Torah Portion: Genesis 37:1-40:23

Vayeshev (‘And he lived’)

This week’s parashah covers the first part of the well-known story of Joseph, with a not-so-well-known story about Judah sandwiched in the middle.

Sin Covered Up

The first verses tell us how Jacob made clear his love for Joseph best of all his sons with the gift of an elaborate coat, and how this favourite made himself very unpopular with his brothers by telling on some of them, and then telling them of dreams in which he ruled over them. All of us would, I think, agree that this is not the way to win friends. Joseph’s brothers grew to hate him.

The brothers, no doubt, would have seen that Joseph, although younger, was likely to receive both the birth-right (as firstborn to Jacobs’s favourite wife) and Jacob’s blessing (making him their leader). They would have wanted to make sure that Joseph’s dreams had no chance of coming to pass and when the opportunity presented itself to do away with him, they took it, though they did not kill him (Gen 37:27). They then allowed a deception of bloodied clothing to play out with their father, without actually speaking a lie (Gen 37:32).

Mankind is extraordinarily clever at creating a smokescreen of righteousness in the middle of sin. I have worked in businesses that have proudly talked of holding the moral high ground while having deviously got the better of a competitor. I think that the brothers may well have convinced themselves that providence had taken a hand and their actions were all for ‘the greater good’. In the end, of course, God did work it for good – but Joseph’s brothers were greatly humbled.

Sin Exposed

Then, in chapter 38 comes the story of Judah, who sought righteousness his way, moving away from the hypocrisy and infighting within Jacob’s camp and setting up his own family separately.

Judah chose Tamar, a good wife, for his first son Er. When Er displeased God and died, Judah told his second son to do his duty by the widow Tamar as a brother-in-law. When the second son also displeased God and died, this proved too much for Judah, who tried to make the problem go away by sending daughter-in-law Tamar back to her father’s house.

But the problem, like many secret sins, came back again. Tamar, seeing that she had just been cast aside, went alone to face Judah. Judah mistook her for a harlot and Tamar, taking the opportunity that her clothing presented, allowed the deception to play out, getting pregnant in the process. She was savvy enough to get Judah’s signature on the deed by insisting on his seal, cord and staff as a pledge.

Judah later pre-judged pregnant Tamar as worthy of death, but when faced with the truth of what had happened he vindicated her, saying “She is more in the right than I…” (Gen 28:26). Judah’s attempt to manage his own life unravelled, but the experience was used by God to shape his character, in readiness for when he met his brother Joseph again.

God’s Overarching Purpose

Something I see through these two stories is the multiplicity of strands that God weaves together with our lives. By seeing Joseph’s part of the story as simply one strand, with Judah’s as another, the overall narrative of God’s covenant purposes is woven together, with special respect paid to the unique relevance of each brother. This was also hinted at by Jacob when he prophesied over each of his sons (Genesis 49).

In the same way, let each of us, when faced with a momentous task that God gives us, realise that we are just one strand in this most amazing tapestry that God is weaving.

On the other hand, do not consider any God-given task too menial. It may turn out to be the little knot without which other apparently greater strands in God’s purposes would come undone.

Author: John Quinlan