Miketz – Torah with Joseph

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

Shalom, my name is Joseph Shulam and together with Brad TV we are recording the weekly portion from the Torah, from the five books of Moses that is read in all the synagogues around the world. And the last portion that we talked about together is when Joseph is sold as a slave to the house of Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s servants. And he does a great job in the house of Potiphar. He is the economist, in other words he is the manager of all of Potiphar’s household. Potiphar’s wife tries to seduce Joseph, Joseph is not seducible. He runs away from her, she catches his coat and she accuses him of the opposite. She accuses him of trying to seduce her, and he ends up in jail.

I’m going to stop here for a minute and do something general that is very important for our understanding of all the biblical stories, but especially the story of Joseph. One of the great motifs, for novels, for movies, for theater, for opera, for all of human endeavors, is the motif of “from rags to riches” and the opposite, “from riches to rags.” The story of Joseph is full of these two motifs. It starts from riches to rags. Joseph, whose father loves him, and who gives him the coat of many colors, he is especially loved over all of his brothers, he goes from being loved, to being hated by his brothers. Being sold as a slave.

And now he’s in the house of Potiphar, he is accused by the wife of Potiphar of trying to seduce her, and he ends up in an Egyptian jail. And here we arrive at this week’s portion, called Miketz. It’s translated by the New King James Version, “And it came to pass.” And we’re talking about Genesis 41 from verse one, to Genesis 44 verse 17, that’s the Torah portion. The parallel portion that is read in the synagogues from the prophets is first Kings, chapter three, verse 15, to chapter four, verse one. And we read also from the New Testament, from first Corinthians chapter two, verses one through five.

Pharaoh Has a Dream

But let’s go back to the beginning of our Torah portion, Genesis 41, verse one. “And it came to pass at the end of two full years that Pharaoh had a dream.” Two full years from what? Two full years from the time that Joseph was sent to jail. And he’s in jail. Two years later Pharaoh has a dream, and he stands by the Nile. The King James Version says “the river.” The river. When you’re talking about Egypt, it is always one particular river, because Egypt essentially has one great river. One of the greatest rivers in the world, the Nile.

And Pharaoh is standing by the Nile. The Nile is also one of Egypt’s gods, it’s not only a river. It’s one of Egypt’s gods that provides life, sustenance, fertility, to all of Egypt. It goes from the South of Egypt, all the way to the North of Egypt, to the Mediterranean. It’s the lifeline of Egypt. And Pharaoh stands by the river. And suddenly there come out of the river, seven cows. Fine looking, and fat cows. They were fed well in the meadows around the Nile river. Then behold, seven other cows come out of the river, ugly, skinny, malfed. And they stood by the other cows, by the fat and fertile and well fed cows, on the bank of the river. The ugly and skinny cows ate up the seven fine looking cows, the fat cows, and then Pharaoh awakes.

Verse five of chapter 41:

So Pharaoh wakes up, tries to understand the dream, is not able to understand the dream. And in the morning, Pharaoh was disturbed.

His spirit was troubled. And he sent to call all the magicians and the wise men of Egypt to come and help him understand the dreams.

None of the Wise Men Understand the Dream

But there was no one among Pharaoh’s wise men to help him understand the dreams and interpret the dreams for him. Then the chief butler of Pharaoh comes with advice. He says, “I remember my sins of the past, when Pharaoh was angry with his servants and put me in jail. In the house of the captain of the guards, both me and the chief baker, and each of us had a dream one night. He, the chief baker, and I. According to the interpretation of his own dream. In other words, we couldn’t understand our own dream. We had our own interpretation, but it wasn’t an authoritative interpretation.

Now there was a young Hebrew man with us in jail. And that Hebrew man became a servant of the captain of the jail.” In other words, he was not only in prison, but he got somehow to be in charge of certain aspects of the prison, and the prisoners. “And we told him our dreams and he interpreted our dreams. Each man, he interpreted according to his own dream. And it came to pass just as he interpreted to us, our dreams, whatever he said would happen happened. He restored me to my office and he hanged my fellow prisoner,” the other guy that had the dreams.

Joseph Released From Prison

Both of them were Pharaoh’s servants. Well, Pharaoh heard the recommendation of one of his servants about this prisoner called Joseph, a Hebrew prisoner called Joseph. What would he do? He immediately sent to get Joseph out of jail, out of the dungeon. King James calls it the dungeon. And of course before the prisoner that was not shaved, not clean, not dressed right, would be taken before Pharaoh, they had to wash him, and shave him, and bring nice clothes to him, and change him to be a much more honorable person that will go in front of Pharaoh to interpret Pharaoh’s dream.

And so Joseph is invited there before Pharaoh, he is brought before Pharaoh and he interprets Pharaoh’s dreams. To make the long story short so that we can keep within the timeframe, Joseph interprets, first, both dreams are the same. I want to tell you that this is a well-known fact in modern psychology of dreams. And it’s also a biblical dream. People who have dreams in the Bible usually have the same dream in two variants that have the same meaning in the end. So Joseph interprets the dream for Pharaoh, and says,

The seven fat cows are years of plenty, fertility. The land will produce richly. And then after that, there will come seven lean years. Droughts, the land will not produce.

Dreams Have Same Meaning

Both dreams have the same meaning, the dreams of the cows and the dreams of the wheat sheaves have the same meaning. The lean years, the lean cows devour the well fed, fat cows and the skinny grain devours the fat grain. Again, the same motif that I started this teaching with, which is from rags to riches, and then from riches to rags. That’s true with Joseph, but it’s also true with Pharaoh and his dreams. And it will be true for all of Egypt.

So Pharaoh asks his wise man and his magicians what to do, and it ends up with Joseph. Joseph comes and says what should be done. And Pharaoh on the spot nominates him, if I may use modern political terminology, to be the prime minister of Egypt. To handle all the preparation during the seven fat years in order to survive the seven lean years. My mother used to not spend money very easily. She worked as a foreman in a factory, and she always would say, “We have to save white money for black days.” And that’s Joseph’s way of thinking. During the fat years, save, prepare for the lean years. I know that in the modern world, the younger generation does not think that way.

Build on the Solid Rock

They think that, “Whatever I have, I’m going to enjoy it now, who knows what’s going to happen tomorrow?” But that’s not a wise way to live, not according to the Torah. And I don’t think that is also according to the prophets and not according to the teaching of Yeshua. We have to prepare for the worst and hope for the best. The teaching of Yeshua, the parable of Yeshua, of the wise men and the stupid men, that the wise man built on the rock, on the mountain, up the hill, where it’s hard to build. And the foolish man built on the sand, on the seashore. When the water came and the floods came, the house that was built on the sand, on the weak foundation, collapsed, but the house that was built with hard labor, more expensive work, up on the mountain, survives.

And so you have the same paradigm here in this portion of Miketz. Joseph is appointed as prime minister of Egypt to prepare for the seven lean years. And remember Joseph didn’t study engineering or economy. He had natural wisdom and divine guidance. I would say divine, Holy Spirit guidance, to become such a powerful man in Egypt. And everybody knew that Joseph was a Hebrew. Yes, he worked in the service of Pharaoh, and he dressed like Egyptians, and his children looked like Egyptians. We’ll see it further down in the book of Genesis, that Jacob doesn’t recognize Joseph’s children because they’re dressed, and have haircuts, and they have the manners and the language of Egyptians.

He married Osnat. When I was in kindergarten and in elementary school, we had a girl named Osnat in our class, but I never heard anybody in America name their daughter Osnat. But in Israel, there are still some Yemenites and Iraqi Jews, and maybe Kurdish Jews that name their daughters Osnat, because she was the wife of Joseph. So the seven fat years passed, and all of Egypt was set up by Joseph’s plan, with storehouses, for grain, that will provide grain for the seven years that there is drought in the land. Some archeologists think that they found such storehouses.

As somebody who’s studied archeology, I’ve seen photos. I don’t know if they’re real or not, whatever it is. However it is very interesting that the biblical narrative is that Pharaoh was so enamored with Joseph’s wisdom and his plan for the survival of Egypt, that he allows Joseph in the end to bring his family to Egypt. But that’s going to be in the next Torah portion. In this Torah portion, what happens is that, when there is drought in Egypt, that means that the whole Middle East has drought, especially in the land of Israel, the land of Canaan. And Jacob, like his forefathers, like Abraham, in time of drought, where do you go to get food, but to Egypt?

Egypt Fertile During Time of Drought

Why is Egypt fertile in the time of drought? Because Egypt doesn’t depend on rain. It depends on the Nile, and the Nile is a very special river. It starts in the Southern Hemisphere and it ends in the Northern Hemisphere, in the Mediterranean. What happens when we have summer here? What do they have in Ethiopia, in Tanzania, in Rwanda, in Uganda, in Zimbabwe? What do they have? They have their winter! The rain falls in Africa when we are in summer here.

We don’t have any rain in the land of Israel, for months out of the year. But they have in the Southern Hemisphere, winter time, rain, and the Nile River is one of the few huge, large rivers, one of the major rivers on the face of this Earth, that flows from the South to the North, in almost a straight line, from the South to the North. So when it gets to Egypt, which is in the North, most of it is in the Northern hemisphere, when it gets to Egypt, that means that it’s the flood time, it’s the summertime, because the water comes from the winter of the Southern Hemisphere to the Northern Hemisphere. So when there’s drought in the land of Canaan, people go down to Egypt to get their food from Egypt.

Jacob Goes Down to Egypt

So Jacob sends his sons to Egypt to get food. And, Joseph who is now next to Pharaoh in ranking in Egypt, discovers, recognizes his brothers, and a very interesting saga starts from here. Joseph doesn’t tell them that he’s Joseph. They think that Joseph died. They reported to Jacob, their father, that Joseph was devoured by a wild animal. And they dipped his coat of many colors in the blood of one of the sheep, and presented it to Jacob.

And Jacob thinks that Joseph is dead! And they don’t know that Joseph is alive, and they couldn’t even imagine that God would take Joseph out of the pit of the dungeons of the Egyptian prison, and put him in this high position, next to Pharaoh. Nobody was higher than Joseph except Pharaoh. The story of Joseph is a parallel story to the Messiah, to Yeshua. And we’re going to talk about this in the next lesson. Because Joseph, whom God blessed with dreams and with visions, prophetic dreams, of what’s going to happen, becomes hated by his own brothers.

Joseph Questions His Brothers

And even his father and his mother criticized him for these dreams. And they said, “What, do you think we’re going to bow down to you? You’re going to be the sun, and we’re going to be the stars, and we’re going to be dancing around you and bow to you? Not going to happen!” But it’s going to happen. And Joseph, recognizing his brothers, interrogates them, here in our portion of the week, questions them, asks about the father and his family. And they try to tell him the truth. “Father is old and he’s grieving for a son that he had, but he lost.”

We are going to return to this story in the next week, in the next portion, which becomes a very, very big drama, where Joseph finally breaks down in front of the brothers. And in a very dramatic and emotional scene, reveals to them, “I am Joseph, your brother.” That drama is one of the most dramatic moments in the whole Bible. Besides the cross of Yeshua, His being crucified in Jerusalem, the story of Joseph revealing himself to his brothers is the most dramatic story in the whole Bible. And we’re going to cover that in next week’s teaching. May God bless all of you. Read the Bible, follow our portions by reading them. God bless all of you. Shalom from Jerusalem.