Genesis 41.
DREAMS play an important part in Joseph’s history previous to his exaltation. God frequently took this way to communicate His mind, or to reveal beforehand coming events, in the ages before Moses, when there was no written revelation of His will. So in the book of Job, where we have history antedating Moses (as we believe), we read of God speaking “in a dream, in a vision of the night,” to men. Now we have His written revelation, the completed Bible, and it is only in extremely rare and exceptional cases that we can recognize a dream as having come from God. “A dream cometh through the multitude of business,” that is, from purely natural causes, Scripture says (Eccl. 5:3). This may be said of the mass of dreams but there are dreams on record which are undoubtedly of divine origin, and can be accounted for in no other way. For instance, I know a lady well, who said one morning to one of the members of her family, “I fear something is going to happen, for I saw in my dream last night a pool of blood.” And before that day closed her husband was carried into the house with his face covered with blood, which was flowing from a gash in his forehead. “There is my pool of blood,” she exclaimed, as she opened the door and saw it. He had been thrown from his wagon, and struck his forehead against a sharp stone. Now this may appear trifling to some, but how many individuals (and even nations) have been saved from the grossest materialism by such and similar means, none of us can tell. Anyway, history records what an important place dreams held in the cults of ancient Egypt and Assyria, and the divinely inspired story of Joseph confirms it.
Pharaoh is the dreamer in the chapter before us to-night. He dreams two dreams of exactly the same import. He stands in his dream by the river Nile, and sees seven well-favored and fat-fleshed kine feeding in a meadow. Then he sees seven ill-favored and lean-fleshed kine come up out of the river and eat up the well-favored and fat-fleshed. He dreams again, and sees seven ears of corn, rank and good, come up on one stalk. Then he sees seven thin ears, blasted with the east wind, spring up after them, and they devour the rank and full ears. Pharaoh then awakes, and is troubled. He tells the magicians and wise men his dreams. “But,” we read, there was none that could interpret them unto Pharaoh.” Then the chief butler speaks up, and tells of his and the chief baker’s experience in prison years before, and how Joseph had correctly interpreted their dreams. “And it came to pass,” he says, “as he interpreted to us, so it was; me he restored unto mine office, and him he hanged.” “Then,” we read,” Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him hastily out of the dungeon: and he shaved himself, and changed his raiment, and came in unto Pharaoh.” Pharaoh tells Joseph his dreams, and Joseph at once explains to Pharaoh what they mean. He interprets the seven well-favored and fat-fleshed kine and the seven rank and good ears of corn to signify “seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt.” And the seven lean kine and thin ears he interprets as seven years of famine. “And there shall arise after them” (the seven years of plenty), he says, “seven years of famine; and all the plenty shall be forgotten in the land of Egypt; and the fane shall consume the land; and the plenty shall not be known in the land by reason of that fane following; for it shall be very grievous. And,” he adds, “for that the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice, it is because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass.” Then, unasked, and with the dignity becoming a messenger of God, the Hebrew slave advises the king just what to do in view of what was about to come to pass — reminding us of his great Antitype, whose name is “Counselor.”
The thing that he counsels is good in the eyes of Pharaoh and his officers of state. They are struck with the wisdom of it, and from court interpreter and counselor in this emergency Joseph is promoted to the office of grand vizier of the king”. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, 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. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt. And 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. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I am Pharaoh, and without thee shall no man lift up his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt.”
All this is typical of the present exaltation of Christ Jesus the Lord. He who was once the Crucified is now the Glorified. He whom men once put upon a gibbet, has been placed by God upon His throne. Joseph was given his place of exaltation in Egypt purely on the ground of his personal worth and actual service rendered by him to the country and kingdom of Egypt. And we see from Philippians 2. that God has exalted Jesus (as a man) solely because of personal worthiness and obedience unto death. Wherefore,” we read, “God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a (or, the) name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” And Peter on the day of Pentecost says to the very Jews who had condemned and crucified Him, “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36). And what God by the Spirit, through Peter, wished those Jews nineteen hundred years ago to know, He wants you to-day to know. God has made Him Lord and Christ, remember. And your wisdom (and salvation) is to recognize this fact and act accordingly.
Sinners, especially religious sinners, almost inviably speak of Him as “Jesus.” They use the name given Him in His humiliation, His personal name when dwelling here on earth. But God hath made this same “Jesus” Lord and Christ.
These are not mere names, but titles of honor and dignity. And the unconverted, influenced more or less by Satan, seem not to wish to give Him what belongs to Him by right. What would be thought of the man who always spoke of the king of England as Albert Edward, and even addressed him directly by his personal name? You know he would at once be accused (and quite properly) of familiarity and lack of respect, and his loyalty would be seriously questioned. “His Majesty,” “His Royal Highness,” “The King,” and the like, are all titles belonging to his position as sovereign of the empire-kingdom, though there might be occasions when it would be considered quite proper to say “Alert Edward” only. And there are times when it is perfectly in place to speak of the Lord as Jesus. He is sometimes (though rarely) spoken of in this way in Scripture after His resurrection and ascension to glory. But there is always a discernible needs-be for it. It is never used in the loose, haphazard, irreverent way in which so many professing Christians use it nowadays. Every tongue must confess Him “Lord.”
You will notice demons, in the New Testament, never called Him “Lord.” They, like the mass of men to-day, called Him “Jesus.” They addressed Him as the “Holy One of God.” But they never in one single instance spoke of or to Him as Lord. But they, like all who only call Him “Jesus” now, will one day be compelled, to their everlasting shame and sorrow, to confess that He is Lord. The three great spheres of created intelligences, the celestial, the terrestrial, and the infernal — heaven, earth, and hell — will own Him Lord. O sinner, do it now. You must do it some day. Do it now, of your own voluntary will: “with the mouth confession is made unto salvation,” Scripture says. If you refuse you will be compelled to do it when too late, and damnation will be your fearful, everlasting doom. Don’t be like the young man who said he never would submit to Christ. But God made a terrible example of him. He was taken sick; and when at last he realized that he was dying, he cried out, “O my proud knees, must you bow must you bow! “Yes, his proud knees bent, but it was that compulsory submission that demons and all lost men will be compelled to yield. “Bow the kneel” the herald cried, as Joseph, arrayed in his robes of state and official regalia, was driven in the royal chariot through the land of Egypt. And woe to that man or woman who refused to bow to the former Hebrew slave. Potiphar’s wife would have to bow with the rest before that one whom she had so wickedly sought to ruin.
And how will those proud knees bow to Jesus Christ, the Son of God, that now “take Him a creature to be,” and do their best to make the world believe that He is not what He said He was, though the Holy Spirit proclaims Him “God manifest in the flesh”! Oh, how will it fare in that day with these lying traducers of His holy peon, these deniers of His deity, these shameless “higher critics” who pretend that they know more than He, when they come to bow themselves before Him! How will they cringe before His presence when He sits upon His judgment-throne, and it is made manifest what hard speeches they have ungodlily spoken against Him! They will confess Him then to be all that He claimed to be when here on earth; they will acknowledge there that everything the Bible said of Him was true. But it will only be to their shame and everlasting contempt. And then, silenced and subdued forever, they must “go away” to that abode of woe and darkness to share the fate of demons whose lies they greedily swallowed and so industriously sought to promulgate.
Hear ye, all of you that think ye have in Jesus altogether such a one as yourselves: “By Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him and for Him” (Col. 1:16). This is what God has caused to be written of Him whose name some of you are not afraid to blaspheme. How terrible your sin! Oh, may God grant you repentance, and give you to own with us that Jesus Christ is Lord; and not only Lord, but a loving, living Saviour, whose
“Love is as great as His power.”
After Joseph’s exaltation came the seven years of plenty. And these seven years of great abundance picture, if they do not typify, the present dispensation of grace in which it is our happy lot to live. “Now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation,” 2 Corinthians 6:2 Says. And it will last till the coming of the Lord. Then the door will shut for all who have heard and rejected the gospel; and God will send them strong delusion. He will give them up to believe a lie, “that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (2 Thess. 2:12). This we see prefigured in the seven years of famine following the seven years of plenty. Seven is the number of spiritual perfection (whether of good or evil), and we see in these twice seven years two complete periods of time: the present, “the acceptable year of the Lord,” and what is to follow, “the day of vengeance of our God.”
There were seven years, not of plenty merely, but of “great plenty.” And during those years, we read, “the earth brought forth by handfuls.” It was a time of extraordinary abundance. And there never was a day like the one in which we live. Never before the present dispensation did God send His messengers out into all the world to proclaim to every sinner a free and a full salvation through faith in the name of His own exalted Son. There never was a time of such “abundance,” such “great plenty,” at any former period of God’s dealings with the earth. And it is a remarkable fact, which I have not seen previously noted, that of all the distinct dispensations of time referred to in Scripture the present is by far the longest. And oh, what a tale of grace this tells! God is indeed “long-suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish.” I do not wish to advert here to the various dispensations marked out in the word of God. But I must remark, and emphasize the fact, that never in the history of the human race has God permitted men to sin so long, so persistently, and so high-handedly, without apparently interfering with them, as in this day of grace. He is sending out His servants to all the nations of the earth with the ministry of reconciliation, to wit, “that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imping their trespasses unto them.” His great harvest of grace is being reaped. May you be found among the wheat. Have a care that you do not find your portion with the chaff and tares “whose end is to be burned.” Be recoiled to God, I beseech you, to-day, lest the years of plenteousness pass before you are aware of it, and you find yourself on the brink of a lost eternity, there to lament in bitter and hopeless despair, “The harvest is past, the summer is end, and I am not saved”
Joseph was called by Pharaoh “Zaphnathpaaneah,” which is said to mean in the Egyptian language “The Saviour of the world,” and in its Hebrew form, according to Josephus, “revealer of secrets.” Both would suit the new grand vizier very well. And both these offices are fulfilled in Christ. He is the true Zaphnathpaaneah. He revealed to men the secrets of their hearts when here on earth. He knew the sinful history of Samaria’s daughter perfectly. “Come, see a man which told me all things that ever I did,” she said to the people of her city, when He had exposed to herself her sin. You have noticed in the Gospels, perhaps, how many times the expression is found, “Jesus answered and said unto them;” or, “Jesus answered him,” when no one has asked anything. Many have wondered at this, why it is said He answered when no question had been asked. I will tell you what it means: Christ could read men’s hearts, and He saw questions there that their lips never expressed. And God’s way is to strike at the root — man’s heart; and so, often, what men said to Christ was seemingly ignored (as in the case of Nicodemus, John 3:2, 3), and He answered them in accordance with the condition of their hearts. And in the coming day, we read, God will “judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ.” In Him, then, we see the great “Revealer of secrets.” But He is more than this; He is the “Saviour of the world.” The Samaritans call Him this, who had come to believe on Him because of the saying of the very woman who had announced Him as the One who had laid bare her life’s dark secrets. In that chapter, then (the 4th of John), we see Him in both characters — Revealer of secrets, and Saviour of the world. In the one we see that “God is light;” in the other, “God is love;” light exposing the sin, and love providing for its removal and forgiveness.
But Pharaoh not only gave to Joseph a full and glorious name — he gave him a wife as well, “Asenath, the daughter of Poti-pherah, priest (or prince) of On.” And this Gentile wife, given to Joseph during the time of his separation from his brethren, is a most beautiful and unmistakable type of the Church given to Christ, to be His bride, during this the time that He is lost to His brethren after the flesh — the Jewish nation. There are seven such types of the Church (if we include Rachel) in the Old Testament Scriptures: Eve, Rebekah, Rachel, Asenath, Zipporah, Abigail, and Solomon’s queen, the daughter of Pharaoh. They form a most interesting group, and would, I believe, amply repay a detailed study. Let us take the briefest glance at them: Eve is the first and archetype of them all. She was taken out of the man during the time that a deep sleep had fallen upon him. Adam asleep is Christ in death. And when the Lord God brings her to him, he says, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh.” And with what a pure, intense, unselfish love he must have loved her! How deep and tender must have been this man’s first love for woman! It is a mystical picture thrown upon the screen of earliest human history to give us some conception of the love of Christ for His Church. “This is a great mystery,” writes Paul in Ephesians 5, speaking of the husband and wife as being one flesh; “but,” he adds, “I speak concerning Christ and the Church.” “Christ loved the Church, and gave Himself for it.” He went down into death to obtain such a bride as only beautiful, unfallen Eve could properly (in this connection) represent. She has been purchased with the blood of God’s own [Son]. And she is viewed as a part of Himself: “We are members of His body,” it is said. And just as Adam, after waking from his “deep sleep,” had this wondrously obtained and wondrously beautiful companion presented to him, so Christ, we read, will present to Himself “a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.”
Rebekah comes next. She was brought as a bride for Isaac, who typifies our risen Lord. “She was very fair to look upon,” we read; and when the crucial question, “Wilt thou go with this man?” is put to her, she unhesitatingly answers, “I will go.” And leaving her country, her kindred, and her father’s house, like Abram before her, she starts across the desert, under the guidance of Eliezer — the servant sent to bring her — foreshadow of the Holy Ghost. And so we sometimes sing,
“The Holy Ghost is leading Home to the Lamb His bride.”
And there, in Isaac’s home and heart, she takes the place of Sarah, type of Israel, now dead. “And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her: and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death” (Gen. 24:67).
Then comes Rachel, “beautiful and well-favored.” And only after years of toil could Jacob claim her as his own. In the day, the drought consumed him, and the frost by night; and his sleep departed from his eyes. But love lightened the burdens and sweetened all the bitterness of those long years. “And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her” (Gen. 29:20). And this is the only phase of his life in which the patriarch Jacob appears to typify our Lord, “who for the joy that was set bore Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and (His toil ended) is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Asenath here comes next; and after her, we have Zipporah, the Gentile wife of Moses. He, like Joseph, dwells an exile from his brethren, after having been rejected by them. And like Joseph, he has two sons born to him during his sojourn among the Gentiles. These two sons, with his wife, he leaves behind him when he again presents himself to Israel, to be accepted of them, and to lead them out of bondage to “the mount of God.” There Jethro, his father-in-law, comes out to meet him with his wife and two sons, Gershon and Eliezer. It is the Millennium in type. We see, as has been said, “the Jew, the Gentile, and the Church of God.” The emancipated nation is Israel redeemed from the power of the beast. Jethro represents the Gentiles who, saved during the great tribulation, will come to enjoy millennial blessing with the Jews. These are not the nations of Christendom, who have only judgment awaiting them at the hands of Christ whom they reject. Jethro was in obscurity at the back side of the desert during the terrible judgments of Egypt; and it is the nations whom we now call heathen, and whose dwelling is in comparative obscurity, that will be blessed when long-lost Israel is gathered. Zipporah, with her sons, has a place of nearness to Israel’s deliverer such as none other in the “mount of God” might know. This is the Church. (See Exodus 18.)
Abigail comes next. She was “a woman of good understanding, and of a beautiful countenance.” She sees in David God’s anointed king, and, set free by death from the churl Nabal, becomes the wife of David’s wilderness wanderings. And believers are set free from in and the law, by death, to be married to another, even to Christ, whose rejection they for the present share, and who, when they have suffered awhile, shall also “reign with Him.”
This is the final destiny of the Church, and we catch a gleam of the glory that awaits her in the few brief notices given us of the Egyptian bride of Solomon. She shared his glory, and he had built for her a special house. She is the last of the seven; and the conclusion, glory, is most fitting. Time forbids my saying more. Now, back to Joseph.
I have alluded incidentally to Joseph’s two sons. They evidently typify the individuals who compose the Church of God to-day, just as Asenath their mother represents the Church collectively. Their names are strikingly significant. Joseph calls the first-born Manasseh forgetting. “For God,” said he, “hath made me forget all my toil, and all my father’s house.” And Christ, for the joy of His heart over sinners begotten again by the word of His gospel, forest (may we say) the toil of the days of His flesh, and the sorrow of His rejection at the hands of Israel’s sons. The second son he names Ephraim, fruitful. “For God,” he says, “hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.” And though our Lord, according to the prophecies that had gone before, was as Messiah “cut off and had nothing,” as pertaining to the kingdom He is fruitful in the salvation of multitudes of “sinners of the Gentiles.” These answer to the sons of Joseph. “Behold,” says Christ, referring to these Ephraim’s, “I and the children which God hath given Me.” He is, blessed be His name, bringing “many sons to glory,” in this the day of His rejection.
And right here I want to say a word of warning to the unsaved present. verse 50 of our chapter says distinctly that these sons were born to Joseph “before the years of famine came.” Now this is solemn. If you wish to be among the number of the happy people typified by Joseph’s sons, you must be saved before the coming of the Lord. If types teach anything, this type of Joseph’s sons makes plain the truth that for Christendom the day of grace will close before the tribulation comes. We do not base this truth upon a type, however; the type but illustrates it. It is taught directly in the New Testament Scriptures. I am going to cite seral as proof. I think this necessary, for some are teaching that there is hope after the Lord has come, for those who have known and refused the truth. Only recently I was told of a well known Bible-class teacher who held and taught that some who had opportunity to be saved now, and have not received the gospel, might be given a chance after the Lord has taken away the Church. This was so grave that I called upon this teacher to ask him for myself. To my sorrow he told me that was his belief. He referred to Revelation 7, and said, “Why, after the Lord has come, there is to be a great revival.” And he did not merely say that some in Christendom who had never heard the gospel might be saved then, but referred to the unsaved husband of a Christian wife being brought to repentance after his wife’s translation to heaven. He is telling mothers, too, I am told, who have godless sons, not to fret, for their prayers for them may be answered after the Church is caught away. This may account for his classes being composed almost wholly of women. It is high time this error should be exposed. It may be considered by some a very comforting doctrine, but it is no good comforting oneself with a lie. In Matthew, chapter 25, where we see Christendom pictured in the parable of the ten virgins, the door is shut in the face of those unprepared at the coming of the bridegroom. They knock for admission in vain. “I know you not” is the only answer from within. They are left absolutely without hope. And it would be a mere waste of time to discuss the matter with anyone who denied it. Nothing would convince them if this did not. Their only loophole of escape from the evident import of this passage would be to limit the class of persons typified by the foolish virgins to certain individuals of special character in the professing Church. But if the wise virgins represent all true Christians (which they surely do), the foolish virgins picture, on the other hand, all mere nominal Christians.
“But that is only a parable,” I fancy some objector saying, “and you cannot build a doctrine on a parable.” Very well; we will leave the realm of type and parable, and show this teaching to be false by the direct statements of Scripture. One passage will suffice. Turn to 2 Thessalonians 2. There we have the coming apostasy foretold. What now restrains and prevents the full development of lawlessness, will be removed at Christ’s coming for His own. And then shall the man of sin be manifested, “whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish.” Now who are they that perish here, and why is this allowed to come upon them? The answer is found in what immediately follows: “Because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.” This makes it clear beyond all doubt that “them that perish” are all who had the truth presented to them, but cared not for it. And in the Bible, to which all in Christendom have access, may be found the truth of God. If men neglect to read or search, or refuse to hear it preached, they are, as Peter says, “willingly ignorant.” “And for this cause,” we read, “God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” Could words be plainer? To whom will God send strong delusion? To those “who believed not the truth.” There is no second chance, then, for any who, if they would, might know and believe the truth. God knew how the enemy of souls would seek to take away from the unsaved the effect that the truth of Christ’s coming for His saints is calculated to produce. And when he can no longer prevent the truth of the Lord’s imminent coming going out, he cunningly tries to nullify its effect upon the conscience of the sinner by deceiving them into the belief (if they really can believe it, which I very much doubt) that there will be another chance for them. This passage here forbids the thought. If “received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved,” and “believed not the truth,” does not describe just what every unconverted adult in the land is doing to-day, words have lost their meaning, and the Bible’s statements have lost their power with us. We can only say, then, like the agnostic, “We cannot tell;” or, “We do not know.”
Revelation 7:9 is the only text I have ever known the teachers of this dangerous error to refer to.
But that verse does not prove their contention in the least. No one can say just how long a time will elapse between Christ’s coming for and His coming with the saints. Scripture is silent as to the exact length of the interval. It will doubtless be long enough for some to believe and be saved from the nations of Christendom, who were unborn at the coming of the Lord for His Church. Seven years would be a sufficient length of time for this; and I believe the interval will be longer, possibly very much longer. Those born at that time would not necessarily share the fate of their parents. Why should not they wash their robes and make them white in the blood of the Lamb? And there will be “a great revival” then, but it will be first and chiefly in the nation of Israel, and, from them, extend to the various heathen tribes and races who have not yet been evangelized. If this verse is all the teachers of this error have to build upon, it certainly furnishes a most flimsy hope. Beware, my unsaved hearer, of being deceived by it. Make haste to believe now; for I solemnly say to you, in the presence of God, that if you are an unbeliever at the coming of the Lord, you will find the door of mercy shut forever in your face. There will be nothing left for you but the being given up to believe the lie of Satan; to witness and share in the most awful upheavals, calamities and sorrows the world has ever known, and in the end to perish — “BE DAMNED,” in the strong but honest language of our English Bible.
And you who know your sins forgiven, do not you be carried away with sentimentalism. Do not reason about how you can say from your heart, “Come, Lord Jesus!” while some of your loved ones are unprepared. Do you love them more than you love Christ? You know what He has said concerning our loving any relative, however near, more than Him. And instead of trying to make yourself think that there may be some hope for these lost relatives after the day of grace has ended, go to work and agonize in prayer for them; plead with them, weep over them, live Christ before them, and may God give you to see them all brought into the ark of safety before the door is shut and the floods of judgment overflow the land and overwhelm the long-guilty nations of boasting and rebellious Christendom.
I cannot close without one last appeal to you, my unsaved hearer. Will you not be saved by Christ to-night? He waits to save you. Peter tells us why He does not come to take His people home. He says: “Account that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation.” He is “not willing that any should perish.” If there is a chance for you after His coming, why should His desire for your salvation prevent His immediate advent? Do you not see how utterly false it is? Oh, take no risks. “It shall be very grievous,” said Joseph, of the famine that was coming on the land. And Christ has told us that the tribulation soon to come upon this unbelieving world shall be the most awful calamity, or series of calamities, that has ever been. Would you escape it? Fly to Christ. He will receive you; He will save you. Come to Him, then, without delay. Do it here, and do it now. God help you to this. Amen.