Sometimes staying put is not an option. We either move forward and face our problems, or we retreat and look for a way out, just to find out that that would be disastrous! Who can help us through the turning points of life?
Today's Family of Jews and Joes
In the opening scene of Vayigash, we see Judah drawing near to Joseph down in the land of Egypt. YHWH Elohim had not set the stage for Joseph to draw near to Judah in the promised land to be reconciled. But it was in Egypt; such as most of us are in today.
Consider how our Messiah revealed Himself to be seen as Mashiyach Ben Yoseph, the Messiah, the Son of Joseph, in His first coming. Mashiyach Ben Yoseph is a major title that the Jews have used to describe the Messiah long before His first coming.
What did you dream about when you were young? Have your dreams come true?
When I was a boy growing up in rural Wisconsin, I dreamed about being a mountain man in the wild frontier. I loved the stories about men who lived close to nature in the wild west. In this day and age, my dreams came true after I had heard the Gospel and received Yeshua in my heart. My Heavenly Father called me to go west young man, and west I went. Before I retired, I worked 37 years for the Forest Service in the beautiful Cascade mountains of Oregon. My boyhood dream had come true.
“I’m not buying your dream.” When I was a boy, this is what my brothers and I would say to each other when one of us would come up with a hair-brained idea. We’d hardly ever say, “I’ll buy your dream,” when one of us actually did come up with something brilliant. Why do brothers like to shut each other’s dreams and visions down so readily?
Joseph’s brothers weren’t buying it. Is the whole family bowing down before Joseph? No way! Who did he think he was? God Himself?
His time was running out. He was about to face off with his big bad brother and his 400 tough guys. It was CRUNCHTIME!
Nothing had changed with Esau – he still hated Jacob and wanted to kill him as far as he knew. Ever since Jacob pretended to be his hairy brother, tricking his father to bless him for the firstborn birthright, Esau had a chip on his shoulder. The time had come to settle the score.
Have you ever wondered what it will take to put the fear of God in someone who seems to have no regard for how they mistreat you? What will it take for an oppressor to stop oppressing me or my loved ones? I’ve about had it! How do I shake loose of their tyrannical words and actions that bring others down?
Both pig and sheep can show you cloven hooves. Looks good! But considering how and what they eat, that’s a different story.
A pig can show you cloven hooves, looking good so far. But what they eat, how they mow it down and digest it – disgusting! The four-legged garbage disposal passes it all through one stomach and throughout its pork flesh. Makes for meat that’s an abomination and repulsive, according to the Creator.
Why is this portion called ‘The Life of Sarah’ when it starts with her death? The only remembrance we have of her life in her death is the number of years she lived. Is that all there is to her eulogy?
The life of Sarah lived on through her children. When a father or mother dies, some things about them are shaped into their children’s lives for the better. Other things are best left dead, not to live on through their children.
Where Love Begins
Every human being has a deep need for love and affection. Many find true love elusive, remaining empty, disillusioned, and unsatisfied in their quest. What is true love and where can we first find what we all yearn for deep inside?
Have you ever had times in your life when you heard the call to leave the past behind and move on to something better? You just knew in your spirit that it was time to pull the stakes and move on in life. You knew deep inside that the blessing and favor of God and man were ahead of you! Maybe you, or someone you know, is moving on even now.
For a young person, that could mean leaving their parents and a comfortable home and launching into a new career in a strange land.
The Seven Colors of the Rainbow and the Seven Covenants of Yah with Man:
With the rains back in western Oregon, may the Father in Heaven arch over your household with a beautiful rainbow of seven colors. May the Ruach, like a dove, bring you an olive leaf of shalom into your ark of safety in the Messiah. May He reveal to you the seven-fold covenant that He has made with our forefathers in every color of the rainbow:
What is our identity as the people of YHWH Elohim? Yeshurun (Jeshurun) is proclaimed as a prophetic name for Israel for the first time in the powerful Song of Moses. Yeshurun simply means ‘the Upright One,’ a title for the Body of Yeshua the Messiah.
How do we see ourselves and identify with Yeshurun?
For millennia, Torah keepers have called the man Moses the greatest leader of Israel – `Rabbeinu’ – `our Great One.’ But were men of God called anything like `the great ones’ in their eulogies? What were Moses and Joshua characterized by in the Scriptures?
At the end of their lives, the title we find is not ‘great one’ for either Moses or Joshua, but – ‘servant of YHWH’ (Deuteronomy 34:5 and Judges 2:8). In the end, victorious saints will sing the song of Moses, who is called ‘the servant of Elohim.’ (Revelation 15:3).
The King is coming! Are you ready for the shout, the voice of the archangel, and the blast of the shofar of God? We better be preparing for the awesome, soon return of Yeshua, the Messiah, the King of kings and LORD of lords!
One of the most satisfying jobs for a guy who works with wood is to restore something old and dilapidated, making it look new again. Working on home repairs, I’ve grown to appreciate renewing older houses built with old, but straight, tight-grained wood, largely free of knots and hardened with age. The new lumber in stores just doesn’t have the integrity and quality of the wood harvested decades ago from old-growth timber.
The storyline would make a good movie. A soldier goes out to war. His army defeats the enemy, slays all the soldiers, and carries away captives. The soldier looks at a beautiful woman, now destitute of the men she had always known. The emotions of the heat of a bloody battle are still burning recklessly inside of him. The man takes the woman to be his war bride.
At this point, I imagine you won’t find a movie out there that will follow the rest of the Torah’s storyline. If you do, let me know.
The people of the Kingdom appointed only one of four authorities. Not one office was self-appointed, but all came by a protocol prescribed by the ultimate Mighty Authority, our Elohim (God). What are the four highest authorities in the Kingdom of Elohim? Who was appointed, and how were they appointed?
Somebody is watching you. All alone or not, someone has an eye on you – day and night. Those eyes neither slumber nor sleep.
Those eyes aren’t looking for only what’s wrong with you. Those eyes look out for your good, watching for anything that could harm you to protect and defend you. Those eyes are not critical and judgmental, but are full of mercy and love, kindness and consideration.
Plenty of food in the frig, but what am I really hungry for? It’s time to eat, but sometimes nothing appeals much to me. What can I find that will truly satisfy my hunger?
He Let You Be Hungry
Does greeting you with ‘grace to you’ sound religious, pious, or even holier-than-thou? Many Hebrews like to greet each other with “shalom”. Why isn’t a greeting of “grace to you” more common among God’s people?
You may not see grace in the English translation – And I Pleaded, but the title Va’etchanan beautifully pictures the grace of our God in the ancient, pictographic letters. Let’s take a look at the Hebrew word – V’etchanan
“I don’t know, but Yah has a plan!” When I don’t have answers for people who ask me what our plan is for making it through what’s coming, I find myself simply saying, ‘Yah has a plan.”
In ancient times, a man was known by the staff in his hand. His tribal affiliation and occupation were identified by the staff he carried. Almost no one carries a signature staff in hand today, so how can I carry an identifier with a tribe of Israel?
The first strategy of the Adversary was to offer man forbidden fruit in order to gain knowledge and to become wise like God. The pursuit of information to gain power and dominion over others is nothing new in this modern world.
Mixing in the things of the Kingdom of God with those of the kingdom of the devil started back in the Garden of Eden.
Life from death is pictured by a dead branch grafted into an olive tree. The olive tree is the only tree that can revive a branch that had been cut off, lying dead for up to three years! Paul told us not to be ignorant of the mystery of how it is that native and wild branches alike can be grafted into Israel.
Torah Chuqat – Statutes, customs, ordinances
B’midbar – Numbers 19:1 – 22:1
Haftorah – Shoftim (Judges) 11:1-33
B’rit Hadashah – Yochanan (John) 3:9-21
B’midbar (Num) 16:1 – 18:32
I Samuel 11:14 – 12:22
Romans 13:1–7
Rebellion against the authority of Moses with anti-Torah sentiment is rearing its ugly head all over again. The ‘Abortion Alliance’ of west coast states is now forming in defiance of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v Wade. What do we do about it?
When an archer draws back his bow, he has a very defined target in mind to hit. When a congregation sends a brother or sister out on a mission, who or what is the goal they’re aiming for?
An archer shooting an arrow – that’s Shelach L’cha pictured in paleo Hebrew. The Hebrew phrase is sheen, lamed, chet, and lamed, kaf. From a paleo-perspective, I propose this phrase pictures:
Why did indigenous peoples not dwell in walled cities with infrastructure like most of therest of the world? Why just gather and collect food and hunt and fish for meat? Why not plow, sow and harvest for food and raise livestock?
On this journey in the wilderness of the peoples, we often encounter people who just can’t bear their heavy burdens on their own. What do we do? Who is the one to lift up first?
People are fickle like fish. We’ll all be going the right direction, than the next thing you know we’re heading the opposite way. In the wilderness, the hearts of the children of Israel were bent on turning about-face.
Moving Forward Backwards
The trumpets blew and the camps of Israel pulled stakes. Every time the cloud moved,the whole camp followed. It’s the one thing that the children of Israel always got right,heading the right direction, following the glory cloud.
Bechuqotay (In My Statutes)
Vayiqra (Lev) 26:3 – 27:34
YirmeYahu (Jeremiah) 16:19 – 17:14
Yochanan (John) 14:15-21, 15:10-12
Feeling a bit stuck in this world?
Maybe even – stuck in the muck?
How do we pull out and how do we
keep from going back there?