"He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins" Parashat Vay'chi / and he lived

[Mevaser]

"He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins" Parashat Vay'chi / and he lived
Year 5764; By Messianic Jewish Rabbi Jack (Yacob) Farber, Congregation Melech Yisrael, Toronto, Canada
Congregation Melech Yisrael, Toronto, Canada
Shabbat 16 Tevet 5764, January 10, 2003
http://www.cmy.on.ca / cmy@ca.inter.net

This week's Reading list:
* Beresheet / Genesis 47:28-50:26
* Melachim Alef / 1 Kings 2:1-12
* Kefa Alef / 1 Peter 1:1-9

Beresheet {50:15} When Yoseph's (Joseph’s) brothers saw that their 'ab (father) was dead, they said, "It may be that Yoseph will hate us, and will fully pay us back for all of the evil which we did to him. {50:16} They sent a message to Yoseph, saying, "your 'ab commanded before he died, saying, {50:17} "So will you tell Yoseph, 'Now please forgive the disobedience of your brothers, and their sin, because they did evil to you.' Now, please forgive the disobedience of the servants of the G-D of your 'ab." Yoseph wept when they spoke to him. {50:18} His brothers also went and fell down before his face; and they said, "Behold, we are your servants." {50:19} Yoseph said to them, "Don't be afraid, for am I in the place of G-D? {50:20} As for you, you meant evil against me, but G-D meant it for good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save many people alive. {50:21} Now therefore don't be afraid. I will nourish you and your little ones." He comforted them, and spoke kindly to them.

From all that happened to Yoseph’s brothers and the remarkable changes that took place in their lives these Scriptures leave you kind of wondering about them, or at least they do me. Ya’acov died and now the eleven brothers are thinking that Yoseph would take this opportunity to get his revenge. Their sinister minds figured that he probable held off all this time not wanting his father to be a witness to what he would do them. Does this not sound familiar? In fact a statement like this came from the same family, when Ya’acov was running away from Esav (Beresheet 27.41). So is it any surprise that this left me wondering about the boys?

If you recall last week, in Parsha Vayigash, I mentioned that a person who does not trust others can not be trusted. I also said that guilt causes a person to be suspicious of everyone. Well here is proof positive that the brothers were still feeling guilt, why? Because they still did not trust Yoseph! To me this is also proof that they had not yet forgiven themselves. Why do I say themselves? Well, we know that their brother Yoseph had forgiven them and that the L-rd had forgiven them, so as far as these two were concerned it was all over and in Yoseph’s mind the family was moving on. Obviously however that was not how the brothers felt. They were forgiven by everyone but themselves.

Notice how Yoseph was even surprised and saddened by his brother’s lack of emunah (faith), yes lack of emunah! “Yoseph wept when they spoke to him.” Some might say that these were tears of joy and love for his brothers but I believe they were tears of sadness. Despite everything that Yoseph went through he had never lost sight of G-d, his emunah in G-d always carried him through. This was not the case with his brothers, they did not believe in themselves, worse yet they did not believe HaShem. I feel Yoseph discerned where these guys were coming from and was saddened by it. Maybe the brothers were crying, out of fear, maybe out of relief; maybe they were just phoney tears for mercy or sympathy. Whatever the case they sure were not crying for the same reason Yoseph was crying. How could they possibly suspect his motives, especially after all he had done for them and the family while the famine was raging throughout the world? How could they even think that he would now take revenge? Yet they did!

This type of scenario is not exclusive to the brothers of Yoseph. Many people have a difficult time forgiving themselves. Have you ever done something bad then confessed it to HaShem and the party you wronged, if the sin involved a third party? Well then according to Scripture you are forgiven. Yet how many people reading this D’var Torah are still carrying around the guilt of their misdeeds? In fact some of you are blaming the guilt or bad memories on Satan, rebuking him trying to cast him away from yourself. Well the fact of the matter is it is not Satan that is convicting you. You are convicting yourself, why? Because you do not believe HaShem! Like Yoseph’s brothers you have an emunah problem. HaShem’s word says:

Yochanan Alef / I John 1.9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Yoseph’s brothers demonstrated their lack of emunah and history records the sad results of it. B’nai Yisrael (Children of Israel) suffered dearly for their unbelief and sadly the majority of them are still suffering for it. If you do not want to experience sad results because of your lack of emunah, then when HaShem tells you to do something, from His Word, do it and when He tells you, from His Word, that He’s done something for you, believe it!

*********************
Baruch HaShem
Rabbi Jack (Yaacov) Farber

Hallelujah to our L-rd, our Teacher, our Rabbi, "YESHUA" King Messiah for ever and ever!!!
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