Parashah Vayigash

Genesis 44:18—47:27

Notes by Chris O’Quin

December 15^th, 2007

© 2007

“The stone the builders rejected
       has become the capstone.” (Psalms 118:22)

“And he said, ‘The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.’" (Luke 9:22)

I. Introduction

A. In our Torah portion this week we come to the climax of the Joseph narrative.

B. In last week’s portion we studied how Joseph rose to the heights of power at the right hand to Pharaoh while his true identity remained hidden from his brothers.

C. We also observed the parallels and similarities between the Joseph narratives and the Gospel accounts of the life of Yeshua.

D. In this week’s lesson we will continue on this theme of the parallel lives of Joseph and Yeshua in order to:

1. Gain a better understanding of the Biblical text and the dynamics occurring between Joseph and his brothers.

2. Gain a better understanding of the Biblical text and the dynamics occurring between Yeshua and the Sanhedrin.

3. Regain what I believe is a more accurate (both historically and Biblically) understanding of the relationship between the Rabbis and Yeshua—one that I believe has been largely lost for some 2000 years.

4. Gain a better understanding of the identity and mission of Yeshua.

5. Gain a better understanding of future events that will culminate in the coming Kingdom of Messiah.

II. Sources

A. The Torah

B. Talmud

C. The Gospels

D. The Targums and Midrashim

E. The letter of Paul

III. Joseph Reveals His Identity to His Brothers

A. Genesis 44:18—45:3

18 Then Judah went up to him and said: "Please, my lord, let your servant speak a word to my lord. Do not be angry with your servant, though you are equal to Pharaoh himself. 19 My lord asked his servants, 'Do you have a father or a brother?' 20 And we answered, 'We have an aged father, and there is a young son born to him in his old age. His brother is dead, and he is the only one of his mother's sons left, and his father loves him.'

27 "Your servant my father said to us, 'You know that my wife bore me two sons. 28 One of them went away from me, and I said, "He has surely been torn to pieces." And I have not seen him since. 29 If you take this one from me too and harm comes to him, you will bring my gray head down to the grave ^[a] in misery.'

30 "So now, if the boy is not with us when I go back to your servant my father and if my father, whose life is closely bound up with the boy's life, 31 sees that the boy isn't there, he will die. Your servants will bring the gray head of our father down to the grave in sorrow. 32 Your servant guaranteed the boy's safety to my father. I said, 'If I do not bring him back to you, I will bear the blame before you, my father, all my life!'

33 "Now then, please let your servant remain here as my lord's slave in place of the boy, and let the boy return with his brothers. 34 How can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? No! Do not let me see the misery that would come upon my father."

1 Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all his attendants, and he cried out, "Have everyone leave my presence!" So there was no one with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers. 2 And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard him, and Pharaoh's household heard about it.

3 Joseph said to his brothers, "I am Joseph! Is my father still living?" But his brothers were not able to answer him, because they were terrified at his presence.

B. Why did Joseph finally feel that the time was right to reveal his true identity to his brothers?

C. Why did he tell all the Egyptians (Gentiles) to leave the room?

“In so doing Joseph risked great danger, for if the brothers (put to shame by his decision) had attacked him, there was no one to come to his rescue. But well aware of this danger, Joseph said to himself: It is better that I die than humiliate my brothers in front of the Egyptians.” (Munk p. 586)

D. How might this influence our own attitudes when discussing Yeshua with people from mainstream synagogues?

IV. Review of the Motives for Selling Joseph

A. …Joseph’s brothers looked upon him as a usurper. They looked upon Judah as the brother predestined by his qualities to found the future royal tribe. And they were ready even then to accept him as chief. Now, through his dreams and words, Joseph had shown his intention of taking over as head of the family. Thus he went against the others and seriously threatened the peace and harmony of the family and of the future of Abraham’s descendants. This was sufficient to make him deserving of the death penalty (Munk p. 505).

B. They did not realize that they also harbored jealously towards their brother.

C. As we saw last week, it was under similar motives that the Sanhedrin delivered up Yeshua to death.

D. In each case, the leadership whether it was the Sanhedrin or the ten brothers acting for the young Jewish nation, made a halachic ruling. In each case the ruling was that the offender must die and be deprived of any pretensions to rule over them.

E. In each case the ones making the decision felt justified that they were acting in the best interests of the “nation.”

IV. This begs a very important question with respect to our approach with members from mainstream Jewish denominations who don’t embrace Yeshua as the Messiah. Was he the Messiah or wasn’t he?

A. Let’s look again at a passage out of Talmud, Baba Mezi’a 59b.

We learnt elsewhere: If he cut it into separate tiles, placing sand between each tile: R. Eliezer declared it clean, and the Sages declared it unclean; and this was the oven of 'Aknai.  Why [the oven of] 'Aknai? — Said Rab Judah in Samuel's name: [It means] that they encompassed it with arguments as a snake, and proved it unclean. It has been taught: On that day R. Eliezer brought forward every imaginable argument,  but they did not accept them. Said he to them: 'If the halachah agrees with me, let this carob-tree prove it!' Thereupon the carob-tree was torn a hundred cubits out of its place — others affirm, four hundred cubits. 'No proof can be brought from a carob-tree,' they retorted. Again he said to them: 'If the halachah agrees with me, let the stream of water prove it!' Whereupon the stream of water flowed backwards — 'No proof can be brought from a stream of water,' they rejoined. Again he urged: 'If the halachah agrees with me, let the walls of the schoolhouse prove it,' whereupon the walls inclined to fall. But R. Joshua rebuked them, saying: 'When scholars are engaged in a halachic dispute, what have ye to interfere?' Hence they did not fall, in honor of R. Joshua, nor did they resume the upright, in honor of R. Eliezer; and they are still standing thus inclined. Again he said to them: 'If the halachah agrees with me, let it be proved from Heaven!' Whereupon a Heavenly Voice cried out: 'Why do ye dispute with R. Eliezer, seeing that in all matters the halachah agrees with him!' But R. Joshua arose and exclaimed: 'It is not in heaven.' What did he mean by this? — Said R. Jeremiah: That the Torah had already been given at Mount Sinai; we pay no attention to a Heavenly Voice, because Thou hast long since written in the Torah at Mount Sinai, After the majority must one incline.

B. This comes from the book of Deuteronomy.

Appoint judges and officials for each of your tribes in every town the LORD your God is giving you, and they shall judge the people fairly. Do not pervert justice or show partiality. Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous. (Deuteronomy 16:18-19)

If cases come before your courts that are too difficult for you to judge—whether bloodshed, lawsuits or assaults—take them to the place the LORD your God will choose. Go to the priests, who are Levites, and to the judge who is in office at that time. Inquire of them and they will give you the verdict. You must act according to the decisions they give you at the place the LORD will choose. Be careful to do everything they direct you to do. Act according to the law they teach you and the decisions they give you. Do not turn aside from what they tell you, to the right or to the left. The man who shows contempt for the judge or for the priest who stands ministering there to the LORD your God must be put to death. You must purge the evil from Israel. All the people will hear and be afraid, and will not be contemptuous again. (Deuteronomy 17: 8—13)

C. So we see from these passages that in a strictly halachic sense, Yeshua was rejected by the only legitimate authority that could officially anoint or ordain him as the Messiah. Yet he refused to allow the crowds to install him by fiat. We read in John that, “After the people saw the miraculous sign that Jesus did, they began to say, ‘Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.’ Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.” (John 6:14 & 15) He did this because for Yeshua to usurp the legal authorities would have been to break Torah which is something that he could not do.

D. This perspective is important to keep in mind when we are in conversations with our more mainstream Jewish brethren because otherwise we will simply be talking past each other.

E. Bare in mind, however, that Joseph had also been given the death penalty by the “Sanhedrin” of his day and was in this sense halachicly dead. They also had passed the death sentence upon him, yet his prophetic dreams were providentially guaranteed to take place. The brothers had made a halachic ruling but would in the end be proven to be wrong.

F. The Sanhedrin had also made a halachic ruling but were proven wrong by the resurrection of Yeshua.

G. Why is this discussion so important?

1. First, because as Messianics we live with one foot in the Jewish world and the other in the Christian Church. As I have often observed, the tendency is for Messianics to either tune-out the Rabbis and much of Jewish literature out of fear of “losing their faith” in Yeshua; to disregard the Rabbis out of arrogance thinking that they know more than the Rabbis; or to convert to Orthodox Judaism, renouncing their “first love.”

2. The better we understand the debate, the better we can understand the truth and thus hold firmly to that for which Messiah took hold of us.

3. When we hear debates between Messianics and more mainline denominations we hear that they are often talking past each other because, in a sense, they are both right—but from entirely different perspectives. One is correct from a purely halachic perspective and the other from one of Divine Providence. And as we can see from this week’s lesson, halachah can at times clash with Divine Providence.

V. The Veil Falls from the Brother’s Eyes

A. The brothers had always considered themselves absolutely right in their treatment of Joseph. They had a whole series of legal motives, as we have seen, and little by little they had become convinced of their complete innocence. But, when the hour of truth came, twenty-two years later, they needed only to hear Joseph utter two words—“ani Yoseph” (I am Joseph)—and they were petrified, speechless. This simple two-word rebuke abruptly tore away the veil of falsehood and the brothers suddenly realized the shallowness of all their excuses and all their pretexts—the whole beautiful “system of defense” which they had built up over the years suddenly crumbled. All the good reasons which we use to exonerate ourselves cannot withstand the blinding light of truth. “What will it be like then on the day of supreme judgment, when God will ask us to account for our deeds.” (Munk, p. 587)

B. Alas, notes the Midrash, when Jewry will at the end of time again find God in its land, this rediscovery will be of the same nature: with tears of joy will be mingled the memory of indescribable suffering endured through the seemingly endless years of exile. (Munk p. 587)

C. Similarly we read throughout the Apostolic writings that the eyes of the Jewish leadership were also veiled. As Paul wrote in II Corinthians 2:15 & 16, “Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.” And again in Acts 3 Peter remarks that what was done to Yeshua was done in ignorance.

VI. Conclusion

A. We as Messianics have nothing to fear from the Rabbis or Rabbinic literature so long as we understand how the debate regarding Yeshua is framed.

B. In fact, by better understanding the true mission of Yeshua in its proper religious-historical context—that is as the Apostles understood it, we can walk as they walked—with confidence and true conviction in our faith.

C. Next, we must realize that those given the responsibility of leadership of the Jewish nation of Yeshua’s day simply felt that they did not have any choice when it came to rejecting Yeshua as king. Whatever arguments might be made regarding the veracity of Yeshua’s claim to be the Messiah, they understood that to proclaim him as king would have signaled direct rebellion against Rome and would have resulted in national suicide, as was proven just 35 short years later.

D. Further, it reminds us to treat our Jewish brethren with love, kindness and humility. We must realize, as Paul recognized, that HaShem has allowed a veil to remain for a purpose. And once that purpose has been realized, the veil will fall from everyone’s eyes—Jew and Gentile alike. Only then will the Kingdom be ushered in. But this will all be done in HaShem’s timing, not our own.

E. Finally, by better understanding Yeshua in his proper context, we can better understand what the Lord requires of us in our daily lives. How we should speak and how we should walk. So that when we stand before Yeshua as the brothers stood before Joseph, we will hear those precious words, “job well done good and faithful servant.”