Messianic Torah Portion Vayigash (and he approached)
The Torah portion is about Joseph’s revealing of himself to his brothers and bringing Israel into Egypt. The parallels between these scriptures and the New Testament are plentiful. Our discussion covers the despair of Jacob and parallels this to the grief of Yeshua’s disciples and the despair of the world as it awaits Yeshua’s return. We also discuss the joy Jacob experiences when he learns Joseph is alive and compare this to the resurrection of the Messiah. The theme established that Joseph’s brothers meant it for evil when they sold him into slavery but God meant it for good compares remarkably with the resurrection of the Messiah and the sermon given by Peter in Acts 2. We also touched on topics of end times studies and how the concept of the Noahide laws are folly.
Are Predestination and Free Will really competing ideas? No, but it’s complicated.
For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified. (Rom 8:29-30)
We think in terms of free will versus predestination. This is often attributed to “western thought”, as if Hebrew thought doesn’t have such a dichotomy. In reality, these quandries occur across cultures and have been debated likely since the fall of mankind. I address a first century Jewish doctrine that is quite similar to the modern Christian view of predestination within. This is to illustrate there this concept existed in Hebrew culture as well as Greek.
The modern view of these two concepts, that they are diametrically opposed, comes from John Calvin. He was perhaps the most famous of the leaders during the Reformation. Calvin came up with a system, represented by the word TULIP as an acronym, to try and “solve” Christianity. His system is rather primitive and lacks any connection to Hebrew culture at all. It’s important for us to remember that Yahweh’s culture is not from Europe in the middle ages but is recorded in the Torah and the Old Testament (Genesis to Revelation).
Learning how predestination and free will complement each other rather than oppose is founded on an understanding of the entire bible. When we understand that we live within the constraints of time while the Creator of the Universe does not, then we can begin to understand the symmetry of these two concepts.
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