(Genesis 37)
“THE STORY OF JOSEPH.” How the words seem to call up memories of the time when as children we loved to read, or, perhaps when too young to read for ourselves, to listen to it. To many of us Joseph seemed just like an old friend; we knew him so well, with his “coat of many colors.” Now that we are older, some of our class are quite “grown-up,” “the story of old” has not lost any of its charm for us, only we do not read it in quite the same way that we did ten, or perhaps even five, years ago.
We have begun to read “between the lines,” and to trace in Joseph, beloved by his father, but rejected by his brethren, a type of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We have all heard a good deal about types, but “Cousin Edith” is not quite sure that all her· class understand what is meant by a type. A type is something like a shadow. Suppose that I am reading on the lawn, the sun shines brightly, and there is hardly a cloud in the sky. Suddenly a shadow falls across my book; I look up for a moment, and say, “Ethel or Nora is coming; it is her shadow.” But the shadow would not be the dear young friend for whose coming I waited on that summer’s day. I should not speak to it. Its outline might be clear and well-defined, but color would be wanting. It would not be a Person.
Many persons and many things were employed by God as types, or shadows, of the Coming Saviour, but it is only as we read the Old Testament in the light of the New, only as taught by God the Holy Spirit, we can really grasp their full meaning or beauty. No one type in itself is sufficient to show forth the varied glories of the ONE to Whom they point, yet each and all is fragrant with some sweet odor of the PERSON or WORK of Christ. None, perhaps, more strikingly so than Joseph, who, in obedience to his father’s will, started from his home on an errand of love to his brethren.