Parashat Vayechi 5765/2004
EJD
The weekly reading for the week of 13 Tevet, 5764 - December 25, 2004 Parashah: Vayechi Genesis 47:28 to 50:26; Haftarah: 1 Kings 2:1-12; Mei Kituvim: 1 Chronicles 5:1-26; Brit Chadashah: Luke 24:36-53
The Bagel: A reasonable order. In Scripture the order of the birth is important and reasonable. The first born received extra benefits because of the extra responsibilities. This became codified in the Torah as the Law of the First Born, a law regulating an inheritance.1 But the Law of the First Born was not exclusive. There are other reasons for Adonay choosing someone from a lower order in the birth line.
Indeed, Scripture is replete with famous exceptions to the Law of the First Born. It was Isaac, not Ishmael, who was the child of promise. The extreme difference between the Bible and the Koran is over this very matter. For the Koran contra the Chumash (Pentateuch) makes Ishmael the inheritor of the promise based on the Law of the First Born. The selection of Isaac over Ishmael was for good reason in Scripture, his mother was Sarah. Another reason for the selection of Isaac has to do with his life as a type or a model of the Messiah, especially in his meek, submissive role in the Aqedah, the binding, which is reminiscent of the Suffering-Servant figure of Isaiah 53. The readings exhibit various reasons for the selection of someone other than the first born.
Torah:
Genesis 47:28 to 50:26. In Parashat Vayechi, we discover the truth the Reuben, the first born, is not the leading figure in the blessing. His failure to lead in the matter of Joseph's deliverance from the pit in Dothan is just one of the issues. He should have been the Joseph of the family. G-d knew there was something in Reuben that just wouldn't hold up under the stress of temptation and trial as Joseph did. Perhaps, like his namesake, Joseph did gather together all the resources from Adonay that he needed to succeed as he did. But Reuben didn't live up to his name of "See, a son" for his failure to connect with G-d in a substantial way.
Reuben was also superseded by Judah. It was as though Reuben was the third born after Joseph and Judah. Judah was the forth born, while Joseph was the eleventh born in the paternal birth order though the first born of Rachel. The good reason for Joseph's selection is borne out by the Joseph story found the last four Parashiyot of Genesis. He was faithful to G-d through thick and thin. Judah is another story, a substory in the bigger Joseph narrative. He was also the savior of Joseph by proposing a sale into slavery rather than murder. We don't know his motives at the time of the pit, but it turned out in the will of G-d that he functioned in this saving role. Joseph lived to see another day.
That other day brought with it the second reason for Judah's selection. He was willing to be sold into slavery himself so that Benjamin could be rescued from imprisonment and Jacob could be kept from sorrow unto death. Here the motive of genuine repentance was at work. Joseph could no longer refrain from speaking about himself on that day. The greater evil that the day of the pit brought was removed by Judah's proposal and the blessing that the day of Joseph's reconciliation with his brothers brought was reinstated by Judah's second proposal.
It is not so clear, the reason for Ephraim's selection over Manasseh. Later, the Northern Kingdom of Israel was often called "Ephraim" as if to invoke Jacob's blessing of the same upon the fallen, idol-worshipping kingdom to the north. One explanation is that Adonay knew the inner motives of the two boys and realized that the destiny of two (indeed many) nations hinged upon a capable leader rather than by right of inheritance. In this situation, Manasseh would have squandered the inheritance beyond repair. But we simply don't know what is the reason for the change.
Haftarah:
1 Kings 2:1-12. In the Haftarah reading, we have the seventh-born king of promise passing on the succession of the covenantal dynasty. In a sense, David is the second-born king. Saul was the first born of the anointed kings of Israel. But Saul destroyed the inheritance. His faithful son Jonathan was fit spiritually to succeed in the office. But Saul marred the inheritance beyond repair. Jonathan knew this G-d and understood the change from the first-born kingdom of Saul to the second-born kingdom of David.
Another reason in this reading is where David passes on the royal scepter to Solomon, the fourth born of Bathsheba (and tenth in the order of regnal birth), not Amnon, the first born of Ahinoam. Amnon's fall was over his affair with Tamar, his half-sister. His rape of Tamar led to the rage and jealousy of Absalom, which ended in the murder of Amnon. Absalom attempted to take over the kingdom by rebellion. Adonay was not in the selection of Absalom either by birth order or by a righteous life. Solomon was His choice. His namesake is simply "his peace." Absalom's name is "a father's peace." Perhaps, the contrast of outcome between these two men is reflected in their two names. Adonay knew the failures of a father, David, yet in spite of that, there would also be the One who would bring peace or completion of his kingdom. The "Son of David" is a fitting title of the Messiah for this very reason, of which Solomon was a type.
Mei Kituvim:
1 Chronicles 5:1-26. In the reading of the Kituvim, is a cryptic account of the reason for Reuben's loss of his first-place status. He was the first born for sure, but lost the rights, which were deferred to another. It appears from the text that Ephraim replaced Reuben as the first born in respect to the rights. This was shown in the manner of Jacob's blessing, for he placed his right hand on the head of Ephraim and blessed him.
Reuben lost it because of his defilement of Jacob's concubine found in the text of Genesis 35:22: "....Reuben slept with Bilhah, his father's concubine, and someone told Jacob about it" (NLT). Perhaps, it was this weakness that set him up for the next phase of weakness before his brothers at the pit. He found it harder to resist the wrong in others because he was weak himself. Jacob's description of him at his death-bed blessing is apropos: "Unstable as water, you shall not have preeminence, because you went up to your father's bed; then you defiled it- he went up to my couch" (Genesis 49:4 ESV). There was good reason why Adonay selected others rather than the first born. Reuben was unsuitable.
Brit Chadashah:
Luke 24:36-53. When we get to the Brit Chadashah, there's an irony at work for Yeshua is resurrected from the dead. He was the first born of Miriam and His regnal father Joseph. Mary was conceived by the Ruach Ha Kodesh, the Holy Spirit. Thus, Joseph functioned as an adopted father in regards to physical conception, and a regnal father, that is, a father in the line of kings, the line of David specifically, in regards to paternal inheritance. We have an unusual case here. Normally, there is a physical father who determines the paternal inheritance, but because of no physical conception the paternal inheritance becomes valid by marriage to the mother. This child has rights of inheritance by the Law of the First Born.
The irony is that Yeshua is not the first born by another reckoning. This accounting is done by the affect of resurrection. The dead usually lose their property at death. But the resurrection changes all that. No law could hold back a person's original claim on property if the deceased were to come back to life (within a reasonable amount of time). Yeshua could have received the inheritance if He were to remain on earth, but Yeshua ascended into heaven. Without His physical presence, any property moves on to the heirs.
There is a greater reason for Yeshua's ascension and subsequent loss of an earthly inheritance. One day Yeshua will claim what is His by inheritance. There is a greater inheritance in view. He has rights to the earth as His lawful inheritance. He obtained this not because He was the first born of Joseph and Mary, but because He is the Last Adam (also known as the Second Adam). These are titles indicating the original promise to Adam in the Garden: "....let them have dominion....over the earth (Genesis 1:26). Adam was given the earth as his possession. But sin marred the inheritance. The control of earth was forfeit to the Devil through the Fall.
Yeshua, the second born, or last born of two Adams, recovered the inheritance by dying for sin, being buried and rising from the dead on the third day. This was the reason for Scriptural predeliction of the inheritance moving from a fallen, first born like Reuben to a faithful successor in the birth order. Yeshua was second born in the line of sinless humans, Adam, before the Fall, being the first born. It is with good reason that Adonay established a venerable tradition in Biblical history where the first born is superseded by someone other than the first due to some meritorious action on their part. This tendency of Scripture forms a model of the Messiah. It is the perfect righteousness of Yeshua that has and will, in the Day of Redemption, recover all that was lost in Adam.
Cream Cheese: The first shall last and the last shall be first.
1 Law of the First Born or Right of the First Born is taken from Deuteronomy 21:15-17, where Mishpat Ha B'corah is Hebrew phrase used.
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