"Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age." Gen. 37:33Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colors. (Genesis 37:3). For this his brethren hated him: and Joseph dreamed and, for his dreams, his brethren "hated him yet the more." "The flesh lusteth against the Spirit," and ever seeks most diligently to find a cause for the display of its animosity. Joseph could not help the fortune, or misfortune, of his birth; and the dreams of his unconscious hours could afford no honest ground for the hatred of his kindred. But it was jealousy, and "jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire"; and they "could not speak peaceably unto him."
The flesh ever seeks its own, and others' gain often only aggravates it to manifest its works: "Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like." Gal. 5:19-2119Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 21Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19‑21). But what we shall see, the Lord helping us, in our short perusal of the life of Joseph, is the unpretentious dignity and perfect manly meekness of one who has to meet all this, though led on in triumph by the One to whom, as his great-grandfather had learned, nothing was too hard.
Highest honor was before this stripling, the youngest but one of all his brethren; and the way to it was through clouds and storms, shame, suffering, and loss. But through it all Joseph exercised the greatest patience—no fighting for his rights, or undue faithless vindication of his character. The language of his life and habit was, "Truly my soul waiteth upon God: from Him cometh my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation: He is my defense; I shall not be greatly moved.... My expectation is from Him." Psalm 62:1-51<<To the chief Musician, to Jeduthun, A Psalm of David.>> Truly my soul waiteth upon God: from him cometh my salvation. 2He only is my rock and my salvation; he is my defence; I shall not be greatly moved. 3How long will ye imagine mischief against a man? ye shall be slain all of you: as a bowing wall shall ye be, and as a tottering fence. 4They only consult to cast him down from his excellency: they delight in lies: they bless with their mouth, but they curse inwardly. Selah. 5My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him. (Psalm 62:1‑5). And God was faithful, as ever, to show Himself strong in the behalf of him whose heart was perfect toward Him. He continually manifested Himself on his side, and crowned his life with honor, and recorded in the list of acts of faith accomplished by the accounted worthy ones, of whom the world was not worthy, what he did "when he died." (Heb. 11.)
In Gen. 37 Joseph was sent by his father in search of his brethren, but when they saw him they conspired against him—picture of those who, in a later day, when the blessed Antitype of Joseph came, said, "This is the heir; come, let us kill him." But Reuben delivered Joseph out of their hands.
It is blessed to see how in every emergency God provided a way through or a deliverance from it for His servant. Truly "As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the LORD is round about His people" (Psalm 125:22As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his people from henceforth even for ever. (Psalm 125:2)). It was necessary, in order to the fuller development of the type, for Joseph to he delivered out of the hand of his enemies, while the language of Christ was, "Our fathers trusted in Thee: they trusted, and Thou didst deliver them. They cried unto Thee, and were delivered: they trusted in Thee, and were not confounded. But I am a worm, and no man.... Thou hast brought Me into the dust of death" (Psalm 22). Nothing but deliverance out of death could he His lot, while with Joseph, as with Isaac on Mount Moriah, it was deliverance from it. For Joseph, "the pit was empty, there was no water in it." The cry of Christ was, "Save Me, 0 God; for the waters are come in unto My soul.
.. The floods overflow Me" (Psalm 69). It was necessary for Him to die, who had volunteered to do the will of God, thus making atonement and bearing the judgment of our sins, as our Substitute. Spiritual blessings and life eternal could only thus be brought to us, while the temporal blessings, fruit of Joseph's sufferings, enjoyed in his day, did not need it, as far as Joseph was concerned. Yet it is important to understand that all the world is benefited by the propitiation of Christ; and all benefits and blessings, temporal or spiritual, enjoyed by any, saved or unsaved, from Adam to Joseph, and on through our day and the coming age, are alone based on it. By reason of the propitiation of Christ, the sinner exists, is preserved, surrounded by a multitude of mercies, and called by the gospel to a standing in grace. How solemn and wonderful this fact of the world's indebtedness to Christ, extending to every creature in it, though only the tiniest proportion ever returns "to give glory to God."
"And Judah said unto his brethren, What profit is it if we slay our brother, and conceal his blood?... Let us sell him to the Ishmaelites." They lusted after his life; no credit to them that they did not take it; it answered their purpose better to barter away his body. Judah suggested the sale of his brother, which was effected for twenty pieces of silver. Judas, in after days, sold his Master at a greater price, for thirty pieces. Then they dipped Joseph's coat of many colors in the blood of a goat they killed for the purpose, and presented it to their father, thus deliberately carrying out their wicked plot to do away with Joseph and deceive his father.
To what lengths will envy and hatred not go, and what will flesh not do, if unrestrained by grace, to gain its selfish ends? Jacob at once identified the coat, and thought of
the worst to account for it; he was troubled at the rumor of war (Matt. 24:66And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. (Matthew 24:6)). "It is my son's coat: an evil beast hath devoured him: Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces."
What will Jacob do under these circumstances? Will he be like David, who, when told that the child was dead, "arose from the earth, and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his apparel, and came into the house of the LORD, and worshiped"; and further said, "I shall go to him"? (2 Sam. 12.) No, he refused to be comforted, and said, "I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him."
Jacob looked no farther than the grave, and at that only as the close of the days of mourning. David, as so constant with him, looked beyond it, to resurrection. And learning the grace, and rejoicing in it, which meets his unrighteousness, says, "My tongue shall sing aloud of Thy righteousness. O Lord, open Thou my lips; and my mouth shall show forth Thy praise." Psalm 51:14, 1514Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. 15O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. (Psalm 51:14‑15). God has said, "Whoso offereth praise glorifieth Me." Psalm 50:2323Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I show the salvation of God. (Psalm 50:23). David did it, making his affliction brought on by his sin, the occasion of it, having learned the grace that ever abounds over sin when it is confessed. He had first said, "I acknowledge my transgression."
Jacob neither glorified God nor found a well for himself in the valley of Baca. David entered upon the joy of the morning, "I shall go to him"; the other got no farther than the season of weeping unless it were the grave, his deliverance from it. One speaks of going to the house of the Lord as a worshiper, the other of going to the grave, a mourner. Jacob had lost something that his heart was set upon on earth and, like the disciples in an after day, was "sad." They had trusted that it had been He, who now was crucified, who should have redeemed Israel, what they desired; and when they were come together, they asked Him, saying, "Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" Acts 1:66When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? (Acts 1:6). What did He answer them? He told them it was not for them to know the times and seasons, and led their thoughts away from that which their hearts were set upon, and which they could not possibly get, to what was to be their infinite gain and proper portion; the Holy Ghost was coming, and they should receive power, and be witnesses for Him—not "mourning" or "sad," but witnesses in power to a risen, triumphant, glorified Christ, and the grace flowing by reason of the smitten rock, from Jerusalem to the uttermost part of the earth.
That which had palled their sanguine hopes in ignorance and blindness, had really brought to them far richer gain for their enjoyment, and was a necessity to the fulfillment in another day, for another people, for the lesser blessing which they had hoped for. Unbelief ever seeks to legislate but God; we see it all around, and in our hearts—it has been the history of the world. In Eden it was suggested that it would be better to have what God had withheld; and their legislation, put in practice, brought them death.
In Canaan they preferred to be like other nations, and have a king; and yielding to their wish, that they might learn the folly of their legislation, "The LORD said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them." 1 Sam. 8:77And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. (1 Samuel 8:7). What was the result? A long history of failure, and dishonor done to God, with only a few bright spots, entirely due to the grace that pursued them in His faithfulness and love. We hear men daily legislating for God, as to the rain and sunshine, the heat, the cold; and in our daily circumstances, how often we bring in question His providential care: does it bring peace and happiness? on the contrary, such go mourning all their days, and forecasting sorrowful events, as did Jacob with regard to Benjamin, only bringing prematurely gray heads with sorrow to the grave.
Jacob did not doubt the "mischief" which they told him had befallen Joseph, and was very ready to imagine the like for Benjamin at a future time. Thus it ever is; the heart astray from God in unbelief is a ready prey to the caprice of imagination, the lies of men, and the subtle wiles of Satan. It is "the honor of kings... to search out a matter" (Prow. 25:2). Jacob seems to have taken no trouble thus; there is no keenness of faith to discern the lie; but accepting it, and refusing the comfort, thinking only of the grave, and himself as an object surely to be pitied, thus wept for Joseph. There was nothing for God in it, though perhaps he appeared a martyr. It was unbelief, believing only what it can believe—a lie.