parashah 8- vayislach (he sent)

8/20/2019 Parashah 8- Vayislach (He Sent)

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/parashah-8-vayislach-he-sent 1/9

"

Parashah 8: Vayislach (He sent)

Parashah 8: Vayislach (He sent) - Genesis 32:4 - 36:43.

Haftarah (Writings and Prophets): Hosea 11:7 through 12:12.

B'rit Hadasha (New Testament): 1 Corinthians 5:1-13; Revelation

7:1-12.

Summary & Overview

TORAH

o Genesis 32:3 | Jacob Sends Presents to Appease Esau

o Genesis 32:22 | Jacob Wrestles at Peniel

o Genesis 33:1 | Jacob and Esau Meet

o Genesis 33:18 | Jacob Reaches Shechemo Genesis 34:1 | The Rape of Dinah

o Genesis 34:25 | Dinah's Brothers Avenge Their Sister

o Genesis 35:1 | Jacob Returns to Bethel

o Genesis 35:16 | The Birth of Benjamin and the Death of Rachel

o Genesis 35:27 | The Death of Isaac

o Genesis 36:1 | Esau's Descendants

o Genesis 36:15 | Clans and Kings of Edom

Last week we looked at Jacob’s life after leaving his home and family where he

married Laban’s two daughters Leah and Rachael. He worked a total of 20years for Laban to earn his wives and livestock and fled to move away formLaban’s control. After Laban caught up they made peace and made a covenantbefore parting their ways.

As the Parashah opens, Jacob is once again on the move. This time he isreturning home, to the Land of his father Isaac. Before he can return he has toface his “Character”, the Consequences of his deeds and his brother Esau inorder to enter his homeland again.

Reconciling with Esau

The next chapter in Jacob’s life started where he sent out messengers to Seir tohis brother Esau in order to seek reconciliation after 20 years. As discussedpreviously, the number 2, 20, 200 etc. means “Restoration of Relationships” andthis links perfectly with Jacob’s decision to face Esau.

Jacob sends messengers ahead of him to meet with Esau. The messengerscame back and reported that Esau and 400 men are coming toward him to meetJacob. Is this good news or bad news? You can think what is going on inJacob’s mind and thought that Esau is going to kill him as promised.



#

Hebrew Study Tip

Every Hebrew Letter also represents a number that has a meaning in itself. When you see numbers in Scripture they can represent letters ontheir own or words, linking the number to letters or words.

There is a deeper meaning to this scene of Esau meeting Jacob. The number of

people coming down to meet Jacob is 401, that is 1 + 400 where the Aleph ‚ is

represented by the 1 and the letter Tav œ is represented by the number 400.

Adding these two gives you the Aleph – Tavœ‚ that is another indicating the

Name for the Messiah as stated in Revelation 22.

Q – What does this mean?

On the Physical level Jacob is encountering Esau but on a Spiritual level his realencounter is with the Aleph-Tav or the Messiah.

Personal Application: There is no situation in life that we wrestle with thatis not YHVH in disguise. Isa 45 states that YHVH hides himself. He alsoreveals Himself in ways we do not always understand or expect. There aretwo aspects to this; every difficult situation you face is YHVH drawingcloser to you, revealing your “impurities”, in Jacob’s case, it was fear. Theother aspect of facing difficulties is that He is with you in the situation andhas provided the outcome that normally involves you being changed.

Wrestling with YHVH

Jacob was wrestling with a Man.

Q - Was it an Angel, was it Y’shua was it YHVH?

When you receive a gift, are you fixated with thepackaging, what it looks like and what it is madeoff or are you interested to unfold the gift that iswrapped within the packaging?

Q - What is more important, the Messenger or the message?

Looking at the Messenger and not the message is the same as you giving a dogfood on the floor and point to the food but the dog keeps on sniffing your finger.The more you point the more interested the dog gets in your finger, onlyfocussing on the “messenger”, missing the message and the food.

Q – Who is more important, Angels or the Word?Q – Who is more important, the Word or the Father?

Q – What is more important, an experience with His Spirit or the Father?Q – Who is more important, Y’shua or the Father?



$

We tend to be obsessed with the “supernatural aspect” of Angels and having “anexperience” and we keep on seeking the Angels or the “experience” missing theFather. Some people are so obsessed with an “experience” or miracles that areall good things that comes from YHVH, but they miss Him at the end focussingon His “hand”, what they can get from Him instead of finding Him.

Then you get the other extreme where people worship the Word and never builda relationship with the Father, Whom the Word actually points to. All of theseexamples explain what Religion looks like where people seek and love the“process” or “message” or “experience” or “fellowship with one another” morethan they love or seek the Father. Remember He is our exceedingly GreatReward. Don’t be like a stupid dog sniffing His finger and miss the One Who’sfinger it is.

Back to the “Man” Jacob wrestled with. Some believe it was an Angel and somebelieve it was Y’shua. I believe it was the latter because YHVH expresses

Himself in the Physical though Y’shua His “Right Hand” as well as the fact thatthe 401 men pointed to the Messiah that he would face. The “gift” that hereceived was the promised of the Covenant made to Abraham that he will getYHVH, the Father, Who is his exceedingly great reward.

Facing Esau and having the wrestling match with the supernatural gave Jacobdirection, changing his name and his character. After the encounter with themystery Man, Jacob was touched on the thigh and made him walk with a limpfrom there on. This physical change in his walk represents YHVH changing his“halechah” of his walk, the way he approach life and conduct himself withindifferent situations. Every real encounter with YHVH will change you.

Q - If you have not changed after you had “an encounter”, was the encounterreally with Him?

Jacob Divided His Household

Gen 32:6-8 Then the messengers returnedto Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother

Esau, and he also is coming to meet you,and four hundred men are with him.” 7 So

Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed;and he divided the people that were withhim, and the flocks and herds and camels,into two companies. 8 And he said, “If Esaucomes to the one company and attacks it,then the other company which is left willescape.”

Gen 33:2 So he divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and the twomaidservants. 2 And he put the maidservants and their children in front,

Leah and her children behind, and Rachel and Joseph last.

We see Jacob’s character once again as the schemer, taking things in his ownhands, dividing his people into two groups.



%

We see the motive of his actions is driven by fear and not faith. If he had faith hewould not have acted this way and divide his people in order to protect themform his perception of what is coming.

Personal Application: We sometimes create an enemy that is larger thanthe real one and sometimes mistake “YHVH in disguise” with the enemy.David called it a “shadow of death” that means that it is not real, it is onlyan outline of an “image” of death and in this case, Esau that is definitelygoing to kill him. Fear will make everything bigger that it really is but at theend you will see that you have overreacted and that the “issue” or “enemy”was just an outline of the shadow your own fear created.

Jacob sends one camp, Leah and her children before the other, Rachael andJoseph, showing to Leah and her camp their importance. What went throughtheir minds and what did they think of Jacob’s actions? He might have beenportrayed as a poor leader with no faith, a loveless husband and a careless

father. They probably felt like the bait at the end of a fishing line.

Personal Application: It is never a good thing to divide the peoplebecause it is a symbol of disunity. People’s lack of faith can cause disunityespecially if it exists within leadership. In this example we find wisdom forspiritual leaders; whenever the enemy comes to attack the Congregation,do not fear or make plans to minimise the casualties, rather equip thesaints to enable them to defend themselves against the enemy and tostand in faith, trusting that their maturity will overcome whatever is comingtheir way. Leaders like to make people dependant of themselves, just likewe see here with Jacob, and when the enemy comes, there is no one to

stand with the leader and he has to make a plan to preserve his people.The Word is the sword that YHVH gave us to overcome Satan in our midst,teach people to use it and the unity will be sustained.

Jacob’s Gifts to Esau

Gen 32: 13-15 So he lodged there that same night, and took what cameto his hand as a present for Esau his brother: 14 two hundred female goatsand twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 15 thirty milkcamels with their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeysand ten foals.

Jacob’s gift consists of:

• 200 female goats

• 20 male goats

• 200 ewes

• 20 rams

• 30 milk camels

• 40 cows

• 10 bulls

• 20 female donkeys• 10 foals



&

Each number represents something different and combining all the meanings afall the letters will tell us a story that contains YHVH’s wisdom.

We find the number 2 repeating 5 times. Number 2 means “Restoration ofRelationships” and the number 5 means Grace. This is the message Jacob wassending to Esau giving him these gifts, that he might find favour in the eyes ofhis brother and be gracious to him so that their relationship can be restored.

We also see the number 30 that means Covenant and this is similar to whenLaban followed after Jacob they ended up making a covenant to appease thesituation. The relationship was broken over a Covenant dispute and needs to berestored for the sake of the Covenant.

The number 40 means, “Work of the Messiah” and this confirms what we havealready discussed where the situation Jacob faced was the Messiah in disguiseand the outcome of facing Him was a changed man.

The number 10 occurs twice and the number 1, 10 means unity or Echad aswell as Completion. This is in relation to the Covenant YHVH made with Jacobwhere the relationship between YHVH and Jacob needs to be “restored” orstrengthened so that they can become one or Echad so that YHVH can becomeJacob’s exceedingly Great Reward as promised.

Jacob “Crossed Over”

Gen 32:22 And he arose that night and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven sons, and crossed over the ford of Jabbok

Then Jacob and his family crossed over the Jabbok. The concept of “crossingover” have come up and is the same a s the Hebrew word “ibree” that istranslated as Hebrew. Abraham “crossed over” and became the first Hebrew.

Q – What does it mean to “cross over”?

To cross over means to leave everything behind and follow YHVH will all youhave. We are all familiar with the term “to be born again”, to cross over fromdarkness into the light and “to cross over” mans just that. This is where Jacobreally made a personal decision to follow YHVH will everything he got, whichincluded his family.

The word Jabbok means, “to empty out” and that is exactly what Jacob did andthat is also what happens we you make that personal decision to follow YHVHgiving your life to Him. When you ask Jacob when he was “saved” he will

probably say that it happened that night at the river Jabbok, when he emptiedmyself out before YHVH and “crossed over” to become a true Hebrew just likehis Grandfather Abraham.



'

Q – Can a Jew be saved without accepting Y’shua?

The “Crossing over” of Abraham and Jacob is an interesting concept of“Salvation” of people pre-Y’shua.

Q - Did Jacob encounter Y’shua and accepted Him as his Lord and Saviour?

Yes, Y’shua came to him in the form of Esau and 400 mean that caused him tomake a real commitment to follow YHVH and that night of the encounter whereYHVH changed his name, his character and he became a “new creation”.

Q - What did Y’shua or Jesus “look like” when you accepted Him as yourSaviour?

You were probably in a desperate state or faced situations that you could notbear any more. Then you cried out to God and asked Him to take over your lifeso that He can make things better through “saving you”. This is what Jacob did,the only thing that sounds different is the Name of the Saviour. We know Him asJesus or Y’shua and Jacob know Him as “YHVH saves” because of HisCovenant. Y’shua means “YHVH Saves” and as the example with the doglooking at the hand pointing to the Father, we tend to only focus on Y’shua andforget that it the Father that saves.

Jacob’s Wrestling

Gen 32:24-28 Then Jacob was left alone; anda Man wrestled with him until the breaking ofday. 25 Now when He saw that He did not

prevail against him, He touched the socket of his

hip; and the socket of Jacob’s hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him. 26 And He said,“Let Me go, for the day breaks.” But he said, “Iwill not let You go unless You bless me!” 27 So Hesaid to him, “What is your name?” He said,“Jacob.” 28 And He said, “Your name shall no

longer be called Jacob, but Israel; [ b ] for you have struggled with Elohimand with men, and have prevailed.”

Q – Why did Jacob wrestle with this man?

Jacob feared for his life and was terrified and know Esau and 400 men are

coming for him fuelled with vengeance. It was dark and then someone jumpshim and his first reaction was to defend himself thinking it was Esau that cameto kill him. They wrestled that implies that Jacob wanted to gain control over hisattacker to stop him from killing him. Jacob thought Esau wanted to kill him buthe did not what to kill Esau, he just wanted to stop him. This wrestling matchwas to gain control over the over person and this went on all night long.

Personal Application: No matter what situation you are wrestling with inyour life, it is not what you think or expect. As we have seen earlier thatEsau and his 400 men revealed “Messiah in disguise” and eventually ithappened where Jacob wrestled with Messiah physically (I believe). The

problem you go through is “Y’shua in disguise” and you would like to gain power over the problem but the Problem (Y’shua) wants to gain power overyou so that He can change you.



(

Q – When did this wrestling match end?

The wrestling match continued during the night until the light came on.Light is another word for Truth or Revelation and YHVH will reveal to youwhat it is He wants you learn within that situation you are wrestling with.

Once you receive the revelation, the wrestling will stop. So, when you facedifficult times or wrestle with something, ask YHVH what you need to learnform this and ask Him what you need to change in your life so that the“pain can stop” or the situation can be resolved sooner.

Q – Why did the Man want to leave when the light came?

Isaiah tells us that YHVH hides Himself and the lightwould reveal Him and “blow His cover”. Realising thiswe see that this was not about fighting an opponent towin, it was more like interacting with a “sparing partner”

that you need to train yourself and the wrestling matchsuddenly became one sided where Jacob wrestled inorder to overcome himself and his weaknesses. This iswhy YHVH uses real situations to train us up so that we

will be able to live life, walking in His Promises successfully.

All the fights you have, all the situations you face are actually fights againstyourself, that “inner man” called Esau (or Nefesh) and the heart (Nashama) sothat you can overcome them and become more like Him.

Q – Why did the Man touch Jacob’s hip?

Was this man playing dirty, injuring Jacob because He couldnot overpower Jacob? In a sense yes, our wills are so strongthat YHVH cannot change it unless He weakens us in someway so that we can become humble and accept what He isoffering. The dislocated hip had a permanent effect on Jacobthat changed the way he walked or his “walk” or “halechah”.The way you walk from a Hebrew perspective means that wayyou conduct yourself and do everything. It includes everythingyou think and say, the way you act and react. YHVH touchedJacob and changed his “walk” (halechah) or character and he became a “newman” or “new self” as Paul describes in Ephesians.

Eph 4:22-24 that, in reference to your former manner of life, you layaside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts ofdeceit, 23 and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and put onthe new self, which in the likeness of Elohim has been created inrighteousness and holiness of the truth.

You are being created into the likeness of YHVH, being exposed to situationswherein YHVH hides Himself so that you can “wrestle with Him” and that He can

change you into a “new man”, laying off the old and walk in the newness of lifewith a new changed character.



)

The wrestling match concluded with Jacob’s name being changed from Jacob toIsrael and YHVH blessing him. Your name is your character and your destinyand Jacob’s character changed form that day on (being born again, I believe)and his destiny changed from being a schemer to becoming the father of theNation that is YHVH’s people, Israel.

The Kiss of Esau

After the encounter with YHVH, Jacob saw Esauand his men, and divided his camp into twogroups where Leah and her maidservants andchildren were placed before Rachael and hermaidservants and Joseph last. When Jacob andEsau met , Esau ran to meet him and kissed himand they wept.

Hebrew Study Tip

Jots and Tittles are referred to in Matthew 5:17 where Y’shua said thatnot one “jod or tittle” of the Torah will pass away until all is fulfilled. WhenY’shua made reference to the jots and tittles, Torah teachers of His dayknew what they were, but were confused as to what they meant. Today,Christians and Christian teachers have no idea what Y’shua is referringto. A jod is referred to as the smallest letter in the Aleph-Bet but alsomeans “dots” placed above letters or words. (see example below). Tittlesare either enlarged letters or letters that are written smaller than otherletters in order to draw the attention of the reader or to emphasize orconnect two thoughts or words. Smaller letters normally change themeaning of the letter to the opposite meaning where larger letters canemphasize its meaning.

Gen 33:4 Then Esau ran to meet him and embraced him, and fell on hisneck and kissed him, and they wept.

Interestingly we see Esau and Jacob embracing where Esau, who wanted

Jacob dead, kissing him compared to the previous section where Jacobwrestled with YHVH, Who promised to bless him, fighting with him. What isgoing on, things are different than they appear. Lets find out, the meaning ishidden within the Hebrew text.

The Jots (small dots above each letter) are placed above the word translated as“kissed”. Many sages say that the kiss of Esau was not genuine but rather a biteto the neck with the jots indicating teeth marks.

Q – What do these teeth marks represent?



*

A bite that is hidden in a kiss can send confused messages to the receiver ofthat kiss. Esau swore to kill Jacob but here he leaves slight teeth marks in theneck of Jacob that look to the others like a kiss, but Jacob knew it was not overyet. This is a prophetic sign hidden in Scripture that point to future events wherethe descendants of Esau will become enemies of Jacob and his descendants,who will still try to kill them. This teeth mark is the sign of that “promise to kill”and is even evident until this day.

This is not the only place in Scripture where these “jots” are found; there areother places in Scripture that also has these “jots” that actually links thesepassages together. The jots of Moses come in four places in Scripture and aresequenced as follows:

• Esau’s kiss – Gen 33:4

• Jacob’s flock (Starting the story of Joseph and Messiah’s redemption) –Gen 37:12

• Aaron’s counting of the Levites – Num 3:39

•

In the passage in Deut 29:29 “The secret things belong to YHVH ourElohim, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, thatwe may observe all the words of this Torah.

These passages are connected and tell a prophetic future story form where thehostility started with the Kiss of Esau, the hostility regarding the Birthright andthe Covenant. Then it emphasizes the starting of the events regarding Joseph’slife that will dramatically change when his brothers sold him as a slave. This is abeautiful prophetic picture of Messiah and the jots in this passage are actually

above an “Aleph-Tav” œ‚ that points to the Messiah. These Jots signals the

start of the redemption process as depicted in Joseph’s life story. Next is the

counting of the Levites that indicated the receiving of the Torah and thefacilitating of YHVH’s Word through the Levites to the people of Israel,preserving the “Birthright” and “Covenant Message” to the Nation and theirgenerations to come. Lastly, it is bout the “secret things” and the “revealedthings”. The Word of YHVH is the “revealed things” that goes hand in hand withobserving His Torah, following His Direction till you reach the Promised Land(Kingdom). The “hidden things” are the things that belongs to YHVH, things onlyHe knows that will be revealed as the timeline unfolds into the future, extendingtowards the Coming of Messiah. Within His timing He will reveal these secrets toHis people in order to guide them until His Coming.

Prophetic Picture of Jacob’s Life

All of us, before entering the Land or the Kingdom, have to face who we are andstand in judgement before our selves. The cleansing must take place and youhave to face the “evil you” to confront him/her in order to be changed so that youcan enter the Land YHVH promised.

The whole story of Jacob returning is about YHVH’s people returning (teshuvah)or repenting before Him before they can enter His Kingdom. We all have tocross the river, wrestle with YHVH so that He can change our names /

Characters. Part of this is to face Esau, our flesh and fears, all we have done inprior to our return. Everything we will look at in this study is about confrontingourselves, facing YHVH, facing our enemies and prepare to enter the Kingdom.

parashah 8- vayislach (he sent)

Documents