Vayigash (And He Came Near)

Torah – Genesis 44:18-47:27
Haftarah – Ezekiel 37:15-28
Brit Hadashah – Acts 7:13-15, 2 Corinthians 5:1-21 Ephesians 2:1-10 Colossians 1:1-29

This is the eleventh reading from the book of Genesis (Bereshith). In this parshah we see Joseph’s final and most telling test of his brothers, their tearful reunion, and Israel’s journey to Egypt after receiving a dream from God telling him to go.

JP from the Way Biblical Fellowship makes a pretty good connection, comparing the reunion of the brothers with the eventual reuniting of the two houses or the rejoining of the two sticks, Judah and Joseph.

Ezekiel 37:16 Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his companions:

There are many parallels that we can draw from the life of Joseph, especially between Joseph and Yeshua. However there are may other parallels, and aspects that have been taught so far that seem to indicate that the Torah was actually in play, just in an oral form. And seeing how the narrative up to this point has also been one of a circular nature reaffirming concepts over and over again, it is no doubt that the encounter between Joseph and his brothers has a prophetic application as well.

We also see that by Israel moving his family to Egypt, he kicked off the fulfillment of a prophecy that YHVH gave to Abraham in Gen 15:13. It is interesting to note that Israel going into Egypt and receiving the best of the land is predicated by the unification of the whole house which was seventy member in total. Seventy is a significant number as it symbolizes perfect spiritual order carried out with all power. I wonder how this plays out prophetically speaking for us as we draw near to the return of our Messiah. Definitely something that I will have to dig into a bit further.

I apologize for the short post as things have been busy. I hope you all have a blessed week. Shalom!

Below are the links to this weeks Torah parashah. Enjoy!