The Standard

B'reisheet | בראשית | "In the beginning"              10.25.25

Torah: Genesis 1:1 - 6:8 

Prophets: Isaiah 42:5 - 43:10

Brit Hadasha: Luke 3:23-38; John 1:1-18; Romans 5:12-21; 1 Timothy 2:1-15, Hebrews 11:1-7

Noach | נח | "Noah"        

Torah: Genesis 6:9 - 11:32

Prophets: Isaiah 53:1 - 55:5

Brit Hadasha: Luke 1:1-80; 1 Peter 3:8-22; 2 Peter 2:4-10

Praise Reports: Everything, but highlights are:  Sukkot, New Beginnings, Rest, reconciliation with some family, safe travels for our family, always praising for the health and salvation of my family.

Who else just wants to give God thanks today for what He has done for you?

Prayer Requests: continued prayers for the lost + Kip, Dylan

Good morning!  Welcome back! We meet here today under all things “new beginnings.”  It’s a new year of Torah portion readings.  It’s a new moon, we’ve entered the month of Cheshvan which is a quiet month – no special gatherings after such a busy busy month of being with each other so very much!  You can also tell by the weather, it’s a new weather season, we’ve had to turn on the heaters.  It’s just every which way you turn it is – new.

I’ve spent the last few weeks praying and thinking about “What does God want from us?”  And just as He was when I was praying about Sukkot He was mostly quiet.  But ask you know with Sukkot, it wasn’t until afterwards that I didn’t do what I knew I was supposed to do, when I heard from Him.

And here we are again, where I am in the midst of a battle of my flesh and my spirit.  My flesh is a planner.  I want to talk about planning outreaches and events.  How do we reach the lost?  How do we educate our fellow believers about the ways and character of the Lord that they are missing in the front of the book? And I don’t think there is anything wrong with that at all – as long as the Lord doesn’t say no.

But after Sukkot, I feel like He is also wanting us to go back to basics.  We are supposed to be doing what we know we are supposed to do.

Any successful organization has to have their basic fundamentals right in order to have a firm foundation to build on first - before worrying about things like being sustainable and scalable.

In other words, we need to get back to the Vince Lombardi method.  I remember reading how he walked into the locker room and would look at some of the all time best football players and raise up the ball and tell them, “This is a football.”

For us today, “This is a bible.”  This is our roadmap.  And at the end of the day.  If this book says do it, we should do it.  If this book says it, I should do it.  If this book says it, you should do it.  Likewise, what it says not to do.  I should not do it.  You should not do it.

There is corporate accountability and there is individual accountability.  I don’t believe we can stand there on judgement day and say ‘Lord the preacher you sent me didn’t rent the right property for Sukkot’, or ‘the preacher you sent me didn’t call a gathering for this new moon.’  Or ‘Lord, its your fault, you didn’t send me a preacher at all.’ 

Pointing fingers and blaming didn’t bode well for Adam & Eve and in garden.  When Adam said the woman you gave me made eat the fruit, or Eve blamed the serpent, you didn’t see the Lord drop the charges.  They still had to account for their own individual actions.

Matthew 12: ³⁶ But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment.

With that being said, I am not dismissing the immense responsibility that I have when I teach. 

Luke 12: ⁴⁷ And that servant who knew his master’s will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. ⁴⁸ But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.

James 3:1 “Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.”

So my ask for us this season is -  to focus on the basics, first and foremost. 

These first two portions help us do just that.  We cannot know where we are going if we don’t know where we came from.  Genesis takes us all the way to the very beginning. 

When we look at day 6 and the creation of man, what does it tell us?  Out of all things God had created during that first week, the heavens, the earth, the sun, moon & stars, the grass & fields, the birds & the fish, and the beasts, of all things… only humans were created in the image of God. 

Genesis 1: ²⁷ So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 

Before being told to multiply or even evangelize, the core purpose for our existence is to be image bearers of the Creator. When creation looks at us, it should see the reflection of the Almighty God. 

And the New Testament doubled down on this concept. 

1 John 2: ⁶ He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.

Then Yeshua began to explain this about the coming darkness and the light of God immediately after healing a blind man.

John 9:  ⁴ I  must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work. ⁵ As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

And He passes that light bearer mission to us. 

Matthew 5: ¹⁴ “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. ¹⁶ Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

No, we cannot earn our salvation.  That is a gift freely given.  But we don’t want to trample on the blood of Yeshua.  We can’t misappropriate it or take it for granted.

There is a work to do. 

We aren’t just tasked with breathing in and out until we don’t anymore. God has outlined a work for us. And it’s up to us to evaluate ourselves honestly and measure ourselves to this standard.

In my line of work, but also in business in general, for a business to run successfully there are KPIs, Key Performance Indicators, that you measure yourself against to tell you on a daily, weekly, monthly basis how your business is performing.  Because we know the true success of a young business may not always be the cash flow.  By measuring against the KPIs we are able to identify trends and issues early, and just like a rudder on a ship make a small adjustment that can greatly change the final destination.

These KPIs are set with standards.  The one I work with daily is called a standard cost.  Each item our company purchases is assigned a standard cost.  It is a calculation based a on a should cost model plus freight, duties, tariffs, surcharges, etc for a total landed cost.  Then I am tasked and graded, judged if you will, to how I purchased against that metric.  In other words, if the standard cost for a widget is $10, but I’m buying an $8 with $3 shipping then I am upside down. I have a negative purchase price variance.  It’s not a good thing.  I’ve missed the mark.

And the Lord showed me that this bible, His words – this is our standard. This is what we will be judged against. 

Just as my numbers don’t lie, the results fall in truth.  There isn’t any grey area. 

Like it or not… this book doesn’t lie.  And we will either measure up or we too will miss the mark.

Let’s look at the standards we are given in these first two portions: (noted long before Sinai)

Creation ordinances (B’reishit)

1. Work six days / Rest the seventh day

2. Instituted: before the fall.  God rests, blesses, and sanctifies the 7th day:               Gen 2:1–3.

3. Human command explicitly stated later: Exod 20:8–11; 31:12–17.

4. Takeaway: A creation pattern for mankind—labor is good and commanded for 6 days, but holy rest is set apart by God also commanded on one particular day.

5. Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it

6. Gen 1:28 (reaffirmed after flood, Gen 9:1, 7).

7. Family growth + geographic spread are part of God’s design.

8. Stewardship / Dominion over creation

9. Gen 1:28; 2:15 (“work” and “keep/guard” the garden).

10. Humanity must cultivate, govern, and protect the created order, and we are to cultivate, govern, grow and protect the lots we have been given in life.

11. Marriage covenant (one flesh)

12. Gen 2:24.

13. God’s design: one man and one woman (two genders) cleave to one another as “one flesh.”

14. (Jesus later anchors marriage ethics here: Matt 19:4–6.)

15. Obedience to God’s specific boundaries

16. Gen 2:16–17 (Tree of Knowledge—given to Adam).

17. Principle: God defines good/evil; life is found in trusting His word.

18. Sanctity of human life / Murder condemned

19. Gen 4:8–10 (Cain & Abel).

20. The gravity of shedding innocent blood is established long before Sinai.

21. Truth before God / Accountability

22. Implied in the Fall narrative (Gen 3:9–13) and Cain’s evasion (Gen 4:9–10).

23. God requires honest dealing with Him and with others.

Food & creation care (B’reishit → Noach)

8. Original food grant (plant-based)

9. Gen 1:29–30.

10. Sets a baseline of life-respect in eating.

11. Post-flood permission to eat meat—but with a ban on blood

12. Gen 9:3–4.

13. Preserve animal life / species

14. Gen 6:19–21; 7:2–3, 8–9.

15. Noah is charged to protect biodiversity—a stewardship mandate.

Justice & human government (Noach)

11. Justice for murder; life-for-life principle

12. Gen 9:5–6.

13. Establishes human accountability for bloodshed and (by inference) systems of justice/courts.

Covenant & worship (Noach)

12. Covenant remembrance (Rainbow)

13. Gen 9:8–17.

14. God’s unilateral promise; humanity is to remember and live mindful of His mercy and restraint.

15. Call on the Name of the LORD (positive worship pattern)

16. Gen 4:26; Noah builds an altar Gen 8:20–21.

17. While not phrased as a command, Scripture models right worship of the One true God.

18. By contrast, the narratives imply prohibitions against idolatry and blasphemy (see below).

Sexual ethics & family honor (B’reishit → Noach)

14. Sexual morality tied to marriage design

15. Gen 2:24 sets the normative pattern; deviations (e.g., Gen 4:19 polygamy by Lamech) appear in negative context.

16. Gen 9:22–23 (Ham dishonors Noah) highlights modesty and honoring family boundaries, later codified at Sinai.

Society & culture (B’reishit → Noach)

15. Scatter / Fill the earth (oppose centralizing rebellion)

16. Command: Gen 1:28; 9:1, 7.

17. Gen 11:1–9 (Babel) shows judgment when humanity refuses to spread and instead unites in self-exalting idolatry (“make a name for ourselves”).

18. Reject idolatrous self-exaltation & profaning God’s Name (implied)

19. Gen 4:26 (calling on the LORD) vs. Gen 11:4 (making our own name).

20. Later made explicit (e.g., Exod 20:3, 7), but the Genesis pattern already commends right worship & reverence.

Clean/unclean awareness (Noach)

17. Recognition of clean vs. unclean animals

18. Gen 7:2–3 (additional pairs of “clean” animals brought).

19. While formal dietary laws come later (Lev 11), the category exists in Genesis, signaling a moral/ritual awareness tied to worship.

So again, let’s take this time to focus first on these as look at the Torah portions because this is our expectation: to be image bearers, to be light bearers. And let’s refrain from getting caught up in doctrines and exaltation of knowledge.  Adam and Eve was commanded not to partake in the tree of knowledge, but was designed be image bearers. 

But yes, now that they did partake, and now that we have sinned, we’ve been called to go and sin no more.  So rather than being distracted by things that could cause us to puff up because of our knowledge, we need to be different.  We need humility.  And when we hold ourselves accountable to standards that we will actually be judged by, that humility comes - when we see just how far from righteousness we are without Yeshua.

I read a post last week on facebook and it hasn’t left me. It was based on 1 Cor 13, but with a modern day twist.   Here is my own version of that post.

If I teach my you all the deepest things of the Torah and all the proper dates for the feasts, but I do not teach you to speak and walk in love, I teach nothing.

If I teach you how to perfectly prepare for Shabbat and the best way to pronounce the Name, but I do not show you how to exhibit the love of Messiah, I teach nothing.

If I teach all the origins of false doctrines and holidays and expose every wolf in the church, but do not teach people how to love their neighbors and enemies, I teach nothing.

If I’m teaching the Torah portion but not walking and speaking in love as an example to those I teach, then I’m not teaching the Word.  And if I teach the Torah portion and you don’t leave here challenged to become a better follower of Yeshua and walk in the great commission, then I teach nothing.

Time has always been a precious commodity, but we have even less of it at our disposal with every passing day.  Brothers and sisters, we don’t have time to waste.  We are at the crossroads where the rubber hits the road. 

This is the time where we have to ready ourselves (we should have already been ready honestly) and we have to reach the lost and prepare them.  There are tough times coming.  There are also joyous times coming.  I believe an outpouring of the Spirit is still on the way.  But there is also a quickly approaching time when we will have to choose what side we’ll stand on: the true Yeshua or the counterfeit.  And if we don’t intimately know the Lord and intimately know this book then we will not be prepared.

Every week we read that the greatest commandments are to love the Lord with all our heart mind soul and strength – and we know that we show him our love by the keeping of His commandments, but remember that the second like it is this – we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. How are we loving our neighbor, if we just sit by hidden away in our houses and let them walk straight into hell?

Remember we are now the light of the world.  We have a work to do. 

How will they know we are His disciples?  “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

So today, I challenge you with the words of Yeshua.  He has already commissioned you.

The Great Commission – Matthew 28

¹⁶ Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. ¹⁷ When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. ¹⁸ Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Even those that doubted were commissioned to go.  We have no excuses. 

We have seen the goodness of the Lord.  It’s time to go.