The Benjamin Bridge

This week's Torah portion is a powerful part of Joseph's story: the time he finally reveals himself to his 11 brothers, who have come from Canaan to Egypt to buy grain. The part of this story that personally touches me so deeply is Genesis 44:25-26, 34. Judah steps up to Joseph, who is now ruler over Egypt, second in command to Pharaoh, and gives an impassioned plea on behalf of the youngest brother, Benjamin. His plea stirs my heart because it is prophetic of the restoration of all Israel - all 12 tribes - and it should be the passionate prayer of all our hearts in this hour.

Going back in the story we recall the time when the brothers sold Joseph into slavery, and then tore his multi-colored coat into pieces so it would look as if a wild animal had killed him. The torn coat was prophetic of the separation of Israel into two kingdoms: Ephraim (grandson of Joseph, representing those dispersed into the nations), and Judah (representing the Jewish people who kept their faith and returned to the Land). When Joseph coerces the brothers into leaving little Benjamin behind when they go back to their father Jacob, Judah gives this plea: "So now if the boy (Benjamin) is not with us when I go back to your servant, my father, and if my father, whose life is closely bound up with the boy's life, sees that the boy isn't there, he will die. Your servants will bring the gray head of our father down to the grave in sorrow. How can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? "

Can you see the glorious parallel for our time? There are several ways to see it that all mean the same thing. The Church cannot expect to replace Israel and enter the Kingdom of God if the Jewish people (the boy) are excluded! We cannot go back to the Father, to a restored Israel, without them! In other words, the restoration of all Israel cannot and will never happen until both Ephraim (Joseph) and Judah (Benjamin) are brought together - representing all 12 tribes. Jacob, the father of these 12 sons, represents Yahweh the Father in this story -- and the Father's heart for little Benjamin - even the tiny nation of Israel and all her scattered ones - is evident!

It becomes personal for me also because while I was in Jerusalem a woman unknown to me at the time prophesied over me and said, "You are of the tribe of Benjamin!" It lit such a fire in my spirit that I began to pray and ask the Ruach for clues that would validate this prophecy. I knew my maternal grandmother's name was Zeba, though I had never met her. She died shortly after giving birth to my mother. So when I learned that the word zeba (pronounced zeva in Hebrew) actually means wolf, my heart leapt! Upon the banner of the tribe of Benjamin is a wolf!

The above story from Genesis also shows Benjamin to actually be a bridge (or liason) between the "ten lost tribes" of Israel (Ephraim) and the Jewish people (Judah). Benjamin, the youngest, was loved by all his brothers, and in this story he actually served to bring them together. If I truly am descended from the line of Benjamin (and I have no proof!) then it does explain to me the great passion I carry within my spirit to be a bridge between the two in our own day. My passion is to call the Church back to her Hebrew roots, forsaking the doctrines of men and the idolatry of mixing the holy with the profane, that we might be truly grafted in to the olive tree of Israel, and help our brother Judah to be re-grafted in through acceptance of their Messiah. After all, the apostle Shaul (Paul) says, "what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?" (Romans 11:15)

How can we go back to the Father if the boy (Benjamin) is not with us? Our Father's life is closely bound up with the boy's life! (Genesis 44:30)

They Did Not Recognize Him

This past week's Torah portion left me deeply pondering one of the many parallels between Joseph (son of Jacob) and Yeshua our Messiah. In Genesis Chapter 42 Joseph has arisen to the lofty office of Governor over Egypt, second in command to the Pharaoh. During the time of great famine in that part of the world, 10 of this brothers travel to Egypt in the hopes of purchasing some grain. Genesis 42:7-8: "Joseph saw his brothers and recognized them, but he acted as a stranger to them and spoke roughly to them. Then he said to them, 'Where do you come from?' And they said, 'From the land of Canaan to buy food.' So Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him." Why? Why did they not recognize him? Don't you imagine that after all those years in Egypt, and in his high office as Governor, Joseph must have been dressed in Egyptian garb, with black eye makeup, wig, and royal Egyptian robes? How could they have imagined that this was their own kin, a son of Jacob, a man who worshiped the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? He was painted differently! Then after the brothers return to Canaan and then make a second trip back to Egypt, in Genesis 45:1 we are told that Joseph "made himself known to his brothers." How did he do this? I have to assume he removed his Egyptian costume and makeup and allowed them to see him as he really was: an Israelite.
All week this has spoken to my heart. How have the Jewish people not recognized their own Messiah for two thousand years? Could it be that it is because the Christian religion has painted him differently? They would not imagine their Messiah to have a westernized name like Jesus, instead of his true Hebrew name, Yeshua (meaning Salvation of God). They could never recognize a Jewish Messiah whose resurrection is celebrated by people eating ham! And how on earth would they recognize the Messiah born to a Jewish woman from the paintings on our walls of a man with pale skin, light hair and sometimes blue eyes? How could they see the Lamb of God whose blood delivered them if His people aren't even keeping the Passover Feast?

As we dig deeper into the Hebrew roots of our faith, the Messiah of Israel is making Himself known to his brothers. Little by little we are removing his "Christianized costume and makeup" and discovering who He really was: an Israelite! Perhaps one day when those in the Church are worshiping a Jewish Messiah by keeping HIS feasts and HIS commands - setting apart the seventh day Sabbath as He commanded, and forsaking the doctrines of men - all his brothers will finally recognize Him.

When Joseph's brothers finally recognized him, Joseph said to them, "God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance" (Genesis 45:7). In the same way the apostle Paul says of the Jewish people, "If their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?" Joseph's brothers mourned their cruel act of selling him into slavery, and Genesis 45:15 says, "Moreover Joseph kissed all his brothers and wept over them, and after that his brothers talked with him."

When we begin to worship the Messiah of the Scriptures - Yeshua haMashiach - and through us (the wild branch) He is revealed to His own (the natural branch) then Zechariah's prophecy will finally be fulfilled: "And I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look upon Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for His only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn." (Zechariah 12:10)

I Haven't Said My Line!

Our Hanukkah celebration at my Messianic fellowship, David's Tent, was such a joy and an inspiration! The children acted out the story of the Maccabees, and my heart was deeply stirred to want to reach the level of zeal they had for the God of Israel. When at last the Jewish people had reached a full victory over the evil Antiochus Epiphanes and his armies, and they cleansed and rededicated their Temple, they brought the menorah (lampstand) back in to light the lights. I watched as the young man playing Mattathias held up the fire and lit each of the branches of the menorah and something in my heart was profoundly touched. Do we have enough oil in our lamps to keep burning in this dark world? Are we so zealous for our God that we would die for Him?

One little boy playing an enemy soldier was struck down with a toy sword and gave us a very dramatic "agonizing" death scene. Then suddenly, unexpectedly he sat up, his eyes wide with concern, and he shouted out, "Wait! I can't die yet! I haven't said my line!" We roared with laughter. But that whole scene came back to me the next day on Shabbat when I was thinking about the people in their 80s and 90s for whom I teach a Bible study each week. How often they have said to me, "Why are we still here? Why doesn't God take us home? We don't have any reason to be here anymore." Now I want to say to them, "Maybe you haven't said your line yet!"

Have any of us finished all our lines in the script we call life? Not until we draw our last breath. Until that moment we still have opportunity to tell someone about the Messiah. We still have opportunity to show someone love or bring someone a little joy. Yeshua says, "You must work while it is still day; soon it will be night when no one can work."

Once the "sword" of death strikes us we won't be able to sit up and shout, "I can't be dead yet - I haven't said my line!" So we need to say it today while we have breath. We need to be light in this dark world today, while we still have places to shine it. We need to say our lines - filled with love and exhortation - from the pure Word of God - while there are still people with ears to hear.

Can Kohl's Save Christmas?

Driving to the airport yesterday I was listening to a commentator on an economic radio program give the dismal report on "Black Friday's" statistics. "Target was down 10%, while the average store reported sales 17-18% below last year's," he lamented. "However, Nordstrom was up 2% and Kohl's alone reached a 3% increase over last year. Can Kohl's save Christmas?"

I am making the obvious assumption that this commentator's definition of Christmas is the commercial season between Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays when retailers hope to get their yearly profit margins in the black. It seems to have become the definition of Christmas for our nation. And so he asks, "CAN KOHL'S SAVE CHRISTMAS?"

Let's go a step further. Even if we are a people who don't define Christmas as a commercial retail phenomenon, how do we define it? And does our definition agree with Scripture and the ways YHVH defines it? Ask any child to define Christmas. Most will tell you, "It's when Santa comes and brings presents!" Why do parents lie to their children and tell them there is a magical, mystical man who flies through the universe and who rewards the good and punishes the bad? Why did I lie to my children and why did my parents lie to me? Santa, reindeer, sparkly trees, yule logs...it all seems so fun, so innocent. For many of us they were cherished family traditions. But look up the history of these traditions. Search an encyclopedia to see what a yule log was; and please read Jeremiah 10:3-4. Yeshua reminds us, "You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men." (Mark 7:8) It is hard to let go of traditions that were so much a part of our childhoods. But it is the pagan traditions that led to the lies of our forefathers and still profane the celebrations that Christians keep today.

December 25 was the birthday of Sol, the sun god - and so it was conveniently selected as the day to celebrate the Messiah's birth. The holy was mixed with the profane - and YHVH hates that! (See Ezekiel 44:23). What Scripture commands that we celebrate the day of His birth? What writer of the Gospels gives us the date and the way in which we are to keep this "feast"? Search it out! It is not there. If Yeshua had thought it important, He would have told us so. But He seems about as interested in a birthday party with presents and nativity pageants and decorated trees as He would be in the results of Kohls profit margin! That is because He continually tried to focus the people on His Kingdom. He is a King and a High Priest in the order of Melchizedek, who has no geneaology, no father or mother, no beginning and no end (Hebrews 7:3) "He is the image of the invisble God, the firstborn over all creation, for by Him all things were created" (Colossians 1:15). In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God; He was with God in the beginning (John 1:1). He is the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8). He is the same yesterday, today and forever! (Hebrews 13:8). He is called Emmanuel - which means "God with us." He was conceived in the womb of a Jewish woman during the feast of Hanukkah as His Light (like the oil of the light of the menorah) came into the world. He was born as a child at the Feast of Tabernacles (which means God dwells with us) and is returning again at the Feast of Tabernacles when He will establish His Kingdom reign forever. HalleluYah! How marvelously the feasts of the LORD fulfill all the prophecies about Him! "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. (Hebrews 12:1).

Can Kohl's save Christmas? Does Yeshua want it saved? Ask Him yourself. This year instead of us saying, "Oh well, He knows my heart" - let us earnestly seek to know His heart.