Have you seen those Russian dolls that are nested, one inside another, each one a replica, as much as possible, of the previous one? As you go from the largest, maybe foot long doll, to the smallest, maybe inch long doll, they tell a story of life, love, beauty, wealth, happiness and prosperity, each smiling face, brilliantly patterned skirt, styled bun of hair, giving you a taste of God‘s goodness. They promise a good life. They represent peaceful family and community.
And so, in this week’s Torah portion, we have a something similar, a story within a story within a story. We’ll start with the smallest rendition, and make our way to the largest rendition.
Remember Exodus 34:7, where God promises to visit the iniquities of the fathers unto the 3rd or 4th generation but promises to extend mercy to thousands of generations?
In this story Abraham basically sells his wife to Pharaoh, in the midst of a famine, to protect his skin, but afterwards Abraham and his wife leave Egypt with much plundered wealth. (The same thing happens again with Abimelech. Remember the significance when God repeats a matter twice.) So, in the fourth generation, the generation of Joseph and his brothers, God basically sells his wife, Israel, to Pharaoh, in the midst of a famine, to protect everybody’s skin, but then in the fourth generation after that, Israel leaves Egypt with much plundered wealth.
The first two “dolls.”
As we go to the next size “doll,” we see the thousandth generation.
We are all God’s bride, and basically God put the Tree in the garden that would sell us all into slavery to sin. We ate and ate, and out of our spiritual famine and accumulating poverty, we brought death and pain and iniquity and starvation into the world. But then, in the fourth millennium, or the thousandth generation, God mercifully delivered us from that slavery to sin through Yeshua’s death and resurrection. He paid the plunder to set us free. He gave us the down payment of all the wealth he has for us in heaven. Talk about prosperity! The payment for our captivity and sin was the most extraordinary wealth imaginable.
We are already entering the fulfillment of that freedom from slavery. When this season completes, we will have walked out of enslavement, as a species, as a planet, with the full blessing of God’s wealth. In the meantime, we have a baptism to undergo. We must remember God’s goodness, His mercy, from the end to the beginning, to walk this through in faith.
I don’t know how to describe the incredibly overwhelming peace and joy this storyline brings to my heart. The sense of God‘s goodness in all of it, as He mingles His correction with His grace, as He teaches faith in the midst of pain, as He encourages celebratory worship in the midst of life’s circumstances.
Lord God, I choose to walk with you in humble humility, in faith, in wonder, as I see Your graciousness in the midst of Your training. On earth as it is in heaven. Your will and Your direction. As the little Russian dolls are, to the best of their artist’s ability, the exact picture of the largest Russian doll, we seek the honor of being your exact living picture on earth. May we each have the surrendered sensitivity to Your spirit to do our parts, in You, to become your living epistles. As these Russian dolls, created in the midst of a pain wracked culture, smile and laugh, may we always celebrate You and life, remembering, in faith, your everlasting, loving hand of goodness and mercy, always thanking you for being our Father, our Guide, and our Teacher. Our Salvation. May true joy and laughter always fill our souls within You and Your soul within us. May the laughter and joy of children fill our days. Amen.
FREEDOM 
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