Readings for Vayigash, And he drew near
Torah: B’resheet (Genesis) 44:18 – 47:27
Haftorah: Yechezkel (Ezekiel) 37:15-28
Brit Chadashah: Luke 6:9-16; 9:11-26
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.
Where are most Jews today finding the Yeshua the Messiah, the Son of Joseph? Bringing it closer to home, where did you first find Salvation upon hearing the Gospel?
The fact is, the Gospel of Yeshua is being preached largely by Joes in the western world today. But at first, Jews do not recognize us Egyptian-looking Joes as their brothers. Like Joseph was in Egypt, most Joes are living in worldly nations fraught with paganism. Although Christianity has its share of false doctrines and pagan roots, so does Judaism.
Like the sons of Israel with Joseph, we have a history of not treating each other so well.
We are divided on so many issues. For the most part, we don’t recognize each other as brothers. What will it take to restore the desolate house of worship of the one true God?
Consider what our Master Yeshua had to say about our sad situation as a divided, desolated house of Israel. With the problem He describes, the Messiah also gives the turning point solution when He is to be revealed:
“Behold, ‘your house is left’ to you ‘desolate’. (Jer 22:5) And I say to you, ‘You shall not see Me until it comes when you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the Name of YHWH.’ “ Psalm 118:26, Luke 13:35
The Messiah in Psalm 118 and Vayigash
What was Yeshua referring to when He quoted the psalmist ‘Blessed is he who comes in the Name of YHWH’? Was He only referring to Himself in His second coming as most believe? Let’s investigate the foundation for this statement in the Torah.
Now let’s look at how Psalm 118 connects with the story of Joseph and his brothers and with our Messiah Yeshua. Being the central chapter of all the Bible, Psalm 118 is pivotal.
Pushed into a Pit
“Pushing, you pushed me to fall, but YAHWEH helped me.” Psalm 118:13, Hebraic Roots Bible, HRB
The brothers had pushed Joseph into a pit and sold him down the road to get rid of him. Yet YHWH was on his side and not only saved his life, but exalted Joseph to be the prince of Egypt. Yah then set Joseph up to be the point man for family reconciliation.
Yeshua was more than pushed into a pit, He was bound, beaten, and bruised mercilessly. Like a lowly lamb led to the slaughter, He didn’t revile them or fight back. Like Joseph in the pit, Yeshua was left for dead in the tomb, but rose three days later to ascend to the throne of Heaven! There He has been given all power and authority.
Relating to Yah as Yeshua
Yah is my strength and my song, and He is to me Y’shua.
Psalm 118:14, (Salvation, Yah saves).
Here the psalmist relates to Yah as Yeshua. The Name Yeshua, spelled Yod, sheen, vav, ayin, is embedded in the Hebrew ‘liyshuah.’ As with His appearances, His Name is concealed in the TaNaKh and revealed in the Gospels. For the seeker, He’s surely there.
By definition, Yeshua is Yahweh Who saves and delivers His people. On any day when Yah saves, that’s Him coming to us as the Messiah Yeshua. Joseph had the strength of the Messiah in his soul by His Spirit to bring him through his pit to prison to palace experience. Yeshua saved and delivered Yoseph, who had the seed of Messiah in him.
The Turning Point of Death to Life
“I will not die, but live, and proclaim what Yah has done! Yah has chastened me hard, but has not given me over to death.” Psalm 118:17-18
As a teenage boy, perhaps Joseph was a bit proud of the favor his father bestowed on him with the ‘coat of many colors,’ a priestly garment. Why else would he share his dreams of his family bowing down to him and not keeping it a secret from his brothers?
Like Joseph, we all need to be chastened for our pride to work humility into our hearts. Even though we may have brushes with death and endure suffering, Yah promises that we live and not die. Because Yeshua died and rose again, we die to selfish pride through the work of the cross and Yeshua raises us up alive in the Spirit! Even Yeshua, as a Son, learned obedience to the Father through the things that He suffered (Heb 5:8).
The Chief Cornerstone, Turning Point of the House
I will thank You, for You answered me, and You are to me Y’shua.
The Stone which the builders rejected has become the Head of the Corner.
This is from YAHWEH, it is marvelous in our eyes. Psalm 118:21-23
The psalmist had a relationship through prayer and thanksgiving with Yah, Who is Yeshua to him. Again he relates for us: ‘You are to me Y’shua.’
But the enemy wants no one to relate with Yeshua as Yah, Who works on their behalf to save and deliver from the works of our adversary, the devil. Just last week the pope made an edict against the relationship with Yeshua. Other voices diminish Yeshua’s Divinity. We certainly need to know that Yah saves; the way Joseph knew our God.
Joseph being rejected by his brothers and cast out of the household was a type of Yeshua being rejected by His Jewish brethren. Even His twelve disciples disowned Him when He took up the cross for us. But after their exaltation, both Yoseph and Yeshua became the head of the corner, the chief cornerstone for the house of Israel.
What is the function of a cornerstone? The Hebrew word translated as ‘corner’ is ‘pinah,’ which means ‘angle.’ A cornerstone is where two walls are constructed together usually at a right angle. The cornerstone connects and joins two separate walls together to make a unified building. At this turning point in the construction of a house, the walls are built and the whole house is joined and anchored together establishing the house.
What Yahweh did so ‘marvelous in our eyes’ was how He orchestrated dreams and lifted Joseph to the highest office to gather and store food to save the world from famine. All these worked together for the good of bringing in his eleven brothers to be saved and reconciled. His orchestration was for the whole house of Jacob to come down to live as one reunited family in Goshen (meaning drawing near). Joseph was like a cornerstone that joined and anchored the whole house of Jacob back together again.
Yeshua does the same as our Chief Cornerstone. Through His death and resurrection, He destroyed the middle wall of partition that separated us from Him and one another. (Ephesians 2:14) The Messiah quoted Psalm 118 regarding Himself as ‘the stone the builders rejected’ (Mat 21:42). The Chief Cornerstone is the turning point of the building. Yeshua is the turning point in rebuilding all our broken and separated relationships in the house of Israel! May we all join together with Yeshua at the center!
The Day of the Turning Point
This is the day that YHWH has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it! O YHWH, I beg You, save now; I beg You, O YHWH, cause us to prosper now. Psalm 118:24-25
What is ‘the day that YHWH has made’? What day should we rejoice and be glad in?
In this context, it is the day of salvation. The day of salvation is the turning point from dying to self unto resurrection life, from hunger to satisfaction, and from broken relationships to reconciliation. These themes fit beautifully within the turning point of Vayigash (And he drew near) when Judah drew near to Joseph to reconcile with him.
Paul confirms this day to be a day of salvation quoting Isaiah (Isa 49:8): For He says:
“In an acceptable time I heard you, and in a day of salvation I helped you.” Behold, now is the acceptable time! Behold, now is the day of salvation!
2 Corinthians 6:2
Isn’t salvation by Yeshua what we should celebrate every gathering day, every Shabbat, every festival, even Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights? Praise the Name of Yeshua!
Who is He Who Comes?
Blessed is he who comes in the Name of YHWH; we blessed you from the house of YHWH. El YHWH and He gives light to us. Psalm 118:26-27a
Consider the story of Judah and the brothers coming near to Joseph in Vayigash (And he drew near). When Judah drew near, he came to ‘nagash’ in Hebrew, which can also mean ‘to present an argument.’ Did Judah’s approach, his argument, and his very character come in the Name and character of YHWH – Who is to me Yeshua?
When Judah drew near to his brother Joseph, both acted as types of the Messiah. Both were critical to the turning point in reconciling relationships in the house of Israel.
Who is it that ‘comes in the Name of YHWH’? Will it be just the Messiah in His second coming? In answering this question about who he is, we should consider Vayigash.
From the story of Judah drawing near to Joseph, I see that the blessed one coming in the Name of YHWH could be any believer, who by the Spirit comes in the Name of Yeshua to bring reconciliation to the two houses of Israel. The Messiah at work through His people, like a Joseph or a Judah, can bring about a turning point in restoration.
The Pivot Point for the House of Jacob
What was the pivot point for Joseph and Judah that turned their relationship around and reunited their hearts as brothers? What was the deciding issue that Judah would be willing to lay his life down as a servant of Joseph and would carry the blame for not returning Benjamin? Judah demonstrated the heart of the Messiah in these offerings.
Here is the pivotal question Judah asked of Joseph that broke the wall of separation between them:
“For how shall I go up to my father if the lad is not with me – for fear that I see the evil that would overtake my father?” Genesis 44:34
This is what was asked that brought the Prince of Egypt to lose control of his emotions and reveal himself to his brothers:
And Joseph was not able to control himself regarding those standing beside him. And he called out, “Cause every man to go out from me.” And no man stood before him as Yoseph was making himself known to his brothers. And he wept aloud… Genesis 45:1-2a
What broke through the pride and changed the hearts of every son of Israel? What was the breakthrough turning point for Joseph to break into tears and reveal himself to his brothers? What broke the brothers’ hearts is what their evil actions had done to the heart of their father. That moment of realization concerning their father was the turning point for restoration. It was then that they saw the true identity of their brother Joseph.
The pivot point is in what the sons were doing to overtake the heart of their father. Jacob, unseen since he was back in Canaan, was a type of the unseen Father in Heaven. When we realize how our not getting along grieves the heart of our Heavenly Father, then maybe we’d get over our sad divisions and reconcile. The tens of thousands of denominations that all claim to believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are enough to show how divided we are. Our sad divisions are why so many young believers end up going back to Egypt and do not return to their Father in Heaven.
It’s when we see the Messiah in one another (2 Cor 5:16), instead of a foreign Egyptian, that relationships can be turned around and restored. Restoration happens when the Messiah is revealed in a brother or sister we’d been estranged from because of our sin. Blessed is he who comes in the Name of YHWH and bridges unholy separations!
How to Make it to the Turning Point
If I know a crossroads is ahead of me – like a major decision that must be made where lives hang in the balance – what do I not do that would miss the turning point? What can I learn from the Torah that would not work to reconcile the relationship issue?
Before the brothers took younger brother Benjamin down to Egypt, Jacob turned down an offer made by his oldest son, Reuben. What are the implications of this discussion?
Then Reuben spoke to his father, saying, “You may put my two sons to death if I do not bring him back to you; put him in my care, and I will return him to you.”
But Jacob said, “My son shall not go down with you; for his brother is dead, and he alone is left. If harm should befall him on the journey you are taking, then you will bring my gray hair down to Sheol in sorrow.” Genesis 42:37-38
It sounded like such a zealous and sacrificial offer from Reuben. But why did his father reject it? What are the differences between the offers of Reuben and Judah?
Here’s Judah’s offer that his father did accept:
“I myself will be surety for him; you may hold me responsible for him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him before you, then let me bear the blame before you forever.” Genesis 43:9
Reuben never offered to take the blame, nor for him to be responsible for his brother. He just offered to sacrifice his own two sons, but not himself in any way, a knee-jerk reaction. Reuben did not offer to bear the blame if he were to fail, only Judah did.
Our Father in Heaven accepted the sacrifice of Yeshua because He offered Himself to bear the blame for broken relationships in His first coming. The Messiah offered his own life. Judah had the heart of Messiah and his father Jacob accepted his offer.
In the same spirit, Jacob offered to send down a sacrificial gift of the best food they had to offer – balm, honey, aromatic gum, myrrh, pistachios, and almonds. He gave his best. That was truly sacrificial since they were facing starvation without food during a famine.
How can we turn broken relationships to a pivot point and turn it around for the restoration of the house? We must be willing to lay down our selfishness at the foot of the cross and take the blame for others, whatever it takes to forgive and reconcile.
When we fully realize what our dysfunction does to the heart of the Father in Heaven, we can see the walls come down and the two houses joined together again. That’s my prayer and desire – to see the two sticks to be one in His hand again! (Ezekiel 37)
YHWH declares the end from the beginning (Isa 46:10). What a prophetic picture of the restoration of the House of Jacob! Greater things are yet to come for the House of Israel!
The Turning Point of the Attitude
What will it take for us to have a righteous and loving attitude toward each other? What will it take for us to accept one another in love?
We tend to divide over authority issues. We don’t like anyone ruling over us and having to submit to an authority outside of ourselves, like the brothers did with Joseph’s dream of them bowing before him one day. We tend to have a bad attitude towards authority.
Just how many of our day-to-day and moment-by-moment decisions do we submit to our Master and Lord Yeshua? How much is the Divine Messiah really in charge of our lives?
Where do we go for the bread and the cup that feeds our souls and saves our lives?
Who can mend a dysfunctional family in true love and unity that comes from the heart and how does He do it? Of course, our Messiah and Savior Yeshua is the answer.
Lessons Learned on Lives Turned
How do we apply this lesson to our lives? Maybe we should all be more careful to consider what our words and actions do that may cause division and strife that grieves our Heavenly Father’s heart. Let’s be more sensitive to when the Holy Spirit is grieved by our insensitive words and actions that divide us. Peter admonished us in this way:
Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
For it is God Who works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.
Do all things without murmurings and disputings: that you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom you shine as lights in the world; holding forth the Word of Life. Philippians 2:12b-16a
Joseph had to test his brothers to see if he could trust them to have changed hearts. He had to find out if they would still not speak peaceably with him as when they were young (Gen 37:4). Are we aware of our Father’s heart when we cannot speak peaceably with one another? He’s always listening. Blessed are the peacemakers.
When we are hurt and mistreated by those close to us, we tend to not trust them and keep our distance. Bitter roots and bitter waters produce leanness and barrenness in the soul and broken relationships. Famine ensues, driving us to seek the Bread of Life.
When we draw near to our Father in Heaven through His Son Yeshua, do we have anything against a brother or sister? I have to ask myself, do I hold an offense or have a bitter root in my heart? The longer the root grows, the harder it is to pull it out. Thank Abba for the Ultimate Gardener, our Messiah Yeshua!
The Messiah is the perfect fulfillment of the Torah and the Restorer of Israel. Yeshua is the Turning Point. He will restore the twelve tribes of Israel back together as one people in one house and as one stick in His hand (Haftorah: Ezekiel 37).
One day, we will all feast together at His table, when He brings us ‘to the banqueting house, where His banner over us is LOVE!’ Song of Solomon 2:4. Our Father’s Love is the pivot point!
May we all arrive at the turning point in our lives where His family draws near together, where we find bread at His table, and intimate relationships are made one in Messiah.
In the Name of Yeshua the Messiah, the Son of Joseph and the Son of God,
David Klug