Today we begin Genesis Chapter 45.
For the Complete Jewish Bible, click here.
For the King James version, click here.
“At last Joseph could no longer control his feelings in front of his attendants and cried, “Get everybody away from me!” So no one else was with him when Joseph revealed to his brothers who he was.”-Genesis 45:1
Keep in mind that until that crucial moment when Joseph ordered his servants to leave the dining hall, all his communications with his brothers were through an interpreter.
When Joseph finally revealed himself, his brothers were dumbstruck.
They were unable to speak and just sat there in a daze, so great was their shock.
Notice Joseph says, “see it is my own mouth speaking to you”.
Another reason they were so dumbfounded is because this stern powerful man who they thought was an Egyptian was suddenly speaking to them in their native Hebrew.
They couldn’t believe their eyes NOR their ears.
I want to ask you a question.
When was the last time you had a really good cry?
I’m talking about a time when you let all of the accumulated sadness, guilt and bitterness over the past just come out in an unstoppable flood of tears.
Maybe it was when you broke up with someone.
Maybe it was a time when you watched a real tear-jerker (like Schindler’s List for example).
Or maybe it was when you mourned the loss of a loved one.
Whatever it was, take the intensity of that experience and multiply it by 10 or even a 100 and you’ll get some idea of how hard Joseph wept.
His body was throbbing to and fro and we’re told his weeping was so loud that even the Egyptians and Pharaoh’s household heard it.
Benjamin broke down too, and they wept together.
And although we’re not told this, I believe after the other brothers came to themselves, they also broke down in tears.
Joseph’s tears were fueled by a mixture of emotions.
They were an expression of the wholehearted forgiveness he had been dying to offer his brothers.
And also tears of joy because he knew he would soon get to see his father again.
I believe there are two key spiritual takeaways here and they are based on the typology that Joseph is a sort of Old Testament Yeshua.
First, on a personal level, before we come to faith, we are estranged from our Father in heaven just as the brothers were estranged from Joseph.
However, once we embrace repentance as the brothers did, I believe Yeshua is crying tears of joy for us as Joseph did for his brothers, because we who were once separated and lost have now been reunited with our true family.
Note also that once reconciliation with Joseph was achieved, it paved the way for the brothers to reconcile and come to peace with their father in Canaan.
Second, if the story of Joseph and his brothers is prophetic of Yeshua’s relationship with the nation of Israel, then I believe in the not-to-distant future, we are going to witness a major reconciliation between the one called Yeshua of Nazareth and the nation of Israel that will shake the foundations of Jerusalem and reverberate throughout the whole world.
May that day come soon.
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“They will mourn for him
as one mourns for an only son;
they will be in bitterness on his behalf
like the bitterness for a firstborn son.”
-Zechariah 12:10
(Of course this is not from the Brit Hadashah,
but since it speaks about future events,
I decided to include this verse.)
“And when Yeshua drew near and saw Jerusalem,
he wept over it, saying,
“Would that you, even you,
had known on this day the things that make for peace!
But now they are hidden from your eyes.”
-Luke 19:41-42
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