12 23 25 – A Very Subtle Clue

Sometimes, it doesn't take a whole lot of words to say a whole lot of things. With every statement we make, there is usually a lot of history attached to those phrases. As Ricky Ricardo would say on I Love Lucy, "Let me 'splain :-)."

Throughout the book of Genesis until our modern day, favoritism and hatred have run rampant through God's family in biblical history. If you're like me—and I'm sure you are, because we are hooked on phonics—we have a tendency to read over material rather quickly, missing significant details. Consequently, we don't experience the emotional impact in the text and end up with a Sunday School version of the text: theologically correct, possibly, and emotionally impotent, usually!

Currently, we are going through the incredible story of Joseph (Gen. 37–50). At one point in the story—this week's Torah portion, Vayigash ("and he drew near")—there is a two-word statement that only Sherlock Holmes himself would detect. It is when Judah is standing before the second most powerful man in Egypt, Zaphnath-Paaneah (Joseph). Judah is pleading that Benjamin not be forced to come to Egypt. In his speech, he reveals an incredibly dysfunctional family. Describing his father, Jacob, he says:

"My father said to us, 'My wife bore two sons'"
(Gen. 44:27).

Did you see what Sherlock saw? Jacob told his own children that he had one wife—the wife of the two sons who mattered to him. Joseph and Benjamin count. The others don't. Double ouch!! In fact, Jacob does not even acknowledge that their mothers were also his wives. As far as their father is concerned, the other ten boys are not part of the family—illegitimate at best. And who is really to consider how long they left Simeon in prison while they were eating up the grain provided by Joseph? Triple ugh!

And he turned himself about from them, and wept; and returned to them again, and communed with them, and took from them Simeon, and bound him before their eyes.
(Gen. 42:24)

Months later...

And he said, Peace be to you, fear not: your God, and the God of your father, hath given you treasure in your sacks: I had your money. And he brought Simeon out unto them.
(Gen. 43:23)

There is a lot of "theology" in there, but even more so is the incredible emotion! Can you imagine what life was like in this "family"? We already know that Jacob hated (sane) Leah (Gen. 29:31). Have you ever wondered why he hated her so much? His hatred lasted his whole life. Why? She stole his true love, Rachel, from him on his wedding night. Did she? So many details behind the scenes! Life is not always what it appears to be. What we do know is that she did not reveal herself to Jacob during their first night together until the morning light. Oh my, the emotional threads that just a couple of words unveil. Leah pretends to be someone else, just as Jacob pretended to be someone else. She mimics Jacob's deception. The deceiver is deceived. No wonder Jacob hates her. She is him (Rom. 2:1–4, 21–23).

Ah, hatred of self is projected onto another… yikes (2 Sam. 12:5–7; Ps. 50:16–20; Matt. 7:1–5; 23:29–31; John 8:7–9; take the time to read these verses please :-)! Now the emotional tension of this fractured family helps explain why the sons of Leah hated the children of Rachel. Now we can see one reason why they had no remorse in their plan to kill Joseph, throw him into the pit, or sell him as a slave, and then infer to their father that he was killed. Oh my, the pain of family life! All in one tiny phrase: "my wife."

And now one more Sherlock Holmes Hebrew clue. Notice that Laban brought Leah to him, just as God fashioned a woman and brought her to Adam (Gen. 2:22). Just as Adam's ezer kenegdo ("helper opposite"), later named Eve (Havah), was meant to be a helper opposite—to disrupt his self-contained tranquility of aloneness—so too was Leah brought to Jacob. She forces him to see himself in the mirror; the hardest job of every ezer kenegdo. And as Sherlock's assistant noticed, ironically, and without filling in every detail of the story, it is amazing that our Messiah, Jesus/Yeshua, does not come from the loved woman (Rachel) but from the rejected woman (Leah). Brilliant deduction, Watson!

Love and hatred are powerful emotions! With the simple phrase "my wife," the spiritual Sherlock Holmes reveals a whole set of painful emotions, but out of them comes the Messiah (Rom. 8:28) and the seed for us to become conformed to the image of His dear Son (Rom. 8:29).

Shalom,
Alan

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

3.20.25

Good morning! Yesterday, we learned some essential truths about how to 'be still and know that He is God (Psa. 46:10). Today, I want to ask you a different question based on life's ability to throw a wide variety of circumstances at us!  One of the most difficult situations is when we are threatened by someone or some circumstance. Have you ever been threatened?  Oh, maybe no one came up to you with a gun, or shouted at you with malice, or told you that you were going to be tortured or punished.  Maybe all the threat you ever had was the innuendo of rejection, or the social snub or something much less violent than jail time.  But my guess is that if you are traveling the road with Yeshua, living a Torah lifestyle, you know what it means to be threatened. Every time the circumstances of your life look as though they are about to cave in, you are threatened.  It might not be a threat from a physical enemy, then again...but we all know that in one form or another t...
Read more

3.22.25

Good morning! Shabbat shalom! Although the portion of Vayakhel/and he assembled is almost entirely focused on the construction of the tabernacle, it begins by reminding the children of Israel that no work may be done on the Sabbath (Ex. 35:2,3). Why does it begin here rather than jumping right into how to construct the Tabernacle? Enquiring minds want to know :-) By placing the topic of the Sabbath against the construction of the Tabernacle it's God's way of defining the boundaries of the Sabbath...that even the most intimate work for the Lord needs to be put aside for His 'Date Day'. However, upon further investigation, there’s another layer to understand that connects us back to the golden calf (Ex. 32). As we know, while Moses was up on the mount getting the instructions from God the children of Israel decided to make an object that would replace Moses, their deliverer; The object, later known as the golden calf, originally intended as a 'necessary' means to ...
Read more

10.31.24

Good morning! To live as salt, it's important to connect pieces of the salt covenant. Through our study yesterday, we saw the salt covenant spoken of in two different ways. With the phrase, 'covenant of salt' He desires a relationship with His people based upon trust that is seen in their actions and, eventually, through a changed life (Rom.12:1,2; 8:29,36,37; Matt.5:13-19). A covenant is an agreement or alliance between two parties where each party makes a pledge to keep their end of the bargain; whereas the terms of the agreement are known as terms of grace.  We find the first covenant in this week's Torah portion (Gen.6:18). Noah was to build the Ark and gather the animals.  If Noah would fulfill his end of the bargain, God would get them safely through the coming deluge...This took trust.  In order to go through the embarrassment of building a boat so far away from water in a land that's never needed or seen rain, in order to start gathering supplies for animals...
Read more