IT often appears to us that God by His providences is denying His promises. We think they are “coffined,” really dead and out of sight. There is no sign of the accomplishment. Yet it is true as we afterward prove that if a seed is to bring forth fruit, it must be buried in the earth and die. God’s promises are like seeds; they have to be buried and die, very often, before they blossom to us with joy, and yield golden fruits of love and peace.
That “coffin in Egypt” did not remain there. It was taken by the Israelites to the Promised Land, and deposited in the center of Canaan. And it is remarkable that when the Lord Jesus Christ met the woman of Samaria, really the first Gentile called by His ministry, He sat on a well “near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.” It was doubtless here that Joseph’s bones were interred. And if so, that “coffin in Egypt” has a lovely promise for us Gentiles as well as for the children of Israel. The first Gentile called was a distinct pledge that God would open the door of faith to them, and that His promises in Christ, to Jew and Gentile alike, should be all of them fulfilled to the letter.