ויגש VAYIGASH “and [Judah] drew near”

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Eighth Edition Torah To The Tribes Parashah – ויגש VAYIGASH “and [Judah] drew near”

44:18 Then Judah came close unto him, and said, Oh, my master, let thy servant, I pray thee, speak a word in my master’s ears, and let not thine anger burn against thy servant; for thou art even as Pharaoh.

What distance is too far?

How close is too close?

Contrast 44:18 Then Judah came close unto him, and said, Oh, my master, let thy servant, I pray thee, with 37:18 And when they saw him afar off, even before he came near them, they conspired against him to kill him.

Distance or closeness – the choices we make in regard to this or with things that effect these can either bring sin and death or prayer, healing and restoration.

It really is all about our intimate relationship with Joseph and how transparent and close we want to come. 

An intimate life must be other people centered not self centered. 

An intimate life must be present not past or future. 

The future and the past are ‘distant’ we only see things imagined. Our relationships, everything in life that is truly important is close – it is now – it is the present, who we are and how we act in this moment. When we live this way we become more powerful because we can experience what יהוה IS doing NOW. We can experience the love and power of relationship now. 

Distance creates fear, causes us to doubt or to live for the shadows – the past or future. 

Judah embodies the spirit of Messiah Ben Jospeh. He’s willing to give up his life for the love of the father. 

It’s Joseph’s manner that brought Judah to draw near. 

According to an ancient commentary Judah’s approach to Joseph consisted of three different tactics which really embody the worlds approach to the crucified and risen savior. 

1. War
2. Appeasement
3. Prayer (44:18)

1. War: how many are at odds, at variance, really are anti the thought of a crucified and risen Messiah? Then the scanty pockets who do believe in a crucified and risen Messiah find themselves at war, at odds, at variance with the  true Messiah who did not abrogate the Torah and came for all 12 tribes scattered abroad? Most are at war!
2. Appeasement:  It’s hard to find red hot believers out there today. Most appease – are luke warm and really not engaged in the fight for righteousness. 
3. Prayer: When we come to the end of ourselves, like Judah we first accept and cognize our fallen sinful state and then realize that their is no righteousness in us. (let her be burnt) and that leads to the sinners prayer which appears in Scripture right after the 13 attributes of the Father. It’s all about coming into the love of the father. The true Joseph will not seek his own but lead you into a deeper love and honor for the Father. Exo 34: 6 יהוה, יהוה, Elohim merciful and gracious, and long-suffering , and abounding in goodness and truth Exo 34:7 keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin; who by no means clears the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation. Exo 34:8 And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped. Exo 34:9 And he said, If now I have found chen/ratzon/favor in thy sight, O יהוה  let יהוה , I pray thee, go in the midst of us; for it is a stiff-necked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance.

Judah is ready to give up his natural man for the love of his brethren and his father. 15 X he mentions the father from 44:18-34. Judah interceding for his brethren for the love of the father is reminiscent also of the Lion of Judah interceding for his brethren for the love of the father in heaven isn’t it?

Jn 8:19 Where is your father? Yahusha said to them, You neither know Me nor My Father. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also.

45;1 Joseph made himself known unto his brethren.

Gen 45:4 And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.:

5 And now be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for יהוה did send me before you to preserve life. 6 For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and there are yet five years, in which there shall be neither plowing nor harvest.

7 And יהוה sent me before you to preserve you a remnant in the earth, and to save you alive by a great deliverance.

8 So now it was not you that sent me hither, but יהוה: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and master of all his house, and ruler over all the land of Egypt.

45:14 And he fell upon his brother Benjamin’s neck, and wept; and Benjamin wept upon his neck. 15 And he kissed all his brethren, and wept upon them: and after that his brethren talked with him. (Jer 31:9)

Jer 31:9 They shall come with weeping, and with prayers I will lead them. I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way; they shall not stumble in it, for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is My firstborn. Joseph’s son is my firstborn…this speaks to the redeemed of Joseph who return into new covenant Israel under the watchful eye of the priesthood of Melchizedek. 

44:5 Elohim sent me before you to preserve life.

45:7 Elohim sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.

Messiah Ben Joseph is sent to the grave to preserve a great remnant on the earth, to save our lives by the resurrection. 

1 Cor 15:20 But now is Moshiach is risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.

45:21 And the sons of Israel did so: and Joseph gave them wagons, according to the commandment of Pharaoh, and gave them provision for the way. 22 To all of them he gave each man changes of raiment; but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver, and five changes of raiment. 23 And to his father he sent after this manner: ten asses laden with the good things of Egypt, and ten she-asses laden with grain and bread and provision for his father by the way.

Silver is mans money, 300 is numeric of ‘ransom’ or ‘kippur’ and five = chen/ratzon or grace. Favor, grace is the son showing us the love of the father through His five books of TORAH. TORAH is the garment of change. Therefore the ‘atonement’ ‘kippur’ price and TORAH were given to Benjamin. What does this mean?

They lack the covering that living by the chen/ratzon/grace of TORAH brings (Exo 34:6). So they stand without wedding garments that come with through the washing of TORAH through grace. Restoration is complete for 1 in 10! 

Be perfect/complete/fully restored as your father in heaven is perfect. Matt 5:48 

24 So he sent his brethren away, and they departed: and he said unto them, See that ye fall not out by the way.:

This is always the temptation. Once we have encountered Yahusha then go about our lives, pilgrimage through this life we must stay on guard not to fall out by the wayside. This is the admonition that Yahusha gave us in the parable of the sower. 

25 And they went up out of Egypt, and came into the land of Canaan unto Jacob their father. 26 And they told him, saying, Joseph is yet alive, and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt

Joseph is risen and conquered the grave he is mastered death and defeated the prince of this world.

28 and Israel said, It is enough; Joseph my son is yet alive: I will go and see him before I die. 

All Israel must see that the son is alive and risen or else Israel’s vine will wither and die and be cast into the fire (Rom 11).

46:1 And Israel took his journey with all that he had, and came to Beer-sheba, and offered sacrifices unto the יהוה of his father Isaac.  

46:2 And יהוה spake unto Israel in the visions of the night, and said, Jacob, Jacob. And he said, Here am I.

3 And he said, I am יהוה, the יהוה of thy father: fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will there make of thee a great nation: 4 I will go down with thee into Egypt; and I will also surely bring thee up again: and Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes.

47:8 And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, How many are the days of the years of thy life? 9 And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty years: few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.

The world has found itself with just sufficient happiness interposed to give them-while it lasts an agonizing hope of losing it again, and when it is lost, the poignant memory of remembering what they had. 

Now; every now and then they will be able to improve their condition-a little but it is built upon false hopes and false promises. 

Joseph is the only lasting happiness, true joy and the cure for “just sufficient happiness” which is all this world can offer; because while it lasts there’s always present an agonizing hope of losing it again, and when it is lost as it always is, there you are stuck with the poignant memory of remembering what you had and lost always trying to regain it with thought of the future and remembrances of the past. 

47:12 And Joseph nourished his father, and his brethren, and all his father’s household, with bread, according to their families.

47:26 only the land of the priests alone became not Pharaoh’s: 27 And Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen; and they gat them possessions therein, and were fruitful, and multiplied exceedingly.

Of this present moment, and it only, we have an experience parallel to the experience which Moshiach Ben Joseph and His Father – יהוה have as a reality as a whole – so we come near!

There in that moment we find freedom and actuality offered to us…not in the future and not in the past. 

So we need to be continually concerned with either eternity (which is being concerned with Son and Father) or the present (which means reflecting on either eternal union or separation from Son and Father) or else obeying the present voice of conscience – the RHK bearing the present suffering, receiving the present chen-ratzon-grace, giving thanks for the present provision and keeping the present commandment. 

Pharaoh’s job, the worlds job is to get us away from the present – to live in the past – to live in the future to inflame our hope and fear!

Because the future is unknown to us, when we dwell on it we dwell on unrealities. 

So the future is, of all things, the thing least like eternity! It’s the most completely temporal part of time. The past is frozen it no longer flows, the present is fluid it can be shaped and changed – the future, is the very core of temporality. 

Nearly all sins are rooted in the future. Gratitude looks to the past, love to the present, fear, anxiety, lust, ambition, greed all look ahead. Sin which is our contribution always looks forward! 

Messiah Ben Joseph – the son and יהוה – our Father call us to come close into the present so we can touch eternity and live there today – that’s where the joy is!  

Heb 4:7 “Today, if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.”

Heb 5:5 The Father who said to Him, “You are My Son, today I have begotten You.”