Acts 7:13

And on the second visit Joseph made himself known to his brothers,

For centuries now the Jewish people have been accused of rejecting the Messiah, of being the force that provoked His execution. This accusation gains momentum each year in spring when people remember the crucifixion. This attitude has to do with semantics in the English New Testament. The repeated statement, ’And the Jews …’, have hang on the Jewish nation for two millennia and have been the source of much atrocious persecution from the beginning of the second century C.E. until our ‘modern’ days. Paul, the hand-picked emissary of the Master warned against this attitude of non-Jewish believers against the Jewish nation in his famous ‘do not be arrogant toward the branches’ (Romans 11:18) olive tree analogy. M.L.K. is known to have said, ‘Ignorance is the mother of bigotry’, and these negative assessments about the Jewish nation are certainly due to ignorance of both Bible and History. The aftermath of the story of Chanukah may bring us some illumination.

After defeating the Syro/Greek army, the Maccabee bothers sat themselves on the throne of Jerusalem. Because many believed that only a son of David could sit on that throne this created civil disturbances among the people of Israel. A Judean official begged Rome for help, which it obliged by taking over Judea and its government, including Temple appointments. By the time the Master came on the scene, Herod, the Roman appointed King of Jerusalem had persecuted away many who were actually from the lineage of David who fled to Galilee, including the family of the Master.

Many in Judea resisted this situation, mainly the Zealots and the Assenes. In most other parts of the country, Yeshua was very popular. In those days also, most Jewry lived outside of Israel and when Paul went to tell them about Yeshua, for the most part they understood. When the New Testament therefore mentions of the ‘Jews’ that were against Yeshua, it speaks mostly of the corrupted Judean leadership, not of the Jewish nation in general. To generalize it to the Jewish nation is like qualifying the American Army by what happened at Abu Ghraib.

Also, in the story of Joseph we see how the patriarch concealed his identity from his brothers. He only manifested himself to his biological family at the time of the ‘second visit’, when Benjamin, the brother who was not present at the time of Joseph’s troubles was with them. It is the opinion of this writer that in the same manner, whereas the Jewish nation knows the Messiah intimately as a brother, divine scheduling has decreed that He would only manifest His true identity to them at a later date that is, at the ‘second visit’, when the ‘brother’ who was not present at the time of Joseph’s trouble appears on the scene. Could this ‘brother’ be the lately born Jewish Messianic movement, which is present now in Israel, ready for the ‘second visit’? Abba is in charge of times and seasons; Do not be arrogant toward the branches’ (Romans 11:18).