Separated Unto God

I have not been able to let this thought alone, that the Torah teaches us how to be holy or separated unto God. I had to do a Strong's search for other scripture references for 'separate' and this is what I came up with. I found these scriptural connections to be exciting! First, from the Torah reading for today:

Leviticus 20:22-26 (Amplified) You shall therefore keep all My statutes and all My ordinances and do them, that the land where I am bringing you to dwell may not vomit you out [as it did those before you]. [Lev. 18:28.] You shall not walk in the customs of the nation which I am casting out before you; for they did all these things, and therefore I was wearied and grieved by them. But I have said to you, You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey. I am the Lord your God, Who has separated you from the peoples. You shall therefore make a distinction between the clean beast and the unclean, and between the unclean fowl and the clean; and you shall not make yourselves detestable with beast or with bird or with anything with which the ground teems or that creeps, which I have set apart from you as unclean. And you shall be holy to Me; for I the Lord am holy, and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be Mine.

Now a verse from the New Testament:

2 Corinthians 6:17 (Amplified) So, come out from among [unbelievers], and separate (sever) yourselves from them, says the Lord, and touch not [any] unclean thing; then I will receive you kindly and treat you with favor, [Isa. 52:11.]

Jesus our Messiah prayed for us:

John 17:17 (Amplified) Sanctify them [purify, consecrate, separate them for Yourself, make them holy] by the Truth; Your Word is Truth.

And Paul prayed thus:

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 (Amplified) And may the God of peace Himself sanctify you through and through [separate you from profane things, make you pure and wholly consecrated to God]; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved sound and complete [and found] blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah). Faithful is He Who is calling you [to Himself] and utterly trustworthy, and He will also do it [fulfill His call by hallowing and keeping you].

Holiness is important. It is written in Hebrews:

Hebrews 12:14 (Amplified) Strive to live in peace with everybody and pursue that consecration and holiness without which no one will [ever] see the Lord.

And 1 Peter repeats the exact words that are given to us repeatedly (Lev. 11:44-45; 19:2; 20:7, 26) in Leviticus:

1Peter 1:14-16 (Amplified) [Live] as children of obedience [to God]; do not conform yourselves to the evil desires [that governed you] in your former ignorance [when you did not know the requirements of the Gospel]. But as the One Who called you is holy, you yourselves also be holy in all your conduct and manner of living. For it is written, You shall be holy, for I am holy. [Lev. 11:44, 45.]

I think it is SO neat how the New Testament refers back to the Old Testament and builds on the foundation that God laid from the very beginning! He's told us that He is the LORD and changes not. He's said that forever His Word is established in the heavens. Therefore it stands to reason to me that ALL of His Word is still valid, still important for us to study and obey. Yeshua/Jesus kept the Torah; He was without sin so He could NOT have violated even the least of the commandments. The Word tells us to follow in His steps. Therefore I believe that I need to keep Torah also, to follow in His steps. I think that if we think a scripture in the New Testament invalidates even the least of Torah commandments or in some way contradicts what God has told us in the Old Testament, in the Torah, then we are not understanding something somewhere because God does not contradict Himself and what is written in the New Testament has to uphold what God has commanded in the Old Testament. What did Yeshua/Jesus Himself say?

Matthew 5:17-19 (Amplified) Do not think that I have come to do away with or undo the Law or the Prophets; I have come not to do away with or undo but to complete and fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until the sky and earth pass away and perish, not one smallest letter nor one little hook [identifying certain Hebrew letters] will pass from the Law until all things [it foreshadows] are accomplished. Whoever then breaks or does away with or relaxes one of the least [important] of these commandments and teaches men so shall be called least [important] in the kingdom of heaven, but he who practices them and teaches others to do so shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

You know, when I was reading through Leviticus 16:1 - 20:27 this morning I was struck by how many of the commandments contained in that portion the church actually upholds and teaches us to uphold. So it makes me wonder: why does the church seem to pick and choose which commandments it will keep and teach people to keep? Why is it wrong to have sex with your sibling or parent or aunt or a person of the same sex or an animal, for instance, but okay to violate the commandment about keeping the Sabbath or which kinds of animals God gave us for food? It seems to me that if we are going to obey, we need to obey all of God's commandments and not just the ones that it seems good to us to keep. Some people like to find 'reasons' why God gave certain commands and therefore justify obeying them. For instance, some claim that eating pork is unhealthy for you and that's why God commanded us not to eat pork, and so that's why we should obey the command. I don't think it has anything at all to do with whether eating pork is healthy for us; I think it has to do entirely with God, our Father, wanting us to be obedient to Him because we know He loves us and tells us how to live for our good, to bless us, and because we love Him in return and want to bring Him pleasure by our obedience. As parents, we give our children commands. We don't always explain those commands to them; they don't need to know our reasons for the commands. We just want to see them obey without questioning us. And so it is with our Father God, I think; He has given us commandments and has not explained the 'whys' and 'wherefores' behind them, desiring that we will obey without knowing His reasons for each command, desiring that we will trust in His love for us enough to obey without having to have a reason for obeying.

I also believe that if He has given us a command, He has also given us the means to obey it. So when He tells us to be holy, as He is holy, there must also be a way in which we can fulfill that command. Yeshua/Jesus made that way when He suffered and died in our place, shedding His innocent blood on the tree, that we might die to sin and be made alive unto righteousness. Yeshua/Jesus shows us how to keep Torah without all the weight of men's traditions that had built up around it; as He said,

Matthew 11:29-30 (Amplified) Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am gentle (meek) and humble (lowly) in heart, and you will find rest (relief and ease and refreshment and recreation and blessed quiet) for your souls. [Jer. 6:16.] For My yoke is wholesome (useful, good--not harsh, hard, sharp, or pressing, but comfortable, gracious, and pleasant), and My burden is light and easy to be borne.

Blessed are You, Lord God Heavenly Father, Creator and Sustainer of the universe, Guardian and Shepherd of my soul, Who has called me to be holy, even as You are holy and Who has given unto me the Word of Truth so that I can know how to conduct myself in holiness and sanctification, for Your glory and honor. Amen!