Vayishlach – Torah with Joseph

Read the transcript below, or watch a video of the teaching by Joseph Shulam.

Shalom, my name is Joseph Shulam and we are continuing the study of the Torah, the weekly portion, the same portion that is read in the synagogues. We are happy to have this opportunity to share with our brothers and sisters in Korea, from the regular Torah reading that is read in every synagogue in the world and to join together with you on Brad TV. God bless all of us and all of you in Korea.

Last week, we studied a portion of the Torah that ended at verse three in the Hebrew text of chapter 32 of Genesis. Jacob and his family had just left Haran, his father-in-law’s house, with his wives, with his flocks, with his wealth, with his riches, and he arrives at the river Jordan, almost to the river Jordan, and he got to the river Jabbok, and there in the dark, as he’s about to cross the river, he meets an angel, an angel of the Lord that he battles with, the angel of the Lord, and he held his own and he stands unwilling to let that angel go unless he gets a blessing, and the angel blesses him and allows him to continue his journey into the promised land, into the land that God promised to Abraham and to Isaac, his fathers, his grandfather and his father, Isaac.

Jacob Prepares to Meet Esau

But Jacob knows that he has to contend with his brother, he’s just minutes older than he is. They were twins in the womb of Rebecca, their mother, and Esau came first and Jacob came holding onto his heel. And Esau despised his inheritance and he sold it for a bowl of soup.

Traditionally, lentil soup. And so Jacob now is crossing the Jordan and he knows that sooner or later, he is going to have to meet with his brother, Esau. And he doesn’t want to have a war with his brother Esau and with his brother’s men. Jacob is described in an earlier portion, in last week’s portion, as being a man sitting in a tent, contemplating, a philosopher, a thinker, but not exactly a fighter.

Esau is an outdoors man and he’s a fighter, he’s a hunter. So Jacob wants to do everything possible not to have a military, physical war with his brother and with his brother’s men. So what does he do? And that’s how our portion of the week starts in Genesis chapter 32 verse three. Jacob sends messengers before his whole camp meets with Esau and his camp, he sends messengers.

The portion starts by Jacob sending messengers before his brother Esau to the land, which is on the other side of the Jordan from Canaan. Closer to the northern side of the Dead Sea. The country of Edom. And he gives instructions to the messenger that he sent, how to address Esau his brother.

We’re Still Fighting to Receive God’s Promise to Abraham

He says,

I want you to understand this is the Middle East. And we are still, today, at war, combating the terrorism of the PLO, of the FLPLO, all the different factions of Palestinian Arabs, part of the greater Arab Nation. We’re combating them until this day, for the right to appropriate the promises of God to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

The promises of the land are an eternal inheritance. We are still battling the same battle between Jacob and his descendants, and Esau and Ishmael, and their descendants that comprise the Arab Nations. So the relevance of this portion of the Torah is very great. So Jacob gives instructions, humble yourself before your enemy. He realizes Esau is his brother.

Is Esau Still Angry?

He realized that Esau is very angry with him. He knows that Esau had made a decision in his heart that when Isaac dies, I am going to kill my brother, Jacob. And he’s not sure whether that decision is still in force or if Esau has forgotten it. But he knows that he probably has not forgotten the hate that is so deeply embedded in his heart. And it’s still so deeply embedded in the hearts of our distant, distant cousins, the Arab Nations of today.

And even the Arabs who are Israeli citizens. We have over 2 million Arabs who are Israeli citizens. Some of them even serve in the army, their children serve in the army. But the enmity is still there. That’s why the relevance of this portion of the Torah is not only relevant for far back in history, but it is relevant for today as well.

What Jacob Has Been Doing

So he says to his servant, “You call Esau in my name, my Lord Esau, and you present me to Esau as your (Esau’s) servant, Jacob. And then you explain to him a little bit about the history of the last 21 years, how I dwelt with Laban until now.” Esau knows who Laban is. Laban is as much his uncle as he is Jacob’s uncle.

He’s the brother of Rebecca, their mother. So he has dwelt with Laban. He also knows how far away Laban lives, near Aleppo, in Northern Syria. Heron.

Jacob Seeks Peace

“my Lord,” he calls him, “that I may find favor in your sight,” in other words, find favor in Esau’s sight, or in plain English - “I want to make peace with you.” That’s what it means. I want to find favor in your sight. I want to make peace with you.

The messengers go to Esau and they return to Jacob and this report to Jacob:

Not with women, not with children, not with flocks, not with servants, but with 400 men. Jacob’s reaction is: Oh, I’m afraid. I’m afraid of my brother, Esau. I’m distressed. The text says in verse seven, chapter 32, “I’m distressed.”

Jacob Uses Strategy

And so he uses a strategy, he takes insurance, he divides his camp into two. If one half of his camp is attacked and he loses it, he still has another half of the camp of his family, of his flocks, of his wealth, secured. So he divides his camp, his people, his flock, his wives, his children into two halves. Including his camels and his herds.

At verse eight, he says:

And then, verse nine of chapter 32, I think is one of the most beautiful prayers in the book of Genesis:

Right. Properly. Now this happened in Parashat Vayetze. It happened in Parashat Vayetze when Jacob is running away from his brother Esau according to his mother’s instruction, and that meeting after he saw the angels coming up and down the ladder, that meeting with God in which God says, “I promise you that you will go and you will return.”

Jacob Reminds God

And Jacob now reminds God in his prayer, which is okay, he doesn’t think God forgot, but he just wants to reassure himself in his prayer that God didn’t forget. “You told me, Lord, return to your country.” To your country. I want to stress that. Return to your country and to your family and I will deal rightly with you.

We’re Still Debating It

Until today, folks, this idea of whose country that really is, is still debated at the United Nations in the United States of America and in the offices of other international organizations in New York City. But in the Bible, the promise of this country, of the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and up to the Litani River in the north and up to the river of Egypt in the south, is the promise of God in the Bible that is repeated more than any other promise in the whole Bible.

Inheritance Also in New Testament

And it is also in the New Testament. When you follow the word inheritance, even to our Gentile brothers and sisters, then you see that that’s the only inheritance we have in the Bible. It’s this piece of land. And Jacob continues his prayer. He says to the Lord, I want you to listen, “I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which you have shown your servant.”

Not Worthy

Now this phrase, all the mercies and all the truth, is a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful promise, and wonderful, wonderful truth that needs to be reiterated, because this phrase grace and truth appears in the New Testament one time. In John chapter one verse 17, the law was given through Moses and grace and truth came from Jesus Christ.

But it appears more than 20 times in the Old Testament, but it’s translated with synonyms. Like in this case, in the New King James version, with mercy and truth. People are not usually aware enough to connect mercy and grace is more or less the same thing and is the same Hebrew word.

Jacob Prays to God

So Jacob, in verse 10, says to the Lord, God in his prayer:

This is Jacob’s prayer. And it’s a very interesting prayer that we have so much to learn from. This whole reading, Parashah, is very rich, like every other chapter, every other verse in the Bible, but I want to stay on this prayer a minute. First of all, the humility that Jacob addresses God with, “I’m not worthy.” I’m not worthy of all the goodness, of all the mercy, of all the grace that you have shown me. I’m not worthy.

Dear brothers and sisters, I’m sorry that I have to step out of the political correctness and say things that may sound not politically correct. There is nobody in the Bible that in his prayer commands God to do anything. There’s nobody in the Bible, in that whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation that commands the Holy Spirit to do anything.

We should all approach the throne of grace with our prayers on our knees, in our beds, when we talk to our children, when we talk to the Lord through the Holy Spirit, with humility, like Jacob, like King David, like king Solomon if you wish, like the prophets.

Jacob Complains to God

What is this? We’re commanding God to do things for us? We’re commanding the Holy Spirit to do things for us? We should take the much humbler attitude of servants, not of masters. Okay, I’m out of the politically-correct approach. And I’m going back to the text.

Jacob prays that God will deliver him from his own brother, Esau because he’s afraid of Esau. And he reminds God of His promises. You promised me that you will treat me well. You promised me that you will take care of my descendants and that they will be many like the sand of the sea that cannot be numbered.

And now I’m here in this situation, I have to divide my camp into two halves for my safety, for my insurance, for my security. And then, after this prayer, Jacob goes to sleep. Chapter 32 verse 13, in the English:

In other words, by the time he wakes up in the morning, Jacob had sent gifts to Esau. I think that what melted Esau’s heart was the humility, the simplicity, the honesty in which Jacob approached him. Not as somebody who owes him something, not as somebody who did wrong, but somebody who is humble and willing to be a servant of his elder brother, elder by a few minutes, brother.

Politicians Need to Learn to be Humble Like Jacob

That humility, politicians in the Middle East, need to learn. On both sides and on all of the sides. And also the politicians that are kind of the go-betweens, like England and France and United States, that are our friends and the friends of our enemies as well. But we are cousins. We are cousins of our enemies.

Yes. When Esau, his brother, meets Jacob, they meet and it’s a great moment. It’s a great moment. What happens when they meet? They fall on each other’s shoulders with tears. Property, land, promises, blessings, boom! They don’t disappear, they’re still there in the background. For that moment, they’re brothers. In that moment, they fall on each other’s shoulders and they kiss each other. It’s a great moment. It’s a great story.

You should read that text from Genesis chapter 32 verse three in English, to chapter 36 verse 43 in the English. Yes. The great moment, Jacob is wrestling with the angels after this prayer, with the angel at the river Jabbok, he’s wrestling with him after this prayer.

Then he goes, I would say, with God’s blessing, with God’s assurance to meet his brother Esau, and they fall on each other’s shoulders and they kiss each other. A wonderful situation. And the place where all this happens is in chapter 32 verse 30, it’s in a place called Peniel. Peniel means the face of God. A place called God’s face.

God’s revelation of his face to these two brothers who have hard feelings, who have hate, who have demands, who have complaints about each other. Jacob lifts up his eyes and he sees Esau coming and he puts his wives, Leah and Rachel, and the maid servants and their children up front at the beginning of the camp so that Esau will see Jacob’s family.

This is my family, my brother. These are my children, my brother. These are my wives, my brother. This softens Esau’s heart. Esau sees Jacob’s family and he runs toward him and he embraces him and he falls on his neck and kisses him and they both weep. I think that I’m going to end the teaching on this portion with this scene from chapter 33 of the book of Genesis. There’s a lot more things happening here.

Maybe I’ll do a second session for this portion. But for now, I’m going to stop here because this is a great moment and there’s so much that we can learn about each other as brothers. And even if we’re not physical brothers, we are brothers in Christ. We are brothers with the Presbyterians and with the Baptists and with the Pentecostals and with the Methodists and with everybody that confesses that Yeshua, that Jesus is the son of God, the Messiah that God so loved the world that he sent him, this Jew that was crucified with a sign over his head, Jesus of Nazareth, king of the Jews.

We Are All Brothers in Messiah

This king of the Jews is the king of peace. And we need to learn, yes, we may have arguments, yes, we may even have a history of hating each other and persecuting each other, yes. But we’re still brothers and we need to learn from this scene to open our arms and welcome each other and say, “Brother, yes, we may have disagreement, we may have hard feelings, but we are still brothers.”

And fall and weep with each other because God is one and the Messiah is one and He’s the only head of the church. We have no one else except Him. May God bless us all and may we learn to make peace between brothers from this section of the Torah. God bless you and Shalom.