This week's Sabbath reading portion is titled Va-yiggash, which means "and he drew near." The reading portion begins in Genesis 45. In this portion, there are unexpected "twists" in the story of Jacob/Israel and his sons. Sometimes we think that we have God all figured out, as well as the path and purpose for our life in Him. When the unexpected turn comes up, we might view it as something other than the will of God. Perhaps we have a difficult time fitting the unexpected into our set view of God. However, while our viewpoint tends to be fixed in the present, God's viewpoint looks to the everlasting, because He is the everlasting. He has already declared the end from the beginning, and He has assured us that His thoughts are not our thoughts: "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,' says the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts." (Isa. 55:8-9). These two verses happen to follow verses in which the LORD tells "everyone who thirsts" to seek Him, to call upon Him, to return to the LORD and forsake their evil thoughts and ways. The LORD promises to have mercy on them, because He will abundantly pardon (see v. 6-7).
Paul also repeated scripture as he wrote: "But as it is written: 'Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him. But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit..." (1 Cor. 2:9-10). Are we viewing God's ways through the flesh rather than the Spirit? In any case, it may be wise to expect the unexpected when considering the LORD's plans and viewpoint.
One unexpected event that happens in this portion is the fact that Joseph's brothers, who sold him into slavery, found out that Joseph was now ruling in Egypt, second only to Pharaoh (Gen. 45:3-8). Another unexpected event is that Jacob was told that Joseph, the son he thought dead and had mourned for many years, was alive and well in Egypt (v. 25-28). Another unexpected event: Joseph tells his brothers to hurry and to go get their and his father Jacob, pack up all that they have, leave the land of their covenant inheritance from God through Abraham and Isaac, and come and live in Egypt with him. He told them, "Draw near to me." (Gen. 45:4). In Egypt, as they are near to him, Joseph will provide for them in the middle of the seven-year famine. (v. 9-13). After Jacob hears his sons' amazing report that Joseph is alive, he immediately agrees to go and see Joseph in Egypt. At this point, scripture reports the actions, not of Jacob, but of Israel, the name that Jacob was given by God: "So Israel took his journey (nasa - break camp, pull up tent pegs) with all that he had, and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. Then God spoke to Israel in the visions of the night, and said, 'Jacob, Jacob!' And he said, 'Here I am.' So He said, 'I am God, the God of your father; do not fear to go down to Egypt, for I will make of you a great nation there. I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also surely bring you up again; and Joseph will put his hand on your eyes." (Gen. 46:1-4). Jacob arose (qum - stood, arise, raise up, to be raised up, to persevere, to be confirmed, to cause to come forth) and his sons brought all of the children/grandchildren, and all of their possessions, and relocated to Egypt (v. 5-7).
It was only after Israel/Jacob began his unexpected journey and drew near to God with sacrifices that the LORD spoke to him and assured him of His will. Would we be as quick to make this sudden and unexpected total change in our lives, especially if we knew that we were currently dwelling in the covenant land that God had promised us?
As another portion from this Sabbath's reading says: "Israel also came into Egypt, and Jacob dwelt in the land of Ham (ham/hamam - hot, name for Egypt, descendants of Noah's son, Ham, occupying southern regions/enflame self, burning). He (the LORD) increased (*aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) His people greatly, and made them stronger than their enemies." (Ps. 105:23-24). It was in Egypt that the Israelites would greatly multiply as God built them into a nation right in the house of their enemy (sar/sarar - adversary, trouble, distress, foe, oppressor, tight place, anguish, tribulation/enemy, bind up, afflict, besiege, press hard upon, be narrow).
After Joseph's lifetime and under a different Pharaoh who had not known Joseph, Jacob's descendants would be placed into hard bondage in Egypt. Had Jacob been wrong to leave the land of promise to go to Egypt? No. There in Egypt a small handful of Israelites grew into over a million. Some say the number was over two million. It was in Egypt that the twelve tribes of Israel would be completed as their number would also include the descendants of the two (*aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) sons of Joseph, Manasseh ("causing to forget" [the suffering of Joseph's slavery and imprisonment]) and Ephraim ("doubly fruitful"). (see Gen. 48:1). Not only this, but God through Jacob's residence in Egypt also introduced to the world God's concept of spiritual adoption through His salvation, which we will see. Regarding the two sons of Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim, Jacob said to Joseph: "And now your two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are mine; as Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine. Your offspring whom you beget after them shall be yours; they will be called by the name of their brothers in their inheritance." (Gen. 48:5-6). Jacob also spoke this blessing over the two half-Egyptian sons of (*aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) Joseph, whom he fathered with his wife, the Egyptian (*aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) daughter of the Priest of On (Heliopolis): "God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has fed me all my life long to this day, the Angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless (*aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) the lads; Let my name be named upon them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth." (v. 15-16). Although they were Jacob's grandsons, they would now be his sons, equal in his eyes to the other sons that he had. This is how the two grandsons became part of the tribes of Israel in the Promised Land.
In this same manner, the apostle Paul wrote to the Jewish and Gentile believers in Rome about our spiritual adoption by the Father through His Son, Jesus Messiah/Christ: "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, 'Abba, Father.' The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs - heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together." (Rom. 8:14-17). This principle is necessary for our understanding of the deep work of salvation in us that we have obtained through Messiah/Christ. We, who were not a people of God, became not only His people, but His sons, joint heirs with Jesus in His inheritance from the Father, God.
We also know that the enslaved Israelites would be delivered centuries later from their slavery through Moses, as the LORD worked terrifying plagues and wonders before that Pharaoh to cause him to let God's people leave Egypt. One of those signs and wonders would be the prophetic covering of the blood of the lamb, or Passover, as God protected His people from the plague of death. It would be revealed centuries later that Jesus is that Passover Lamb of God, sacrificed on Passover to deliver us from death. (see Jn. 1:29-35).
These unexpected but powerful precedents and foundational truths came to us out of Joseph's and his family's long sojourn in Egypt.
However, there would be an even more powerful prophecy affecting the kingdoms of the earth and eternity to come out of the time that the Israelites spent in Egypt as we will see. Who could have foreseen all that God would accomplish by sending Jacob and all of his household into Egypt?
In another reading portion from this Va-yiggash, "and he drew near" Sabbath, Joseph and his son, Ephraim's descendants will play a role in a powerful end time prophecy given by the LORD to His prophet, Ezekiel. Before the Babylonian exile, the nation of Israel had been divided into two separate kingdoms, the northern kingdom was called "Israel", and the southern kingdom was called "Judah". The tribe of Ephraim was located in the northern kingdom. During the exile, Ezekiel prophesied that the land would no longer be divided into separate peoples and separate kingdoms. Ezekiel was instructed by the LORD to take two sticks. On one stick, the prophet was to write, "For Judah and for the children of Israel, his companions." On the other stick, the prophet was to write: "For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel, his companions." (Ezek. 37:15-16).
The LORD told Ezekiel to take the two separate sticks and join them together into one stick in his hand (v. 17). The following is the unexpected prophetic work that God would accomplish by this action of the prophet (see v. 21-28):
- The children of Israel would be brought back to their own land from the nations to which they had been disbursed. They will dwell in the land that God gave them forever.
- They would no longer be divided into two kingdoms, but the LORD would make them one nation, with one king, never to be divided again.
- They would be delivered of their idols and transgressions and cleansed by the LORD. They will be His people, and He will be their God (repeated twice).
- The King who will rule over them will be "David My servant" (meaning the Messiah/Christ, a descendant of David). He will be their Prince forever.
- They will walk in, observe, and do the judgments and statutes of God.
- The LORD will make a covenant of peace with them that will be an everlasting covenant.
- The LORD will set His sanctuary in their midst forever. His tabernacle shall also be in their midst.
- The nations (goy/geva/gev/ga'a - heathen, people, foreign nations and therefore Gentiles/the back, behind the body/the back as beaten or lashed, casting sins behind His back/to rise up, gloriously, be exalted in triumph, lifted up, raised up, to rise, to increase) will know that the LORD has sanctified (*aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) Israel, because of the presence of His sanctuary in their midst forever.
