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This week’s Parashah (Torah Portion) is extraordinary, because it sets the scene for the inevitability of adoption into the family of God by faith alone.

The Torah Portion for this past Shabbat (17 December 2022) is “Vayeshev” (Genesis 37:1 – 40:23). That is Hebrew for “and he sat” or in context “and he settled”. Jacob settled in the land of his fathers Abraham and Isaac, the land of Canaan, which was to become known as todays’ State of Israel.

However, I am going to skip that first chapter, the one that tells us how Joseph’s brothers betrayed him, stripped him of his multi-coloured striped garment, came close to killing him, cast him in a deep hole and left him to be sold as a slave to Midianite traders who were passing by. We know the rest of the story.

Moving on to the next Chapter is what I will be focusing on in this commentary. Chapter 38 of Genesis tells about the man Judah, the father of the Jewish people. So Judah is my great-great…great grandfather. Unfortunately, there is not too much to boast about him. Judah did some rather shameful things, the implications of which I will discuss and get rather “spiritual” about those implications. The amazing thing here is that Judah is not only my great, great… grandfather, but he is also Jesus’ great…great grandfather. Hold on, Jesus was not of human ancestry, he came from God. Yes, that is true, but technically, Judah, yes the guy who I am ashamed to say is my great, great… grandfather WAS Jesus’s great-great…. grandfather too and I will discuss why.

Let’s give Judah the credit though. He did (see chapter 37 of Genesis) persuade his brothers to sell their young seventeen-year-old brother Joseph instead of killing him, which is what they really wanted to do because they were so envious of him. So my great-great…. grandfather Judah was willing to sell his own flesh and blood for money. That sounds familiar though. Didn’t my people (the Jewish High priests, Mathew 26:14-15) also put a price tag (thirty shekels of silver) on Jesus to hand him over to the gentiles to do with him whatever they wished? And how similar too, just as they stripped Joseph, their father’s favourite son of his beautiful striped garment, they also stripped Jesus, our Heavenly Father’s favourite son of his clothing.

So my great-great… grandfather Judah sold his father’s most loved son for money, just as his descendants sold God’s only Son for money. Can you see that I don’t have much good to say about him? The fact remains, Judah is still my great-great… grandfather and in spite of everything, our merciful God had a wonderful plan and destiny for him and his descendants too, because God’s purpose and calling are irrevocable. So if you think that I am arrogant about belonging to the same race that our Lord and Saviour Jesus belonged to, think again. I am no more worthy of God’s salvation than any other person on the face of this good Earth. If you are reading this and think that you are unworthy of God’s salvation, please think again. No one is worthy of God’s salvation, not me and not my great-great… grandfather Judah, not even the great-great… “grandfather” of Jesus is worthy, as this week’s Parashah clearly spells it out. What makes us worthy is our faith in God, a faith that will ultimately lead to us to being refined and made perfect by God Himself; a faith that will bring us into a path of obedience to our Heavenly Father, because as another author on this blog, Ashley Saville Watson says, God=Love=Obedience (See “Intradynasty-Articles” in the menu) or click on this link:

https://goodolivetree.com/blog/2022/12/13/a-gospel-that-doesnt-inspire-fear-of-god-conceals-1-jn-23-6172829-which-links-eternal-life-and-knowing-the-messiah-through-awe-and-obedience/

Anyway, to get back to this commentary on the life of my great-great… grandfather Judah: We see in Genesis chapter 38 that Judah begins his adult life with a mess. Instead of going to look for a wife of good heritage (North West Mesopotamia) as his fathers Abraham, on behalf of Isaac (Genesis 24:3-4) and Jacob did, Judah settled for one of the ladies of the land of Canaan, a daughter of a Canaanite, the Canaanites being the same people that God had later ordered the sons of Israel coming out of Egypt to eradicate on entering the land of Canaan.

None of this turned out to be a success for Judah, because his first and second born were both slain by God for their wickedness and disobedience. To make matters worse, Judah then goes and falls for his deceased son’s mutual widow’s (Tamar) ruse as a prostitute, a matter which he dearly wanted to conceal. This resulted in Tamar conceiving and giving birth to twins, Peretz (means to break out) and Zerach (means to shine like the morning sun). Not only so, but one of these boys, Peretz, would “break through” to become the great-great… grandfather (technically speaking, please bear with me) of our Lord and Saviour Jesus. If you think that I am not making sense, then read Mathew 1:3 where you will see that Peretz (spelled in English as “Perez”) is in the genealogy of Jesus Christ. From Peretz came the kings of Israel before its division into a northern and southern kingdom and all of the kings of Judah, most importantly King David, because Jesus is the Root and the Offspring of David (Revelation 22:16).

To cut a long story short, my great-great… grandfather Judah, in spite of his blunders, became the father of kings and the father of the King of Kings, Jesus the Saviour of the world.

Of course, we know that this was not achieved by natural means, but by an act of faith. You see, none of our human endeavours could ever result in anything good without faith in God and in the Son of God. If it were not for Joseph, the husband of Jesus’ mother Mary, Jesus would never had earned the title of “Offspring of David”, neither would my great-great… grandfather Judah have earned the privilege of being the great-great… grandfather of Jesus.

It was Joseph, the husband of Mary (Jesus’ mother) who chose, because of his own faith in God, to take Mary home as his wife, in spite of the fact that he knew full well that he had no part in the conception of Jesus (Mathew 1:24). It was Joseph, the husband of Mary who chose to believe the words of the angel of the Lord who had appeared to him in a dream, that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Just as Mary had faith in God that her first born son Jesus would be conceived by the Holy Spirit, so did her husband Joseph have faith in God. This Joseph, the husband of Mary, was a descendent of Judah (Mathew 1:16)

So it was through the faith that Joseph the husband of Mary had in God that Jesus the Messiah could be reckoned as his own son, the son of his great-great… grandfather Judah, the son of David King of Israel.

Just as Abraham, through his faith (Genesis 15:6), was reckoned by God to be righteous and worthy of being the source of blessing to the whole world and the one whose seed (Jesus) would be a blessing to the whole world (Genesis 22:18), Joseph the husband of Mary had faith by which God’s promises would be fulfilled. Abraham had to earn the right to a place in the genealogy of Jesus Christ through his faith and through his obedience that came by his faith, just as his descendant Joseph the husband of Mary had to earn the right to a place in the genealogy of Jesus Christ through his faith and through his obedience that came through his faith.

Through faith alone and through the obedience that comes from faith alone, the promise that the Messiah would descend from Abraham was fulfilled.

You too, whether you are Jew or Gentile, natural descendent of Abraham or not, can enter fully into the blessed promises of God and his salvation and eternal life, through faith and through the obedience that comes through that faith.

If Jesus your Saviour had to be adopted into the household of Abraham, Judah and Joseph husband of Mary through Joseph’s decision and action prompted by faith, how much more do you and I have to enter through adoption by faith into the household of God and into the household of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Good Olive Tree (Romans 11:24)

God has determined that there is no way into His household except by faith.

“After His suffering, He presented Himself to them with many convincing proofs that He was alive. He appeared to them over a span of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.” (Acts 1:3)

Jesus appeared to his disciples over a period of forty days, after which he was taken up into Heaven. The number 40 is the numeric value of the Hebrew letter “Mem”. In the original pictographic script, that is the pictorial script from which the ancient Hebrew or Paleo-Hebrew developed, the letter “Mem” resembled waves of water.

Waves of water have much to do with Jesus’ ascension into Heaven for the following reason: In Genesis 1:6-8, God makes a firmament (expanse) to separate the waters below the firmament from the waters above it. God calls this firmament “Sham-mayim”. This Hebrew word “Sham-mayim” is translated into English as “sky” but it is also the Hebrew word for “Heaven”. However, “Sham-mayim” sounds like two Hebrew words: “sham”, which means “there is” and “mayim”, which means “water”. So “Sham-mayim” in actual fact means “there is water”, because the firmament (expanse) is the divide between the waters below it and the waters above it.

Just as the mighty waves of the sea cover the Earth, so too the even mightier waters are above the firmament of the heavens. For Jesus to have ascended into the highest Heaven, he would have had to ascend through this expanse or firmament called Sham-mayim, which is Hebrew for “there is water”.

The 26th of May 2022 was the 40th day of the counting of the Omer, counting from Jesus as firstfruits from amongst the dead (1 Corinthians 15:20) on “the day after the [regular] Shabat”, immediately following Shabat haGadol, the Great and special Shabat day designated for Passover, the eve of which Yshua fulfilled the Passover lamb through His own death on the cross (Leviticus 23:9-11). 40th of Omer is not a religious holiday in Judaism, HOWEVER, to US it is of GREAT significance, as we read in Acts 1:3 “After His suffering, He presented Himself to them with many convincing proofs that He was alive. He appeared to them over a span of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.”

And here is the last thing that Jesus spoke about when He was with His disciples in Bethany, before He ascended into Heaven: Acts 1:6 So when they came together, they asked Him, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”

7Jesus replied, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by His own authority. 8But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

9After He had said this, they watched as He was taken up, and a cloud hid Him from their sight. 10They were looking intently into the sky as He was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11“Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven.” 

We know, according to Luke, that Jesus made this last instruction in Bethany, near Jerusalem, AFTER he had met with them in Galilee and given them the Great Commission:

“When Jesus had led them out as far as Bethany, He lifted up His hands and blessed them. 51While He was blessing them, He left them and was carried up into heaven. 52And they worshiped Him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, 53praising God continually in the temple.” (Luke 24:50)

So TODAY is that 40th day and joy fills our hearts, because we who fix our eyes on Yshua, the *pioneer* and perfector of our faith (Hebrews 12:2), know that ever since THAT day, he sits at the RIGHT HAND OF THE THRONE OF GOD!!!

This week’s Parashah, read in the synagogues all over the world is Exodus 6:2 – 9:35 and “davka” (an untranslatable word in modern Hebrew which might translate as “would you believe it”), ONCE MORE relates to the day in which we find ourselves, the “Civil New Year”, just in the same way that last week’s Parashah, on Christmas day, remarkably relates to the birth of Christ. So before I continue, let me say to you “Happy Civil New Year to you and to your loved ones”. So then, let’s get on with the Parashah.

It begins with a bomb-shell statement from YHVH Almighty to Moses: “I Am YHVH”. This is a topic just on its own which would take some explanation, because it is here that God tells Moses that he had revealed to Moses the meaning of His Name, but that he had not been made known by His Name YHVH to Abraham, even though he had indeed uttered His Name to Abraham.

But then God says to Moses:

4 I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, where they resided as foreigners. 5 Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I have remembered my covenant.

6 “Therefore, say to the Israelites: ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. 7 I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. 8 And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the Lord.’ “ (Exodus 6: 6-8 NIV)

In this, God reminds Moses of His promise to re-instate the children of Israel to their citizenship in the land of Canaan.

The clue to this Shabbat’s Parashah came to me in the form of a question sent to me through my Hebrew-English dictionary app. The question was as follows: “Today is the ‘civil new year (‘shanah ezrachiet’ in the Hebrew) for the Christian world’. How do you say ‘civil new year’ in English”. The literal translation for ‘shanah ezrachiet’ is in fact “citizen year”.

My question to us all though is: where is our citizenship? Is our citizenship tied up into this world, or is our citizenship in Heaven? In today’s Parashah, ‘davka’ on the ‘civil new year’, the children of Israel are told through Moses that they are citizens of the land of Canaan and that God was about to graciously fulfil His promise to their forefathers to restore the children of Israel back to their citizenship.

But where is our citizenship? Our citizenship is neither the land of Canaan, nor is it in this world. If we belong to Christ, then our citizenship is in Heaven. This Parashah is then a reminder to us of our citizenship in Heaven.

So whilst we may indeed be rejoicing as citizens of THIS world that God has graciously brought us through another CIVIL year, away from the horrors of 2021 into the hopes of 2022, we are reminded of our citizenship in Heaven.

That citizenship of ours in Heaven has a beginning: the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That all took place in the time of the Passover and the Passover takes place in the FIRST month of God’s calender, the month of Nisan.

In John 16:22-23, Jesus tells his disciples that his death and resurrection is likened to the birth of a child. The disciples would grieve as a mother grieves because of the pain of childbirth, but as soon as the child is born, her grief is forgotten and she rejoices over the fact that her child is born into the world. The ‘new beginning’ for the disciples of Jesus would come when their grief was replaced with overwhelming joy because of the fact that Jesus had been raised from the dead. That is their new beginning, the start of their new life with God, their new-found relationship with God. This is why Jesus says in the very following verse that it is then, when he is raised from the dead, that his disciples will have a direct relationship with the Father. At that point in time, they will no longer ask Jesus for anything, but they will have a “hot-line” to God the Father and they will be able to ask God directly for whatever they asked in Jesus’ Name.

A blessed 2022 to you, as you work out your citizenship in Heaven, all because of what Jesus did for you on the cross so many Passovers ago.

Shabat 4th December 2021. Parashat Miketz (Genesis 41) Joseph is given by Pharaoh the name “Tsaphnat Pha-ne-ach”. This means “the concealed one who solves the mystery”. Pharaoh knew well that Joseph was the concealed one, the solver of mysteries, who had been concealed or hidden in a dark and lonely dungeon, lost, forgotten and rejected for years, forgotten by the wine-bearer who had witnessed the mystery then solved and predicted by Joseph, the baker’s life forfeited and the wine-bearer’s spared. We ought not to reject Yshua the “Concealed One”, the “Mystery Solved”, of whom Joseph is a type. Yshua was forever concealed in the Father (John 5:37-38), but the contemporary leadership did not recognize this. That is why he said “you have neither heard his voice [of the father] nor seen His form, neither does his word dwell in you, because you have not believed the one he sent”. If they had diligently sought to hear the voice of the father, to see his form and let his word dwell in them, they would have recognized that Yshua was concealed in the father and would have received him as their Lord and Messiah. They would not have overlooked or taken for granted the “seven years of their plenty”, but they would have realized that these were given in lieu of seven years of adversity, for which the plenty was given in preparation thereof. Yshua is our concealed One,  our Mystery Solver, our riddle Revealer. He was rejected to the grave and forgotten, but God raised him from the dead, just as Joseph was forgotten for so long yet became the essential key to the saving of the people of Egypt and even to the saving of Jacob and his family whose region  was also affected by the same famine. Our lives too are hidden in Yshua the Messiah (Col 3:3), just as he is hidden in the Father, so that the mystery of His Life may be revealed in us.