The people of Egypt worshiped the sun and idols they made, but you notice in the stories of Joseph, that he spoke to them of the Lord God, and showed he believed in Him. His master knew he did; so did the prison keeper, the butler, and the king and his great men. To his brothers, Joseph said, “I fear God,” and to Benjamin he said, “God be gracious unto thee.” When tempted to do wrong, he said that sin was against God. When asked to interpret the dreams, he could have taken the honor to himself, but rightly gave it to God.
Where did Joseph learn of God, of his greatness and that He was holy? We do not know of his having any written words, as we have. But we read that his father, Jacob, took all his household when he worshiped God at Bethel (Genesis 35), and he must have told them God’s words. Joseph was then a young buy, and, later, at Hebron he may have also learned of God from his grandfather, Isaac. He surely would have heard how the ram was offered instead of Isaac.
Joseph did not forget all when in the heathen land, and the Lord helped hint to do the right. If we remember this of Joseph, it will help us to speak of the Lord to some who do not know Him.
When all was well with Joseph he gave the praise to God, as we learn by the names he gave his sons, Manasseh, meaning, “forgetting:” and Ephraim, “fruitful,” because, he said, God had made him forget his sorrows, and blessed him in the land of his trouble.
Best of all, Joseph’s life and ways make us think of the Lord Jesus, who was tread so wickedly by His own people, yet spoke for God, and is like Joseph, ready to forgive. As Joseph was made a great ruler, so the Bible tells us the Lord Jesus will one day take the place of Ruler of all the earth.
And now we are to trust in the Lord Jesus as the only one who can save us, just as the people in the dreadful famine were told to “go to Joseph.”
ML 11/29/1936