TAMMUZ 23
Halacha
“One who walks in integrity,
walks securely, but one who takes crooked paths will be discovered.”
(Pro 10:9 TLV)
The
Hebrew word that has been translated as ‘walk’ in our opening verse is the word
hâlak (Strong’s H1980), and is a
verb, requiring action. Yes, it does
mean to walk, but it also includes with it the sense of our walk of life, of how we live our lives, our lifestyle. Integrity is for the most part explained as
doing what we KNOW to be right, even
when no one is watching. Therefore, when
our lifestyle reflects a commitment to doing
what is right, what we understand as Torah, we are walking in integrity.
Halacha is kin to the word halak, and is the way a believer is “directed to behave in every aspect of life”[1], according to the instructions of Torah. Again, this encompasses our way of life, and our lifestyle. When we choose to live according to the divine instructions in righteous and moral living (Torah), our lives are, most generally, above reproach. However, when we begin to replace our commitment to the Elohim of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob with our own self-sovereignty, our halacha goes out the door, and our paths become crooked and perverted.
‛Aqash (Strong’s H6140) is the Hebrew word that has been translated as ‘crooked’ in our opening verse, and yet means much more than that. There is the sense of taking something that was once pure and undefiled and polluting it, compromising the integrity of the original unit. It then becomes a perversion, something to be thrown out and discarded. Of interest is the fact that this word - ‛aqash - is only found five times throughout the Tanakh, the Old Testament, and 80% of the time has been translated as ‘perverse’.
How does this relate to us? When we make the deliberate choice to turn aside from our ‘walk of integrity’, engaging in and doing (remember, hâlak is a verb, requiring action) anything that is not according to Torah, we have become polluted, perverted, and compromised. If it is a conduct that we are attempting to hide, this verse guarantees that it will be uncovered. Boom.
“For
if—after escaping the world’s pollutions through the knowledge of our Lord and
Savior, Yeshua the Messiah—they again become entangled in these things and are
overcome, the end for them has become worse than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to
have known the way of righteousness, than after learning about it, to turn back
from the holy commandment passed on to them. What has happened to them confirms the truth
of the proverb, “A dog returns to its vomit,” and “A scrubbed pig heads right
back into the mud.”” (2Pet 2:20-22 TLV)
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