Genesis 45:27: “And they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said unto them: and when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived:”

 

Dt 21:3-4 “And it shall be, [that] the city [which is] next unto the slain man, even the elders of that city shall take an heifer, which hath not been wrought with, [and] which hath not drawn in the yoke;  And the elders of that city shall bring down the heifer unto a rough valley, which is neither eared nor sown, and shall strike off the heifer’s neck there in the valley:”

 

Whenever I study the Word of God from my Hebrew Bible, I always keep an English translation handy so when I get to a passage that I have trouble translating, I cheat and glance at my English translation to see how someone else translated it. Reading this passage is one example where I read something in the Hebrew that made little sense and had to read the English translation to figure it out.

 

Here is the problem I faced.  In Genesis 45 Jacob is being told that Joseph is alive. After mourning the loss of his son for twenty two years he finally finds out that his son is not dead after all.  The first thing that comes to my mind is, if Joseph was made a viceroy over Egypt, the most powerful nation in the world and his family was only sixty miles away in Hebron, would not the first logical thing to do would be to send word to his father and brothers and say, “Hey, I struck it rich in Las Vegas,  come on out.”  Oddly, he waited over seven years before making contact with his family and even then it was they who made contact with him.

 

Do I detect a chink in the armor of the saintly and pious Joseph?  Could it be that after getting sold into slavery by his own brothers that he disowned them and would have nothing to do with them?  I mean I would at least be curious to see if they had any remorse after all those years. He could have sent out spies or detectives to investigate the wellbeing of his father and check with the neighbors to see how his brothers were doing and find out if they felt any remorse for selling him down the river.

 

It was not until many years later that his brothers showed up at his door step, hat in hand, begging for food that the whole drama played out.  It is very clear from this encounter that Joseph made absolutely not attempt to use his new position of power to check up on his family.

 

We tend to forget that Joseph was given a prophetic dream many years earlier as a child. A dream that his family would bow down before him.  He made the mistake of blabbing about that dream before it was time and got himself beaten up for it.  He may have learned his lesson and decided to wait until God’s perfect time.  A few hundred years later one of his descendants from his brother Judah named Solomon would say,  “He will make every [thing] beautiful in his time:”  Ecclesiastes 3:11.  I believe after all those years of walking with God, trusting Him and never losing his faith in God he learned to wait for God’s perfect timing.  The story of Joseph’s life was one of waiting for God’s  perfect timing. It is oh so easy to jump ahead of God.  You have a promise from God but that promise seems to never come to fulfillment and then when there is the slightest crack in the door you seize it and force the door to open before God’s perfect timing. Waiting for a promise to be fulfilled from God is like waiting for a flower to bloom. If you force it to bloom and force those petals to open before its time you will only tear that fragile flower and soft petals apart.

 

Joseph knew this, he knew that if he presented himself to his family before God’s perfect time, they would only despise him all the more and be jealous of his power while being forced to bow before him. They had to willingly bow before him and only God could bring that about in His perfect time.

 

So the brothers report to their father that his beloved son was now alive. The old guy would not believe it until he saw the ‘eglah that would carry him to Egypt.  Naturally reading this in the Hebrew I immediately read ‘eglah as it literally means, a heifer.  I immediately had this comical picture of an elderly man bouncing around on the back of a young cow sixty miles to Egypt.  Why did the writer say ‘eglah which means the animal who pulls the wagon rather than the word mekabah which means a wagon or chariot?   I know Strong’s will render it as a wagon assuming that ‘eglah was used to make a distinction between an oxen drawn cart and not a horse driven chariot.  But then why not use the word shor which is the word for oxen.  To be sure the word ‘eglah is an Egyptian loan word which could mean a cart, but why use an Egyptian word when you have a perfectly good Hebrew word to use?

 

So I went to the Talmud to find an answer and I did. The Talmud teaches that it was not seeing the splendid and magnificent wagons of the Pharaoh that convinced Jacob of the truth it was the ‘eglah arufah of Deuteronomy 21:3-4.  That Talmud does not explain the fact that the ‘eglah arufah was not instituted until a few hundred years later under Mosaic Law and that Jacob could have known about it.  I think it was a sign for us today and not for Jacob.

 

You see the ‘eglah arufah  literally means the beheading of a heifer. The ‘eglah arufah is the slaughter of a heifer for the atonement of an unresolved murder.  The law requires that this ‘eglah must not be used for labor and must never have drawn a load with a yoke. An animal that has been used for labor or carried a yoke becomes unclean. Isn’t this what Jesus said when he said in Matthew 11:29, “Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly of heart and you will find rest for you souls.”   Guilt can rob us of peace and rest but Jesus who was unclean is offering to  yoke himself to us, take on our uncleanness our sins after he has already  become the sacrifice or atonement in our place.

 

When Jacob saw the ‘eglah (wagons or heifers) and realized that what his sons were telling him was true it was like Joseph had risen from the dead for this ‘eglah was now yoked and once a yoke was placed on an ‘eglah it was ceremonially unclean and could no longer be used as a sacrifice for an unresolved murder.  In other words, by using the word ‘eglah the writer was telling us that us that there was no need for an ‘eglah arufah for no murder had ever taken place.  But for us today the writer is telling us that if we yoke ourselves to Jesus we no longer face the penalty for our sins for being yoked to Jesus who was clean and pure and a worthy sacrifice has already been sacrificed for our sins. Thus if we yoke ourselves to Jesus our sins are entirely erased as if no sin ever occurred as no murder occurred with Joseph.  We will then be free of any guilt and we will find rest for our souls for Jesus was our ‘eglah arufah.

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