Sometimes I wish my wife and I hadn’t waited for long to get a good TV stand. Now that we have it, we’re thinking of eventually getting an HD set and I’m not sure if the new stand we have will be just right for it or not. Well, we tried. Here’s my commentary on VaYechi – sorry for the delay in posting, all! Or listen to it!
Shabbat Shalom.
Our parashah for today is VaYechi, or, “and he lived.” It covers Genesis 47:28 through 50:26. As Genesis draws to a close, it deals extensively with the deaths of both Jacob and Joseph, and much of what is related in this week’s reading has been misinterpreted, misquoted and misunderstood to such an extent that it has been the basis of bad teaching and errors even within the Messianic movement.
So rather than focus on the controversial aspects of this week’s Torah portion, I’d like to concentrate on what I feel is the overriding message of this parashah: the nature of forgiveness.
Now, many people believe that forgiveness is a decision, and it is. But calling it a decision can lead to a misunderstanding of the nature of forgiveness. When I think of most decisions I’ve made in my life, I picture a single moment when I had to choose between two or more options, with no opportunity to undo that choice.
For example, buying a car is such a decision. If you choose a van or truck, for example, you’re buying into the convenience of added seating and more storage space, but you’re surrendering fuel efficiency. If you choose an economy car, often you are choosing fuel efficiency, but surrendering some of the comfort and convenience offered by larger vehicle.
Whichever you choose, though, once you’ve made your choice, there’s little room for retreat. You’ve bought into it, and now it’s yours, no matter how much you regret missing out on the options you had to give up in making the choice.
What I want to propose, however, is that choosing forgiveness is not at all similar to the choice of buying a car, for example. Yes, we can all choose to forgive; but it is not a one-time, one-day choice. To truly live in a state of forgiveness, it must be a choice one continues to make over and over again as time goes on, because unlike buying a car, forgiveness is a choice that, at the human level, can be snatched back at any time… all we need to do is let unforgiveness take over control of our actions.
We can see how forgiveness – or the lack of it – plays out in this week’s Torah portion in the lives of Jacob, Jacob’s sons, and also in the life of Joseph. The extent and depth and genuineness of the forgiveness they practice becomes evident by their actions.
Let’s look first at Jacob himself. While Jacob – also named Israel – is a founding member of the Jewish people, he is not without his flaws. Remember, in many ways it was Jacob’s favoritism of Joseph over his brothers that sparked the sibling jealousy that brought so much pain and suffering to them all.
Because of those flaws, it is easy to misunderstand the role of forgiveness in his life. In fact, understanding Jacob’s relationship to forgiveness is something that sparked much study, discussion and soul-searching as I was preparing this commentary. Looking primarily at the blessings Jacob makes over his sons, my first instinct was to label them curses, not blessings. Take this for example, from:
Genesis 49:5-7
“Simeon and Levi are two of a kind–men of violence. O my soul, stay away from them. May I never be a party to their wicked plans. For in their anger they murdered men, and they crippled oxen just for sport. Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce; cursed be their wrath, for it is cruel. Therefore, I will scatter their descendants throughout the nation of Israel.
Does that sound like a blessing? Or does it sound like the words of a father who has never really forgiven his sons completely for the sins of their youth?
Well, after much consideration, I’ve come to realize, it’s neither of those options. These blessings are probably more accurately words of prophecy; accurate statements about his sons’ past, present and future, as guided by the Ruach haKodesh – the Holy Spirit.
They cannot be considered true blessings, because true blessings build a person up and emphasize that which is God-fearing and obedient to The L-RD in an individual.
These words are not like that; as parents of older and adult children might recognize, while the Torah promises that when you raise your children up in the ways of The L-RD, when they are older, they will not depart from it, it is also written between the lines of that promise that it’s not always a direct path to that older wisdom.
Sometimes, at least for a season, the children we raise go astray, despite every best effort and intention, and all one can do is pray that season passes quickly, and they come through it unscathed, alive, and ready to obey The L-RD.
For us today, Jacob is a portrait of such a parent. As we’ve seen over the last few Torah portions, not all of Jacob’s sons have turned out well; some of them are rascals and ruffians; at least two are murderers. Not exactly a functional family, is it?
But in his prophetic blessings, it would be easy to mistake Jacob’s words as unforgiveness; in fact, it’s a trap I nearly fell into while studying this Torah portion. Yet after talking with Rabbi Stan and others, I’ve come to recognize that these are not the bitter curses of an unforgiving parent, but a simple recognition by Jacob of who his sons have been, are and will be. They are not words of unforgiveness, but of hard truths.
No, if Jacob had been speaking words tinged by unforgiveness, surely his blessings would have mentioned the deepest betrayal of all by his sons: the selling of his son Joseph into slavery in Egypt, of all those lost years between father and son. Yet such words are not to be found here!
The difficult truth is, no matter how often and completely forgiveness is offered, some people simply do not want forgiveness, nor do they seek it out, nor are their actions and choices affected by it when it is offered. They are prone to certain kinds of poor choices and errors, and their fates must be prayerfully placed in the hands of The L-RD.
Of course, it doesn’t have to be like that. Through The L-RD and his Messiah Yeshua, we can experience a forgiveness so complete, even the memory of our sins is wiped out. As it is written in:
Psalm 103:11-13
For His unfailing love toward those who fear Him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth. He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west. The L-RD is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear Him.
This brings our discussion to the topic of Jacob’s sons; how is it that some of them have remained rebellious, difficult, prone to trouble? Well, if we think about it, I’m sure we can all imagine children who do not follow in the footsteps of their faithful parents. Is it possible that this rebellion is born out of fear, or a lack of understanding of the forgiveness they have been offered, or even simply not wanting to be forgiven and not caring if they are? We have clues to this answer.
We read last week of how emotional and genuine was Joseph’s forgiveness of his brothers; he even urged them to forgive themselves! Yet in this week’s reading, after the death of their father Jacob, we can see the sons of Israel are not living like people who have experienced forgiveness:
Genesis 50:15-18
But now that their father was dead, Joseph’s brothers became afraid. “Now Joseph will pay us back for all the evil we did to him,” they said. So they sent this message to Joseph: “Before your father died, he instructed us to say to you: ‘Forgive your brothers for the great evil they did to you.’ So we, the servants of the God of your father, beg you to forgive us.” When Joseph received the message, he broke down and wept. Then his brothers came and bowed low before him. “We are your slaves,” they said.
For seventeen years, Joseph’s brothers have lived in Egypt, enjoying Joseph’s kindness, and in all that time, they’ve never really lost their feelings of guilt. Instead, they are still living in fear of an act of vengeance from a brother they had wronged.
This reminds me of the parable Yeshua told of a man who owed a king a lot of money, more than he could ever repay. At first, the king forgave the man his debt. But when the man returned home, never fully living in the forgiveness offered him, he started to treat harshly all those who owed him money.
I’ve always felt the reason for this man’s actions were that he was still living in fear that the king’s forgiveness wasn’t permanent, so he was trying to save against a future collection of that same debt he thought he still owed the king. He never believed he was completely forgiven, and by acting on that fear rather than trusting the king’s forgiveness, he showed no mercy to others after being shown great mercy, and was tossed in prison by the king as a result.
Jacob’s sons are like that; Joseph has forgiven them, even explained they hadn’t caused him to end up in Egypt, but God had. Yet they don’t trust that Joseph’s forgiveness is permanent and complete, so they have spent all this time waiting – as so many of us who give into fear do – for the “other shoe to drop.”
Our final picture of forgiveness in this week’s reading comes from our shadow of the Messiah Yeshua, Joseph. How does he respond to his brothers falling back into deception to secure their own safety against a nonexistent threat?
Genesis 50:19-22
But Joseph told them, “Don’t be afraid of me. Am I God, to judge and punish you? As far as I am concerned, God turned into good what you meant for evil. He brought me to the high position I have today so I could save the lives of many people. No, don’t be afraid. Indeed, I myself will take care of you and your families.” And he spoke very kindly to them, reassuring them. So Joseph and his brothers and their families continued to live in Egypt. Joseph was 110 years old when he died.
Here, we see a true picture of what forgiveness is all about. As I said, it’s not a one-time decision, but a lifetime of decision-making. Joseph’s words here are nearly the same to his brothers as they were when he first revealed his identity to them in last week’s reading. I am Joseph, your brother. Don’t blame yourselves. God used it for good, for our very survival.
Forgiveness must be ongoing and daily, filled with reassurances that create trust. This is needed because too often, forgiveness is practiced incompletely, and we allow old, embittered feelings to seep back to the surface and control our decision-making, our emotions and our way of thinking.
The kind of forgiveness that heals is Messiah Yeshua’s example. A forgiveness that is complete once and for all time, yes, but a forgiveness that is reassured so that it drives out the fear that can lead us to slip back into bad choices. That is the most important way in which Joseph is a shadow of the Messiah Yeshua. The lack of trust of Joseph’s brothers causes him great pain, yet their lack of trust never prevents him from reassuring them of his forgiveness and acceptance of them.
May we all know and experience that kind of genuine, life-saving forgiveness; the kind we can only learn though our Messiah Yeshua.
Shabbat Shalom.
My Sh’mot Commentary
Monday, January 19th, 2009
I wonder how handy a receipt printer would have been to the money changers in the Temple. Probably fairly handy until Yeshua broke up their little operation. Here’s my commentary on Sh’mot. Or listen to it!
Shabbat Shalom.
Our parashah today is Sh’mot, or Names, and covers Exodus 1:1 through 6:1. Here, we begin the story of Moses, whose journey with God and the Jewish people will comprise the last four books of the Torah. How important a figure is Moses? Well, we are told this in the book of Deuteronomy:
That is the eulogy of this man we are about to meet in our study. What believer, what follower of Yeshua, could wish for better words to be spoken about him or her at the end of their lives? Yes, it is true that no one can look on the face of God and live, as the Torah teaches, but knowing God face-to-face is a different matter; that is possible. Further testimony to this face-to-face nature of the relationship between The L-RD and Moses is given in:
Moses is declared by the Torah to be more humble than any other person who has ever lived. While Moses did indeed sin and fall short of God’s perfect standard, he came perhaps closest to any of the patriarchs living a life far above God’s minimum standard of acceptable behavior.
Now, over the last several weeks as we closed out the book of Genesis, we studied the life of Joseph and how much he and his life were a shadow of the Messiah Yeshua. This theme of being a shadow of the Messiah does not rest solely on Joseph, but on Moses as well, and the parallels begin early on in this week’s Torah portion.
For example, in the first chapter, we read that after Joseph and all his brothers died and time passed, there came to the throne a new Pharaoh who “knew nothing about Joseph.” This Pharaoh saw that the children of Israel had prospered and become numerous in the land – a significant enough part of the population that he feared that if they were to turn on Egypt during a time of war, and side with Egypt’s enemies, it could turn the tide of any conflict against Egypt, which was by this time the lone superpower of the ancient world.
So, in an attempt to control the population of the Jewish people in Egypt, the Pharaoh tries to encourage the midwives to kill all the male children born among them, letting only the girls live. When that didn’t work, he ordered a more significant and proactive measure to be taken: that all males born to the Israelites be tossed into the river and drowned.
What we have here, of course, is a slaughter of the innocents during a time when one of the most important people in the history of the Jewish people – short of Messiah Yeshua himself – is about to be born.
And in the life of Yeshua, we see the same pattern. We are told in:
This pattern is not surprising; throughout history, those who do evil have sought to destroy those who fear God and obey his commands. If this were the only parallel between the life of Moses and the life of Messiah, it would not make a good case for Moses as a shadow of the Messiah. Yet the parallels to not end there.
To save his life, Moses was hidden away in Egypt, in the house of Pharaoh himself, raised by one of Pharaoh’s own daughters. In order to escape the slaughter ordered by Herod, Yeshua’s parents, Joseph and Mary, take him to Egypt for a time, until Herod dies. And we know that this is part of the Messianic pattern because of the words in Hosea 11:1, which say, in part, “I called my son out of Egypt.” Although this passage in Hosea is directly referring to Israel as a nation, which a plain reading of the text makes clear, the Gospel writer Matthew clearly saw it also as a Messianic prophecy foreshadowed in Moses and fulfilled in Yeshua.
Now, I’d like to take a moment off my main point to address a popular misconception. Thanks in large part to the famous movie, The Ten Commandments, by Cecil B. DeMille, many people believe this period of slavery in Egypt, into which Moses was born, portrays the Israelites as being the people responsible for the labor behind building the great pyramids of Egypt. The belief that the Israelites were the labor force behind the pyramids is so wide-spread, some Egyptologists have gone so far as to dedicate studies to debunking the myth, and Torah-believers caught up in this myth then feel compelled to defend this misconception.
Well, let’s clear that up, right here and now; the Torah never claims the Jewish people built the pyramids of Egypt. What the Torah specifically claims is that they were the labor force, or at least part of it, behind building the store-cities of Pithom and Rameses. So, while the idea of the Jewish people suffering under forced labor and harsh taskmasters is indeed an accurate one, it is not accurate to associate the Jewish people with the pyramids of Egypt. The accurate portrayal has them building the store-cities of Pithom and Rameses.
Getting back to our main point, there are other parallels between Moses and Messiah Yeshua. For example, in this parashah, The L-RD tells Moses that he is to be the person God will use to lead the Israelites out of physical bondage in Egypt. Similarly, the mission of Messiah Yeshua was to lead people out of their spiritual bondage to sin… first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.
Moses is the only prophet that the Torah declares communicated with God “face-to-face.” This was true in the sense that God did not speak to Moses in riddles as He did the prophets, but directly, saying exactly what he meant. Moses became the intermediary between God and man. However, as a human, as someone who did sin and fall short, Moses could not live forever.
In a passage later in the Torah, we are told this about the promised Messiah in:
The L-RD is speaking to Moses when he says this, so the promised Messiah is therefore a “prophet like Moses.” How was Yeshua like Moses? Well, God spoke to Him directly, He has become our eternal intermediary between The L-RD and humanity, and he tells us everything that The L-RD commands.
The difference is, while Moses was human and had to die for his own sins, Messiah Yeshua was without sin, and therefore could die in our place, making the atoning sacrifice for the error that separates God and man.
The parallels between Moses and Yeshua will continue to pop up as we go deeper with our study. These are not accidents or coincidences or something imposed over the Torah itself by those eager to find it. No, on the contrary, I believe that the reason so many of the patriarchs of the faith live lives that bear a resemblance to the Messiah is simply because of this:
When one seeks after God long enough and hard enough, when one obeys God in all things – or at least seeks to do so as much as possible – then the result is that their lives will indeed become a reflection of Messiah Yeshua. It’s a natural result of seeking that kind of unity with and obedience to our creator.
Our study of the life of Moses is only beginning. While I have touched on several similarities between Moses and Yeshua, I have only scratched the surface. The comparisons run deep.
Yet, as with Joseph, while Moses is a shadow of the Messiah, he himself is not the Messiah. We see in this week’s portion that Moses, in his youthful zeal, kills an Egyptian guard; fails to trust God to cure his slowness of speech; doubts whether anyone will listen to him and believe the L-RD had sent him. Moses is a man of flaws, as much as he is a man who the L-RD knew face-to-face.
As we continue on in the Torah in the weeks to come, we will discover many more ways in which Moses is a shadow of the Messiah, and ways in which he is like each of us. May his example be instructive to us as we seek to live as The L-RD would have us live.
Shabbat Shalom.
Tags: receipt printer, Sh'mot, Torah commentary
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