Saturday, March 19, 2011

Tablet of the Heart

Sha'ul (Paul)wrote in 2 Qorintiyim Bet (2nd Corinthians) 3:3: "Making it obvious that you are a letter of Messiah, served by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living Elohim, not on tablets of stone but on fleshly tablets of the heart." Shau'ul is using the testimony of the Qorintiyims to validate his ministry. The point to be emphasized is his knowledge of the Law being written on the hearts of Yeshua's followers. Sha'ul is making an obvious reference to Jeremiah 31:33: "For this is the covenant I shall make with the house of Yisra'el after those days, declares YHWH: I will put my Torah in their inward parts, and write it on their hearts. And I shall be their Elohim, and they shall be My people." YHWH promised a renewed covenant; it would involve the same Law as given at Mount Sinai. The only difference would be the location of the writing. At Sinai, it was written on tablets of stone. After the resurrection of Yeshua and the descent of the Set-apart Spirit on Shabu'ot (Pentecost), the Law was written on the heart of the followers of the Way of Yeshua.

Sha'ul confirms the heart faith of the renewed covenant in verse 3. Our hearts are the writing tablet of the Spirit. Yeshua taught that it was out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth would speak. If you have been filled with the Set-apart Spirit, you should have an abundance of the Torah coming from your lips. Some denominations believe that "speaking in tongues" is proof of the Spirit's infilling. According to the renewed covenant, the evidence of the infilling of the Set-apart Spirit is an abundance of Torah written on the heart. What is written on your heart? In times of stress when circumstances look difficult, what is your default? Is it Torah? Or, is it anger, self-reliance, or fear? To those who truly know what it means to have the Pentecostal experience, there is a peace and resting that exists because of the Torah.

YHWH could have chose to describe His renewed covenant anyway He wanted; however, He chose the method of writing the Torah on the hearts of His followers. We should make it our daily study to read the Torah. Commit your way of living to His way of living. It is found in the Torah. If you do and put the Torah into action, you will be like the man Yeshua described when the rain and floods came as a "wise man."

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