On the road to Emmaus, Yeshua met with two of His disciples and, beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. (Luke 24:27). For our Torah studies this year, therefore, week by week we will seek to discover how all of Torah prepared the way for the coming Messiah.
27th December 2025 (7 Tevet)
Vayigash (And drew near): Genesis 44:18-47:27
At the heart of our study this week is the journey of Israel to Egypt. A family of seventy is to settle there and grow, over many years, into a large nation. Jacob’s life was nearly over, but it was to be completed in Egypt rather than Canaan. Already his son Joseph has become the main focus of our attention, but soon it will be the generation following who were to become responsible to God. There is a pattern of God’s covenant purposes as one generation is succeeded by another.
We all have a limited time on earth. If we are sensitive to God’s purpose in our life, we seek to fulfil that purpose and complete the ministry He has given for us to accomplish, before we leave responsibility to the next generation. So it was with Jacob.
It is significant that they stopped at Beersheba to offer sacrifices to God (Genesis 46:1). There are appropriate times in our lives when we must pause, reflect, and recommit ourselves to God and His purposes. These are times when God may speak to us as He did to Jacob to both encourage him and clarify what was to happen:
Then God spoke to Israel in the visions of the night, and said, “Jacob, Jacob!” And he said, “Here I am.” So He said, “I am God, the God of your father; do not fear to go down to Egypt, for I will make of you a great nation there. I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also surely bring you up again; and Joseph will put his hand on your eyes.” (Genesis 46:2-4)
Jacob was weary, as he expressed through the words he spoke to Pharaoh on meeting him:
And Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The days of the years of my pilgrimage are one hundred and thirty years; few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.” (Genesis 46:9)
Nevertheless, he would have been clear that the journey to Egypt was completely in God’s will.
There are times when God gathers His people together for the next stage. We will see this, for example in the Book of Numbers when the census was taken in the wilderness of Sinai and the nation was put in order with various responsibilities for the wilderness journey. Similarly, there was a preparation made under Joshua prior to crossing the Jordan, including the circumcision of the men (Joshua 5). Another example is when Solomon dedicated the Temple (2 Chronicles 7) and when God appeared to him. There are such transitional times in God’s purposes, when God gathers His people. There are also the times in the regular cycle of life, especially the yearly feasts which are God’s holy convocations (Leviticus 23:2).
In all these cases, we are reminded over and over again that God knows us by name and has a particular purpose for us to fulfil. Just as for Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the twelve sons, we know that the journey may not be easy. There are periods when God seems silent, but there are also moments along the journey of life where His purposes are made clear. These are times when we need encouragement and understanding of His particular purpose in our life.
For Jacob it was essential to go down to Egypt and settle with his family. We are now given the names of the next generation. It is good to read them in full, and honour them here, reminding us that God knows each of His family by name:
The sons of Reuben were Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi.
The sons of Simeon were Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul.
The sons of Levi were Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.
The sons of Judah were Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah (but Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan). The sons of Perez were Hezron and Hamul.
The sons of Issachar were Tola, Puvah, Job, and Shimron.
The sons of Zebulun were Sered, Elon, and Jahleel.
The sons of Gad were Ziphion, Haggi, Shuni, Ezbon, Eri, Arodi, and Areli.
The sons of Asher were Jimnah, Ishuah, Isui, Beriah, and Serah, their sister. And the sons of Beriah were Heber and Malchiel.
To Joseph in the land of Egypt were born Manasseh and Ephraim.
The sons of Benjamin were Belah, Becher, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim, and Ard.
The son of Dan was Hushim.
The sons of Naphtali were Jahzeel, Guni, Jezer, and Shillem.
In God’s purposes, one generation follows another. Prominent though the ministry of an individual may be, the time comes to hand on to the next generation. This is a pattern for all mankind, and God’s purposes for the next generation are in continuity with what went before. It is essential that each generation learns to live closely with God to fulfil their own purpose. We know from the Patriarchs that this is never easy – yet God always has a purpose and He will be sure to complete it, even if the world shakes around us. Recall Haggai’s prophecy, yet to be fulfilled in these end days:
For thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Once more (it is a little while) I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land; and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory,’ says the Lord of hosts. ‘The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine,’ says the Lord of hosts. ‘The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former,’ says the Lord of hosts. ‘And in this place I will give peace,’ says the Lord of hosts.” (Haggai 2:6-9)
In addition to the struggles and division that beset Jacob’s family, including Joseph being sold as a slave, God used a famine upon the land to bring Israel to settle in Egypt. We will soon be reading about the immense signs and wonders that accompanied Israel’s leaving Egypt 430 years later. In all of this there was a growing family of named and known individuals called together, each with a part in the fulfilment of God’s covenant promises.
It is the same for us. When we review the history of the world, we have thousands of years of human interaction to consider. Much of this is a history of striving among nations, times of warfare and upheaval. In the days of Jacob, one could so easily have focussed entirely on survival. If it were not for the gathering together of God’s people to reassure them and remind them of His own purposes, they could be completely forgotten – lost in the day by day striving.
In any phase of history, we can seek to understand God’s purpose at that time. The most recent time of struggle for survival across the entire world was the Second World War. At that time, almost everyone focussed on personal and national survival as priority. Yet those with insight , especially when called to prayer, realised that a covenant purpose of God would emerge: the restoration of the nation of Israel. When Jacob went to Egypt, he could not claim that his family was in perfect order. Neither is the gathering of Jacob’s family today, but God has a purpose.
Over 2000 years the message of salvation through Yeshua has been proclaimed across the world, bringing multitudes into God’s covenant purposes from among the Gentiles, as well as the Jews.
Now, as tensions rise again across the entire world we must gather before God together and consider what He is bringing about through His covenant family. Yeshua made it very clear, as recorded in Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21, that we will live in a world where we will encounter evil arising, a time of famine, sickness, earthquakes and wars. Yet, despite all this, and because of it, God will fulfil all of His purposes – it is what will result out of this seeming chaos that matters in the light of eternity. Indeed, the time is coming when, out of this time of tribulation, all nations will gather before Yeshua. A final census will be taken on a scale much larger than when Jacob and His family met with God at Beersheba. Now is the time of preparation, not for taking our family in carts to Egypt, but for when Yeshua will gather His people for the eternal Kingdom.
Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. (Matthew 24:29-31)
Dr Clifford Denton
Founder and Director
Tishrei Bible School
www.tishrei.org