in the jewish

tradition are the 15 books of the

prophet

and they reflect back on the story for

example ezekiel he said that if israel

was ever going to obey the law

god's spirit would have to transform

their hard hearts

into soft hearts and jeremiah said

that's when

obedience to god's commands wouldn't

feel like a duty but they would be

written

deep in their hearts in isaiah he

promised a future

leader israel's messiah who will lead

all of the people in obedience to the

law

now in jewish tradition all of these

books together are called the prophets

even the historical books because

they're continuing the story

told from the perspective of the

prophets okay so we have the law and the

prophets

and they're telling one connected story

about god's desire to bless the whole

world through a people

israel who it turns out needs a new

heart

yes and jesus saw himself as continuing

that

story so he agreed with the law and the

prophets when he taught that it's out of

the human

heart that come the most ugly parts of

human nature

it's like the default setting of our

hearts as opposed to god's law

but jesus also said that he came to

solve that problem and in his words to

fulfill

the law so what does he mean there to

fulfill the law

well first he said that the demand of

all of the laws in the torah could be

fulfilled by what he called the great

command that we are to love god and to

love others

so that seems pretty easy i mean we all

want to love

well we think we want to love but jesus

showed how love is

far more demanding than we realize so he

quotes the law do not

murder and he says yes not killing

someone it's a very loving thing to do

but then he also says that when you

treat someone with disrespect or when

you nurse resentment against them you're

also

violating god's moral ideal because

you're not treating that person with

love

and so jesus said true love ought to

extend even to our own enemies

so even though this command seems very

simple jesus showed how our hearts are

not

currently equipped to fulfill even this

basic command of god

to love others and that's kind of a

downer

but where israel failed jesus brought

this story

to his fulfillment as israel's messiah

he fully loved god

and others and he showed all of the

nations what god is truly like

he did this through his acts of

compassion and mercy and ultimately by

loving his enemies

even unto death and after his

resurrection he told his followers that

he would send god's spirit to transform

their hearts so that they could follow

him and fulfill the purpose of the law

to love god and to love their neighbor

so this fulfills the story of the law

and the prophets or in the words of the

apostle paul

the one who loves fulfills the law