Vayeishev

This  Parashas is the ninth Torah Portion, Vayeishev means “and he settled.” After devoting a mere chapter to the genealogy of Esau and his offspring, the Torah now turn to the story of Jacob and his family. As been its practice, the Torah gives short narrative to people who have fallen short of its goal, but speaks volumes of those who have managed to overcome and secure their inheritance.

So it was that great men like Noah, Abraham, and Isaac were discussed in great details, while millions of others men and women since creation, were mention briefly, and some not at all. It is not what is written on my tomb stone that is of concern to me. It is what is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life about me I am concern about.

Jacob had twelve sons and one daughter. The Torah says that Jacob loved Joseph, the second youngest son more than the other, so much so that Jacob gave Joseph a beautiful coat of many colors.

Understandably from a purely human perspective, how the other sons became jealous of Joseph. Adding to the tension, Joseph told his brother his dream, the purpose of his life. Like all who are govern by the selfish Ego, the brothers understand that Joseph would rule over them.

They, like many of us today, we fail to understand the circumstance in which it would take place, and the benefit of Joseph eventuality lordship over his brother. This Parashas was written to instruct believers that we are living in the present, we have no idea of the future. The circumstance that accurs in our lives is to provide us with the necessary tools that when the future arrive we will be ready for it.

If Jacob’s sons and ourselves would only pray for revelation, they as well as us might have understand why we like Joseph was given these dreams. The CREATOR will never leave us without a witness.

The brothers took these dreams to mean that Joseph intend to rule over then, instead, YAHVEH send Him ahead to prepare a way for then as a savior would. It was  a prospect they did not relish, when looking at it from a selfish egotistic point of view. In fact they were so resentful that they made a plan to kill him. Every time an emotion is trigger in our lives, lets pay close attention to our reaction; for with our emotions, our true character is manifested.

Every crime, every antsocial behavior, every misunderstanding is a result of the inner programming of our consciousness on our Ego, which determine our emotion. Human treat these emotion by placing each other in Prisons, ABBA YAHVEH uses these emotions or characteristic traits to show us what we are to change.

By placing people into prisons does nothing to renovate the ego. Prison is an institution that magnifies our already selfish ego. These boys were all sons of the promise; however, the selfishness of their Ego was been exposed. Now is the time to deal with the exposed selfish traits.

Gen 37:¹ Now Jacob settled in the land where his father was a sojourning, in the land of Canaan. - The contract between Jacob settled and Isaac sojourning is very interesting. This analogy seems to imply that Jacob saw Canaan as his final destination, while Isaac was looking for the world to come.

Could it also means that because of the different in the age, contribute in shaping the difference world view of these two righteous men? Isaac who had lives a full life, one who had reach maturity and walk in that spiritual state of perfection, was now looking to the world to came. While the relative younger Jacob with a young family, wanted a secure peaceful environment, one which EL YAHVEH had furnished as the place to reside.

Our world view even from a spiritual mature position, shape the way we view life. This verse gave us an insight into the mind set of two great men at different time in their life. Isaac’s view elucidate that there are too much to accomplish and too few of us are capable of doing it. Knowing that, the righteous are more than willing to sacrifice a bit of the temporary peace, for the sake of eternal elevation; even for their offspring.

 Gen 37:² This is the history of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brothers. And the lad was with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives; and Joseph brought a bad report of them to his father. - This verse start with the phrase these are the Toldot, referring to the offspring, this phrase cannot be rendered, these are the offer spring of Jacob, because Joseph is the only name mention.

Joseph was at the age of seventeen, Jacob was 108, Isaac was 168, and would lived another twenty years. This incident occurred nine years after Jacob returned home. The Torah labeled Joseph as a youth, implies that he was acting immaturely as a believer.

Torah also implied that they were with the sons of Bilhah, implying that they were the ring leaders, the dominant personality among the brothers. This verse also implies that both Bilhah and Zilpah were wives of Jacob. Even though the bride price was not paid by Jacob, they were view by Torah as equal to Leah and Rachel. Therefore, Leah and Rachel were within their right to give both Bilhah and Zilpah to Jacob and Jacob was not required to pay the bride price.

We need to understand how Torah views the family structure; it is not the individual right that Torah focus on, it is our Torah obedient that is of the most important. The situation we are born in is the vehicle to help bring us to maturity. I Corinthians 17:²⁰ Let each one remain in the same calling in which he was called. ²¹Were you called while a slave? Do not be concerned about it; but if you can be made free, rather use it. Whatever misbehavior Joseph noted in his brothers, he reported them to Jacob. That was one reason why they hated him. The other reasons are in the following verses. Joseph misinterpreted their actions, although Joseph was sincere in his faulty evaluation, he was at fault because he should have given his brothers the benefit of the doubt and reported all the facts to Jacob, without forming his own conclusion.

This would certainly explain why the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah did not defend Joseph against Leah’s sons conspired to sell him as slave. Immaturity in a believer will always reveals itself in gossip. It is a way to build oneself up at the expense of another. If I tell dad on him, I will not look so bad after all. Immature believers will always create strife among each other; this was where Joseph was at age seventeen. The trials that Joseph would experience in the years to come, were to correct these obvious character flaws and to perfect his obvious strength. The rest of his life story will be, how he got to that illustrious place call spiritual maturity.

Gen 37:³ Now Yisrael loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age. Also he made him a tunic of many colors. - We know from Torah that EL YAHVEH love Jacob more than Esau. We also know that, that love was based on the character of Esau. Our Heavenly Father loves all His children, but not our sins. Jacob loved Joseph with that same devotion as EL YAHVEH.

Jacob’s favoritism was based on Joseph’s spiritual and intellectual desire over his brother. For the same reason EL YAHVEH proclaimed His love for Yisrael over Esau. Torah used the name Yisrael to elucidate the spiritual maturity of Jacob, the name that expresses his highest spiritual nature, therefore implying that his choice of Joseph was a function of his greatness, not his failing.

The mere fact, that Torah mention that Joseph was a child of Yisrael old age, is significant. Old depict wisdom or maturity; at that age Yisrael must have perfected the art of developing sons, this one might have been the very best so far. The one who had the potential to be the priest of the family. Notice that Yahushua is the first to graduate from planet earth with absolute perfection. Joseph is a type and shadow of El Yahushua. The tunic given to Joseph symbolizes a sign of leadership, for after Reuben discredited himself by tampering with his father wife, Joseph was elevated to the status of firstborn.

 Gen 37:⁴ But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peaceably to him. - So great was the brothers’ hostility toward Joseph that they could not carry on a friendly conversation with him even about peaceful matters. What ever he said they interpreted in a negative, contentious way, even when he tried to be friendly. Spiritually immature believers will always see circumstances from the ego perspective.

Verse 5 – 11 Dreams mentioned in Scripture are generally understood to be vehicles of prophecy. Whether dreams have validity, it is clear from Scripture that Joseph’s dream and those of Pharaoh and his officials, that YAHVEH used them to convey revelation of future events. All these dreams came true according to Joseph interpretations.

Joseph’s dream, which indicated clearly, that the one who is spiritually mature would become the leader of the group in the next generation. He would also become a spiritual bridge between the Mighty Ones and the ones on their way to maturity. Joseph’s brothers took the prophecy to mean that he would rule over them.