Parashat Vayetzei 2025

Torah: Gen 28:10-32:3

Haftarah: Hos 12:13-14:10

Brit Chadashah: John 1:19-51

Main Points:

Jacob’s Dream.

Jacob works for Laban for Leah and Rachel.

The war of the womb.

Jacob, the master herdsman, becomes wealthy.

Jacob leaves Laban’s house after God speaks to him.

Mahanaim, this is God’s camp.

Jacob sends messengers to Esau.

Jacob ran for his life. After the incident with his brother Esau, where he disguised himself, he fled taking his blessing and little else. There is some argument as to his age, but many scholars place him around 40 years old when he set out from Beersheba. While traveling to Haran he stopped to rest by the City of Luz and had a dream while he slept. Jacob's response to his revelation was representative of someone who wanted to believe but did not know exactly how, so he conditioned his faith upon God's faithfulness. Jacob made his pillow into an altar and proclaimed a vow to God in that place.

How do we get from revelation to reality? Jacob had a dream, but he was heading in the wrong direction. God often comes to us in a place of crisis or transition; that pace where we are most vulnerable, broken, and in need of him. It is our situations that cause us to seek the purpose of God with passion and focus. It is often a time of change and remaking where God begins to change our direction, our situations, and develop our character. When God is working out his purpose, he calls us to our Bethel (the House of God). It is the place where we fully enter into God's house and begin to live out his word. As we struggle with life and continually proclaim our faith, often among the cry of “why am I heading the wrong way”, God is still leading us and making us. As we constantly question, “Why am I here?”, God is still in control even when we feel that we are not.

Many times, God offers no explanation or reason why he leads us down specific paths of life, apparent dead ends, or places of dependency. He simply calls us to follow him in faith and he is in control through it all. Once in a frustrating period, I was praying and questioning God. I asked God what he was doing and where was he leading me. His response was tailored for my ears. He said, “I am the engineer of this train, and I know where I am going”. As I looked around me, I realized I was not the only passenger and needed to trust God.

The years spent between the experience at Bethel to the one at Peniel (Gen 32) were years of preparation. Jacob went into Haran as a supplanter but emerged as Israel because he allowed God to prevail. We all want a Bethel experience, but will we allow God to bring us up to his mountain, abandon ourselves to his care, and allow him to prevail or reign over our lives, situations, failures, and dead-end roads? Peniel means “Face of God." Our walk with God is a constant process of bringing ourselves before his face. Jacob matured from one who took by deceit to one who communed with God. How do you prevail? Is it through dominating, manipulating, or controlling words and behaviors? Can you trust God to prevail enough to get up from a failure or let go of problematic things that hinder your faith? When we constantly bring ourselves before his face so that his face can be seen in all we do.

What was your dream? He gives us the dream so that we can partner with him. Make it real. Write it down and trust God to bring it. Journal how he is leading and guiding each week. He arranged things purposely to be impossible without him. He controls the provision, the “God” moments, the people needed for it, and the time. God takes care of getting us where we need to be. Though we can act where we can, most of what is needed he must bring is out of our control. Making progress with your dream is about being attentive and pursuing what God put before you today whether you are in your Bethel, Haran, or on your way to Peniel. Our dream will always be about bringing people before God's face. God brought us through that process so we can guide others to him as well. What God started with you at Bethel will someday mature to your Peniel, and when you get there, you won't be alone.

Rav Calev Lehrer

Apostolic Messianic International-Gulf Coast

Next Feasts:

Chanukah begins sundown on Dec 14th and ends at sundown Dec 22nd

Purim begins sundown on March 2nd and ends at sundown March 3rd.

Hebrew Words to Know:

Redemption of the Firstborn- Pidyon HaBen

Religiously Observant- Frum-Yiddish, meaning something or someone is religious (Jewishly) or Torah observant.

Righteous Person- Tzaddik (Hebrew) or Mensch (Yiddish)

Righteous Woman- Tzidkanit/Tzidkaniyot or the feminine form of Tzaddik which is Tzadika.

Picture by: Bartolome Esteban Murillo (1617-1682)