Eph 3:13-21 I pray therefore, that you do not lose heart
at my pressures on your behalf, which is your esteem. For this reason I bow my
knees to the Father of our Master יהושע Messiah, from
whom all fatherhood1 in the heavens and earth is named, Footnote: 1Or
lineage, or paternal descent. in order that He might give you,
according to the riches of His esteem by power, to be strengthened in the inner
man, through His Spirit, that the Messiah might dwell in your hearts1
through belief – having become rooted and grounded in love, Footnote: 1Gal.
2:20. in order that you might be strengthened to firmly grasp, with all the
set-apart ones, what is the width and length and depth and height, to know the
love of Messiah which surpasses knowledge, in order that you might be filled to
all the completeness of Elohim. And to Him who is able to do exceedingly above
what we ask or think, according to the power that is working in us, to Him be
esteem in the assembly by Messiah יהושע unto all
generations, for ever and ever. Amĕn.
Eph 4:3-6 being eager to guard the unity of the Spirit
in the bond of peace – one body and one Spirit, as you also were called in one
expectation of your calling, one Master, one belief, one immersion, one Elohim
and Father of all,1 who is above all, and through all, and in you
all. Footnote: 1Mk. 12:32,34, 1 Cor. 8:6, 1 Tim. 2:5, Mk. 12:29-34.
Our Torah
Portion:
Gen 42:18 -32 Now Yosĕph said to them the third day, “Do
this and live, for I fear Elohim: “If you are trustworthy, let one of your
brothers be confined to your prison house, and you, go, bring grain for the
scarcity of food of your houses.
“And bring your youngest brother to me, and
let your words be confirmed, and you do not die.” And so they did. And they
said to each other, “Truly, we are guilty concerning our brother, for we saw
the distress of his life when he pleaded with us, yet we did not listen, that
is why this distress has come upon us.” And Re’uḇĕn answered them,
saying, “Did I not speak to you, saying, ‘Do not sin against the boy,’ and you
would not listen? And see, his blood is now required of us.” And they did not
know that Yosĕph understood them, for he spoke to them through an interpreter. And
he turned himself away from them and wept, but came back to them and spoke to
them. And he took Shimʽon from them and bound
him before their eyes. And Yosĕph commanded and they filled their sacks with
grain, also to put back every man’s silver to his sack, and to give them food
for the journey. And thus it was done for them. So they loaded their donkeys
with the grain and went from there. And as one of them opened his sack to give
his donkey fodder at the lodging place, he saw his silver, for there it was in
the mouth of his sack! And he said to his brothers, “My silver has been
returned, and there it is, in my sack!” And their hearts sank and they were
afraid, saying to each other, “What is this that Elohim has done to us?” So
they came to Yaʽaqoḇ their father in the
land of Kenaʽan and reported to him
all that befell them, saying, “The man,
the master of the land, spoke to us harshly, and took us for spies of the land.
“But we said to him, ‘We are
trustworthy, we are not spies. ‘We are twelve brothers, sons of our father. One
is no more, and the youngest is today with our father in the land of Kenaʽan.’ “And the man, the master of the land, said to
us, ‘By this I know that you are trustworthy: Leave one of your brothers here
with me, and take food for the scarcity of food of your households, and go.
‘And bring your youngest brother to me, then I know that you are not spies, but
that you are trustworthy – I give your brother to you, and you move about in
the land.’ ” And it came to be as they emptied their sacks, that look, the
bundle of each man’s silver was in his sack! And when they and their father saw
the bundles of silver, they were afraid. And Yaʽaqoḇ their father said to
them, “You have bereaved me – Yosĕph is no more, and Shimʽon is no more, and you
would take Binyamin! All this is against me.” So Re’uḇĕn spoke to his father,
saying, “Take the lives of my two sons if I do not bring him back to you. Put
him in my hands, and I myself bring him back to you.” But he said, “My son is
not going down with you, for his brother is dead, and he is left alone. If any
harm should come to him along the way in which you go, then you would bring
down my grey hair with sorrow to the grave.”
Gen 43:1-23 But the scarcity of food was severe in the land. And it came to be, when they had eaten up the grain which they had brought from Mitsrayim, that their father said to them, “Go back, buy us a little food.” But Yehuḏah spoke to him,saying, “The man vehemently warned us, saying, ‘You do not see my face unless your brother is with you.’ ” “If you let our brother go with us, we go down and buy you food. “But if you do not let him go, we do not go down, because the man said to us, ‘You do not see my face unless your brother is with you.’ ” And Yisra’ĕl said, “Why did you do evil to me to inform the man that you still had another brother?” And they said, “The man kept asking about us and our relatives, saying, ‘Is your father still alive? Have you another brother?’ And we informed him according to these words. How could we know that he would say, ‘Bring your brother down’?” And Yehuḏah said to Yisra’ĕl his father, “Send the boy with me, and let us arise and go, and live and not die, both we and you and also our little ones. “I myself shall stand guaranty for him –
from my hand you are to require him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him before you, then let me bear the blame forever. “For if we had not delayed, truly by now we could have returned this second time.” And their father Yisra’ĕl said to them, “If so, then do this: Take some of the best fruit of the land in your vessels and bring a present down for the man, a little balm and a little honey, spices and myrrh, nuts and almonds. “And take double silver in your hand, and take back in your hand the silver that was returned in the mouth of your sacks. It could have been a mistake. “And take your brother, and arise, go back to the man. “And Ěl Shaddai give to you compassion before the man, so that he shall release your other brother and Binyamin. And I, if I am bereaved, I am bereaved!”
And the men took that present and Binyamin, and they took double the amount of silver in their hand, and arose and went down to Mitsrayim, and stood before Yosĕph. And Yosĕph saw Binyamin with them, and said to the one over his house, “Bring the men home, and make a great slaughter, and prepare, for these men are to eat with me at noon.” And the man did as Yosĕph said, and the man brought the men into Yosĕph’s house.
And the men were afraid because they were brought into Yosĕph’s house. And they said, “It is because of the silver, which was put back into our sacks the first time, that we are brought in, to throw himself upon us and fall upon us, to take us as slaves, our donkeys too.” So they came near to the man over the house of Yosĕph, and spoke to him at the door of the house, and said, “O my master, we indeed came down the first time to buy food, but it came to be, when we came to the lodging place, that we opened our sacks and saw each man’s silver in the mouth of his sack, our silver in its weight. And we have brought it back in our hand. “And we have brought down other silver in our hands to buy food. We do not know who put our silver in our sacks.” But he said, “Peace be with you, do not be afraid. Your Elohim and the Elohim of your father has given you treasure in your sacks – your silver had come to me!” And he brought Shimʽon out to them.
Midrash:
42:18 “the third day” may be a reference to the
last days.
Hos 6:2 ‘After two days He shall revive us, on the
third day He shall raise us up, so that we live before Him.
Yosef feared the
Elohim of Yisrael.
42:19 “your
prison” or “your place where you are being guarded” The plural is used for
“your” signifying that as long as they could not recognize Yosef they were in
prison. As long as the house of Yisrael does not recognize the real Yahshua
they too remain in prison. For the most part Christians have been deeply
influenced by pagan ideas concerning Yahshua and even though many claim to know
him, they don’t know him as he was meant to be known – they too remain in a
“prison.”
42:20 bring
the most precious son of your father to me – sound familiar? Beyamin or son of
my right hand. If they don’t they will die – sound familiar?
Vss 21-24 –
sound familiar?
Zec 12:10,11 “And I shall pour on the house of Dawiḏ and on the
inhabitants of Yerushalayim a spirit of favour and prayers.
And they shall look on Me whom they
pierced, and they shall mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son. And they
shall be in bitterness over Him as a bitterness over the first-born. “In that
day the mourning in Yerushalayim is going to be great, like the mourning at Haḏaḏ Rimmon in the valley
of Meḡiddo.
Clearly this mourning was apocalyptic and
referred to the national mourning of Yakov’s future resttored family during the
end time Messianic days. Even ancient references in the Talmud interpret
Zechariah 12:10,12 as applied to the Messiah. The 'mourning' would be like a
great national mourning that gripped everyone, like experienced by the death of
king Josiah,(2 Kings 23:29 and 1 Esdras) who was slain at Hadadrimmon (a city)
in the valley of Megiddon. This makes sense as Josiah was the last hope of the
declining kingdom. Regarding names, various sources suggest the name Hadadrimmon comes
from the joining of two Syrian idols: Rimmon and Hadad who was the idol of the
sun (Rimmon also the ancient name of Galilee).
Zec
12:7 “And יהוה shall save the tents of Yehuḏah first, so that the comeliness of the house of
Dawiḏ and the comeliness of the inhabitants of Yerushalayim
would not become greater than that of Yehuḏah.
Vss 25-38 – Midrash
The hidden meaning of
this parashah.
YHVH
is committed to restoring one family and one nation on this earth. It is
evident that He will take whatever measures are necessary to bring about the
restoration of Israel – the family of Yakov – see also Ezekiel 47:21-23
YHVH’s
plans are being resisted by the nations including modern Israel – the Jewish
people. Many people try to create or replace this one family YHVH has chosen –
see Ps 2
Upon
closer examination of Yakov’s family, we note somewhat dysfunctionality, yet
this is the family YHVH chose to be His model end time family. Even after the
Messianic rule when the New Yerushalayim descends from earth, entrance can only
be gained by passing one of the twelve gates named after the 12 sons of Yakov –
see Rev 21:10-14