Vayetze Drash

Did anything go according to plan?

In the weeks Parashat, Vayetze, we study the history of Jacob’s Marriage to Rachel and Leah. The parashat opens with a wonderful scene of Jacob traveling to find a wife in his mothers homeland. He is encouraged by HaShem in a dream encouraging him by promising Jacob he will inherit the land promised to Abraham.

As Jacob arrives at his mothers homeland he quickly meets Rachel whom he immediately loves and pursues to be his wife.

If the story ended with and they lived happily ever after, it would be a sweet tale of destined love. We know that is not what happened at all. In fact from this point forward it is plain to see nothing goes according to plan.

I do not know about you but often times as I read this parashat I think to myself what happened? Was there any kind of plan at all in any of this? How chaotic and disturbing are all of these events?

During this study I discovered several interesting things.

Some of the sages teach that Rachel and Jacob had a plan to share a code word of sorts in case some trickery happened. Then as Rachel was helping Leah get ready to be the real bride to Jacob she suddenly was overcome with guilt about the embarrassment that would fall upon her sister. Her sister had no suitor and she had no prospect for marriage at the time. In that culture, honor is important in a way unlike our own. It was dishonorable for the younger sibling to marry before the older. If Rachel married first it might actually prevent Leah from ever having a chance at a good marriage.

Rachel put her sisters happiness before her own without any guarantee that it would work out for either of them.

I also learned that the original plan of the parents had been for Esau to marry Leah and Jacob to marry Rachel. Where was Esau now? What kind of husband would he have been to Leah? What of the parents plans? This did not work out either.

Laban is clearly a man of questionable intent. He tricks Jacob in to marrying the wrong women possibly pulling his daughter Rachel in to the deceit. Laban schemes against Jacob constantly and keeps him from returning to his rightful home. Jacob ends up with not the 1 wife he sought but 4 wives. The rightful wages Jacob earns is constantly and unfairly changed. Then just to have a chance at the life HaShem promised, Jacob flees in secret from his father in law while one of his wives steal Laban’s idols. In the end it takes HaShem to appear to Laban in a dream to prevent him from attacking and killing Jacob. Did anyone’s plan workout?

Is this HaShem’s plan and how he wanted this to happen? As I meditated on this chapter and this question I was taken back to the answer that seems to always come to mind for me whenever I think about how things are going and if this is really the plan HaShem had for us.

No this is not how HaShem would have had this happen. In fact it might be that he only allowed it to happen this way. What HaShem planed, was for man and woman to live in Gan Eden, to cultivate and create the whole world from the template he revealed in Gan Eden. He planned to have a Shabbat meal with them of some figs, but we would not wait till then so we ate the fruit of the tree before it was time, because we “knew” our plan was best.

So the answer to the question is this part of some plan? No it is the result of disobedience and our deviation from HaShem’s plan. Yet HaShem had a plan for that too. Wonderful is HaShem that his plans can never be overturned truly and what is intended for evil he can turn in to good. There is a plan of redemption that has been in place before the foundations of the Earth, through Yeshua our Messiah we will be cleansed of our SIN, and enter in to the place prepared for us.

What do we plan for now? We plan to seek first HaShem’s Kingdom. We plan to put his will first and obey his Torah, not turning to the right or the left. We rely on the promise of a future made manifest in the Messiah Yeshua.