This past week began what is probably my very favorite run of Torah Portions.  The last, Vayishlach, and the next several are highly prophetic of various parts of history, some yet future.  Of the images presented, I find the pictures of Messiah Yeshua in Joseph to be most compelling!

I want to share some of the pictures I see.  Because there are so many, I will not take the time to exhaustively explain each one, but hope to present enough of a connection that you, the reader, will ponder for deeper understanding.  Also, understand that some of these pictures may seem a stretch, and indeed, if taken on their own they might be, but because of the preponderance of evidence and sheer number of glaring connections, the seemingly thin connections have validity.

Before beginning, a quick explanation for those not familiar with ‘remez’ pictures, the Hebraic understanding of Scripture is that it has many levels.  The four main levels, or major divisions of understanding are previously explained in part 2 of my Elijah series.  Here is the brief overview:

Simply, the Hebrew hermeneutic sees four main levels to Scripture with multiple facets and means of seeing those levels.  The acronym PaRDeS , or PaRaDiSe, is used to remember them:

• Peshat: Plain, simple, direct
• Remez: Hints or deeper meaning beyond literal such as allegorical, symbolic
• Drash: Inquire/comparative based on similar occurrences, words, themes, etc
• Sod: secret or esoteric.  The mysteries answered through revelation, inspiration.

Remez or deeper connections between Joseph and Yeshua (All references from Genesis unless otherwise noted):

• 30:22  God remembered Rachel… and opened her womb.    God heeded His people, the Jews and opened Miryam’s  womb.  Literally. (Luke 2:7)
• Joseph was a firstborn by God’s provision.  Yeshua was a firstborn.
• 37:1 Jacob lived in the land…  Jews were in the land for first coming of Yeshua and will be for second coming.
• v. 3 Joseph brought back a bad report concerning his brothers to his father.  Much of the major and minor prophets deal with a bad report about both the House of Israel and the House of Judah.  The matter escalates when Yeshua, in person, calls the religious leaders into account on numerous occasions.  (Ex.  Mark 2:23-3:6; Matt. 23, etc.)
• v.4 Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons…son of his old age. Yeshua talked often of the relationship between He and the Father.  Also, ‘This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased…’  The Father, Yahweh, is the Ancient of Days…  (Dan. 7:9ff)
• v. 7 we were binding sheaves in the field    Joseph’s dreams are well known pictures of the prophecy of the sons bowing down, but the binding of the sheaves lets us know this will also happen during the time of harvest…  at the Last Days.  ‘Every knee will bow, every tongue confess to the glory of God the Father…’
• v. 8  Are you actually going to reign over us?  Are you going to rule over us?  Yeshua says, ‘Well, yes I am!’  (Isaiah 2:1-5, Ezek. 37:24-28; Rev. 17:14 and following chapters.)
• v. 11 but his father kept the saying in mind…   Mary pondered all these things up in her heart.  She heard the prophecies, like Jacob, and did not understand them, but was willing to remember and wait.
• v. 13 ‘I will send you to them…I will go.’ Yeshua was obedient to the will of the Father.
  
• v. 14 ‘..see about the welfare of your brothers and the welfare of the flock…’    Yeshua came not just for the House of Judah, His brothers, but also for the House of Israel, the lost sheep!
• v. 14-17  Joseph left Hebron, meaning league or association and traveled to Shechem which was later named a city of refuge.  From there he traveled to Dothan, which is in Northern Israel, future home of the ten tribes that were exiled in 722 BC and lost.   The picture looks like this:  Yeshua, part of the Godhead, left the ‘city of refuge’ to hunt for the lost sheep of the House of Israel.  (Matt. 10:6; 15:24)
• v. 18, 20 …they saw him from a distance…they plotted against him to put him to death.., let us kill him…  Exactly what happened to Yeshua.  The religious leaders (not all the Jews!!) plotted to kill Him. (Mark 3:6; Matt. 26:3-4)
• v. 22  Interestingly, Reuben is not on board and seeks to rescue him from out of their hands, to restore him to his father.  This picture doubly fulfilled in Peter striking Malchus, as well as the Apostles after the fact preaching the name of Yeshua to all who would listen glorifying Him before God and man.
• v. 23 they stripped Joseph of his tunic  Yeshua was stripped, mocked, questioned and flogged.  (Matt. 27:28ff)  Also, the tunic was a striking unique garment.  So was Yeshua’s tunic.  Woven without seams, it was a prized possession the soldiers gambled for… (John 19:23-24)
• v. 24 they threw him into the pit…  Picture of Yeshua being put into the grave.  The pit has no water.  The grave had no Spirit, for He was dead.
• v. 25 Then they sat down to eat a meal… Immediately following the crucifixion of Yeshua, the Jews celebrated Passover, including the Biblical meal.  (John 19:14)
• v. 25 ‘aromatic gum, balm and myrrh…’  Yeshua was wrapped in spices, including myrrh… (John 19:39-40)
• v. 27, 28 let us sell him…  twenty shekels of silver…    Judas Iscariot sold Yeshua to the priests for the ‘princely’ sum of thirty pieces of silver.  (Matt. 26:25; 27:3-10)
• v. 27 ‘he is our brother, our flesh…’    The Priests, likewise, turned Yeshua over to the Romans for the ‘dirty work.’
• v. 28 they lifted Joseph out of the pit…  Picture of the resurrection.
• v. 28 sold him to the Ishmaelites…they brought Joseph to Egypt… Yeshua, like Joseph, went to be among the Gentiles.  (book of Acts…)
• v. 29-30 Reuben returned to the pit…Joseph was not in the pit…he tore his garments… the boy is not; as for me, where am I to go?’  This picture jumps way forward in prophecy…  In this remez, Reuben represents Judah in the Last Days, the time of Jacob’s Trouble, who will be in dire straits and desperately looking for Messiah, thinking all is lost.  (Zechariah 12)
• v. 31 slaughtered a male goat and dipped the tunic in the blood… points to the sacrificial atoning death of Messiah.
• v. 32 please examine it to see if this is your sons tunic..  This is going on today as the Jews are examining the claims of Messiah Yeshua to see if He is the One.
• v.33  Joseph has surely been torn to pieces...   This is a remez for various things…  Yeshua torn to pieces by 38,000 denominations…  The Jews having part of the truth, Christendom having part of the truth.  Neither has the whole picture…
• v. 34 So Jacob … mourned for his son many days  I think the Father’s heart was broken when His Son died, though ‘it pleased Him to bruise Him’…  Also, the Jews have been in mourning for 2000 years.

I think I’ll stop here.  All but one of those connections comes from a single chapter…  I’ll try to tackle the next part in a couple days.  There are still many, many dynamite connections between Joseph and Yeshua!

Don’t get ahead of the story, but share any others you see in the passages we’ve covered thus far.

Shalom!!