The Land, the Promise, and "You Meant Evil — But God Meant It for Good"

An Unnatural Attachment to the Land

The reading of Vayechi starts with Jacob in bed, old and sick, and about to die. Jacob asks Joseph his son to not bury him in the land of Egypt but to take him "home" to the land of Canaan, to be buried with his fathers, Isaac and Abraham. This attachment to this land of Israel is already so strong that Jacob, at the very high moment of his life, living with his family in the finest part of Egypt, right in the delta of the Nile rivers, still wants to be buried in the land that God gave Abraham and Isaac.

This attachment of the children of Israel to this land is really not a natural attachment. The Jews have been living in the diaspora for near 2000 years. They were spread around the whole world, and yet never forgot it. Israel is a beautiful land, but not one of the most beautiful lands of the world. Switzerland, Norway, parts of the United States of America, and many other parts of the world are physically more beautiful than this small land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. The neighborhood of the land of Israel is also not one of the better neighborhoods in the world. We have neighbors who for more than 2500 years have hated us and have done their best to have us killed, and take the land that God gave to our forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

These same neighbors resisted the Jews returning from the Persian diaspora, and immediately started to war and hate and desire to stop the Aliyah back to the land of our forefathers:

In the book of Genesis alone, the promise of the land given to Israel appears 27 times. In the rest of the Torah it appears 97 more times. That means that only in the five books of Moses the promise is mentioned and repeated 124 times. In the whole Bible it is mentioned and repeated more than 300 times. Now, who cares what the United Nations says about Israel? The United Nations has been focused against Israel since the day it was born. The Arab and Muslim nations have an automatic majority there, and the hate for Israel in all the United Nations' history is pathological, it has no reason and it does not need a reason. We are committed to live and trust the Word of God, and our nation's decisions ought to be made based on the Word of God and righteousness.

My father became a believer in Yeshua as an old man. I had the privilege to baptize him in the Sea of Galilee, and three months later he died. Although he believed in God just a short time before his death, my father made me swear that I will die in the land of Israel and be buried in the land of Israel.

The 17 Years — Divine Retribution

Jacob lived in Egypt after he reunited with Joseph, his son, for 17 years. That's exactly the same number of years that Joseph lived in his father's house before he was sold as a slave in Egypt. I find this very interesting, because it is a kind of divine retribution from the Almighty, repaying Jacob the same amount of years as he took care of Joseph at home. Now, God returns these 17 years to Jacob under the care of Joseph in the best part of Egypt, in the Egyptian Delta of the Nile River.

"You Meant Evil — But God Meant It for Good"

After Jacob dies, 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. 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. 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 were 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:

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.