New parashah – “va yishlach” - “and he sent”
Yasher 32 – (Background
information)
7 And those messengers went to Esau, and found him
on the borders of the land of Edom going toward Jacob, and four hundred men of
the children of Seir the Horite were standing with drawn swords.
8 And the messengers of Jacob told Esau all the
words that Jacob had spoken to them concerning Esau.
9 And Esau answered them with pride and contempt,
and said unto them, Surely I have heard and truly it has been told unto me what
Jacob has done to Laban, who exalted him in his house and gave him his
daughters for wives, and he begat sons and daughters, and abundantly increased
in wealth and riches in Laban's house through his means.
10 And when he saw that his wealth was abundant and
his riches great he fled with all belonging to him, from Laban's house, and he
led Laban's daughters away from the face of their father, as captives taken by
the sword without telling him of it.
11 And not only to Laban has Jacob done thus but
also unto me has he done so and has twice supplanted me, and shall I be silent?
12 Now therefore I have this day come with my camps
to meet him, and I will do unto him according to the desire of my heart.
13 And the messengers returned and came to Jacob
and said unto him, We came to thy brother, to Esau, and we told him all thy
words, and thus has he answered us, and behold he cometh to meet thee with four
hundred men.
14 Now then know and see what thou shalt do, and
pray before YHVH to deliver thee from him.
15 And when he heard the words of his brother which
he had spoken to the messengers of Jacob, Jacob was greatly afraid and he was
distressed.
We
learn from this Torah portion that the spirit of Esav will always attempt to
destroy or undermine the flock of Yakov (Yisrael) which returns to the land of
Yisrael. This is evident today in
Yisrael and it is also evident in Replacement Theology. In the last days this
will happen again, more than any other time in history.
From
our haftarah portion we see that one day this Esav spirit will be destroyed.
Oba 1:8 “In that day,” declares יהוה, “I shall
destroy the wise men from Eḏom, and discernment from the mountains of Ěsaw!
Oba 1:9 “And your
mighty men shall be discouraged, O Tĕman, so that everyone from the mountains
of Ěsaw is cut off by slaughter.
Oba 1:10 “Because
of your violence against your brother Yaʽaqoḇ, let
shame cover you. And you shall be cut off forever.
The prophet Yeshayahu
speaks of a small remnant that shall return to the land of Yisrael.
Isa 10:20 And in that day it shall be that the remnant
of Yisra’ĕl, and those who have escaped of the house of Yaʽaqoḇ, never again lean
upon him who defeated them, but shall lean upon יהוה, the Set-apart
One of Yisra’ĕl, in truth.
Isa 10:21 A
remnant shall return, the remnant of Yaʽaqoḇ, to
the Mighty Ěl.
Isa 10:22 For though
your people, O Yisra’ĕl, be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall
return – a decisive end, overflowing with righteousness.
Isa 10:23 For the
Master יהוה of hosts is making a complete end, as
decided, in the midst of all the earth.
The prophet Yezekel also prophecies of an end time
remnant.
Eze 20:34 “And I shall bring you out from the peoples
and gather you out of the lands where you are scattered, with a mighty hand,
and with an outstretched arm, and with wrath poured out.
Eze 20:35 “And I shall bring you
into the wilderness of the peoples, and shall enter into judgment with you face
to face there.
Eze 20:36 “As I entered into judgment with your fathers
in the wilderness of the land of Mitsrayim, so I shall enter into judgment with
you,” declares the Master יהוה.
Eze 20:37 “And I
shall make you pass under the rod, and shall bring you into the bond of the
covenant,
Eze 20:38 and
purge the rebels from among you, and those who transgress against Me. From the
land where they sojourn I bring them out, but they shall not come into the land
of Yisra’ĕl. And you shall know that I am יהוה.
Shaul knew that the early messianic believers understood
the events surrounding the last days.
1Th 5:1 Now, brothers, as to the times and the seasons,
you do not need to be written to.
1Th 5:2 For you yourselves know very well that the
day of יהוה comes as a
thief in the night.
1Th 5:3 For when
they say, “Peace and safety!” then suddenly destruction comes upon them, as
labour pains upon a pregnant woman, and they shall not escape.
1Th 5:4 But you,
brothers, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief.
Back to our Torah portion:
Gen 32:4 and
he commanded them, saying, “Say this to my master Ěsaw, ‘Your servant Yaʽaqoḇ said this, “I have
sojourned with Laḇan and stayed there
until now.
Gen 32:5
“And I have bulls, and donkeys, flocks, and male and female servants.
And I have sent to inform my master, to find favour in your eyes.” ’ ”
Gen 32:6 So the messengers returned to Yaʽaqoḇ, saying, “We came to
your brother Ěsaw, and he also is coming to meet you, and four hundred men with
him.”
Gen 32:7 And
Yaʽaqoḇ was greatly afraid
and distressed. So he divided the people that were with him, and the flocks and
herds and camels, into two groups, (maybe
this is connected to the two houses of Yisrael theory)
Gen 32:8 and
he said, “If Ěsaw comes to the one group and attacks it, then the other group
which is left shall escape.”
Gen 32:9 And
Yaʽaqoḇ said, “O Elohim of my
father Aḇraham and Elohim of my
father Yitsḥaq, יהוה who said to
me, ‘Return to your land and to your relatives, and I do good to you,’
Gen 32:10 “I do
not deserve the least of all the kind acts and all the truth which You have
shown Your servant, for I passed over this Yardĕn with my staff, and now I have
become two groups.
Yakov makes a clear assessment of himself – lit. “I am
smaller than all the loving truth and all the truth that you have done with
your servant”
Gen 32:11 “Deliver
me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Ěsaw, for I fear him,
lest he come and shall smite me and the mother with the children.
Gen 32:12 “For You
said, ‘I shall certainly do good to you, and shall make your seed as the sand
of the sea, which are too numerous to count.’ ”
Gen 32:13 And he
spent the night there, and took what came to his hand as a present for Ěsaw his
brother –
Gen 32:14 two
hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams,
Gen 32:15 thirty
milk camels with their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys
and ten foals.
Gen 32:16 And he
gave into the hand of his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his
servants, “Pass over before me, and put some distance between drove and drove.”
Gen 32:17 And he
commanded the first one, saying, “When Ěsaw my brother meets you and asks you,
saying, ‘To whom do you belong, and where are you going? And whose are these in
front of you?’
Gen 32:18 then you
shall say, ‘They are your servant Yaʽaqoḇ’s. It
is a present sent to my master Ěsaw. And see, he also is behind us.’ ”
Gen 32:19 So he
commanded the second, and the third, and all who followed the droves, saying,
“Speak to Ěsaw this same word when you find him,
Gen 32:20 and you
shall say, ‘Also look, your servant Yaʽaqoḇ is
behind us.’ ” For he said, “Let me appease him with the present that goes
before me, and after that see his face. He might accept me.”
Gen 32:21 And the
present passed over before him, but he himself spent the night in the camp.
Gen 32:22 And he
rose up that night and took his two wives, and his two female servants, and his
eleven sons, and passed over the ford of Yabboq.
Gen 32:23 And he
took them and sent them over the stream, and sent over what he had.
Gen 32:24 And Yaʽaqoḇ was
left alone. And a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day.
For the
Hebrews wrestling with YHVH is part of the Hebrew way of life. Rather than
accepting the unexplainable without question, the long standing tradition of
the sages is summed up in the term “pilpul” which roughly translated means
discussion or debate. As seekers after the truth we struggle with the
issues of life and the teachings of the Torah, attempting to know their true
strength, and in a sense, to know whether or not they can be overcome by
argument. This is because we define the faith as a revelation of the knowledge
of YHVH and His Messiah and not some blind uninformed “leap of faith” into the
dark. Faith, from a Hebraic perspective, is the revelation of YHVH and acting
on this revelation given by the Ruach(Spirit) of YHVH. Far from the Greek
concept of faith as mental agreement alone. True Hebraic faith never negates
personal responsibility. The idea that one can pray, believe, and then remain
inactive to see what YHVH will do is foreign to Scriptural faith.
“Yabboq” means a place where you are emptied – comes from
a root word which means to be “undone”
This same root word is used in the following two
scriptures:
Nah 2:2 For יהוה shall turn
back the splendour of Yaʽaqoḇ like the splendour of Yisra’ĕl, for the emptiers have
emptied them out and ruined their vine branches.
Isa 24:3 the earth is completely emptied and utterly
plundered, for יהוה has spoken this word.
Isa 24:4 The earth
shall mourn and wither, the world shall languish and wither, the haughty people
of the earth shall languish.
Isa 24:5 For the
earth has been defiled under its inhabitants, because they have transgressed
the Torot1, changed2 the law, broken the everlasting
covenant3. Footnotes: 1Torot - plural of Torah, teaching.
2Jer. 23:36. 3This is the only reason, according to all
Scriptures, why the earth shall be burned in the day of judgment – see also
13:9, 13:11, 26:21, 66:24, Mic. 5:15, Zeph. 1:2-18.
Isa 24:6 Therefore
a curse shall consume the earth, and those who dwell in it be punished.
Therefore the inhabitants of the earth shall be burned, and few men shall be
left.
Gen 32:25 And when
He saw that He did not overcome him, He touched the socket of his hip. And the
socket of Yaʽaqoḇ’s hip was dislocated as He wrestled with him.
Gen 32:26 And He
said, “Let Me go, for the day breaks.” But he said, “I am not letting You go
until You have blessed me!”
Gen 32:27 So He
asked him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Yaʽaqoḇ.”
Gen 32:28 And He
said, “Your name is no longer called Yaʽaqoḇ, but Yisra’ĕl1, because you have striven with
Elohim and with men, and have overcome.” Footnote: 1Yisra’ĕl means
“to strive with Ěl, to overcome with Ěl, (then) to rule with Ěl”
The Christian way is to wrestle with the devil – The
Hebrew way is to wrestle with YHVH.
The devil has been defeated by Yahshua on an execution
stake. We are told to humble ourselves under the mighty Hand of YHVH and to
resist the devil – Jas
4:7 So then subject yourselves to
Elohim. Resist the devil1 and he shall flee from you. Footnote: 1Or
adversary.
Gen 32:29 And Yaʽaqoḇ asked
Him, saying, “Please let me know Your Name.” And He said, “Why do you ask about
My Name?” And He blessed him there.
Gen 32:30 And Yaʽaqoḇ
called the name of the place Peni’ĕl, “For I have seen Elohim face to face, and
my life is preserved.”
Gen 32:31 And the
sun rose on him as he passed over Penu’ĕl, and he limped on his hip.
Gen 32:32 That is
why the children of Yisra’ĕl to this day do not eat the sinew of the hip, which
is on the socket of the thigh, because He touched the socket of the thigh of Yaʽaqoḇ, in
the sinew of the hip.
Gen 33:1 And Yaʽaqoḇ lifted his eyes and
looked and saw Ěsaw coming, and with him four hundred men. And he divided the
children among Lĕ’ah, and Raḥĕl, and the two female
servants.
Gen 33:2 And
he put the female servants and their children in front, and Lĕ’ah and her
children behind, and Raḥĕl and Yosĕph last.
Gen 33:3 And
he himself passed over before them and bowed himself to the ground seven times,
until he came near to his brother.
Gen 33:4 And
Ěsaw ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept.
See the markings of the Hebrew word “nishikah” or
kiss in the Torah sefer – the sages conclude that these were false kisses.
Gen 33:5 And
he lifted his eyes and saw the women and children, and said, “Who are these
with you?” And he said, “The children with whom Elohim has favoured your
servant.”
Gen 33:6
Then the female servants came near, they and their children, and bowed
themselves.
Gen 33:7 And
Lĕ’ah also came near with her children, and they bowed themselves. And Yosĕph
and Raḥĕl came near, and they
bowed themselves.
Gen 33:8
Then Ěsaw said, “What do you mean by all this company which I met?” And
he said, “To find favour in the eyes of my master.”
Gen 33:9 But
Ěsaw said, “I have enough, my brother, let what you have remain yours.”
Gen 33:10
And Yaʽaqoḇ said, “No, please, if
I have now found favour in your eyes, then receive my present from my hand,
because I have seen your face like seeing the face of Elohim, and you were
pleased with me.
Gen 33:11
“Please, take my blessing that is brought to you, because Elohim has
favoured me, and because I have all I need.” And he urged him, and he
took it.
Gen 33:12
And he said, “Let us depart and go, and let me go before you.”
Gen 33:13
But he said to him, “My master knows that the children are weak, and the
flocks and herds which are nursing are with me. And if the men should drive
them hard one day, all the flocks shall die.
Gen 33:14
“Please let my master go before his servant, and let me lead on slowly
according to the pace of the livestock that go before me, and according to the
pace of the children, until I come to my master in Sĕʽir.”
And
I will move [at] my own slow pace... until I come to my master, to Seir (33:14)
Said
Rabbi Abbahu: We have searched the whole of Scriptures and do not find that
Jacob ever went to Esau to the mountain of Se'ir. Is it then possible that
Jacob, the truthful one, should deceive him? But when would he come to him? In
the Messianic Era, when "the saviors shall ascend Mount Zion to judge the
mountain of Esau" (Obadiah 1:21). (Midrash Rabbah) (Petra is the same place as mount Seir)
Gen 33:15
And Ěsaw said, “Please let me leave with you some of the people who are
with me.” But he said, “Why this? Let me find favour in the eyes of my master.”
Gen 33:16
And Ěsaw returned that day on his way to Sĕʽir.
Gen 33:17
And Yaʽaqoḇ set out to Sukkoth,
and built himself a house, and made booths for his livestock. That is why the
name of the place is called Sukkoth.
Continuing
in the book of Yasher chapter 32
27 And YHVH heard the prayer of Jacob on that day,
and YHVH then delivered Jacob from the hands of his brother Esau.
28 And YHVH sent three angels of the angels of
heaven, and they went before Esau and came to him.
29 And these angels appeared unto Esau and his
people as two thousand men, riding upon horses furnished with all sorts of war
instruments, and they appeared in the sight of Esau and all his men to be
divided into four camps, with four chiefs to them.
30 And one camp went on and they found Esau coming
with four hundred men toward his brother Jacob, and this camp ran toward Esau
and his people and terrified them, and Esau fell off the horse in alarm, and
all his men separated from him in that place, for they were greatly afraid.
31 And the whole of the camp shouted after them
when they fled from Esau, and all the warlike men answered, saying,
32 Surely we are the servants of Jacob, who is the
servant of YHVH, and who then can stand against us? And Esau said unto them, O
then, my master and brother Jacob is your master, whom I have not seen for
these twenty years, and now that I have this day come to see him, do you treat
me in this manner?
33 And the angels answered him saying, As the YHVH
liveth, were not Jacob of whom thou speaketh thy brother, we had not let one
remaining from thee and thy people, but only on account of Jacob we will do
nothing to them.
34 And this camp passed from Esau and his men and
it went away, and Esau and his men had gone from them about a league when the
second camp came toward him with all sorts of weapons, and they also did unto
Esau and his men as the first camp had done to them.
35 And when they had left it to go on, behold the
third camp came toward him and they were all terrified, and Esau fell off the
horse, and the whole camp cried out, and said, Surely we are the servants of
Jacob, who is the servant of YHVH, and who can stand against us?
36 And Esau again answered them saying, O then,
Jacob my masster and your master is my brother, and for twenty years I have not
seen his countenance and hearing this day that he was coming, I went this day
to meet him, and do you treat me in this manner?
37 And they answered him, and said unto him, As the
YHVH liveth, were not Jacob thy brother as thou didst say, we had not left a
remnant from thee and thy men, but on account of Jacob of whom thou speakest
being thy brother, we will not meddle with thee or thy men.
38 And the third camp also passed from them, and he
still continued his road with his men toward Jacob, when the fourth camp came
toward him, and they also did unto him and his men as the others had done.
39 And when Esau beheld the evil which the four
angels had done to him and to his men, he became greatly afraid of his brother
Jacob, and he went to meet him in peace”