(Read Gen. 41)
WE have seen, in looking over the life of Joseph so far, that he is a true picture of the Lord Jesus Christ as the One who was “despised and rejected of men” (Isa. 53:3). Joseph had indeed been loved by his father, but we read of hardly anyone else who was really kind to him. His brothers hated and sold him; his master put him in prison, not for doing any wrong, but because a wicked woman had told lies about him; and the man in the prison, to whom he had been so kind, forgot all about him when he was out himself. But a wonderful change comes in this chapter; for, instead of being any longer a prisoner in the dungeon, he is now made ruler over all the land in Egypt. Except in being king, and sitting on the throne, he is now as great a man as Pharaoh himself. He is the king, but he has made Joseph lord of all his house and all his people. Indeed, when the poor hungry Egyptians want corn, and come to Pharaoh for it, he says, “Go to Joseph; what he saith, to you, do.” As you will remember it was said at the wedding at Cana, in the second chapter of John: they had “no wine,” but Jesus was there, and someone spoke to Him about it, and then said to the servants, “Whatsoever He saith unto you, do.” And they did it, and the end of it was that they had wine; plenty of it, and better, too, than the best they had before!
Well, Joseph’s life had these two great parts: his sufferings, and the glory that came after (see ch. 45:13). And so with the Lord Jesus: the prophets that spoke of Him long before He came told of “His sufferings, and the glory [or glories] that should follow” (1 Peter 1:11). Some of His disciples had not noticed this, and supposed that when He came, it would be all glory and no suffering, So that, when He had suffered and died, they were surprised, and disappointed, and Jesus had to remind them of what was written in their holy books about Him; as it says in Luke 24:26, “Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory?” Joseph had suffered many things, in one way and another; but now at last he is brought out from being in a dungeon, despised and forgotten; and highly exalted, and all the people told to “bow the knee” to him. All power is committed to him; the king says all the people shall be ruled according to his word. He “set” him over all the land of Egypt (vs. 41), and gave him a wife (vs. 45), to enjoy all his greatness with him. What a change for Joseph!
And now, if you have read and remembered the things told us about the Lord Jesus in the New Testament, I am sure you cannot help seeing how very much all this is like them. In Hebrews 2. we read more than once about the sufferings of Jesus, and how He even “tasted death,” but that now He is “crowned with glory and honor.” And again, in Philippians 2, how “He humbled Himself,” and came down so very low as to submit to the shameful death of the cross; but that now God has “highly exalted Him,” and says to everyone, “Bow the knee.” The people of Egypt were to be ruled according to the word of Joseph; but Hebrews 1:3 tells us that all things are upheld by the Word of God’s Son. By His power “all things consist” or “hold together” (Col. 1:17). If it were not for the mighty power of that blessed Man who once carried the cross He was about to be hung upon, the sun would cease to shine, and we could no more breathe, and the world would go to pieces. “All things” are “given into His hands” (John 13:3), which were once emptied and nailed to “the tree; and “all power” committed to Him, both in heaven and in earth (Matt. 28:18). Joseph was “set” in the highest place, except the throne; but Jesus is “set down “with His Father in His throne (Rev. 3:21), or, as the first of Ephesians tells us, God has “set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all... and hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the Head over all things to the Church, which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all.” As Joseph did not enjoy all his greatness alone, so you see God has given to Jesus “the Church,” which is composed of all those who believe on Him, from the time that He went into heaven as a Man, until the moment when He comes again, to receive them unto Himself. And this same company of saved sinners is called, in the book of Revelation, the “Bride,” or the “Wife” of Christ, the Lamb of God. They have been loved by Him, and saved by Him, and share with Him all His glory forever.
I should like to say much more to you about this, but must now stop, and hope next month, if spared, to say something more to you about “Go unto Joseph.”
W. TY.