בס”ד
Parahat Vaiyigash (And he approached) Genesis 44:18-47:27
Haftarah: Ezekiel 37:15-28
In the week’s Torah portion the reader sees a foreshadowing of what HaShem is going to do in the last days. More and more believers are paying less and less significance to Israel and the Jewish people in general. Replacement theology and Amillennialism are growing among Evangelical Christians. Both these theological views minimize the place of Israel in G-d’s program to establish His Kingdom and reject the inerrancy of the word of G-d. Replacement theology asserts that the Church becomes the people of G-d and the numerous prophecies concerning Israel in the last days are either voided or applied to the Church. In regard to Amillennialism, even though the book of Revelation clearly states that the Millennial Kingdom is not established until after Messiah Yeshua’s second coming, Amillennialists believe that this current epoch of time after Messiah’s ascension into the heavens until He returns is the Millennial kingdom.
One reads in this week’s parasha,
“And He said, ‘I AM the G-d, the G-d your father, do not be afraid of descending to Egypt, because a great nation I will make you there
.” Genesis 46:3
This verse speaks to the theological concept of “exile”. This concept is inherently related to sin. Hence Israel went into exile in Egypt because of the brothers’ sin against Joseph, i.e. when they sold Joseph into slavery. Even though HaShem punished the Children of Israel by sending them into exile, there is ALWAYS a promise to redeem a remnant of Israel. This is exactly what the next verse confirms,
“I will go down with you to Egypt and I will surely bring you up again…” Genesis 46:4
The first part of this verse reveals exactly what the Prophet Ezekiel states, namely that when Israel goes into exile, G-d does not utterly abandon the Jewish people but goes into Exile with them. This week’s prophetic reading from Ezekiel also foresees the time in the last days when there will be a great day of redemption for the Jewish people. The last part of the Haftarah confirms that there is only one way for both Jew and Gentile to find redemption, through faith in the Son of David— Messiah Yeshua and His Gospel.
Shabbat Shalom