Feast of Tabernacles meditation: we serve in the new way of the Ruach

Romans 7 Tree of Life Version (TLV)

Two Laws at War
7 Or do you not know, brothers and sisters (for I speak to those who know law), that the law is master over a person as long as he lives? 2 For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives; but if the husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. 3 So then, if she is joined to another man while her husband is living, she will be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from the law—so she is not an adulteress, though she is joined to another man.

4 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you also were made dead to the Torah through the body of Messiah, so that you might be joined to another—the One who was raised from the dead—in order that we might bear fruit for God. 5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions that came through the Torah were working in our body parts to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we have been released from the law, having died to what confined us, so that we serve in the new way of the Ruach and not in the old way of the letter.

7 What shall we say then? Is the Torah sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the Torah. For I would not have known about coveting if the Torah had not said, “You shall not covet.” [a] 8 But sin, taking an opportunity, worked in me through the commandment all kinds of coveting. For apart from the Torah, sin is dead.

9 Once I was alive apart from the Torah; but when the commandment came, sin came to life 10 and I died. The commandment meant for life was found to cause death. [b] 11 Sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. [c] 12 So then, the Torah is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

13 Therefore did that which is good become death to me? May it never be! Rather it was sin working death in me—through that which is good—so that sin might be shown to be sin, and that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful. 14 For we know that the Torah is spiritual; but I am of the flesh, sold to sin. 15 For I do not understand what I am doing—for what I do not want, this I practice; but what I hate, this I do. 16 But if I do what I do not want to do, then I agree with the Torah—that it is good.

17 So now it is no longer I doing it, but sin dwelling in me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me—that is, in my flesh. For to will is present in me, but to do the good is not. 19 For the good that I want, I do not do; but the evil that I do not want, this I practice. 20 But if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I doing it, but sin that dwells in me.

21 So I find the principle—that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. 22 For I delight in the Torah of God with respect to the inner man, 23 but I see a different law in my body parts, battling against the law of my mind and bringing me into bondage under the law of sin which is in my body parts. 24 Miserable man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God—it is through Messiah Yeshua our Lord![d] So then, with my mind I myself serve the Torah of God; but with my flesh, I serve the law of sin.

Footnotes:

1.    Romans 7:8 Exod. 20:17; Deut. 5:21.

2.    Romans 7:11 cf. Lev. 18:5; Deut. 30:19.

3.    Romans 7:12 cf. Gen. 3:13.

4.    Romans 7:25 Lit. Grace be to God through Messiah Yeshua our Lord; cf. Jn. 14:6.

John 7 Tree of Life Version (TLV)

Anticipating Hostility at Sukkot
7 After these events, Yeshua was walking about in the Galilee. He did not want to walk in Judea, because the Judean leaders wanted to kill Him. 2 Now the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles[a] was near. 3 Therefore His brothers said to Him, “Leave here and go to Judea, so Your disciples also may see the works You are doing. 4 No one who wants to be well known does everything in secret. If You are doing these things, show Yourself to the world!” 5 For not even His brothers were trusting in Him.

6 Therefore Yeshua said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always at hand. 7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify that its works are evil. 8 You go on up to the Feast. I’m not going to this feast, because My time hasn’t yet fully come.” 9 After saying these things, He stayed in the Galilee.

10 But after His brothers went to the Feast, He also went, not openly but secretly. 11 Then the Judean leaders were searching for Him at the Feast and kept asking, “Where is that fellow?” 12 There was a lot of murmuring about Him in the crowds. Some were saying, “He is good.” But others were saying, “Not so! He leads the people astray.” 13 Yet no one spoke openly about Him for fear of the Judean leaders.

Teaching at the Temple
14 About halfway through the Feast, Yeshua went up to the Temple and began teaching. 15 Then the Judean leaders were amazed, saying, “How does this man know so much, having never been taught?”[b]

16 Yeshua answered, “My teaching is not from Me, but from Him who sent Me. 17 If anyone wants to do His will, he will know whether My teaching comes from God or it is Myself speaking. 18 Whoever speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him, He is true and there is no unrighteousness in Him. 19 Hasn’t Moses given you the Torah? Yet none of you keeps it. Why are you trying to kill Me?”

20 The crowd answered, “You have a demon! Who’s trying to kill you?”

21 Yeshua answered, “I did one good work, and all of you are amazed. 22 Because Moses has given you circumcision (though it is not from Moses, but from the patriarchs), you circumcise a man on Shabbat. 23 If a man receives circumcision on Shabbat so that the Torah of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry that I healed a man’s whole body on Shabbat? 24 Do not judge by appearance, but judge righteously.”

25 Then some of the people from Jerusalem were saying, “Isn’t this the person they’re trying to kill? 26 Look, He speaks openly and they’re saying nothing to Him. Can it be that the leaders know He is the Messiah? 27 But we know where this person is from. But the Messiah, whenever He may come, no one knows where He is from.”

28 Then, while teaching in the Temple courts, Yeshua cried out, “You know both who I am and where I am from! I have not come on My own, but the One who sent Me is true. You do not know Him, 29 but I know Him because I am from Him and He sent Me.”

30 Then they were trying to seize Him; but no one laid a hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come. 31 Yet many from the crowd believed in Him and were saying, “When the Messiah comes, He won’t perform more signs than this person has, will He?” 32 The Pharisees heard people in the crowd murmuring these things about Him, and the ruling kohanim and Pharisees sent guards to arrest Him.

33 Yeshua said, “I am with you only a little while longer, and then I am going to the One who sent Me. 34 You will look for Me but will not find Me. Where I am, you cannot come.”

35 The Judean leaders then said among themselves, “Where is this person about to go that we shall not find Him? He’s not going to the Diaspora to teach the Greeks, is He? 36 What did He mean by saying, ‘You will look for Me but will not find Me. Where I am, you cannot come’?”

Satisfying Spiritual Thirst
37 On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Yeshua stood up and cried out loudly, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture says, ‘out of his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” [c] 39 Now He said this about the Ruach, whom those who trusted in Him were going to receive; for the Ruach[d] was not yet given, since Yeshua was not yet glorified.

40 When they heard these words, some of the crowd said, “This man really is the Prophet.” 41 Others were saying, “This is the Messiah.” Still others were saying, “The Messiah doesn’t come from the Galilee, does He? 42 Didn’t the Scripture say that the Messiah comes from the seed of David and from Bethlehem, David’s town?” [e] 43 So a division arose in the crowd because of Yeshua. 44 Some wanted to capture Him, but no one laid hands on Him.

Religious Adversaries
45 Then the guards returned to the ruling kohanim and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring Him?”

46 “Never has anyone spoken like this man,” the guards answered.

47 The Pharisees responded, “You haven’t been led astray also, have you? 48 Have any of the rulers or Pharisees believed in Him? 49 No, but this mob that doesn’t know the Torah—they are cursed!”

50 Nicodemus, the one who had come to Yeshua before and was one of them, said to them, 51 “Our Torah doesn’t judge a man unless it first hears from him and knows what he’s doing, does it?”

52 They answered him, “You aren’t from the Galilee too, are you? Search, and see that no prophet comes out of the Galilee!”[f]

53 Then everyone went to his own house.

Footnotes:

1.    John 7:2 cf. Deut. 16:16.

2.    John 7:15 Lit. knows letters, not having learned.

3.    John 7:39 cf. Isa. 44:3, 55:1, 58:11; Ezek. 47; Zech. 14:8.

4.    John 7:39 Some mss. read Holy Spirit (Heb. Ruach ha-Kodesh).

5.    John 7:43 cf. Mic. 5:1(2).

6.    John 7:52 The earliest manuscripts do not include John 7:53-8:11. Others locate the passage after 7:36 or after 21:25.

end of footnotes

Tree of Life Version (TLV)

Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.

For those interested, here is a list of the 2016 Jewish feasts days:
5777 Jewish Calendar Year (240 Dropped in 135 AD) = 2016 – 2017

Mon. 3 October 2016 Rosh HaShanah – Feast of Trumpets
Wed. 12 October 2016 Yom Kippur – Day of Atonement
Mon. 17 October 2016 Sukkot – Feast of Tabernacles
Mon. 24 October 2016 First Day of Simcha Torah
Tue. 25 October 2016 Simcha Torah – Joy of Torah
Sun. 25 December 2016 Chanukah – Feast of Lights