Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, “Look, the people, Israel’s son/seed are more and mightier than we.” (Exo 1:8-9)
Today we will spend most of our time in Yasher and go through only chapter 1 of Exodus. I love Yasher because it fills in many gaps that are missing in Torah. For instance, the new king over Egypt said, “Look, the people, Israel’s seed are more and mightier than we.” Why did he say that? And what caused this fear to rise up in them?
Yasher 59:25 And it came to pass after this that Joseph died in that year, the 71st year of the Israelites going down to Egypt.
And after Joseph’s death, the Pharaoh, who he was a father to, ruled over Egypt for 1 additional year. But there was yet another king that rose up, our third king, who did know Joseph and his brethren who ruled for 30 more years.
A New King Over Egypt Arose
Now, in our 102 year, a new king over Egypt who truly did not know Joseph or his brethren and the good thing they had done takes the throne. He was born 11 years before Levi (the last of Jacob’s sons) died and took the helm of Egypt at 20, 9 years later. Continue reading There Arose A new King Over Egypt→
Joseph ruled Egypt from the time he interpreted Pharaoh’s dream (30) until his death (110).
Joseph was 56 when his father Jacob and his wicked uncle Esau died at 147. The Pharaoh that raised Joseph up, above everyone in his land, loved him so much that he gave him charge over his son Magron after his death and asked Joseph (71) to be a father to him and to guide him. So Joseph ruled Egypt for an additional 39 years. Here is a link to my Joseph timeline.
I love the book of Yasher; it has helped me make sense of many things in Torah, and in the book Joshua, that just were not clear until I heard the rest of the story from it. Much of the next 4 lessons come from Yasher and you will see that they provide great light for those who search Yehovah’s word as a man searches for silver and fine gold. Of course neither of those precious commodities are just lying around waiting to be picked up. But I have searched them out and found some very precious pieces, and I am doing my best to help you find them as well.
Joseph Ruled Egypt And The Surrounding Countries
Concerning the death of Pharaoh, Yasher says,
Yasher 58:1 And it came to pass in the thirty-second year of the Israelites going down to Egypt, that is in the seventy-first year of the life of Joseph, in that year died Pharaoh king of Egypt, and Magron his son reigned in his stead.
2 And Pharaoh commanded Joseph before his death to be a father to his son, Magron [41], and that Magron should be under the care of Joseph and under his counsel.
Yasher 58:6 And Joseph became king over Egypt, for he superintended over all Egypt, and all Egypt was under his care and under his counsel, for all Egypt inclined to Joseph after the death of Pharaoh, and they loved him exceedingly to reign over them.
Yasher 58:9 And Pharaoh king of Egypt sat upon his throne in his father’s stead, but he was under the control and counsel of Joseph, as he was at first under the control of his father.
10 Neither did he reign but in the land of Egypt only, under the counsel of Joseph, but Joseph reigned over the whole country at that time, from Egypt unto the great river Perath.
11 And Joseph was successful in all his ways, and Yehovah was with him, and Yehovah gave Joseph additional wisdom, and honor, and glory, and love toward him in the hearts of the Egyptians and throughout the land, and Joseph ruled Egypt forty years.
Few have ever heard about how Jacob’s twin brother Esau died. I think of Jacob as the man of the spirit and Esau as a total man of the flesh; and find it interesting that Esau died shortly after Jacob. Here is why.
The actual death and burial of Jacob (147) is recorded in the last chapter of Genesis (Genesis 50); but it is hardly anything more that an outline for what happened at that time in the history of Yehovah’s people.
Here is yet another case where the book of Yasher gives “the rest of the story.”
Jacob was buried with great honor like a king and his sons carried his bier for all to see. I love how Jacob told his sons to carry him, it was exactly the same way that Israel was told by Yehovah to camp in the wilderness (with 3 sons on each side).
Yasher describes Jacob’s funeral procession this way.
Yasher 56:33 And Pharaoh commanded that it should be proclaimed throughout Egypt, saying, Whoever goes not up with Joseph and his brethren to the land of Canaan to bury Jacob, shall die.
34 And all Egypt heard of Pharaoh’s proclamation, and they all rose up together, and all the servants of Pharaoh, and the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt went up with Joseph, and all the officers and nobles of Pharaoh went up as the servants of Joseph, and they went to bury Jacob in the land of Canaan.
35 And Jacob’s sons carried the bier upon which he lay; according to all that their father commanded them, so did his sons unto him.
36 And the bier was of pure gold, and it was inlaid round about with onyx stones and bdellium; and the covering of the bier was gold woven work, joined with threads, and over them were hooks of onyx stones and bdellium.
37 And Joseph placed upon the head of his father Jacob a large golden crown, and he put a golden scepter in his hand, and they surrounded the bier as was the custom of kings during their lives.
38 And all the troops of Egypt went before him in this array, at first, all the mighty men of Pharaoh and the mighty men of Joseph, and after them the rest of the inhabitants of Egypt, and they were all girded with swords and equipped with coats of mail, and the trappings of war were upon them.
39 And all the weepers and mourners went at a distance opposite to the bier, going and weeping and lamenting, and the rest of the people went after the bier.
40 And Joseph and his household went together near the bier barefooted and weeping, and the rest of Joseph’s servants went around him; each man had his ornaments upon him, and they were all armed with their weapons of war.
But when Esau heard that Jacob’s sons were coming to bury him in the cave of Machpelah, which their Fathers were buried in, Esau and his sons stood against them. The battle that follows helps us understand great enmity between Jacob’s sons (the men of the spirit) and Esau’s sons (the men of the flesh). Here is how the battle begins.
Yasher 56:49 And Joseph and his brethren brought their father Jacob from that place, and they went to Hebron to bury Jacob in the cave by his fathers.
50 And they came unto Kireath-arba, to the cave, and as they came Esau stood with his sons against Joseph and his brethren as a hindrance in the cave, saying, “Jacob shall not be buried therein, for it belongs to us and to our father.”
We saw that Jacob and his sons received all the land of Canaan, and the cave in particular, at the death of Isaac as their inheritance; the transaction was witnessed and recorded at the time and the document were now in Egypt. We then sent our fastest runner (Naphtali) to fetch them and that is when the fighting began.
Yasher 56:60 And when Esau saw that Naphtali had gone to fetch the records, he and his sons increased their resistance against the cave, and Esau and all his people rose up against Joseph and his brethren to battle.
61 And all Jacob’s sons and the people of Egypt fought with Esau and his men, and Esau’s sons and his people were smitten before Jacob’s sons, and Jacob’s sons slew of Esau’s people forty men.
Esau died in the first battle
It was at this time that Dan’s son, a man who could not speak or hear, walked up to Esau and severed his head from his body.
Yasher 56:63 And Chushim was dumb and deaf, still he understood the voice of consternation amongst men.
64 And he asked, saying, Why do you not bury the dead, and what is this great consternation? And they answered him the words of Esau and his sons; and he ran to Esau in the midst of the battle, and he slew Esau with a sword, and he cut off his head, and it sprang to a distance, and Esau fell amongst the people of the battle.
65 And when Chushim did this thing Jacob’s sons prevailed over Esau’s sons, and Jacob’s sons buried their father Jacob by force in the cave, and Esau’s sons beheld it.
After Esau died his sons ran away with his body but left his head. There is so much that happened in these two chapters of Yasher; alliances are formed, battles are fought, men are captured, and an entire race of men is wiped out and their land taken forever by Esau’s sons.
For more teachings like this one (beginning at Genesis 1), visit our Join Us for Sabbath page.
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Providence Ministries is NOT incorporated with any kingdom of this world. Providence Ministries is an affiliate of the Director of Ecclesiastical Enterprises, a Washington State acknowledged corporation sole of the ecclesia on file with the Secretary of the State. This charitable ministry is not for profit and maintains its nontaxable status consistent with 26 USC 508(c)(1)(A) of the Internal Revenue Code with respect to 501 (c)(3) organizations special rules as a “mandatory exception.”
Jacob is now 147 and has lived 17 years in Egypt after being reunited with Joseph, but now his eyes have failed and he is weak and dying. Torah and Yasher covers Jacob’s last words to his sons and grand-sons (his seed). Some of Jacob’s last words are blessings, some are rebukes, and some are instructions to his sons for after he is gone.
In Jacob’s last words to his grand-sons (who appear to be twins), and against the wishes of their father Joseph, he sets the younger over the elder. I believe that this is a shadow picture of the second born, spiritual man ruling over the first-born, man of the flesh which we find so often in the scriptures. Here are a few examples.
Joseph replaces Reuben; Joseph received the “double blessing” which usually goes to the 1st born.
Ephraim replaces Manasseh as firstborn
Kohath replaces Gershon (Gen 46:11)
Ephraim and Manasseh learned the ways of Yehovah in the house of Jacob, and in Genesis 48 Jacob even seems to claim them as his own sons.
Yasher 55:35 Ephraim and Manasseh, remained constantly in the house of Jacob, together with the sons of the sons of Jacob their brethren, to learn the ways of Yehovah and his law.
And now your two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are mine; as Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine. (Gen 48:5)
Why else would the twins be listed with Jacob’s sons and become the fathers of two of the twelve tribes who inherit land in Canaan? Continue reading Jacob’s Last Words→
Pharaoh said to Jacob, “How old are you?” 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.” (Gen 47:8-9)
Jacob, like Isaac, Abraham, Shem and probably even Noah (the son of Lemech, the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch) has been on his pilgrimage since the day he was born. He has always served Yehovah and dwelt in His eternal kingdom.
I, on the other hand, was a late bloomer; I did not begin my pilgrimage on the earth until 2000 when I was about 45. It was then that I gave up all my connections/covenants and came out of the kingdom of my birth, made myself 100% Yehovah’s man and then began my pilgrimage, my journey in His kingdom. Since that time I have learned what it means to dwell in the heaven instead of earth. Every man who fails to learn to dwell in heaven will perish, just as they did in the antediluvian world. Noah survived because he learned to walk in his pilgrimage with Yehovah. And when Nimrod ruled and reigned on the earth, Noah, Shem, Eber, and Abraham did not serve him even though they lived in what most folks would have thought was Nimrod’s kingdom.
“From whence comes the purpose of a person’s life? Come it by chance, a casting of the lot, or does a call of destiny beckon to each of us?‖ From the movie ‘One Night with the King’.
It is my firm belief that the Creator has a destiny, an eternal purpose for each of our lives and it is my wish to effect those around me to embrace all that the Creator has for them. But until they (I am really talking to men) begin their pilgrimage, their destiny is on hold.
In this passage Jacob is talking to Pharaoh; but Jacob knows and understands the words of Yehovah that were given to Abraham and to himself.
So Israel took his journey with all that he had, and came to Beersheba, and slaughtered slaughters to his father Isaac’s Elohim. Then Elohim spoke to Israel in the visions of the night, and said, “Jacob, Jacob!” And he said, “Here I am.” So He said, “I am Elohim (THE lawmaker and judge), the Elohim 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.” (Gen 46:1-4)
This is destiny, the leading of Yehovah in the life of His men, in order to fulfill His word.
And when Jacob meets Pharaoh for the first time he understands that the provision that he is receiving is NOT from Pharaoh, even though Pharaoh may think so; the provision is from Yehovah for Jacob’s continued pilgrimage on the earth.
For more teachings like this one (beginning at Genesis 1), visit our Join Us for Sabbath page.
Please Contact Michael to help support his work in building Yehovah’s kingdom on the earth.
Providence Ministries is NOT incorporated with any kingdom of this world. Providence Ministries is an affiliate of the Director of Ecclesiastical Enterprises, a Washington State acknowledged corporation sole of the ecclesia on file with the Secretary of the State. This charitable ministry is not for profit and maintains its nontaxable status consistent with 26 USC 508(c)(1)(A) of the Internal Revenue Code with respect to 501 (c)(3) organizations special rules as a “mandatory exception.â€
When Joseph’s brothers return, they bring Benjamin and a message from their father, Jacob. Joseph is twice moved to tears and is forced to remove himself from their presence. But Joseph has decided that before he can trust his brothers again they must be tested. Will Joseph’s brothers now fight for their brother?
Yasher 53:8 And Joseph read the letter and knew his father’s writing, and he wished to weep and he went into an inner room and he wept a great weeping; and he went out.
9 And he lifted up his eyes and beheld his brother Benjamin, and he said, Is this your brother of whom you spoke unto me? And Benjamin approached Joseph, and Joseph placed his hand upon his head and he said unto him, May Elohim be gracious unto thee my son.
10 And when Joseph saw his brother, the son of his mother, he again wished to weep, and he entered the chamber, and he wept there, and he washed his face, and went out and refrained from weeping, and he said, Prepare food.
Few people understand that while Benjamin is the youngest of Joseph’s brothers, he (30) has 2 women of worth and 10 sons.
Yasher 53:17 And Joseph said unto him, Hast thou begotten any children? and he said, Thy servant has ten sons, and these are their names, Bela, Becher, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Achi, Rosh, Mupim, Chupim, and Ord, and I called their names after my brother whom I have not seen.
Yasher 45:21 And Jacob sent to Aram, the son of Zoba, the son of Terah, and he took for his son Benjamin Mechalia the daughter of Aram, and she came to the land of Canaan to the house of Jacob; and Benjamin was ten years old when he took Mechalia the daughter of Aram for his woman.
22 And Mechalia conceived and bare unto Benjamin Bela, Becher, Ashbel, Gera and Naaman, five sons; and Benjamin went afterward and took for a woman Aribath, the daughter of Shomron, the son of Abraham, in addition to his first woman, and he was eighteen years old; and Aribath bare unto Benjamin Achi, Rosh, Mupim, Chupim, and Ord; five sons.
The Benjamin’s sons were Belah, Becher, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim, and Ard. (Gen 46:21)
In Yasher Joseph reveals himself only to Benjamin before he tests his brothers.
Yasher 53:21 And Benjamin said unto Joseph, I can see by this that Joseph my brother sits here with me upon the throne, and Joseph said unto him, I am Joseph thy brother, reveal not this thing unto thy brethren; behold I will send thee with them when they go away, and I will command them to be brought back again into the city, and I will take thee away from them.
22 And if they dare their lives and fight for thee, then shall I know that they have repented of what they did unto me, and I will make myself known to them, and if they forsake thee when I take thee, then shalt thou remain with me, and I will wrangle with them, and they shall go away, and I will not become known to them.
Well, “dare their lives and fight for thee” is a vast understatement! We all have read the story of how Joseph had his silver cup hidden in Benjamin’s grain sack and how he planned to take Benjamin from his brothers and make him his slave. What we do not see in Genesis is the brouhaha that these mighty men of Elohim cause as they threaten Joseph, his family and the entire nation of Egypt with complete and utter destruction if they do not get their brother Benjamin back. Here is an example of what you have to look forward to if you listen to this audio.
Joseph’s Brothers Will Fight
Yasher 53:28 And Judah’s anger was kindled, and he said, This man has only brought me back to destroy Egypt this day.
Yasher 53:32 And Joseph rose up and caught hold of Benjamin and took him from his brethren with violence, and he came to the house and locked the door, and Joseph commanded him who was set over his house that he should say unto them, Thus saith the king, Go in peace to your father, behold I have taken the man in whose hand my cup was found.
Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, “Look, the people, Israel’s son/seed are more and mightier than we.” (Exo 1:8-9)
“From whence comes the purpose of a person’s life? Come it by chance, a casting of the lot, or does a call of destiny beckon to each of us?†– From the movie ‘One Night with the King’.