Vayigash – Torah with Joseph

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

Shalom. My name is Joseph Shulam. I’m continuing the program of broadcasting on Brad TV, the Torah portions that are being read in every synagogue in the world. We have entered actually two weeks ago into the story, I would say even saga, even novel, of Joseph, the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham.

This Joseph that had revelations from God, became hated by his brothers. They wanted to kill him. They didn’t kill him. They wanted to sell him. They didn’t sell him. Somebody else came, found him in the well, probably screaming out of the well, took him, sold him as a slave to the Egyptian official called Potiphar, Egyptian priest. And from there, he ended up in jail. He was in jail for several years. In the jail, Joseph became a kind of a foreman, kind of a leader, kind of a somebody responsible, close to the jailer.

And from the jail, as one who knows how to interpret dreams, he is taken to Pharaoh and Pharaoh appoints him as essentially the prime minister of Egypt, the top administrator in Egypt that saves Egypt from the drought, seven years’ drought, and seven years’ good. First of all, not drought, fertility and prosperity, and then seven years’ drought. Joseph saves Egypt from there. And during that period of drought, and when we say Egypt is in drought, it’s a very, very important thing to understand the geography.

Egypt is a country that was almost never in drought. Even if it doesn’t rain, it’s not in drought, because if it rains in Ethiopia, in Tanzania, in Uganda, in Zimbabwe, the water of the Nile River, with all of its tributaries, arrives in Egypt, crosses all the length of Egypt. From the southern border of Egypt, at that time, the southern border of Egypt was Lake Victoria, to the Mediterranean Sea. So they have water, especially when it’s hot here, when it’s summer here in the northern hemisphere, especially in the Middle East, then Egypt has lots of water. We read that very clearly in the book of Deuteronomy in chapter seven, and chapter 11.

So Egypt is easy with water, but during those seven years, the bad years of drought, it apparently didn’t rain very much in Africa. So the water didn’t get to Egypt. But Joseph manages to save Egypt from starvation, by cultivating during the good years and saving for the bad years. And he is now a top official in Egypt in charge of all the distribution of the grain. And of course, because Egypt is a land of plenty because of the Nile River, the people from the land of Canaan are hungry. And so they go down to Egypt to fetch food. Abraham did it, already Joseph’s great-grandfather did it, went down to Egypt to get food because there was a drought in the land of Canaan. But the brothers are sent by Jacob to Egypt to get food. Joseph recognizes them that they’re his brothers, the ones that hated him, the ones that persecuted him, and he is testing them in different ways.

Joseph Tricks His Brothers

And the last way he is testing them, which were from the last week’s portion is, is that he gives them the grain to take home after he asks them about the condition of their father and their younger brother, and he tricks them. He puts a silver goblet in the sack of one of the youngest boys, Benjamin his brother, his full brother, brother by mother and brother by father. And he accuses the brothers of stealing or breaking their trust. And he wants to keep Benjamin in Egypt and send the brothers with the food to Jacob, their father, and the idea is that they will bring Jacob to Egypt.

But the brother Judah, the one who suggested to the brothers in the valley of Dothan in the north of... northern Sumeria on the edge with the Jezreel Valley. Joseph wants to keep their brother in Egypt and to send them back. And Judah, the guy that suggested to sell Joseph as a slave, his conscience is bothering him. And that’s where our portion, the portion of Vayigash, Vayigash is translated, “and he came near.” He approached Joseph, Judah approaches Joseph in chapter 44, verse 18. That’s where our portion of the week starts. It’s called Vayigash, and he approached, and it starts in verse 18 of chapter 44. It ends in chapter 47, verse 27.

And the prophet portion, the Haftarah, the reading from the prophets is the reading of the chapter of the Dry Bones, from Ezekiel 37 verse 15 to 28. And in Luke, we read from Luke chapter six verses nine to 19. So, it’s all connected. So Judah comes to Joseph and says, “Oh my lord, please let your servant’s word in my lord’s hearing.” In other words, listen to me. “And do not let your anger burn against your servant for you are even like Pharaoh himself. My lord asked his servants, saying, ‘Have you a father or a brother?’ We said to my lord, ‘We have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age who is young. His brother is dead.’ Talking about Joseph himself. ‘His brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother’s children. His father loves him.’ Then you said to your servant, ‘Bring him down to me that I may set eyes on him.’ In other words, you want that young child, the only child of his mother, that his brother... father loves him so much. You want us to bring that child to you? To Egypt? “The lad cannot leave his father.”

In other words, Benjamin cannot leave his father. “For if he should leave his father, his father would surely die.” In other words you’ll kill Jacob if you bring Benjamin over here and put him in jail and accuse him. “But you said to your servants, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you shall see my face no more.’ So it was, when we went up to your servant my father that we told him the words of my lord, and the father says, ‘Go back and buy us a little food.’ And we said, ‘We cannot do go down, for our younger brother is with us then we will go down.’ Now only when Benjamin… we can take Benjamin to Egypt with us, only then we can go down. For we may not see the man’s face unless our younger brother is with us.

Then your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore two sons. The one went out from me and I said, surely he is torn to pieces and I have not seen him since.’” Now Jacob’s words reflect the story that Judah and his brothers told him when Jacob disappeared from the well, and they didn’t know what happened to him. So they invented the story that a wild animal devoured Joseph, killed Joseph. And they brought him the clothes of Joseph stained in blood as a proof that Joseph died. So now Judah is repeating that story to Joseph, but he doesn’t know it’s Joseph. “Yeah, but if you take this one, in other words Benjamin, from me, calamity will fall him, just like Joseph. And you shall bring down my old age, my gray hair, in sorrow to the grave.” You know, I’ll die. Verse 30 of chapter 44. Judah is still speaking. It’s Judah speaking still.

Joseph has said nothing. “Now, therefore, when I come to your servant my father, and the lad is not with us, since his life is bound in his lad’s life, you know, Jacob’s life is bound in the life of Benjamin. He’s the only son that Rachel gave before she died, beside Joseph himself. And if I come back, if we, our brothers come back to the land of Canaan without Benjamin, father will die. So your servants will bring down our father to the grave in sorrow, sad.” Imagine this. Joseph is playing the role. They don’t know that the Egyptian leader that is standing in front of them is Joseph, their brother, that they hated, that they wanted to kill, that they wanted to sell to slavery.

Judah Pleads With Joseph

They don’t know that. Joseph knows who they are. They don’t know who Joseph is. This is a very dramatic moment. This is a moment for the stage. This is a moment for grand theater. Joseph is there, and he’s listening to his brother, Judah, the guy who hated him, the guy who wanted to sell him, the guy who engineered Joseph’s lives by wanting to sell him. But on the other hand, saved him by wanting not to kill him. So if you don’t... if we bring our younger brother here and you want to keep him and we can’t take him back to his father, you’re killing your father.

That’s what Judah says. “Because I became the insurance of my younger brother, Judah says. I ensure that my younger brother, if we bring him, he will die.” So, to make the long story short, because of time, Judah is offering himself to stay in Egypt rather than to bring his younger brother. Verse 34. “How should I go back to my father when my brother is not with me? I see the evil that will come upon my father. My father will die. He loves Benjamin so much.”

Now we enter in one of the most dramatic pictures, most dramatic stories in the whole Bible. And this story has to do with Yeshua. The whole story of Joseph, as I said earlier, is kind of a paradigm of the Yeshua story, the Mashiach story. His brothers hate him. He flourishes among the Gentiles, and from flourishing among the Gentiles, Joseph saves his brothers and his father. And now in chapter 45 of Genesis verse one, here is the crux of the whole story. And Joseph could not restrain himself before all those who stood with him. He can’t keep his tears in his eyes. He can’t contain himself anymore. That strong man, Joseph, the chief second person in Egypt after Pharaoh. And Joseph says, “Let all the Egyptians... all the Gentiles go away from me, everyone go out from me. All my servants, my secretaries, my administrators, go out.”

Joseph Reveals Himself to His Brothers

So no one stood with him while Joseph made himself known to his brothers. And he started to cry aloud and the Egyptians of the house of Pharaohs heard it. And Joseph said to his brothers,

But his brothers couldn’t answer him. They were so in shock from seeing that the man that has been dealing with them till now is Joseph their brother, Joseph whom they hated, Joseph whom they sell. Then Joseph says to his brothers, “Please come near me.” So they came near him and he said, “I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. But now you do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. For those years of famine that has come on the land of Egypt, and there is still five years to go before the plows and the harvest comes. So God sent me before you to preserve posterity for you in the earth, to save your lives by the great deliverance. So now it was not you who sent me here, but God, and he has made me a father to Pharaoh and lord over Pharaoh’s house and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.”

Joseph Represents Yeshua

What you thought for bad God used for good, for your good, for the good of Egypt, for the good of the Israelites and the good of the Gentiles and the good of the world. That’s what Joseph says here. It’s a fantastic portion to read, folks. But let me move from here to Yeshua, because the story of Joseph is a paradigm of the story of Yeshua. He is born an Israelite, is an Israelite from the tribe of Judah. He is hated by many people in his generation. Only a handful of people, his disciples, really accepted him for who he really is and for what he really does. And so he’s hated.

Until this very day, the majority of the Jewish people hate him. Until this very day, he is considered Messiah, Lord, Savior, and God among the Gentiles. But the day is going to come when Yeshua descends in the clouds on Mount Zion, in Jerusalem, on the Mount of Olives, excuse me, and comes led on a parade to Mount Zion. And he will say to them, “I am Yeshua your brother, whom you rejected, whom you hated, whom you persecuted, persecuted my disciples.” But don’t be worried, whatever you thought for bad, God is turned for good. And now my Jewish brothers, it’s time for you to celebrate, it’s time for you to realize, it’s time for you to understand that in your hate, in your persecution, unbeknownst to you, without you knowing it or realizing it, you are actually doing the will of God.

And the day will come when the Gentiles that persecuted you will repent, just like you are repenting right now, and will beg for your forgiveness, for the persecution during the Byzantine Era, and the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisition, and the Holocaust, and the pogroms in Ukraine and in Russia by Khmelnystsky and his men, by the Cossacks. You will repent. You will cry with tears, as the brothers of Joseph, they were filled with fear.

Yeshua Is Coming Back to Jerusalem

They cried from fear that Joseph now will take vengeance on them. But Joseph says, no, whatever you thought was for bad, God turns for good because God is in control. And I’m telling you, my dear brothers and sisters in Korea and around the world, it’s going to happen. Yeshua will return, and there will be a resurrection, and there will be a judgment day. And in that judgment day, those who don’t repent and those who have hated Jews, and have hated one another, and have hated their fellow men, are going to have to repent and grovel at the foot of that crucified Jew called Yeshua. Yes, it’s going to happen. Just like the brothers would never have believed it if somebody had said Joseph is alive and he’s the chief of Egypt, he’s second in command after Pharaoh.

Yeshua Is a Brother to the Jews

Who would have believed that? That little rascal, Joe, thought that we are going to bow down to him, that thought his father and mother are going to bow to him? No sir, wouldn’t believe. But reality is gonna slap the world and slap Israel right in the face. And Yeshua is gonna say, like Joseph said to his brother, “I am Yeshua, your brother, not your enemy.” May God bless us all to see that day happen, soon in our own time. Amen.