Vayigash: Family Reunion

Joseph's Forgiveness and Family Reunion:

In this episode of Perfect Body Podcast, host Shirah Chanté reviews the Torah portion from Genesis 44:18 to Genesis 46:29. The focus is on Joseph's emotional reunion with his brothers and father, highlighting his journey from prison to the palace and ultimately, parenthood. Despite his hardships, Joseph forgives his brothers, recognizing God's plan in his tribulations. The episode emphasizes the importance of understanding and trusting God's higher plan, even through trials and tribulations.

00:00 Welcome to Perfect Body Podcast

01:02 Introduction to Torah Portion Vayigash

01:52 Joseph's Turnaround and Family Dynamics

04:34 Jacob's Reluctance and Judah's Promise

09:04 Joseph Reveals Himself to His Brothers

10:47 God's Plan and Joseph's Forgiveness

14:28 Pharaoh's Invitation and Family Reunion

17:02 Jacob's Joy and Reunion with Joseph

21:40 Conclusion and Next Week's Preview

Follow Shirah Chante

Instagram

Facebook

LinkedIn

Youtube

Blog

Listen to the Torah portions with this FREE audio bible.

Transcript

Hi everyone, welcome to Perfect Body Podcast. I am your host, Shirah Chanté, Relationship Artist, blessing God's people. So happy you're with me today to study the Torah! Yes, this podcast is a Torah portion afterthought! We are reviewing, reading, studying, getting inspiration from God's Word. The first five books of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

We are in the book of Genesis. We're almost at the end of Genesis. Wow. We've come quite a way. And today we are reading Vayigash, which was the Torah portion for last Shabbat, last Saturday. And today Vayechi started. So, we'll study that on next Saturday. So we are talking about Joseph's turnaround.

That was our last show. If you haven't seen it, you gotta see turnaround and that is the, I believe it's Vayetze. Well, it's the turnaround portion. So go back. It's the one before this one. And,  oh, Miketz, Miketz . Thank you. Thank you. Someone, I know someone whispered that and it just, it got to me, you know, it came through the airwaves.

Miketz , Shirah Miketz . So it was Miquette's turnaround portion. And we saw how Joseph was elevated by Pharaoh to rule over all of Egypt. Amazing. Taken taken out of the prison, put into the palace and,  I just love that alliteration there from the prison to the palace and now, and then to parenthood, he became a husband.

His wife, bore him two sons. So praise God for that as well. Being a parent is beautiful and a wonderful,  accomplishment in life and, and privilege to take care of little ones and bring up the next generation, and so we're going to go ahead and begin Vayigash, it starts in Genesis. Genesis chapter 44, verse 18, Genesis chapter 44, verse 18.

And I'm just going to give you a little summary and then we'll read some verses as we go along. But basically, Jacob's,  brothers, went back home to their father, Israel, And, brought the food to their father that they got from, from Joseph the first time when they saw him, Joseph, gave them food.

He told them to bring his brother Benjamin back. They don't know who Joseph is yet. They don't recognize him as the ruler of Egypt. He looks Egyptian at this point, not like a Hebrew. And they told their father that the ruler of Egypt said, do not come back to Egypt unless you bring your brother, Benjamin.

And Joseph wants to see his brother, Benjamin. That was the only other child, his mother, Rachel bore. And if you recall, from reading a Torah portion before, Rachel died in childbirth. She died giving birth to Benjamin. And  He basically, grew up without his mom. He, his mom died before,  when he was born.

And so that was Joseph's only brother that had the same mom and the same dad. If you've ever been in a family, I have stepbrothers and half brothers and stepsisters, half sisters I have a pretty big family. And so, you know how that goes, right? It's kind of special when you both have the same mom and same dad.

So that's how he felt. That's how Joseph felt about Benjamin. They had a, more of a bond there, having the same mother. And so he told his brothers to bring Benjamin back or they wouldn't be able to get any more food. And so they explained this to their father, Israel, who remember he had a name change.

His name was Jacob. Now he's Israel. So we can call him interchangeably. If I say Jacob and I, or I say Israel, I'm talking about the same person. And so Jacob is pretty devastated. He's already lost Joseph. And now he thinks he's going to lose Benjamin too, when they take him away. He's thinking, Oh, something bad is going to happen to him.

And then I'm going to. Go down to my grave because now I've lost both of my sons from the same mom and I don't have any other son from that mom. This is the wife he loved. This is the wife he cherished. Remember Leah wasn't the pretty sister. She was the one who was given to him on the sly. And so she wasn't really the one he was in love with.

It was Rachel. And these are Rachel's sons. And now he's thinking, Oh, no, I've lost Rachel. I've lost Joseph. Now I'm going to lose Benjamin, but Judah, his son by Leah, Leah's fourth son, he promised his father that he would bring Benjamin back to him or it would be his fault. And so promises, oaths are very important and they kept their promises.

Back in those days, sometimes we keep our promises too, depends on the person. I believe we talked about that on how, keeping vows and, making vows to God. And we actually learned how to make a vow to God. Remember we talked about that, in the Torah portion before, where we learned how to make sure our vows would come to pass so that we're not making an empty vow or a promise we can't keep.

And so what do we do? Anybody remember? Anybody remember? I'm quizzing you tonight. We pray. We vow what God has already promised us because God is going to keep all his promises. So if God tells you, I'm going to bless you, and keep you  and you say, well, God, and he wants you to move to this, let's just add something to that and he wants you to move to this country and you say, well, Lord, if I move to this country, you're going to bless me and keep me.

That's my vow. Oh Lord, Lord, if I move to this country, yes. Bless and keep me. Well, you know, it's going to happen because that's what God wants you to do anyway. So you're just, basically promising what God already has promised. And so that is so smart. It's so clever. And that's a way to not be a fool.

Because remember, if someone makes a promise to God and doesn't fulfill it, it's foolish and we don't want to be a fool. We're not fools here. We are brilliant. We are bright and we are bold. And so, we make the right kind of vows here. And so now, Jacob decides, okay. If I'm bereft, he says, if I'm bereft of my son, Benjamin, I'm just bereft.

Meaning if I lose him, I lose him. Just, he settled in his heart that, okay, we have to eat. We know otherwise we'll die if we don't have any food. So he let Benjamin go with his brothers back to Egypt to get food from the ruler of Egypt, which we know you and I know is Joseph, their brother, who they were planning to kill and then but then decided we'll just sell him into slavery. And so he got sold into slavery to the Ishmaelites by the Midianites. We've gone through, we've gone a long way in Genesis and now we're here. Finally, Joseph is reuniting with his brothers. He's, so let's read a little bit about what's happening now.

Okay. So Genesis. Genesis chapter 45, verse, let's see, 3. Oh, why? Oh, let's start with 2. No, no, no. Genesis chapter 45, we'll start with verse 1. Then Joseph could not refrain himself. Before all of them that stood by and he cried, cried because every man caused every man to go out from me. And there stood no man with him while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren.

And he wept aloud and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard. And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph, doth my father yet live? And his brethren could not answer him for they were troubled at his presence. And Joseph said unto his brethren, come near to me. I pray you. And they came near and he said, I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold in to Egypt.

Wow. He reveals himself to his brothers. Let's go on. Now, therefore be not grieved nor angry with yourself.

So Joseph, instead of being angry, instead of throwing a tantrum and killing his brothers, because he has all the power, he's over the world now. He says, You know what? I know y'all meant to do me wrong. I know y'all meant to sell me. You wanted to kill me. You hated me. You were jealous of me. But God had a plan.

God had a plan. I knew I was going to try to cry tonight. I was like, no, don't cry, Shirah. God had a plan. And this was his plan. Genesis chapter 45, verse 7. And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you, oh my God, that sent me hither, but God.

And he hath made me a father to Pharaoh and Lord of all his house. And a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt. Wow. I love this. I love this because Joseph and all his pain and all his struggle and being separated from his family, not ever seeing his father again, his mom, his brother, his not seeing his family anymore because of the jealousy His nine brothers who sold him instead of being bitter, instead of harboring unforgiveness, Joseph forgives them.

And he realizes, see, this is what's important. He recognizes that this is God's plan. This too deep for some of y'all. Some of y'all like, I don't know Shirah, I don't know, this was God's plan. Shirah

how can it be God's plan that he was thrown into jail? And sold into Egypt and had all this misfortune. God, his thoughts are way up here. This is me, me and you are here. God's thoughts are way up here. They're so much higher than our thought. We don't understand everything God is doing with us. We know we may be going through trials, tribulations.

We may be so sorrowful going through loss, going through rejection, going through hate. Envy, jealousy, and we don't understand. God is doing this in our life for a reason. He's allowing this to happen to you for a reason. It's not because you're a bad person or,  you, God's plan is above every other plan in this entire universe.

So, I pray that you discover why god allowed you to go through, what he allowed you to go through so that you will understand your purpose that he wants you to fulfill. There's a reason he sent you through that stuff and you made it out and he's turning it around for you right now. Oh

wow.

So what Joseph did. Was he, told Pharaoh found out his brothers came to visit. Pharaoh was really happy that his family came. And he says, yes, bring your family down to Egypt. As he told them, there's five more years left of this famine. There's five more years and the world is in famine. There's no food.

If Joseph wouldn't have gone to Egypt, they would have died. They would have been in poverty. God didn't want that. So now Joseph. is calling forth his family, from where they were living. And they are, I believe this Paddan Aram, they were moving back to, or they're moving to Egypt now because that's where Joseph is and that's where the food is, they need to live.

Right. So Joseph's brothers, ah, this is so beautiful. Joseph's brothers go back home and they tell. They tell Jacob that Joseph is still alive. Wow. And Joseph doesn't want to believe them. He's like, I don't know my son, Joseph, his favorite son. Remember, this is why they were jealous of Joseph, because he was the favorite son.

He was the one with the coat of many colors, and he had these visions and dreams, and he's going to be somebody. They hated him for that. And so this is how Joseph responds. Let's see if I can get it here. Or not Joseph, but Jacob, his father, Joseph's father.

This is Genesis chapter 45, verse, let's start with verse 24. So he sent his brethren away, and they departed. And he said unto them, See that you fall not out by the way. Verse 25, And they went up out of Egypt, and came into the land of Canaan unto Jacob their father, and told him, saying, Joseph is yet alive, and he is governor over all the land of Egypt.

And Jacob's heart failed for he believed them not. I mean, would you believe them? Your son's been gone. I don't know how many years has been since he's seen Joseph, but he's a man now when he left, he was probably like a teenager and now he's 30 years old. And they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said unto them.

And when he saw the wagons, which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob, their father revived and Israel said. It is enough. Joseph, my son, is yet alive. I will go and see him before I die.

God is so good. This is a family reunion. That's the name of our show tonight. Family reunion. Joseph thought he lost his son forever. My God. But God, and his wonderfulness, and His brilliance, his remarkableness, his wisdom sent Joseph to Egypt to save them.

Woo. I don't know what, why you went through all the trouble you went through. I don't know what God's planning with you, but he has a plan for you. He has a plan why you went through what you went through and it's, it will be revealed to you. If you don't know yet, you will know, you'll know soon. And so here's the big reunion with Jacob and Joseph.

So we get to the part. Let's see. Oh my. Oh, wait. Let's see. Oh, wait, that's the next, that's next week. I'm getting ahead of myself. Okay. I think, but he actually sees him next. Oh, wait, wait, no, no. Here it is. I found it. Okay. Okay. I knew it. Okay. Genesis 46 verse 29. And Joseph made ready his chariot, and went up to meet Israel his father, to Goshen, and presented himself unto him.

And he fell on his neck, and wept on his neck a good while, can you imagine? And Israel said unto Joseph, Now let me die, since I have seen thy face, because thou art yet alive.

So Joseph, his life was complete after that. You saw his son was still alive. Remember when his son died, he couldn't even be comforted because he just loved his son so much. And now he gets to see him again alive. Wow. Wow. That's how some of our reunion is going to be. When we make it out of this earth and we go to heaven and we see our family members, they're going to be like, wow.

Oh, I was praying for you. I was hoping you, you would make it. Oh man. Oh, it's going to be so wonderful. So wonderful. So I just pray for you tonight that in the name of Jesus, you will know why God sent you ahead. I believe that sent ahead. You were a Joseph and that's why your life has been so much struggle and trouble because.

Satan wants to stop the Josephs. He doesn't want the Josephs to make it because if they don't make it, a lot of people are going to die. He wanted Israel's family to die, but you're tougher than that because God put something inside of you that will never die and that is his spirit. So I pray you will make it

just like Joseph.

Amen. And amen. So next week we're gonna, I don't know if we finish up Genesis next week. Is next week the last? I think next week is the last portion in the book of Genesis. Wow, we've come a long way. And so I hope you're here to join with me again. And remember to love God, love you, and love people.