Continued from page 71, vol.
Joseph Before Pharaoh, and Exalted.
For two long years (the period alluded to in Ps. 105:19) “the word of the Lord tried” Joseph; deliverance had seemed to him to be very near, but his hopes were blighted, because they rested on an insecure foundation. God is jealous of our hearts, and He will not allow us to divide our confidence between Himself and another. This is a temptation into which we easily fall, and of everyday occurrence; circumstances attract the eye, and we divide our hopes between the probabilities apparent to our senses, and the living God, on whom alone our dependence should be placed. Joseph had relied upon the influence of the chief butler with Pharaoh, and the “word of the Lord tried him,” or as it should rather be rendered, refined him. He was obliged to prove the folly of any reliance on mere human aid or human hearts, and was led to depend simply on God and on His promises. Thus faith is tried after the same manner as silver and gold are refined—all mixture of dross is purged away—and the soul is at length taught to have no earthly expedients, but to lean upon the word and faithfulness of God alone. Israel was subsequently proved in a similar way at the waters of the Red Sea. The Lord led them by such a path, that they found themselves entirely shut in, without an apparent possibility of escape. Pharaoh and his mighty hosts were rapidly advancing from behind, mountains enclosed them on either side, and the deep impassable sea rolled its sullen waters before them; but in a few hours they sang the song of deliverance and triumph on the opposite shore. So the Lord deals oft-times with His people; they find themselves in circumstances where nothing but His help and His wisdom can avail; and when He has dried up all human springs and resources, the deliverance comes, and the song of praise ascends to Him. But lessons that we learn in seasons of emergency ought to furnish instruction for our every-day trials. The two truths which are realized in our greatest difficulties, are equally applicable to the smallest matters; viz., “I know that Thou canst do every thing;” and “Without Me ye can do nothing.”
Now the due season of Joseph’s deliverance arrived. God gave Pharaoh two dreams, and the chief butler is made to remember Joseph, and to mention him to Pharaoh. The dream was doubled, “because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass.” Here was a remarkable voice of the Lord to Joseph himself God had previously doubled the dreams of glory to him, and yet we do not read that the certainty of this future glory was any comfort to him in his adversity; and until he actually saw his brethren bowing before him, as related in chap. xlii. we are not told that ho remembered his dreams. Does not this give us a distinct voice of exhortation? The “sure word of prophecy,” as to the future joy and marvelous glory of the believer, is written “line upon line, line upon line,” throughout the scriptures of truth; and ought to be a light of life and comfort to us in our present path; just as Joseph’s dreams were designed to make his dungeon a place of peace and joy. But, alas! what creatures we are of time and sense. The trials of the present moment offer to our souls realities more mighty than the glories of the future; because we do not by faith make the things hoped for so much our portion as the things around us. It was this power of realizing the future that enabled the “cloud of witnesses” to endure such a fight of afflictions; and the Captain of Salvation Himself, “for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame.” It is an easy matter to sing a song of triumph when the conflict is over, and the victory won; but faith anticipates the song of triumph and the joy of victory now. He “giveth songs in the night.” Israel sang their song of rest, not when they entered the land, but when they commenced their toilsome journey through the wilderness. “Thou in thy mercy hast led forth thy people which thou hast redeemed: thou hast guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation” (Ex. 15:1313Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed: thou hast guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation. (Exodus 15:13)). God has doubled His testimony to us, His children, as he doubled the dreams to Joseph and Pharaoh; He has confirmed His counsel with an oath, “That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us” ( Heb. 6:1818That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: (Hebrews 6:18) ). And again the testimony of God’s power has twice been declared—first in creation, next in redemption: “God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongeth unto God” (Ps. 62:11).
In Joseph’s audience with Pharaoh we again see his clear and bold testimony for God. It must have been no little trial of faith for a poor captive Hebrew to stand before such a mighty prince, surrounded with all the pomp and glory of Egypt, and with all the splendor of heathen worship and heathen gods, and to lift up his single voice for the living and true God. But Joseph repeats his blessed witness again and again, “It is not in me, God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace;” “God hath showed Pharaoh,” &c.; “what God is about to do;” and “The thing is established by God.” What wisdom also does this youthful saint manifest in all the counsel he gives—truly “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Pharaoh is impressed with the conviction that there is a living God; the testimony and wisdom of this youthful saint strike home to his conscience, and he owns that the “Spirit of God” is in Joseph, and that God had showed him all that he had spoken. He also called his name “Zaphnath-paaneah,” or Revealer of secrets. Before Joseph became a revealer of secrets to others, he had revelations of his own from God; so with ourselves: if we would interpret the ways and purposes of our God towards others, we must ourselves first be fully acquainted with our own portion—we must realize our high and holy calling, and enter into and dwell in the sanctuary of the Most High. One reason why the blessed truths respecting the coming of our Lord have so little power, either over the children of God, or in arousing the world, is because those who testify these glorious certainties have themselves so little realized what they speak. The believer should be the Zaphnath-paaneah of the day—he should be able to speak with such an authority and certainty respecting the coming history of the Lord’s dealings with the world and the Church, that men should be convinced in their consciences of the reality of these things; but in order to do this; his own soul must first have the substance of them by faith, and he must wait on the Lord to open the way for his testimony. “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” Joseph carried conviction to the minds of those that heard him because he spoke with authority, fully convinced himself of the truth of what he uttered; and he also testified as one who was out of the scene: as regards himself he had no interest in the matter. He was but a poor captive in Egypt; but he was dwelling in “the secret place of the Most High.” Our words are powerless in arousing others, because they see that we are not acting as if we were fully convinced of their reality. We have too great a stake in the world which we denounce. We are not, as we should be, pilgrims and strangers in it; we savor too much of its ways, and are occupied too eagerly with the ambitions and advancements of the men of the earth around us. Like Lot, in the midst of Sodom, he had made himself so much at home there, and had cultivated so many alliances with the men of the city, that when the time came for him to warn them of the approaching judgment, his words seemed to them as idle tales; he was “as one that mocked.”
The wise and disinterested counsel given by Joseph to Pharaoh was the means of his being at once promoted to the place of honor and power. He had spoken what God bade him speak; and, in so doing, he unconsciously marked out his own path to the throne. The history of Haman, in the book of Esther, presents us with an instance exactly the reverse of this. Acting in full reliance on his own subtle wisdom, and judging only by sight, and not by faith, that enemy of God was bespeaking a path of glory for the man he most hated, at the very time that he imagined he was surely advancing his own dignity. “I would seek unto God, and unto God would I commit my cause: which doeth great things and unsearchable; marvelous things without number: who giveth rain upon the earth, and sendeth waters upon the fields: to set up on high those that be low; that those which mourn may be exalted to safety. He disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise. He taketh the wise in their own craftiness: and the counsel of the froward is carried headlong” (Job. 5:8-13).
The faith and experience of Joseph had been ripening: deep and repeated trials, in which the almighty power and wisdom of God—who raiseth the dead—were manifested, fitted him for the place of dignity; and, above all, qualified him to deal with the souls of his brethren. He had learnt much of his own heart’s evil, and much of the grace and power of God; and thus he was adapted to fill the place of a king and priest. He affords us another type of One after the order of Melchizedek—combining royal power and the heart of a king, with the skillfulness of the priest in dealing with the consciences and souls of his brethren.
The names he gives his two children also plainly declare the happy state of his soul. (It is remarkable that we are in a like manner instructed as to the faith and exercise of the heart of Moses, during his sojourn in Midian, by the names he then bestowed upon his children—the offspring also of a Gentile wife.) “Joseph called the name of the first-born Manasseh: for God hath made me forget all my toil, and all my father’s house.” How different this his experience from that through which his brethren had to pass. In their case, God made them again and again, by every fresh trial, remember their sin; but He made Joseph forget all his toil: the sore tribulation was effectually blotted out of his heart by the power of God—not by mere change of circumstances. How blessed the hope, that in a little while God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes; He will make us forget all our toil. But it is for us to realize this by faith even now, whilst we are in tribulation. We are to count affliction light and but for a moment, even whilst passing through it, by comparing it with the exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Our hearts and our eyes are to be upon the throne, whilst we are, as it were, in the dungeon; and God can so enable us to walk by faith, and not by sight, that old things shall have passed away, and all things become new. Joseph had also been made to forget all his father’s house. He had been enabled to commit them to God: much as he must have longed to behold those so dear to him, yet he had learned to wait patiently on the Lord to let Him have the sole ordering of the future respecting his father’s house; so that, as regards any restlessness or anxiety of heart about them, they were forgotten. It was, not that the pomp and power with which he was invested had banished the recollection of his kindred from his memory, but God had made him forget them; and he was practicing the lesson he had learnt in his two years’ detention in prison. Instead of devising means, which were so manifestly within his reach, for accomplishing his wishes, he left it all with God; and trusted that He would, in His own due time, bring about an interview with those so dear. He acts as a risen man in the circumstances. His father’s house is all forgotten, as regards any mere natural desires respecting them; all his hopes and prayers are for their spiritual blessing. Paul could say, “Henceforth know we no man after the flesh”—the power of resurrection had obliterated all fellowships in the flesh: Christ was risen, Christ was his life; and thus all his hopes and joys, his fellowships and affections, were centered in and around his risen Lord. The only way to forget things below, is to realize things above; but it is easy to speak of these blessed truths. Have we the power of them? Has “God made us forget” our earthly parentage and prospects, by fixing our hearts and thoughts upon Himself—our Father in heaven—and on Jesus, who sitteth on His right hand? Do we know the mighty power of Him who raised up our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, and the exceeding greatness of that power both towards us, and in us? (Eph. 1) God grant that we may write Manasseh upon our sorrows, upon our flesh, and upon the world. “Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father’s house; so shall the King greatly desire thy beauty; for He is thy Lord; and worship thou Him” (Ps. 45:10, 11).
“And the name of the second called he Ephraim: for God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.” Egypt was still the land of his affliction; his prosperity had not altered in his thoughts the character of the land wherein he dwelt; it was not his rest. He did not therefore record in the names of his children the wealth or power which God had marvelously bestowed upon him; but “fruitfulness in affliction” was that for which he especially was thankful to God. He realized the truth of the ancient riddle, long before it was uttered, “Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness;” and when his heart and flesh failed, and nature said “affliction,” he was able by faith to say “fruitfulness.” Here was a true son of Israel, not of Jacob: for his father, in one of the seasons of his deepest sorrow at the loss of his beloved wife, the mother of Joseph, had been enabled to say “Benjamin” instead of “Benoni.” “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing” (Jas. 1:2-42My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; 3Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. 4But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. (James 1:2‑4)). “And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also; knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope; and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us” (Rom. 5:3-53And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; 4And patience, experience; and experience, hope: 5And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. (Romans 5:3‑5)).