Shabbat Shalom

Matthew 12:12

“So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath."

Due to ignorance of Jewish Law in the days of the Master, many have erroneously deprived themselves of one of the most beautiful gifts God gave to mankind: the Sabbath.

Most people, when reading the controversies between Yeshua and the Judean leadership conclude that Yeshua either abrogated not only the Sabbath but the whole Torah, or that He nullified the Jewish interpretation of Sabbath observance in favor of a more ‘mature’ sola-scriptura approach. Deeper readings though quickly prove both these notions wrong. The problem with reading the Bible is that many understand it anachronistically. They put into their reading of these events the whole Jew vs Christian and Law vs Grace conflicts which actually did not exist yet in the days of the Master. If Yeshua abrogated the Torah He couldn’t be the Jewish Messiah, and whereas He had authority to teach the right way to practice it, He did not move the ancient landmark that the fathers had set (Proverbs 22:28). Of the traditional teachings of His days He actually said, "The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat, so practice and observe whatever they tell you--but not what they do (Matthew 23:2). Through these words, Yeshua may not have agreed with their practices, but condoned their teachings.

Having been a first-born, as a young man Yeshua studied the traditions and He was well aware of them. He knew that according to Jewish Law, life and death superseded commandment obedience. Moved by the great compassion of the Father (Exodus 34:6-7), Yeshua could also argue that the alleviating of human suffering was acceptable on the Sabbath. Last but not least, having done His homework, Yeshua also understood that in Jewish Law, when a positive commandment (you shall …) and a negative commandment (you shall not ...) conflict, the positive supersedes the negative one. Based on this accepted legal understanding, Yeshua could argue that the positive commandment of showing mercy, in this case by healing, overrides the Sabbatical prohibition to work. In this way, Yeshua neither broke the Sabbath, the Torah, nor brought anarchy in the country by undermining spiritual leadership which is actually an abomination to God (Proverbs 6:16-19). In asking whether or not it was permitted to do good on the Sabbath, Yeshua reminded the Judean leadership of their own teachings.

Sabbath observance is an anticipation of the World to Come, of the age when Messiah will reign on earth. It will be the time when Mercy will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. We can live this anticipation today by following the Master‘s example and do good on the Sabbath.

May we spend God’s day with our children, friends and relatives, but may we also keep our eyes open for the blessing of doing ‘good’ on the Sabbath.

Shabbat shalom!

Messiah and the 'strong man'!

Luke 11:21-22

When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are safe; but when one stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil.

Pharaoh as a strong man guards his house. Armed with soldiers, chariots, taskmaster, and priests he keeps control over his goods. The ‘strong one’ who possesses the souls of man keeps everyone in line much like we keep control over animals. He controls food supplies so everyone has to go to him for sustenance as well as the media which projects his autocratic worldview. Pharaoh rules … as long as no-one upset the fruit basket.

The world today is not much different. We are taught that away from the world’s authorized medical, educational, financial and religious institutions we are left unhealthy, ignorant, broke and without God. We learn that we have to submit to their social pressures to be accepted members of society. The system rules … as long as no-one upset the fruit basket.

Both Moses and Messiah come to change the dynamics and parameters of their day. They say that there is God in Heaven who is stronger than the system that controls us. They tell us that this God has the authority to free us from the ‘strong man’ (Exodus 5:1; John 8:36); to supply for us ‘bread from Heaven’ (Matthew 15:32-39; John 6:31-32) and real bread to, to heal, and to even free us from death.

Oh how the ‘strong man ‘fights! Like Pharaoh he tries to hold on to his prey. He does not let go easily. Like He did through Moses, God performs signs and wonders through His Messiah but like our fathers in Egypt, we still doubt. As Moses was determined to bring his people to the Father, it is only the Messiah’s determination that brings us, His brothers, back to the father from wherever we are in the world.

May we hear when He calls. May we follow when He goes. May we listen when we are instructed. May the Father grant us in His time to enter the Promised Land of His Kingdom on earth.

The Last Passover!

Luke 22:18

For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.

For two millennia, each year at the Passover Seder we drink the four cups of wine that tell the story of our Exodus from Egypt. It is a meal which uses foods and wine as descriptive elements of the story. It is a great tradition and children usually love it.

The four cups of the meal are: The Cup of Sanctification, the Cup of Deliverance, the Cup of Redemption, and the Cup of Praise. These cups define the four phases of the redemption of the Children of Israel from Egypt found in: “I will bring you out … I will deliver you … I will redeem you … I will take you to be my people, (Exodus 6:6-7). They did not celebrate Passover again until their last year in the desert.

King Solomon teaches us, “What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). During His last Seder with His disciples, with a trace of melancholy Yeshua informs His friends that He will not eat again of the Passover Lamb until it is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God (Luke 22:16). After, He takes the first cup, the Cup of Redemption and says, “I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes" (Luke 22:18). This statement teaches us that there is another ‘Passover’ coming up on the schedule, a Passover complete with sanctification through election of the Bride, deliverance from deathly plagues, redemption through marriage to ultimately belong to the Almighty in His household.

Hear now: The Perfect Lamb has been chosen in the Heavenlies. Each day we hear the good news of His redemptive power. He even now stands knocking at the door of every heart (Revelations 3:20). What will it be for us when the plagues descend? Will we be of those protected in Goshen, or like those receiving the recompense of their evil deeds against the people of God? At the time appointed, will we be of those following Him to a desert place for a Marriage banquet, or will we be left behind? When the ‘wood hits the sand’ (Chariot adaptation of the expression: ‘when the rubber hits the road’), we will see. As is told in the story of old, many Israelites stayed in Egypt while many non-Israelites through their lot with God.

To be chosen and leave Egypt is not enough. The old Egyptian culture has to be replaced by God’s new culture. Before entering the Promised Land we must follow Him to the mountain and receive the Ordinances that should direct our new life.. We must spend time in obedience to these in order to be ready.

Just before entering the promised Land of Yeshua’s reign on earth, we will see again a Passover complete with plagues and blood (Revelations 19-20). At that time, we will recline with Messiah at the table where He will again drink wine with us.

See you there?

What's in the Name?

John 17:26

I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them."

While on Mount Horeb, Moses clearly hears the Voice of the Almighty Creator of the universe telling him to go to His children. Fully aware of the cynical nature of man, Moses. proceeds by asking the Voice, "If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' what shall I say to them?" (Exodus 3:13). The Voice cryptically answers, "I AM WHO I AM."…"Say this to the people of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'"(Exodus 3:14). In those preceding words, the Mighty One reveals the fullness of His nature. Using a superlative conjugation of the Hebrew verb, ‘to be’, He calls Himself the Everlasting Existential One. This same connection with the verb ‘to be’ is also found in the etymological root of the tetragrammaton used in the Hebrew Bible for the Name of God.

Later on in the conversation the Almighty also tells Moses, “I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the LORD (tetragrammaton in the Hebrew text) I did not make myself known to them (Exodus 6:3)”. This is strange because Abraham, praised the Father using the tetragrammaton (Genesis 22:14). Are those contradictions? To add to the confusion, Yeshua comes and claims to reveal the Name of the Father as if no-one ever knew it before (John 17:26).

No; these are not contradictions. When the Scriptures talk about the Name of the Father, they are not talking about a sound bite attributed to the Almighty to help us refer to Him in conversation. These statements about His Name are speaking of His nature, the character of His revelation which is different in every column of the Scroll. In Abraham, Adonai is the One who provides; in Moses, He is the Avenger; in Yeshua, He is the Savior, the Atonement, the Shield who covers with acceptable blood. How does Yeshua reveal the Name of God?

Like Joshua was to Moses and Elisha to Elijah, Yeshua is a model disciple of the Father. He was in such unity with the Father that He said they were one, meaning that he who saw Yeshua saw the Father. It didn’t mean that if you saw Yeshua in the market place you went home and said, “Hey, I saw God today in the market place today”, it simply meant that Yeshua followed the Father so close that He could be seen through His appearance. When Yeshua says that He came to reveal God’s Name, He simply says that by His lifestyle He revealed the Father’s nature to us.

Yeshua also said that we should be one with Him. That means that when people see us they should be able to see Him, and through Him, the Father (John 17:20-21). It’s a tall order for each one of us, but if we seriously live in the injunctions the Master gave us directly or indirectly through His apostles, we should be able to shine some of the light of the Farther on this poor earth.

Sabbath mercies

Matthew 12:8

“For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath."

In His encounters with the religious body of Israel, the Master often discussed the details of Torah observances and most especially those concerning the Sabbath. It is the common interpretation of Christians to assume that Yeshua broke the Sabbath because He annulled the Instructions God gave at Sinai. The problem with that is that not only it flies in the face of His own teaching which says that, “whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments (The Torah) and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:19), but it also contradict God’s injunction that anyone who breaks the Torah not only cannot be the Messiah but is also a false prophet (Deuteronomy 18). Christian Sabbaterians also argue that Yeshua did not break the Sabbath, only the traditions of the scribes and the Pharisees, but even that does not make sense since the Master’s justification for His actions came from the same set of Oral Law teachings the scribes and the Pharisees used.

The verse, For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath" (Matthew 12:8) sheds some light on the situation. Yeshua often referred to Himself using the expression ‘Son of Man’ (Daniel 7:13). A problem with that is that ‘son of man’, in Hebrew, ‘ben-adam’ also means ‘human being’ in general. In our text Yeshua seems to use the expression in a very general way. As a recognized Rabbi with disciples, it was perfectly legal for Yeshua to establish rulings on Sabbath observance. Even today in Judaism religious leaders differ in their opinions of details of commandment applications and people follow their favorite rabbi. The problem was that certain Rabbis (not all, as many honored Yeshua as in the case of Nicodemus) did not agree with Yeshua

This was a very serious situation which irritated Yeshua’s doctrinal opponents, but they could not do anything against Him because even His justifications came from the teachings of the Talmud. What the Master taught was that though it was already understood that any issues of life and death superseded Torah commandments, even the Talmud agreed that it is right to do good on the Sabbath, ‘good’ in this case meaning to alleviate human suffering such as hunger and disease provoked pain. What we have here is very common religious legal debate.

The Apostolic texts tell us that Yeshua is ‘the brightness of his (God’s) glory, and the express image of his (God’s) person (Hebrews 1:3).). What Yeshua teaches us through these encounters is that the Father in Heaven is full of mercy and compassion for His children (Exodus 34:6-7) and that the form of obedience He requires from us is not hard, rigid, and cold, but leaves room for what the Scriptures call the ‘weightier matters’ (more important) and elements of the Torah which are, ‘justice and mercy’ (Micah 6:6-8; Matthew 23:23).

As Yeshua perfectly emulated the Father so we could know His love, compassion, and mercy, may we also perfectly emulate Yeshua that the world around us may know the Father‘s love, compassion, and mercy.

The Thorns of Sinai

Mark 15:17

And they clothed him in a purple cloak, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on him.

Thirty four hundred ago the Creator of the universe decided to appear to a man who would reveal Him to Israel and eventually the world. God had been watching the affliction of His people and was ready to bring them out to their grand destiny. The One who created us knows us; he knows we judge by appearances, so as a long awaited mysterious visitor He carefully prepared His grand entrance; everything had to be right, especially the form of His appearance as it carried His message.

In the Text, we read that the Creator appeared in a paradox: a bush that burned yet was not consumed. None of it was illusionary: the bush burned yet was not consumed. The Hebrew word for thorn is: ‘s’neh’ carrying the same etymological root as ‘Sinai’. According to a Jewish sage’s perspective, (Rabbi Yanni), God’s appearance in the midst of a thorn bush was emblematic of the anguish He suffered over Israel’s affliction. In that sense, the thorn bush was something akin to putting on sackcloth and ashes. The thorn bush represented a royal messianic statement: God’s empathy for Israel.

Through Isaiah our great Father unveils His emotional attachment to His people; He says, In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old (Isaiah 63:9). “This is to be compared to the situation with identical twins”, Rabbi Yanny says, “if one has a pain in his head the other feels it. Israel certainly had a pain in his head”, and eventually Mashiach wore the thorns of Sinai upon his forehead, again as an illustration of the Father’s empathy for His people (Mark 15:17).

A father naturally suffers when his child is afflicted, so the Father suffers when His people are afflicted. He takes upon Himself all their suffering until the time when in His fury He awakes and desires vengeance, yes vengeance on those who afflict Him through His people (Isaiah 63:3). As we are afflicted, He is afflicted.

As parents we love our children, but our parental love contains an element of hatred, hatred for our children’s evil behavior. Good parents should not be afraid of afflicting their children in order to set them straight. Parental love does so, and the great eternal Father is the greatest example of it. Thus the paradox returns: love, mixed with hate.

Once we have solved the paradox of the burning bush; once our finite mind feels comfortable with a God who loves us so but in His hatred of our sins can also let us suffer, that is precisely when we enter the greatest error of all. The Father reveals Himself to us in a paradox. This is the mystery of the burning bush; this is the Mystery of Messiah.

1 Timothy 4:12

Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.

Exodus 2:1-2 tells us, Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months. From this verse we could imply that Moses was Amram and Jochebed’s first child, but later on we discover that it is their third after Miriam the oldest who was five, and Aaron who was three years old at Moses birth. Why this strange text rendition then?

A Talmudic tradition teaches that after Pharaoh’s decree, Amram felt that it was useless to attempt raising a family so he divorced his wife. Because he stood as a Levite, Amram’s decision created a snowball effect within the Israelite population. Miriam who was very young at the time rebuked her father telling him that he was worse than Pharaoh. Her reasoning was that whereas Pharaoh sought to kill all the Israelite male children, Amram, through his sample threatened to bring the whole nation to genocide. If the Israelites stopped raising families, their population will decrease to possibly come to a standstill and finally disappear. Miriam certainly had the gift of judging actions by their long term effect and she went on to become a great leader of Israel. The teaching tells us that Amram repented, remarried Jochebed, and sired Moses.

One can argue about the veracity of the story but true or not, it gives us a window on the ancient Israelites views on family and tribal dynamics, morality, goals, purposes and methods of judgment. The whole story with Moses who was a foreshadow of the first and second coming of Messiah and through whom was given the foundation stone of mankind’s redemption plan, could have been thwarted because of one act of despair from the older generation. In the mean time a youth with a fresh non-cynical look at life was able to see the calamitous results of such action and rebuked her father for giving up which provoked a reversal of action.

We complain much about youth today but could it be that perhaps they do not feel heard by the cynical so-called wise parental generation? We have our lives behind us but they have theirs in front of them and that without cynicism that often sadly accompanies age and experience.

In preparing for the future, may our children find their place. May we raise them in an atmosphere where they feel at liberty to change and prepare their future by being able to expose our shortcomings. May we have the humility of hearing the voice of conviction in their uncouth and unseasoned tone. What is it the prophet said? “A little child shall lead them (Isaiah 11:6). “

Hebrews 3:15

As it is said, "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion."

As the lone voice of God crying in the desert sent Moses to Pharaoh, so today the voice of Messiah cries unto the Adversary: ‘Let my people go that they may worship Me’. As the plagues of God’s judgments fell upon a defiant Egypt, so also the torment of God’s retributions afflict an arrogant world. As many of the Children of Israel chose to stay in the seeming safety of the culture of Egypt, many whom God calls choose to stay in the elusive ‘dream’ of this world. As a great multitude of other nations followed Israel to the mountain where it would learn a brand new way of life, so today a great multitude follows the chosen few desiring to apply the Words of the Creator of Heaven and earth onto their lives (Exodus).

From the foundations of the world the plan for man’s redemption was defined and played out (Hebrews 4:3). The lone voice of God’s Word is heard (Exodus 3); the paschal ransom of our freedom is paid (Exodus 12;3); we leave the old country (Exodus 12:51); and we immerse unto rebirth (Exodus 14:29; 1 Corinthians 10:2) to go and meet God in a lonely place where we learn the parameter of our new life in Him (Exodus 20). Finally, as a new rewired individual we enter the Promised Land (The Pentateuch).

The problem today is that, while many hear the lone Voice of the Word (Psalms 103:20), they covet the beautiful prospects of the Promised Land so they leave and immerse themselves out of the old country, but they never go to the mountain. They never go and learn how to live a life acceptable unto Him. They therefore remain forever stuck between their old culture and the new one. Not having completely rid themselves of their past, they are not entering into the future. They are like the bride who left her father’s house and never got married. She heard the voice of the bridegroom, betrothed him, prepared for the wedding, but never went to the wedding ceremony nor to the bedchamber to consummate the marriage. Why? She wanted what the bridegroom had to offer, but without really ever belonging to Him. Marriages today are much the same way. People live together without really belonging to each other.

Is that the way we are with God? Do we want the blessings of His treasury but do not want to be His? Do we want the protection of His Right Arm while we refuse the ways of His Kingdom? Do we want the clout of being called by His Name, yet do not want to live in His house?

Today again while the voice and culture of the world grows darker and darker, the voice of the Master calling His Bride is made clearer and clearer. Let us together follow the trail that leads to higher moral and spiritual grounds. Let us be immersed unto the new life God has for us and follow Him to the lonely bedchamber at the mountain of His choice. When there, let us t bask in his loving arms allowing Him to renew our minds and hearts so we can enter the Promised Land of His house His forever as new creatures, a light of everlasting Life and a well of Living Waters for the nations.

Revelation 12:5

She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron,

Believing the time of his departure was nigh, Jacob blesses his children. The pronounced words are not just blessings; they are insights of the future of Israel, and thereby, of the world. When comes Judah’s turn, Jacob says, The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples (Genesis 49:10).

Judah’s ‘scepter’ takes a prominent place in the Torah from Genesis to Revelation. The Hebrew word for it is ‘Shevet’, word which is also related to ‘tribe’, each tribe being represented by the staff of the tribe leader.

In Genesis thirty-eight, Judah uses his staff as collateral; as a token of identity. It was most probably a shepherd’s staff, a tool that represents the ruling, shepherding, and even disciplining of the flock. Judah’s staff is a foreshadow of the Messiah’s scepter as it is said in the Psalms, The LORD sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your enemies (Psalms 110:2)! This staff/scepter represents Messiah’s ruling and disciplining of the disobedient as the psalmist says: You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. (Psalms 2:9)". King David must have believed in this rod of discipline as his son Solomon often talks about it in his proverbs (Proverbs 13:24).

The ‘shevet’ of Messiah though is not only a tool of correction. It is also used for protection against those, the wolves that would eat us alive if they could. It is also Messiah’s instrument of comfort as is said, Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me (Psalms 23:4), and the sign of our passage into covenant with Him: I will make you pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant (Ezekiel 20:37).

The staff/scepter/rod/shevet of Messiah is powerful to chastise, to lead, and to comfort. Isaiah speaks of the ‘rod of His mouth’, but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked (Isaiah 11:4), indicating that this rod/staff/scepter/shevet is the spoken Word of the Master.

May we pay attention to His Word. May we obey them carefully and emulate Abba by emulating the Master. The word Judah or ‘Yehudah’ means to praise God. It is not enough to praise the Father in Words only, we praise Him best through our actions..Just as we as fathers feel praise and honor when our children emulate and obey us, the Father which is in Heaven is also praised and honored when we obey and emulate Him. It is our choice whether the Master's ‘shevet’ becomes the heavy a rod of iron and correction, or the gentle leading staff of the shepherd.

Luke 3:8

Bear fruits in keeping with repentance

As he undertakes the task of speaking for his brothers, Judah approaches Joseph (Genesis 44:18). For a reason only God knows, Judah recounts to the Egyptian Viceroy the story of their long lost brother and of the pain it inflicted on their father. Joseph listens intently to this inside information concerning himself. Jacob’s pain concerning Joseph seems to have been a crushing weight on that family. The biblical text implies that Jacob never found closure and mourned for twenty-one years, until the time when he was finally reunited with his son. As Judah makes his plea before the Viceroy, he reveals that he stands as safety for Benjamin in the eyes of his father (Genesis 43:9).

This is a pivotal moment for Judah and his family; this is the time of reckoning. Their sin has returned upon them and judgment from on high is about to be pronounced. They stand before Joseph as if it were before the court of Heaven. The verdict about to be pronounced until Judah makes the move that changes the wheels of justice: he offers himself as a ransom for the life Benjamin. He presents himself to become a slave so Benjamin can go free, and this is what Joseph was looking for: true repentance from a change of heart that is translates into godly acts.

To be repentant with the heart only is not enough. If this repentance does not become the force and the engine that puts the body into motion towards godly behavior and actions, this is not repentance; it is just being sorry which is legislatively useless. When Judah offered himself as a slave for Benjamin, he showed concerned for the father which he had before despised and that was acceptable unto Joseph. The idea here is that no matter how sorry we are, we cannot change the grade until we are faced again with the same test, with a similar situation, and have the chance to make different choices. In this case, Judah passed the test.

It is the same with us. We are daily faced with situations and choices. Some we pass, some we don’t and the Master keeps the grade. In the end we are told that Abba will judge the world according to the Master’s deciding (Acts 10:42). Jewish sages teach us that a judge is unfit to judge a man unless he can find that man’s sin within Himself. Yeshua who taught the same thing (Matthew 7:3-5) came and was subject to every temptation just as we are; he is therefore the Fit Judge and one day, we will stand before Him like Judah before Joseph and have to not only confess to repentance, but show fruits meet for repentance.

This is part of the restoration of our heart mind and soul. Restoration does not come by a stroke of magic that instantly reprograms our nature and character. It comes by meeting again the situations that made us fall; it comes by taking the test again and hopefully get a better grade. God is patient and also believes in ‘no child left behind’ (2 Peter 3:9). May we therefore be faithful to do our homework, to do our best to present ourselves to God as approved, workers who have no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth (2Timothy2:15).

Romans 9:1-3

I am speaking the truth in Messiah--I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit--that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Messiah for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.

As he hears Judah’s impassioned plea for Benjamin (Genesis 44:18-31), Joseph perceives the change of heart in his brothers. For over twenty years Joseph swallowed his pain, his anger, his pride, his desire for vengeance, as well as his longing to be reunited with his family. As Egyptian Viceroy he could have himself engineered the reunion, but he preferred to wait for God to work.

This is the moment when the brother-in-exile-Egyptian-Viceroy is ready to reveal his identity. As tears choke his speech (Genesis 45:1-2), we hear the sorrow of Messiah Himself who after a long exile from Israel living among the gentiles longs to be reunited with his people. Jewish people today look at Yeshua as Jesus much like the Joseph’s brother’s looked at him as Pharaoh: as a despotic foreign ruler who cares little about them. Little do they know that like Joseph, Yeshua Himself longs to be reunited with His brothers and celebrate the feasts with them again. Like Joseph though, Yeshua will swallow His pain, His anger, His pride, and His desire for vengeance, and at an opportune moment of History, in a final master-stroke reveal, Himself to Israel. It was not the Egyptians who revealed Joseph to his brothers; the brothers did not figure it out themselves either. It was Joseph who while removing his Egyptian head-dress, speaking in their native tongue revealed himself to his brothers (Genesis 45:3-5). In the same matter, it is not the evangelical efforts of gentile believers or the Talmudic calculations of Jewish scholars who will reveal Messiah to Israel; it is Messiah Himself.

In the meantime, our Messiah is in exile. In the years preceding the destruction of the Temple, the rulers of Jerusalem persecuted the Jewish believers in Messiah. Just as Benjamin was not around to take part in the selling Joseph, the Jewish Messianic community was not around for the ‘selling’ of Yeshua (Matthew 26:15). Today Yeshua, the Messiah in exile is testing the heart of Israel with the Jewish Messianic communities sprouting up everywhere, even in the Land.

It is with the restoration of Israel under its rightful King and High-priest Yeshua the Messiah that the earth will be able to experience the World to Come. That is why we are constantly admonished to ‘pray for the peace of Jerusalem’ (Psalms 122:6), a peace that will not come until the restoration of the true Davidic King on the throne of Jerusalem.

Revelations 2:23

I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works.

 

Before he was ready to bestow blessings upon them, Joseph tested his brothers. While far was from him the desire to exact vengeance on them, Joseph needed to test his brother’s spirits. They needed to experience a little of what he experienced, so Joseph created a set of circumstances that would serve as a litmus test of their character.

Joseph spent three days and three nights in the pit not knowing what would happen to him; so his brothers would spend three days and three nights in the jail not knowing if they would live or die. Trying to preserve their inheritance away from Rachel’s son, Leah’s children tried to rid themselves of Joseph. Now, Judah would have to sacrifice himself in order to save Benjamin, the second son of Rachel. All this showed Joseph that his brothers had truly learned and matured. Their repentance needed to be coupled with the fruits of behavior appropriate with their misdeeds.

As Joseph did, the Master spent three days and three nights in the earth because of us, His jealous brothers. He was later brought to God who like Pharaoh, established Yeshua over the gentiles, until such a time when a famine came that brought Joseph’s brothers to him for help.

Will there be a time of sore trouble for Jacob/Israel that will force him to his brother Yeshua for help? Will Israel spend three days and three nights in a pit? Will Messiah test the heart of Israel in the end of days? Will there be a Benjamin? Some speculate that the Holocaust was the trouble, because since then like Joseph did, Yeshua revealed Himself to many of our people. This new Jewish Messianic movement could represent Benjamin, the brother who did not despise Joseph! We can certainly see the end from the beginning in all these things.

Before sending them on their way to bring their father, Joseph had a festive royal meal with his brothers. This speaks to us of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb following the Revelation of Messiah spoken to us in Revelations (Revelations 19:9).

Even today, all our hearts are being tested. The approaching Feast of Chanukah should remind us of our brothers who stood firm refusing to compromise their faith with the corrupt standards of the world around them. May we be like those Maccabees of old who when tested came out without even the smell of smoke. May we refuse to assimilate to the ways of the world. May we bravely and zealously pass the test, come out clean on the other side, ready to recline for a festive royal meal at the table of the Master at the end of the age.