Shabbat Shalom.

Our topic for today is the Sabbath. When is it, what is it, and who is it for?

To approach this topic properly, we really are stepping into a single city block of a much larger neighborhood. What I mean by that is, the topic underlying this discussion really boils down to this question: Is “the law” done away with? If so, what law was done away with? And how are we to approach holy living… with or without the so-called “law?”

This brings up any issues and questions, so for some grounding, let’s begin with the words of our common Messiah, Yeshua, in:

Matthew 5:17-20 (TNIV)
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. Truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

Now, the TNIV states that Yeshua came not to abolish, but to “fulfill” the Torah and the Prophets. A clearer version is found in David Stern’s Jewish New Testement, where the word fulfill is exchanged with the phrase “to fill them up with meaning.” In the gospels, Yeshua declares Himself Lord of the Sabbath. If he was coming to put an end to Sabbath observance, that would make Him Lord of nothing. Does that make sense? Of course not.

You see, the term “fulfill” is not the best rendering, because it suggest an end; this is not reflective of the Hebrew and Aramaic original language. The original manuscripts use wording that suggest a present and ongoing process… filling the practice up with meaning. Certainly, apart from God, keeping the Sabbath is a rather empty practice. Whether held on Saturday or some other day, a Sabbath absent the presence of God is not something that lends meaning, depth and closeness to our creator; with the Messiah filling these practices up with meaning and significance, we can see why God ordained the Sabbath – to set aside a special time that is exclusively and uniquely to spend time together with those who worship him.

Now, let us look at the origin of the Shabbat:

Genesis 2:2-3
On the seventh day God was finished with his work which he had made, so he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. God blessed the seventh day and separated it as holy; because on that day God rested from all his work which he had created, so that it itself could produce.

The Shabbat, therefore, is the seventh day of the week. The seventh day of the week, according to Jewish practice that Yeshua Himself observed, begins at sundown on Friday and is complete at sundown on Saturday. This is the Shabbat as God created by His own actions.

This fact is underlined when ADONAI gave Moshe the Ten Commands. Now, the Ten Commands are unique among the Mosaic Laws, because they were spoken directly by God Himself. The rest of Torah law was a mediation by Moshe, as he stood in the gap between God and the children of Israel. Therefore, whatever one may feel about the rest of the Mosaic Law, the Ten Commands stand apart from such mediation between God and man – they are the direct words of Adonai, and therefore are non-negotiable. If one is searching for “the will of God,” it is with the Ten Commands they must begin their search; nothing less.

It is paradoxical that even the most well-intentioned Christians will fight for the display of the Ten Commands in public places, and yet if it is pointed out that these commands include an expectation for seventh-day Sabbath observance, they immediately begin to mis-quote Paul on the Law being done away with. This can only be due to at least 1,700 years of bad and false teaching on the Sabbath… leading to the false impression that it falls on Sunday.

But what does God say about when the Sabbath falls? It is made clear in:

Exodus 20:8-11 (CJB)
“Remember the day, Shabbat, to set it apart for God. You have six days to labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Shabbat for ADONAI your God. On it, you are not to do any kind of work; not you, your son or your daughter, not your male or female slave, not your livestock, and not the foreigner staying with you inside the gates to your property. For in six days, ADONAI made heaven and earth, the sea and everything in them; but on the seventh day he rested. This is why ADONAI blessed the day, Shabbat, and separated it for himself.

Seventh-day Sabbath observance is one of the 10 Commands. This is simply fact. The question then becomes, when did believers in Yeshua start worshiping on the first day of the week (Sunday) instead of the day God Himself declared the Sabbath? Well, some claim that the practice dates back to the first century itself. This is simply not so, and comes originates from a misreading of Paul’s writings.

Colossians 2:16-17
So don’t let anyone pass judgment on you in connection with eating and drinking, or in regard to a Jewish festival or Rosh–Hodesh or Shabbat. These are a shadow of things that are coming, but the body is of the Messiah.

While many folks interpret this passage to mean that Shabbat observance has been done away with, that is not the case here. Specifically, Paul is addressing conflict within the kehilat as Colossi, where factionalism had APPARENTLY broken out (not unlike on these boards) between those who said all these things must be done, and those who said none of them needed to be done.

Paul, playing the diplomat, isn’t clarifying who’s right. what is he saying is, stop the fighting about it. That’s where the words “don’t let anyone pass judgment on you” about all these practices comes from. But let’s stop for a moment and think about this: was Paul mediating between Sunday worshippers and Saturday worshippers? No. He couldn’t have been, because Sunday worship was not part of the first-century church.

What he was mediating between was likely more akin to the controversy that broke out in the book of Acts, where a group of former Pharisees – now Messianic followers of Yeshua – speak up and say that “to be saved,” Gentiles had to follow things like the kashrut laws, circumcision, etc. That is found in this passage:

Acts 15:5-21
But some of those who had come to trust were from the party of the P’rushim; and they stood up and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them and direct them to observe the Torah of Moshe.” The emissaries and the elders met to look into this matter. After lengthy debate, Kefa got up and said to them, “Brothers, you yourselves know that a good while back, God chose me from among you to be the one by whose mouth the Goyim should hear the message of the Good News and come to trust. And God, who knows the heart, bore them witness by giving the Ruach HaKodesh to them, just as he did to us; that is, he made no distinction between us and them, but cleansed their heart by trust. So why are you putting God to the test now by placing a yoke on the neck of the talmidim which neither our fathers nor we have had the strength to bear? No, it is through the love and kindness of the Lord Yeshua that we trust and are delivered––and it’s the same with them.” Then the whole assembly kept still as they listened to Bar–Nabba and Sha’ul tell what signs and miracles God had done through them among the Gentiles. Ya‘akov broke the silence to reply. “Brothers, ”he said, “hear what I have to say. Shim‘on has told in detail what God did when he first began to show his concern for taking from among the Goyim a people to bear his name. And the words of the Prophets are in complete harmony with this for it is written, ‘“After this, I will return; and I will rebuild the fallen tent of David. I will rebuild its ruins, I will restore it, so that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, that is, all the Goyim who have been called by my name, ” says ADONAI, who is doing these things.’ All this has been known for ages. “Therefore, my opinion is that we should not put obstacles in the way of the Goyim who are turning to God. Instead, we should write them a letter telling them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from fornication, from what is strangled and from blood. For from the earliest times, Moshe has had in every city those who proclaim him, with his words being read in the synagogues every Shabbat.”

This is a rich passage, and often vastly misunderstood.

The key to understanding this passage is the phrase of the former Pharisees: “IT IS NECESSARY…”

When the disciples respond to this challenge, Kefa/Peter and Ya’akov/James are the ones who respond and say, basically, “NO, IT’S NOT NECESSARY.” That’s what this boils down to.

But what are we talking about? We’re talking about bringing Gentiles, completely unexposed to Jewish customs, into union with Messiah. Leaving behind their likely polytheism, into monothesim toward (to them) a foreign (Jewish) God would have been quite a challenge… INITIALLY. You see, this isn’t about whether Gentile believers should NEVER obey these things… this is about whether following the Law of Moses, circumcision and the rest are necessary for salvation. Clearly, they are not necessary for salvation.

But does that mean Gentiles shouldn’t grow in obedience to ADONAI’s word, and eventually take up some, and perhaps all, of such things? I believe that was a given, and generally expected as part of the discipleship process… but NOT part of the salvation process. That’s the distinction being made here.

And as this relates to seventh-day Sabbath observance, please note that verse 21 ends with James/Ya’akov pointing out that the Law of Moshe is being proclaimed “in the synagogues every Shabbat,” a clear reference to seventh-day Shabbat observance, and also an indication that further obedience would come from further study of God’s word. So it’s clear that even this late in Acts, there is NO Sunday worship.

So, where did Sunday worship come from and how was it introduced into the church?

Glad you asked. Sunday worship was instituted by the anti-Judaic Roman Emperor Constantine, who founded the Catholic church, as a way to distance “Christianity” from its Judaic roots, and as a sign of the church’s authority. We get this from:

Converts Catechism of Catholic Doctrine, pg 50
“Saturday is the Sabbath… We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday.”

See? That is from the Catholic Cathecism and they admit it themselves! They transferred the day of worship, not God.

In 1891, Catholic author James Gibbons, who was a Catholic cardinal, wrote the following in his book, Faith of Our Fathers:

Gibbons, Faith of Our Fathers, pg. 89
“The Catholic Church… by virtue of her divine mission, changed the day from Saturday to Sunday… You may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday, a day which we never sanctify. Of course the Catholic Church claims that the change was her act… and the act is a mark of her ecclesiastical power. This change is repeatedly referred to as a mark. Sunday is our mark of authority!”

Gibbons is correct; Sunday worship is not found or endorsed in the Bible. It was transferred by an act of man.

Now, does this mean that those who worship on Sunday are knowingly violating the command to honor the Shabbat? Not knowingly, no. Most do so in ignorance, because they’ve never been properly taught about the Sabbath, and many have actively been mis-taught about the Sabbath. And sadly, too many simply accept what their house of worship practices or states in their statement of faith, never bothering to study it out for themselves.

Can God be worshiped and honored on any day? Certainly. But once one learns of when the Shabbat actually falls, one has to form a response of some sort to this newfound knowledge. They can either conform their practices to fit their new convictions, or they can choose to continue worshiping God on the day their church meets, knowing it’s not the true Sabbath but also knowing God is honored on the day they do meet.

What is illogical, however, would be to continue to deny which day God placed the Sabbath on; it is, always has been, and always will be on the seventh day of the week – Saturday. That is what Yeshua Himself practiced; as the Word of the L-RD, it is what he declared to Moshe on Sinai.

Is seventh-day Sabbath worship necessary for salvation? Clearly not, and the attitude of Messianics must be tolerant, as in the book of Acts. However, as each believer grows in faith, I believe if they study out the topic of the Sabbath, they can only come to one conclusion about which day it falls on, which means the only remaining question is how to respond to that new knowledge.

And that is between each believer and Adonai; we must not judge, unless we want to be judged ourselves. Be merciful, and mercy will be shown to you.

Shabbat Shalom.

Even though it’s been out for over a decade now, I enjoy Lennart Moeller’s book, The Exodus Case, more than ever. The book argues convincingly for an Exodus accurate to the Biblical account and verifiable by archaeology – with the main problem being that folks have simply been looking in the wrong places before.

I know TV producer Simcha Jacobovici, star of The Naked Archaeologist on History International, has proposed a more recent and trendy theory and is not in favor of Jabal al-Laws as the mountain of Moshe, but frankly Jacobovici’s record for being accurate is a bit shakey and nowhere nearly as deeply-founded in research as Moeller’s theory.

As we enter the part of the Torah cycle where we read once again through Exodus, I am reminded of again of Moeller’s book and just how well-done it actually was. It still stands, for me, as a standard by which to measure other books on the Exodus topic – even though it is the book of Sh’mot itself that is the final authority.

One thing’s for sure, Moshe and the children of Israel were not the beneficiaries of any modern travel deals in their flight from Egypt, although the provision of haShem certainly covered every eventuality.

I wonder how handy a receipt printer would have been to the money changers in the Temple. Probably fairly handy until Yeshua broke up their little operation. Here’s my commentary on Sh’mot. Or listen to it!

Shabbat Shalom.

Our parashah today is Sh’mot, or Names, and covers Exodus 1:1 through 6:1. Here, we begin the story of Moses, whose journey with God and the Jewish people will comprise the last four books of the Torah. How important a figure is Moses? Well, we are told this in the book of Deuteronomy:

Deuteronomy 34:10
Since that time, there has not arisen in Israel a prophet like Moses, whom The L-RD knew face-to-face.

That is the eulogy of this man we are about to meet in our study. What believer, what follower of Yeshua, could wish for better words to be spoken about him or her at the end of their lives? Yes, it is true that no one can look on the face of God and live, as the Torah teaches, but knowing God face-to-face is a different matter; that is possible. Further testimony to this face-to-face nature of the relationship between The L-RD and Moses is given in:

Numbers 12:6-8
And the L-RD said to them, “Now listen to me! Even with prophets, I the L-RD communicate by visions and dreams. But that is not how I communicate with my servant Moses. He is entrusted with my entire house. I speak to him face to face, directly and not in riddles! He sees the L-RD as he is. Should you not be afraid to criticize him?”

Moses is declared by the Torah to be more humble than any other person who has ever lived. While Moses did indeed sin and fall short of God’s perfect standard, he came perhaps closest to any of the patriarchs living a life far above God’s minimum standard of acceptable behavior.

Now, over the last several weeks as we closed out the book of Genesis, we studied the life of Joseph and how much he and his life were a shadow of the Messiah Yeshua. This theme of being a shadow of the Messiah does not rest solely on Joseph, but on Moses as well, and the parallels begin early on in this week’s Torah portion.

For example, in the first chapter, we read that after Joseph and all his brothers died and time passed, there came to the throne a new Pharaoh who “knew nothing about Joseph.” This Pharaoh saw that the children of Israel had prospered and become numerous in the land – a significant enough part of the population that he feared that if they were to turn on Egypt during a time of war, and side with Egypt’s enemies, it could turn the tide of any conflict against Egypt, which was by this time the lone superpower of the ancient world.

So, in an attempt to control the population of the Jewish people in Egypt, the Pharaoh tries to encourage the midwives to kill all the male children born among them, letting only the girls live. When that didn’t work, he ordered a more significant and proactive measure to be taken: that all males born to the Israelites be tossed into the river and drowned.

What we have here, of course, is a slaughter of the innocents during a time when one of the most important people in the history of the Jewish people – short of Messiah Yeshua himself – is about to be born.

And in the life of Yeshua, we see the same pattern. We are told in:

Matthew 2:16-18
Herod was furious when he learned that the wise men had outwitted him. He sent soldiers to kill all the boys in and around Bethlehem who were two years old and under, because the wise men had told him the star first appeared to them about two years earlier. Herod’s brutal action fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah: “A cry of anguish is heard in Ramah–weeping and mourning unrestrained. Rachel weeps for her children, refusing to be comforted–for they are dead.”

This pattern is not surprising; throughout history, those who do evil have sought to destroy those who fear God and obey his commands. If this were the only parallel between the life of Moses and the life of Messiah, it would not make a good case for Moses as a shadow of the Messiah. Yet the parallels to not end there.

To save his life, Moses was hidden away in Egypt, in the house of Pharaoh himself, raised by one of Pharaoh’s own daughters. In order to escape the slaughter ordered by Herod, Yeshua’s parents, Joseph and Mary, take him to Egypt for a time, until Herod dies. And we know that this is part of the Messianic pattern because of the words in Hosea 11:1, which say, in part, “I called my son out of Egypt.” Although this passage in Hosea is directly referring to Israel as a nation, which a plain reading of the text makes clear, the Gospel writer Matthew clearly saw it also as a Messianic prophecy foreshadowed in Moses and fulfilled in Yeshua.

Now, I’d like to take a moment off my main point to address a popular misconception. Thanks in large part to the famous movie, The Ten Commandments, by Cecil B. DeMille, many people believe this period of slavery in Egypt, into which Moses was born, portrays the Israelites as being the people responsible for the labor behind building the great pyramids of Egypt. The belief that the Israelites were the labor force behind the pyramids is so wide-spread, some Egyptologists have gone so far as to dedicate studies to debunking the myth, and Torah-believers caught up in this myth then feel compelled to defend this misconception.

Well, let’s clear that up, right here and now; the Torah never claims the Jewish people built the pyramids of Egypt. What the Torah specifically claims is that they were the labor force, or at least part of it, behind building the store-cities of Pithom and Rameses. So, while the idea of the Jewish people suffering under forced labor and harsh taskmasters is indeed an accurate one, it is not accurate to associate the Jewish people with the pyramids of Egypt. The accurate portrayal has them building the store-cities of Pithom and Rameses.

Getting back to our main point, there are other parallels between Moses and Messiah Yeshua. For example, in this parashah, The L-RD tells Moses that he is to be the person God will use to lead the Israelites out of physical bondage in Egypt. Similarly, the mission of Messiah Yeshua was to lead people out of their spiritual bondage to sin… first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.

Moses is the only prophet that the Torah declares communicated with God “face-to-face.” This was true in the sense that God did not speak to Moses in riddles as He did the prophets, but directly, saying exactly what he meant. Moses became the intermediary between God and man. However, as a human, as someone who did sin and fall short, Moses could not live forever.

In a passage later in the Torah, we are told this about the promised Messiah in:

Deuteronomy 18:17-18
“Then the LORD said to me, ‘Fine, I will do as they have requested. I will raise up a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites. I will tell that prophet what to say, and he will tell the people everything I command him.

The L-RD is speaking to Moses when he says this, so the promised Messiah is therefore a “prophet like Moses.” How was Yeshua like Moses? Well, God spoke to Him directly, He has become our eternal intermediary between The L-RD and humanity, and he tells us everything that The L-RD commands.

The difference is, while Moses was human and had to die for his own sins, Messiah Yeshua was without sin, and therefore could die in our place, making the atoning sacrifice for the error that separates God and man.

The parallels between Moses and Yeshua will continue to pop up as we go deeper with our study. These are not accidents or coincidences or something imposed over the Torah itself by those eager to find it. No, on the contrary, I believe that the reason so many of the patriarchs of the faith live lives that bear a resemblance to the Messiah is simply because of this:

When one seeks after God long enough and hard enough, when one obeys God in all things – or at least seeks to do so as much as possible – then the result is that their lives will indeed become a reflection of Messiah Yeshua. It’s a natural result of seeking that kind of unity with and obedience to our creator.

Our study of the life of Moses is only beginning. While I have touched on several similarities between Moses and Yeshua, I have only scratched the surface. The comparisons run deep.

Yet, as with Joseph, while Moses is a shadow of the Messiah, he himself is not the Messiah. We see in this week’s portion that Moses, in his youthful zeal, kills an Egyptian guard; fails to trust God to cure his slowness of speech; doubts whether anyone will listen to him and believe the L-RD had sent him. Moses is a man of flaws, as much as he is a man who the L-RD knew face-to-face.

As we continue on in the Torah in the weeks to come, we will discover many more ways in which Moses is a shadow of the Messiah, and ways in which he is like each of us. May his example be instructive to us as we seek to live as The L-RD would have us live.

Shabbat Shalom.

Sometimes I wish my wife and I hadn’t waited for long to get a good TV stand. Now that we have it, we’re thinking of eventually getting an HD set and I’m not sure if the new stand we have will be just right for it or not. Well, we tried. Here’s my commentary on VaYechi – sorry for the delay in posting, all! Or listen to it!

Shabbat Shalom.

Our parashah for today is VaYechi, or, “and he lived.” It covers Genesis 47:28 through 50:26. As Genesis draws to a close, it deals extensively with the deaths of both Jacob and Joseph, and much of what is related in this week’s reading has been misinterpreted, misquoted and misunderstood to such an extent that it has been the basis of bad teaching and errors even within the Messianic movement.

So rather than focus on the controversial aspects of this week’s Torah portion, I’d like to concentrate on what I feel is the overriding message of this parashah: the nature of forgiveness.

Now, many people believe that forgiveness is a decision, and it is. But calling it a decision can lead to a misunderstanding of the nature of forgiveness. When I think of most decisions I’ve made in my life, I picture a single moment when I had to choose between two or more options, with no opportunity to undo that choice.

For example, buying a car is such a decision. If you choose a van or truck, for example, you’re buying into the convenience of added seating and more storage space, but you’re surrendering fuel efficiency. If you choose an economy car, often you are choosing fuel efficiency, but surrendering some of the comfort and convenience offered by larger vehicle.

Whichever you choose, though, once you’ve made your choice, there’s little room for retreat. You’ve bought into it, and now it’s yours, no matter how much you regret missing out on the options you had to give up in making the choice.

What I want to propose, however, is that choosing forgiveness is not at all similar to the choice of buying a car, for example. Yes, we can all choose to forgive; but it is not a one-time, one-day choice. To truly live in a state of forgiveness, it must be a choice one continues to make over and over again as time goes on, because unlike buying a car, forgiveness is a choice that, at the human level, can be snatched back at any time… all we need to do is let unforgiveness take over control of our actions.

We can see how forgiveness – or the lack of it – plays out in this week’s Torah portion in the lives of Jacob, Jacob’s sons, and also in the life of Joseph. The extent and depth and genuineness of the forgiveness they practice becomes evident by their actions.

Let’s look first at Jacob himself. While Jacob – also named Israel – is a founding member of the Jewish people, he is not without his flaws. Remember, in many ways it was Jacob’s favoritism of Joseph over his brothers that sparked the sibling jealousy that brought so much pain and suffering to them all.

Because of those flaws, it is easy to misunderstand the role of forgiveness in his life. In fact, understanding Jacob’s relationship to forgiveness is something that sparked much study, discussion and soul-searching as I was preparing this commentary. Looking primarily at the blessings Jacob makes over his sons, my first instinct was to label them curses, not blessings. Take this for example, from:

Genesis 49:5-7
“Simeon and Levi are two of a kind–men of violence. O my soul, stay away from them. May I never be a party to their wicked plans. For in their anger they murdered men, and they crippled oxen just for sport. Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce; cursed be their wrath, for it is cruel. Therefore, I will scatter their descendants throughout the nation of Israel.

Does that sound like a blessing? Or does it sound like the words of a father who has never really forgiven his sons completely for the sins of their youth?

Well, after much consideration, I’ve come to realize, it’s neither of those options. These blessings are probably more accurately words of prophecy; accurate statements about his sons’ past, present and future, as guided by the Ruach haKodesh – the Holy Spirit.

They cannot be considered true blessings, because true blessings build a person up and emphasize that which is God-fearing and obedient to The L-RD in an individual.

These words are not like that; as parents of older and adult children might recognize, while the Torah promises that when you raise your children up in the ways of The L-RD, when they are older, they will not depart from it, it is also written between the lines of that promise that it’s not always a direct path to that older wisdom.

Sometimes, at least for a season, the children we raise go astray, despite every best effort and intention, and all one can do is pray that season passes quickly, and they come through it unscathed, alive, and ready to obey The L-RD.

For us today, Jacob is a portrait of such a parent. As we’ve seen over the last few Torah portions, not all of Jacob’s sons have turned out well; some of them are rascals and ruffians; at least two are murderers. Not exactly a functional family, is it?

But in his prophetic blessings, it would be easy to mistake Jacob’s words as unforgiveness; in fact, it’s a trap I nearly fell into while studying this Torah portion. Yet after talking with Rabbi Stan and others, I’ve come to recognize that these are not the bitter curses of an unforgiving parent, but a simple recognition by Jacob of who his sons have been, are and will be. They are not words of unforgiveness, but of hard truths.

No, if Jacob had been speaking words tinged by unforgiveness, surely his blessings would have mentioned the deepest betrayal of all by his sons: the selling of his son Joseph into slavery in Egypt, of all those lost years between father and son. Yet such words are not to be found here!

The difficult truth is, no matter how often and completely forgiveness is offered, some people simply do not want forgiveness, nor do they seek it out, nor are their actions and choices affected by it when it is offered. They are prone to certain kinds of poor choices and errors, and their fates must be prayerfully placed in the hands of The L-RD.

Of course, it doesn’t have to be like that. Through The L-RD and his Messiah Yeshua, we can experience a forgiveness so complete, even the memory of our sins is wiped out. As it is written in:

Psalm 103:11-13
For His unfailing love toward those who fear Him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth. He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west. The L-RD is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear Him.

This brings our discussion to the topic of Jacob’s sons; how is it that some of them have remained rebellious, difficult, prone to trouble? Well, if we think about it, I’m sure we can all imagine children who do not follow in the footsteps of their faithful parents. Is it possible that this rebellion is born out of fear, or a lack of understanding of the forgiveness they have been offered, or even simply not wanting to be forgiven and not caring if they are? We have clues to this answer.

We read last week of how emotional and genuine was Joseph’s forgiveness of his brothers; he even urged them to forgive themselves! Yet in this week’s reading, after the death of their father Jacob, we can see the sons of Israel are not living like people who have experienced forgiveness:

Genesis 50:15-18
But now that their father was dead, Joseph’s brothers became afraid. “Now Joseph will pay us back for all the evil we did to him,” they said. So they sent this message to Joseph: “Before your father died, he instructed us to say to you: ‘Forgive your brothers for the great evil they did to you.’ So we, the servants of the God of your father, beg you to forgive us.” When Joseph received the message, he broke down and wept. Then his brothers came and bowed low before him. “We are your slaves,” they said.

For seventeen years, Joseph’s brothers have lived in Egypt, enjoying Joseph’s kindness, and in all that time, they’ve never really lost their feelings of guilt. Instead, they are still living in fear of an act of vengeance from a brother they had wronged.

This reminds me of the parable Yeshua told of a man who owed a king a lot of money, more than he could ever repay. At first, the king forgave the man his debt. But when the man returned home, never fully living in the forgiveness offered him, he started to treat harshly all those who owed him money.

I’ve always felt the reason for this man’s actions were that he was still living in fear that the king’s forgiveness wasn’t permanent, so he was trying to save against a future collection of that same debt he thought he still owed the king. He never believed he was completely forgiven, and by acting on that fear rather than trusting the king’s forgiveness, he showed no mercy to others after being shown great mercy, and was tossed in prison by the king as a result.

Jacob’s sons are like that; Joseph has forgiven them, even explained they hadn’t caused him to end up in Egypt, but God had. Yet they don’t trust that Joseph’s forgiveness is permanent and complete, so they have spent all this time waiting – as so many of us who give into fear do – for the “other shoe to drop.”

Our final picture of forgiveness in this week’s reading comes from our shadow of the Messiah Yeshua, Joseph. How does he respond to his brothers falling back into deception to secure their own safety against a nonexistent threat?

Genesis 50:19-22
But Joseph told them, “Don’t be afraid of me. Am I God, to judge and punish you? As far as I am concerned, God turned into good what you meant for evil. He brought me to the high position I have today so I could save the lives of many people. No, don’t be afraid. Indeed, I myself will take care of you and your families.” And he spoke very kindly to them, reassuring them. So Joseph and his brothers and their families continued to live in Egypt. Joseph was 110 years old when he died.

Here, we see a true picture of what forgiveness is all about. As I said, it’s not a one-time decision, but a lifetime of decision-making. Joseph’s words here are nearly the same to his brothers as they were when he first revealed his identity to them in last week’s reading. I am Joseph, your brother. Don’t blame yourselves. God used it for good, for our very survival.

Forgiveness must be ongoing and daily, filled with reassurances that create trust. This is needed because too often, forgiveness is practiced incompletely, and we allow old, embittered feelings to seep back to the surface and control our decision-making, our emotions and our way of thinking.

The kind of forgiveness that heals is Messiah Yeshua’s example. A forgiveness that is complete once and for all time, yes, but a forgiveness that is reassured so that it drives out the fear that can lead us to slip back into bad choices. That is the most important way in which Joseph is a shadow of the Messiah Yeshua. The lack of trust of Joseph’s brothers causes him great pain, yet their lack of trust never prevents him from reassuring them of his forgiveness and acceptance of them.

May we all know and experience that kind of genuine, life-saving forgiveness; the kind we can only learn though our Messiah Yeshua.

Shabbat Shalom.

If you’re looking for Nixon watches, there are better places to Web surf. If you’re looking for Torah-based teaching, you’ve come to the right place! Here’s my complete-in-one-post commentary on VaYigash. Or listen to it!

Shabbat Shalom.

Our parashah for today is VaYigash, or, “and he drew near.” It covers Genesis 44:18 through 47:27. The most important theme I drew from the Torah portion this week is that of surrender.

Now, in the eyes of the world, surrender can only mean one thing: defeat. An inability to overcome the odds against you and succeed in spite of them. In essence, and put in the simplest way possible, surrender in our culture means giving up, losing, ceasing all struggles and accepting one’s fate.

Let’s take a look at how Dictionary.com defines surrender:

sur-ren-der
–verb (used with object)
1. to yield (something) to the possession or power of another; deliver up possession of on demand or under duress: to surrender the fort to the enemy; to surrender the stolen goods to the police.
2. to give (oneself) up, as to the police.
3. to give (oneself) up to some influence, course, emotion, etc.: He surrendered himself to a life of hardship.
4. to give up, abandon, or relinquish (comfort, hope, etc.).
5. to yield or resign (an office, privilege, etc.) in favor of another.
–verb (used without object)
6. to give oneself up, as into the power of another; submit or yield.

The question this week’s Torah reading forces us to examine is, Is surrender always a bad thing? What I’d like to suggest is that the quality of life that follows a surrender depends upon the nature of who one is surrendering to. If the person you are surrendering to is merciful and generous in victory, one can expect a life of ample provision and cheerful service. If the person you are surrendering to is, by contrast, harsh and without concern for the well-being of his newly-won subjects, then life can become quite difficult following a surrender.

The first surrender we witness in this week’s Torah reading is that of the sons of Israel to Yosef. Now remember, to this point, Yosef’s brothers have not recognized him for who he is and Yosef himself has not yet revealed his own identity. So when Judah steps forward to speak with Yosef and surrender to the mercies of the court of Pharaoh, Judah has no reason to expect a tender response. This potential for fear is reflected in Judah’s words, when he acknowledges that Yosef could have easily decided to have him and all his brothers killed if he wished.

Judah finally lays out the truth before Yosef; that the demand they leave Binyamin behind because of the apparent theft of an object belonging to the court, which Yosef had had planted there to bring matters to a head – to abandon Binyamin to Yosef would mean the death of their father Israel. Judah then offers up his own life in place of Binyamin’s, demonstrating a selflessness that has never before been present in the actions of the sons of Israel. He is surrendering himself to a higher authority and an uncertain fate, and in doing this, Judah, in the eyes of Yosef, is also demonstrating repentance; he is saying by his actions that he regrets being the cause of his father Israel losing one of his sons, and does not want to be the cause of Israel losing another.

This surrender tells Yosef a lot. It tells him his brothers regret their past actions which took Yosef out of their lives. It tells him they are not treating Yosef’s closest brother, Binyamin, with the same kind of jealousy with which they treated Yosef, because they are now willing to give up their own lives to preserve the lives of Binyamin and their father Israel. And it tells him that they are not doing this for show, because they know Yosef at this point only as Zephaneth-Paneah – the bread man of life and second in authority in all of Egypt only to Pharaoh himself. Since they do not recognize him as Yosef, the surrender is more meaningful, because they have no assurance of mercy.

Yosef’s response also confirms our suspicions of how time and The L-RD have healed his wounds as well. Last week, I suggested that Yosef no longer held any bitterness toward his brothers, because no one could hold bitterness in their heart and live before God and man as honestly as Yosef did. In this week’s reading, that suspicion is confirmed by Yosef’s actions; in response to the surrender of his brothers to the power and authority he holds over them, Yosef meets his brothers with mercy and forgiveness.

Genesis 45:2-8a
Then he broke down and wept aloud. His sobs could be heard throughout the palace, and the news was quickly carried to Pharaoh’s palace. “I am Joseph!” he said to his brothers. “Is my father still alive?” But his brothers were speechless! They were stunned to realize that Joseph was standing there in front of them. “Come over here,” he said. So they came closer. And he said again, “I am Joseph, your brother whom you sold into Egypt. But don’t be angry with yourselves that you did this to me, for God did it. He sent me here ahead of you to preserve your lives. These two years of famine will grow to seven, during which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. God has sent me here to keep you and your families alive so that you will become a great nation. Yes, it was God who sent me here, not you!”

Imagine the shock and relief that must have gone through the sons of Israel! For well over twenty years, they had lived with the regret that comes from the foolish actions of their youth. They had carried the shame so heavily that they could never bring themselves to share the truth of their actions with their father. Instead, they had maintained the lie of Yosef’s death. And now, after years of not being sure if he was alive or dead themselves, before them stands the very brother they had thought they’d rid themselves of forever; Yosef is not only alive, but is second in authority to the most powerful ruler in the entire region, the Pharaoh of Egypt.

Furthermore, when Yosef reveals himself, he does not meet them with accusations of betrayal, rage, and bitterness, but instead is humbling himself before them, asking them not to be upset with themselves for what they did to him, because ultimately it was God who had wanted Yosef in Egypt, to preserve the lives of Israel and his sons.

Consider for a moment just how powerful a portrait of the Messiah Yeshua that Yosef now is. Yosef had been figuratively put to death; Yeshua was put to death. For a time, Yosef was hidden away and his whereabouts are unknown to his brothers; similarly, Yeshua has been hidden away, even as many people, both Jewish and even some Gentiles await another Messiah.

When Yosef stands before his brothers in this parashah, they fail to recognize him, until he reveals himself to them. And in the same way, many of us today, Jew and Gentile like, have Yeshua standing before us, yet fail to recognize who He truly is.

Zechariah 12:10, 13:1
“Then I will pour out a spirit of grace and prayer on the family of David and on all the people of Jerusalem. They will look on me whom they have pierced and mourn for him as for an only son. They will grieve bitterly for him as for a firstborn son who has died … On that day a fountain will be opened for the dynasty of David and for the people of Jerusalem, a fountain to cleanse them from all their sins and defilement.”

Just as with Yosef and his brothers, when Yeshua reveals himself to us, we will mourn and grieve that we did not recognize him sooner, and for all we have done to him. Yet, as the passage indicates, a fountain for cleansing from all sins and defilement has been provided. Just as Yosef met his brothers with forgiveness and restoration, so also will Yeshua meet us. For as long as we draw breath, we have time and opportunity for the Messiah Yeshua to uncover his face and make Himself known to us. All he’s waiting for is our willingness to surrender ourselves into his wise and caring government.

Before we leave this parashah, though, I want to draw your attention to the last chapter. After Yosef is restored to his family, the Torah relates how he went on to govern Egypt for Pharaoh.

We are told that at first the people came to Yosef and bought grain with money; when they ran out of money, they begged Yosef for mercy and Yosef agreed to accept their livestock in exchange for grain. When their livestock ran out, Yosef accepted their land as payment, and when they had nothing left, he made them servants of Pharaoh.

At first glance, such behavior does not seem very Messiah-like, and it does not seem to fit in with Yosef as a shadow of the Messiah. Yet, on the contrary, I believe the Torah is giving us a very clear picture of the Messianic kingdom.

In this picture, The L-RD is represented by Pharaoh, while Yosef represents Messiah Yeshua, he who sits at the right hand of the L-RD. Like Yeshua, Yosef’s mission is to do what? To build the kingdom. What Yosef does is slowly gives people a choice; surrender all they have and live, or hold on to their possessions and perish.

Ironically, once they have surrendered all they have, and have put Pharaoh in his place as their ruler, they receive all they have surrendered back to them, and more.

Is this not the mission of the Messiah Yeshua? Is this not our mission as well? We give people a choice, a chance to live and to serve a benevolent ruler who will bless them richly, and the choice, as with Yosef and Pharaoh, isn’t an attractive option: our choice is to perish.

Are we ready to follow Yeshua’s example? To build the kingdom of our L-RD, to offer hope and life and mercy to all who seek it, to those who would surrender all for the sake of eternal life? That is our mission, the mission of both Yosef and our Messiah Yeshua; let us all draw near in surrender.

Shabbat Shalom.