בס”ד

Parashat Vayechi (And He (Jacob) lived) Genesis 47:28-50:26

Haftarah: I Kings 2:1-12

Shabbat Chazak (every Shabbat when a book is completed)

Do you really trust G-d? Do you believe that He is truly involved in your life and desires the best for you? Probably every believer would answer affirmatively to these questions, but perhaps your actions say differently?

In this week’s Torah portion the Patriarch Jacob dies and is buried back in Israel at Hebron. Joseph’s brothers felt that perhaps he was holding hard feelings for them on account of the mean things that they had done to him. Therefore, when they learned that their father was dead and these feelings of fear surfaced, they devised a plan. They lied to Joseph and said,

“…Your Father commanded before his death saying, ‘Thus you all shall say to Joseph: Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin for evil they have repaid you…” Genesis 50:16-17

This action reveals that the brothers really did not believe what Joseph had said to them when he was united with them,

“And now do not be sad nor be angry with yourselves that you sold me, behold for sustenance G-d sent me (here) before you.” Genesis 45:5

Therefore they felt they had to take matters into their own hands and manufacture a false statement and attribute it to their Father to protect themselves. Notice how different their thoughts and behaviors were from Joseph; for although he had suffered greatly, he saw how HaShem used all of this to further His plan of blessing and sustaining others through him. In other words, Joseph knew that ultimately G-d is sovereign and even when evil happens, and it will happen, HaShem is able to turn it into good and fulfill His purposes.  The message to us is that we do not have to micro manage are lives and attempt to manipulate things so what happens is what we believe is proper; rather simply serve G-d and trust that what comes about is either HaShem’s will or that He will use it or change it into that which in the end will bring about His purposes.

When we turn over the steering wheel, so to speak, of our lives and simply trust G-d to bring about the things that He wants, it is a liberating experience and saves us from the severely limited perspective that we have and usually the poor decisions we make based on such a perspective. Simply stated, stop controlling your life and begin to follow after Messiah Yeshua.

Shabbat Shalom!