One law and one custom shall be for you and for the stranger who dwells with you.

Num. 15:16 NKJV

Who is the Torah for?

The stranger mentioned in this text is the one who lives in Israel's community who has voluntarily embraced the covenant of circumcision and submitted to Israel's religious authorities. This kind of stranger is also called a proselyte or convert.

As long as a stranger residing among the Jews doesn't enter the covenant of circumcision, he doesn't have the same Torah as the Jew, as we can see in Exodus 12:48-49 where it's written: "And when a stranger dwells with you and wants to keep the Passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as a native of the land. For no uncircumcised person shall eat it. One law shall be for the native-born and for the stranger who dwells among you." (NKJV) And in Numbers 9:14 it's written: "And if a stranger dwells among you, and would keep the LORD's Passover, he must do so according to the rite of the Passover and according to its ceremony; you shall have one ordinance, both for the stranger and the native of the land.'" (NKJV)

Only when a stranger wants to eat the Passover – which implies living as a Jew in every aspect – he will have to be circumcised with all his family. If he doesn't wish to eat the Passover, he has no obligation of getting circumcised, and the same law doesn't apply to him. In such a case he won't be committing a mortal sin when not eating the Passover, as the ones who belong to the covenant of circumcision (Num. 9:13).

The foreigner who lives among the Jews and doesn't get circumcised doesn't belong to the earthly people of Israel, as we see in Deuteronomy 14:21a where it's written: "You shall not eat anything that dies of itself. You shall give it to the stranger that is in your gates, so that he may eat it. Or you may sell it to a stranger. For you are a holy people to the LORD your God." (MKJV revised).

Now, there is a heavenly people of the Eternal, the Messiah's congregation, where Jews who have been born of the Spirit and experienced the circumcision of the heart are registered, together with the righteous ones from among the nations, who have experienced the same heart's circumcision, the Messiah's circumcision. That is a heavenly people, it's the heavenly temple of the Eternal, the heavenly city and the heavenly olive tree in which the spiritual grafting takes place.

The cornerstone that the builders rejected on earth was chosen by heaven, and is the main rock in the heavenly building. The root of the olive, the root of David, is in heaven and there, there is unity between the spiritual Jew and the one redeemed from among the nations. Unity between them is in the Messiah in heaven. On earth, there are differences between Jew and Noachide, man and woman, slave and free man, but not in the Messiah who is in heaven, as it's written in Galatians 3:28: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Messiah Yeshua." (NIVUK revised)

There is only one people in heaven - there everyone is son of the Almighty, but on earth there are two kinds of people, sons of Israel and sons of Noach.

This way, there are three categories of people in total; two on earth and one in heaven: Jews and gentiles on earth, and the congregation of the Almighty in heaven, as it's written in 1 Corinthians 10:32: "Be without offense both to Jews and Greeks, and to the assembly of God." (LITV)

The Torah is not in heaven, but on earth and it was given to the Jewish people. The entire Torah is not for both peoples: Jewish and Noachides, because in such a case all Noachides would have to take part in the covenant of circumcision and become Jewish. If this happened, there would be no more nations, but one. But the Eternal's plan is that there are many nations on earth and a priestly nation among and for them.

That's why we can't speak of one people and one Torah on earth. This rule only applies for the ones in the covenant of circumcision. The 613 commandments of the Torah were not given to those who are not in the covenant of the circumcision.

May the Eternal help us understand this well so that there may be harmony and peace between the two.

Blessings,

Ketriel