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This Shabbat’s parasha, Vayeshev, means, ‘and he dwelt’. Jacob is again living in Canaan. Our attention turns to Joseph, Rachel’s first-born, who is now 17 years-old. Rachel had been Jacob’s favored wife. Now that she was gone, it’s no surprise that Jacob lavishes his affections and attention on Joseph, their son together. But this favoritism doesn’t sit well with Joseph’s brothers. We’re told they harbored bitter hatred towards him. The situation is compounded by a bad report Joseph brings to his father about the (apparently) substandard work of his siblings.
And it gets worse. Jacob gives Joseph an extravagant robe. Some Bible versions translate it “a full-length robe” or “a multi-colored robe”. You may be interested to know that archaeological and documentary evidence from the Patriarchal Period reveals that tribal chiefs in the Ancient Near East wore multi-colored robes as a sign of their rulership. We should probably understand Jacob giving this extraordinary robe to Joseph to mean that Joseph was his choice to be the next leader of the family. This would explain his brothers’ antagonism.
But it gets worse yet. Joseph has two amazing dreams, in which it appears he is to be exalted above his brothers and even his father. He tells the whole family all about it. That probably wasn’t smart. Jacob rebukes Joseph, but at the same time Moses says he kept the matter in mind. But now the brothers are livid.
A short time later, when Joseph is sent once again to check on his brothers, they see him approaching from afar and plot together to kill him. Reuben, wanting to save Joseph’s life, suggests that they throw him in a pit instead (figuring on rescuing him later) and the others go along with the idea. Later, while sitting down to eat (probably at a considerable distance, since it wouldn’t be very pleasant to eat while someone nearby was screaming for help), the brothers see an Ishmaelite caravan and come up with another idea. Why not sell him as a slave instead? It beats murder, and they’ll have a few shekels to show for it.
But apparently at some point while they had gone off to eat, a group of Midianite traders had already found Joseph and took him and they sold him to the Ishmaelites. Reuben returns to the pit only to discover that Joseph is gone! The brothers concoct a lie to tell their father: they tear Joseph’s robe (which they had taken from him) and dip it in the blood of an animal they slaughtered for the purpose, and bring it to their father. When Jacob sees the torn and bloodied robe, he is made to believe that Joseph is dead. He is devastated! From that day forward, Jacob is a broken man. What a despicable lie the brothers told.
Meanwhile, Joseph has been taken to Egypt and sold as a slave to Potiphar, who is the captain of Pharaoh’s personal guard. Eventually, we will see that this was all part of God’s strategic plan. But for now, our hearts grieve for Joseph, whose circumstances at the moment, seem especially bitter.
At this point our attention is turned once again to Canaan. Judah has taken a Canaanite wife, who bears him three sons: Er, Onan and Shelah. Judah’s wife later dies, leaving him a widower. Some years later, Judah arranges a marriage between Er and a young woman named Tamar. Adonai regarded Er as evil and took his life. Judah directs Onan to fulfill the duty of Levirate marriage and take Tamar as a wife. This is interesting, because the events in this narrative predate the giving of the Torah at Sinai by 400 years, so we know that some of these practices were already in place. Onan, however, refuses to allow Tamar to bear children by him, since they would not be his own but his deceased brother’s, and on account of this callous disregard, God takes his life, too.
Judah is now faced with the prospect of having to give his last son, Shelah, to Tamar, and wonders if Shelah will end up dying, too. So Judah delays doing anything about the situation. After a few years of waiting, Tamar figures out that this marriage is not going to happen, so she takes matters into her own hands. Disguising herself as a prostitute, she lures Judah into having relations with her. When three months have passed, and Tamar is discovered to be pregnant, Judah presumes she has committed adultery and is about to have her put to death, when she reveals that he himself is the father. He admits his own guilt in not having fulfilled his promise to give Tamar to Shelah. He never has relations with her again. She gives birth to twins, Perez and Zerah.
Why would Moses, in writing the Torah, dedicate the better part of a chapter to what is such a distasteful series of events? Part of the answer is because, as we will find out in chapter 49, it is Judah who will inherit the patriarchal blessing from Jacob, and have preeminence among Jacob’s sons, and it is through Judah that we trace the lineage of Messiah.
It was not to be through Er, Onan or Shelah that the line continues, but through Perez – Judah’s son by Tamar. It may be scandalous, but God chooses ordinary, flawed people and turns otherwise adverse circumstances to accomplish His own purposes. If you’ve made grievous mistakes in your life, you need to know that God can redeem those things and turn your life for good and to His glory!
The narrative cuts back to Joseph, now a slave in Egypt. His work for Potiphar was exemplary. God was with Joseph, and prospered everything he did. Potiphar recognized something extraordinary in Joseph, and put him in charge of his entire household. But at one point, Potiphar’s wife began attempting to seduce Joseph and he repeatedly refused. He was a godly young man – he was not going to offend the living God. Day after day she persisted, to no avail, and in anger she turned on Joseph, lying to Potiphar that Joseph had tried to rape her. Potiphar was furious, but rather than having Joseph put to death, instead had him consigned to prison. Poor Joseph – innocent of any wrongdoing, yet betrayed by his brothers, sold into slavery and now falsely accused and imprisoned!
But God was with him even in his imprisonment, and gave him favor with the chief jailer. Some time later Pharaoh’s chief cupbearer and chief baker are put in prison, and Joseph is given charge over them. One day they look particularly dejected, and Joseph inquires. They relate to him strange dreams they each had the night before. Joseph interprets their dreams: the cupbearer will be restored to office in three days, but the baker will be hanged that same day. He beseeched the cupbearer to remember him when it came to pass, and petition Pharaoh for Joseph’s release. Three days later the events come to pass just as Joseph interpreted, the baker hanged and the cupbearer restored to his office. But the chief cupbearer completely forgot about Joseph, and thus he was to languish in prison for another two years!
How would you feel in those circumstances? Abandoned? Perhaps, but you would be wrong. God was with Joseph. Those years shaped Joseph’s character for the better. He learned humility. Hardship can work patience in us and teach us to rely on God in every situation. Knowing what we know about Joseph’s life, we should not be hasty to interpret our immediate circumstances as either proving God’s favor or disfavor. We don’t know the end of a matter from the beginning.
The haftarah for Vayeshev is Amos 2:6-3:8. And the opening verse there reads, “Thus says Adonai, ‘For three transgressions of Israel and for four I will not revoke its punishment, because they sell the righteous for money, and the needy for a pair of sandals.’” The rabbis understood plainly that Joseph was innocent of wrongdoing, yet his brothers, envious of him and hating him, intended to pawn him off to the Ishmaelites for a bag of silver. They are considered to have gone through with it, even though the Midianites got to Joseph first.
Maybe Rabbi Paul had Joseph in mind when he wrote, “God causes all things to work together for those who love God.” Joseph loved God. You don’t have to like hardship, but you can still cling to God in the midst of it and be better for it. Trust that He is at work in you, desiring to mold your character in preparation for an eternity spent in His glorious presence.
Joseph’s humiliation and suffering, despite his innocence, led some ancient rabbis to describe the Messiah as “Ben Yosef”. Messiah would also be innocent of any wrongdoing. Messiah would also be despised by His brothers and sold for a sum of money. And just as Joseph’s brothers thought his disappearance would be the end of the story, but were wrong, so Messiah Yeshua’s death was not to be the end of the story. More on that, God willing, next Shabbat, as we follow Joseph’s life.