What Is Our Obligation? A Follow Up Report-5 Cheshvan 5771

In ‘Is It really Redundant?” I commented on our obligation to the commandments of G-d. Some have asked what we are obligated to? This is a great question and one of much debate in Messianic Judaism and Judaism both. There is really not a lot that is actually written to Gentiles in the Scriptures. I have often heard people claim lots of blessing type passages from the Tanach or my personal favorite; The Law is written on my heart. That’s not for us either. That’s a promise to the Jews. So, what parts then can I cling to? What does apply to me? Am I just a believer in the Messiah without any participation in the faith of the scriptures? As a Gentile follower of Yeshua of Nazareth, Paul has said that I have been grafted into the commonwealth of Israel. Well, kind of. (Eph 2:12ff) What does that mean? To be part of the commonwealth would mean that I am a citizen along with the people of Israel. (Eph 2:19)

There is an interesting phrase that shows up in scripture, which reads, ‘the stranger who dwells among you’ or ‘the stranger who sojourns among you’. (Ex 12:48; 12:49; 20:10; Lev 16:29; 17:10; 18:26; 24:22 to name a few) The word stranger is the Hebrew word ‘ger’ (גר) Strongs #H1616 If you have a search program and can search the word ger, you will find this phrase. You will also find the phrase, ’the stranger who dwells within your gates’. (Deu 14:21 These are two different groups of people. The English translation of the Hebrew in the Chumash would translate ‘ger’ as proselyte in one case but as a stranger or sojourner in another. As Rick Spurlock (BereansOnline.org) points out in his teaching on Galatians, this is anachronistically applied since the word proselyte comes from the Greek word ‘proselutos’ which wasn’t a word until the Septuagint came into being in the 3^rd century BCE.

In Lev 19:34 it says,’ You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the

L-RD your G-d. Both of the words stranger are ger, but which ger? Surely the strangers in Egypt were not proselytes, were they? Two passages used to bother a dear friend of mine.

Lev 17:15  And every person who eats what dies of itself or what is torn by beasts, whether he is a native or a sojourner, shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening; then he shall be clean.

Deu 14:21  "You shall not eat anything that has died naturally. You may give it to the sojourner who is within your towns, that he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner. For you are a people holy to the L-RD your G-d. "You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk.

Both words sojourner are the word ger. Why can one be given the meat to eat and the other if he eats he becomes unclean? You will notice the phrase ‘who is within your towns’ in the Deut passage. He may eat. He is not ‘dwelling among them’. Although the passage from Lev does not say ‘dwelling among you’ the juxtaposition of sojourner with native I feel would imply that. He may not eat

So what about our obligation? All the passages that contain the phrase ‘who dwells among you’ all have commandments that one might say are only binding upon the people of Israel, but the text bears out that one who dwells among them are also bound to the same commandments. Even though I am not actually dwelling with the people of Israel, I am spiritually a part of the people of Israel. (Rom 4:11; 9:6ff) I have proclaimed as Ruth, ‘Your people shall be my people and your G-d shall be my G-d.’ We have been grafted in among the natural branches and are partakers of the nourishing root of the olive tree. (Rom 11:17ff) I therefore dwell among them and am bound to the commandments of G-d. Of course, all of them are not applicable to all as there is no Temple, no Sanhedrin, and various other conditions that might apply.