When you think about it you can see how the issue always seems to be about control, doesn’t it? We like to control our own destinies. We like to make our own choices about what to do or eat or own. We certainly don’t like to endure hardship or suffering so we want to take the helm and steer our own ships away from it. But we always fail! The holes we dig for ourselves get deeper and deeper until there is no way out. Only Elohim can save us. Only Elohim can get us where we’ve always wanted to go. We just have to let Him chart the course and hold our hands!

Like a parent, there are many things He needs us to experience in the process, though, since this is Plan B. (Plan A was the easy life in the Garden of Eden before our first parents sinned.) We are so hard-hearted and hard-headed that the only way we learn some lessons is the hard way. So, as much as it hurts Him to allow us to suffer for a time, He does so because He knows that “our light and momentary affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory that is far beyond comparison” (2 Corinthians 4:17). His great desire is for us to qualify for the Resurrection so we can live with Him forever without all the trouble and suffering this mortal life brings. He wants to reward us abundantly in the afterlife. Therefore He maintains control over things of this life in such a way as to burn off the dross and bring out the pure gold inside. We are diamonds in the rough! Do you think maybe Elohim is making out of us all the stones with which He will build the New Jerusalem that He will bring down onto earth? It’s a very exciting idea!

Much of the Tanakh is a history of the children of Abraham experiencing how Elohim uses life experience to refine off of us the dross that we don’t actually want but usually hang onto desperately as if we need it. This haftorah gives us a glimpse into what it was like for Israel at the time. Isaiah 40:27 says, “Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, ‘My way is hidden from the Lord, and my rights are overlooked by my God’”? They are complaining to Elohim that life is not fair and He is not paying attention, but He says in verse 28: “Did you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord, the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable.” He goes on to explain why everything is okay and they should quiet themselves. Chapter 41:14 says, “‘Do not fear, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel! I shall help you,’ declares Elohim, your Redeemer, the Set-apart One of Israel.” Why? Because (verse 8) “you, Israel, are My servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the descendants of Abraham who loved Me.” Here is the connection to Parashah Lech Lecha and the reason why this passage was chosen to be the haftorah for it. We have not yet studied the parashahs where Abraham’s son Isaac is born and Isaac’s son Jacob is born and all the events of their lives, but we’ll get there. As we’ve said before we assume you are already familiar with this general information.

“Do not fear, you worm Jacob.” Wow. Why does Elohim call Jacob a worm? Is He being rude, cutting Jacob down a notch, or is He simply reminding him that there is a huge difference between what he deserves and what Elohim is doing for him?

Elohim focuses Israel’s attention on the positives. Yes, the people are suffering but it will not always be so. Isaiah 41:11 and 12 tells us, “See, all those who raged against you are ashamed and blush, they are as non-existent. And the men who strive with you perish. You seek them but do not find them, those who struggle with you. Those who fight you are as non-existent, as naught.” After the godly have been resurrected and the ungodly have been judged and destroyed, the struggle will be over. Israel will not have to deal with enemies anymore. It will be like we’re back to Plan A!

Remember that individuals must qualify for the Resurrection, so not every person that is part of physical Israel will be in the eternal Kingdom—but that is the national hope. Israel has always looked for and fought for their promised land and even when they have found it, they have not always been able to rule all of it. David’s reign and Solomon’s reign were blessed exceptions! Israel constantly deals with other nations who think it is theirs, and with gentiles who constantly trample it underfoot. Luke 21:24 tells us that “Jerusalem will be trodden down by the gentiles, until the times of the gentiles are fulfilled.” Someday the Promised Land will be ours, whether in this life or in the Resurrection.