Saturday 11th January 2025 11th Tevet 5785
PARASHAT VAYECHI by Joseph Shulam
Genesis 47:28-50:26; 1 Kings 2:1-12; John 13:1-19 (1 Peter 1:1-9)
This Shabbat’s reading is called “Vayechi”, in English the meaning is “and He lived”. The story is about the last words of Jacob to his sons just before Jacob dies. This concludes the reading of the book of Genesis.
We started reading Genesis on Sukkot last year (October), and now we are already at the end of Genesis reading about Jacob’s death. Jacob blesses first the two sons of Joseph, Ephraim and Menashe, and then he blesses some of his sons and curses two of his sons, Levi and Simon.
I am nearly 74 years old, and have been teaching the Bible for more than 58 years, and every time I read it I the Lord shows me something new. It is something that I really need at this moment, something that is relevant for my life, something that will bless me and bless all those lives that the Lord has used me to influence and touch through His Word.
I can’t emphasize enough that everyone ought to read the Bible every day. Not all the day long, just 15-20 minutes of reading the Bible. Today you don’t even have to take with you a heavy book, you can just use your smartphone and read the Bible while you are riding the subway or train, and spend your time wisely.
I would like for you to just consider one passage from this Shabbat’s reading. To contemplate and meditate on this one key passage. If you invest a little time on meditation on this passage, you might gain strength and insight to be able to take the problems and issues and challenges of this life with a totally different attitude:
“When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, ‘Perhaps Joseph will hate us, and may actually repay us for all the evil which we did to him.’ So they sent messengers to Joseph, saying, ‘Before your father died he commanded, saying, “Thus you shall say to Joseph: ‘I beg you, please forgive the trespass of your brothers and their sin; for they did evil to you.’” Now, please, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of your father.’ And Joseph wept when they spoke to him. Then his brothers also went and fell down before his face, and they said, ‘Behold, we are your servants.’ Joseph said to them, ‘Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God? But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.’” – Genesis 50:15–20 [NKJV]
Not everyone is able to look at the hardships and tribulations that he has experienced and say to those who have persecuted him the sentence that Joseph tells his brothers. But before I respond to this statement, let me speak a little about the psychology of guilt.
Joseph’s brothers are aware that what they did to their brother was bad, wrong, sinful, and that they deserve punishment. They were under the impression that Joseph is not revenging their sins against him because of the respect that Joseph had for his father Jacob. Like Esau wanted to wait for Isaac to die and kill his brother Jacob later.
Now the brothers of Joseph are actually thinking the same thing: Joseph is waiting for Jacob to die, and after Jacob dies, he will have a free range to give his brothers what they deserved. The important thing is that they were aware and fully expecting that Joseph will actually pay them back for what they have done to him.
This, in my opinion, ought to stop many sinners from actually doing their sins. They will always carry with them the sense of guilt and shame, and they will always look over their shoulder, waiting for their punishment to meet them around the corner.
But here is someone who understands how the Lord works, and how the Lord uses human failure to the accomplishment of His plan and purpose. Joseph understood that, if the brothers where not so bad to him, and if they would not sell him and only kill him, and if he was not sold to Potiphar, and if Potiphar’s wife was not attracted to Joseph, he would not be in the Egyptian prison, and he would not have had an opportunity to meet the two ministers of Pharaoh, and would not interpret their dreams, and he would not be invited by Pharaoh to interpret his dream, and on and on and on… until now.
Now he makes this major biblical truth, that is a must for every one of us to understand, because every one of us had the “Chad Gadya” of his own life. The statement is so classically true:
“But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.” – Genesis 50:20 [NKJV]
I am asking each and every one of you to take this statement and ask yourself the following question: “Do I have in my life horrible events that cause me suffering and grief and bad feelings? That in the end they turned for my good and for my success?”
If your answer to yourself is “yes”, then the days of your affliction, and the evil done to you by others, caused you to work hard, and in the end, those days of suffering equipped you for success and happiness.
If your answer is “no”, my prediction is that those days of suffering and sorrow are still waiting for you, and you will have to brace yourself to experience those days in your life, and then you must remember these words of Joseph to his brothers, and encourage yourself that those bad days might equip you and train you and present for you the opportunities to be successful and joyful and full of opportunities that are going to make you great.
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