Well this week has been rather heavy for our nation, we’ve seen innocent people taken from our mist. From what we are told both of these brother and sister, acted with courage and bravery, putting their lives in the line in order to save others. I believe that is befitting to remember them and their families, as this parasha deals with the life of one placed in front of the life of many. All heroes in my eyes no matter what people may say, the bravery and unselfish acts speaks what this nation was based on, Torah. As Australians we call ourselves Christians, in terms that we understand in Judaism we say we are founded in messianism, with Yeshua at the very core of our foundation.
In this parasha we find that there are so many foreshadows of being displayed by Joseph, about the one that was to come and redeem all from our sorry state of despair. You see Joseph was falsely accused of impropriety and was thrown into jail, two years went by and he was still there waiting for someone to speak favourably about him and released from his confinement. All the suffering and isolation, the rejection and the fact that at anyone time Joseph would have thought, I will never see my father again nor my family etc. Yet he had the assurance that whatever his situation, HaShem was in control. Joseph’s two years is a foreshadow of what Messiah had to go through, He, Messiah too was rejected by his own kind his hebrew brothers, the people of Israel.
How He, was falsely accused and handed over to the enemy, the non people and they in turn imprisoned him and eventually executed him with a gruesome death. At this stage I have to say this is my own interpretation from what I read in the Torah and the Apostolic writings. You see HaShem says one year is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one year. It has been approximately two thousands years since messiah ascended to the right hand of the Father, and and if the pattern, as its usually the case, repeats its self, we then come to the realisation that just as the brothers of Joseph met him and did not recognise him, so too the Jewish nation do not recognise Yeshua the Messiah.
You see, Joseph, was assimilated into the Egyptian culture and people, to the point that he no longer looked , acted, nor sounded Hebrew. Right now in the Western world, the same can be said of Yeshua, He is no longer recognised by His own people, Yeshua is considered the Gentile Messiah, and not the Jewish Messiah. In our current times the Jesus that is presented to the the Jewish people is a foreign man, not Jewish at all, a Hellenistic figure or character, one that fits the description of Deuteronomy 13. One that comes to test, to proof, the children of Israel to see if they will leave and follow after other’s peoples gods.
How we present Yeshua (Jesus) to the Jewish people makes a significant difference, whether He is going to be accepted or rejected. Yeshua is the Jewish Messiah, the one that teaches us how to observe and keep Torah, the way it was meant to be. As Joseph ended up being the one that rescued and saved his family from certain deaths, so is Yeshua, the one that saves us from certain spiritual death, a far more serious case at hand. As a Jew I feel more complete, knowing that Yeshua is the Jewish Messiah, my aim is to be a better chassid than the Chassid's. As Messianic gentile, one that has been grafted into the vine the root of Israel, your aim is to also learn from the root of vine and its people, to be a chassid, to act as the people, that you are now, part of one of tribe, to bring honour and glory to HaShem, by living Kiddush HaShem.
Questions to ponder
How do I live Kiddush HaShem
What does it mean to be Grafted in
What other foreshadow do we find in this parasha
Looking at Joseph’s life. What is my purpose in this life
Miketz, at the end have we lived our purpose?
