Va Yigash- He drew near

Sorry, I have been slow on my updates, we moved and had a baby, but this was from Rabbi Farber. Hope you enjoy

Parashat HaShavua VaYigash / And He Drew Near

This Week's Reading List:
BeReshit / Genesis 44:18-47:27
Yechezekiel / Ezekiel 37:15-28
Uri / Luke 6:9-16


Bereshit {45:4} Yoseph (Joseph) said to his brothers, "Come near to me, please." They came near. "He said, I am Yoseph, your brother, whom you sold into Mitzrayim (Egypt). {45:5} Now do not be grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that you sold me here, for G-D sent me before you to preserve life. {45:6} For these two years has the famine been in the land, and there are yet five years, in which there will be neither ploughing nor harvest. {45:7} G-D sent me before you to preserve you a remnant in the earth, and to save you alive by a great deliverance. {45:8} So now it was not you who sent me here, but G-D, and he has made me a 'ab (father) to Pharaoh, lord of all his house, and ruler over all the land of Mitzrayim.

Why does HaShem have to put us through so much difficulty, anguish and hardship in order to have us accomplish His will? Yoseph went through much more than the average believer goes through just so that HaShem could fulfill Yoseph's dream and get his brothers to the point of repentance.

However, it does not end there. HaShem then used the restoration of the family relationship to bring bnei Yisrael (the children of Israel) to Mitzrayim so that the subsequent generations could become slaves, be oppressed, beaten and used as chattel for hundreds of years. All of this was done just so that HaShem could take them out from under Pharaoh and make them into His segulah (special treasure). After that He was going to give them the land of Canaan. Let us face it. G-d is all powerful. He could have saved everyone involved a whole lot of trouble and heartaches if He would have just spoken the end result into being as He did with creation. However, it seems like that is not the way G-d works. This is not because He is G-d, but because we are humans. He does, after all, call us a stiff-necked people:

Shemot (Exodus) 32:9 And HaShem said unto Moshe, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiff-necked people:

I have encountered and experienced how stiff-necked we are, many times. Not everyone I teach wants to take the Word of G-d at face value. Many demand a reasonable explanation before they will even consider that what Torah says is the way they are supposed to live. It amazes me how most believers have no problem with the fact that Yeshua is G-d, but when it comes to the commandments of Torah they have a problem accepting them let alone adhering to them. If Yeshua is G-d and G-d wrote the Torah, then when Yeshua said, “if you love Me keep My commandments,” (Yochanan [John] 14:15) His commandments must be Torah.

How do people explain Torah away? Often they explain it by saying Torah is for the Jews, but grace is for believers in Yeshua HaMashiach (the Messiah). What this tells me about them is that they believe G-d has one set of commandment for saved people and another set for un-saved people – an unreasonable and false assumption. G-d's Word is universal. It spans time, space and people groups.

I could have saved myself countless of sleepless nights, gallons of tears and a whole lot of money, if I had only followed the advice of my parents, but no I had to learn everything the hard way. I had to do it all myself, my way, and re-invent the wheel. This relates to how stiff-necked we are. We tend to not appreciate anything we have not learned by our own experience.

Have you ever stood over someone who was pressing the Control-Alt-Delete keys of their computer because the screen was frozen and not accepted the fact that it was not working? Even though you watched them perform the action over and over again without success you have to try pushing the same Control-Alt-Delete keys before you accept that it is not working and the screen is frozen? If you have, then you have proven to yourself why HaShem has to do things the way He does, why He has to teach us the hard way and take us via the long route. It is because we are experiential people and unless we experience something ourselves, sadly the hard way, we do not learn the lesson HaShem is trying to teach us. We do not value what we have not experienced.

Mishlei (Proverbs) {13:11} Dishonest money dwindles away, but he who gathers money little by little makes it grow.

It is a fact that we value things we had to work hard for more than things that are just given to us without us exerting any effort or experiencing any pain. No one values being healthy more than when they are sick or have just recovered from being sick.

HaShem knows us -- He created us! Appreciate the difficult times of your life because the impressions they will make upon your life will be invaluable. Plus HaShem is the one doing it, for your ultimate good.

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Baruch HaShem
Rabbi Ya'acov Farber

Hallelujah for our Lord, our Teacher,our Rabbi, "YESHUA" King Messiah for ever and ever!!!
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