Scriptures

Genesis 47:28-50:26

Haftorah Reading
1 Kings 2:1–12

B’rit Chadashah
Yeshua to rule over the House of Jacob: Luke 1:33
Stephen on Joseph: Acts 7:9-16
On the restoration of the twelve tribes: Acts 15:17
On the faith of Jacob and Joseph: Hebrews 11:21–22
Yeshua the lion of Judah: Revelation 5:5

Outline of This Week’s Parashah (Torah Portion):

• 47:28 The End of Jacob’s Life Draws Near; His Last Wishes
• 48:1 Jacob’s Sickness
• 48:8 Jacob Blesses Ephraim and Manasseh
• 49:1 Jacob Blesses His Twelve Sons
• 49:29 Jacob’s Final Request and Death
• 50:1 Mourning for Jacob; Joseph Receives Permission to Bury Jacob in the Promised Land; the Burial Procession
• 50:15 Joseph’s Brothers Fear for Their Lives and Joseph Reassures Them
• 50:22 The Rest of Joseph’s Life; Joseph’s Last Prophetic Words to Israel; His Death at 110 Years of Age

Study Questions For This Week’s Midrash (Torah Discussion):

1. The rabbis recognize that this final Parashah (Torah portion) of Genesis chronicles Jacob’s wish to reveal to his sons prophetic understandings pertaining to Israel’s long and numerous exiles, culminating in the final redemption. An aspect of the final redemption is the return of Israel from her exile in “Babylon” at the end of the age prior to the return of Messiah where the two houses of Israel will be reunited under Messiah Son of David. Jacob states this in Genesis 49:1 when he speaks of his prophecies relating to what will befall his sons “in the last days.” Prior to the establishment of the Messianic Age (Millennium), all Israel would go into a time of darkness, gloom and exile. The rabbis teach that this idea is implicated in the fact that the Torah scroll fails to place the customary nine spaces between the last word of the previous Parashah and the first word of the present one. There is only a one-space gap in Hebrew letters that predicts the “closing in” of Israel as they go into exile and captivity in Egypt. Are there any passages in the Apostolic Scriptures (NT) that speak of our spiritual and physical exile in the world (spiritual Egypt and Babylon), that speak of the final redemption when YHVH will reunite his people in preparation for the return of Messiah Yeshua and the reuniting of the two houses of Israel, and where YHVH urges his people to come out of spiritual bondage and exile? (See Rev 18:4; 2 Cor 6:17; Acts 3:21; 15:16.)
2. 48:14, 16 When Jacob was laying his hands on Ephraim and Manasseh, he crossed his arms. Then in verse 16 he speaks of the “Angel which redeemed me from evil.” (Please note that the word “angel” is the Hebrew word malak [Strong’s H4397], which simply denotes “a messenger” and is used in the Tanakh [OT] in reference to angels, prophets and to an interesting figure referred to in the Tanakh as the Angel of YHVH [see Gen 16:10; Exod 3:2, 6; Judg 2:1], which many believe were preincarnate appearances of YHVH-Yeshua.) Please note a previous encounter Jacob had with the Messenger of Elohim (Gen 31:11) where this same Messenger goes on to say of himself, “I am the Elohim of Beth-el.” So in light of all this, what does the crossing of the hands represent in context of Jacob’s referring to this Divine Being as being his Redeemer? In paleo/ancient Hebrew the letter tav was a pictographic symbol resembling a cross and signified “a mark, sign, ownership, to seal, to make a covenant, to join two things together.” Are you getting the picture of what this all points to? What are some passages in the Apostolic Scriptures that point to the fact that the message of the cross and the gospel are not first-century inventions of Paul and company, but are of much earlier origination? (See Gal 3:8; Rev 14:6; Tit 1:2; Eph 3:9–11.)
3. 48:16 Multitude in the midst of the earth. The ArtsScroll Stone Edition Tanakh translates this verse: “‘May the angel who redeems me from all evil bless the lads, and may my name be declared upon them, and the names of my forefathers Abraham and Isaac, and may they [Ephraim and Manasseh] proliferate abundantly like fish within the land.’ Onkelos renders: ‘And like the fish of the sea may they multiply among the children of men on earth’ … The literal translation of [dagah]/dalet-gimel-hey refers to procreation … [and] the word essentially denotes fish (ArtScroll Bereishis/Genesis Commentary p. 2117, emphasis added). What religious group on earth today has spread out across the face of the earth into all nations and has proliferated a message of Redemption pertaining to a Messenger of YHVH involving a cross-symbol resembling the ancient paleo-Hebrew letter tav and a fish symbol?
4. 48:18 Multitude of nations. What do the rabbis say about this prophetic verse pertaining to the descendants of Ephraim and Manasseh?

   Ibn Ezra: Many nations will descend from him (i.e., the word [melo]/mem-lamed-aleph, fullness, connotes abundance, the phrase meaning: And his seed will become the abundance of the nation [Neter; Karnei Or].).

   R[abbi] Avraham b. HaRambam somewhat similarly: The expression denotes abundant profligacy to a point that they will have to inhabit lands of other nations it is an allusion to Ephraim’s expansive territory.

   Radak: This refers to the Exile when the lands of others will be filled with his scattered descendants … See also Hos 7:8: “Ephraim shall be mingled among the nations.

   What kind of blessing was this prediction that one day his descendants—the Ten Tribes—would be scattered among the nations? R[abbi] Munk explains: while it is true that the dispersion was caused by the unfaithfulness and sinfulness of Ephraim’s descendants (Hos 7:8ff), Jacob’s blessing was not in vain for “they will return to God” and will have their share in the world to come (Sanhedrin 110b). And R. Eliezer adds: “Even the darkness in which the Ten Tribes were lost will one day become as radiant as the day’ (according to the version of Avos d’Rabbi Nosson 36). And in the perspective of history, did not these exiled children of the Patriarchs enlighten the nations among whom they were scattered? They did so by teaching their conquerors the fundamental ideas of the knowledge and love of God, ideals they had never forsaken. Hence they too have a messianic vocation and their Messiah the. … Messiah son of Joseph (Succah 52a), also called Messiah son of Ephraim (Targum Yonasan on Exod 40:11), will play an essential role in humanity’s redemption, for he will be the precursor of the … Messiah Son of David …” (ArtScroll Bereishis/Genesis Commentary pp. 2121–2122).

   Can you better see in Jacob’s prophecies over the sons of Joseph and the resulting rabbinic interpretations of those prophecies foretelling the Messianic/Hebrew roots movement (within the Christian church) of the final days? Can you see how this movement would (will) be instrumental in bringing the Christians (many of whom are descendants of Joseph’s sons) back to their Hebrew and Jewish (Book of Acts) roots as part of the restitution/restoration of all things before Messiah Yeshua, the Son of David, returns (Acts 3:21)? Does not the Book of Revelation prophesy the last days Hebrew roots movement? Read Revelation 12:17 and 14:12 that states that the end-time saints will be those who have the message of the gospel or the faith and testimony of Yeshua the Messiah and who keep YHVH’s Torah-commandments (the Torah or instructions of YHVH given to Moses and Israel at Mount Sinai).

5. 49:1–28 In this chapter, on his deathbed, Jacob prays a prophetic blessing over his sons pertaining to that which would befall them “in the last days” (Gen 49:1). In our teaching article located on our ministry website entitled “Scripture Prophesies the Return of the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel—What Scriptural, Linguistic, Secular Historical & Rabbinic Sources Reveal on the Subject” we discuss what happened to the twelve tribes of Israel after they were taken out of the land of their inheritance.

   Some may consider the subject of the identity and return of the lost ten tribes of Israel to be a controversial if not a taboo subject. The reason for this is that over the years some authors have developed some ingenious, sometimes wild speculations and even racist ideas pertaining to this subject. We want nothing to do with such nonsense!

   In this brief treatise, we examine some of the voluminous writings of the biblical prophets on the subject of the lost sheep of the House of Israel, and review what the Jewish rabbis, in line with the biblical prophets, have written on this subject over the centuries. Furthermore, we look at linguistic, historical and archeological evidence from some of the world’s leading scholars on these subjects. After examining the evidence, you make up your mind as to what happened to the lost ten tribes of Israel and whether they will return to the land of Israel in the last days to fulfill biblical prophecy. You can read the entire article by going to http://www.hoshanarabbah.org/pdfs/migrations.pdf.

A Mini-Study on Genesis 49:10-12

What follows is part of a larger work entitled, “The Incarnation & Virgin Birth of the Messiah Prophesied in the Hebrew Scriptures?” available on our web site at http://www.hoshanarabbah.org/pdfs/vbirth.pdf

The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass’s colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes: His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk (Emphasis added).

This passage is a clear reference to the Messiah and the Messianic Age and has been so recognized by Jewish rabbinical scholars from time immemorial (ArtScroll Stone Edition Chumash, p. 279). “The general consensus (with few exceptions) of Rabbinic interpretation is that this phrase [“until Shiloh arrives”] refers to the coming of the Messiah …” (ArtScroll Bereishis/Genesis Torah commentary, vol. 1b, p. 2152). In fact, Onkelos [a second-century scholar who translated the Torah (Pentateuch) into Aramaic] in his Aramaic version of the Torah translates this version as follows: “until the Messiah comes, to whom the kingdom belongs” (Ibid.). Rashi (a Jewish scholar born in 1040 and recognized by Jewish scholars as probably the preeminent Torah commentator of the modern era) “concurs and similarly comments: until the King Messiah will come ... to whom the kingdom belongs. According to the Midrash, [shiloh]/shin-yud-lamed-hey is a composite of shin-yud and lamed-vav (cholem), [meaning] “a gift to him”—a reference to King Messiah to whom all peoples will bring gifts. See Isaiah 18:7; Psalms 76:12” (Ibid., p. 2153). It should not be difficult to see the fulfillment of this rabbinic understanding in the magi’s giving of gifts to the young child Yeshua (Matt 2:11).

Are there any illusions here to the incarnation or virgin birth of the Messiah? Of the incarnation we read the following in the ArtScroll Bereishis/Genesis Torah commentary:

Midrash Tanchuma preserves an opinion that [shiloh]/shin-yud-lamed-hey is derived from [shil-yah]/shin-lamed-yud-hey, little child, (lit. the amniotic sac in which the fetus is formed: comp. Deut 28:57). Thus, the passage means: “until his scion (i.e. Messiah) comes” (Ibid., p. 2153).

Of course, the same commentators in the same passage, while readily admitting that Messiah will be born naturally of a woman, are quick to disallow themselves from any implications of his deity (i.e., the incarnation) (Ibid.).

There was no question in the minds of the Jewish rabbis that all the poetic metaphors in this verse pointed toward the Messiah. For example, the donkey tethered to the vine symbolizes how Messiah’s kingdom of peace would dwell amidst Israel, a nation compared by the rabbis to a vine (Chullin 92a): “For the vineyard of YHVH of Legions is the House of Israel” (Ibid., p. 2151).

Additionally, Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (an eminent nineteenth-century Orthodox Jewish Torah commentator) similarly observes how Jacob visualizes the Messiah, conqueror of humanity, not on a steed, but on a young donkey. The donkey is the beast of burden that always represents peace, well-being, and national greatness, whereas the steed represents military might. Accordingly, the Jewish conception of royal power is not represented by the number of horses, and it is forbidden for the king to accumulate many horses (Deut 17:16). Evidently, what Rabbi Hirsch fails to realize is that Messiah Yeshua fulfilled this prophecy in Matthew 21:5 at his first coming and will return the second time astride a military steed (Rev 19:11).

Consequently, the future Redeemer of Jewry and humanity appears here in connection with the donkey, symbolizing the twofold vision of peace and material well-being. For to tie up his animal and especially … a donkey’s frisky colt, to the vine, implies a greatly increased development of nature (the vine being as strong as a tree) and extraordinary abundance [see Zech 9:9] (Ibid., p. 2155). Rashi sees similar Messianic implications in the poetic and prophetic language of this verse and further sees that “the vine represents the righteous, and the vine branch represents “those who engage in Torah.’ The righteous will congregate around the Mashiach, while “those who engage in Torah’ will study with him” (ArtScroll Sapirstein Edition Rashi Torah Commentary, p. 545). In the Apostolic Scriptures, Yeshua likens himself to a vine with believers as branches attached to the vine (John 15:1–5). Likewise, the rabbis refer to the donkey, upon which Messiah will ride, as being tied to the vine that has now become as thick as a tree. As we shall note later, could this not be an allusion to the cross to which Yeshua was most likely bound by ropes (according to Roman custom) and attached by nails (as recorded in Scripture)?

Let’s now examine the phrase “he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes” to see if this passage yields any clues about the virgin birth. Please read the following biblical passages, and especially note the bolded phrases:

• “Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together,” says YHVH. “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” (Isa 1:16–18)
• For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes an atonement [of sin] for the soul. (Lev 17:11)
• And from Yeshua the Messiah, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood. (Rev 1:5)
• And I said unto him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” (Rev 7:14)
• And he took the cup [of the vine], and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink you all of it, for this is my blood of the renewed covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” (Matt 26:27-28)
• Whom Elohim has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of Elohim. (Rom 3:25)
• In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace. (Eph 1:7)
• In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. (Col 1:14)
• I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that bears not fruit he takes away: and every branch that bears fruit, he purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can you, except you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He that abides in me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit, for without me you can do nothing. (John 15:1-5)

Can we begin to see a common theme emerge throughout these Scripture references? The Messiah is likened to a grape vine. Grapes are symbolic of blood, the shedding of which remits or atones for sin. Sin causes one’s spiritual garments to be stained red. From the Apostolic Scriptures, we learn that the blood of Yeshua the Messiah cleanses the spiritual garments of sinful individuals.

How does the “blood of the grapes” referenced in Genesis 49:11 (cp Deut 32:14 where the same Hebrew expression is used) portend the virgin birth of the Messiah? Quite simply. Had Messiah’s blood been tainted by the sin-stain of Adam’s “fall” or separation from spiritual relationship with YHVH-Elohim occasioned by his sin resulting in death, which passed on to all of Adam’s descendents (Rom 5:12–14), then Messiah could not have been the perfect, sin-free sacrificial lamb atoning for the sins of the world. Since spiritual inheritance, in this case, the curse of death brought on by the sin of Adam, is passed on down through the father’s lineage (Jer 32:18; Exod 20:5) then in order to not inherit the sting of death (1 Cor 15:56)—death being the result of sin which is the transgression of the Torah-law of Elohim (Ezek 18:4; 1 John 3:4)—Messiah could not have contained the life blood of a physical father. This is poetically alluded to in the verse under analysis in this section: Genesis 49:12 says that Messiah “washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes.” Does this verse not indicate that the source of Messiah’s blood would be that other than of a man? Does this verse not express a corollary idea to that expressed in Genesis 3:15 (which we have already examined above)? In this regard, it is interesting to note what Yeshua said in the Gospel accounts of John 6:53-56 and Matthew 26:27–28:

Then Yeshua said unto them, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whosoever eats my flesh, and drinks my blood, has eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eats my flesh, and drinks my blood, dwells in me, and I in him.” (John 6:53–56)

And he took the cup [of the vine], and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink you all of it; For this is my blood of the renewed covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” (Matt 26:27–28)

Some may view John’s account of Yeshua’s teachings as a gross reference to cannibalism or some other such abominable and anti-Torah practice. But in reality, it should be that Yeshua, the Torah teacher, is speaking symbolically of fruit of the vine as representing his blood—the blood of the atonement. Did Yeshua pull this poetic symbolism out of thin air without any textual basis from the Hebrew Scriptures? We have already seen that both Moses (Deut 32:14) and the patriarch Jacob in the Torah while prophesying about the future Messiah (Gen 49:11) made reference to the typology between blood and grapes.

This imagery in Scripture was not lost on early church father, Justin Martyr (A.D. 100 – A.D. 169 ) who wrote the following (in reference to Deut 32:14 and Gen 49:11) in Dialogue With Trypho, a Jew (ca. A.D. 160): “ … [O]f whose blood, Moses … when speaking in a parable, said that He would wash His garments in the blood of the grape; since His blood did not spring from the seed of man, but from the will of Elohim” (Ibid., chap. 63).

Despite our entire discussion above there still may remain a question in the reader’s mind as to how exactly Genesis 49:11 (“Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass’s colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes”) perfectly foreshadows the redemptive work of Yeshua the Messiah as outlined in the Apostolic Scriptures. For example, it appears that the Messiah is washing his own garments with his blood and not the garments of his people. What is going on here? Allow me to present to you an expanded rendering from the Hebrew of what this verse is actually saying and see if some of the confusion does not clear up. Now, let’s look at Genesis 49:11 (listed with Strong’s Concordance reference numbers) again, but from this new perspective.

Binding (631) (8802) his foal (5895) unto the vine (1612), and his ass’s (860) colt (1121) unto the choice vine (8321); he washed (3526) (8765) his garments (3830) in wine (3196), and his clothes (5497) in the blood (1818) of grapes (6025).

Now here is an amplified version of this passage based on a study of the meanings of the Hebrew words:

He (Judah or Shiloh/Messiah) binds his young donkey or burden-bearer unto the vine tree and his she ass’s (i.e., apostate Israel, see Isa 1:3–4; Jer 2:24) son to the vine of the choicest, reddest, richest grapes; he (Judah or Messiah) washed by treading like a fuller (a fuller is one who shrinks and thickens woolen cloth by moistening, heating and pressing) his garments or vestures in wine; his robes in the blood of grapes or wine.

The imagery in this verse is very rich, poetic and prophetic, but could this passage not be a poetic picture of the redemptive work of Messiah who, as a son from the tribe of Judah, would bear the sin burden (Isa 53:4; Matt 11:28-30) on his back like a donkey of his apostate and adulterous people, Israel? He would be tied to a vine tree (the cross) (even as Isaac was tied to the altar on Mount Moriah) from which the blood of the grapes would flow. He would become sin for his people (2 Cor 5:21; John 3:14) and with the choicest, richest, reddest blood of his grapes (untainted from the sin of Adam because of his virgin birth). (This same wine is reminiscent of Yeshua’s first miracle of turning the water into richest wine at the Cana of Galilee wedding feast [John 2:1–11]). With the wine of his blood, he takes the sins of the people upon himself and cleanses them from their sins, like a fuller (see definition above of what a fuller does) whereby, though their sins be as scarlet, through his shed blood and his redemptive work at the cross, the sins of Israel would be treaded out and pressed rendering the sins of his people white as wool (Isa 1:18). The prophet Malachi alludes to this very idea in his messianic prophecy of Malachi 3:2–3,

But who may abide the day of his coming and who shall stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap, and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto YHVH an offering in righteousness.

Truly, after all of this, it could be said of Israel, “These are they which ... have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb (Rev 7:14, emphasis added). Truly it could be said of these people:

Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife has made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints (Rev 19:7-8).

By making the above statements the rabbis and sages are helping prove the case for Yeshua being the Messiah of Israel. One day the blindness will come off their eyes (Rom 11:25) and they too will see the Light even as you see that Yeshua is the Light of the world (John 8:12) and know that he is returning soon to reunite the divided Kingdom or Houses of Israel. You as Messianic, born-again Israelite Believers are a part of Bible prophecy coming to pass!

Haftorah Reading—1 Kings 2:1-12

Both Parashah and Haftorah portions record the last will and testament of two of Israel’s greatest figures. Both pass on blessings and guidance to the next generation. Jacob blesses his twelve sons, while David blesses only one of his sons, Solomon, his heir apparent, and encourages him to walk in YHVH’s Torah, whereby all the tribes of Israel will be blessed by the wise leadership of a Torah-obedient, Elohim-fearing and righteous king. This final admonition over Solomon appears to have been a private affair, while Scripture records David giving a more public final declaration in 1 Chronicles 28 and 29. There David announces to the leaders and people of Israel that Solomon is YHVH’s choice to rule Israel in David’s place and that he is to build the Temple, the House of Elohim. David then concludes with a crescendo of praises to YHVH as he utters a prayer of thanksgiving to the Set-Apart One of Israel. He then leads the people in blessing YHVH.