(Gen. 45)
LAST month I was telling you of two things Joseph did for his brothers: he told them who he was, and would have them to be where he was. There were also two things they were to do: they were to tell in their own land about his glory, and they were to bring those who belonged to them to be with Joseph in it, as it says in verse 13, “Ye shall tell my father... and bring down my father hither.” They were to make haste about it, too, both in going back home alone, and in coming again with their father and all the rest. It was something like the servants, in the parable of the great supper, sent out to bring people in who should feast upon the good things laid out upon the tables. The master told them to “go out quickly... and bring in hither,” as Joseph here hurries his brethren to go and fetch their father.
Now, it is very nice to see that Joseph, when exalted to the right hand of Pharaoh, still loved his brothers, and would do them good, and have them with him; but how much more wonderful that the Lord Jesus (“He is Lord of all,” and not of Egypt only! should desire and intend to have poor sinners like you and me, to enjoy with Him the happiness of His home forever! And it is so. Three times over in one of the gospels He says, “with me where I am,” and speaks of our being there too! The first time it is the reward He gives to those who serve Him and follow Him. The next time it is the way He comforts those who He knew loved. Him enough to feel lonely and sad when He should have left them. But the last time He speaks of our being with Him it is not for the sake of giving comfort to those who loved Him, but it is the desire of His own heart because of His love to us. He would not be satisfied Himself to be in glory without us, and so He says, “Father, I will (or desire) that they also whom Thou hast given Me be with Me where I am.” Is not that wonderful? He deserved to be treated far better than Joseph, yet He was treated far worse than ever he was. He is raised up now to far greater “glory” than was ever put upon Joseph or any one else in this world. And yet He does not only say, as Joseph did, “Ye shall be near unto Me,” but He says, “that where I am ye may be also.” And He will not send for us as Joseph did for his father, but He says, “I will come again, and receive you unto Myself.” What precious words, if we have learned at all to love and long for that blessed One who spoke them! He wants us with Himself! He died for us, that we might live together with Him! (1 Thess. 5:1010Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. (1 Thessalonians 5:10).) And He is coming again to catch up all those who are looking and waiting for Him!
We shall never be “with the Lord” in the way He meant until He has come down from heaven to fetch us (see 1 Thess. 4:16,1716For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:16‑17)). But even while we are in this world there is such a thing as knowing Him, and being near to Him, as to the love of our hearts, while we wait for His coming, that our bodies, too, may be taken up and made like His body of glory (Phil. 3:2121Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. (Philippians 3:21)). Then we shall behold His glory with our very eyes, but now we look up by faith and say, “We see Jesus crowned with glory and Honor.” We own Him as our Lord, while as yet the world wants to have as little of Him as ever they can. And one reason why we are left in this world is that others, too, may learn through us to believe on Him. He calls sinners to Him still, and He does it by means of those who preach His Gospel, and those who love Him, so as to be glad to speak about Him to others. You see as to Joseph, that he said, “Come near to me, I pray you,” before ever he said a word about their coming to live near him. What a great difference there is between trembling Judah, in chapter 44:18, saying, “I pray thee,” and Joseph, in our chapter, saying, “I pray you!” Well, in the Gospel of the grace of God, it is as if God was doing like Joseph in chapter 45:4. If you read the fifth chapter of the second of Corinthians, you will see, as to those who are sent by God with the message of His grace and love to men, that they “pray “men to be reconciled to God. Paul says it is even as if God Himself was beseeching people by himself and by others not to hold out any longer against God, not to hate Him, and dread Him, and keep at a distance from Him, but that their hearts should turn to Him, and believe the “great love” He has towards them.
The two things, then, which Joseph did are a little picture of what the Saviour in heaven is doing now; and what Joseph’s brothers were told to do may well remind us of what the Lord would have us to be doing, until we are caught up to be “near unto” Him forever. They were to tell of all Joseph’s glory, of all that they had seem. In Acts 26 we read that Paul was to go and tell everybody of those things which he had seen. This is what he did, and the telling out the truth about the glory of Christ was the very thing he called “our Gospel,” “the Gospel of the glory of Christ” (2 Cor. 4). And God used the preaching of the Apostle so that many learned to know Christ for themselves and were brought to enjoy Christ Himself, and His love, and the good things He gives, as Joseph’s brethren told about him, his kindness, and his greatness, so that every one of the whole large family was brought right away from the land of famine into the land of plenty, where Joseph, their best friend, had it all his own way, and did them nothing but good. We cannot be apostles, dear little children, like Paul was, but we can all tell something about Jesus to someone, and, if God blesses it, they may be brought to Jesus themselves. Let us ask the Lord to help us in doing this, so that we may be for Him like the brothers were about Joseph in this chapter in Genesis.
W. TY.