Vayechi: God Meant it for Good

God's Divine Plans and Torah Study: The Blessings and Lessons of Genesis

In this episode of Perfect Body! podcast, host Shirah Chanté explores the intricacies of Torah study with a focus on the portion Vayechi from Genesis 47:28. Highlighting the power of studying the Bible, she shares personal experiences that led her to embrace Torah study, her time in divinity school, and how she introduced the teachings to her children. Shirah details Jacob's blessings to his sons and grandsons, the importance of fatherhood, and how God uses even painful experiences for a greater good. Drawing parallels with the New Testament, she concludes with a powerful message of faith and destiny, reassuring that everything, both good and bad, works for the benefit of those who love God.

00:00 Welcome to Relationship Rock

01:05 Discovering the Torah

02:31 Personal Journey with the Bible

03:40 Introduction to Vayechi

08:01 Jacob's Final Days

17:49 Joseph's Forgiveness

20:41 God Meant It for Good

24:09 Conclusion and Next Steps

Listen to the Torah portions with this FREE audio bible.

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Transcript

Oh, how are you doing today? If you are new to this podcast, welcome. And if you're returning, go ahead and subscribe. You're back again. Make sure you get the shows to come and I want you here.

I thank you for being here. If you're new, you're in for a treat. We are studying the Torah. Yay! One of my favorite things to do, probably the favorite, my most favorite thing to do is to study the Bible. Ever since I started studying the Bible, when I was 24 years old. There we go, when I was 24 years old, I finally opened my Bible for myself.

Now, of course, I heard the Bible, I went to church when I was a little girl.  For years at a time and I gave my life to Christ at a very young age,  before I was a teenager at 12 years old. So I, I, I know the word I knew, I knew of the word, but I never really opened it for myself. I only listened to the preacher or my Sunday school teachers as they taught me the Bible stories.

Anyone grew up like that, learning the Bible studies, Jonah and a well, and, you know, the death and resurrection of Christ and, and just the, the popular Bible studies that usually are taught in children's ministry. So I grew up with the, with those teachings and, and so I, I, knew the Bible that way.

But there was a point in my life where I needed to start reading the Bible for myself, to get a greater connection to God. And it happened when I was homeless, not totally homeless, but I was living in a Beverly Hills office building that was not mine, but by the grace of God, he looked on my situation and blessed me with a place to live.

And I was so appreciative and I knew this was the hand of God. And so it drove me to read my Bible. And then my Torah study continued as I decided to go to divinity school up in Rochester, New York. And that's really my first initial. Torah study as we're reading it now, where I'm actually reading the Torah portions that have been laid out by the rabbis and, and so we are following that Torah portion schedule.

Now today we're looking at Vayechi and it's a Hebrew word, so I may or may not be saying that correctly. I actually got to Hebrew many, many years ago when I was actually up there. studying in divinity school. And so, but it means, and he lived. Vayechi means, and he lived. So if you are a new studier of the Bible or the Torah, you're in the right place.

This will change your life. When you see how God operates with his people, you will have a greater Mercy and his love for humanity. And so, we're going to start with Genesis chapter 47, I believe it is, Genesis,  let's see. We're just portion starts, 47 verse 28 is where this tourist portion starts.

We're at the end of Genesis. Can you believe it? We made it through the book of Genesis. Actually, today started the study of Exodus. Remember, this is a Torah portion afterthought, so we're one week behind the schedule. So, you know, you can get a second dose after you hear the portion explained by your rabbi or whoever it may be who's teaching the Torah.

Hopefully, it's Someone who's studied  and can really lay out the Torah portion for you. And I wanna just mention that, you know, so my Torah study continued throughout the years, and it started with Rabbi Kotok. And, in Rochester, New York, I want to say it's Temple B’rith Kodesh.

It's been so long.  And so, but when I had my many years along the way,  when I had my children, I wanted to introduce my children to the Bible. Of course, this is what I believe. And so when my son got older, he's like maybe 10 years old, maybe nine years old. I decided to introduce the Torah portions to him,  reading it weekly with him, and so I found a Rabbi Fohrman with Aleph Beta and Rabbi Fohrman Awesome.

And the good thing about his videos is they're, even though they're for adults, because they're animated, my son could sit there and watch it with me. And so studying a Torah, you're not too, you're not too young to start. So you want to, you want to start your children so they can have a mindset that's focused on God.

And so that's what I would do. Every Torah. We would watch, we would read the Torah portion together, and then I would put on, I would play the video,  the Aleph Beta video for us, and we would watch it and get even more just great insight than what we had even reading it. And so it's, it's just something that you might want to invest in and include your children in Torah study.

That's a good way. Like I said, the videos are animated. So even though they may not understand it because it's, you know, it's a lot to understand, but they'll watch it and they'll enjoy it. And so, that's the brilliance of those videos. And so here I am with my own Torah study, amazingly so. And I just thank God and bless God for putting it on my heart to study the Bible.

We're starting in Genesis chapter 48, 47 verse 28. And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt 17 years. So the whole age of Jacob was 147 years. So Jacob lived until he was 147 years, 17 years  in Egypt. Remember he came down to Egypt because there was famine in the land and there's going to be famine for five more years.

And so,  he came down to live with his son, Joseph, who was sold to Egypt. And he hadn't seen for all these years when he was reunited with his son. We talked about that last week, family reunion.  Don't you love family reunions? Okay. Maybe not. Maybe some of those family members, you know, may not be so pleasant, but that's okay.

 So, now. He is with his whole family in the land of Egypt. And I was just thinking, and I really didn't have time to, well, I really didn't study it.  But I was thinking because he was there in Egypt, 17 years, maybe that's the age that Joseph was sold into slavery because, the Bible likes to make different connections.

And I don't know. I was just thinking, I wonder how old Joseph was. I've never really asked this question, did study on that question, but I was thinking how old was Joseph when he was sold into slavery in Egypt. And when, when,  I heard that number 17, I thought maybe that's, that's how old Jake,  Joseph was and the Bible was making a connection and God does little connections like that.

And that's one thing I really learned. From Rabbi Fohrman, how the Bible is connected in so many ways. And so we're going to talk about that as I'm going to give a quick summary of what this Torah portion entails. And then there's another connection that I want to make,  to the New Testament. And so the Torah is the first five books of the Bible in which we call the Old Testament.

And then,  starting with the Gospels. Matthew is the New Testament. Okay? So, some of you are like, I know that Shirah Chante. Well, there may be some new Bible studiers and so they may not know. So, just wanted to make sure everyone we're all on the same page. Here we go. We're all on the same page. So, Jacob  is about to die.

He's been in Egypt 17 years and he's happy. He's seen his son now. He's satisfied. God has blessed them and he's about to die. So Joseph hears about his father being sick and he wants his children to meet, or to be blessed by Jacob, who is Israel. We know Jacob is now Israel. And so, Joseph brings his two sons, Ephraim and Manessah,  to Jacob to bless them.

And so Manessah is the oldest, Ephraim is the youngest. And so this is something that fathers did. They, or do, not just did, this is what fathers do. They bless their children. Father God blesses us. You know, if, if you are a child of God and father, God blesses us, he, he's our father. He, he, he, he gives us blessings, things that are good on earth, things to enjoy and makes our life palatable and, and, and worth living and so much more with

just being here in our life. And so Jacob blesses the children. This is what he says in Genesis chapter 48. Verse 16, the angel, which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads and let my name be named on them and the name of my fathers, Abraham and Isaac, and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.

So that was the blessing Jacob gave to his grandchildren, Joseph's two sons. He put his right hand on Ephraim, who was the youngest and his, and his, well, his right hand when Ephraim was the youngest and his left hand on Manasseh, he crossed his hands. And so Joseph didn't like that because usually the oldest son got the, like the right hand blessing, which is like the double portion.

We'll, we'll read about that as we continue in the Torah. Bye. And Joseph, Jacob, Joseph's father, told him, no, this is how it should be. I know Manasseh is the oldest, but Ephraim, the younger son, is going to, Be more blessed, I guess I can say it like that, or he's going to succeed his older brother.

And sometimes it's like that in life. Have you, you know, I don't know if you're a younger child, maybe you have an older sibling, and maybe you went a little further in life than your older sibling did. So sometimes that happens. Happens not all the time, you know, but sometimes we do surpass our younger or our older siblings.

And so then what happened is Jacob calls forth all 12 of his sons and he tells each of them what's going to happen to them. And I'm not going to read that entire story.  But he told them their destiny. Which is amazing. This is, fatherhood is so important. It's like, it's really deeper than our,  I believe our society has,  Oh,  invested in.

It's like, you know, father, we have,  like in, in America, we have father's day and we have mother's day and mother's day. It's really, really important special day. And it's so hyped up, which is great because I love motherhood, but fatherhood, he really, relates to us as a father.

He blesses and protects and guides. And, and so he told them their destiny. God will tell you your destiny. Isn't that amazing? Yes, you just need to come before him, just like the children of Israel came before him and he told each of them what was to befall them, what was to come of their life. So he, this is what he got.

This came from the Spirit. How did he know this? He wasn't a psychic. This is not witchcraft, this came from a divine place, a divine manifestation. Jacob communed with God. Have you been following the book of Genesis? Jacob has a gift of dreams and, and angels visiting him. He has a lot of supernatural experiences in his life.

And so he's very in tune with the supernatural and that continues as he has been given, downloaded into his spirit, the destiny of each of his 12 sons. That's amazing. And I really believe that, you know, a father, if he really taps into God, And the power of God and communes with God, ask God about his children.

If you're a father and you're listening, you're a dad and you want to know, you want to be able to tell your children their destiny and you want to be able to bless them. That you talk to God and ask God about your children and what shall become of them and what shall befall them. And God is faithful.

He will give you answers. He will let you know, because there may be some things that are great. And then there may be some things that are not so great, because we see some things, what a couple of his children, because of their actions, they brought a curse into their life. And so it also depends on.

You know, the behavior of the child, but even the book of Proverbs says that a child is known by his deeds, whether they be good or bad. So, You can tell if even a child is good or bad by his behavior. That's what it says in the Bible. I think that's Psalms, but it could be Proverbs. So you may have to Google that scripture.

So, all right, we come to the end. Jacob dies and the name of this show is called God Meant It. God meant it for good. And this is what I want to speak into your life today, so that you can know the power of God in your life and overcome the struggles that you've come with, that have been in your life with grace and appreciation. What Shira Shanti, you want me to appreciate struggling?

You have to understand it's, or it's good for you. You should understand that this struggle is leading to a point where you can have success. So the struggle is something, not something you stay inside. You overcome that and you'll have success in life through the struggle. And so Jacob's sons came after he died, they got scared and they thought Joseph was going to be mad at them because they sold Joseph into Egypt.

And so they made up this lie saying that their father said, Hey, accept us. We're good. We're cool. And, Joseph started crying. I think this is so amazing to me because then I'm going to read the scripture. When someone is hurt so deeply, because I've experienced the really, really deep hurt in my life, it's painful.

It's like, because you went through it and these are the people causing it and he, who caused it and he's right in front of them and, and now they're coming back and they're doing their best to apologize and to ask for forgiveness. But it's still so overwhelming. To the person who actually went through it, because it's, it's a, it's a lot of years of, of struggle and, and pain.

So this is what Joseph said when he responded to his brothers who sold him into Egypt.

This is Genesis chapter 50, the last chapter of Genesis verse 19. And Joseph said unto them, fear not for I am, for am I in the place of God, but as for you. Ye thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. You thought evil against me. But God minted unto good.

Some of the evil people are doing in your life. They think they get an over on you.

They think they put one on you. They think they're destroying your life. They think they're going to keep you from reaching your destiny, but God is actually using that very thing. He's using them. He's using that struggle. He's using that pain to actually propel you, propel you like a catapult. Into your destiny what they did, what they thought was evil actually put him into the place where he could reach his destiny.

God is so smart. I love it. And so I wanted to share, I said, I was going to connect this to the New Testament. This is Apostle Paul. Apostle Paul wrote most of the New Testament. He was an Orthodox Jew. And so he knew, he knew, he knows the Torah very well. Apostle Paul knew the Torah back and front.

And so he connected this, I believe he gave this scripture in the book of Romans chapter eight, verse 28, this is what it says. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. I want to read that one more time, Romans 8: 28, and we know that all things, the good and the bad, all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

So if you love God, all the things that are happening to you, everything, whether it's good or bad is working for your good. So even the bad turns out good. Are you, are you catching this? Are you, are you catching this in the spirit? Are you catching it? That even the bad things that have happened to you Maybe that are happening to you.

Maybe some of you are in the midst of a struggle or a trial or, or a problem. Even the bad things that are happening to you are going to turn into good for you. God's going to make it so that bad ends up being good. Only God can turn bad into good. Okay

So don't worry. Don't, don't fret about people who abuse you, who misuse you, who hate you, who sell you out, don't even fret about it. Yes, it hurts. Yes. It's painful. But God. meant it for good. It's all going to work out for you. And here we have two scripture, Roman 8: 28 and Genesis chapter 50, verse 20, that you can stand on.

He did it for Joseph. Why not for you? You love God. He loves you. He'll do it for you too. And so father God, in the name of Jesus, I pray for everyone listening who will hear this message, that they will catch this in the spirit. That all the things happening in their life will work out in their favor, whether good or bad, that it will work out and it will help them and it will propel them to reach their destiny.

Just like it did for Joseph. Amen. And that is the end of Genesis. So what is the next book? Exodus. That's the Torah portion that started today. We're going to look at the first portion in the book of Exodus as we continue our journey studying the Torah. Oh, I can't wait to just see how well your life turns out.

I just, I just know it's like, ah, some of you have been released. You know, you, you're released. You're like, yeah, no more baggage in 2025. 2025. You gotta tell me about it. Alright, thank you for joining me. I love you. Remember to love God. Love you. Love people. Bye bye.