Genesis 47:2525And they said, Thou hast saved our lives: let us find grace in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh's servants. (Genesis 47:25) gives the summary of a saint's life in three sentences: "They said, Thou hast saved our lives," "let us find grace," "We will be Pharaoh's servants." Life-grace-service!
Apart from Joseph they were as good as dead. Joseph was life to them, and they were preserved for God sent him "to preserve life" (Gen. 45:55Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life. (Genesis 45:5)). Life is the first thing here; it is the first necessity for all to follow. Faith, as to life, was the first little bit of fruit for God to see after sin and death had been introduced upon the scene by our first parents. "Adam call his wife's name Eve (living); because she was the mother of all living" (Genesis 3:2020And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living. (Genesis 3:20)). The very next verse records, by inference, how God shed blood, thus providing a righteous ground on which to answer that faith which He had inspired in His fallen creature's heart. Fallen, ruined, and banished from the garden of delight, his life is preserved in the death of another.
How thankful we may be, who have Darned our deep need of being "born again" that Christ is our life-the eternal life, the gift of God.
To "find grace" was the next thing they desired. This was very blessed! The people belonged to Joseph; he had bought them. But to be his by right and to be his in grace were two different matters. We can understand their feelings, for their hearts undoubtedly turned with deepest gratitude to the one who had been used for their blessing. To know him only as their benefactor who had saved their lives would have been terms far too cold to meet the emotions of their gratified hearts. He had dealt in righteousness with them, returning to them for their money and cattle and lands and bodies, the bread and seed they needed, thus saving their lives. But they wanted more-his favor!
God has shown this grace to us. Christ was delivered for our offenses and raised again for our justification thus settling forever the claims of righteousness. But by Him, also, we have access into this grace wherein we stand. Oh, what should we be without this standing in grace! Even the Egyptians required it before Joseph, and I am sure he accorded it to them. The relationship between Joseph and the people he was over was not only established in righteousness but was enjoyed in grace. None could have acted in greater measure toward us as benefactor than the One who has righteously brought us to Himself and then set us in the closest intimacy and relationship that love could suggest or grace provide.
We are exhorted by the Apostle to "come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." Doubtless those preserved by Joseph from famine and death, also found in him a constant friend. They found "grace to help in time of need." How foolish of them if they had not availed themselves of such a friend and such a privilege! How much more foolish are we who, having a far better place and title, are so often found weaving our own plans and getting entangled in their meshes, disowning the grace, denying the truth, and reaping in shame the results of our folly.
The next thing they spoke of was service: "We will be Pharaoh's servants." The order was perfect; not service first, not serving in order to become Joseph's, or to gain his favor, but serving because they were his. They found unconditional grace so they volunteered their service for the debt they owed and for the grace that had first served them.
What a contrast we find in the relationship between Joseph and the Egyptians, and that between the Egyptians and the Israelites, Joseph's brethren, in after days. The grace of the one calls forth the ready service of those under his control, while the arbitrary, cruel, and exacting bondage of the other makes its subjects groan and wrestle for deliverance from the service others sought. The service of grace is perfect freedom; it is of the Spirit and "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." Service, so-called, which does not have this character, is not really service at all, but is the fruitless toil of will, or the restlessness of nature, or legality of spirit, or an opiate for an uneasy conscience. Often such service momentarily blunts the sting of conscience, drowning its voice, and remaining meanwhile the chief barrier to restoration of communion and to the path of real service and fruitfulness to God.
In chapter 48 we get the only point in Jacob's history of which Paul makes mention. In dying, Jacob by faith "blessed both the sons of Joseph." He had the agreeable surprise of seeing Joseph's seed when, as he admitted, he had not even thought to see Joseph's face. Jacob was in the act of blessing others and, as is surely always the effect of such a service, it shed a ray of sunshine over everything. The story of his days being "few and evil" is changed for the following acknowledgment of good and blessing on his grandsons: "He blessed Joseph, and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed (or shepherded) me all my life long unto this day, the Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads." There is nothing like occupation with good, the abundance of the grace that surrounds us and the blessing of others to gladden our hearts and lighten our burdens and quicken our steps as we pass through the valley of the shadow of death. "It is more blessed to give than to receive." This was Jacob's happiest moment.
In chapter 49 we get the interesting account of what should befall the sons of Jacob in the last days. He tells them as they are gathered around him. It is prophetic of Israel's history from its apostate state before our Lord's first coming to His return, when He who was rejected by His brethren will sway His blessed scepter over them and the Gentile world-"the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords."
Jacob then gave commandment as to the place of his burial. Canaan was the only fitting place for those whose hopes were for the earth to be realized in their seed though they themselves were heavenly. Thus Jacob died, "and Joseph fell upon his father's face, and wept upon him and kissed him." The days of mourning were long, indeed the train of mourners that accompanied Joseph and his brethren to the funeral was vast-all Pharaoh's servants, the elders of his house, all the elders of the land of Egypt, all the house of Joseph and his brethren, and all his father's house except the little ones. There went up also chariots and horsemen, "and it was a very great company." And at the threshing-floor of Atad "they mourned with a great and very sore lamentation.". Yes, it was true: "Jacob have I loved"! It was not his ways that had won the love, or obtained the favor. It was the sovereignty of God in grace, and Joseph was the means of its greatest display.
"And when Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which he did unto him. And they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying, So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin; for they did unto thee evil: and now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him." This is another time where we read of Joseph weeping. He wept when he saw his brethren at their first interview with him, he wept again when he saw Benjamin on their return to him, and again when he made himself known to them. On all these occasions, though there was sorrow mingled with the tears of joy, they doubtless sprang from a heart full of thankfulness and praise. But this time it was unmingled sorrow and the outflow of a pained heart and grieved spirit. They mistrusted him; he was not really known by those who should have known him best. His fidelity was doubted by these unfaithful ones for whose reconciliation, and far more, he had suffered years of shame and pain and sorrow. But where was the source of this last wound for his tender, loving, and compassionate heart? If what they said was true, it was in the unbelieving Jacob. It may have been a lie. Nevertheless, they blamed it on him and said their action, base and cruel, was at his command. So if the story Jacob's sons told Joseph was a lie, it was easy to believe; if true, it was surprising. And so it ever is, the saint, however high the ground he takes, if walking badly, may expect to be falsely credited with much that is untrue. What is untrue will be readily received without question, and all the good whether much or little will be choked by the report of evil.
Joseph told them not to fear. Once they knew nothing of fear; now they knew fear, but of a wrong sort-they put him in the place of God and he reproved them for it, and told them they had thought evil against him, but "God meant it unto good." How different this is from the language of his father: "All these things are against me"! Joseph recognized that God, not accident or misfortune, had brought clouds across his path and discovered the mercy, love, and goodness that were there. Surely his language was:
"With mercy and with judgment
My web of time He wove,
And aye the dews of sorrow
Were lustered with His love."
The circumstances had indeed been bitter, but "much people" were saved alive by it so Joseph was satisfied and said: "God meant it unto good." Joseph satisfied them, too, saying, "Fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them." How often would we, in such circumstances seek to speak so as to make a grievous offender of one who had drawn forth tears of pain and seek to make him feel bitterly the indignity put upon us, or his mis-judgment of our motives. Not so with Joseph! He reproved their supplanting of God by another, though that other be himself, and overcame the evil of their false judgment of him with good. He bared his heart by speaking kindly with his tongue and dispensing the blessings of his hands, covering, yet reproving, their iniquity.
When dying, Joseph's faith was still in blessed exercise. Though all seemed exceedingly well in Egypt, indeed Joseph was held almost in reverence by the Egyptians and had all the plenty of the best part of the land, still, much more was needed before the full answer to the promises of God would be realized. Boundless stores of far richer grace were still laid up for the heirs of promise, and faith could be satisfied with nothing less than this-the full development of promises then only partially fulfilled. The land of Canaan, rich with its teeming full-ripe fruits and royal display, is Israel's hope, and Israel's faith rests there.
The Christian's portion is heavenly and in Christ. To win Him is the only true destination of Christian desire and to "know Him" his only present gain. When God has promised, faith is satisfied only with the attainment in fullest consummation of the promise made, though it also yields patience to wait His time for its enjoyment. Thus it was with Joseph who declared when about to die, "God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which He sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob." This was not said in the days of Joseph's low estate in Egypt but in the day of honor and prosperity; this makes it so precious and in the sight of God of great price. It is the faith that counts only what God promises and bestows as true gain and the fruition of all hope.