Beresheeth / Genesis 32:4 – 36:43

By Matthew Moshe Nolan

Beresheeth/Genesis 32:4: Vayishlach Yaakov malachim lefanav el-Esav achiv artzah Se’ir sdeh Edom.

Yaakov sent messengers ahead of him to Esav, his brother, to the Land of Seir, to the field of Edom.

⁵ He commanded them saying, “This is what you should say to my master, Esav.  ‘Your servant, Yaakov says, I lived as a stranger with Lavan, and was delayed until now.  ⁶ I acquired oxen, donkeys, sheep, servants and maidservants.  I have sent [these messengers] to tell this to my master, to find favor in your eyes.’”  ⁷ The messengers returned to Yaakov saying, “We came to your brother, to ‘Esav, and he is also coming to meet you; and there are four hundred men with him.”  ⁸ Yaakov was very frightened and distressed.  He divided the people that were with him, along with the sheep, cattle and camels, into two camps.  ⁹ He said, “If Esav comes to one camp and attacks it the remaining camp will survive.”  ¹⁰ Yaakov said, “Elohim of my father Avraham, and Elohim of my father Yitzchak, YHWH Who said to me, ‘Return to your land, to your birthplace, and I will do good with you.’  ¹¹ I am unworthy of all the kindness and of all the faithfulness that You have done with Your servant; for I crossed over this Yarden [only] with my staff, and now I have become two camps.  ¹² Rescue me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of ‘Esav, for I fear him, that he will come and attack me – mother and children alike.  ¹³ You have said, ‘I will do very good with you, and I will make your offspring like the sands of the sea, which are too numerous to count.’”

Intro:  NKJ overview

Esav Meets Yaakov After 22 Years

How to get through Yaakov’s Trouble/The Great Tribulation.  The parsha lays bare the overwhelming terror that seizes Yaakov.  With the 2^nd Intifada of 2000, the rabbis announced, “This is Yaakov’s trouble.”

Yirmeyahu/Jeremiah 30:4: And these are the words that YHWH spoke concerning Y’Israel and concerning Yahudah.  ⁵ For this says YHWH:  We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of shalom. (Present Middle East conflict) ⁶ Ask now and see, whether a man does labor with child?  Why do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in labor, and all faces are turned pale? ⁷ Oy!  For that day is great, so that none is like it:  It is even the time of Yaakov’s Trouble; (End of the age, his house is divided into 2 companies – Judah and Ephrayim – wrestling with the composition of YHWH) but he shall be saved out of it.

^V10 Therefore, fear not, O My eved Yaakov, says YHWH; neither be discouraged, O Yisrael:  for, see, I will save you from far, and your zera from the land of their exile; and Yaakov shall shuv, and shall be in rest, and be in shalom, and no one shall make him afraid. ¹¹ For I am with you, says YHWH, to save you; though I make a full end of all nations where I have scattered you, yet will I not make a full end of you; but I will correct you in measure, and will not leave you altogether unpunished.

^V17 For I will restore health to you (End of the exile, sickness is associated with the departure from Torah – Ezek 34:4) and I will heal you of your wounds, says YHWH; because they called you an outcast, saying, this is Tzion, whom no man seeks after. ¹⁸ This says YHWH:  See, I will turn back the exile of Yaakov’s tents, and have rachamim on his dwelling places; and the city shall be rebuilt upon its own heap, and the palace shall remain in its right place.

^V24 In the latter-days you shall consider it.

Beresheeth/Genesis 31:6: For there shall be a day that the called-out Netsarim-Notsrim – the ones who watch on the Mount – Efrayim shall cry (terurah – sound of the shofar), Arise, and let us go up to Tzion to YHWH our Elohim.

Beresheeth 32:3: And Yaakov sent messengers (malachim/angels, from the ladder) before him to Esav his brother to the land of Seir, the country of Edom. (Yaakov/Israel and the Israeli Defense Force pattern:  Intelligence-gathering, defensive measures, prayer, and the gift;  IDF:  Intelligence-gathering, defensive force, Orthodox brigade, and prayer; gift of withdrawal/disengagement or settler removal.  This is the final tactic; if this fails … WAR!) ⁴ And he commanded them, saying, so shall you speak to my master Esav; Your eved Yaakov says this, I have sojourned with Lavan, and stayed there until now.  5 And I have oxen, and donkeys, flocks, and male avadim, and female avadim; and I have sent to tell my master, that I may find favor in your sight.  6 And the messengers returned to Yaakov saying, We came to your brother Esav, (The text is building suspense.  Matt 24, rumors of wars.  Yaakov then prays.  In 1947-48, the building of suspense with the confrontation between the returning Jews and the Arab inhabitants of the land.  It wasn’t until 1967 that Yaakov/Israel could pray, unhindered, at the “Kotel.”) and also he comes to meet you, and four hundred men with him. (Four hundred represents forty of the smallest army units – Esav comes with a fighting force, ready for battle.  America’s next threat will come from small fighting units of Esav’s seed.) ⁷ Then Yaakov was greatly afraid and distressed; (Why the duplication of verbs:  greatly afraid and distressed?  “Greatly afraid” that he might be killed, “distressed” that he might kill – Yaakov is in “trouble.”) and he divided the people that were with him, and the flocks, and herds, and the camels, into two camps, (groups – preservation of the 2 Houses) ⁸ and said, If Esav comes to the one camp and smites it, then the other camp that is left shall escape. ⁹ And Yaakov said, O Elohim of my abba Avraham, and Elohim of my abba Yitzchak, YHWH Who said to me, Return to your country, and to your mishpacha, and I will deal well with you: ¹⁰ I am not worthy of the least of all the chesed, and of all the emet, which You have shown to your eved; for with just my staff I passed over this Yarden; and now I have become two camps of peoples.  ¹¹ Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, (“Save me” = the Torah’s prayer of salvation – 4 parts:  confession, request for intervention, remembering the promises of YHWH, and taking the necessary action) from the hand of Esav; for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me and the eema with the children.  ¹² And you did say, I will surely do you tov, and make your zera as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.  ¹³ And he lodged there that same night, and took of that which came to his hand a present for Esav his brother:  ¹⁴ two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, ¹⁵ thirty milk camels with their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten foals.  ¹⁶ And he delivered them into the hand of his avadim, every drove by themselves, and said to his avadim, Go ahead of me, and put a space between drove and drove. (The spaces between drove upon drove of gifts from Israel to Esav.  In 1967, the first drove that met Esav was the removal of the Magen Dawid from the Temple Mount.  In the 1990s we had multiple droves that met Esav, and still the droves arrive at Esav’s feet under the negotiating table of “peace.”) ¹⁷ And he commanded the foremost, saying, When Esav my brother meets you and asks you saying, Whose are you?  And where are you going?  And whose are these before you?  ¹⁸ Then you shall say, they are your eved Yaakov’s; it is a present sent to my master Esav; and see, also Yaakov is behind us.  ¹⁹ And so in like manner he commanded the second, and the third, and all that followed the droves, saying, In this manner shall you speak to Esav when you find him.  ²⁰ And say also, See, your eved Yaakov is behind us.  For he said, I will appease him with the present that goes before me, and after that I will see his face; I suppose he will then accept me. (The Israeli problem:  wanting to be accepted.) ²¹ So the present went before him, and he himself lodged that night in the company.

Wrestling with Elohim

We are the people who wrestle with Elohim and man and survived.

²² And he rose up that night and took his two wives, and his two female avadim, and his eleven sons, (where’s Dinah?) and passed over the ford Yavok. (Overcoming a hazard – “Crossing the Rubicon” – crossing a watershed in our lives.) ²³ And he took them, and sent them over the brook, and sent over what he had.  ²⁴ And Yaakov was left alone; and there wrestled a Man (Metatron/Guardian of Yisrael) with Yaakov until the breaking of the day. (Yaakov wrestled with Esav in the darkness of his mother’s womb) ²⁵ And when the Man saw that He prevailed not against him, the Man touched the hollow of Yaakov’s thigh; and the hollow of Yaakov’s thigh was out of joint as the Man wrestled with Yaakov.  ²⁶ And the Man said, let me go, for the day breaks.  And Yaakov said, I will not let you go except you bless me. (When the descendants of Yaakov – two divided houses – begin returning to the land, it will be the dawning of the day/daybreak – wrestling with Yahushua.) ²⁷ And the Man said to Yaakov, What is your name?  And he answered, Yaakov.  ²⁸ And the Man said, your name shall no longer be called Yaakov but Y’Israel:  for as a sar you have power with Elohim and with men and have prevailed.  ²⁹ And Yaakov asked Him, and said, Please tell me Your Name.  And He said, Why is it that you do ask about My Name?  And He blessed him there.  ³⁰ And Yaakov called the name of the place Peni-El:  For I have seen Elohim panayim-el-panayim, and still my chayim has been preserved.  ³¹ And as he passed over Peni-El the sun rose upon him, and he limped on his hip.  ³² Therefore the children of Y’Israel eat not of the sinew which shrank, that is upon the socket of the thigh, to this day because He touched the socket of Yaakov’s thigh in the sinew of the hip. (His walk is changed as Israel.  The order of our steps are Torah – then we can trample on our enemies head; division of the two houses; and then the wrestling begins.  After-encountering YHWH, one house is made as the Ruach birth’s Israel.)

Yaakov and Esav

Beresheeth/Genesis 33:1: And Yaakov lifted up his eyes, and looked, and see, Esav came, and with him four hundred men. (We have to resolve the Esav-problem before we can all come back to the land.) And he divided the children to Leah, and to Rachel, and to the two handmaids.  ² And he put the handmaids and their children in the front, and Leah and her children after them, and Rachel and Yoseph in the back.  ³ And he passed over before them, and bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother.  ⁴ And Esav ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him (jots of Moshe and embrace of Arafat; Hebrew wordplay our text Nashak/kiss and another Hebrew word Nashach/Bite; Midrash Beresheeth Raba 78:9) and they wept. (Tears of Esav) ⁵ And Esav lifted up his eyes, and saw the women and the children, and said, who are those with you?  And Yaakov said, The children that Elohim has, by His unmerited favor, given to your eved.  ⁶ Then the handmaidens came near, they and their children, and they bowed themselves.  ⁷ And Leah also with her children came near and bowed themselves; and after came Yoseph near with Rachel and they bowed themselves. (Obama and bowing) ⁸ And he said, what do you mean by all this company that I met?  And Yaakov said, these are to find favor in the sight of my master … (Esav is quick to anger and quick to forget – the Arabs are as well.)

^V17 And Yaakov journeyed to Sukkot, and built himself a bayit, and made booths for his cattle; therefore, the name of the place is called Sukkot.

Modeling Jacob’s trouble … today this is a large tell – Deir ‘Allah, situated in Jordan.  Hint:  The children of Yaakov, the servants of YHWH, are going to have to form a company away from the children of Esav, the servants of Allah at Succoth – or flee if you’re in Yahrushalayim to Petra in Jordan.

Tehillim /Psalms 60:6: Elohim has spoken in His set-apartness, I will gilah, I will divide Shechem, and measure (measured for His people) out the Valley of Sukkot (opposite sides of the Jordan).  ⁷ Gilad is Mine, and Menashsheh is Mine; Efrayim also is the strength/helmet of my head (Efrayim holds the helmet of salvation), Yahudah is My Lawgiver (Judah guards the Torah); ⁸ Moav is my wash pot; (Jordan will serve Israel) over Edom will I cast out my shoe:(Jordan will come under the foot/shoe of Israel) Philistia, scream out because of Me (Gaza will scream). ⁹ Who will bring me into the strong city?  Who will lead me into Edom?  (YHWH’s army to Jordan/Petra) ¹⁰ Will not You, O Elohim, who had cast us off?  And You; O Elohim, who did not go out with our armies?  ¹¹ Give us help from trouble (Yaakov’s trouble): for vain is the help of man.  (Live by the sword – die by the sword.) ¹² Through Elohim we shall do valiantly:  for He it is that shall trample down our enemies (Esav).

The Dinah Incident

The traditional interpretation is one of rape, deception, and cruelty.

Beresheeth 34:1: And Dinah, the daughter of Leah whom she bore to Yaakov, went out to see the daughters of the land.  ² And when Shechem the son of Chamor the Hivite, sar of the country, saw her, he took (lacaeh:  to seize, snatch, carry off, captive or take vengeance) her, and lay (shakab) with her, and defiled her.  ³ And his being did cleave to Dinah the daughter of Yaakov, and he loved the young girl, and spoke kindly to the young girl. (Seven or eight years old at this time.  This is a despicable trait common to the seed of the serpent.  Mohammed, the founder of Islam, picked up on this trait.  He married Aisha when he was fifty-four years old and she was six years old, and he consummated the marriage when she was nine years old.  Sahih Bukhari Volume 7, Book 62) ⁴ And Shechem spoke to his abba Chamor, saying, Get me this young girl to be my wife.  ⁵ And Yaakov heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter.  Now his sons were with his cattle in the field, and Yaakov held his silence until they had come.  ⁶ And Chamor the abba of Shechem went out to Yaakov to commune with him.  ⁷ And the sons of Yaakov came out of the field when they heard it; and the men were grieved, and they were very angry, because he had wrought folly in Yisrael in lying with Yaakov’s daughter; which thing should not to be done.  ⁸ And Chamor communed with them, saying, the being of my son Shechem longs for your daughter:  Please give her to him to be his wife.  ⁹ And make many marriages with us, and give your daughters to us, and take our daughters to you.  ¹⁰ And you shall dwell with us, and the land shall be before you; dwell and trade in it, and get possessions in it.  ¹¹ And Shechem said to her abba and to her brothers, Let me find favor in your eyes, and what you shall say to me I will give.  ¹² Ask me much dowry and gift, and I will give it according as you shall tell me; but give me the young girl to be my wife.  ¹³ And the sons of Yaakov answered Shechem and Chamor his abba deceitfully (mirmah), because he had defiled (tamei) Dinah their sister:  ¹⁴ And they said to them, We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one that has not performed brit-milah; for that would be a reproach to us.  ¹⁵ But in this request we will consent to you:  If you will be as we are, that every male of yours performs brit-milah, ¹⁶ then will we give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters to us, and we will dwell with you, and we will become one people.  ¹⁷ But if you will not listen to us, to perform brit-milah; then will we take our daughter and we will be gone.  ¹⁸ And their words pleased Chamor, and Shechem, Chamor’s son.  ¹⁹ And the young man did not hesitate to perform brit-milah, because he delighted in Yaakov’s daughter; and he was more honorable than all in the bayit of his abba.  ²⁰ And Chamor and Shechem his son came to the gate of his city and communed with the men of their city, saying, ²¹ These men are in shalom with us; therefore, let them dwell in the land, and trade in it; for look at the land:  it is large enough for them also.  Let us take their daughters to us for our wives, and let us give them our daughters.  ²² Only in this manner will the men consent to dwell with us, to be one people:  if every male among us performs brit-milah, as they are in brit-milah. ²³ Shall not their cattle and their substance and every beast of theirs become ours?  Only let us consent to them and they will dwell with us.  ²⁴ And to Chamor and to Shechem his son listened all that went out of the gate of his city; and every male performed brit-milah including all that went out of the gates of his city.  ²⁵ And it came to pass on the third day (most painful day/swelling), when the men were still sore, that two of the sons of Yaakov – Shimeon and Lewi, Dinah’s brothers – took each man his sword, and came upon the city boldly, and killed all the males. (Beresheet 37:19:  “Let’s kill him” – yet Reuven returns to the pit.) ²⁶ And they killed Chamor and Shechem his son with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem’s bayit, and went out. (The part of the body that was used to violate Dinah now becomes the source of his own punishment.) ²⁷ The sons of Yaakov came upon the slain, and plundered the city, because they had defiled their sister.  ²⁸ They took their sheep, and their oxen, and their donkeys, and that which was in the city, and that which was in the field,  ²⁹ and all their wealth, and all their little ones and their wives they took captive, and plundered even all that was in the bayit.  ³⁰ And Yaakov said to Shimeon and Lewi, You have troubled me to make me to stink among the inhabitants of the land, among the Kanaanites and the Perizzites; and I being few in number, they shall gather themselves together against me, and kill me; and I shall be destroyed, I and also kol Beit Yisrael.  ³¹ And they said to Yaakov, Should he deal with our sister as with a harlot?

Turn in your KJV [with Apocrypha] to the book of Judith 9:2:

YHWH, Elohim of my father Simeon!  You put a sword into his hand to take revenge upon the foreigners who had immodestly loosened the maiden’s girdle, shamefully exposed her thighs, disgracefully violated her body, and polluted her womb.  This they did, though you said, “It shall not be done.” (Devarim 22:28 – Shechem would have had to marry her if he had committed the crime of taking a virgin; he then would have been prohibited from ever divorcing her, and Yaakov should have been compensated.  The offense did, however, bring guilt upon the whole community … but more happened!)  Therefore you had their rulers slaughtered and you covered with their blood the bed in which they lay deceived (they lay confined in the bed of circumcision) – the same bed that had felt the shame of their own deceiving.  You smote the slaves together with their princes, and the princes together with their servants.  Their wives you handed over to plunder, and their daughters to captivity; and all the spoils you divided among your favored sons, who burned with zeal for you, and in their abhorrence of the defilement of their kinswoman, called on you for help. Oh YHWH, my YHWH, Shema (hear) me also, a widow.  It’s you who were the author of those events and of what preceded and followed them.  The present also, and the future you have planned … Make my deceitful words bring wound and bruise on those who have planned cruel things against your brit (covenant).

The author of Judith apparently feels no moral inconsistency in having her pray for divine help in practicing deceit.  Reflecting back on our Torah parsha, she sees that YHWH was with Simeon and Levi even though they practiced deceit when slaying the men of the city).

Sefer HaYashar (The Book Of Jasher), Chapters 32‑34, record that Shechem kidnapped Dinah and violated her.  Yashar describes how Shechem and his men had broken several of the seven Noachide laws given to all mankind:  kidnapping, robbery, rape, bloodshed.

Yahshar records that men from the city had changed their minds and intended to kill Dinah, and after they were healed from brit milah they were going to slay the sons of Yaakov.

Yet, Simeon and Lewi, when hearing of the plan to slay them, swore  a “neder” (vow) to YHWH, that not a remnant would be left alive in the whole city.

Shechem had to be killed:  The torot of violence – Shemot/Exodus 21:16).

The whole city had to be slaughtered:  The torot of the neder (don’t swear falsely – don’t make a rash oath and fulfill your neder to YHWH).

Conclusion:  We are at the dawning of the day … Ephrayim is wrestling with YHWH’s Torah, and Yahudah is wrestling with Yahushua.  Both Houses are about to embark upon the greatest wrestling match with the descendants of Esav over East Jerusalem and this nation’s heritage.

Like Yaakov we need to be:

• Gathering intelligence gathering
• Using defensive measures
• Praying
• Exercising the gifts of Ruach HaKodesh

Beware of the “Kiss of Esav” – slippery tongues and peace treaties.  Understand, like Simeon and Levi, that the defense of the camp from those that are just seeking your blessings may be required of you … do you have the stomach for it?

Finally, don’t be like – as you are about to see – the Galatians nor Obama, bowing down to those who would like to enslave you in their social-economic-religious systems.  Be free to serve YHWH anywhere, upholding the Torah and the Testimony.  If you do these things, you will have done exceedingly well!

 

Galutyah (Galatians)

• Melachim Bet/2^nd Kings 15:29: Naphtali first to be taken captive from the Galilee
• Melachim Bet 17:5 – Ten-Israel scattered
• Yaakov/James 1:1: To the twelve tribes, which are scattered abroad … (written around 50 CE)
• Mattityahu/Matthew 15:24: I was not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
• Luka/Luke 19:10: For the Ben Adahm has come to seek and to redeem that which is lost.

“Apocrypha” comes to us from a Greek word that means  “hidden” or “secret.”  The Apocrypha was included in the original 1611 King James Bible.  It wasn’t until 1885 that the Archbishop of Canterbury decided to throw out 14 books of the King James Bible.  In 1880 the American Bible Society followed suit and removed 14 books from their bibles.

1 Maccabbees 12 records that those scattered in Sparta – or in the “galut” (dispersion) – were the Jews’ brothers – the descendants of Avraham.  During the Corinthian war of 395 BCE, Sparta warred against four allied states:  Thebes, Athens, Corinth, and Argos.  In 18 BCE, the Romans took slaves in the Galatian war.  As a result, those in Galatia and Sparta were the Jews’ exiled tribal brothers – assimilated by the cultures in which they were captive.  It was the tribe of Dan, the Danoi, who fought in the Trojan War and were among the original founders of the Greek States – the Greeks of the Brit Chadasha.

A highly learned Pharisee and ultra-orthodox Jew, Rav Sholiach Shaul wrote Sefer Galutyah.  Galutyah means “The dispersed/exiled of Yah.”  Galutyah was written prior to Maaseh Schlichim 21.  (Nazarite Vow, four essential commandments.  Remember 21:25, “… that they should observe no such thing (law) except … ” This is not in the oldest texts – inserted by the translators.)   Two facts:

1. Masseh Shlichim 21:20, establishes hermeneutical principle.
2. Hermeneutical principle is established by context.

Context:  A Pharisaic conflict, with Ephrayim-Israel in exile.  The Oral Law verses the Written Law.  Whose authority to follow:  YHWH’s or men’s?  What is “written” = “Torah” and what is NOT written = “Oral Pharisaic law.”  (Greek Nomos = any law)  Judaizers went out after Maaseh Schlichim 15, teaching that circumcision was required for covenant entry into Yisrael and that the goyim (Ephrayim) could not have table fellowship with the Jew unless they were brit-milah (circumcised) and kept the whole Torah.  Rav Sholiach Shaul’s purpose for writing to the “Galutyah” was to persuade them not to put themselves under the heavy yoke of Pharisaic law, thereby being subjected to rabbinic requirements which adulterated the besorah (gospel).

Galutyah 1:1: Shaul, a sholiach, (Sholiach/Sent one = Yeshayahu, Yechezkel, Eliyahu, Yirmeyahu, and Moshe Rabainu) not of men, neither by man, but by Yahushua haMoshiach, and Abba YHWH, who raised Him From the dead; (YHWH’s power and authority surpasses that of any human claimant) ² And all the Yisraelite brothers who are with me, to the Y’Israelite kehilat/congregations of Galutyah: (kehilah:  a feminine term used to describe a bride beautifully dressed in the words of the WRITTEN commandments) ³ Unmerited favor to you and shalom from Abba YHWH and from our Master Yahushua Ha’Moshiach,  ⁴ Who gave Himself (nephesh/soul for Israel) for our sins, that He might deliver us from the evil olam hazeh, according to the will of YHWH our Abba:  ⁵ To Whom be tifereth le-olam-va-ed.  Ahmayn.  ⁶ I am shocked (Aramaic:  stunned into dead silence) that you are so soon removed from Him that called you to the unmerited favor of Moshiach to another version of the Besorah: (Besar/Gospel: Yeshayahu 61:1, Yirmeyahu 31:31 – good news to Israel; a way of returning to the covenants) ⁷ Which is not another; but there are some that trouble you, (Judaizers) and do pervert the Besorah of Moshiach. (Equal heirs in the return to Israel.  “I did not come but to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.”  “When will you return the Kingdom to Israel.”) ⁸ But though we, or a malach from the shamayim, proclaim any other Besorah to you than that which we have proclaimed to you, let him be accursed. (Ref: Devarim 13, clearly here)

Rav Sholiach Shaul’s letter teaches the exiles to return to the Torah way of life, keep the commandments as they apply – gradually – if they want to partake of the inheritance that was given to both Houses of Israel.