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Q2 How do you see Gal 4: 9-10, Observing the day, months and years....?


A2. Paul was one of the most intelligent people that studied and knew the Torah better than anybody else. He was also Hebrew and knew the customs and ways of explaining things the Hebrew way. To understand what Paul meant is not seen by a shallow interpretation in reading one verse and disregarding the context, the audience and the theme wherein he was bringing a point over. If you look at Gal 4:9 & 10 in isolation, it is in the hand of the reader to interpret it the way he or she thinks what it means and is influenced by the reader foundation and beliefs. Lets read it in isolation and you will see what I mean:

(9) But now after you have known Elohim, or rather are known by Elohim, how do you turn again to the weak and poor elementary matters, to which you wish to be enslaved again? (10) You observe days and months and seasons and years.

At face value, if a person reads this, knowing that days, months, seasons and years represents the feasts of God, then these are surely the ‘poor elementary matters’ that enslave people and not to be observed any more. It is written in black and white and must be so. But is it the case when you read the whole passage, knowing what ‘elementary things’ are? Lets look at the whole passage:

Gal 4:1-31 (1) And I say, for as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, though he is master of all, (2) but is under guardians and trustees till the time prearranged by the father. So we also, when we were children, were under the elementary matters of the world, being enslaved.

Before we go on, we first have to understand these three verses. What are elementary matters of the world? Are they matters of YHVH? Is the Torah matters of the world or matters of YHVH? Who gave the Torah, YHVH or man (world)? What enslaves us, Torah or sin?

Col 2:8,20
(8) See to it that no one makes a prey of you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary matters of the world,1 and not according to Messiah. (20) If, then, you died with Messiah from the elementary matters1 of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations:

What did Messiah die for? He died so that we can be set free from the ‘elementary matters of the world’. In other words, sin.

Rom 6:1-13
(1) What, then, shall we say? Shall we continue in sin, to let favour (Grace) increase? (2) Let it not be! How shall we who died to sin1 still live in it? Footnote: 1See Rom. 8:13, Col. 3:3, 1 Peter 2:24. (3) Or do you not know that as many of us as were immersed into Messiah יהושע were immersed into His death? (4) We were therefore buried with Him through immersion into death, that as Messiah was raised from the dead by the esteem of the Father, so also we should walk in newness of life. (5) For if we have come to be grown together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also of the resurrection, (6) knowing this, that our old man was impaled (crucified) with Him, so that the body of sin might be rendered powerless, to SERVE SIN NO LONGER. (7) For he who has died has been made right from sin. (8) And if we died with Messiah, we believe that we shall also live with Him, (9) knowing that Messiah, having been raised from the dead, dies no more – death no longer rules over Him. (10) For in that He died, He died to sin once for all; but in that He lives, He lives to Elohim. (11) So you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to Elohim in Messiah Y'shua our Master. (12) Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, to obey it in its desires, (13) neither present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to Elohim as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to Elohim.

This shines light on what Messiah’s death means, there are two things mentioned here; dead to sin, alive to Elohim. We are no longer slaves to sin, the power of SIN is broken and abolished (not Torah), and we now give our bodies to Elohim to live Righteously the NEW LIFE He gave us through Grace, empowering us by His Spirit, so that we can LIVE REGHETIOUSS. On the one end, death, on the other end life. We are no longer salves of sin but servants of Elohim. We are not bound by sin, to serve sin no more, and received His Spirit to help us to live this NEW Set-Apart Life of Holiness.

Rom 6:18-19
(18) And having been set free from sin, you became servants of righteousness. (19) I speak as a man, because of the weakness of your flesh. For even as you did present your members as servants of uncleanness, and of lawlessness resulting in lawlessness, so now present your members as servants of righteousness resulting in set-apartness (holiness).

Slavery is not to Torah at all, it is to sin, the Torah is exposing sin, written down to show man what sin is. If you take away the “definition of sin” will it stop people from sinning, or if you break the power of sin over man, help him not to sin?
Will the Set Apart (Holy) Spirit help you to live a NEW LIFE of Set Apartness (Holiness) unto YHVH? To be Set Apart is to be without sin. YHVH is Holy and He has instructed us to be Holy (Set Apart) also. Think about it. Now we know what Paul really meant by ‘elementary matters of the world’, and that sin enslaved us, so let’s proceed:

(4) But when the completion of the time came, Elohim sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under Torah, (5) to redeem those who were under Torah, in order to receive the adoption as sons. (6) And because you are sons, Elohim has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!” So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, also an heir of Elohim through Messiah.

…born under Torah…The Torah was the “protector” of the bloodline for the Promise to be born and it was the “prove” of Who the Messiah will be, captured in prophecies and history, written down for all to see and know so that they could believe in Him, Y’shua the Messiah. The people who observed Torah should be able to “see” who the Messiah is. His coming is in He Feasts, in all the prophecies and in the life stories written inside the Torah. …Redeem those under Torah, to receive adoption as sons…Salvation came first to the house of Israel and then to the Gentiles, as stated by Paul. Messiah Himself preached salvation to the house of Israel, those who observed Torah, and some of them, not being defiled by Oral Traditions, “saw” Him and believed in Him.

They were the group of people that observed Torah and were called “under the Torah”, it is a group name for them. He did not save them from the Torah, but saved them from the ‘elementary matters of the world’ [Col 2:8,20]; human philosophy, misleading arguments and traditions (oral) of men, and from ‘slavery of sin’. This salvation brings you in so that you can receive His Spirit and then you are called ‘a son of YHVH’. Sonship is a gift that comes with receiving the Spirit and you can only receive the Spirit when you accept Y’shua and die with Him to sin. Some people ‘under Torah’, in other words Torah observant Jews, did not receive Y’shua and did not receive the Spirit and did not receive Sonship. Others, ‘under Torah’, believed and received the Spirit and Sonship. Sonship is a title given to those who are born again and recived the Spirit and who died to sin and who are no longer salves of sin. You are redeemed from sin and not the Torah. Let’s look at the verse in question regarding the feasts:

(8) But then, indeed, not knowing Elohim, you served those which by nature are not mighty ones (gods). (9) But now after you have known Elohim, or rather are known by Elohim, how do you turn again to the weak and poor elementary matters,1 to which you wish to be enslaved again? (10) You observe days and months and seasons and years.

Verse 9 and 10 are read in isolation and cause confusion because the feasts are seen as the elementary matters that enslave you. As we have seen previously, this is clearly not the case, and the Scripture is misinterpreted and contradicts other verses also. In Hebrew thinking you want someone to think about things and Paul uses this technique to stimulate them to think. He made the statement and said that they observe the days and months and seasons and years, and do you not see the Messiah and His work in it? That is what I think he wants them to realize and understand.

The Feasts are about Messiah coming to set us free from the slavery of sin, just as with the Passover festival when Israel left Egypt (bondage). Thereafter you go through the feasts of First fruits, representing the death and resurrection of Messiah, where you too must die and be raised up with His Spirit into New Life. Thereafter you get the Feast of Pentecost where they received the Word of YHVH and His Spirit, writing the Word on their hearts, empowering them to do it with their hearts. This is what Paul wanted them to think about and see. Let’s continue in Galatians 4.

(11) I fear for you, lest by any means I have laboured for you in vain. (12) Brothers, I beg you to become as I am, because I am as you are. You did not wrong me at all. (13) But you know that through weakness of the flesh I brought the Good News to you before. (14) And my trial which was in my flesh you did not despise or reject, but you received me as a messenger of Elohim, as Messiah יהושע. (15) What then was your blessedness? For I bear you witness, that if possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes and given them to me. (16) So then, have I become your enemy, speaking truth to you? (17) They are ardent towards you, for no good, but they wish to shut you out, that you might be ardent towards them. (18) And it is good always to be ardent in what is good, and not only when I am present with you. (19) My little children, for whom I am again in birth pains until Messiah is formed in you,

Paul was not very famous for speaking to them regarding their fleshliness, which was in contrast of being like Messiah. Fleshliness is normally seen as “works of the law” but it is clearly related to sin and man made philosophies and traditions, not found in Torah.

(20) even now I wish to be present with you now and to change my voice, for I have doubts about you. (21) Say to me, you who wish to be under Torah, do you not hear the Torah? (22) For it has been written that Aḇraham had two sons, one by a female servant, the other by a free woman. (23) But he who was of the female servant was born according to the flesh, and he of the free woman through promise. (24) This is allegorical, for these are the two covenants: one indeed from Mount Sinai which brings forth slavery, which is Haḡar, (25) for this Haḡar is Mount Sinai in Araḇia, and corresponds to Yerushalayim which now is, and is in slavery with her children. (26) But the Yerushalayim above is free, which is the mother of us all. (27) For it has been written, “Rejoice, O barren, you who do not bear! Break forth and shout, you who do not have birth pains! For the deserted one has many more children than she who has a husband.” (28) And we, brothers, as Yitsḥaq was, are children of promise. (29) But, as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him born according to the Spirit, so also now. (30) But what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the female servant and her son, for the son of the female servant shall by no means be heir with the son of the free woman.” (31) Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the female servant but of the free woman.

This is the one part of Scripture that is used to prove that the Torah is no more and that only the New Testament exists for believers today. Is this so or another misinterpretation of what Paul wanted to say. Paul uses a teaching technique where a portion in the Torah is compared to another portion and these two thoughts gives depth to the issue discussed. The people that are familiar to Torah know the portion in Torah, and these people did not see Messiah as the Promise being fulfilled. So Paul called these people “under Torah” and uses the Torah portion they know, to prove to them that this portion was a foreshadow of Messiah to come. They did not acknowledge Y’shua as the Messiah and Savior (the Promise) and saw the Torah as salvation. In the Torah, a lamb paid for their sin and brought salvation, now the Lamb of YHVH came as the Promise and His blood pay for sin and brings Salvation. The Torah is still there but the Lamb replaced the lamb.


The Torah is the knowledge of sin and not the solution in being delivered from sin. The Torah describes the story of the Bondwoman and the free woman as a comparison between those who see Torah as salvation and those who see Messiah as Salvation. With the new Lamb came His Spirit and His Spirit makes you free from the bondage of sin. Without the Lamb and without the Spirit, you are bound by your own effort to try not to sin. With His New Life inside of you, you will have the His power to help you to walk according to His ways, as written in the Torah. The people ‘under Torah’ have put their trust in for salvation in Torah, but the Torah also contains the evidence of the Promise of Salvation they did not see.


They were blind to the Truth and missed Salvation, even when they had the truth written down in Torah. This is read in the whole context of Gal 4, where it is about dieing with Messiah and standing up into a new Life, receiving His Spirit and live free from the bondage and slavery of sin, unto Elohim, the way he wanted them to live anyway, as described in Torah. The people that believe in Y’shua are free from the slavery to sin and empowered by His Spirit to live as Set Apart people. The people that do not “see” the Messiah in the Torah are still bound by sin and the Torah is the evidence, proving to them their bondage, as it contains all that YHVH declared as sin. Man cannot do the things in Torah, the things YHVH wants, without the freedom from bondage to sin and without the power of His Spirit in us.

Flip

E-mail any other Questions or your Comments to lettievc@hotmail.com.

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