Torah Is the Blueprint for Life
Scripture is rife with examples of what the blueprint for life is.
But it isn’t as simple as opening the architectural plans of your life and reading them to create the best foundation possible for yourself in one sitting.
It takes many years of study—of a personal relationship with the Creator—to find the path to blaze.
With Yahweh, we must remove preconceived notions and realize He takes us from A to B by going through much of the rest of the alphabet, too.
David Waited for the LORD but He Didn’t Read the Blueprints
The prophet Samuel anointed David to be king. And there were many instances where David could have taken the station early. Such as when King Saul had been in a precarious moment of rest and David was in the perfect position, capable of taking his life and claiming the throne for himself.
David chose instead to spare Saul, because God had chosen him for kingship in Israel.
1 Samuel 24:6 “And he said to his men, “The LORD forbid that I should do this thing to my master, the LORD’s anointed, to stretch out my hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the LORD.”
Here’s the thing.
David understood he was meant to be the king of Israel. But he didn’t want to do it with his own strength and power.
It’s like the situation with Abraham and Sarah. God made an impossible promise to them—as He often does—that they’d bear a son in their old age.
What did they do? Abraham’s wife had him sleep with another woman in their household to bear the child for them, because they refused to believe in the promise of God, taking Him at His word. God doesn’t lie. He can’t. When God promises to do something, He fulfills it, and He ensures He does it the right way.
God ultimately fulfilled the promise, but they created another issue by having Ishmael.
There’s nothing wrong with Ishmael, and he would have twelve royal princes come from his line.
But the promise was through Isaac, not Ishmael.
You might say they became impatient with waiting for God to act, but God has His own idea of timing. He knows the hearts of men and women, your maturity level, and the weight of responsibilities. Sometimes God’s timing is sooner than you think, or even close to instant, but He often has a waiting period, to strengthen your trust in Him, and so He gets the glory.
With David, this wasn’t the case. David, a man after God’s own heart, waited for God’s timing, and Saul eventually fell in battle, allowing David to ascend the throne the right way.
David didn’t have an Ishmael before his Isaac.
He trusted in God, and in due time, received the throne.
Later on, he committed a grave sin by taking another man’s wife and having her husband murdered. This was his Ishmael moment.
Nathan the prophet confronted him about his wrongful actions, with God stating through the prophet that He had given him many wives to cherish, so why take another man’s woman for himself?
That was selfishness and greed.
Western ears may find this Middle Eastern custom peculiar, but David's sins were not having a blessed family, but adultery, greed, and murder.
He had turned the wrong way, and paid dearly for his sin with his unborn son’s life.
I’m sure he loved Bathsheba, but love does not wrong a neighbor like Uriah. It was an unchecked desire that led him to temporary ruin. Thankfully, as Psalm 51 shows, he repented and lived as a man after God’s own beautiful heart despite his mistake.
My point in bringing this up is even when we are like David and trust God and His sovereign promises, we have a tendency to mess things up if we’re not careful.
That’s why the Torah is necessary, so that it guides us into truth.
David knew the Torah well, so well that he penned Psalm 119, and every verse in that chapter except a few is about the greatness of God’s commands.
But even he, the greatest example of a king in history besides the King of Kings, faltered and messed up by not following the instructions.
The Torah Is a Map, Even if Other Signs Guide the Way
The Torah is our guide, our compass that points to Jesus, who taught the proper interpretation of the Torah to His followers. We aren't supposed to prioritize this map over loving our neighbor, but it teaches us how to do that in God's kingdom. In fact, every word that proceeds from the mouth of God or His prophets and apostles is the Torah.
The Law of God itself says what it says, but there is a heart behind it.
If we walk according to these instructions, we’ll end up where we’re supposed to be.
Not to say that God and His angels can’t give us hints on where to go, or what to do by other means. I don’t subscribe to the non-biblical notion that God can’t send us signs or hints.
There are so many instances of synchronicities and occurrences that can’t be explained any other way except through divine intervention. Perhaps it's something as small as someone saying what you needed to hear when you needed to hear it, a Bible verse you keep seeing over and over that speaks to you in random places, a song that comes at the right time, or other little miracles and winks that let you know God is looking out for you and wants the best for you.
This goes for anything in life.
“God, who should I befriend?” Then He sends friends your way that meet your criteria with minimal red flags. People who share your values and beliefs, not detrimental people.
“Yahweh, please reveal to me who my soulmate is and help me cross their path.” At the right time, whether now or in ten years, you’ll bump into the right one. You will experience signs along the way, telling you to head in this direction to meet that person. He may even tell you their name, or even who it is. I’ve heard so many heartwarming stories about people that have found their bashert, sometimes quickly, other times after a spell of time. Those stories warm my heart, and I hope that all men and women will get to experience the joys of love in this life.
“God, what direction do you want me to go in?” Then He reveals your gifts to you, showing you to develop this skill or talent. Sometimes, He might send you in a direction that makes you go: “Huh? What?” But our Father in heaven knows best, not us. That’s not to say we don’t have passion or fire, but He knows things we don’t, seeing as He’s outside of time and might use those gifts of yours, whether you know you have them, to put you on the correct path with the correct opportunities or toward the right partner and friends.
But the crux of this is that we follow His commands. You may have all kinds of miracles come your way, but if you have no love, what does it do for you?
To follow the Torah as a map is to follow God’s blueprint for how you get there.
You can mechanically obey, checking off a list, but that’s not the heart of the Father, nor is it Jesus’s perfect heart.
Follow the signs, sure, but follow Jesus first.
Eat clean foods, keep the biblical holidays (even keep the ones that are not pagan at all), study and practice the commands, wear a beautiful prayer shawl with fringes, but remember that love and Torah are the primary goal. Jesus’s interpretations of the Torah in the New Testament are our best guide. Paul also offers profound wisdom in his letters.
Torah means in Hebrew: instruction or direction. It’s Strong's Hebrew word 8451 and doesn’t necessarily translate as law the best in English.
But the Torah is a map, a set of directions to set you on the right path in life, to impact others and show them what living the blueprints is like. To love as God loves, and to live right before God and man.
Follow the Blueprints
I hope you understand.
God has a set of blueprints for all of us to follow universally.
But the blueprints for building the right life for each individual are up to the individual and their relationship with God.
If God wants you to be a florist, then by all means bring those flowering blossoms into people’s lives and make them ecstatic with joy.
If God wants you to be a racecar driver, then speed along into your destiny.
But to get anywhere and make it work, we need to understand:
Jesus is the architect of our lives, and His Torah is the blueprint for life.
