For thus says YHWH to the house of Israel, “Seek Me [dir’shuni]that you may live”… …Seekgood and not evil [dir’shu tov w-al ra], that you may live; and thus may YHWH God of hosts be with you, just as you have said! Hate evil, love good, and establish justice in the gate!
To truly live
we need to turn our eyes towards our Heavenly Father.
Amos 5:4
SEEK Me and live
Do we want to live?
Both here and now in the
olam ha-zeh
liter-ally “this world”
and in the future
olam Ha-ba
עוֹלָם הַבָּא.
literally,
“the coming world“
Do we desire to truly live?
then we must
SEEK Him
and when we do we will not only find Him
but all that He is and has and can impart to us
..peace, joy, love and the fullness of the abundant life
חי
chai = chet (ח) and yud (י)
(chaim/chayim – lifes) חיים
…the life He made available through His cross.
when we SEEK Him with our whole heart, we will find Him
and the life for which He paid the ultimate price.
Like all our Fathers promises, this is also conditional
and if we have not already done so….
It is time to SEEK the Lord.
For it is time to SEEK and SEARCH diligently for the Lord [and to long for His blessing]
Until He comes to rain righteousness and His gift of salvation on you. Hosea 10:12,13.
The scripture encourages us to SEEK the Lord while He may be found. This implies that there may be a time when He cannot be found!
“Seek (Darash) ye the LORD while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near.” Is. 55:6
And it behooves us to
SEEK Him today
because the Word says when you SEEK you will find.
We are to ask, SEEK and knock…
Luke 11:9-10 & Matthew 7:7-8
“So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; SEEK, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and he who SEEKs, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened.”
Everything will be open… the Kingdom of our Father/YHWH is open to us, but we have to SEEK it.
We can’t just sit back and say, “I’ll want it when I get there”.
We have to want it now.
Seek the Father/YHWH and search for Him with all your heart:
Jeremiah 29:11-14a
“For I know the plans that I have for you,” declares YHWH, “plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.
You will seek Me [u-viqash’tem]
and find Me when you
search for Me [investigate Me: tid’r’shuni]
with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares YHWH…
There are two main Hebrew words for seeking or searching and they often are found in the same verse.
Baqash/Darash:
What does it mean to Seek the LORD?
Why is there more than one Hebrew word that can be used to describe this act of seeking?
The two Hebrew words for seek are found in the same verse in Psalm 105:4
“SEEK the LORD, and his strength: SEEK his face evermore.”
In the English translation the same word SEEK is used both times however in Hebrew
The first seek is the word Darash
and
the second seek is the Hebrew word Bakash.
What is the difference between the two words?
Strong’s Hebrew: 1245. בָּקַשׁ (baqash) — to seek
Search or consult, ask, beg, beseech, desire, enquire, get, make inquisition, procure,
A primitive root; to search out (by any method, specifically in worship or prayer); by implication, to strive after — ask, beg,
This word has been used to describe seeking something that’s lost or missing, to seek one’s face, or to aim at, devote oneself to, and be seeking to find or take something.
Strong’s Hebrew: 1875. דָּרַשׁ (darash) — to resort to, seek
Definition. to resort to, seek, seek with care, inquire, require. (Qal) to resort to, frequent (a place), (tread a place) to consult, enquire of, seek 1a. of God
Greek/Hebrew Definitions. Strong’s #1875: darash (pronounced daw-rash’) a primitive root; properly, to tread or frequent; usually to follow (for pursuit or search); by implication, to seek
דָּרַשׁ ( dāraš ),
darash. דְּרַשׁ is the third element of the acronym פרד״ס pardes, which refers to the four approaches to biblical exegesis which we looked at in a previous post.
This is not the only place in scripture that this occurs because
the prophet Jeremiah also uses both of these two Hebrew words in the same verse. He writes:
“And ye shall SEEK me, and find me, when ye shall SEARCH for me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:13
The first seek in this verse is Bakash and the second,which is translated here search, is Darash.
1245 baqash: to seek
Original Word: בָּקַשׁ Part of Speech: Verb Transliteration: baqash Phonetic Spelling: (baw-kash’) Definition: to seek
1875 darash: to resort to, seek
Original Word: דָּרַשׁ Part of Speech: Verb Transliteration: darash Phonetic Spelling: (daw-rash’) Definition: to resort to, seek
The theme is similar in both of the verses above and the reader is encouraged to SEEK and SEARCH for the Father, not as a one time event but as an ongoing and consistent Way of life seeking His face/presence and to receive His strength imparted into our lives. However the result has a condition Our Heavenly Father can only be found by us when we
SEARCH is with our whole heart.
It is a reminder of the caveat in
Revelation 3:16 ‘So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.
This verse is a warning that if we are not fully committed to following God, He will reject us.
One thing that is interesting in the Hebrew translation is that David puts the word Darash before Bakash in his verse and Jeremiah has them in the opposite order.
Does this mean there is a difference?
It begins with usual Hebrew meaning of
Darash which is: to SEEK with care
and with the word
Bakash
the seeking is that of a more prayerful request directed to the Father.
In Jeremiah his verse is inverted but really starts the same way:
seek or Darash YaHVeH/God first.
Then comes a seeking in the sense of Bakash.
Why is this important or significant?
In Darash we
SEEK with care
and in this scripture the one reading is directed to:
SEEK The Father Himself
and then with the word Bakash:
we are SEEKing the Father with a more prayerful request, specifically to Him.
We should ask ourselves…
What are we seeking?
Who are we seeking?
Why are we seeking?
Don’t follow the gentiles who SEEK after all these worldly things.
SEEK after Me – Follow Me.
Matt. 4:19
Matt. 6:33 Amp.
But first and most importantly SEEK (aim at, strive after) His kingdom and His righteousness [His way of doing and being right—the attitude and character of God], and all these things will be given to you also.
This surely is a completely crazy statement??? yet who is saying it?
Why would Jesus/Yeshua tell us to do something beyond our ability to comprehend and complete?
SEEK first the kingdom of God… so then how do we live, make money, clothe and feed ourselves and our families?
For most the reality is that the great concern of our lives is not the Kingdom of God, but how we are going to take care of ourselves in order to live. In essence it’s the selfish first thoughts of self preservation. Jesus/Yeshua reverses the order purposely, by telling us to get the right relationship with our Heavenly FatherFIRST; and maintaining it as the primary concern of our lives and never to place our concern on taking care of the other things of life.
In6:25do not worry about your life,from His perspective it’s completely unreasonable for us to be anxious and worry how we will live.He didn’t say to totally ignore these things He taught that we must make our relationship with God the dominating focus of our life and to be cautiously carefree about everything else compared to that relationship.
What He was indicating is that we are not to make food, drink and things the controlling factors in our lives, but to be focused absolutely on our Heavenly Father.
There are some who are careless about what they eat and their bodies suffer physically from those choices. Some are careless about the way they dress and have no business looking the way they do, not being a good example of how a disciple of Messiah should present themselves. Many are careless with earthly and worldly matters and scripture says that our Father will hold individuals accountable for their behavior and how they obey or disobey His Word concerning such issues.
We are responsible before Him whether we choose to believe it or not.
The greatest concern of our lives is to place our relationship with our Heavenly Father first place and everything else second. It is undoubtedly the most difficult yet critical discipline of the life of a true disciple; yet we must choose to allow His spirit of Holiness to bring us into absolute harmony with the teaching of Messiah in these verses.
Matthew 10:39. He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.38 And he who does not take his cross [expressing a willingness to endure whatever may come] and follow Me [believing in Me, conforming to My example in living and, if need be, suffering or perhaps dying because of faith in Me] is not worthy of Me. 39 Whoever finds his life [in this world] will [eventually] lose it [through death], and whoever loses his life [in this world] for My sake will find it [that is, life with Me for all eternity].
Those who seek to save themselves…
Luke 17:33
Whosoever shall seek to gain his life shall lose it: but whosoever shall lose `his life’ shall preserve it.
Religion does not answer the questions people have and consequently, they become dissatisfied and then they bend the scripture to fit their preferred way life, instead of the other way around. This leads to a life of compromise.
In todays’ drive through, fast food, microwave, instant, quick fix, that sadly, engenders impatience and self-satisfying fulfillment of carnal desires and cravings. This has given rise to a generation unwilling to wait for anything; it’s a now need, not a now faith. Faith needs patience to have its’ perfect work in us and quick and easy answers are not ingredients for walking in the footsteps of Messiah.
This means a life of SEEKing.
Yes, we will get answers and yet seemingly these answers create more questions; however, this is by our Fathers’ design, for it is to be line upon line and precept upon precept.
The life we now live in Messiah, is a life long process of SEEKING Him in order to know Him more deeply, because of Who He is. He is unfathomable to our finite mind and it will take more than a lifetime on this earth to fully know Him; if indeed that is even a possibility.
Heb. 11:6. And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must first believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who SEEK Him.
Baqash– to seek, search, or consult. This word has been used to describe seeking something that’s lost or missing, to seek one’s face, or to aim at, devote oneself to, and be concerned about something. As previously noted is the word baqash used in Jeremiah 29:13, “And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.”
When we lose our keys or wallet/purse, we do not stop searching until we find it. That is precisely the kind of fervor God wants us to have when seeking/searching for Him. Scripture tells us to acknowledge God in all of our ways. That’s impossible to do without constantly asking for His input. e.g. “What do you want me to do?” “How do I deal with this situation?” “How can I serve today?”
Darash– to seek, inquire, consult, ask, or require. We can find an appearance of this word more than 160 times in the Old Testament. Often, it represents avenging offenses against the LORD or the shedding of blood. For example this is the term used in Ezekiel 33:6,“But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand.”
Frequently, it’s used to mean, inquire of God.
It can mean
privately seeking God in prayer, or
contacting a prophet who would speak to God for them.
However, darash can be used to describe: inquiring of a spirit that is not God. For instance, King Saul went to ‘inquire of’ the medium.
The Hebrew words for ‘seek’ (in reference of seeking God) mean ‘to go after, chase down, search for, ask, or consult.’
If you want want to seek God, make Him a priority and don’t stop chasing after Him even when you feel satisfied.
Darash is searching, but more in the way of investigating or inquiring about something:
Psalm 34:4
I sought [inquired of: darash’ti] YHWH, and He answered me, and delivered me from all my fears.
It’s a fine and subtle line of difference, but these two Hebrew words (seeking/searching/investigating) can be found about 389 times in the Scriptures.
As we saw with Jeremiah, the prophets used this word when telling others to SEEK the LORD.
Chaqar– to examine intimately.
Used in Job 13:9: “Will it be well when He searches you out? Or can you mock Him as one mocks a man?”
Qirah– an encountering.
Found in Exodus 19:17, “And Moses brought the people our of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain.”
Shachar– be (up) early at any task; to search for (with painstaking). Isaiah 58:8 states,
“Then your light shall break forth like the morning,
Your healing shall spring forth speedily,
And your righteousness shall go before you;
The glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.”
The Greek words for SEEK:
anazeteo- to seek carefully and diligently. Used when searching for a human being, implies difficulty in the effort. Anazeteo is used to describe the kind of search Joseph and Mary endured when they lost Jesus (see Luke 2:43-44).
ekzeteo- 1. to seek the favor of God; Romans 3:11, “There is none who understands; there is none who seek after God.”
investigate; 1 Peter 1:10-11,“Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.”
crave; Hebrews 12:17,“For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.”
demand (require). Luke 11:49-51, “Therefore the wisdom of God also said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and persecute,’ that the blood of all the prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world may be required of this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah whop perished between the alter and the temple. Yes, I say to you, it shall be required of this generation.”
epizeteo- to seek after or desire. You can find this word in Matthew 6:32, “For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.”
zeteo- to seek for, to require or demand.
Found in Matthew 21:46, “But when they sought to lay hands on Him, they feared the multitudes, because they took Him for a prophet.”
These terms for seek in the Greek language are similar to the definitions we found in the Hebrew.
lack and suffer hunger; But those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing.”
-Psalms 34:10
We are called to SEEK out God for ourselves and investigate the Word that has been given to us… not to just rely on a message/sermon.
Psalm 119 incorporated both darash and baqash. It began by showing how the Psalmist had investigated God and His precepts repeatedly, and then ended by asking God to SEEK/look for him, because he felt lost, although he had never forgotten God’s commandments:
How blessed are those who observe His testimonies, who SEEK Him [investigate Him: yid’r’shuhu] with all their heart…
…With all my heart I have SOUGHT You [I have investigated You: d’rash’tika]; do not let me wander from Your commandments…
…And I will walk at liberty, for I SEEK [I investigate: darash’ti] Your precepts…
…I am Yours, save me; for I have SOUGHT [I have investigated: darash’ti] Your precepts…
Our flesh brain is limited and in the light of eternity, we are momentarily confined to the physical constraints of this existence; but when our final deliverance comes, then we shall be more like unto His glorious body and we will be like the One Whom we have been SEEKING!
Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body,
Phil. 3:21.
Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 1John 3:2.
We won’t need faith then…
we will know.
Seeking – focusing – looking after….
and though we have so many questions, He is not a complete mystery because He reveals Himself to us through His Word; and it’s through this process of seeking, that the refining process occurs and is worked in us. Then the set apart life we are called to begins to take effect; through it we grow in the most important aspect –
our relationship with our Heavenly Father.
He imparted His chaim/lives to us, and
the ability to fulfill our calling by His indwelling ruach/spirit.
The same life was breathed into His disciples then as now.
John 20:22
And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Spirit ruach haKodesh
In Gal 2:20 Paul said: The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
It’s only by His power/His Spirit in us.
Questions and more questions, yet the mysteries of His kingdom are revealed to those who seek Him for you shall find Him when you seek Him with all your heart. He wants us to seek Him more and more and then to seek Him again. It is true that all the answers are in Yeshua/Jesus. Jesus/Yeshua is the answer, now what is your question?
All answers are fulfilled in Him but only when we submit to the process He has designed…
seek, find and then seek again.
And the word of the Lord will be to them. precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little
Is 28:10
Line upon line, here a little …and we are not discouraged
Because our knowledge of Him and His ways increases; and as He draws us by His spirit/ruach, we want more and more of Him. Our desire for Him increases and so He becomes the focus of our life, not merely slotted into our busy schedule at a convenient time to us.
Relationship takes time and effort.
He gladly and willingly paid the price so shouldn’t we be also?
Let’s SEEK and live the abundant life, SEEK to know Him and the power of His resurrection that we may become fully partakers of His divine nature. SEEK the kingdom and His righteousness first…..
Today is the day of salvation by His grace and mercy, today we have another opportunity to SEEK … let’s not waste that precious gift to:
SEEK Him and live.
Are you a seeker?
What or Who are you seeking?
Now we know what the Hebrew meanings of the words are…
let;s seek Him and Live…
because those who seek to lose their lifes/chaim
will find their lives and Him too.
Shalom aleikhem
chaverim/friends and mishpachah/family!
Shavua Tov, Have a blessed week,
you are greatly loved and prayed for daily.
Please don’t leave here without assurance of your salvation
Not sure ..you can be…
Make certain Messiah Jesus/Yeshua is your Redeemer,
Savior, Lord, and soon returning King
and that you have a personal relationship with Him.
It’s all about Life and Relationship, NOT Religion.
You are very precious in His sight.
SIMPLY SAY THE FOLLOWING MEANING IT FROM YOUR HEART..don’t delay one more minute, SAY IT RIGHT NOW…
Heavenly Father I come to you in the Name of Jesus/Yeshua asking for forgiveness of my sins for which I am truly sorry. I repent of them all and turn away from my past.
I believe with my heart and confess with my mouth that Jesus/Yeshua is your Son and that He died on the cross at calvary to pay the price for my sin, so that I might be forgiven and have eternal life in the kingdom of Heaven. Father I believe that Jesus/Yeshua rose from the dead and I ask you to come into my life right now and be my personal Savior and Lord and I will worship you all the days of my life. Because your word is truth I say that I am now forgiven and born again and by faith I am washed clean with the blood of Jesus/Yeshua. Thank you that you have accepted me into your family in Jesus’/Yeshua’s name.
You must be logged in to post a comment.