And It Was Winter

20211127 Parsha Vayeshev – And it was Winter

Blessing

Torah Portion Gen 37:1-8

Haftarah Amos 3:1-8

Brit Chadashah John 10:22-30

The ninth reading from the book of Genesis is named Vayeshev, which means "and he dwelt." The title comes from the first verse of the reading, which says, "Now Jacob [dwelt] in the land where his father had sojourned, in the land of Canaan" (Genesis 37:1). Despite the portion's name and first verse, the story is actually about Jacob's son Joseph and how he was removed from the land of Canaan and dwelt in Egypt. The narrative follows Joseph from Canaan to Egypt to prison. In addition, this week's reading contains the story of Judah and Tamar.

Generally speaking, I normally begin the weekly teaching with the Torah Portion and work my way to the Brit Chadashah (New Testament). Today I want to throw a curve ball and begin reading in the book of John. Tomorrow evening we will begin the eight nights of Hanukkah and end on Monday night with a party here together.

John 10:22 Then came Hanukkah; it was winter in Jerusalem.

I have heard discussions from various factions within Messianic Judaism regarding celebrating events that are not mandated by Torah. The two main targets of these folk are Hanukkah and Purim. Purim not so much, but Hanukkah is in their crosshairs because the custom of celebrating it is not in the accepted canon of the bible but in the book of Maccabees. Purim is a couple of months away and Hanukkah begins tomorrow night so let’s talk about Hanukkah. Yeshua celebrated Hanukkah.

I’ve heard several people tell me they are excited about Hanukkah because this is the first time they have ever celebrated it. At the risk of being boring, I’d like to give you the Cliff’s Notes version of Hanukkah for the ones just entering into the wonderful world of Messianic Judaism.

After Alexander the Great died, his empire was divided into four parts. The part that ruled over Israel was the Seleucid king Antiochus Epiphanes whose throne was in Assyria. He forbade any expression of the Jewish religion on pain of torture and then death. He sacrificed a pig on the altar at the Temple and erected a statue of Zeus in the holy place of the Temple.

Torah-faithful Jews rebelled with Pinchas-like zeal against their Greek oppressors, but also waged a civil war against the large population of Hellenistic Jews who embraced Greek debauchery. After several years of guerilla warfare, led by Judah, the Levite they called the Maccabi, the Greeks gave up and left Israel. The Temple was horrifically defiled, so the survivors set about cleansing it and restoring it.

They were desperately trying to get it ready for the feast of Sukkot but the task was too great. So they settled on a late Sukkot and an eight day celebration, well after the temperate harvest-time. The problem arose that there was only enough purified oil for one night. The priests filled the lamp of the menorah and miraculously the menorah lights burned for the entire eight days and nights until more oil could be processed. That is why Hanukkah is called the festival of lights as well as the feast of dedication. And Yeshua was in Jerusalem for the festival!

The Bible says it was winter. I don’t know how you feel about winter, but I am not a fan. I lived in northern Illinois for about 8-9 years when I was young. Winter for me means cold, dark, dreary days. All the vegetation dies back. There is very little life. For me, winter feels like death. Winter meant death to countless soldiers in the armies of Napoleon and Hitler as they tried to invade Russia. In my mind’s eye the images of snow swept plains in the Doctor Zhivago movie gives me shivers just thinking about it. Retain that description of winter as we proceed through the Parsha.

Hopefully you won’t get whiplash from this jumping back and forth, but let’s go back to Joseph. You know the story of the technicolor coat that Jacob had given him, and his dreams portraying his family bowing down to him. His brothers didn’t relish the idea that their young brother would be over them. Possibly Joseph was also displaying the arrogance of a cocky teenager. Anyway, out in the fields far away from home his brothers conspired to kill him. Judah intervened and instead they just threw him in a pit before selling him to traders heading to Egypt.

Can you imagine what was going through Joseph’s mind when he was thrown in the pit with no way to climb out. His own brothers were leaving him to die of thirst and exposure in the wilderness. Regardless of the season, Joseph was experiencing winter.