In Joshua 1:8, Yehovah instructs Joshua to meditate on the Torah day and night so that he will be careful to do everything it says and succeed and become prosperous.
What does it mean to meditate on the Torah? And why is this important?
The Bible says, in Joshua 1:8, those who meditate on the Torah and obey it will succeed and become prosperous in everything they do. Jesus says the same thing in Matthew 6:25-34, if we follow the Torah and live by it, we will have no reason to worry about anything. This does not mean we will live a carefree life without any problems, but what it does mean is this; when issues arise, we will overcome them instead of being overwhelmed by them.
We know this is what the Bible says, but for some reason, this is not what is being taught in our churches.
Most churches today would tell you the law of Moses (the Torah) no longer applies to us because it was “nailed to the cross” by Jesus the Messiah. One massive problem with this is that for Jesus to be the Messiah; he had to fulfill every Messianic prophecy in the Old Testament. If there is one prophecy Jesus did not fulfill, he is no longer the Messiah.
In Isaiah 53:8, the Bible says the Messiah will atone for the sins of God’s people. Who are the people of God? According to the Bible, the people of God are all those who obey the Torah (Exodus 19:5, Jeremiah 7:23, and Matt 7:21-23) So, the Messiah will only atone for the sins of those who follow the Torah. As a Christian, you might not agree with this, but we can’t overlook that for Jesus to be the Messiah, he must fulfill every prophecy in the Old Testament, including this one. So for Jesus to be the Messiah, he can only atone for the sins of those who follow the Torah.
So the Torah is not only a promise for success and prosperity but is also our only way to have our sins atoned for. How? If Jesus can only atone for the sins of those who follow the Torah, we need to repent from lawlessness to law before the blood of Jesus can atone for our sins. So without the Torah = no atonement.
Do you now see why Jesus in Matt 7:21-23 says, “depart from me for I never knew you, you workers of lawlessness”? Here in Matt 7:21-23, we have a large group of Christians who believed in Jesus and did great and wonderful works in the name of Jesus, but because they rejected the Torah, Jesus rejected them.
But what about Paul the Apostle?
Paul says in Acts his preaching consisted of a call to repentance from lawlessness to law followed by faith in Jesus. According to Paul, this was the message he preached to every Greek and Jew. So Paul understood the need to obey the Torah before you could atone for your sins.
If you want your sins atoned for, to be successful, and overcome your problems, you need to do what the Bible says and obey the Torah.
So what, then, does it mean to meditate on the Torah?
The Torah has 613 commandments; some are gender-specific, others are only for priests and kings, and then there are all those we need to be in Israel with access to a temple to obey. We can abide by about 2-300 commandments outside of Israel, regardless of gender.
Nobody alive today can continuously meditate on several 100 commandments while focusing on everything else happening around them. But if we understand Jeremiah 31 and how the Torah is spiritual, we know we can meditate on the spirit of the Torah (which we refer to as the Holy Spirit) by meditating and keeping our minds focused on the Torah at the same time.
How?
If we make the Torah our object of faith, which means we choose to believe God will give us what we ask of him and help us in life because of the Torah, we meditate on the Torah.
So it is not a matter of meditating on 100s of commandments; it is only a matter of faith; you choose to believe what Jesus says in Matt 6:25-34 is true: God provides for you because of your obedience to the Torah. You believe what Isaiah 53:8 says is true; the Blood of Jesus atones for your sins because you obey the Torah.