Gen 30:12 And Lĕ’ah’s female servant Zilpah bore Yaʽaqoḇ a second son.
Gen 30:13
And Lĕ’ah said, “I am blessed, for the daughters shall call me blessed.”
So she called his name Ashĕr.
Gen 30:14
And Re’uḇĕn went in the days of
wheat harvest and found love-apples in the field, and brought them to his
mother Lĕ’ah. And Raḥĕl said to Lĕ’ah,
“Please give me some of your son’s love-apples.”
“During the wheat harvest” is possibly a prophetic
secret that unlocks much of the meaning of this parashah.
Passover and Shavuot, most commonly known as the
festivals that commemorate, respectively, the Exodus
and the Giving of the Torah, each also have a
pronounced agricultural element. For those of us who are returning to our
Hebraic roots, these two festivals have profound significance to the Messiah’s
first and second coming. Messiah first comes as the fullness of YHVH’s Word and
will return one day after a mighty outpouring of the “Ruach Ha Kodesh” or the
Set Apart Spirit – see Yoel/Joel 2
Joe 2:29 “And also on the male servants and on the
female servants I shall pour out My Spirit in those days.
Joe 2:30 “And I shall give signs in the heavens and
upon the earth: blood and fire and columns of smoke,
Joe 2:31 the sun is turned into darkness, and the moon
into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of יהוה.
Shavout, we are commanded to bring the first of our wheat harvest as an offering to YHVH, and not partake of that year's wheat until this is done. Hence, the 49-day count leading from Passover to Shavuot is called "The Counting of the Omer"--a reference to the omer (a scriptural measure) of barley that was brought on the first day of the count--and Shavuot is called Yom HaBikkurim, "The Day of the First-Fruits Offering."
In Scriptural tradition, barley is a common food eaten by people and animals. Wheat is the key and ideal human food, providing of course it is organic and hand milled and not mass produced and chemically treated as we have today. Many delicacies can be made from wheat and enjoyed by royalty and those who can afford them.
The wheat harvest which takes place 50 days after Passover begins, is symbolic of the “olam ha ba” the coming Messianic age. Life will be different then. We will be like kings who only eat the finest of wheat and enjoy the best things that life will have to offer.
It is in the context of this wheat harvest that the events of our parasha take place.
Gen 30:15
But she said to her, “Is it a small matter that you have taken away my
husband? Would you take away my son’s love-apples too?” And Raḥĕl said, “Therefore
let him lie with you tonight for your son’s love-apples.”
According to the Stones Chumash page 155 the Sages
are perplexed concerning the meaning of “dudaidim” or love apples. They believe
that humans are only capable of a very limited understanding of these mysteries
of the Torah.
Some believe that there was a significant
breakthrough in Leah and Rachel’s relationship at this stage. It was shortly after this event that Rachel
finally gives birth to her first born Yosef.
Could this be a prophetic sign of the two houses of
Yisrael – Yehudah and Ephraim coming together in the last days?
Could this be the time when the ancient Covenant is
renewed?
Jer 31:31 “See, the days are coming,” declares יהוה, “when I shall
make a new covenant with the house of Yisra’ĕl and with the house of Yehuḏah1,
Footnote: 1See Heb. 8:8-12, Heb. 10:16-17.
Jer 31:32 not like
the covenant I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand
to bring them out of the land of Mitsrayim, My covenant which they broke,
though I was a husband to them,” declares יהוה.
Jer 31:33 “For
this is the covenant I shall make with the house of Yisra’ĕl after those days,
declares יהוה: I shall put My Torah in their inward
parts, and write it on their hearts. And I shall be their Elohim, and they
shall be My people.
Gen 30:16
And when Yaʽaqoḇ came out of the field
in the evening, Lĕ’ah went out to meet him and said, “Do come in to me, for
indeed, I have hired you with my son’s love-apples.” And he lay with her that
night.
Gen 30:17
And Elohim listened to Lĕ’ah, and she conceived and bore Yaʽaqoḇ a fifth son.
Gen 30:18
And Lĕ’ah said, “Elohim has given me my hire, because I have given my
female servant to my husband.” So she called his name Yissasḵar.
Gen 30:19
And Lĕ’ah conceived again and bore Yaʽaqoḇ a sixth son.
Gen 30:20
And Lĕ’ah said, “Elohim has presented me with a good present. Now my
husband is going to dwell with me,
because I have borne him six sons.” So she called his name Zeḇulun.
Gen 30:21
And afterward she bore a daughter, and called her name Dinah.
Gen 30:22
And Elohim remembered Raḥĕl,
and Elohim listened to her and opened her womb.
Gen 30:23
And she conceived, and bore a son, and said, “Elohim has taken away my
reproach.”
Gen 30:24 So
she called his name Yosĕph, and said, “יהוה has added to
me another son.”
The midrash says that something very special has now
happened between these two sisters. The wives may have reconciled. Rachel’s
womb is finally opened and Yosef is born.
In the last days it may very well be Yosef again who
brings the family together.
Yahshua will only return after there is a restoration of
all things.
Act 3:19 “Repent therefore and turn back, for the
blotting out of your sins, in order that times of refreshing might come from
the presence of the Master,
Act 3:20 and that He sends יהושע Messiah,
pre-appointed for you,
Act 3:21 whom
heaven needs to receive until the times of restoration of all matters,
of which Elohim spoke through the mouth of all His set-apart prophets since of
old.
Act 3:22 “For
Mosheh truly said to the fathers, ‘יהוה your Elohim
shall raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brothers. Him you shall hear
according to all matters, whatever He says to you.
Act 3:23 ‘And it
shall be that every being who does not hear that Prophet1 shall be
utterly destroyed from among the people.’ Footnote: 1Deut. 18:18-20.
Act 3:24 “And
likewise, all the prophets who have spoken, from Shemu’ĕl and those following,
have also announced these days.
Act 3:25 “You are
sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which Elohim made with our fathers,
saying to Aḇraham, ‘And in your seed all the nations of the earth
shall be blessed.’
Act 3:26 “To you
first, Elohim, having raised up His Servant יהושע, sent Him to
bless you, in turning away each one of you from your wicked ways.”1 Footnote:
1See 2:38.
It is also significant that the events of the Book of
Rut/ Ruth take place during the wheat harvest and are also read during Shavuot
– See Ruth 4 – Boaz was perhaps one of the very few people who obeyed the
Deut/Dev 25 commandment of the Levirate Marriage.
By the way even YHVH has two wives. This is possibly also
very relevant to our parasha because His two wives also seemed to be quarreling
with each other.
Eze 23:1 And the word of יהוה came to me,
saying,
Eze 23:2 “Son of
man, there were two women, daughters of one mother.
Eze 23:3 “And they
whored in Mitsrayim, they whored in their youth. There their breasts were
handled, and there their maiden nipples were squeezed.
Eze 23:4 “And
their names were: Oholah the elder and Oholiḇah her
sister. And they were Mine, and they bore sons and daughters. And their names:
Shomeron is Oholah, and Yerushalayim is Oholiḇah.
“Ohelah” means “her own tent. This sounds much like the
descendants of the 10 tribes – Ephraim.
“Ohelovah” means “ BDB - Aholibah
= “woman of the tent” or “the tent is in her”
(metaphorically) Jerusalem as adulterous wife
of Yahuah – see Jer 3:8
What does this all mean?
Gen 9:27 “Let Elohim enlarge Yepheth, and let him
dwell in the tents of Shĕm. And let Kenaʽan
become his servant.”
YHVH also has a tent of meeting. – “ohel
moed”
Exo 33:7 And Mosheh took his tent and pitched it
outside the camp, far from the camp, and called it the Tent of Meeting. And it
came to be that everyone who sought יהוה went out to
the Tent of Meeting which was outside the camp.
Exo 33:8 And it
came to be, whenever Mosheh went out to the Tent, that all the people rose, and
each man stood at his tent door and watched Mosheh until he entered the Tent.
Exo 33:9 And it
came to be, when Mosheh entered the Tent, that the column of cloud descended
and stood at the door of the Tent, and He spoke with Mosheh.
Exo 33:10 And all
the people saw the column of cloud standing at the Tent door, and all the
people rose and bowed themselves, each one at the door of his tent.
Exo 33:11 Thus יהוה spoke to
Mosheh face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the
camp, but his servant Yehoshua son of Nun, a young man, did not leave the Tent.
Heb 8:1 Now the summary of what we are saying is: We
have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the
Greatness in the heavens,
Heb 8:2 and who serves in the set-apart place and of
the true Tent, which יהוה set up, and
not man.
Whose tent are we dwelling in? What was
really happening here?
Gen 30:20 And
Lĕ’ah said, “Elohim has presented me with a good present. Now my husband is going to dwell with me, because I
have borne him six sons.” So she called his name Zeḇulun.
Gen 30:25 And it
came to be, when Raḥĕl had borne Yosĕph, that Yaʽaqoḇ said
to Laḇan, “Send me on my way, to go to my own place and to my
land.
Gen 30:26 “Give my
wives and my children for whom I have served you, and let me go, for you
yourself know my service which I have done for you.”
Gen 30:27 And Laḇan
said to him, “If I have found favour in your eyes, please stay, for I have
diligently watched that יהוה has blessed me
for your sake.”
Gen 30:28 And he
said, “Name me your wages, and I give it.”
Gen 30:29 So he
said to him, “You know how I have served you and how your livestock has been
with me.
Gen 30:30 “For the
little you had before I came has increased greatly, and יהוה has blessed you since my coming. But now,
when am I to provide for my own house too?”
Gen 30:31 And he
said, “What do I give you?” And Yaʽaqoḇ said,
“Give me naught! If you do this for me, I shall again feed and guard your
flocks:
Gen 30:32 “Let me
pass through all your flock today, removing from there all the speckled and
spotted sheep, and all the black ones among the lambs, and the spotted and
speckled among the goats. And these shall be my wages.
Gen 30:33 “And my
righteousness shall answer for me in time to come, when you come concerning my
wages: every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and black
among the lambs, it is stolen if it is with me.”
Gen 30:34 And Laḇan
said, “See, let it be according to your word!”
Gen 30:35 And on
that day he set aside the male goats that were speckled and spotted, and all
the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had some white
in it, and all the black ones among the lambs, and gave them into the hand of
his sons.
Gen 30:36 And he
put three days’ journey between himself and Yaʽaqoḇ, and
Yaʽaqoḇ fed
the rest of Laḇan’s flocks.
Gen 30:37 And Yaʽaqoḇ took
for himself rods of green poplar and of the almond and chestnut trees, peeled
white strips in them, and exposed the white which was in the rods.
Gen 30:38 And he
set the rods which he had peeled before the flocks in the gutters, in the
watering troughs where the flocks came to drink, and they conceived when they
came to drink.
Gen 30:39 So the
flocks conceived before the rods, and the flocks brought forth streaked,
speckled, and spotted.
Gen 30:40 And Yaʽaqoḇ
separated the lambs, and made the flocks face toward the streaked and all the
black in the flock of Laḇan, but he put his own flocks by themselves and did not
put them with Laḇan’s flock.
Gen 30:41 And it
came to be, whenever the strong ones of the flock conceived, that Yaʽaqoḇ
placed the rods before the eyes of the flock in the gutters, so they would
conceive among the rods.
Gen 30:42 But when
the flocks were weak, he did not put them in, so the weak ones were Laḇan’s
and the strong ones Yaʽaqoḇ’s.
Gen 30:43 Thus the
man increased very much, and had many flocks, and female and male servants, and
camels and donkeys.
Gen 31:1 And he heard the words of Laḇan’s sons, saying, “Yaʽaqoḇ has taken away all
that was our father’s, and from what belonged to our father he has made all
this wealth.”
Gen
31:2 And Yaʽaqoḇ would look at the
face of Laḇan
and see that it was not toward him as before.
What will Messiah’s
end time flock look like?
1Co 1:18 For the word of the stake is indeed
foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the
power of Elohim.
1Co 1:19 For it has been written, “I shall destroy the
wisdom of the wise, and set aside the learning of the learned ones.”1
Footnote: 1Isa. 29:14, Mt. 11:25, Rom. 1:22.
1Co 1:20 Where is the wise? Where is the scholar?
Where is the debater of this age? Has not Elohim made foolish the wisdom of
this world?
1Co 1:21 For since, in the wisdom of Elohim, the world
through wisdom did not know Elohim, it pleased Elohim through the foolishness
of preaching to save those who believe.
1Co 1:22 And since Yehuḏim ask a sign, and
Greeks seek wisdom,
1Co 1:23 yet
we proclaim Messiah impaled, to the Yehuḏim
a stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness,
1Co 1:24 but
to those who are called – both Yehuḏim
and Greeks – Messiah the power of Elohim and the wisdom of Elohim.
1Co 1:25 For
the foolishness of Elohim is wiser than men, and the weakness of Elohim is
stronger than men.
1Co 1:26 For
look at your calling, brothers, that there were not many wise according to the
flesh, not many mighty, not many noble.
1Co 1:27 But
Elohim has chosen the foolish matters of the world to put to shame the
wise, and Elohim has chosen the weak of the world to put to shame the strong.
1Co 1:28 And
Elohim has chosen the low-born of the world and the despised, and the ones that
are not, that He might bring to naught the ones that are,
1Co 1:29 so
that no flesh should boast in His presence.
1Co 1:30 And
of Him you are in Messiah יהושע, who became
for us wisdom from Elohim, righteousness also, and set-apartness and
redemption,
1Co 1:31 that, as
it has been written, “He who boasts, let him boast in יהוה.”