THE MALE AS PROVIDER!!!!

Genesis Chapter 1










Today we are walking in: The Male As Provider!!!!!







Today we look to the word-GIVE-H5414 nathan-- to give, grant, permit, ascribe, dedicate, pay wages, entrust, give over, deliver up, yield produce, report











The Torah testifies...............




Deuteronomy 3:18




And I commanded you at that time, saying, The LORD your God hath given H5414 you this land to possess it: ye shall pass over armed before your brethren the children of Israel, all that are meet for the war.













The prophets proclaim..................




Isaiah 40:29




He giveth H5414 power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.










The writings bear witness...........................



Psalm 84:11




For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give H5414 grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.







The Male as Provider and Protector




Yah Has Given Men the Ability to Provide for and Protect Everything He Has Entrusted to Their Care.




The two dominion assignments of provider and protector are interrelated because they work together to enable a man to secure himself and those who are under his care.




The Male as Provider




In Genesis 2:15, Yah gave the male the assignment of work: “The Most High Yah took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” As we saw earlier, work was given prior to the fall of man. It is not a curse; on the contrary, it is a great blessing. Genesis 1:28 says that Yah blessed the male and female and gave them dominion over the earth. He blessed them in all their dominion assignments—including work.




Work was given to the male (1) to advance the purposes of Yah, (2) to bring the male fulfillment while using the skills and abilities Yah has given him, and (3) to enable the male to provide for his own needs as well as the needs of those for whom he is responsible. In an earlier teaching, we learned that a male‘s first priority is to remain continually in Yah‘s presence. It is through worship and communion with Yah that the man receives his life‘s vision, vocation, and work. Some men have forgotten that worship takes precedence over work. When your work interferes with your worship, you cease to fulfill the purpose of a real man.




Created to Provide




Man was given work before the woman was created. This means that before a man needs a woman, and before he is ready for marriage, he needs work. He needs to find out what Yah is calling him to do. Then he can use his vocation and work to provide for his future wife and children.




Note that Yah never told the woman to work. Now, don‘t get nervous. You say, ―But society has progressed. Women want to work in jobs outside the home. There is equality. Sometimes you can have ―progress without real advancement. What are some of the symptoms of both men and women working outside the home? We‘re experiencing them right now. We have bigger houses, but fewer real homes. Husbands and wives are so busy that they end up like ships passing in the night. We have more furniture, but no one is sitting in it because people have no time to come together as families. Our children‘s beds are empty because they‘re out doing drugs. Parents aren‘t taking the time to mentor them. We have nicer cars, but they are being used to take family members to separate destinations instead of bringing them together. You can say anything you want, but we have to carefully reconsider the expectation that women should work. We have to turn things around in our society.




Yah gave the man, not the woman, the responsibility for being the main provider of the family. A woman is supposed to marry someone who is already able to provide. This is very important. If you look at the Old Testament Scriptures, the way in which Yah‘s people married indicates what Yah instructed them to do regarding matrimony.




If a man was interested in a woman, he didn‘t go to her to get engaged. He went to her parents—more specifically, to her father. The resulting marriage contract included specific arrangements for the woman‘s provision. The father would establish the standard of living that the man would have to provide for his daughter before he would allow her to leave his household. The prospective groom would have to show that he could meet this standard, or he would have to earn the money before he could have her hand in marriage.




Sometimes this took years. Remember the story of Jacob? He was engaged for seven years, but he ended up working fourteen years for Rachel. How many of you could make it through an engagement of that length? Let me tell you how easy it is to be engaged for seven years. Just have a contract like that. You‘d be so busy earning that money, you wouldn‘t have time to get into any trouble. A woman also wouldn‘t have to worry about her husband leaving her. If he‘d spend seven years without her, working for her, he‘d be more likely to spend seventy years with her, working for her.




There is much we can learn from this system. We might not want to return to everything about it, but the point is that males must fully understand the importance of their being responsible for providing for their wives and families.




Some women are locked into providing because they didn‘t meet a provider; they met a schemer. Certain men are with women because the women have good jobs—and the men want to be supported by them. They don‘t want to be the providers they were created to be.




Many women who are working today don‘t really want to work full time outside the home. Women going to college and having careers has been a positive change in many ways. Women need to be able to develop their talents and abilities. However, they should be able to do so with joy, not stress. Many women are juggling so many things today—career, home, family—that working a job can be a tremendous strain on them and the rest of the family. Some women are stuck in dead-end jobs rather than fulfilling ones because they feel the family needs the money they provide. They‘re not working at what they would really like to do. In addition, when women start having children, work doesn‘t usually retain the same priority with them. When their first baby comes, they want to be at home to care for him or her. They forget their work and the people at the office. Many women are now saying openly that they want to be homemakers. They want to have time to care for their husbands and children.




I know there are certain men reading this section who are becoming uncomfortable and discouraged. They‘re not lazy—they‘re just going through hard economic times. I understand how you feel. You don‘t want your wife to work, but right now you need two incomes to make ends meet. Or right now you‘re trying to find a job. Don‘t be discouraged. We won‘t always be able to change our financial circumstances overnight. We just need to move toward the ideal by beginning to turn things around. You can tell your wife, ―Sweetheart, you‘re working now, but my goal is to make enough money so you don‘t have to work. I will start working on it right now.




Designed to Provide




Now, since a male was created to work, he was also designed to work. He has an inherent need for it. Many women wonder how a man can work all day and all night and then some. A wife may say, ―Leave that job and come home, and her husband will answer, ―Just let me finish this. She‘s thinking about the food on the table that‘s getting cold. ―Come home now. ―Yes, baby, but let me finish this one thing. What does this tendency say about him? It says that he derives satisfaction from completing his work—from ―conquering a task. Many men will tell you they feel that way about their jobs.




A Provider Plans and Prepares




A provider finds a way to supply the needs of his family. He makes preparations to fulfill his responsibilities. This means that in order to find a good job, a man may need to explore career options, go back to school, or get additional training.




A provider also plans ahead. The problem with many men today is that they operate in crisis mode. They wait for financial problems to come to them instead of sitting down and planning for the needs of their families five or ten years in advance. A provider anticipates needs before they arrive. A loving husband is always thinking about what his wife is going to need tomorrow, and he plans for it today.




This is the kind of Husband that Yahusha is for His bride, the Ekklesia. Before you or I were created, He prepared for our salvation. He is “the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world” (Rev. 13:8). Yahusha made arrangements for our need because He cares deeply for us. He anticipated and met our need before it arose. That is what caring is all about.




If a man‘s planning nature isn‘t guided by the Spirit of Hamachiach, it can become destructive rather than constructive. That‘s when you see men planning crimes and taking advantage of women. They plan these things out—sometimes for a long time. They usually don‘t just happen.




The Needs of a Provider




Built into the male‘s desire to work and provide is his need to give. We learned earlier that the male was designed essentially as a giver and the female essentially as a receiver. The male needs someone to receive what he has to give. If he has no one to give to, this affects how he feels about himself as a man. Many women today think of themselves as independent, but they need to learn to receive from their husbands, fiancés, or boyfriends. They need to learn what it means to men to be able to give to them—and they should allow them to do it. Being a provider can sometimes be just a role for some men, but giving is a function related to a male‘s design and need.




Yah designed the male to gain satisfaction from both working and providing. When he‘s able to do these two things, he‘s a happy man. If you want to undermine a man‘s nature, then provide for him instead of letting him provide. That may sound strange, because some men just want to loaf. But most men aren‘t like that. If a wife tells a husband he doesn‘t need to buy her groceries, that she doesn‘t need him to do anything for her anymore, she‘s dealing a blow to an essential part of his being.




If you are a women who is educated and has a good job, you need to be careful. You may be tempted to say—or at least to imply—to your husband, ―I don‘t need you or anything you have. You‘re lucky I married you. You don‘t know how this affects him. The man is designed to be a provider; therefore, no matter how much money you earn, make sure you keep encouraging him as a provider. Do it in a way that he doesn‘t even know you‘re doing it. Then let him bless you with what he gives you. Whenever a man feels like he isn‘t providing, you will probably have an unhappy household.




Many women don‘t understand the mental, emotional, and spiritual effect that losing a job has on a man. They cannot fully understand, because they are not designed to be providers; they are designed to be producers. When a man loses his job, it‘s as if his life has fallen apart. Some men actually end up losing their minds after they lose their jobs. Why do they have such an extreme reaction? It‘s because it‘s not just a job to them. It‘s their means of providing. One of their purposes for being has been taken away from them.




When a man thinks, ―I can‘t provide, he sometimes skips town. Some men can‘t handle that kind of pressure, so they run from responsibility. Maybe the man has six kids and can‘t feed them. He feels useless; he feels like a failure, so he leaves. We call his behavior neglectful or irresponsible. Although this behavior is wrong, we must realize that the man is dealing with something internal that he may not understand, something fundamental to his being.




Suppose a man calls his wife and says, ―Sweetheart, I have some bad news for you. I just got laid off from my job. This is how some women would react: ―I‘m not surprised. You haven‘t been able to hold a job for the last six months.




As a matter of fact, ever since I married you, I‘ve been carrying the family. What has she done by saying this? She has just made his bed somewhere else. He feels humiliated and unwanted. He doesn‘t want to go home to that. Instead, she should say something like, ―Well, honey, Yah says that He‘s our Source. I‘ve always believed that if Yah made you my covering, He‘ll provide for you so you can provide for us. As a matter of fact, I love you for who you are, not because of the things you buy me. Hello? Are you there?




―Yes, honey, you just make me so proud to have you as my wife. You make me feel so much like a man. I‘ll be home in five seconds. When he arrives, she can greet him at the door and say, ―Sweetheart, job or no job, you‘re the best thing that ever happened to me. You want to see a man go get a job the next morning? Whatever he can get, even if it‘s sweeping the streets, he‘ll do it. What did his wife do for him? She restored his confidence. She gave him honor and elevated him as the head of the home all in one sentence. And now she has a provider who will continue to provide.




The Male as Protector




When Yah told Adam to take care of the Garden (Gen. 2:15), He was telling him, in effect, ―I put you in the Garden not only to work and cultivate it, but also to protect it and everything in it—including the animals, the plants, and the woman I will create. You are a protector.




Created to Protect




The male is like Yah‘s ―security guard. When he shows up, everyone is supposed to feel protected and safe. Remember that the atmosphere of Yah‘s Garden is His presence. Therefore, Yah essentially told Adam, ―Protect the Garden, but also the presence that is in it. Don‘t let anything disturb My presence here. It is up to males to maintain Yah‘s presence—whether they are at their homes, jobs, or any other place in society. They are to be protectors.




I can hear some men saying, ―I can‘t wait until I get married so I can practice what he‘s teaching. Don‘t wait until then. In 1 Corinthians 11:3, Paul said, “The head of the woman is man.” This means that a man doesn‘t need to be married to be responsible for women. Start being the protector of every female who comes into your presence, because you were created to be responsible for her.




Any women should feel safe with you when you understand that your purpose is to protect and guard her and to lead her into the things of Yah. What should happen if a woman comes to you destitute, broken, depressed, sad, and vulnerable, and she confides in you? The spirit of protection should come upon you. Lead her straight to Yah. Show her Yahusha. Then exemplify His character by treating her in a fatherly or brotherly way. Men, when you are dating, you don‘t protect a woman by throwing away your own armor. You don‘t take her for a drive at night and park in a secluded place. Keep the lights on bright. Keep the tape playing the Word of Yah. Keep the conversation in the light.




It takes a real man to keep his hands to himself. That‘s true strength. A man once said to me, it‘s so tough living right. ―Why? ―All those girls, mmm-mmm. They have those short skirts and high boots and bikinis. It‘s hard working in a hotel. You don‘t understand. It takes a stronger man to say no to all that than to fall for it. Any weak man can allow his hormones to run his life.




Now, when a woman gets married, her husband becomes her protector, as her father was. Because of her nature, she needs the covering of protection. The male is to provide everything for her: security, covering, resources, counsel, the comfort of knowing that he‘s there for her.




A man‘s wife and children are supposed to feel totally at peace in his presence. As soon as he shows up, everything is in order. When they hear his voice, everything is alright. When a daughter gets hurt, her father‘s presence makes her feel better. When a son goes away to college, becomes homesick, and feels as if his life is falling apart, he can call his father and hear him say, ―Son, it‘s going to be okay. Suddenly everything comes into place because Dad spoke a reassuring word. When a wife becomes frustrated or emotional about what‘s happening in the family, her husband can say, ―Yah says He‘ll be here for us, and I will be here for us, too. That‘s a man‘s responsibility.




Designed to Protect




A male is a natural protector. Through these attributes, he is designed to protect everything he is responsible for:




1. Physical strength




2. Logical thinking




3. A sense of territorial protectiveness




4. A drive to excel or ―ego




1. Physical Strength




The male‘s bone structure and upper body strength is designed to defend, protect, and guard. Now, even if a man isn‘t tall or extremely muscular, he seems to have inner physical resources that enable him to defend. A man‘s wife should be able to run to him any time trouble comes. ―Only 102 pounds, but that‘s my man. If you touch me, he‘ll have your head.




The safest place for a woman should be in the arms of her husband. Yet one of the saddest things I‘ve seen is men abusing their strength. Instead of using it to protect women, they use it to destroy them. When I think of a man hitting a woman, my whole body turns into a boiling pot of indignation. Yah gave him muscles to protect her, not to hurt her.




Paul said that a man should love his wife as Hamachiach Yahusha loves His Ekklesia: as his own flesh. Can you imagine Yahusha slapping His Ekklesia? I have a little recommendation to all men who are tempted to physically abuse women: any time you feel like slapping or hitting them, do the exact thing to yourself first. After a couple of hits, you won‘t hit anybody. Any man who beats a woman is abusing his Yah- given faculties.




The other day I counseled a forty-year-old man who was sexually abusing his thirteen-year-old daughter. Here‘s this man, with all his strength, abusing a girl who is his own flesh. She can‘t cry out or fight because he‘s too strong for her. He‘s supposed to use his strength to protect her from the very thing he‘s doing. Sometimes males wonder why so many women have problems with men. It is because a man‘s strength is frightening to them. They grew up seeing this strength being used against them or their mothers—instead of for them, as it was intended to be used.




2. A Logical Thinker




Second, Yah created the male as a logical thinker. This enables him to face difficulties and danger with a clear mind and without emotional distractions, so that he can find solutions to these problems. How does he exercise this logical thinking?




A male scrutinizes. He checks out people and things before making a decision about them. For example, men usually don‘t join a community right away. They will sit in the back and observe. They will examine things to see if what‘s going on is real. They will wait to see if the pastor is genuine. Women accept things more quickly, but men scrutinize.




A male also analyzes. To analyze means not only to see something, but also to try to interpret what it means. A woman will see a healing and say, ―That‘s a miracle, but a man will say, ―Miracle? I don‘t think she was sick at all. She was just sick in her mind. He analyzes things. That‘s just the way men are.




Third, a male is very precise in his planning. A man will look at something and plan how he will approach it. Women can be spontaneous, but men will consider things and say, ―If I go in there, I have to make sure this is okay.




Fourth, a male thinks of consequences. ―When I do this, I can do that, or ―If they do that, I can do this. He looks at opportunities, results, and outcomes of actions.




When a man loses his job and can‘t pay the mortgage or other bills, he shouldn‘t fall apart and go drinking, use drugs, or run away. Yah intended a real man to be able to look at life‘s challenges squarely in the face and make a plan of action. ―Well, let‘s see what size this one is. Good. I can knock this one off. It will take three weeks, but I‘ll do it. ―This other one isn‘t too bad. In three months we‘ll work on that one. ―Well, now, for this one, we‘ll have to go to the bank and make some arrangements for smaller payments so we‘ll have more time to deal with it.




The logical thinker was built to handle tough things. A man looks trouble in the face and says, ―No problem. He speaks with confidence because he‘s logical, and his logic is based on Yah‘s Word.




3. Territorial Protectiveness




Males exhibit a fighting spirit, which was given to them by Yah to protect and defend those for whom they are responsible. Yahusha said, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,...how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings” (Matt. 23:37). When does a hen cover her chicks? When there‘s a threat. She opens her wing, covers them with it, then starts kicking with her foot. She is saying, ―Don‘t you touch my chicks. That‘s how Yah feels about His people. Likewise, a man has the spirit of a hen who is under pressure and threat of danger, and who is going to fight.




Yahusha exhibited a strong, protective nature when speaking of the Ekklesia. He said, in essence, ―If anyone offends My bride, if anyone tries to take My children away from Me, it would be better for him if he tied a rope around his neck, put a stone on the other end of the rope, walked down to the ocean, and jumped in. It would be better for him to do that than for Me to get My hands on him. (See Matthew 18:6.)




A man has a spirit in him that says, ―I have to protect what is mine. He talks in terms of ―my wife, ―my house, and ―my car. This possessive attitude isn‘t negative in itself; it‘s from Yah. However, when it is not submitted to its purpose, it is often used to overpower or control others. For example, a man might end up ruling his wife as if she‘s his property. A man like this doesn‘t want anybody to even come near his wife. If he just imagines that she might be unfaithful, he goes into a rage. Why? He doesn‘t want anybody interfering with his territory. Some men will actually kill their wives for infidelity, even though they themselves have been unfaithful for years.




They don‘t understand their purpose, so they abuse it.




Some young men don‘t know what to do with their spirit of possessiveness and competition, so they end up forming gangs and competing against other neighborhoods. They are aggressive against others who don‘t wear the same hat or jacket they do. They need strong male role models who can teach them what to do with their territorial protectiveness.




Yahusha got angry many times, but His anger was aimed at ungodliness and hypocrisy. The Bible says, “For this purpose the Son of Yah was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8 KJV). Men aren‘t supposed to fight against other men, but against the spiritual forces that try to steal what Yah told them to protect. They are to compete against the sinful nature and Satan, not flesh and blood. A real man has righteous indignation. He is protective of that which is holy. He safeguards what is good.




Nothing in the world can bless a man like feeling responsible for his family‘s safety. For instance, something happens within him when he can provide his wife and children with a house. He has kept them safe from the elements. He‘s built a place for them, and he feels proud. ―My house is only two rooms, you know, but it‘s my house. When a man provides his wife with a car, and the car breaks down, he feels instantly protective. He can‘t stand to think of her out there in the elements, and he immediately goes and takes care of the situation.




You wouldn‘t imagine how much it hurts a man to feel as if he has no part in protecting his wife and children, to feel as if he‘s just visiting in his own home—eating and sleeping there but not contributing to his family‘s welfare. It is important for men to participate in solving family problems. When something happens in the home or to the children, a wife should tell her husband. Why? He needs to fulfill his dominion purpose as protector.




His wife needs to encourage him in this purpose. Suppose a man opens a door for his wife but she says, ―That‘s okay, I‘m liberated. She has just insulted his protective nature. Now, because of the way male-female relationships are changing in our societies, men don‘t know whether they should open a door for a woman or not. They‘re confused, so many have stopped doing it altogether. Sometimes men need to be reminded of their assignment. You tell the women what they should do in this situation.




Some men have lost sight of their responsibility to protect to such an extent that they check on their investments more often than they check to see if their families are all right. These men are using their natural gift of protectiveness, but they‘re using it on the wrong objects. A man should call his wife every day, making sure everything is okay. ―Is anybody bothering you? He should also call to see how his children are doing, so they can know their father is there for them. A man‘s spirit of territorial protection is to be used primarily to safeguard his family and others under his care.




4. A Drive to Excel or “Ego”




Finally, Yah gave the male what psychologists call ego. I like to call it a drive to excel. The man‘s ego is simply a spirited attitude of not wanting to be beaten. Yah gave him this attitude to help him overcome obstacles in life. Nothing makes a woman prouder than to see her mighty man of valor standing against the odds. Every male is supposed to have this spirit. When he doesn‘t, he‘s not fully functioning.




A male always wants to outdo. This is one reason men are so competitive. Sports are more attractive to males than females because they provide a release for this drive to excel. For example, many men have a basketball team that they call their own. Maybe it‘s the Lakers or the Bullets. These men don‘t play on those teams, practice with them, or even watch them work out, but they relish the competition they represent. A man may never have visited Los Angeles, but when the Lakers win, he‘ll have a celebration. He never played basketball in his life, but he‘s as proud of their accomplishments as if he were part of the team himself.




A man isn‘t meant to release his drive to excel just on the basketball court. There are men who can shoot a three pointer, but who don‘t bring up their children to rely on the Most High. There are men who have all kinds of sports trophies, but who haven‘t learned to take their drive and channel it properly through the Word of Yah, using faith to feed it. The mark of a man who knows Yah is, ―I know I can make it, and nobody can stop me.




So ego, in itself, is not a bad thing. Having a drive to excel is good because it‘s part of a man‘s equipment for leadership. When a man has to bring his family through a difficult situation, he‘d better have some ego. He‘d better believe in himself to the point that he can say, ―This thing can‘t overcome me. My Yah will supply all my needs. He can be confident because He trusts in Yah‘s provision. He can be strong because He believes he is everything that Yah says he is in Hamachiach. That‘s the definition of a redeemed ego.




Ego needs to be built on the Word, but when it has been corrupted by sin, HaSatan uses it to tempt men to connive, scheme, and even kill one other. That‘s not what Yah intended. Yah gave men a drive to excel so they be good examples for their children of how to be faithful during tough times. Yah gave men ego so they can constantly come forth with more motivation and more hope for life‘s battles—to be able to keep moving when everything and everyone else quits. A wife whose husband has this drive to excel can say, ―It doesn‘t matter what happens out there. He‘s not going to fold up. So you lose your job. Your ego should be so big that you walk back home and say, ―I got laid off today, but that must mean Yah has something better for me.




Men, no matter how difficult your life becomes, I want you to know you have what it takes to handle it. Yah designed you to come through storms and to work out problems. He has given you everything you need to be a man of Yah. He has given you His own Spirit. In the Bible, the men who trusted Yah were full of hope. They always knew they were going to come through. Yah has given you wonderful ability, strength, and spiritual weaponry to protect and guard everything He has entrusted to your care.




Commit to Becoming Yah’s Man




Men must understand that they are responsible for their purpose assignments. The whole revelation has to hit you: ―As a male, I am a visionary, leader, teacher, cultivator, provider, and protector. Being the male that Yah designed you to be means all these things.




A male doesn‘t decide to work—he‘s designed to work. He doesn‘t decide to teach—he‘s required to teach. He cannot decide to protect—He is wired to protect. There is no fulfillment without satisfying your purpose. My prayer is that you will commit to becoming the man Yah created and designed you to be so that you will experience lasting fulfillment in your relationship with Yah and in all your human relationships. “See to it that you complete the work you have received in the Most High” (Col. 4:17). Work on becoming a complete man of Yah, and you will be a blessing to yourself, your family, and the world.




Principles




1. The male was created to be the provider of his family.




2. Work was given to the male (1) to advance the purposes of Yah, (2) to bring the male fulfillment while using the skills and abilities Yah has given him, and (3) to enable the male to provide for his own needs as well as the needs of those for whom he is responsible.




3. Man was given work before the woman was created. This means that before a man needs a woman, and before he is ready for marriage, he needs work.




4. Yah gave the man, not the woman, the responsibility for being the main provider of the family.




5. A husband won‘t always be able to immediately change his financial circumstances so that his wife doesn‘t have to work. He just needs to move toward the ideal by working toward this goal.




6. Since a male was created to provide, he was also designed to provide.




7. A provider anticipates needs before they arrive. He plans, prepares, and makes provision for these needs.




8. Built into the male‘s desire to work and provide is his need to give.




9. The male was created to be the protector of his family and everything else for which he is responsible.




10. In 1 Corinthians 11:3, Paul said, “The head of the woman is man.” This means a man doesn‘t need to be married to be responsible for women.




11. Through these attributes, a male is designed to protect everything he is responsible for: (1) physical strength, (2) logical thinking, (3) a sense of territorial protectiveness, and (4) a drive to excel or ―ego.




12. Yah has given men the ability, strength, and spiritual weaponry to protect and guard everything He has entrusted to their care.