Joseph: January 2015
Table of Contents
Joseph
“God’s ways are behind the scenes, but He moves all the scenes which He is behind. We have to learn this and let Him work, and not think much of man’s busy movements: They will accomplish God’s. The rest of them all perish and disappear. We have only peacefully to do His will” (JND). Joseph’s life is a wonderful example of God’s ways to control all for the good of His own. We, in turn, must learn to trust, submit and wait. When he entered Egypt, Joseph did not know that God had “sent a man before” Israel to meet a future need. What Joseph knew was that he “was sold for a servant.” Joseph had a dream, a word from the Lord, but for the next 13 years, he knew only slavery. And for those years, “the word of the Lord” tried him; it tested his faith in what God had said (Psa. 105:19). In spite of what he could see, God was at work for good for His people and for Joseph. May we learn from Joseph to live in faith in God’s revealed promises, in simple submission to His way and will. In due time we shall, like Joseph did, look back and gratefully exclaim, “God meant it unto good, to bring it to pass, as it is this day” (Gen. 50:20).
Joseph
From Stephen’s speech in Acts 7, we have a clear warrant for judging the history of Joseph to be typical or allegorical. But even without this warrant, the use which the New Testament makes of the Old Testament narratives would authorize us to look for some “hidden wisdom” in his history. As we seek to follow out the series of events in his history, briefly unfolding what I judge to be their mystical or hidden meaning, may the Lord both enlarge and control our minds!
Genesis 37: Joseph Cast Out
Joseph here shows himself as the righteous one and, as such, provokes the enmity of his wicked brethren, as Joseph’s Lord was afterwards hated of the world, for He testified that its deeds were evil. Just as Joseph’s brethren did not care for any divine purpose which interfered with their pride, so it was said to the Lord Jesus, “We will not have this man to reign over us.” Joseph’s brethren envy him and eventually sell him for twenty pieces of silver. Finally, they consider it a light thing to wound their aged father’s heart. “This have we found,” they said of Joseph’s coat besmeared with blood: “Know now whether it be thy son’s coat or no.” And thus they sinned against both their aged father and their righteous, unoffending brother.
In all this we have Israel betraying and murdering the just One. His father had sent Joseph to his brethren to enquire after their welfare. But it was not as the bearer of kind tidings that they received him, but “behold this dreamer cometh.” “Come therefore and let us slay him” — so afterward toward the greater than Joseph. It was not as the minister of grace and love, but as the envied Heir of the vineyard that they looked on Him and said, “Come, let us kill Him, and the inheritance shall be ours.” His love was refused, and for envy His brethren delivered Him unto death. For thirty pieces of silver they sold Him to strangers. They crucified Him who was the Father’s elect One and all His delight.
Genesis 38: the Measure
of Their Sins
The spirit of revelation here interrupts the course of Joseph’s history in order to give us a view of his brethren during Joseph’s separation from them. And what is the view we get of them here? Filling up the measure of their sins, making terms with the uncircumcised, and defiling the holy seed. And so it is now. All in Israel is corruption and uncleanness. Israel has played the harlot with many lovers and is now, while Jesus is separated from them, filling up the measure of their sins.
But we are given also to catch the faint glimpse of distant blessing. Judah confesses his sin, and then “mercy rejoiceth against judgment.” Pharez comes forth, and from him comes the true Inheritor of the blessing, the one that shall prevail, and whose kingdom shall stand forever (Matt. 1:3).
Genesis 39-41: Joseph Glorified
Here we see Joseph, while in exile, preserving his purity and separation to God. For conscience toward God he endures grief, suffering wrongfully, but the Lord is still with him. He gives him favor in the sight of strangers in spite of all the dishonor and humiliation to which the wickedness of others may reduce him. This tribulation under the divine hand was made to work patience, and by it the crown was brightening for him.
And we find Joseph in some sense glorified also in his prison, for we see him glorified as a prophet, knowing the secret of God. The dreams of the butler and baker were “according to the interpretation,” for they were sent of God. And thus was it with Jesus in His day of sorrow, for He, like Joseph, was glorified as a Prophet (Luke 4:15). And so it should be in His saints now in measure. They may be despised, but they “have the mind of Christ”; they know the secrets of God, the love of the Father, the judgment of the world, and the coming kingdom and power of Jesus.
But at the close of all this we see Joseph brought out of sorrow, introduced into the full confidence of him who held the royal power, and given authority in the earth. He is made lord of Pharaoh’s house and ruler of all his substance. He becomes the sole treasurer and dispenser of the resources of the whole earth, on which his brethren and all the world were soon to become dependent for preservation. He had been distinguished as “the friend of God,” knowing His ways, and was entitled to be called “the revealer of secrets.”
And surely a greater than Joseph is here — Jesus the Son of God, seated beside the Father on His throne in His full confidence and favor, and made the treasurer of all that grace and blessing upon which Israel and the nations are soon to draw for life and preservation in the earth. Jesus was obedient, and therefore God has highly exalted Him. And besides all this present glory on the throne, the Son of God has received a present joy, as we have seen Joseph did in Egypt. He has now received, from among Gentile strangers, a new family, for Joseph’s Egyptian family clearly typifies Christ’s heavenly family, the church.
Genesis 42-44: the Famine
In the preceding sections, we have seen, first, Joseph cast out by his brethren; second, his brethren filling up the measure of their sin; third, Joseph brought to glory and joy in the midst of those strangers among whom his brethren’s enmity had cast him. And all these we have seen setting forth Jesus, Israel, and the church.
But Israel is not always to be forgotten. Just as sore affliction will bring them to Jesus and to repentance, so here stress of famine in the land of Canaan leads Joseph’s brethren to seek that help which was now in Joseph alone.
Joseph, however, had something more to do for them than simply to supply their present need. He must prepare not only a blessing for them, but them for a blessing. He makes himself strange and speaks roughly to them, and by this he calls their sin to remembrance. “We are verily guilty,” say they, “concerning our brother.” But he hides himself while all this is going on and speaks to them by an interpreter. They had once bound and sold Joseph to strangers, and now a stranger takes and binds one of them. He dismisses the rest with present supplies for their houses, charging them not to see his face again, unless their youngest brother was with them, for he must know whether they had as yet the affections of children and of brothers, or whether they were still as when he had known them — reckless of a brother’s cries and a father’s bereavement.
Thus the work goes on in their souls. They had been convicted, and godly sorrow was then working fear in them. But now there is the final test. Joseph’s cup is put into Benjamin’s sack, and they are again dismissed with fresh supplies. But now was the crisis. Benjamin, the cup being found on him, becomes forfeited to Joseph. This was the solemn moment in the whole proceeding: How will the once murderous brethren and the once thankless children now behave themselves? Judah stands before Joseph in the shame of confessed iniquity. They were all innocent touching the cup, but they were not so touching their brother, and this sin is the real one before them now. Then Judah draws near and again pleads as with the bowels of a son for Jacob and as a brother for Benjamin. He is ready to abide a bondman himself; only let “the lad” go back to “his father”; let the father’s heart be comforted, and the brother’s innocence preserve him, and Judah will be satisfied, come to himself what may.
At this point nothing more is asked for! Joseph’s love could no longer hide itself. “Cause every man to go out from me,” said he, and then he made himself known to his brethren. He set free their evil conscience and bound up their broken hearts. Grace and blessing could now flow out.
So it will be with Israel and the Lord. In their affliction by and by, they will seek Him, and in richer wisdom and love than even that of Joseph, He will lead them to repentance and cause them to look on Him whom they pierced. With a surer and readier love than that with which Joseph fell on his brethren’s neck and kissed them will Jehovah Jesus return to them (Lev. 26:40-42). “I will say it is My people, and they shall say, the Lord is my God.”
Genesis 45-47: Joseph
Their Sustainer
The reconciliation being now perfected, all was ready for the loading of the brethren with unreserved blessing: Pharaoh’s goodwill is to be fully toward them, as well as Joseph’s. Pharaoh will have their aged father brought down and, with his households and his flock, seated in the fattest and choicest portion of the land. All this was marvellous in Jacob’s ears when he heard it. He “believed not for joy and wondered,” for this to him was receiving Joseph alive from the dead. He accordingly goes down into the land of Egypt and finds that all things had rather been working together for him.
But Joseph was not only to be made known to his brethren, but Joseph’s kindred are also now to be made known to Pharaoh (Acts 7:13). Accordingly he presents them to the king. They were shepherds, it is true, keepers of cattle from their youth, such as were held in abomination in the land of Egypt. But what of that? “He is not ashamed to call them brethren.” He owns them in the presence of the king, and the king himself is of one mind with Joseph toward them; he owns them also and honors them and will have them regard the whole of his land as before them. And they are accordingly placed in the best of the land, in Goshen in the land of Rameses, and Joseph nourishes them and their households.
But this is not all. Joseph is to be the upholder of the whole earth in life and in order. He secures the full honor of Pharaoh’s throne, as well as being the healer and restorer of Israel. He gives the Egyptians their lives out of his storehouses, but he gathers their money, their cattle, their lands, and themselves, all for Pharaoh. For himself he retains nothing but his place of honor and trust and service under the king.
And so will it be in the end of the days. Israel, then repentant, shall be seated in the true Goshen, the glory of all lands, and Jesus shall own them and present them as His brethren without shame. The earth shall yield Him her increase, and all the people shall praise Him (Psa. 67). At His name every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
I do not notice the remaining chapters of this history, for in them Jacob becomes principal again, and the place which Joseph occupies in them is of another character. But these chapters give us properly Joseph and constitute one complete mystery, beginning with our Lord’s rejection and ending with the kingdom of Christ, taking up, by the way, His union with the church and His heavenly glory.
J. G. Bellett (adapted)
Joseph and His Brethren
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. 19:8 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. 41:39-40). 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. 8:33-34). 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 14:21).
D. C. Buchanan
Joseph in Prison
After Joseph had graciously interpreted the dreams of the chief butler and the chief baker and had requested the chief butler to “think on me when it shall be well with thee, and show kindness, I pray thee, unto me, and make mention of me unto Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house” (Gen. 40:14), we read, “Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgat him.” Well was it for Joseph that he did, for Joseph was not to have his way. God’s way was far better and filled with far more blessing than he could ever have asked for or thought. “Two full years” Joseph waited in prison, and we do not read of his growing weary or impatient over his adverse circumstances.
He was in perfect innocence as to the charge which brought him there, and “the Lord was with Joseph” (Gen. 39:21). Circumstances are no barrier to the Lord’s presence with His people, whether they are in poverty or riches, honor or shame, so long as there has been faithfulness to Him and a good conscience retained; hence Joseph’s composure and success. Hebrews tells us to be “satisfied with ... present circumstances; for He has said, I will not leave thee” (Heb. 13:5 JND), while at Philippi Paul provides an example of one rejoicing in most adverse circumstances. They might put him in the inner prison and make his feet fast in the stocks, but neither devil nor man could stop the flowing of that fountain of living water springing up within, and the Lord was with him. Peter, too, in Acts 5, is seen rejoicing in suffering for the sake of His name, having been beaten for his faithfulness. Everything depends on how we get into the circumstances we are in, as to what we suffer or enjoy while in them. Thus two men may be in the same circumstances outwardly, yet the Lord, in this sense, may be with only one of them.
God Is Faithful
The Lord was for Joseph, too, as well as with him; it could not be otherwise. And though the chief butler forgot him, He did not. What a comfort it is to know that we never are in any circumstance, whether we get there rightly or wrongly — through sin or through faithfulness — but that God can give us a right and a triumphant way out of it. It will call for self-judgment and confession if it is through sin, much patience and waiting upon God in either case, but it is written for every trial, “God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it” (1 Cor. 10:13). If we wait for Him, He leads in triumph.
Joseph waited, like the blessed One of Psalm 40, who, when the right moment came, could say, “I waited patiently for the Lord, and He inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of a horrible pit. ... Blessed is the man that maketh the Lord his trust” (Psa. 40:1-2,4).
Had Joseph gotten his way when he made the request of the butler, very likely he would have been restored to the place that he had lost, and most probably not so much as that, but when God’s time came, he was brought forth from prison to sit among princes.
His Heart — His Hand
Little do we know how much we often lose because of our natural readiness to resort to some expedient of our own, when we miss the incomparable blessedness of being fed by the “integrity of His heart” and guided by the “skillfulness of His hand.” Peter, with all his activity, could never have achieved anything nearly so wonderful as what took place for him when he was in prison and absolutely powerless to put into practice any plan of his own. But this condition of helplessness made him a fit subject for a greater manifestation of power in his life than ever before. It was God’s opportunity; He could bring in His resources now that Peter had none. For such opportunities, I believe, God often waits in vain; we fill them up ourselves, and the desired result does not bring forth the worship that would have resulted, had we allowed God to work.
The Great Change
Pharaoh dreamed, and the butler remembered his fault, in the forgetfulness of his benefactor two years before. No one having been found able to interpret the dreams, Joseph came to the chief butler’s memory. Pharaoh sends for Joseph, and he who had been Pharaoh’s prisoner was almost immediately found Pharaoh’s counselor. He exchanged the dungeon for the “second chariot” and the faithful rule of the prison for governor “over all the land of Egypt.” “And they cried before him, Bow the knee.”
Are we not often very foolish in the things for which we sometimes make request? And do we not often seek untimely escapes out of circumstances that we consider hurtful? Such ways only add to our troubles and hinder Him whose eye is always watchful and whose way with us is always in blessing. May this knowledge inspire in each of us increased confidence and patience! Joseph’s way might have led to deliverance from prison; God’s way led not only out of suffering, but also to the greatest honor.
Pharaoh not only decked Joseph with honor, but also gave him Asenath, daughter of Potipherah priest of On, as his wife, to share his honors. The pit and prison were his lot alone; Asenath was not with him there. So it is said of Christ, “He was taken from prison. ... He shall divide the spoil with the strong” (Isa. 53:8,12). He suffered alone, but the church (and Israel too, by and by) will share with Him the spoil. He was the only One who could pass under the judgment of God and come out of it, having settled its every claim, but we share in His victory! The Lord give our hearts to worship more and more, in such boundless love as this!
It is precious to us — and surely gratifying to Christ — to entertain the consciousness in our hearts of what we are to Christ. In Ephesians 5 we are told that He “loved” and He “gave.” What He gave is the measure of the love — “Himself.” The same love occupies itself now with its precious objects, which it nourishes and cherishes, till the day arrives of the consummation of His ways of love and grace with us. Soon He will fully gratify His own heart’s desires and affection by presenting to Himself the object He loved and for which He died.
F. T. Heath (adapted)
Joseph’s Four Garments
In a previous issue of The Christian (“The Life of Jacob,” November 2009), we commented that God often uses natural things to distinguish and highlight certain events in the lives of the various people depicted in Scripture. It was commented that this was true in the lives of some of the patriarchs, for Abraham had four altars, Isaac had four wells, Jacob had four pillars, and Joseph had four garments. I would like to look at Joseph’s four garments, for they not only exemplify Joseph as a type of Christ, but also show us practical lessons for our own lives.
The Coat of Many Colors
The first garment mentioned is Joseph’s coat of many colors (Gen. 37:3), which was given him by his father Jacob. This special mark of his father’s favor brought out envy and hatred in his brothers, who “could not speak peaceably unto him.” As time went on (and we know the story well), their hatred led them to strip Joseph of his coat of many colors (Gen. 37:23) and sell him into Egypt. Then, to cover up their sin, they “killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the coat in the blood; and they sent the coat of many colors, and they brought it to their father” (Gen. 37:31-32). Jacob’s natural reaction was to deduce that Joseph had been killed by some wild animal, and “he mourned for his son many days” (Gen. 37:34).
Surely this coat, with its many colors, brings before us the many glories of our blessed Saviour, who came into this world to display His Father’s heart, just as Joseph was sent to his brethren by his father. When the Lord Jesus came into this world as a man, He veiled His official glory, for man could not bear it. But His moral glory shone out everywhere, as well as His power in doing mighty acts, all of which showed clearly who He was. John could write, “We beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Yet man did not appreciate this glory, as Joseph’s brothers did not appreciate him; rather, their hatred and envy was directed toward Him. Eventually man, as it were, publicly stripped the Lord Jesus of His glory and sent it back to God His Father, stained with His blood.
Later, when he was in a position of power and authority, Joseph showed mercy and love to those same brothers who had treated him so shamefully. How beautiful too, in the case of the Lord Jesus, that the same blood which was shed by the hand of man now avails to wash away the sins of those who rebelled against Him! “The very spear that pierced Thy side drew forth the blood to save” (Little Flock Hymnbook, #230)!
The Second Garment
The second garment of Joseph is mentioned in Genesis 39:7-20. Here was a real test of Joseph’s faithfulness to the Lord, for, humanly speaking, he was “between a rock and a hard place.” Faced with seduction by his master’s wife, he was in a difficult place as a slave. To give in to her wishes was a sin, not only against his master, but also against the Lord. To refuse was to invite the anger of one who was in authority over him and one who could use her influence against him. He leaves his garment and flees. Faithfulness to the Lord controlled him, although the consequences were, at the time, very serious, as he was thrown into prison.
So it was with our blessed Master. Every issue, even the contemplation of His sufferings on the cross, was settled by the words, “Father, glorify Thy name” (John 12:28). So it should be with us; we should honor the Lord in our pathway, whatever the consequences might be. The Lord may sometimes deliver us, but we may also be called to be among the “and others” in Hebrews 11:36-40, who suffered rather than dishonor the Lord. Their reward was not in this life; rather, they will receive it in resurrection.
Like our blessed Lord, Joseph had to suffer grievously for a time, but then he was eventually delivered and made governor over all the land of Egypt. All were compelled to bow down before him — the one who had but lately been a prisoner. So it will be in a coming day, when the Lord Jesus will be displayed as “King of kings, and Lord of lords” (Rev. 19:16). He too will receive His rightful place only in resurrection, like those in the latter verses of Hebrews 11. In that day all will own Him, for God has declared that “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow” (Phil. 2:10).
The Prison Garment
The third garment of Joseph’s is mentioned in Genesis 41:14 — his prison garments. They are not specifically described, but we may well surmise that they were characteristic of one who was a prisoner and identified him as such. They were evidently not considered suitable for Joseph to wear when he appeared before Pharaoh. No doubt Joseph wore these garments the entire time he was in prison, which we know stretched out into a number of years.
The wearing of such a garment must have been a real trial to Joseph, having known first of all his father’s favor in giving him his coat of many colors and then having been the overseer of Potiphar’s house. Such degradation must have been even more difficult to bear, because it was all the result of his moral uprightness and faithfulness to the Lord. Yet in all this, Joseph is more like his Master than at any other time, for the Lord Jesus too was “despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isa. 53:3). He too was one from whom men hid their faces, not wanting to be identified with Him. But the Lord Jesus took the low place; Joseph was placed there. Our blessed Saviour was content, as it were, to wear prison garments and to be despised among men.
In one sense, the Lord Jesus continues to be identified with prison garments, as far as this world is concerned. We know that “God also hath highly exalted Him” (Phil. 2:9), but this world has never repented of the way it treated the Son of God. He remains despised and rejected, and this will not change until He is given the word to execute judgment on this world and take His rightful place. Only then will He be able to “change His garments” before the world. For the moment, His own in this world, like the chief butler in Joseph’s history, have the opportunity of “making mention” of Him to the Father and, in this way, to bring Him “out of this house” (Gen. 40:14). It is a special privilege to do this during His rejection — a privilege of which the chief butler was evidently unwilling to avail himself. Do we, as believers, value the privilege of speaking well of our blessed Saviour in the day of His rejection in this world?
The Vestures of Fine Linen
The final garments mentioned in connection with Joseph are found in Genesis 41:42-43, where we read that “Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand, and put it upon Joseph’s hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck; and he made him to ride in the second chariot which he had; and they cried before him, Bow the knee; and he made him ruler over all the land of Egypt.” Here we have garments suitable to one who was now “ruler over all the land of Egypt” and without whom no man might “lift up his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt” (Gen. 41:44). Joseph’s time in prison was over, and time for his public exaltation had come. Instead of prison garments, he now wore fine linen, and with adornments suitable to his high office. Very suddenly he was elevated from a prisoner to being the administrator of the whole land of Egypt — greater than all except Pharaoh.
So it will be with the Lord Jesus in a coming day. When He appears in judgment, we read that “a short work will the Lord make upon the earth” (Rom. 9:28). In a relatively short time He will carry out the most awful judgments this world has ever seen and then take His place as Head over all things. “He must reign, till He hath put all enemies under His feet” (1 Cor. 15:25). At that time “every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him” (Rev. 1:7).
But this will be a glorious day for us as believers too, for the Lord Jesus will not take this place of power and glory until He has His bride associated with Him. Before the real work of judgment begins, the “marriage of the Lamb” will have taken place, so that when Christ is displayed in His glory, His church is with Him.
More than this, the millennial day, like the day of Joseph’s glory, will be characterized by blessing for the whole earth. In his role of administrator, Joseph collected grain during the years of plenty and then distributed grain to sustain Egypt and the whole area around it during the years of famine. So the Lord Jesus will bring unprecedented blessing upon the whole earth during His 1000-year millennial reign. But His church will share His heavenly glory, just as Joseph was given a wife (Asenath) before his reconciliation with his brethren, who typify Israel’s being brought back into earthly blessing.
“And when the day of glory
Shall burst upon this scene,
Dispelling all the darkness
Which deepening still had been;
Oh, then He’ll come in brightness,
Whom every eye shall see,
Arrayed in power and glory,
And we shall with Him be.”
Little Flock Hymnbook, #141
W. J. Prost
Manasseh and Ephraim
Joseph’s own history, remarkable and checkered as it was, sets forth in type the varied exercises and trials to which a servant of God is subjected, in order that he may be a suitable vessel for the Master’s use. In considering Joseph’s life, the names of his sons, born to him in the land of his exile, are full of the deepest interest and significance. These names were given with a special reason and intent, for the children were born to him in a strange land. Thus, even in their names, they were witnesses of how entirely apart from “his father’s house” he was and how he was left to be fruitful only to God amid his affliction.
“Forgetting”
Now the meaning of Manasseh is forgetting, and of Ephraim, fruitful. These two great features will be produced in our hearts, when the revelation of God’s mind and will for the present moment is received in faith. No one can truly say that he forgets “his father’s house,” until his heart has found a treasure in a brighter scene; then, wherever he is in body becomes the land of exile to him. It is truly a wonderful emancipation to a man when what he has found in heaven throws into shade all that is connected with our “father’s house.”
Yet it is only Christ in glory that can displace “all things,” leading us to count them loss for the excellency of His knowledge. How sorrowful it is to see many so little distinguished by this Manasseh character of testimony! It is solemn to realize that the highest character of testimony may be held doctrinally, along with the most evident self-seeking and worldliness. How is this? It is because truth is sought after or held in the mind instead of Christ personally dwelling in the heart, for it is possible to separate Christ from truth. Sometimes more importance is attached to natural quickness of apprehension of the truth, even to the point of slighting some who, though slow in apprehension, are far more conscientious in their handling of the truth, because they are deeply impressed with the sense of its claims upon them.
How blessed it is when we can really walk through the world as in a foreign land — Christ in glory having so possessed us that we are but vessels here at His disposal and pleasure! When the eye is single and Christ alone is filling its vision, all is lost sight of — not only our toil and father’s house, but even our progress in pressing on to Christ in glory. Hence the Apostle says, “Forgetting those things which are behind.” What a wonderful and surpassing power it is, which turns out every rival, that Christ alone may rule and reign there!
“Fruitful”
But another son was born to Joseph at this time also, to whom he gives the name of Ephraim, that is, fruitful. This sets forth a second testimony, which the Lord has called His own to render for Him. We are left in a world with which we ought to have nothing in common to be fruitful for Christ.
There is another point of great interest in this history, which finds its antitype in the Lord’s ways with His saints at the present time. It required both the pit and the prison to develop and mature this testimony of Joseph. And is it not so with His saints now? Can there be either forgetfulness or fruitfulness, unless death practically works in us? As we bear about in our body the dying of Jesus and as we who live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, His life is manifested in us. We owe our all to His blessed death; by it He has set us free from the moral pit and prison in which we were hopelessly held. But while almost every saint would glory in this, how few there are who have as yet accepted the solemn reality that it is only through death that we can, as free, follow Him, and it is only as death practically works in us that we are either forgetting or fruitful.
May the Lord awaken us all to a more serious estimate of such a calling, so as to set forth in a scene of moral death and darkness, the land of our exile and strangership, the beautiful simplicity of those whose father’s house and toil are all to us things of the past, to be no more remembered or resumed connection with! We, though in a foreign land, ought to be fruitful trees of the Lord’s culture, even “planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit” (Jer. 17:8).
W. T. Turpin (adapted)
Asenath and Zipporah
The brides of Joseph and Moses were the daughters of priests, they were both Gentiles, and they both were given to their husbands while rejected by their brethren. Those who compose the church belong to a priestly family (1 Peter 2:5), they are “all of one” with Christ, and they are therefore suited for His companionship. Although the church is composed of Jews and Gentiles, it is characteristically Gentile, in the sense that it is largely composed of Gentiles, even as we read, “God ... did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for His name” (Acts 15:14), and again, “Christ in you [Gentiles], the hope of glory” (Col. 1:37). That Christ has the church while rejected by His earthly brethren needs little emphasis. In this connection, it is interesting to observe that Stephen, in Acts 7, presents Joseph and Moses as types of the rejected Christ.
These brides have also complementary features: Asenath shares with Joseph his exaltation and glory, but Zipporah has part with Moses in his place of strangership and rejection. Moreover, Asenath is united to him who is raised from the lowest to the highest place in Egypt, but Zipporah is the wife of the one who forsook Egypt with its kingdom and glory and who chose the path of suffering and affliction. When on earth, Christ refused the kingdom from Satan and from men, but He shall have it from the hand of His Father; then shall the church share His kingdom and glory.
W. C. Reid
To Greet You
I cannot tell what blessings you are
needing —
I wish you health — that portion truly
blessed;
Strength for life’s road; the gladness of
succeeding;
The joy of work, and, too, the balm of rest.
I cannot tell what burdens are upon you —
For burdens come, though face may show
them not;
But I would wish that God’s good hand be
on you;
That He may share whate’er may be your
lot.
I cannot tell what cares your heart may
carry —
For cares do come, as quickly come the
years;
But there is strength for all who on Him
tarry —
Which gives deliverance from all troubled
fears.
I cannot tell! Your needs, like mine, He
knoweth!
But, since He gave for us His very Best,
Shall we not find He lesser things
bestoweth —
And that, in Him, we cannot but be blest.
J. D. Smith