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)