Forgive And Heal

20211218 Parsha Vayechi – Forgive and Heal Notes

Torah Portion Gen 50:15-21

Haftarah 1 Kings 2:1-7

Brit Chadashah Ephesians 4:26-32

The last reading from the book of Genesis is named Vayechi, which means "and he lived." The title comes from the first verse of the reading, which says, "Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years" (Genesis 47:28). In this Torah portion, Jacob prepares for his death by securing a double portion of inheritance for Joseph and then blessing each of his sons with prophetic blessings. The book of Genesis ends with the death of Jacob, followed shortly by the death of Joseph and a promise of redemption from Egypt.

The blessings of Jacob’s sons are interesting because they don’t all look like blessings. Reuben loses his place as first-born because of sexual indiscretions. Levi and Simeon are to be scattered throughout all of Israel with no home of their own because of the murder and meanness they committed at Shechem. The other sons received blessings outright, some were given a somewhat obscure blessing. They all proved to be prophetic as the nation of Israel crossed over the Jordan some 400 years later to take the land God had promised to their fathers.

After he blessed his sons, Jacob died and was embalmed by Joseph’s servants and physicians. It didn’t take long for the eleven brothers to fall back into some of their previous ways. They may have been somewhat repentant of their treatment of Joseph, but they retained enough of their old nature that they suspected Joseph to retaliate against them now that Jacob was gone. It is what they would have done if the circumstances were reversed so they concocted a story to tell Joseph. They said that before he died, Jacob had told them to relay a message to Joseph.

Genesis 50:17-18 “Thus you must say to Joseph: ‘Please forgive, I beg you, the transgression of your brothers and their sin because they treated you wrongly.’ Therefore, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.” Then Joseph wept when they spoke to him, (18) and his brothers also came and fell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your slaves!”

In this passage we see a word that we translate forgive. It is the Hebrew word ?????? nasah. Up to this time in the book of Genesis it had been used to mean bear. As when Cain told God that his punishment was more than he could bear. It also meant to lift or support as when the flood waters lifted up or bear the ark. But this was the first time it was used to mean forgive. I believe that in this context Joseph’s brothers are saying “Please lift up the heavy burden of the sin and guilt we bear”. That is an appropriate word to use here as that is exactly what sin does to a person. It weighs them down.

Joseph has been looked at almost universally as a type of Messiah. He had a life of hardship but stayed true to Hashem. Through his near-death experiences Joseph was put into a position whereby he was able to save his family from starvation. Joseph was cut from different cloth. His brothers expected retribution because that was their nature. But Joseph showed kindness, mercy and forgiveness because that was his nature.

We could do worse than to follow the example of Joseph in showing kindness and forgiveness. Yeshua had a great deal to say regarding forgiveness.

Possibly the most famous being what has come to be known as the Lord’s Prayer.

Matthew 6:9-13 “Therefore, pray in this way: ‘Our Father in heaven, sanctified be Your name. (10) Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. (11) Give us this day our daily bread. (12) And forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. (13) And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’

Luke says it this way.

Luke 11:2-4 “When you pray, say, ‘Father, sanctified be Your Name, Your kingdom come. (3) Give us each day our daily bread. (4) And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.”

You see that Luke gave us the Cliff Notes version, but they are essentially the same. Matthew went on to add something very important that is always left out of the Lord’s Prayer. You could call it the fine print of the Lord’s Prayer.

Matthew 6:14-15 “For if you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. (15) But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.

The ability to forgive…maybe I should say the absolute necessity or commandment to forgive is paramount when following the precepts of Yeshua. His whole life’s work was centered around forgiveness. How often in the course of healing someone did he say your sins are forgiven? We as his followers, his disciples must practice forgiveness every day of our lives.