Shabbat shalom chavarim! Yesterday we took a close look at Edom and Esau and saw how they were conquered by, and forcibly absorbed into, Judah. Edom and Judah essentially became a combined entity, Judah-Edom. This incompatible mix has influenced Judah in many dangerous ways throughout the centuries as she has absorbed, through evangelism into Judaism, other tribal groups and mutated into today's Jewish people and Jewish nation in the Middle East, deceptively called 'Israel'. And as I explain elsewhere, Judah is now a very tiny minority in the group of people who call themselves Jews. This remnant within the Jewish people is watched over and protected by Yahweh, as are all the tribes of Israel mingled with the different tribes of the world.
Today we take a new look at Joseph of Egypt and who the children of Joseph are today. I am not so much interested in the racial decendants of this patriarch as I am in those who are the inheritors of his blessings, who by grafing into the Vine - Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) - become his spiritual descendants.
Joseph was a visionary. Yahweh spoke to him through dreams. He was shown things that were not revealed to either his brothers or his father. Visionary people - those who are permitted to see deep into the mind and heart of Yahweh - often provoke jealousy and resentment in those who are not, especially if what is revealed spotlights a character defect or sin issue on those whom the beam has been shone. In Joseph's case, it was the revelation that he - the younger - would rule over the older ones, including his parents! For as Jacob or Israel became the symbol of the Old Covenant, so Joseph would become the type or representative of the New. Missing this essential emet or truth has caused so many in the Messianic movement to wander into error, so absorbed are they by Judah whose sceptre of rulership ended with the first coming of Shiloh (Messiah).
To be an authentic Josephite is not just about rulership, though. As a type of the Messiah, Joseph is also a picture of servanthood and suffering, which is what qualified him to be a ruler in Yahweh's highest domain, the New Covenant. All Servant-Kings fulfilling the messianic type must suffer for righteousness-sake (as opposed to for their own sins) for it is an essential part of their training. So while his brothers carried on their mundane and largely uneventful life as shepherds, Joseph first was sold into forced labour as a slave by his wicked brothers and then, when falsely accused of adultery by a wicked woman, was thrown into prison to languish.
The dreams of Joseph, misinterpreted by his father and brothers to be arrogant and egotistical ambition, did, however, turn out to be visions from Yahweh, did they not? So many of his experiences seemed to deny his family's 'reality', but when Yahweh gives dreams, they not only become part of the divine drama of life but define reality too. "Acts and scenes may vary", says Aaron Linford, "but the plot proceeds relentlessly to its predestined denouement" (Aaron Linford, Just a Thought, Aleph Publishers, Preston, England: 1998, 8 January).
"Joseph said to [his brothers], 'Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of Elohim (God)? But as for you, you meant evil against me; but Elohim (God) meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive. Now therefore, do not be afraid; I will provide for you and your little ones.' And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them" (Gen.50:19-21, NKJV).
I want you to understand the tavnith or pattern in this for it is also a prophecy for our day. There will be no gathering of the tribes in the end time before Messiah returns until Joseph has been recognised as the head of 12-tribed Messianic Israel. This will not happen, though, until his brethren have sold him into the slavery of exile, or before he has not been falsely accused of adulterating the 'Nazarene Way', or before he has not been put into a prison to eek out an existence as one seemingly totally rejected and forgotten by Yahweh. And then, in one day, he will be elevated from being a prisoner to being a ruler in the palace of 'Egypt'.
Our passage says that his brothers "meant evil". Can you imagine the torment and distress that teenager must have gone through being ripped from the bosom of his family and exiled to a foreign, pagan land where he would be treated as a nobody - a member of the lowest tier of society - to then be falsely accused of being a sexual pervert and family-breaker when he was innocent? How do you think he felt being thrown into Pharaoh's prison, a hellhole? What do you think that young, tender heart felt at the onslaught of his brother's murderous jealousy? Hadn't they wanted to kill him (yes, Judah too) until Reuben prevailed upon them to spare his life and sell him instead as a slave? Please understand the difference in the character of the 10 brothers compared to the character of Joseph, whose name is his inner nature! The other tribes are jealous and unprincipled by nature whereas that nature is not in Joseph at all, because he alone of all of them is the messianic type.
You cannot begin to understand the end-time scenario as it relates to the final gathering until you have understood the difference between the Joseph-heart and the hearts of the other tribes. And how the rôles become reversed when they come begging for food in Egypt - Joseph triumphs and they cringe at his feet. But does he take revenge on these his wicked brothers? No. He demonstrates GRACE -undeserved loving-kindness, unmerited favour - precisely because he is the messianic figure of that age and the type of the age to come!
Joseph concludes that "Elohim meant it (his suffering) for good". You don't become a leader or ruler in Messianic Israel unless you have Joseph's heart. And you don't get Joseph's heart unless you are willing to yield yourself voluntarily to suffering, to lose your status and become a nobody, falsely accused and metaphorically locked away and shunned. And how did Joseph behave while a slave or in prison? Did he plot and scheme? No, he worked his hardest and did his best. He put his everything into what he did no matter where he was. This is a Josephite trait. So impressed was his master Potiphar that he was soon made head of his household, and so impressed was the Pharaoh's Prison Governor that he placed Joseph as the head of all the prisoners. Whatever Joseph put his hand to, Yahweh blessed, did He not? Another Joseph trait.
Elohim meant his suffering for good. The Hebrew word for "meant" here is chashab which means 'weave', 'think' or 'plan'. This means that this was no afterthought on the part of Yahweh - He meant this to happen from the beginning. Now grasp this. Yahweh plans our suffering so that He can use us as an instrument of good in the world. He planned Joseph to suffer at the hands of his wicked brothers. He planned for him to be made into a slave. He planned for him to be falsely accused of adultery. He planned for him to be thrown into prison. And why? So that he could save Egypt, the surrounding nations and his brothers from starvation. He planned this to bring a life-carrier into a death situation. This is what is meant by 'messianic' - not someone who follows some Hebraic theological movement but someone who walks as the Messiah and suffers without complaining. Such a person becomes a messiah, deliverer or saviour as an instrument of the Messiah, Deliverer or Saviour - see The Elect of Yahweh: Messiah's and Set-Apart Women. Such a person becomes a spiritual Josephite. The rest are from elsewhere.
We are, in actual fact, describing the true Christian life. The hurtful plots of men are used by the Creator to become the tools of Providence. And so the ahavah or love and purposes of Yahweh can "transmute the lead of evil into the gold of triumph" (Linford, op.cit). For Yahweh is more than capable of turning that which harms us into everlasting simcha or joy, if we will but trust Him.
What was the key to Joseph's triumph? Surrender. He yielded to his Master in Heaven (Yahweh) and yielded to his masters on earth (Potiphar and the Prison Governor) because he understood that this would bring glory to Yahweh. He served both and proved himself worthy of his high calling as Prime Minister of Egypt and saviour of his father's household. Will you serve your masters with the same submission, loyalty and hard work as Joseph did, even unbelieving masters? Will you men serve your employer as faithfully as Joseph did his, even if you are a part of the slave system of Babylon (which we all are)? And will you wives serve your husbands in the same way, whether they be believer or unbeliever?
If Yah'shua has called you into His salvation then you are called to be a spiritual Josephite. Every single one of you. You are not called to follow after the ways of Judah or any other tribe. You are called to be a spiritual MESSIANIC JOSEPHITE, no matter what tribe of Israel you come from or into which one you are grafted. For the only way that the tribes can have this spirit is if they are subjected to their Prince Joseph, who is Yah'shua's messianic type here on the earth until He returns. For just as "he who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward" (Matt.10:41, NKJV), so he who receives a Josephite in the name of a Josephite shall receive a Josephite's blessing. The Twelve Tribes can ONLY ever be united upon this principle. As it is, messianics are rallying around Danites, Judahites and others who are not in subjection to Joseph, who refuse to suffer for righteousness' sake, and who therefore are illegitimate rulers in Israel. For Yahweh will sweep away that motley bunch of embezzlers, adulterers, used-car salesmen and others pretending to Josephite rulership whose works are not of Elohim, whether they be messianics or evangelicals, however brilliant or productive some of them may be. For when the crunch comes, and true leadership is required, those who do not have the heart of Joseph will run away from their flocks when the demand for suffering is made by Yahweh.
Now a brutal truth for everyone. We are all currently in Joseph's prison. Everyone. The end-time sukkot-anointing has not yet come and cannot come until Israel is purged of the spirit of the 10 brothers' hatred, jealousy and rebellion and of the spirit of Jezebelic feminism. The choices we make in this prison will determine our future as both individuals and ministries. The drama that is being played out now is still one of exile and the gatherings that are now being presumptuously proclaimed, along with planned gatherings to Israel or to the mountains, are doomed.
One final warning - and that concerns Joseph's companions in prison and a key to our final liberation when Yahweh's time arrives: the baker and the cup-bearer. The one who remembers Joseph (the cup-bearer) is the one who is restored but the one who does not loses his life (the baker). The cup-bearer of course presented Pharaoh with his wine (representing the grape-harvest or Sukkot) whereas the baker presented Pharaoh with his bread (representing the barley and wheat harvests of Yom haBikkurim and Shavu'ot, respectively). The baker belongs to the Old Covenant (barley) and beginning of the New Covenant (wheat), which is finished, and is therefore 'cut off' to symbolise that whereas the cup-bearer represents the end-times of the New Covenant. Here Pharaoh becomes a picture of Yahweh as sovereign ruler of the world with Joseph as the symbolic, earthly representative of the heavenly Messiah, Yah'shua (Jesus). Those who wish to be represented to the Father through Christ must therefore recognise Joseph and walk in his anointing and spirit.
Too many messianics are walking in a dead covenant and combining it with the early New Covenant and are calling it a 'Renewed Covenant'. Evangelicals are either walking in the early New Covenant Shavu'ot or Pentecostal anointing or a counterfeit, and lawlessly at that. What neither seem to realise is that Yahweh wants us in the Sukkot part of the New Covenant, the Marriage Feast of the Lamb. That means walking in the ministry of suffering, like Christ, and as Joseph prefigured, in perfect emet-tavnith or Truth-Pattern. The Way of the Bride is very, very narrow indeed.
Ask Yahweh to show you the Josephite way and be blessed as our forefather was!
Comments from Readers
"One thought after meditating on this in Genesis this week. Pattern in the end from the beginning?... Gen 45:6 For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest. Took two years into the famine before all Yisrael came together. Maybe a good type of the end from the beginning all over again. When everyone gets hungry enough and I don't think we're talking of physical food this time... what is going to happen when the pretenders are revealed and the pretend food is not good enough... is found to be no good food at all... good things to come though!! There is plenty of really good food to eat!! MMMM...." (RDR, USA, 28 January 2011)