Torah Trails
Rabbi Yehudah “Tochukwu” ben Shomeyr
Kristopher Shoemaker
#9 Vayeshev
Gen. 37:1-40:23
Amos 2:6-3:8
Acts 7:9-16
Memory
Verses: Gen. 39:1, Amos 3:8, Matt. 1:24-25
Gen. 38
Human Jaded
bias. Judgmental-ness. Having a critical spirit and jumping to conclusions.
Human discernment and intuition; FLAWED! FLAWED! FLAWED! Relying on these will inevitably
at some point end in embarrassing failure.
Just like
science, ever-changing due to new discoveries. What was “true” and |scientific
fact” 50 years ago in many cases is no longer the case today, due to advances
and new discoveries in various fields. Just think how much is still wrong with
science today but won’t be deemed as so until 20 years down the road. When new
discoveries surface or new equipment built detects what was previously
undetectable or unprovable.
I know
personally of a business establishment that pretty much has a revolving door.
Their employee turn-over rate is ridiculously high! The owner is so taken by
the managing supervisor that she does not see that the supervising manager is
the problem, not the employees she ends up firing.
In the same
way, Judah couldn’t see his sons were the problem, not Tamar. She was no black
widow! His sons were simply black souls! And so Tamar was treated and judged
unfairly and had to resort to a ruse in order to wake Judah up to the fact
there was a major problem in the family.
No one likes
to be wrong and so our fallen nature always looks for a scapegoat and alibi.
From Eve’s, “The devil made me do it!” To Adam’s, “It’s this woman who You gave
to me God, it’s all her fault!” To today, “Oh, my Johnny/Sally would/could
never do that!” Next time, before you go looking for a fall guy, examine
yourself, examine your household to see if the problem doesn’t lie closer to
home.
Amos 3:2
Judah and
Israel’s failure and subsequent captivities and exiles are all Babylon’s fault,
all Assyria’s fault! Right!? Not a chance! We all know due to the Children of
Israel’s sin and breaking of the Covenant (Duet. 27-28) the Dispersion occurred.
No one’s fault but Israel’s. Oh, they tried to blame other peoples and even
their own prophets, but the problem was Israel’s and no one else’s.
Acts 7:9-16
A
tattle-tail, a braggart! Joseph is clearly the problem, that little brat! Let’s
get rid of him! Problem solved! Right!?
WRONG!
We all know
it was Joseph’s brothers who were jealous. Insecure and had the problem. But
despite their efforts to squash the dreamer, years later the brothers actions
came to bite them in the tuchas (butt) and they realized they were the problem
all along.
“Abba YHWH
Elohim, hold our chin and make us face the mirror of Your Word (James 1:22-25)
so that we can see ourselves in all our ugliness and flaws in order that we may
go about and acknowledge and recognize such flaws and therefore be able to go
about and fix them, instead of blaming others for our own faults and failures.
In Yeshua’s Name, Amen!”
