Weekly readings: Genesis 44:18-47:27; Ezekiel 37:15-37:28; Ephesians 2:1-22
This week's Torah portion is called Vayigash, which is the first word of the portion, meaning 'and he came near'. It refers to Judah approaching the Egyptian ruler who, unbeknown to him, is his brother Joseph. He pleads for their mutual sibling Benjamin who, to ramp up the dramatic irony of the scene, is in fact Joseph's closest living relative (they share the same mother, Rachel) and the one whom he is least likely to harm.
Judah was the initiator of the plot to sell Joseph into slavery and appropriately he now offers his own life in place of Benjamin's:
So now let me remain as your slave in place of the lad. Let the lad go back with his brothers! (Gen 42:33)
The sages of Israel and Maimonides identify complete repentance as having the opportunity to commit the same crime again, but refraining from doing so because your heart has changed.1 Judah and the other brothers could have abandoned Benjamin, but he refuses to repeat history.
Judah's leadership of the brothers in appealing for Benjamin's freedom and offering to take his place reveals that he is worthy to bear the line of kings. From Judah, David is descended and therefore the Messiah.
Judah's self-sacrificial leadership and repentance reveal that he is worthy to bear the line of kings.
The Coming Revelation
Judah's contrition prompts Joseph to reveal his true identity. The late Derek Prince (of blessed memory) would describe with tears the moment that Joseph revealed his identity to his brothers because, prophetically, it foreshadows the beautiful intimacy and delicacy of the moment when Yeshua (Jesus) will reveal his identity to his brothers and sisters, the descendants of the 12 tribes represented by Joseph's brothers - the Jewish people.
It is a private moment, the palace servants are removed because this is close family reconciliation, a time for raw remorse and guilt to be confessed and forgiveness offered. The Gentile stranger disguised in foreign clothes reveals that beneath the Egyptian courtly finery he is the long-lost Hebrew brother Joseph.
Similarly, Jesus has been exiled from his brothers and handed over to the Gentiles, a foreigner and stranger to Jewish people, frequently depicted in Renaissance art as fair and blue-eyed wearing European dress - Christ of the Gentiles. One day will come the family reconciliation, the revelation of his true identity as their brother, the "firstborn from among the dead" (Col 1:18; Rev 1:5), the Messiah of Israel.
Joseph reveals his true identity to his brothers, foreshadowing the beautiful moment when Messiah Jesus will reveal his true identity to his brothers and sisters - the Jewish people.
First Instance of Forgiveness
The former Chief Rabbi, now Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, describes the story of Joseph's actions as the first instance of forgiveness in recorded history. He quotes a study by David Konstan (Before Forgiveness: the origins of a moral idea, 2010), which posits that there was no concept of forgiveness in ancient Greek literature. There was appeasement of anger to prevent revenge and to limit shame and disgrace, but forgiveness is qualitatively different and proceeds from a sense of personal guilt rather than fear of public shame2.
Shame relates to pain caused by public dishonour or disgrace and is centred on injury to oneself, whereas guilt arouses feelings of remorse and regret for injury done to another. It relies on the ability to empathise with another's hurt.3 4
Finding Purpose in Suffering
Forgiveness involves what cognitive behavioural psychiatrists call a 'reframing' of adverse circumstances.5 Lord Sacks quotes the example of neurologist and psychiatrist Viktor Frankl, who discovered through treating suicide patients and after incarceration in Auschwitz that hope depends on realising that we have a unique mission to accomplish in life. Finding purpose is essential to psychological well-being.
Forgiveness involves reframing adverse circumstances, choosing to view them with hope and purpose rather than pain and bitterness.
He also realised that everything can be stripped from a person but their ability to choose how to respond to their circumstances, and if you change the way you think about your circumstances, you change how you feel about them. Joseph understood that his brothers' actions were part of God's plan, so rather than dwelling on the bitterness of his experience he reframed it:
I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life...God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God. (Gen 45: 4-8) [emphasis added]
He recognises God's salvation purpose in his suffering. As a type of the future Messiah, Joseph suffered to win salvation for his people, enduring years in prison but eventually rescuing Israel from starvation (Israel being his father Jacob's name, but also the name all his descendants have since borne).
It foreshadows the ultimate rescue of all humanity from spiritual starvation, from the certainty of spiritual death resulting from our rejection of the Creator and the source of true life, Jesus (Jacob's descendant).
Family Reunited
Through Joseph, the founding family of God's people are reunited in one land through forgiveness and a new start, ruled by a prince who is one of their own, with the promise of future salvation and eventually a land of their own, as Jacob is shown:
And God spoke to Israel in visions of the night and said, "Jacob, Jacob." And he said, "Here I am." Then he said, "I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation. I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again, and Joseph's hand shall close your eyes." (Gen 46:2-4)
Similar promises are contained in the Ezekiel reading: reunification of a cleansed and renewed Israel, in a land of their own, one Davidic king over them, settled peace, God in their midst forever.
Joseph suffered to save his family from starvation, pointing to the ultimate rescue from spiritual starvation provided for all humanity through the suffering of Jesus.
One New Humanity
Ephesians 2 further echoes both passages. Verses 1-10 promise that those who come to Messiah by his grace will be cleansed and made alive in him. In verses 11-22, the promise is expanded to include the Gentiles. Jew and Gentile in Messiah unite under one ruler who is our "peace", who "has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility" and in so doing has created "one new humanity" (Eph 2:14-15). The scope of territory for God's people is now the whole world and the Temple is a building of righteous souls in beautiful unity.
However, this does not fully answer Ezekiel's promise. The unity of those in Messiah is there: "one stick" no longer divided by tribe, but one holy nation under God with even the previously unclean 'goyim' (Gentiles) allowed to join the 'goy kadosh' (holy nation). Yet the majority of Jacob's descendants currently reject the Messianic revelation of Yeshua. They are "branches broken off" (Rom 11:19).
The supremely poignant and joyful moment of reconciliation with the "one they have pierced" (Zech 12:10) was partially fulfilled in Acts 26 when Peter preached the Joseph Messiah, the Suffering Servant (Isa 53), but it will find greater fulfilment when Yeshua returns to his waiting family as the triumphant King Messiah.
The majority of Jacob's descendants currently reject Jesus as Messiah – and so we still await the final fulfilment of the reconciliation provided by Jesus.
Our Salvation Purpose
Now, as we await his return, do we understand that, like Joseph, we have a salvation purpose to fulfil? Joseph's suffering and forgiveness affected multitudes. We may only influence a handful of people, but we all have our part to play as the "remnant on earth" (Gen 45:7).
Every member of the Body is called to be on full alert and in constant readiness, not only to fulfil our gospel purpose and to complete those tasks that only we can do according to our gifts, but also to shine like stars in the dark days ahead until the day dawns and the morning star rises in our hearts (2 Pet 1:19).
Author: Helen Belton
References
1 Rabbi Lord Sacks, The Day Forgiveness Was Born. Aish.com, 26 December 2011.
2 Rabbi Lord Sacks. Vayigash (Genesis 44:18-47:27), The Birth of Forgiveness (Genesis 44:18-47:27), The Birth of Forgiveness. Aish.com, 21 December 2014.
3 Burgo, J. The Difference between Guilt and Shame. Pyschology Today, 30 May 2013.
4 Anthropologist Ruth Benedict's The Chrysanthemum and the Sword comparing North American and Japanese societies brought the idea of guilt versus shame cultures to prominence.
5 Rabbi Lord Sacks. Vayigash(Genesis 44:18-47:27), Reframing. Aish.com, 13 December 2015.
6 Acts 2:36-37: "Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah." When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart..."
