Genesis 50:15-2615And when Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him. 16And they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying, 17So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin; for they did unto thee evil: and now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him. 18And his brethren also went and fell down before his face; and they said, Behold, we be thy servants. 19And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God? 20But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. 21Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them. 22And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he, and his father's house: and Joseph lived an hundred and ten years. 23And Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation: the children also of Machir the son of Manasseh were brought up upon Joseph's knees. 24And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die: and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. 25And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence. 26So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old: and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt. (Genesis 50:15‑26)
“And when Joseph’s brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him. And they sent... saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying, So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin.”
Joseph was grief-stricken at this renewal of his brothers’ fear, after those seventeen years during which they had proved his full forgiveness and enjoyed his kindness. “And Joseph wept when they spake unto him.” Their sense of security had largely depended upon the presence of their aged father. But now upon his death their fears returned. They failed to understand the heart of Joseph. And this should remind every child of God of the need of repeated searchings of heart to be assured of the ground of his confidence. If the heart rests on circumstances, it is a poor foundation. But if our whole confidence is in the Person of Jesus our Saviour, and what He is to us in His love, then the soul can rest in full assurance and at peace.
“And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God?”
He was not sparing them simply because they were his own father’s children, but because of his own love and grace.
So it will be between the blessed Lord in that day, when all title of Israel as of old is gone and passed away, He will be full of grace and favor towards His Jewish brethren. The counsel of God will have brought about the means which made grace free and unhindered to bless on this new ground — evil having been put away — the relationship of brethren there — and the very evil, in God’s wisdom, having put Him in the place of power above all, from which grace will act in all its bounty.
“And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die; and God will surely visit you, and bring you... unto the land which He sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” verse 24. Long might be the time, and sorrowful the delay to Israel, but it was not the less sure. Whatever the excellency of Egypt might be to the flesh, Joseph’s hopes rested in Canaan, and identified themselves with Israel’s future return. He was a type of Israel’s hope, now far from the land, as before he was a type of the heavenly glory of Christ. Thus the whole way of God’s counsels are opened out in this blessed and favored servant and type of the Lord — type of glory above, and prophet of hope to Israel below — the place of the Lord Jesus now.
He would not be buried in Egypt, having no desire for a monument in a strange land. “So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old: and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.” There his body was to rest for approximately 150 years, a testimony to his people during the time of their bondage that the promises would be fulfilled. At the time of the Exodus Moses, fulfilling the promise of the brothers, brought his remains out of Egypt and Joshua buried them at Shechem.
Here the delightful story of Joseph ends. May the Spirit of God both exercise and encourage the believer in a more faithful walk “in a foreign land.” And may the life of Joseph bring a deeper sense of the perfection and beauty of the One he foreshadowed — the loving Dispenser of life and good to all who call upon Him in truth.
ML 03/10/1968