Genesis chapter 37
Today we are walking in: The Source of Purpose
Today we look to the word-PURPOSE- H6213 ’asah--to do, work, make, produce; to act, act with effect, effect
The Torah testifies...............
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The prophets proclaim..................
Isaiah 14:26
This is the purpose H6213 that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations.
The writings bear witness...........................
Ecclesiates 3:1
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose H6213 under the heaven:
AND Ya`aqov dwelt in the land wherein his father was a stranger, in the land of Kena`an. These are the generations of Ya`aqov. Yoceph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren; and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father's women: and Yoceph brought unto his father their evil report. Now Yashar'el loved Yoceph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colors. And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him. And Yoceph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more. And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed: For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf. And his brethren said to him, Shall you indeed reign over us? or shall you indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words. And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me. And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to you to the earth? And his brethren envied him; but his father observed the saying. And his brethren went to feed their father's flock in Shekem. And Yashar'el said unto El-Yoceph, Do not your brethren feed the flock in Shekem? come, and I will send you unto them. And he said to him, Here am I. And he said to him, Go, I pray you, see whether it be well with your brethren, and well with the flocks; and bring me word again. So he sent him out of the valley of Chevron, and he came to Shekem. And a certain man found him, and, behold, he was wandering in the field: and the man asked him, saying, What do you seek? And he said, I seek my brethren: tell me, I pray you, where they feed their flocks. And the man said, They are departed hence; for I heard them say, Let us go to Dothan. And Yoceph went after his brethren, and found them in Dothan. And when they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him. And they said one to another, Behold, this dreamer comes. Come now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into some pit, and we will say, Some evil beast has devoured him: and we shall see what will become of his dreams. And Re'uven heard it, and he delivered him out of their hands; and said, Let us not kill him. And Re'uven said unto them, Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness, and lay no hand upon him; that he might rid him out of their hands, to deliver him to his father again. And it came to pass, when Yoceph was come unto his brethren, that they stripped Yoceph out of his coat, his coat of many colors that was on him; And they took him, and cast him into a pit: and the pit was empty, there was no water in it. And they sat down to eat bread: and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and, behold, a company of Yishma'e'liym came from Gil'ad with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Mitsrayim. And Yahudah said unto his brethren, What profit is it if we slay our brother, and conceal his blood? Come, and let us sell him to the Yishma'e'liym, and let not our hand be upon him; for he is our brother and our flesh. And his brethren were content. Then there passed by Midyaniym merchantmen; and they drew and lifted up Yoceph out of the pit, and sold Yoceph to the Yishma'e'liym for twenty pieces of silver: and they brought Yoceph into Mitsrayim. And Re'uven returned unto the pit; and, behold, Yoceph was not in the pit; and he rent his clothes. And he returned unto his brethren, and said, The child is not; and I, whither shall I go? And they took Yoceph's coat, and killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the coat in the blood; And they sent the coat of many colors, and they brought it to their father; and said, This have we found: know now whether it be your son's coat or no. And he knew it, and said, It is my son's coat; an evil beast has devoured him; Yoceph is without doubt rent in pieces. And Ya`aqov rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many days. And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted; and he said, For I will go down into She'ol unto my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him. And the Midyaniym sold him into Mitsrayim unto Potiyphar, an officer of Phar'oh's, and captain of the guard. BERE'SHIYTH (GENESIS) 37:1-6 את CEPHER
The Source of Purpose
The source of purpose is the mind of the producer.
Have you ever noticed the delight of a child as he sees a butterfly or a bee up close for the first time? The joy and surprise first register in the eyes, soon to be followed by the expressiveness of words: “Look how pretty it is, Mommy. It looks so soft I want to touch him.” Before long, however, the pleasure and wonder give way to a multitude of questions: “Why does the butterfly move its wings that way, Daddy, and why does it have those things on top of its head?” Or, “Why does the bee keep moving from one flower to another? Doesn’t it get tired?” Thus, the joy of watching often gives way to the natural inquisitiveness of a child. The what is not enough. He wants to know why.
A Hopeless View of Life
Children are not alone in their desire to know why. The purpose or meaning of life, and all that it entails, is a frequent topic of everyday conversation, as well as a recurring theme in literature. William Shakespeare, an English playwright, reveals one outlook on life in his play Macbeth:
“Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more; it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing” (Oxford Dictionary of (Quotations, p. 461).
From this character’s viewpoint, people are actors whose lives count for nothing. When the play’s over, naught of value is left. Only emptiness and meaninglessness remain.
A similar perspective is found in the biblical book of Ecclesiastes.
“Meaningless! Meaningless! ... Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” What does a man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun? ... There is no remembrance of men of old, and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow. I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind (Ecclesiastes l:2-3a, 11, 14).
The writer is laughing at man, showing the futility of his existence without Yah. Everything he does is emp ty. Indeed, life is so meaningless that nothing remains after his death. What a tragic understanding of life!
Nothing is more depressing than this hopeless view of life, a viewpoint shared by countless people. The question, “Why am I here?” beats in their brains, but they find no satisfactory answer. They walk through life doing everything that it requires of them, but none of it has meaning. Poor self-esteem, jealousy and a lack of consideration for others often characterize this lifestyle, as each tries to find value by elevating themselves and belittling others.
This is not the way Yah planned for human beings to live. He intended that the purpose with which He created human beings and the world in which they live would define their lives. Yah wanted us to share His creative power, planning and designing and forming with purpose. But since we have lost touch with Yah the Creator through disobedience, we have also relinquished the awareness that life is based upon the basic principle of purpose. We no longer understand why Yah made us and what He intends for us to do during our years on earth. Without that understanding, we will never truly live or find personal fulfillment. It is essential, then, that we rediscover how to live with purpose by returning to the Yah who is the Author of purpose.
Purpose Is the Basis for Creation
The Scriptures teach us that Yah does everything in union with the p urp oses of His heart (Psalm 33:11; Jeremiah 23:20; 32:17-19). Nowhere is this more visible than in the creation story in Genesis.
Early in the creation record, the Bible tells us that Yah not only created things by speaking them into being but also gave each creation a purpose. Therefore, everything has a Yah-given purpose. The sky was created to separate the water above its expanse from the water beneath it (Genesis 1:6-8) and the land was given the purpose of producing vegetation and living creatures (Genesis 1:11,24). The lights Yah set in the sky were created to separate day from night, to serve as signs to marks seasons, days and years, and to give light to the earth (Genesis 1:14- 15). Yah determined the purposes of mankind to include being fruitful and increasing in number, filling the earth and subduing it, and ruling over “the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground” (Genesis 1:28). Yah’s purpose for man also required that he name all the birds and the animals (Genesis 2:19).
Thus we see that Yah, the Creator, is the source of purpose. Because purpose, by definition, is the end of a thing, not its beginning, the Book of Genesis—which is a story of beginnings—does not show us the full purposes of Yah. Its value for the study of purpose lies in its clear picture that Yah is the originator of purpose. Everything He created, including man, was made for a reason. It tells us what Yah did, but not why He did it.
Purpose Precedes Creation
Several years ago, I built a house. Of course the house was finished a long time before we built it—on paper, that is. Only after the architect had drawn a detailed plan on paper so we could picture how the constructed house would look did the carpenters start to build.
Everything in life is that way because that’s the way Yah operates. He is a predestinator before He is a creator. He sets the end before He begins. In other words, Yah decides what He wants before He starts the process of getting it. He reveals the destination of a journey before He goes back to the beginning of the path that leads toward the destination. He sets the end before He starts working toward it, and predestines everything so that the purpose precedes the destination. Therefore, Yah had a purpose for creation and all that He created before He began speaking it into existence. If we want to discover this purpose of Yah behind the creation story—the intentions of His heart and mind—we must consider a larger p icture than that presented in the Book of Genesis. Genesis is the beginning, not the destination.
The Birth of Yah’s Firstborn
To understand Yah’s purposes behind the creation of the world, we must look at His first act of creation. The Book of Proverbs describes this first work of Yah’s creative power:
By wisdom the Lord laid the earth’s foundation, by understanding He set the heavens in place; by His knowledge the deeps were divided, and the clouds let drop the dew.
The Lord brought Me [Wisdom] forth as the first of His works, before His deeds of old; I was appointed from eternity, from the beginning, before the world began. When there were no oceans, I was given birth, when there were no springs abounding with water; before the mountains were settled in place, before the hills, I was given birth ...
I was the craftsman at His side. I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in His presence, rejoicing in His whole world and delighting in mankind.
For whoever finds Me finds life and receives favor from the Lord (Proverbs 3:19-20; 8:22-25,30-31,35).
The King James Version of the Bible translates verse 30 as follows: “I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him.” Yah delighted in the first of His works. He kept Wisdom at His side, sharing with Her both the work of creation and His delight in what He had made.
The Gospel of John gives this creative being at Yah’s side another name:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with Yah, and the Word was Yah. He was with Yah in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. ...He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him. Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of Yah ... (John 1:1-4,10- 12)
The Scriptures are clear that the Firstborn of Yah is none other than Hamachiach, who took on human flesh in the person of Yahusha. We see this in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian church, where he refers to Hamachiach as the wisdom of Yah:
Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Hamachiach crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom Yah has called, both Hebrews and Greeks, Hamachiach the power of Yah and the wisdom of Yah. ...[He] has become for us wisdom from Yah— that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption (1 Corinthians 1:22-24,30).
In Yahusha, the firstborn Son of Yah—who in previous times had been known as the Wisdom of Yah and the Word —came to earth in human form. The delight Yah felt in the Wisdom is echoed in His pleasure in Yahusha, as revealed at the time of Yahusha’ baptism.
As Yahusha was coming up out of the water, He saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on Him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are My Son, whom I
love; with You I am well pleased” (Mark 1:10-11).
The first Son so blessed Yah that He wanted other sons and daughters in whom to delight. He wanted more children like His Firstborn. Thus, Yah determined to make human beings in the image of His first Son, who is the image of Yah Himself. That is Yah’s motivation for creating us. Our purpose is to be sons and daughters of the Most High Yah in whom He can delight even as He delights in our older brother, Yahusha Hamachiach.
Paul’s letter to the Ephesians tells us that Yah chose us long before the earth began, to fulfill His plans according to His purpose (Ephesians 1:4). Yah didn’t accept us into His family as an afterthought. That has always been His purpose. Our adop tion is part of His plan to bring everything “in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Hamachiach” (Ephesians 1:10). We are the reason behind the creation story.
Yah got what He wanted. The first chapter of Genesis tells us that Yah made mankind “in His own image, in the image of Yah He created him; male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:27). His children, Adam and Eve, shared the likeness and image of Hamachiach. But Yah wasn’t satisfied with only two children like His firstborn Son. He wanted more children. Therefore, Yah blessed the man and the woman and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number ...” (Genesis 1:28)
But the delight Yah knew in creating us did not last. With the entrance of sin into the world through the disobedience of Adam and Eve, Yah’s children no longer acted like Him. The Scriptures are filled with Yah’s anguish over His lost children.
The Lord looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek Yah. All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one (Psalm 14:2-3).
They know nothing, they understand nothing. They walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken. I said, “You are ‘Yahs’; you are all sons of the Most High.” But you will die like mere men ... (Psalm 82:5-7)
He [Yah] said, “Surely they are My people, sons who will not be false to Me;” and so He became their Savior. In all their distress He too was distressed, and the angel of His presence saved them. ...Yet they rebelled and grieved His Ruach HaQadesh ... (Isaiah 63:8-10)
When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son. But the more I called Israel, the further they went from Me. ...How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? ... I will not carry out My fierce anger, nor will I turn and devastate Ephraim. For I am Yah, and not man —the Holy One among you. I will not come in wrath (Hosea 11:1-2,8-9).
Yah Perseveres in His Purpose
Yah, who wanted His children to take after Him, refused to give up on them. He still yearned to be their Father and to have them be His loving, faithful sons and daughters. Although they had disappointed Him, He resolved to draw them back to Himself, for His love would not be satisfied until He again had sons and daughters to receive His love and to love Him in return. Yahusha is Yah’s plan to restore His children to His loving embrace. His purpose was to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8) and to save Yah’s people from their sins (Matthew 1:21).
For Yah so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For Yah did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him (John 3:16-17).
But Yah demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Hamachiach died for us (Romans 5:8).
This is love: not that we loved Yah, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins (l John 4:10).
This desire of Yah to have children to love and to fellowship with is still the end toward which Yah works. He has created us to love Him and to be His children. That is the universal purpose of mankind, determined by the Creator before creation.
How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of Yah! And that is what we are! … what we will be has not been made known. But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. Everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure (1 John 3:1-3).
Yah Is Father
Yah, who creates everything with a purpose, has, among other expectations, given His sons and daughters the purpose of living in a loving relationship with Him that mirrors His union with His Son, Yahusha Hamachiach. The Gospels clearly reveal that Yahusha knew Yah as His Father. He praised His Father (Matthew 11:25), did the work of His Father (John 5:36; 14 :6-14 ), prayed to His Father (Matthew 26:39,42), asked His Father to forgive those who crucified Him (Luke 23:34), and committed His Spirit to His Father at His death (Luke 23:46). Continually, He spoke of Yah as “My Father” (Matthew 12:50; 18:35; Luke 22:29, to name a few).
The Scriptures are also clear that Yahusha intended for us to think of Yah as our Father and ourselves as His children.
But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven (Matthew 5:44-45).
But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you (Matthew 6:6).
If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him! (Matthew 7:11)
Perhaps the most notable evidence of this intention is the prayer Yahusha taught His disciples to pray:
This, then, is how you should pray: “Our Father in heaven ...” (Matthew 6:9)
Yahusha came to reintroduce us to Yah the Father, not Yah the Creator. Through His life and teaching, He revealed the heart of Yah in a way that the Wisdom and the Word had not communicated. Yah’s people knew Him as a judge and a consuming fire, but they had not learned that Yah is a father who wants to be close to His children. Yah sent us His Son so we could get the idea: “Tell them I’m Daddy. Reveal to them that they can call me ‘Abba,’ Daddy.”
Yah’s desire has always been to be a father. His purpose for creating men and women, and His purpose for the people He created, is that we would know the close union with the Father that Yahusha exhibited during His ministry on earth. Yah loves us like a father loves his children. He is always ready to care for us if we will but accept our place as His children and live in an obedient, dependent relationship that reflects the unity of the firstborn Son and His Father.
Destined to Be Like Yah
When Hamachiach took on human form, He retained the likeness and image of Yah. Thus, He could say, “If you really knew Me, you would know My Father. ...I am in the Father and the Father is in Me” (John 14:7,11). He revealed the nature of Yah, a glory that He had shared with Yah before the world began.
Father, the time has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son may glorify You. ...I have brought You glory on earth by completing the work You gave Me to do. And now, Father, glorify Me in Your presence with the glory I had with You before the world began. I have revealed You to those whom You gave Me out of the world ... (John 17:1,4-6)
Yah’s glory is His true nature in all its perfection. The glory of a flower is seen when it is at its prime. The glory of a sunset is visible when the colors are at their height. The glory of the sun is revealed at high noon, even as the glory of the moon is displayed in a full, harvest moon. Glory is always revealed at the point of perfection.
In the creation of mankind, Yah put His nature, image and likeness into us (Genesis 1:26). Then He said, “Go ahead. Express what I am,” because He wanted His glory to fill the earth. The manifestation of Yah’s nature is part of His purpose for our lives. This is possible because Yah was looking at Hamachiach when He created mankind. He designed us, like Yahusha, to be like Him. He has no desire for Christians, but for sons and daughters who share His interests, perspectives and visions. That was the nature of His fellowship with Adam and Eve in the garden.
Yahusha came to earth to take us back to that garden relationship. His life showed us the fullness of Yah that we had been created to reveal. Because we are destined to show the world the same glory that Yahusha’ disciples beheld on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-13), the Son of Yah and the Ruach HaQadesh are now in the business of conforming Yah’s sons and daughters into His likeness for the purpose of displaying His glory or His true nature.
Created to Reveal Yah’s Character
The transformation that the Ruach HaQadesh is executing in our lives includes the unveiling of the character of Yah within us that has been covered over by sin. Ephesians 1:4 tells us that Yah “chose us before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight.” Yah doesn’t want us to develop holiness, because He never intended that we would not be holy. Holiness is part of us because holiness is the nature of Yah in whose image and likeness we are created. Indeed, all the characteristics of Yah are present in our lives, whether we reveal them or not. In essence, the source of anything determines its nature, which establishes its natural qualities. The word natural is derived from the word nature and implies that which is of the essential properties of an element. We came out from Yah. Therefore, we possess His natural qualities and nature.
Yah’s Spirit, whose fruit is “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self- control” (Galatians 5:22-23), cannot be other than Yah is. When that Spirit lives in us after our rebirth through faith in Yahusha Yahusha, those fruits are to be evident in our lives as well. That’s part of Yah’s original intention for mankind. We, who are sons and daughters of the Most High Yah, are to bear a family resemblance to our Heavenly Father.
David, a Man of Purpose
The Scriptures are filled with the stories of men and women who glimpsed Yah’s purpose for their lives and bore a family resemblance to Yah the Father. The faith chapter, as the eleventh chapter of the Book of Hebrews is often called, describes the actions and the attitudes of many who accepted Yah’s invitation to a purposeful, significant life anchored in Him. Abraham, Noah, Jacob, Joseph. Moses, Rahab, Joshua, Gideon. All discovered Yah’s purpose for their lives and remained faithful to what they had seen.
Perhaps no person in the Bible, however, better reveals Yah’s intended relationship with His children than King David. David was a man with a purpose. From the time of His anointing by the prophet Samuel to be king over Israel to his death at an old age, David sought and obeyed the plans and purposes of Yah. David learned early in his life that Yah is not unapproachable. From his days in the pasture sheep herding his father’s sheep to his responsibilities in the palace, David depended on Yah for guidance, protection, inspiration and peace. His life was far from smooth and he knew the devastation of sin. But David always came to Yah with his triumphs and his failures.
The psalms of David are filled with both his jubilant worship in the Lord’s presence and his tearful repentance with sorrow and mourning. David knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that his purpose had both come from Yah and been given for Yah. Such was his intimacy with Yah that he came to be known as a man after Yah’s own heart (Acts 13:22).
This relationship between Yah and David is the desire of Yah for each of His children. He wants you to be a child after His heart. He doesn’t want you to come chat with Him once a week in your Sunday best. His concern is for the purpose He has set for your life and the effect of that purpose on your daily living. He’s much more concerned with the attitudes of your heart than the environment or the conditions in which you live.
Yah’s purposes never fail (Psalm 33:11). He works in us “to will and to act according to His good purpose” (Philippians 2:13). The plans we make for our lives will not change His purposes (Proverbs 19:21). The primary question each of us must consider is whether we will discover and cooperate with the purposes of Yah or whether we will deny His fatherhood and withdraw from the fellowship and meaning that His presence gives our lives. Knowing and following purpose is the key to a meaningful, healthy, joy-filled life. Yah destined you to live for and with a purpose. He wants you to discover your individual and corporate purposes and to experience the rewards of finding them.
PRINCIPLES
1. Yah is the source of purpose.
2. Yah is a predestinator before He is a creator.
3. Yah chose us long before the earth began, to fulfill His plans according to His purposes.
4. Sin and disobedience destroyed our opportunity to live with Yah and to manifest His image and nature in the world.
5. Yah’s purpose has not changed. He still wants children who act like Him.
6. We are destined to manifest Yah’s glory to the world.
7. Yah’s glory is His true nature in all its perfection.
8. Yah destined you to live for and with a purpose.
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