| For those of you new
to the Torah, you have heard the Torah or Old Testament called or
referred to as the Law. This is not a correct description of what the
Torah is.
The Torah is the Teaching and Instruction from YAHUVEH to Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob – the Children of Israel and all those who follow YAHUSHUA.
YAHUSHUA himself keep the Torah. Remember, he said "he did not come
to do away with the Law or Torah, but he came to fulfill". In order
to fulfill something, you have to do it, participate in it, walk it out.
The Torah was never given as the means to Salvation. Salvation as you
know is through YAHUSHUA. The Torah was given to help you walk out your
life blessed vs. cursed; to live life more abundantly. Even for those of
us who have had pretty good lives so far, there is still a level of
blessing that YAHUVEH desires his children to have which we have missed.
We have become accustomed to things as they are, and think we are doing
well.
As we begin to study the Torah, we will study the word from a Hebraic
Understanding vs. Greek/Roman. You will begin to understand why the
Torah has not been done away with. You will see that GRACE (favor
extended by YAHUVEH, even though you do not deserve it) has existed since
Adam. YAHUVEH was gracious to Adam; he could have destroyed him, but did
not.
As we begin this study, I will use the Hebrew terms, but will show in
parentheses the Greek/Roman or common terms that you are familiar with.
In Hebrew the Scriptures or Old Testament is called the
"Tanach". This word is an acronym. It is broke down into three
parts, the Torah, Prophets, and Writings. For now we will focus on the
first 5 Books or the Torah. I will reference the Prophets, the writings,
and the Brit Chadasha (New Testament), but our focus for now will be on
the first 5.
Also, for your information, I use what is called "The Chumash"
Stone Edition. It is a blue bound Torah. As we go through the study, any
references I make to chapter, verses will be based on this, but you will
still be able to follow. It would be very helpful for you to purchase
one, but please do not feel that you cannot study without it, that is
not true.
As you will see from the Torah Cycle Study Calendar, we are now at the
portion called "Vayeira in the Hebrew" and means: And He
Appeared. We will begin our study here at Chapters 18, 19, 20, 21, 22. I
will provide some basic teaching on each chapter.
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