There is nothing covered up, that will not be revealed

Bereshit {42:22} Reuven (Ruben) answered them, saying, "Didn't I tell you, saying, 'Don't chat'at (sin) against the child,' and you wouldn't listen? Therefore also, behold, his blood is required."

If you have read this week’s Parsha and hopefully you have, then you know that Shimon (Simeon) was taken to be held as a hostage by Yoseph (Joseph), until his brothers brought their youngest sibling Benyamin (Benjamin) to Mitzrayim (Egypt). The nine travellers subsequently had their donkeys loaded with grain and were sent on their way back to the land of Cana'an, back to their ab (father) Ya’acov (Jacob). Yoseph had treated his estranged brothers quite indifferently. He was in fact quite harsh with them and accused them of being spies. Because of their ill treatment the boys had absolutely no idea that Yoseph was their brother.

From the above verse and their present circumstances we can tell that the brothers were feeling a tinge of guilt for what they had done to young Yoseph, perhaps now for the first time in twenty years; well at least we know that Reuven was! I would like to believe that each one of them had been carrying around guilt in their hearts. So now with Yoseph accusing them of being spies, Reuven, the one who originally wanted to rescue Yoseph when he was thrown in the pit, vocalizes what was probably eating him on the insides for all these years.

This however is not what I would like to comment on from Parsha Miketz. Rather I have found a very interesting lesson for us all tucked away in the following verses.

Bereshit {42:26} They loaded their donkeys with their grain, and departed from there. {42:27} As one of them opened his sack to give his donkey food in the lodging-place, he saw his money. Behold, it was in the mouth of his sack. {42:28} He said to his brothers, "My money is restored! Behold, it is even in my sack." Their hearts failed them, and they turned trembling one to another, saying, "What is this that G-D has done to us?"

“...What is this that G-d has done to us?” This statement came from the mouths’ of the brothers as they discovered in horror that their grain money was in their sacks. Notice that it was not just one brother that made this exclamation, all of them did it collectively, one to the other Scripture indicates. Do I believe that they were having a religious moment and were now suspecting that they were in the midst of some great retribution from G-d? I sure hope so, but my kishkas (gut feelings) tells me differently. These guys went twenty years thinking they got away with their little secret, what would make them think G-d was out to get them now! No, I believe they used this exclamation as an expression, just like we do today when there is no physical explanation for what is happening to us and we need someone to unload the blame on. Come on now! Do not tell me that you have never heard someone say, “Why are You doing this to me G-d?” I have heard it and not only from unbelievers in Mashiach (Messiah) Yeshua.

Yoseph’s brothers knew HaShem, in fact each one of them was part of His eternal plan for Yisrael (Israel) and for the rest of the world. So although they were probably making this statement from exasperation, not knowing who to blame and most certainly not wanting to blame themselves, little did they know it was G-d who was doing it! In fact everything that has happened to this family was all orchestrated by Hashem. I will even go a step further. Everything that happens in the entire world, the universe for that matter, is totally orchestrated by HaShem. There is no such thing as luck, there is no such thing as chance and there is no such thing as an accident, not for a believer in Mashiach Yeshua, not for an unbeliever. “Unbelievers too?” yes unbelievers as well!

There are only two camps one can belong to in this world, HaShems’s or HaSatan’s (Satan’s). Therefore your life is either being controlled by HaShem or it is being controlled by HaSatan. Now considering that HaSatan is a created being and as the book of Job tells us he can not do anything without HaShem’s permission, therefore even what happens to an unbeliever is orchestrated by G-d.

However there is a huge difference between what happens in a believer’s life what happens in an unbeliever’s life that is because believers in Yeshua HaMashiach have a promise from HaShem which unbelievers do not have. That promise is found in the Brit Chadasha (Renewed Covenant).

Romim/Romans {8:28} And we know that all things work together for good to them that love G-d, to them who are the called according to His purpose.

Rabbi Jack "Yaacov" Farber is the spiritual leader of Congregation Melech Yisrael in Toronto, Canada.

Copyright 2003