THE POINT OF THIS DEVOTION IS THAT TIME IS UNDER GOD’S COMMAND AND CONTROL. THEREFORE WE CAN REST, KNOWING THAT THE OUTCOMES OF THE TIMES IN WHICH WE LIVE WILL BE ACCORDING TO HIS WILL AND PURPOSE.
The title of this parashah is MI’KEITZ—“AFTER: AT THE END OF”). The STONE Tanakh translates the opening expression VA’YE’HI MI’KEITZ SHe’NA’TA’IM YA’MIM as “It happened at the end of two years to the day” (the YA’MIM of the phrase “MI’KEITZ She’NA’TA’IM YA’MIM”—which literally means, “at the end of two (full) years OF DAYS”).
On that very day, at the end of two full years of days, God spoke to Pharoah, king of Egypt, in a divinely-given dream. The dream was going to be so disturbing to him that he would require an interpreter in order for his peace to be restored. That interpreter would be the man whom God had separated from his family by means of his dreaming and interpreting. In other words: GOD ORCHESTRATED THE ENTIRE SEQUENCE OF LIFE IN THE MIDDLE EAST TO MAKE IT SO THAT JOSEPH WOULD BECOME THE SAVIOR OF IS OWN PEOPLE IN THE PROCESS OF SAVING THE WORLD OF HIS TIME. In the process, Joseph would foreshadow the Messiah—Yeshua ha’Notzri—who would eventually accomplish the grand salvation of the world and the restoration of all things unto God from the fall of humanity in the beginning of mankind’s history in the Garden of Perfection.
The same is true now: GOD IS ORCHESTRATING SALVATION IN THE MIDST OF THE INSANITY OF THE CURRENT TIMES OF THE WORLD.
Chaos is not meaningless; chaos is often generated by hidden forces in order to bring about a disintegration of the current state of the world so that the world may be re-organized according to a new paradigm. What human planners do not understand is that their viewpoint is temporal—time bound and finite; but God is the One who is ordering the world from an eternal perspective and with a redemptive purpose. Within the ordinary experience of everyday people is the operation of a double agenda: the temporary agenda of human controllers and the divine agenda that is bringing about salvation according to the eternal purpose of God our Father.
It is no wonder that among the last messages of our Lord Yeshua was his word of comfort to us in John 14:1,
“Let not your heart be troubled;
You believe in God, believe also in me.”
And again, in the same conversation, in John 14:27,
“Peace I leave with you;
My peace I give unto you;
Not as the world gives give I unto you.
Let not your heart be troubled,
Neither let it be afraid.”
The world is unstable;
But we the people of Messiah are secure,
Founded on The Rock. (Matthew 7:24-25)
Let the times make you stronger. (Ephesians 6:10-17) Take refuge in the name of the LORD. (Psalm 91) When the tribulation of the world exhausts itself, we will inherit the earth. (Matthew 5:5)
