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The account of Yosef (Torah readings Vayeshev, Miketz, Vayigash and Vayechi) and messianic prophecies such as Isaiah 52:13–53:12 are two warnings for Israel about the future betrayal of Yeshua haMasiach (Jesus the Christ). We see that the Messiah would come in such a way that would be difficult for His brothers (leaders of Israel) to perceive and receive — unless their hearts (minds) were open to the Word of the LORD.
Both Yosef and Yeshua were a blessing to their brothers, even though their brothers didn’t understand it until many years later, but not only a blessing to their literal brothers but to the nations too.
Yosef, who was one of the youngest sons in his family, became an anchor for the rest of his family.Yosef was a blessing not only to Israel but to Egypt and Yeshua was a blessing, not only to the Jewish nation, but to all the nations who accepted Him. The world is blessed by holding onto the blessing from the people of Israel.
‘Through you shall all the nations be blessed’
When Yosef was taken away by the Ishmaelites and Midianites (both are descendants of Abraham) to Egypt, God used that incident to build Yosef up, not only to be a blessing to his own family, but also to the entire nation of Egypt, which was the superpower of the time. As long as Egypt was ruled by Yosef, Egypt was a blessing not only to the people of Israel but to the entire known world.
There will always be superpowers. Whether it’s Egypt, Babylon, Greece, Rome or the USA, all of them are only blessed with power because God saw fit to build them up. But just as He builds them up, He can — and does — take them down.
The only reason we know anything about the Messiah is because the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob — Israel — preserved the words God revealed to them.
We are, just as Yosef, are small, insignificant players on the world stage but just as Yosef was able to influence Egypt for God, we can as well. God said that those who bless His people will be blessed and those who persecute and curse His people will be destroyed.
China, for example, is persecuting God’s people. Yet it is God’s people who are called to be good and faithful citizens. As long as nations do things like this, their culture and their laws will be corrupt, because they are persecuting faithful citizens while allowing corruption to flourish.
Just as Yosef had to decide whether to give into corruption with Potiphar’s wife, or to refuse to commit adultery and face the consequences, we also have to balance obeying our rulers and obeying God.
Through the rest of the Bible, we will see two main houses: Yehudah ben Leah (southern kingdom of Judah) and Yosef ben Rakhel (northern kingdom of Israel). Messiah Yeshua came from Judah’s line though Perez and David. Yosef’s family did not stay faithful to God and to monotheism.
The later generations of Yosef — northern kingdom leading tribes Ephraim and Manasseh — engaged in syncretism and then outright paganism, confusing the people with an alternate religious calendar. The northern tribes were descended from Yosef, but they did not carry on his legacy.
We see a similar lesson that the Apostle Paul gives in Romans 1. He tells us that there was a time when everyone knew who God was and worshipped Him, but in time, the nations decided they didn’t want to retain knowledge of God. They go off their own way, either through vain imaginations or due to influence by demonic influences and the end result is that they are so far away from God, that the only way they can come back to God is to scrap everything they have learned and start over.
When Yosef started receiving dreams from God, he tells his brothers and his father about the dreams. Both the brothers and the father rebuked him, asking effectively, “Are we going to bow to you? The older brother to the younger? The father bowing to his son?” The brothers completely balked at the idea and dismissed it, but the father, Ya’acob, exercised greater humility and pondered the message in his mind.
This is what leadership looks like (Genesis 38)
Judah is was the one who lead the brothers into selling Yosef into slavery, he was the ringleader of Yosef’s sojourn in Egypt. He was also the ringleader into deceiving Jacob about Yosef’s whereabouts. Just as Jacob had deceived his father, Judah now was deceiving his father. Judah used a goat and the blood to make Jacob believe his son was dead.
When you are at your weakest point, that is when you are the most vulnerable to temptation
Later in Judah’s story, we see that his wife had died and he was in a vulnerable place when he noticed a “temple prostitute” by the side of the road. He was not well prepared to engage in such a transaction so Tamar had the upper hand in asking for payment. Tamar asks Judah for a goat, along with his signet ring and his staff as “payment” for her services. The signet ring and his staff were verifications of his identity, the things he use to be able to sign contracts and negotiate in trade, he doesn’t think twice about giving these items to her. For Judah to give such items over to a “prostitute” was almost as bad as Esau selling his birthright for a bowl of lentil soup. This is why at the end of that story, Judah testifies that Tamar was more righteous than himself.
Judah could have “saved face” and allowed all the evidence of his dalliance with Tamar to burn up with her, but he showed humility and accepted the public humiliation that resulted from the revelation that he had engaged in a sexual relationship with his own daughter-in-law. Judah showed that he was willing to listen to Heaven. Because of this exercise in humility and leadership, Judah became the father of many leaders and kings, and Israel’s ultimate King, the Messiah Yeshua, who was the son of Tamar though Perez.
We see later that Shaul, from the tribe of Benjamin, a descendant of Rachel, was chosen as King, he looked like a leader. He was tall and handsome, but looks can be deceiving because Shaul was a coward with no backbone while David, a descendant of Leah, who on the outside, was the youngest son in his family, without any reputation, was the leader that God really chose to be a king over His people. We see the sharp contrast between Shaul and David spelled out in 1 Samuel 24.
While Jacob had a “wait and see” attitude regarding Yosef’s visions and Judah had the humility to accept the consequences of his actions with humility, the generation that Yeshua visited did not learn those lessons. When Yeshua resurrected Lazarus, the Jewish leaders of Yeshua’s generation wanted to kill Lazarus because his resurrection was walking, breathing proof of Yeshua’s power over life and death. These corrupt authorities preferred to commit murder rather than humbly accept Yeshua as their Messiah. Their outside was clean but their inner life was filthy.
The point of being ambassadors of the Kingdom of Heaven is not merely to tell the truth in a way that hurts people, but to be peacemakers.
What has come before — and what we’ve learned are our weaknesses and true sources of strength — can inform how we act and react to what we experience now. Can we be like Yosef and stand up to Potiphar’s wife? Or like Daniel who stood up to the king of Babylon? Can we accept that there’s something worse than dying or facing loss of reputation or livelihood, rather than succumbing to persecution?
Those who suffered through periods of persecution, such as the martyrdom of believers or pogroms like as the Holocaust, understood that the powers that be can crush, mutilate and even kill their bodies but they could not crush their spirit and soul. We need to accept their lesson and not let the world take away our heart, mind and soul.
So whether our challenges are big or small, will we give away who we are as sons and daughters of the kingdom of God for just a little more time on earth? We need to accept their lesson and not let the world take away our heart, mind and soul. Don’t let them take away your heart. Don’t let them take away what the Lord has implanted into us. But the words of God make us better not bitter.
Summary: Tammy