The faithful, submissive service of Joseph to his masters throughout the long years of humiliation and evil treatment prepared him to deal with his brethren when his time of trial was over. While he served, we hear no complaint of injustice. He took his circumstances from God. Joseph was ever serving those around him with favor, in spite of all the injustice shown to him. As he looked on the faces of the butler and the baker, he noticed how, on a certain day, they were sad and sought to help them. His comment, “Wherefore look ye so sadly today?” caused them to open up and tell him their dreams. He told them that the interpretation of dreams belongs to God. He had not given up on God fulfilling the answer to his own dreams. Thus he could serve Him all the while he was waiting for the promised blessing. Seeing the interpretation fulfilled with the butler and the baker would confirm this hope.
The butler told his dream first. The interpretation that Joseph gave from the Lord was favorable to the butler. This prompted the baker to tell his dream. We all like favorable circumstances. But who is willing to wait while suffering for doing well like Joseph? He reminds us of Peter’s words: “Let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to Him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator” (1 Peter 4:19). The interpretation given to the baker of his death was a witness of God’s recompense for injustice. Grace is not shown at the expense of righteousness.
Long-Term Vision
The life of Joseph demonstrates to us the need for long-term vision. We must be willing to receive what God gives, whether it appears good or not, knowing that He knows best. Joseph had to wait two more years before the butler remembered him. We cannot trust in the faithfulness of those we serve as a bastion of hope. But the Lord caused Pharaoh to have a dream that would make the butler remember his fault. Then Joseph was brought out of prison and arrayed in fine linen. Fine linen is a picture of “the righteousnesses of saints” (Rev. 19:88And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. (Revelation 19:8) JND). Joseph’s righteous acts during his years of bondage are the reason that he should be honored before all and ride in the second chariot after Pharaoh. His uprightness while in service as a bondman qualified him as the best one to administer the wealth of Egypt. Moreover Pharaoh said to him, “Forasmuch as God hath showed thee all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou art: thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled: only in the throne will I be greater than thou” (Gen. 41:39-4039And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Forasmuch as God hath showed thee all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou art: 40Thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled: only in the throne will I be greater than thou. (Genesis 41:39‑40)). He had learned wisdom as well as righteousness.
The Ten Brethren
The way in which Joseph blends together harsh treatment and kindness to his brethren when they came down to Egypt to buy grain demonstrates God’s ways of grace and government. Hard governmental dealings were necessary to make them repent of their own ways and learn to receive goodness on the basis of grace. The evident hand of God in raising Joseph up after the hard years of bondage made him realize what God can do. He applied these lessons on his brethren to bring them to a condition where they would receive his goodness to them. His motive in being harsh was not to pay them back for what they had done, but to bring them to repentance, that they might receive the blessing because of the goodness of the givers — God and himself. Thus he charges them with being spies. They were spies because they entered into his land without owning him for who he was — their brother — whom they had sold as a slave. They justify themselves, not knowing who he was, saying they were not spies but true men. But they had sent back to their father the blood-stained coat as a cover-up of what they had done to Joseph. The issues of being spies and honest men Joseph takes up with them. These are the root causes of their sin.
Those who walk according to their own wills do not understand God’s ways. So Joseph’s brethren, in the state of their souls, could not understand why “the man” treated them so severely, and yet their money was put back into their sacks. The grace that put the money in their sacks appeared to them as an oversight. Their harsh treatment appeared unjustified. They neither knew how good the grace of God was nor how bad their own hearts were. They must learn it from the one that God had chosen — Joseph — and he was the one whom they had sold.
The Second Visit
The circumstances of having no food required the second visit to Egypt — this time, as Joseph had required, with the favored son Benjamin. They were to be tested with how they would treat him. Would they deprive their father of another son? Were they really honest men? The truth of what they had done to Joseph must be brought to light and judged. They must be made to feel the care of their brother Benjamin. Were they trustworthy? Would their father leave him in their hands? This needed to be proved. Circumstances force the issue; there is no other way to get food and live.
When they arrive in Egypt, Joseph sees Benjamin and is moved in grace to invite them to dine in his house. They are uncomfortable with the favor and offer to repay the money that had been left in their sacks after the previous visit. What could that do to remedy what they had done? Kindness to them must be by grace or nothing at all. If Joseph was to show them favor, it would come from his heart that cared for them, not from any dessert on their part. But at this point they neither know Joseph nor his heart of grace. He seated them at a table according to birth order. He recognized the birthright given to each one by God, but at the same time, he gave Benjamin five times as much food. Grace in no way disannuls or is in conflict with what each one receives by birthright. The act of giving one brother more would test and reveal if they were envious. They marvel at the setting and events. In such a setting there is no room for envy or complaint. The reality was that they were dependent on Joseph for food to live. How different from the way they had treated Joseph when he had been the object of favor! Joseph demonstrated grace upon grace in the same manner as Christ when He came.
The Silver Cup
Perhaps Joseph’s thought in hiding the cup in Benjamin’s sack was done as a pretext to keep him in Egypt while letting his brethren go back, but the intercession of Judah on behalf of their father succeeds in disallowing this plan. Joseph could not cause more pain to his father, nor would he forgo extending forgiveness to his brethren. They had bowed down in obeisance to him, they had confessed their guilt concerning his blood, and now they could begin to receive his favor toward them on the basis of undeserved grace. He cannot resist revealing himself to them. It is a very sacred moment, involving the innermost feelings of the heart. He tells them he is Joseph. With such a background of their treatment of him, we well understand why they are troubled by his presence, but he reminds them that it was the grace of God that sent him into Egypt to preserve life. God’s side of the story must be considered to appreciate grace. “It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth?” (Rom. 8:33-3433Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. 34Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. (Romans 8:33‑34)). Joseph communes with them and confirms his care for them. There were still to be five years of famine. He promises to give them the needed provision. He weeps for joy with them. He weeps first on Benjamin’s neck — and Benjamin wept on his neck. He was nearest to him in relationship, and he had not been involved with the betrayal. But he kissed all his brethren and wept with them. It is good to learn the Lord’s love and grace through restoration after a fall, as with the ten brethren. But there is a nearer place of enjoyment of his love and grace that may be learned without grieving him. Benjamin enjoyed that portion. Either way it is all of grace. May the Lord make it to be more so with us! “He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him” (John 14:2121He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. (John 14:21)).
D. C. Buchanan