Clifford Denton continues his series on Hebraic living.

Walking with Friends

If we each look back over our lives, we will find that many of our friendships have been strengthened because we went on long walks together. The times when we were walking together, talking, enjoying the same fresh air, the same food and the same experiences are the times we remember as best. These shared experiences were foundations on which friendship was built.

Walking together can be metaphorical as well as a physical reality. Life shared in all its ways with one’s family and friends is also a ‘walk’. It seems that God has made us to enjoy walking life out! If we share an experience, whatever it is, we enjoy it more.

The times when we walk and talk together are often the times we remember as best.

The Hebrew Language Encourages Mobility

The Hebrew language is not complicated. The verb structures train the Hebraic mindset more for action than for academic discourse. They are simple and not designed for philosophical thought (such as is the Greek language, or even the English language).

Simply put, Hebrew verbs describe action - whether completed action, present action or ongoing action. The Hebrew language trains a person to be a doer, strengthening the idea of mobility in life.

Walking with God

Is it any wonder, then, that walking out one’s faith is such a central issue for God’s covenant people? God asks us to trust him and to walk with him on a journey of relationship, during which our faith is built. This is the Hebraic lifestyle, and it is evidenced throughout Scripture.

Enoch “walked with God” for 365 years and one day just disappeared from this world (Gen 5:22-23). We are left to imagine what such a walk might have been like, even before the days of Noah, before Abraham and before Moses. Enoch’s walk was not one of ritual from the Law, which was not yet given.

The lives of all the ‘heroes of faith’ in Hebrews 11 are described in our Bibles in such a way that we can deduce that it was through relationship, not ritual, that their faith grew. Just as with our friends on earth, friendship with God is cultivated through a lifelong walk.

Just as with our friends on earth, friendship with God is cultivated through a lifelong walk.

Abraham trusted God and began his walk in a physical sense when he left Ur. This physical walk took on spiritual dimensions through the experiences of life through which God led him. Down through the ages, others have taken confidence from his example to seek God for their own personal walk.

Torah and Halakhah

The subjects of Torah and halakhah are related. Torah, the teaching of God, is usually seen as the foundation of halakhah, which means walking out. With a Hebraic mindset one should not turn Torah into philosophy, as a Greek mindset is prone to doing through establishing a range of intellectual theologies on what the Bible says. A Hebraic mindset of doing (see Ezra 7:10) seeks to find what pleases God and put it into action.

This was what was in the mind of the author of Psalm 119 when he wrote:

Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the Torah of the Lord!
Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with the whole heart!
They also do no iniquity: they walk in His ways. (Psa 119:1-3)

Walking was established as the way Torah should be made manifest:

You shall walk in all the ways which the Lord has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may be well with you… (Deut 5:33)

Micah understood this as the purpose of God for all mankind:

He has shown you, O Man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God? (Mic 6:8)

Jewish rabbis adopted the practice of walking with their disciples as they taught them, outworking a principle whereby parents should teach children:

You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. (Deut 6:7)

What a walk with God it was when Yeshua (Jesus) walked along the way with his disciples!

God asks us to trust him and to walk with him on a journey of relationship, during which our faith is built.

Every genuine, healthy walk with God is founded on Torah. Torah and halakhah are inseparable on this walk of growing faith through life. Nevertheless, I suggest that, with Enoch as my example, we should prioritise halakhah before Torah in our purposes. First, we seek to walk with God to attain the friendship that Abraham gained, and along the way we discover what pleases God.

Halakhah in Judaism

Since the time when Moses first appointed elders to interpret the principles of Torah into every aspect of life (Ex 18:17-27), the teachers of Israel have sought to continue this tradition.

However, halakhah has now become a code of binding rules. This was the origin of Yeshua’s criticism concerning many of the rules which were more man-made than God-intended (Matt 23). Rabbis were making their disciples dependent on them and not on a personal relationship with God. By contrast, Yeshua’s interpretation of Torah (such as in the Sermon on the Mount) was full of life and carried authority.

Halakhah in Christianity

The true Hebraic lifestyle is spoiled when halakhah is reduced to a set of rules. This is not only found in Judaism. It can also be found in sections of the Christian Church, though not necessarily under that heading. This must not be allowed. It will disconnect us from our true Hebraic heritage. True halakhah is in continuity from Enoch, through Abraham, Moses and right through to Yeshua and the freedom to learn that the New Covenant gives us.

God has always called his people to walk with him – personally. The role of any Bible teacher is to encourage that walk.

The true Hebraic lifestyle is spoiled when halakhah is reduced to a set of rules.

Our New Covenant freedom comes from having our sins forgiven through the shed blood of Yeshua, so that fellowship with our Father in Heaven in and through his Son can be made real. The Holy Spirit is given to us to strengthen that walk – a walk that takes us through all the seasons of life and maturing faith. Paul summed this up when he said:

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit…

That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit…

As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God…you received adoption by whom we cry out, Abba, Father. (Rom 8)

In restoring the continuity of a biblically Hebraic lifestyle, Christians can re-balance the principle of halakhah – walking with God. It is our privilege and our duty as God’s witnesses in this world.

Do Not Be Robbed

None of us must allow ourselves to be robbed of this walk of faith. It is the most wonderful thing to be invited by Yeshua to enter into this relationship, but many settle for far less. It is not only ritual Judaism that falls short of the true halakhah. Even in Christianity, if one follows a human being, however wonderful their biblical interpretation, more than responding directly to God, then one falls short.

If one turns the teaching of the Bible into theology which, though perhaps water-tight, is academic rather than Spirit-inspired, one falls short. If one values the social aspect of Christian interaction (even through regular and dutiful attendance at Church) above relationship with the Father, one can still fall short. And if one is locked into doctrinal and denominational teaching, defending it zealously, one may still miss out on the relationship to which our Father calls us.

It is the most wonderful thing to be invited by Yeshua to enter into this relationship, but many settle for far less.

Our walk with God will not be entirely alone. It will be a personal response to God, but also in step with family and fellowship around us. We walk in personal relationship with God, but also together.

All this is a priority of restoring our Hebraic foundations and something we must all check out afresh, daily.

Next time: Torah - the teaching of God.