Take a stand for what’s right in an evil age: Joseph and Messiah (Genesis 37)

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Vayeshev victuals

The betrayal of Yosef by his brothers, debating about what to do with him and selling him to Mitsraim-bound traders seems to parallel Yeshua’s betrayal and multiple trials, giving both Israel and the nations the opportunity to repent from malevolent action or murderous inaction.

Yosef is a model of standing firm on what’s immoveable — the Tzur of Israel — and fleeing the urge to assimilate, to “do as the Egyptians do.” 

Victories amid vicissitudes: ‘Punchlines’ of Genesis 37–40

• Genesis 37: Yosef dreams, and his brothers scheme
  • A rift opens between Yosef and Yehudah that would centuries later become a great divide between Israel north and south.
• Genesis 38: Yehudah vs. Tamar (parallel reading: Amos 2:6–3:8)
  • Punchline: “She is more righteous than I” (Genesis 38:26; see the study “Am I my sister’s keeper? Why Tamar was ‘more righteous’“)
  • Compare Shaul vs. David in 1Samuel 24
• Genesis 39: Yosef vs. Potiphar’s wife vs. prison
  • Don’t walk like an Egyptian: “Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the LORD from a pure heart.” (2Timothy 2:22)
  • Walk like the tzadiqimHebrew: “righteous ones”: “The LORD was with Yosef” (Gen. 39:2, 5, 21, 23)
• Genesis 40: Yosef interprets dreams while in prison
  • Punchline: “‘Do not interpretations belong to God?’” (Genesis 40:8)
  • Punchline of Pharaoh’s dreams in the next Torah reading, Miketz: “‘It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.’” (Genesis 41:16)

Parallel betrayals of Yosef and Messiah

This study of the Torah passage Vayeshev will be taking a look at the betrayal of Yosef by his brothers. They’re debating about what to do with them, before selling him to the Mitzrayim-bound traders.

In the story of Yosef’s betrayal by his brothers there are parallels with the betrayal of Yeshua. During the course of the multiple trials Yeshua endured, both the nation of Israel and the gentiles, as represented by Rome, had several opportunities to repent from this malevolent action that they were taking, or you could say murderous inaction, in some of those cases. And the other thing we’ll touch on is to emphasize that Yosef is an excellent role model for standing firm on what’s immovable, the rock of Israel, and fleeing from this urge to assimilate and “to do as the Egyptians do,” as you might say.

So this is a great theme to be hitting here, even if briefly, during this time of Chanukah.

Today as we remember Hanukkah, it is not only about the rededication of the temple. More precisely, it’s a lesson about not assimilating, not being pulled into the dominant culture around you to the point that’s what is essential to be holy, to be separate, is no longer separate, and you become indistinguishable from the culture and the nations around you and stop becoming an ambassador, and going “native” instead.

There is a story about a conversation a between President Reagan and his ambassadors. It’s said when he was calling them into his office, he would ask the ambassador, “Who do you represent?” If the ambassador said, “I represent such and such country,” President Reagan would forcefully correct them, stating, “No, they have their own ambassadors that they send here. You represent the United States of America to that nation.” He wanted to make sure they remembered who they represent, and why the USA was sending them out in the first place.

So it is the same with us. When the Apostle Paul says that we are ambassadors of the Messiah (2Cor. 5:18–21), ambassadors of the message of heaven, we should also not forget who we are and who we serve in the nations around us, no matter how difficult the situation might become.

In Genesis 37, we have the account of Yosef and his dreaming then his brothers and their scheming toward his death out of jealousy. And we see this rift here, between Yosef and his brothers. This story is recorded as a foreshadowing of the rift that would come later when their descendants enter the Promised Land and establish their own kingdoms.

The riff there between Yosef and Yehudah bears fruit at the time of Rehoboam and Jereboam. The Northern Kingdom of Israel was lead by Jeroboam, a descendant of Ephraim, son of Yosef while the Southern Kingdom of Judah was lead by Rehoboam, the grandson of King David, who is descended from Judah. That rift was foreshadowed in the rift between Yosef and his brothers.

One of the things that you see in the trials of Yosef is that the things that keep happening to him, were part of the overarching plan that was leading the whole family of Israel toward Mitzrayim (Egypt). So yes, there were bad things that were happening, but they were also a part of a greater plan.

So when we finally get down to one of the punchlines of Yosef’s story in a future Torah reading (Vayechi), where he revealed himself to his brothers, he embraced his brothers and says to them:

“As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.”

Genesis 50:20 NASB

Or as the Apostle Paul puts it:

“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

Romans 8:28 NASB

We are called to look beyond the “sad endings” in life and remember that there will come a day when all tears will cease, the former things will pass away and we will live forever with HaShem. But many events that happen in between now and that future, will be very unpleasant.

So we then have to overcome our own life situations and make our own choices. We will have to be like Yosef, who choose to walk with the Lord, and not walk our own way. We can’t deceive ourselves and assume that the Lord will just bless whatever it is that we do, even if we’re walking in a totally different direction from the one He wants for us.

One if we look at Joseph’s life, the scene that can either make you laugh or make you cry is the scene in Genesis 37:19, where Yosef’s brothers call out saying, “Well here comes that dreamer!” In Hebrew, you know, “the ba’al halomot”or “the master of dreams.” 

Even Yosef’s father didn’t fully understand his dreamer son and rebuked him. 

Yeshua was mocked in a similar manner by His people, where they purposefully twisted and misinterpreted His words to ensnare Him. 

Later in the story, Yosef is sent by his father to seek out his brothers, just as Yeshua was sent by the Father to seek out His brothers. The brothers throw him into a pit, and argue back and forth about various ways to kill him. Yehudah then comes up with the idea to sell Yosef off rather than kill him. Reuben, had planned to secretly retrieve him from the pit to return him to Ya’akov, but things happened outside Reuben’s purview that foiled his plan. 

The medieval French-Jewish sage Rashbam had an interesting take on the story. In the Hebrew, as well as the English, it’s hard to know who the “they” are who actually took Yosef out of the pit and dragged him away to Mitzraim.

Rashbam believed the “they” in the story were the Midianite traders, rather than the brothers or the Ishmaelite travelers. 

A good warning in this story is that sometimes our inaction or partially malevolent or damaging actions, can lead to something far worse. The unintended consequences of our inaction can bring about something very evil, so it is not even a road to start down because you don’t know how it’s going to end.

So you had these actions by the brothers against Yosef happening out of their jealousy and it spiraled out of control to the point of either they directly sold Yosef off, or indirectly sold him off by leaving Yosef out there in the pit for the traders to be able to grab him and sell him off. Either way, inaction can be as bad as direct action.

And something very similar that you see in Yeshua’s life and the different trials that Yeshua endures between Herod and Pilate.  It’s very strange as you see them, passing Yeshua back and forth, and then becoming to be good friends at the end of it.

In the case of Yosef and his brothers we already went over how they were jealous of his dreams, but they were also jealous because he was loved by their father. 

And one of the tokens of that love that Ya’akov had for Yosef was a special garment that was given to him to single him out as being set apart from his brothers. 

Yehuda was also separated from his brothers or “descended from his brothers” after Yosef’s disappearance. 

One of the parallels you see during Yeshua’s trial in the Roman court, before Pilate, as recorded in Matthew 27:24 is where Pilate brings out a bowl of water and washes his hands of Yeshua’s blood, as though merely proclaiming “I am innocent of this man’s blood” while showing his inaction in the face of the cries of a blood thirsty crowd calling for Yeshua’s death would be atoned by a hand washing. 

Pilate capitulates to the crowd. In our day, various historians have taken issue with this kind “helpless pussycat approach” to Pilate, that he was so easily swayed when historical accounts have him as being diabolical in his crackdowns on the uprisings in Israel during his time as Procurator, but in this case, we see the account of Pilate passing Yeshua back and forth, because he doesn’t want to be the one to make the decision.

The problem with that is “if you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.” Well, it may be that your inaction causes the very thing that you did not want to happen.

Another parallel with Yosef’s life we find there in Genesis 37:20, where Yosef’s brothers decided to throw him into a cistern and then lie to their family and claim a wild beast devoured him. A the end of this conspiracy, they say, “Then let us see what will become of his dreams.” 

The brothers thought that if they could kill the dreamer that the dream would die too, but “shooting the messenger” never ends well for those who refuse to acknowledge the message. They forgot the Source of the message.

You see the same thing in the book of Revelation where the two witnesses are killed, but this pattern is repeated over and over again throughout the prophets. Very few of them died at a ripe old age in their sleep. Most of them were persecuted and killed by the kings of Judah or Israel who didn’t like their message and thought that by silencing the messenger, that the prophet’s message would be nullified. 

Does killing the messenger ever make the problem go away? No, certainly not. 

We see a parallel with that in the life of Yeshua with just one example here in Matthew 26:3-5:

“Then the chief priests and the elders of the people were gathered together in the court of the high priest, named Caiaphas; and they plotted together to seize Jesus by stealth and kill Him. But they were saying, ‘Not during the festival, otherwise a riot might occur among the people.’”

Matthew 26:3–5 NASB

The Jewish authorities didn’t want to kill Him during the Passover because there would be many witnesses. 

Yosef’s brothers and Yeshua’s detractors were jealous of the dreams, miracles, and the authority they exercised. In the case of both Yosef and Yeshua, their brothers were jealous that the Father worked through them in powerful ways.  

We see, at this time of Hanukkah, that we have to ask ourselves if we will bend the knee to the powers that be when they contradict the words of God or do we respectfully stand up to them?

In some cases, where you see with what Yehsua was instructing the people to do that His disciples, his closest students? Yeshua wants them (as He warns us now) that the authorities are going to think that if they overpower you, by putting you on trial, by throwing you in prison, by chasing you from one city to the next, that they are going to destroy the kingdom of God by destroying you. Will they? No, they will not. 

The people of God may fall, they may succumb to the jealousy of the adversary, but do we trust the secular authorities who might keep us a live for a few more minutes or do we trust the One who can restore us for eternality?

We live in a world that is really trying to beat people down into submission to one idea or another. We are told that we must believe what they want us to believe or you will be “cancelled” or silenced. You’ll be canceled from social media, you’ll be canceled from some social groups. Some of your friends will not talk to you anymore. Some of your family will not talk to you anymore or disown you, if you hold to ideas that contradict the prevailing secular dogmas of our age.

The “cancel culture” we see today is just a slight struggle compared to the kind of persecution our brothers and sisters have faced for millennia. Many have died for the faith.

Our struggles are slight in comparison to martyrdom but they are still tough because we may lose our jobs, our friends, or our freedom because we will not submit and accept the ideas of the spirit of this age that we’re in. 

We can’t expect, as students of our Master Yeshua, to be treated better than He was treated. 

And our spiritual forefathers at the time of Hanukkah, during the Maccabean revolution, was a statement against assimilation with the secular nations. The Maccabees were adamant that they would live by every word that proceeds at the mouth of God and we will not go with the words that proceede out of the mouth of men. 

We live in respect of the powers around us, such as the example of Yosef, Daniel and the Apostles, but when the government used the sword to tell people to deny God to go in a different direction from God, well, as the saying goes, “that is a bridge too far” and that was a bridge they they could not cross. 

So, like Yosef, we may faced the temptation to obey the secular authorities in their demands to deny God and to act in a way that goes against His word, because they hold the power of life and death over us but just as Yosef resisted that temptation and fled the situation, rather than give into vice. We are also called to flee from those kind of situations, rather than stick around and be pressured to capitulate. 

We must resist the temptation to blend the corrupting and destructive ideas and influences from the secular world into our walk with God. If we ignore the warnings and assimilate the teachings of God with the ways of the world, we may get to the point where we lose our love for God.

If we lose our “first love” for God,  how do we regain it? You have to go back to your first love and to unwind these entanglements that have come in from the nations and the ideas of the world.

Yosef	Yeshua
“Here comes this dreamer!” (Gen. 37:19)  בַּעַל הַחֲלֹמוֹת = “master of dreams”	“He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:11–13 NASB)
RashbamSamuel ben Meir (Troyes, c. 1085 – c. 1158), after his death known as “Rashbam”, a Hebrew acronym for RAbbi SHmuel Ben Meir, was a leading French Tosafist and grandson of Shlomo Yitzhaki, “Rashi.” (“Rashbam,” Wikipedia): “They” who pulled Yosef from the pit (Gen. 37:28) were to the Midianite traders, rather than his brothers. Lesson: Inaction can be as diabolical as direct action.	Inaction results in his being forced into action: “[Pilate] took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd, saying, ‘I am innocent of this Man’s blood; see to that yourselves.’” (Matthew 27:24 NASB)
“‘Now then, come and let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; and we will say, “A wild beast devoured him.” Then let us see what will become of his dreams!’” (Genesis 37:20 NASB)	“Then the chief priests and the elders of the people were gathered together in the court of the high priest, named Caiaphas; and they plotted together to seize Jesus by stealth and kill Him. But they were saying, ‘Not during the festival, otherwise a riot might occur among the people.’” (Matthew 26:3–5 NASB)
Sold by his brothers out of jealousy for 20 pieces of silver to slavery under another nation (Gen. 37:28).	Sold to His “brothers” out of jealousy for 30 pieces of silver, a slave’s price but destined for death at the hand of another nation (Matt. 26:15; 27:3, 9; Ex. 21:32).

Summary: Tammy