The Torah reading ויגש Vayigash (“he approached,” Genesis 44:18–47:27) covers the response of Yehudah (Judah) and the brothers to the accusation by Yosef (Joseph). It’s important to understand why Yosef is doing this, because it helps us understand God and ourselves in a different light. This passage gives us a shadow of the great interceding mercy and sacrifice of Yeshua the Mashiakh (Jesus the Christ).
Why Yeshua (Jesus) went to the Temple on Chanukah, aka the Festival of Dedication and the Festival of Lights, wrapped in the history recorded in 1-4 Maccabees.
Those are prequels of sorts to the Gospels. You see why the Romans are in the Holy Land, why Yeshua warned in Matthew 24 that in the last days God’s people will have to “run to the hills,” and what the “abomination of desolation” (Dan. 11:31; 12:11; Matt. 24:15; Mark 13:14) actually looks like.
From the Torah reading וישב Vayeshev (“he settled,” Genesis 37:1-40:23), we’ll be focusing this time on a comparison between Judah’s relationship with Tamar and Joseph’s relationship with Potiphar’s wife. As we look into this “intermission” in the story, we’ll take a detour into Hosea 3-4, which will give us insight into why the men in those stories were guilty of a far greater evil than the sins of Tamar and Mrs. Potiphar.
Hallel Fellowship meets in Windsor, just north of Santa Rosa. Here’s how to find us and when we’re meeting.
The LORD sends us into the world to be His ambassadors (2Cor. 5:20) and part of the kingdom of priests (Ex. 19:5–6; 1Pet. 2:9–10; Rev. 5:9–10). Will we go? Will we face challenges of our own making or ones that are out of our control? Division is toxic to the Kingdom of God. How are we living this out?
In this study of the Torah reading וישלח Vayishlach (Genesis 32:3–36:43), we will go over a few of Yeshua’s parables that will make Ya’akov’s WWE match with the Angel of the LORD look logical. We will learn more about how God teaches us. We have been sent to a world full of brokenness while experiencing brokenness ourselves. How we deal with the brokenness of others and divisions and disagreements in the Body is a sign of our spiritual maturity.
God gave apostle Peter a startling vision in of unclean animals lowered to him on a sheet for him to “kill and eat.” The common interpretation of this elaborate and repetitive vision is it’s now permissible for believers in Yeshua (Jesus) as the Mashiakh (Christ) to eat meats like pork that were not on the Leviticus menu.
Another interpretation is there was a much greater lesson for Peter: God has always wanted a the family of Heaven to include both Jews and Gentiles. We’ll explore both views in this study.
The Torah reading Vayera (“and He appeared,” Genesis 18–22) aptly describes how the Creator of the Heavens and Earth shows up “in the fullness of time.”
We will see messianic parallels between the “days of Lot” in Sodom, the “days of Noah” and the Day of the LORD preceding the return of Yeshua (Jesus), the Son of Man (Matthew 24; Luke 17).