God-Fearers: Hear, Learn, And Fear

One of the greatest promises in the Bible is given in Deuteronomy 31. The children of Israel were camped on the east side of the Jordan River preparing to cross over into the Promised Land, when God told Moses to speak to them, and tell them: He would be with them, He would never fail them, and He would not forsake them. In Deuteronomy 31:6, Moses says:

• “Be strong, be bold, don't be afraid or frightened of them, for ADONAI your God is going with you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you."

After these promises, God told Moses to instruct Israel to publicly read the Law (Torah) every seven years at the time of “remission of debts.” This occurred during the Sabbatical year at the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot). During this special year, those living in the Land of Israel were given a year off from planting. It was a great time to dedicate one’s self and family to learning God’s Word. This particular command does not replace the regular reading of God’s commandments publicly and privately at other times, as we will discuss below. Paul commanded Timothy in 1 Tim 4:13:

• “Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching.”

God’s instructions to hear His Torah DID NOT exclude aliens and foreigners from the nations, who were called God-Fearers. These were people who attached themselves to Israel. Later, the Apostle Paul refers to these from the nations as wild olive branches that are grafted into the Olive Tree (Israel) in Romans 11. In Deuteronomy 31:12-13, we read:

• "Assemble the people—men, women and children, and the foreigners residing in your towns—so they can listen and learn to fear the LORD your God and follow carefully all the words of this law. Their children, who do not know this law, must hear it and learn to fear the LORD your God as long as you live in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”

So, this is the God of Israel’s instructions on how those who are a part of Israel, and those who joined them, were to learn His Torah. They were all to hear, learn, and fear their God.

These same instructions from God continue in Proverbs 9:9-10:

• “Instruct the wise and they will be wiser still; teach the righteous and they will add to their learning. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”

The correct understanding of what it means to “fear” the Holy One is to give Him the proper respect and honor. It is not an unhealthy phobia as some falsely teach today. We could substitute “respect” for the word “fear” and it would be closer to the original meaning. We could also use the English word “revere.”

A major goal of reading and teaching God’s instruction is to provide unlearned people with an opportunity to learn His holy ways and apply them to their lives. Also, there are many places in the Bible were God told Israel not to mix His holy ways with the ways of the nations. We read in Jeremiah 10:1-2:

• “Hear what the LORD says to you, people of Israel. This is what the LORD says: “Do not learn the ways of the nations or be terrified by signs in the heavens, though the nations are terrified by them.”

So, these instructions go both ways - the nations are to learn the ways of God, and Israel was NOT to mix His ways with practices of the nations. Peter upholds this Torah principle in 1 Peter 4:3:

• “For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry.”

In Acts 15:14-17, we see more people from the nations believing in Messiah Yeshua and joining Israel. This has always been God’s plan from the beginning, as Israel was called to be a priesthood to ALL nations:

• “Simon has declared how God at the first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name. And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written: 'After this I will return And will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down; I will rebuild its ruins, And I will set it up; So that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, Even all the Gentiles who are called by My name, Says the Lord who does all these things. 'Known to God from eternity are all His works.””

We read further in this chapter, where Yeshua’s Taught Ones (disciples) gave four general instructions to those coming out of the nations. In Acts 15:19-21:

• “Therefore, I judge that we should not trouble those from among the Gentiles (nations) who are turning to God, but that we write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled, and from blood. For Moses has had throughout many generations those who preach him in every city, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath.”

Here, we see the same formula God gave Israel in Deuteronomy 31 being used in Acts 15, where all nations could hear, learn, and fear the God of Israel. As they heard the words of Moses being publicly read every Shabbat; they could learn what is acceptable to God, which would lead to an awesome fear (respect) of the Creator.

The above four general categories that the Apostles gave them were based on Leviticus 18-20, which warns Israel to not take on the “detestable ways” of the nations. These are categorized as:

• Fornication (Lev 18)

• Idolatry (Lev 19-20)

• Blood Intake (Lev 19)

• Witchcraft (Lev 20)

Yeshua’s Taught Ones were heeding the warning given by God to their forefathers to NOT mix God’s ways with the ways of the nations. These God-Fearers were to put away any detestable practices of the nations as a starting point for fellowship in the synagogues, or meeting places, with fellow Jewish believers. Bit by bit, each week, they would learn the rest of God’s ways.

This is not what is taught by most modern Christian teachers. They have chosen to ignore the Jewish roots of our faith, and the words God gave to Moses, and have established their own guidelines for “holy living.” Obviously, the foundations of our faith are built on God’s Word in the Torah. Paul reminds Timothy, in 2 Tim 3:14-17:

• “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the HOLY SCRIPTURES, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Yeshua Messiah. ALL SCRIPTURE is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

Obviously, in Acts 2, those from the nations, as well as, the native-born Israelites, came together in “one accord” under “one set of commandments” that were given at Mt. Sinai. God’s Torah, instructions for holy living, are eternal. They not only equip us for living today, but also equip us for our future reign with Yeshua when He returns and sets up His earthly kingdom.

So now, the question is – are we hearing, learning, and fearing the God of Israel?