Engraving the Torah

Leviticus 26:3
“If you walk in my statutes and observe my commands and do them…” The Hebrew word for statutes is chukim or chok (singular). Chukim are the commandments in the Torah whose meaning is hidden or those that defy logic. Like not mixing linen and wool, and cooking a kid in its mother’s milk. It is not directly apparent how we benefit from these Divine directives.
But, there is another meaning for chok, one that is very meaningful. Chok also means to engrave. To engrave on your heart. Isn’t that beautiful? The concept of having the Torah engraved on your heart hints to the Shema, serving God with all your heart.

Ezek 36:25-28
25 "Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. 26 "Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 "And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. 28 "And you will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be My people, and I will be your God.”

This passage in Ezekiel reminds me that I have a heart that has been harden by sin and the effects of the world. I need to be made pure and have the surface of my heart made clean and ready to receive the engraving.

But doesn’t the Scriptures say the word will be written on our hearts not engraved?

There are differences between engraving and writing. Engraving involves strenuous labor, it is hard work. The effort that it takes to write cannot be compared to the effort necessary to engrave. Writing is much easier and takes less time. When writing, the surface and the ink remain two separate entities. They are distinguishable from one another. When engraving, the writing and the surface are a single entity, inseparable from one another.

I think back to the movie The Ten Commandments. There is Moses up on the mountain, holding the two tablets and this “finger of fire” is engraving the stone tablets with the Ten Words.

Ex 31:18 And when He had finished speaking with him upon Mount Sinai, He gave Moses the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written by the finger of God .

And that’s what is happening, El Elyon, God Most High, is engraving Himself on our hearts with His Finger. He is not writing on our hearts with ink but with the fire of His Spirit. It will not be two separate things, but will be one and the same.

Jer 31:31-34 "Behold, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them, "declares the LORD. 33 "But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the LORD, "I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 "And they shall not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," declares the LORD, "for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."

This prophesy has not been completely fulfilled. The day has not come when we no longer must teach our neighbor nor has the day come when all men know the Lord. But through Yeshua Messiah, we have a foretaste of this new covenant, a foretaste of the Messianic Age and the World to Come. Through Yeshua, the Living Torah, we have begun the arduous task of having Him engraved on our hearts.

But it’s not easy, we must go against our flesh to mold our character to reflect Him not ourselves. Through our relationship with Messiah, we will not be like paper and ink, two separate entities; we will be a single whole with the Torah. We must abide in Him, for apart from Him, this strenuous task cannot be complete.

Ezek 36:26-28 "I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. "You will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be My people, and I will be your God

Lev 26:3-4 'If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments so as to carry them out, then I shall give you rains in their season, so that the land will yield its produce and the trees of the field will bear their fruit.

Lev 26:11-12 'Moreover, I will make My dwelling among you, and My soul will not reject you. 'I will also walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people.

With what book do you think Jewish children begin their study of Torah? Genesis right? Well no, actually they begin with Leviticus. Why? You may ask. Why start there and not with creation or Noah or Moses, why Leviticus? They begin with Leviticus in order to learn to walk in God’s and to keep His commandments. And when we learn this, He will dwell with us; He will be our God and we will be His people.

So when we keep a commandment that is not logical, or one in which we can see no benefit or one that goes against our flesh, we are allowing one more letter to be engraved by the Finger of God.
2 Corinthians 3 …written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts.