Parasha Vayetzei 5783

Me

(Talk about kids in the store: “If” you behave “then” I’ll get you candy.)

We

We’ve likely all done this before in one way or another? Used conditional statements with our kids, our parents, our spouse, our coworkers?

We’ve been recipients of the conditional statements too… Maybe our parents have told us that “if” we get straight A’s on our report card “then” they’ll take us to a theme park.

And truth be told, we’ve likely used conditional statements with God from time to time… We get pulled over by a cop when we know good and well we were speeding. We start praying, “God, “if” You help me get a warning instead of a ticket “then” I will be sure not to speed so terribly anymore...”

Or, “God, “if” You miraculously make the money for this bill appear “then” I will be sure to tithe like I’m suppose to from here on...”

Or, “God, “if” You work this situation out in such a way “then” I will serve you with my whole heart...”

The reality is, if we’re honest about it, as humans we are quite fond of conditional statements...

God

This week we read Parasha Vayetzei, Genesis 28:10-32:3, in which we pick up with Ya’akov on the run after having stolen the firstborn blessing and with tremendous fear that Esav is hot on his heels trying to kill him. As our Parasha opens up we see that Jacob is fleeing Be’er-Sheva and heading to Charan. He stops to catch a little shut eye along the route and grabs a rock to use as a pillow. While sleeping he has a dream in which he sees a tremendous staircase reaching to the Heavens with angels going up and coming down it. Then God appears to Jacob at the staircase and he reiterates the covenant Adonai made with Abraham and Isaac now with Jacob.

Jacob wakes up from his dream and calls the place Beit-El (House of God). and sets up and anoints a memorial stone there.

In chapter 29 Jacob arrives in Charan and almost immediately encounters Rachel, the daughter of Laban, at the community well. Laban got word that Jacob, the son of his sister Rebekah was in town and got excited, ran to meet him, and invited him to stay with his family. Jacob, by this point has fallen in love with Rachel and agrees to work with Laban for seven years for Rachel’s hand in marriage. However, he is tricked and is wakes up the day after the wedding to find Leah by his side rather than Rachel. He has a little “conversation” with Laban, some lame excuses are made as to why Laban tricked Jacob and Jacob agrees to work for yet another seven years to marry Rachel.

Rachel is loved far more than Leah, but struggles to have children whereas Leah is popping them out left and right. Then Leah and Rachel both give their servants Bilhah and Zilpah to Jacob as wives as well so that they can give him more children… And obviously, nothing could possibly go wrong with having four wives, especially when you already had two who are sisters and are already at each other’s throats…

After Jacob has already worked 14 years for Laban to marry Rachel and Leah, he agrees to work a little while longer in order to earn himself some actual wages and God blesses his hands tremendously. Laban and his sons become jealous of Jacob’s success and begin to develop some severe animosity against Jacob and Jacob can start to feel the winds shifting with regards to his overstaying his welcome in Charan.

Our parasha ends with Genesis 31 and the first few verses of Genesis 32 with Jacob, his now very large family, his servants, and all his herds and flocks trying to sneak out in the dead of night (so to speak) to get away from Laban and Charan and to begin their journey back to the Promised Land. Laban figures out they’ve snuck away and chases after him to confront him. On his way chasing after Jacob Laban has a divine encounter and Adonai tells him to watch himself with what he says and does to Jacob.

This week, as we look at Parasha Vayetzei, I’d like to focus on one particular reality we see in Jacob’s life… And from this we’ll find a very important discipleship principle that we should apply in our own lives.

God is always faithful no matter what, and He desires our faithfulness unconditionally…

(Repeat)

Let’s dig into the text together this Shabbat.

Genesis 28:10–17 TLV

Then Jacob left Beer-sheba and went toward Haran. He happened upon a certain place and spent the night there, for the sun had set. So he took one of the stones from the place and put it by his head and lay down in that place. He dreamed: All of a sudden, there was a stairway set up on the earth and its top reaching to the heavens—and behold, angels of God going up and down on it! Surprisingly, Adonai was standing on top of it and He said, “I am Adonai, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie, I will give it to you and to your seed. Your seed will be as the dust of the land, and you will burst forth to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed—and in your seed. Behold, I am with you, and I will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land, for I will not forsake you until I have done what I promised you.” Jacob woke up from his sleep and said, “Undoubtedly, Adonai is in this place—and I was unaware.” So he was afraid and said, “How fearsome this place is! This is none other than the House of God—this must be the gate of heaven!”

Expound

Genesis 28:18–22 TLV

Early in the morning Jacob got up and took the stone, which he had placed by his head, and set it up as a memorial stone and poured oil on top of it. He called the name of that place Beth-El (though originally the city’s name was Luz). Then Jacob made a vow saying, “If God will be with me and watch over me on this way that I am going, and provide me food to eat and clothes to wear, and I return in shalom to my father’s house, then Adonai will be my God. So this stone which I set up as a memorial stone will become God’s House, and of everything You provide me I will definitely give a tenth of it to You.”

Expound

God is always faithful no matter what, and He desires our faithfulness unconditionally…

And here’s the thing folks, conditional statements have a place… They’re fantastic in a hypothesis on a scientific research project… They’re fantastic in getting your kids to behave in the grocery store… They are great for all sorts of things…

But when we use conditional statements (if/then statements) with God in our walk it comes across as disingenuous and self-focused rather than focused on our relationship with God.

Now, we do see divine conditional statements throughout Scripture in which God tells us “if” we do something “then” He will do something… Such as the blessings and curses—”if” we walk faithfully with Him “then” we will have an easy going time in the Land, and if not then things will get rough. And when those things turn rough “if” it gets our attention and turns our hearts back to HaShem in faithful t’shuvah “then” He will forgive us and restore us.

This is exactly what we see in 2 Chronicles 7 as Solomon has just completed and consecrated the Temple… In fact, let’s begin back in 2 Chronicles 6 with Solomon’s prayer…

2 Chronicles 6:36–42 TLV

When they sin against You—for there is no man that does not sin—and You become angry with them and hand them over to the enemy who takes them captive to a land far off or near, when they have a change of heart in the land where they are held captive, and they repent and seek You in the land of their captivity saying, ‘We have sinned, we have committed inquity, we have acted wickedly,’ “and they return to You with all their heart and soul in the land of their captivity where they were taken captive, and they pray toward their land which You gave to their fathers and the city which You have chosen and toward the House which I have built for Your Name, then may You hear from heaven, Your dwelling place, their prayer and their petitions and uphold their cause, and forgive Your people who have sinned against You. “Now my God, I pray, let Your eyes be open, and let Your ears be attentive to the prayer made in this place. Now arise, Adonai Elohim, to Your resting place, You and the Ark of Your might. May Your kohanim, Adonai Elohim, be clothed with salvation, and may Your godly ones rejoice in goodness. Adonai Elohim, do not reject Your anointed one. Remember the loyalty of Your servant David.”

Then Israel celebrates Sukkot before HaShem at the Temple for the first time. Expound

2 Chronicles 7:12–16 TLV

Then Adonai appeared to Solomon at night and said to him: “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for Myself for a House of sacrifice. If I shut up heaven that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people, when My people, over whom My Name is called, humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to the prayer offered in this place. For now I have chosen and consecrated this House so that My Name may be there forever. My eyes and My heart shall be there perpetually.

Expound

God is always faithful no matter what, and He desires our faithfulness unconditionally…

And it is in this same vein that we see Yeshua using conditional statements with regards to our life in Messiah in the Besorah. For instance...

John 14:15–21 TLV

“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper so He may be with you forever— the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him. You know Him, because He abides with you and will be in you. I will not abandon you as orphans; I will come to you. In a little while, the world will no longer behold Me, but you will behold Me. Because I live, you also will live! “In that day, you will know that I am in My Father, you are in Me, and I am in you. He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me. He who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and reveal Myself to him.”

John 14:23–26 TLV

Yeshua answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our dwelling with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words. And the word you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me. These things I have spoken to you while dwelling with you. But the Helper, the Ruach ha-Kodesh whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you everything and remind you of everything that I said to you.

Expound

God is always faithful no matter what, and He desires our faithfulness unconditionally…

You

(Call worship team and unmute)

What are you holding over God’s head that you are using as an excuse to not walk in right relationship with him? Or that you’re using as an excuse to not fix relationships with someone?

What conditional statements are you wrestling with today? Are you holding your walk with God hostage on the hypotheses that God is some sort of a genie in a bottle rather than the Creator and Restorer of the Universe?

We