Joseph & The Ingathering

Restoration is a major theme in YHVH’s Kingdom and no account tells us what that looks like better than the restoration of Joseph and his family. Joseph’s 3 tests have a parallel to the end times. Find out what they are.

This transcript is not exactly like the recording but it doesn’t vary by much and all the essential scriptures and quotes are there. Click here to listen to the Midrash. Some excellent comments were made and questions asked.

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Vayigash details the restoration of Jacob’s family. The Haftarah in Ezekiel 37 is the related end times prophecy of this happening. This restoration was completed on the Cross but 2,000 years later has not been acknowledged by any of the 3 religions that claim descent from Abraham. Thus, what is the reality in Heaven must still come to pass on the earth. The details of Ezekiel‘s description are found, partly, in this Torah Portion. There are many parallels in Vayigash to Yeshua’s second coming, the ingathering, the restoration of all Israel and the parallel identity of Benjamin to the remnant of YHVH’s people.

The account starts with Judah coming near to Joseph in Genesis 44:18.

Gen 44:18  Then Judah came near unto him, and said, Oh my lord, let thy servant, I pray thee, speak a word in my lord’s ears, and let not thine anger burn against thy servant: for thou art even as Pharaoh.

Judah will have to come near to Yeshua, nearer than the rest of his brothers, in the end of days.

Joseph has now tested his brothers 3 times with the money in their sacks, the cup of divination and the bringing of Benjamin to Egypt and he has imprisoned one of them, Simeon, in the process. All of these were tests of their integrity. What kind of men had they become since selling him into Egypt? Joseph had to find out!

Even before they knew him, Joseph was providing for them. The money in their sacks served a dual purpose – to test them and provide for them at the same time. Yeshua does the same, testing us while still providing for us.

Joseph’s 3 tests have a parallel to the end times in that Yeshua will test His brothers 10 times and some, like Simeon, will be imprisoned. 

Gen 44:20  We [Judah] said to my lord, ‘We have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, a little one; and his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother; and his father loves him.’

Notice that Judah did not confess to the attempted murder or selling Joseph into slavery. He only confessed that one of his brothers was dead. This is a prophecy.

None of the brothers actually knew what happened to Joseph. They didn’t know if he was dead or not. Such is the case today in Judaism which is the only one of the three religions who think Joseph may be dead. Let me explain.

The Jews Midrash on the topic of Joseph, referencing the issue as that of the lost tribes, because they don’t know whether Joseph is dead or not, or whether he will be restored or not. It depends on which rabbi you listen to. Some say the lost tribes will return; others say ‘no’. But they are all convinced that Joseph’s, the lost tribes’, restoration will happen when all non-Jews convert to Judaism.

This Chabad article quotes Rabbi Yehuda Loewe saying, “…These tribes exist only in potential (this is the reason they are not mentioned by name). In fact, their potential is so obscured that it is as if they do not exist at all.”

To the Jews, the lost tribes are dead, they do not exist. However, Judaism teaches that the 10 tribes will ultimately return to be rejoined with the Jews. Here is a quote from AISH.com in the article titled, “All About The Messiah”, where Judaism bases the entire “world to come” on their theology. It says:

In the Messianic Era, many non-Jews will feel compelled to convert to Judaism as the prophet foretold, “I will then give all peoples a pure tongue, that they may call in the Name of God, and all serve Him in one manner” (Zephaniah 3:9). Once the Messiah has revealed himself, however, converts will no longer be accepted.

This is an important understanding for our time because the 2 Houses are not yet reunited and we need to know why and what to expect in getting them restored.

Who are the non-Jews who “will feel compelled to convert to Judaism”? Those from the tribes who have no other status than “Gentile” and, of course, those who truly are Gentiles. The northern tribes do not exist, according to Judaism, and the Jews are all in a conundrum of what to do with us non-Jews who want to keep the Torah. It is even worse for those who want to keep the Torah without submitting to Jewish law, the Talmud.

The Jews say no Ephraimites (Ephraim holds the stick of Joseph) exist outside of those who have already converted to Judaism. However, they are hopeful they will find a tribe of Ephraimites huddled somewhere and hidden away for only them to find so they can bring them back to the land to make Aliyah and be converted to Judaism. I kid you not!

Over the years, as we went to Jerusalem for the Feasts, rabbis would ask us why we were there. We would tell them we are Ephraimites returning to keep the Torah with all our heart according to Deuteronomy 30.

They would ask why we think we are Ephraimites and we would tell them. “We are not Jews, but we love the Law of Moses. Since we are not Jews but we love the Torah, who else could we be?”

The rabbis were not receptive. In fact, we were often told to “go home”. They didn’t want us there. I once had an argument with a rabbi about that on erev Shabbat standing on Jaffa street! He was trying to foist on me a pamphlet about becoming a Noahide which I refused to take. He spoke English and we got into it! The crux of his argument was that being a Noahide to join myself to the Jews was my only option.

It wasn’t until one rabbi’s wife later explained to us that non-Jews who keep Shabbat are subject to death under Jewish law. I cried for 3 days! I had no idea the Talmud said this. I looked it up and, sure enough, non-Jews keeping any of the Torah are subject to the death penalty under Jewish law.

How could they want to kill us whom they have been trying to convert to Judaism for centuries? (They’re always crying about Christians wanting to convert them to Christianity but they have been in the business of conversion, as well. Don’t let them tell you differently. Yeshua addressed this in Matthew 23:15: Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel around by sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of Gehenna as yourselves). 

It was when I heard what the rabbi’s wife said that I truly understood the reality that we Ephraimites are not welcome even though they purport themselves to be friends.

Also, a friend in our congregation was told that under Jewish law no Ephraimites will ever be able to make Aliyah as Ephraimites. All Ephraimites must undergo Jewish conversion. Becoming a Noahide is not enough if you want to keep Shabbat. According to the Talmud, Noahides are to be given no day of rest. If a Noahide takes a day of rest, he will be subject to the death penalty (Sanhedrin 58b:25-59b:12).

It is clear that the Jews’ continued hatred of Joseph and those who are with Joseph’s son, Ephraim causes them to reject us. But who else – who is the more important one – that they claim is dead? Yeshua!

Judah is standing in front of his brother telling his very alive, well and successful brother that he is dead! And because we are associated with Yeshua, the Jews see us as “dead”, also.

Judah continues:

Gen 44:21  You said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me, that I may set my eyes on him.’
Gen 44:22  We said to my lord, ‘The boy can’t leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die.’

There is a spiritual principle here in those words that “his father would die”. It is that without the Son of God to appear at all times in physical form on the earth, the Father literally would be dead to us. The Father would not be dead. He would only be dead to us because we would have no way to reach Him. We wouldn’t even know about Him without Yeshua who has appeared in human form to mankind from the time of the Garden of Eden to Adam, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph (as the “certain man” that sent Joseph to Dothan), and then as the Angel of YHVH all through the Old Testament.

Then, He put Himself in a human body of flesh to teach us what it means to obey the Torah before sacrificing Himself because we had broken the Torah.

We NEED Yeshua in the flesh, appearing to us in physical form all through human history to keep mankind connected to the Father! The Jews do not understand this but Yeshua even keeps the pathway open for them, too, even though they proclaim Him dead, never resurrected, or that He never lived at all! Without Yeshua in the flesh there is no connection to YHVH the Father.

Gen 44:25  Our father said, ‘Go again and buy us a little food.’

The Jacobite family going to Egypt for food represents where YHVH’s people think they have spiritual food even today – Egypt. But Joseph fed his brothers from a table prepared within his own house. The brothers did not need to eat what the Egyptians ate – the false food of religious doctrines. Yeshua feeds us at His table. We don’t need anyone else or any other food but His Word.

Gen 44:26  We said, ‘We can’t go down. If our youngest brother is with us, then we will go down: for we may not see the man’s face, unless our youngest brother is with us.’

There was a younger brother, the youngest among them – Benjamin. He is a type and shadow. Who is this youngest brother? I will share that in a little bit.

Gen 44:32  For your servant became collateral for the boy to my father, saying, ‘If I don’t bring him to you, then I will bear the blame to my father forever.’

Judah, the House of Judah, the Jews, are Benjamin’s collateral, his protector, if you will. He is still responsible for bringing along a younger brother to know the Torah and the King of Israel and Yeshua will make Judah defend and protect Benjamin in the end of days. How will that happen?

At some point in the Tribulation, the Jews will see Yeshua. They will come to know Him.

Zec 12:10  I will pour on David’s house, and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they will look to me whom they have pierced; and they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for his only son, and will grieve bitterly for him, as one grieves for his firstborn.
Zec 12:11  In that day there will be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon.
Zec 12:12  The land will mourn, every family apart; the family of David’s house apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart;
Zec 12:13  the family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of the Shimeites apart, and their wives apart;
Zec 12:14  all the families who remain, every family apart, and their wives apart.

Once Judah knows Yeshua, he will also know us.

Gen 45:1  Then Joseph couldn’t control himself before all those who stood before him, and he called out, “Cause everyone to go out from me!” No one else stood with him, while Joseph made himself known to his brothers.

Now we will see the process through which Joseph made himself known to his brothers.

Gen 45:2  He wept aloud. The Egyptians heard, and the house of Pharaoh heard.
Gen 45:3  Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Does my father still live?” His brothers couldn’t answer him; for they were terrified at his presence.

There is a sense of relief filled with agony here for Joseph but his brothers were in stark terror, so much that they were also speechless.

Did they believe him? Surely it has to be true. Only this could explain Joseph’s strange behavior with the brothers like lining them up according to their ages and asking so many questions about his father and younger brother, Benjamin.

Yeah, they believed him alright! But what they were REALLY thinking? “Is he going to kill us!?” But Joseph saw what was happening to them and calmed them.

Gen 45:4  Joseph said to his brothers, “Come near to me, please.” They came near. “He said, I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt.

They moved closer but it is right here that the Jewish commentators say Joseph showed them his circumcision. It would have been one of the reasons he removed all the Egyptians from the room. Only his brothers needed to see his circumcision which was peculiar only to Jacob’s family. There is no other sign than the sign of the covenant that can be used to prove one’s identity in YHVH.

Don’t worry. There won’t be any of this kind of “showing” in the future by Yeshua.

The circumcision of the heart, evidenced by our love of YHVH’s law of Moses, will be all the House of Judah Jews will need to know that we Ephraimites from Joseph are not dead and that our and their savior is risen and is alive just like Joseph!

Notice that Joseph’s main concern is his father. Yeshua’s main concern was always His Father.

Gen 45:5  Now don’t be grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.
Gen 45:6  For these two years the famine has been in the land, and there are yet five years, in which there will be no plowing and no harvest.
Gen 45:7  God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to save you alive by a great deliverance.
Gen 45:8  So now it wasn’t you who sent me here, but God, and he has made me a father to Pharaoh, lord of all his house, and ruler over all the land of Egypt.

Both Joseph and Yeshua were sent by their fathers to preserve life and a remnant, a family that carries His name in the earth. Jacob’s family was who YHVH chose for this. I spoke last week about the forgiveness that Joseph had already given them even before they arrived in Egypt.

And then, Joseph’s brothers had to repent and accept Joseph’s forgiveness. How do we know that they repented to Joseph?

Gen 45:15  He kissed all his brothers, and wept on them. After that his brothers talked with him.

What do you suppose Joseph’s brothers wanted to talk with him about? Well, everything! But first, it is most likely they voiced their regret for what they had done.

I believe they repented. How could they accept Joseph’s favor unless they did?

Gen 45:9  Hurry, and go up to my father, and tell him, ‘This is what your son Joseph says, “God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me. Don’t wait.

The next step after repenting for having told the world that Joseph, i.e. Yeshua is dead is to confess the truth before His Father. “Go tell your Father that I am the LORD of all the world”.

Judah returned and confessed to Jacob, his father, a man, that Joseph was alive.

Mat 10:32  Everyone therefore who confesses me before men, him I will also confess before my Father who is in heaven.

The House of Judah, the Jews, will confess that Yeshua is God and King of Israel and all the earth. That confession will kill Judaism instantly and will usher in the rest of the story – the ingathering and the final restoration.

Jewish culture, so carefully crafted over the last 2500 years, will be gone in that moment. In its place will be 12 tribes with no other culture but the Kingdom culture.

Yeshua already did this restoration on the cross. When He resurrected, the restoration of the 12 tribes was complete. However, His people are still in rebellion. The Jews say they are all Israel and the Christian church says it is all Israel. Both are wrong! No religion replaces Israel! YHVH did not make a religion. He created a Kingdom, a nation of holy, set apart people who, after all this time, still in rebellion.

But the Jews’ confession that Yeshua lives will change all that in an instant!

Gen 45:10  You shall dwell in the land of Goshen, and you will be near to me, you, your children, your children’s children, your flocks, your herds, and all that you have.

Then the family shall dwell in the best land in all the known world. Goshen was that place in the known world. Israel is the place in the coming world.

Gen 45:16  The report of it was heard in Pharaoh’s house, saying, “Joseph’s brothers have come.” It pleased Pharaoh well, and his servants.

Jacob’s family will now become a favored family in Egypt while Joseph lives. The family will get much favor from Pharaoh. They will get to settle and be “shepherds”. Prophetically, we will get to shepherd those who are in the world, the left over Gentiles after the Great Tribulation is over.

After Judah’s confession will come the ingathering.

Gen 45:17  Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Tell your brothers, ‘Do this: Load your animals, and go, travel to the land of Canaan.

The ingathering of YHVH’s people will be to Biblical Israel, the Promised Land. But in Joseph’s time, Israel as a nation did not yet exist. Yet what follows here parallels the ingathering of all YHVH’s people to be together in one place, His land.

And now we have some very interesting prophecies through the parallel of Benjamin to YHVH’s people.

To understand this, we must first recognize something about the relationship between Jacob and Benjamin. Jacob loved Benjamin. For Jacob, Benjamin had replaced Joseph as the favored son. Benjamin’s welfare was paramount in Jacob’s mind. The only difference between Joseph and Benjamin was that Benjamin had not been given the firstborn position in the family. Judah was still in the firstborn.

Benjamin parallels YHVH’s remnant in prophecy. The remnant is defined as is everyone who looked forward in time to the Messiah and those who now look backward in time to the Messiah and these also keep His commandments, the Torah.

Here are some parallels about Benjamin that explains why he symbolizes YHVH’s remnant.

First, Benjamin now has Joseph’s cup. Yeshua had a cup and it is with some of His people to this day. Some have already drank from it; some will drink from it in the future.

Mat 20:22  But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able.
Mat 20:23  And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with: but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father.

Joseph’s cup that he put in Benjamin’s sack symbolizes the cup that Yeshua cannot drink from yet because it is still in Benjamin’s sack:

Luk 22:15  And he said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer:
Luk 22:16  For I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God.

What is the fulfillment? The end of the time of trouble when the grapes get pressed into the cup. See Yeshua’s own explanation of this in the next 2 verses:

Luk 22:17  And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, Take this, and divide it among yourselves:
Luk 22:18  For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall come.

Or until the family has all come together.

Joseph wept separately on Benjamin’s neck (Genesis 45:14) before he wept with all the other brothers. We get the sense that this weeping over their having been restored to each other lasted a long time. Yeshua will have a special fondness for those of His who have remained faithful to His Father as Benjamin was faithful to Jacob.

We will find out in next week’s Torah Portion that Benjamin had 10 sons, the same number as it is said the northern exiled House of Israel has.

And now, here are some more indicators for why Benjamin parallels YHVH’ remnant.

Gen 45:22  He gave each one of them changes of clothing, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver and five changes of clothing.

The parallel is between Benjamin and YHVH’s Torah Keepers who also love His Son, Yeshua.

Rev 14:12  Here is the perseverance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”

“The saints” is everyone both before and after Yeshua came. Revelation 14:13 then continues with a special status for those who from that point forward are martyred in the name of Yeshua. Prior to this, YHVH’s remnant, His saints, all everyone else who has looked forward or backward in time to the work of Yeshua on the Cross.

Let’s start with the 300 pieces of silver that Joseph gave to Benjamin. Yeshua was betrayed with 30 pieces of silver. Benjamin, the remnant of believers in the Messiah who are also keepers of Torah, will receive 300 pieces of silver!

The meaning of the gift of 300 pieces of silver defines how much it is worth to Yeshua and His Father that we love Him and keep His commandments. Loving the father, Jacob, and doing his will (as Benjamin did both when he stayed behind as his brothers went to Egypt and then going with his brothers to Egypt as commanded by Jacob) parallels the saints of Revelation 14:12 throughout all times in history.

What is the 5 changes of clothing and the 5 portions of food about in Gen 43:34 that Joseph gave to Benjamin? It is the price of restoration in Leviticus that must be paid for sin.

Lev 6:2  “If anyone sins, and commits a trespass against Yahweh, and deals falsely with his neighbor in a matter of deposit, or of bargain, or of robbery, or has oppressed his neighbor, 
Lev 6:3  or has found that which was lost, and dealt falsely therein, and swearing to a lie; in any of these things that a man does, sinning therein; 
Lev 6:4  then it shall be, if he has sinned, and is guilty, he shall restore that which he took by robbery, or the thing which he has gotten by oppression, or the deposit which was committed to him, or the lost thing which he found, 
Lev 6:5  or any thing about which he has sworn falsely; he shall restore it even in full, and shall add a fifth part more to it. He shall return it to him to whom it belongs in the day of his being found guilty. 

When we sin against our brother, we sin against YHVH. “If anyone sins, and commits a trespass against Yahweh, and deals falsely with his neighbor” there has to be restitution. A “fifth”, five parts. It can be viewed as a percentage (which is the usual way this is interpreted but that keeps its prophetic meaning hidden). The spiritual application is five parts. (I find it interesting that alcohol comes in “fifths”. The lie is that alcohol adds something to a life).

Who were these fifths in Leviticus 6:3-5 restored to? Benjamin. Why? Because Benjamin was sinned against by his brothers who deprived him of the presence and relationship of Joseph. Joseph was lost to him (Leviticus 6:3). If Benjamin thought Joseph was dead, then he would have regarded Joseph as being with God. That is what we know about Yeshua. He is with God.

They damaged the family. Benjamin was dealt falsely with because he was told that Joseph was dead. The brothers didn’t confess to Benjamin. He would have run to Jacob with that information. So Benjamin was dealt falsely with in the matter of robbing him of his rightful relationship with Joseph. He was thus oppressed, as well. And guess what? Joseph has to be restored to Benjamin along with the extra 5 parts (Leviticus 6:4-5). To Benjamin belongs the additional fifth, the five portions.

What does this have to do with us? What has been taken from us?

I remember when I first came into the understanding that the commandments were for all of YHVH’s family. His commandments were for me to follow and obey and I was so excited to finally know what He expects of me in my walk with Him. I was excited but I also became very angry against Christianity, not Christians, but Christianity’s false doctrine that says the law of Moses is passe’, done away, “dead” like Joseph.

Our family heritage; our Hebrew heritage. We have missed out on the richness of that life because the neither the Jews or Christians wanted us to have that. We’ve been robbed! We’re like Benjamin! Robbed, deprived, of something so wonderful.

The brothers, led by Judah, sinned against Joseph but it was also against YHVH. And here’s the thing that Joseph did for his brothers which is the same thing Yeshua has done for us. Joseph paid the restoration price that the brothers owed. He restored all things and all relationship to his brothers just like nothing ever happened (that’s what forgiveness looks like), but the fifth, the additional part for restoration, was given to Benjamin.

Yeshua will come riding with His rewards with Him (Isaiah 62:11) and part of it will be this additional fifth. I don’t know the form it will take or what it will look like but I do know that those who are willing to give their lives literally or figuratively, unwaveringly about Yeshua and His commandments, will be richly rewarded with the fifth and the 300 pieces of silver.

Judah has Benjamin with him now in the House of Judah and Benjamin has been subjugated under the cultural epithet “Jew”. All people who are with Judah, the tribe, are now obscure except for some small mention of the Levites who are also called “Jews”.

Why is Benjamin with Judah and not with the Ephraimites? It is because Judah swore to Jacob to be the collateral and the security for Benjamin to keep him safe. What we speak as vows will be required of us.

Just as Judah was the security deposit, the surety, for Benjamin in regard to Joseph, so is Judah still Benjamin’s collateral security deposit, Benjamin’s protector, before Yeshua right now. The closure of this entire issue for the family will be when Judah confesses that Yeshua is God and King and defends Benjamin, the believing and Torah keeping remnant, to Yeshua.

We read about this in Zechariah 12:10-14 when the Jews will mourn for the one they pierced and when the Jews say, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” (Matthew 23:39 as Yeshua quoted from Psalms 118:26).

Judah will present Benjamin to Yeshua just like Judah presented him to Joseph!

As for Jacob:

Gen 45:28  Israel said, “It is enough. Joseph my son is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.”

Jacob now speaks as Israel. Yeshua is a live and so is Israel! Israel, a nation about to born from Egypt’s womb. The account now will focus on the events that lead up to the formation of the Kingdom of Israel both back then and in the future, the Kingdom we are now awaiting.

Be Blessed!
Kimberly Rogers-Brown

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Kimberly Rogers-Brown has been teaching Torah and special Bible topics since 2008. She is also the author and publisher of Beast Watch News dot com and is heard internationally via two radio programs on Hebrew Nation Radio. Kimberly now lives in Aqaba, Jordan close to the Exodus wilderness area where the Bride (i.e. "the woman" of Revelation 12:6) will flee for 1260 days of the Great Tribulation.