Genesis 45.
WE have Joseph made known to his brethren to-night. It is not my purpose to enter into the story of their exercises as recorded in the three preceding chapters. The famine foretold by Joseph was not confined to the land of Egypt. “The famine,” we read, “was over all the face of the earth.” “And,” it says, “all countries came into Egypt to Joseph for to buy corn; because that the famine was so sore in all lands.” This famine, we have seen, is typical of “the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth” (Rev. 3:1010Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. (Revelation 3:10)). It is called in Revelation 7:1414And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. (Revelation 7:14) “the great tribulation” (see R. V.). In the nations flocking to Joseph to buy corn we see pictured the great evangelical movement among the nations of heathendom after the removal of the Church. Joseph opened all the storehouses to these starving peoples, just as Christ will open to the nations outside of Christendom the rich, full stores of the grace of God. And all those painful exercises and experiences through which Joseph’s brethren passed before Joseph became known to them foreshadow the sorrows and repentance of the Jewish remnant previous to their acceptance of Christ in the last days. There are frequent allusions to this time of tribulation in the Psalms and Prophets; and in Matthew 24. it is described in detail.
In the chapter read to-night we have the thrilling story of how Joseph made himself known to his guilty but humbled brethren. Truth is not only “stranger than fiction,” but it is infinitely more touching. Where within the realm of fiction can there be found anything to equal this account of Joseph and his brethren? In pathetic interest and dramatic power it stands without a peer or parallel. And how intensely interesting it becomes to the heart when seen to be a prophetic picture of the repentance of the future Jewish remnant and their once despised and rejected Messiah. This would be the primary application of the narrative. But, I believe, a secondary application may be made of it. It is not merely typical; it is illustrative as well, or parabolic, if you will. In this light, then, let us look at it to-night.
First of all we have Joseph making himself known to his brethren. And ere doing so, he cried, “Cause every man to go out from me. And,” we read, “there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren.” And when Jesus would reveal Himself to sinners, He too says, as it were, “Cause every man to go out from Me! “He is the one Mediator, and before Him all pretenders must retire. Away, then, ye priests who would intrude yourselves between the sinner and the Saviour! They need you not. “This Man receiveth sinners.” “Come unto Me,” He says to them. And more: He says, “Him that cometh to Me, I will in no wise cast out.” No human (nor yet angelic) intervention is required. He always invited sinners to Himself. The only persons He ever sent to the priests were the ten lepers whom He had already cleansed. And they were not sent to obtain blessing, but because they had been blessed, and were sent “for a testimony.” And when one of the number turned back, as if he would cling to the One who had cleansed him, he was commended for it. It is “Jesus only,” thank God! No man stood with Joseph when he revealed himself to his guilty brethren; and when the Son of God manifests Himself as Saviour to the guilty sons of men, no mediators are required. No priest on earth or “saint” in heaven is necessary. No creature dare intrude himself in that supreme hour when Jesus makes Himself known as an all-sufficient Saviour for even the chief of sinners. “No man” stands with Him or between Him and the trembling sinner.
And notice, too, Joseph’s brethren do not recognize him. He has to say to them, “I am Joseph,” ere they knew that it was he. And no man can by searching find out God and Christ. No man, by nature’s light or human intelligence, ever gets to know the one “true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent.” It is wholly a matter of divine revelation and sovereignty. Take three illustrations: the woman at the well; the man born blind; and Saul of Tarsus (John 4 and 9; Acts 9).
The woman of Samaria failed to recognize the Lord, though she had Him in her mind, and stood speaking with Him face to face. She knew Him not until He said, “I that speak unto thee am He.” So with the blind man; though the Lord had given him sight, and afterward talked with him, he knew not that it was Jesus. When asked, “Dost thou believe on the Son of God?” he says, “Who is He, Lord, that I might believe on Him?” “And Jesus said unto him, Thou Nast both seen Him, and it is He that talketh with thee.” And then he knew Him. This non-recognition of the Lord is not the result of natural stupidity or lack of culture or education. Saul of Tarsus was a man of great natural intelligence, and highly educated; but when the Lord speaks to him out of heaven, this same cultured Saul has to inquire, “Who art Thou, Lord?” And only when he hears the answer, “I am Jesus,” does he know whose voice it was that spoke.
In these three illustrations we see three effects produced in souls by the knowledge of Christ. They are, testimony, worship, and service. “Come, see a man which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?” was the testimony of the woman of Samaria to the men of her city. And we read that when the Lord had made Himself known to the blind man, “he worshiped Him.” And Saul of Tarsus says, “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” when he knows it is Jesus of Nazareth who had spoken to him. That is service. May these three things abound in all our lives, if Christ has given to us the blessed knowledge of Himself: faithful, fervent testimony to Christ, adoring worship of Christ, and untiring, constant, service for Christ. Amen!
Too many converts are like Joseph’s brethren here. They are full of doubts and misgivings. When he says to them, “I am Joseph,” his brethren could not answer him, we read, “for they were troubled at his presence.” Their consciences were not at rest; just like many a truly converted soul to-day. “Fear hath torment,” John writes; and oh, how many of the redeemed of Christ are haunted and harried with the tormenting fear that they are not really accepted of God or perfectly justified before Him, or that they may yet be cast away and perish! Such need to know the perfect love of God in Christ to all who believe. And it is this love that casts out fear. And “he that feareth is not made perfect in love,” we read (1 John 4:1818There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. (1 John 4:18)). This is not our poor, cold love to Him, but His great and perfect love believed and enjoyed by us. And it is the knowledge of this that puts us at rest in His presence. Joseph, when he sees his brethren’s fears, says, “Come near to me, I pray you.” Publicans and sinners drew near our precious Lord to hear Him. And what words of grace to sinners He spoke to them! So Joseph here invites his conscience-smitten brethren to draw nigh. And he tells them words that should have banished all their fears and given them peace. He does not excuse or make light of their sin, but tells them how God overruled it for blessing. “And God sent me before you,” he says, “to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.” And by the rejection and death of Christ, God, who can always make the “eater” to yield “meat,” and the “strong,” “sweetness,” has brought blessing to a lost world even to save the souls of sinners with a “great salvation.”
It is a great salvation, mark. It is not the limited, partial, mean salvation that some men would make it out to be — saving only those who help to save themselves, or saving them for a time and allowing them to lapse and be lost again. Oh no, thank God, it is a salvation worthy of Himself, and such a salvation as only could result from that finished, faultless work of Christ upon the cross. And what but a great salvation could avail for sinners such as we? We are all of us great sinners; our guilt was great, our need was great, and nothing but a great salvation could be of any use to us. I hope you have it, friend. Don’t neglect it. “How shall we escape,” the Spirit asks, “if we neglect so great salvation?” (Heb. 2:33How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; (Hebrews 2:3).)
Joseph says much more to them. And then, we read, “he kissed all his brethren, and wept upon them: and after that his brethren talked with him.” The kiss, in the East, is a token of forgiveness; and when these sons of Jacob felt the impress of the kiss of Joseph on their cheeks, they knew, each one in his heart, that they were forgiven. And the result is communion. “After that his brethren talked with him.” How beautiful! And do you, forgiven soul, talk much with Jesus? See how the disciple Ananias, in the 9th of Acts, talks to the Lord! He speaks as a man to his friend. There is neither stiffness nor familiarity, but a freedom born of perfect assurance and a constant habit of communion with the Lord. You have heard, perhaps, of the old preacher who did not make his appearance at the meeting at the appointed hour. A lad was despatched to his house to remind him that the hour had come, and the people were waiting. But the lad came back saying the preacher was talking to a friend in his study. He had listened at the door; and so free was the old man of God in his prayers to the Lord, that, to the boy’s ears, it sounded just like the familiar converse of one friend with another. How different from the stilted, high-sounding address that is so often offered as prayer: “Almighty and ever-merciful God our heavenly Father, maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, be pleased to hear us creatures of the dust, we humbly beseech Thee, as we approach Thy throne,” etc. How much stiffness and unbrokenness of spirit can go along with such an address — “the invocation,” men call it nowadays. Oh, let us talk to the Lord when we pray, and not be like the Pharisee, who stood and prayed “with himself.”
Well, Joseph’s brethren now are reconciled; what follows? “And the fame thereof was heard in Pharaoh’s house, saying, Joseph’s brethren are come: and it pleased Pharaoh well, and his servants.” This is the Old Testament 15th of Luke. Sinners are received and recoiled; the lost is found; it is, as it were, “life from the dead” with souls. “And there is joy in the presence of God.” God and the angels, like Pharaoh and his servants, rejoice when sinners are brought to repentance. There is joy all around. Joseph rejoices; his brethren rejoice; Pharaoh rejoices; his servants rejoice. God would have all men to be saved. And when one repents, all heaven is moved with joy and gladness. But time is short, and there are other things that we must notice in this chapter.
Joseph not only freely and fully forgives his brethren; he commissions them as well. He says, “Haste ye, and go up to my father, and say unto him, Thus saith thy son Joseph: God hath made me lord of all Egypt: come down unto me, tarry not.” And we, if reconciled to God, have been commissioned. We have a mission towards this famine-stricken world. We are to make Christ known to men. We are to testify as to His exaltation and glory, just as the burden of the message of the sons of Israel was the lordship of Joseph over all the land.
And Joseph says in the 13th verse, “And ye shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt, and of all that ye have seen.” This is just what I have sought to set before you in these addresses — the glories of Christ, the “despised and rejected of men,” His exaltation and place of highest honor at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens. The sons of Jacob were sent back into the country whence they came, to persuade others to “go to Joseph.” And this is our chief business in this world, to speak of the fame of Christ, and to persuade starving sinners to come to Him.
Are you doing this, Christian? Some are waiting till they have more leisure. Others are going to do a little gospel work when they have made themselves a competence for this life. Oh, miserable subterfuge to escape doing now what their hand finds to do! It will be “a little” work, you may be sure. It will be little, like the soul of the man who promises to do it. God will not have such service. It is selfishness of the most pronounced type. Look out for No. 1, soul and body, first; and then, when a nice feathered nest is secured for this world, begin to speak to men of the world to come! Away with such hypocrisy. Begin with what you have. “The time is short.” Twice Joseph charges his brethren to make haste (vers. 9:13). May God stir us up to action in this matter. “Christ is coming, call them in.”
And see what they could put before the people they were sent to! “Thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen, and thou shalt be near unto me.” The land of Goshen (the garden spot of Egypt), and near to Joseph! And sinner, we are here to tell you that not only is there full forgiveness for you in the gospel, but a special place of nearness to Christ, and abundance of blessing for your starving soul: “Blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ” is the answer, for the Christian, to Goshen and nearness to Joseph. Will you not have this portion? Let me persuade you to receive it now.
“And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Say unto thy brethren, This do ye; lade your beasts, and go, get you unto the land of Canaan; and take your father and your households, and come unto me: and I will give you the good of the land of Egypt, and ye shall eat the fat of the land. Now thou art commanded, this do ye: take you wagons out of the land of Egypt for your little ones, and for your wives, and bring your father, and come.” What an inducement! “The good of the land of Egypt” and “the fat of the land.” This is what God has to offer souls that come to Him. And the happiest work in all the world is to act as agent for this immigration bureau. No such terms were ever offered by any government to encourage settlers. Transportation is provided too. “Wagons” were sent to convey the weak and helpless. And what answers to the wagons in this allegory is the Holy Spirit sent of the Father to bring helpless sinners to Christ.
And Pharaoh says more: “Also regard not your stuff; for the good of all the land of Egypt is yours,” he says. How much regarding of “stuff” there is among the people of God today! How much anxiety and unnecessary concern is manifested among the heirs of glory over the possession or accumulation of a little of this world’s goods! At best it is but “stuff.” It is not unlawful to possess it; it is the regarding of it that works the mischief, and produces the leanness of soul so common among the saints of God in this day of unparalleled material prosperity. Pharaoh, to give weight to his exhortation as to their “stuff,” adds, “For the good of all the land of Egypt is yours.” What an offset to anxiety! John Newton once called to see a Christian lady who had just lost her comfortable home and all its furnishings by fire. “I have called to congratulate you, madam,” he said, as he took her hand.... She was about to resent what she considered his utter lack of sympathy and consideration, when he added, “because you have so much treasure in heaven that fire can never touch.” Suppose, dear child of God, you were to suffer the loss of all your earthly possessions, whether inherited, or acquired by economy and thrift; what would it matter? Is not heaven and all its treasures yours? Why, even Job, in his dark day, when stripped of everything, could say, “The Lord hath given, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord”! And shall the Christian, in his day, say less? “Let not your eye regret your stuff,” the New Translation reads. Let the man of the world blow out his brains or lose his reason when earthly riches make themselves wings and fly away. It was all the poor man had. But you have treasure in heaven; your riches are, or should be, invested in a place of absolute security. Let the banks burst by the wholesale; let panic and financial ruin come when it will; let money-kings combine and do their worst and wickedest, we Gentile believers, like the Hebrew Christians of old, may “take joyfully the spoiling of our goods, knowing in ourselves that we have in heaven a better and an enduring substance.” Halleluiah! We have a song ready to our hand to sing in our darkest hour of temporal need. God our Father had one of His dear children compose it for His family long ago. Any in the circle of relationship may use it. Listen:
“Although the fig tree shall not blossom,
Neither shall fruit be in the vines;
The labor of the olive shall fail,
And the fields shall yield no meat;
The flock shall be cut off from the fold,
And there shall be no herd in the stalls;
Yet I will (not trust, merely, but) rejoice in the Lord,
I will joy in the God of my salvation.
The Lord God is my strength,
And He will make my feet like hinds’ feet,
And He will make me to walk upon my high
Pharaoh gave these travelers “provision for the way,” we read. And what provision has been made for us! “all things” ours; the hairs of our head all numbered; an Advocate with the Father should we sin; a great High Priest to sympathize with us in our sorrows; the Comforter sustaining us — everything we need, in fact, along our pilgrim way and for our service to the Lord. That dear old Christian man was right in his reply to the scoffer, who, on seeing him reading his Bible, asked, “What’s that your reading, old man?” “Why, I am reading my Father’s will,” he answered. “Your Father’s will! and what has He willed to you?” “He has promised me in this world a hundred fold, and in the world to come everlasting life!” We are “heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ,” He has told us in His Word (Rom. 8:1717And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. (Romans 8:17)). Yes, the “provision for the way” is the “hundredfold” in this life; and the “good of all the land of Egypt” is the “everlasting life” possessed now by faith, and to be entered in and enjoyed to the full in the eternity to come.
And then Joseph, on sending them away, gives them a final word of exhortation. “See that ye fall not out by the way,” he says. And, brethren, how we need this caution — and sisters, too. “Do not quarrel on the way,” it is, literally. We need to exercise a spirit of forbearance one with another. Otherwise we will never get on together. See how even such eminent servants of Christ as Barnabas and Paul fell out by the way. “There arose,” it says, “very warm feeling, so that they separated from one another” (Acts 15:3939And the contention was so sharp between them, that they departed asunder one from the other: and so Barnabas took Mark, and sailed unto Cyprus; (Acts 15:39), New Trans.). How sad; and how humiliating! May the Lord keep us! We have it in us. The hateful flesh is there, ever ready to assert itself on the slightest easing of the restraint placed upon it by the Spirit, whose symbol is the gentle, harmless dove. A traveler once saw two mountain goats meet on a narrow ledge of rock high up on the perpendicular face of the mountain side. He expected to see a butting contest at once. There they stood face to face in the pathway just wide enough for one. He watched them eagerly through his glass; and knowing the great combativeness of the goat, he fully expected to see one of them hurled to its death into the depths below. But, to his utter surprise, he saw one of the goats quietly lay itself down while the other stepped over it. And then each went on its sensible way. Even the beasts may teach us, children of God — and shame us, sometimes, too. If, when difficulty arises, or matters come to a deadlock among us, we could give way — lie down, as it were — and be walked over, there would be fewer quarrels in our midst. “Let people walk over me? Never!” you say. Then you are not very much like your Master. And you little heed His precepts. He who was ever “meek and lowly in heart” exhorted to non-resistance constantly. It is the only way in which “falling out” by the way can be avoided. The world is watching us like the tourist the goats. And how many of them enjoy seeing the saints of God at loggerheads! How delighted they are to see “how these Christians love (!) one another.” May the Lord help us to “be at peace among ourselves.” Brethren, “see (and see to it well) that ye fall not out by the way.”
So, fully provided for and cautioned of their danger, the sons of Israel make the start. “And they went up out of Egypt, and came into the land of Canaan unto Jacob their father, and told him, saying, Joseph is yet alive, and he is governor over all the land of Egypt.” True to their commission, they testify of Joseph. His name is the first word of their message. They bear witness to the fact of his being alive, and tell, also, of his exaltation. And the gospel tells of Christ — “The gospel of God, concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord,” we read in Rom. 1. And His resurrection has a place of special prominence in the glad tidings. “Joseph is yet alive,” the sons of Jacob say. “Christ liveth,” we proclaim. He who died is risen a victor from the tomb. And He is set by God the Father high above all principalities and powers, thrones and dominions. All things have been put under His feet. Well is it called “the gospel of the glory of Christ.”
But what is the effect of this on Jacob? Why, it seems at first incredible. “And Jacob’s heart fainted,” we read, “for he believed them not.” It seemed too wonderful — too good to be true. And the gospel of Christ will often stagger men. But they stagger through unbelief. It is most wonderful, I know; but it is true nevertheless. Believe it then. Hear Paul as to it: “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you.... For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received; how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose again on the third day, according to the Scriptures.” Will you believe it? — in your heart, I mean, of course. Head belief, like “almost persuaded,” cannot avail. Heart belief results in action. When Jacob at last believes, he moves; his faith is operative.
And what convinced him? what was it that decided him? It was the wagons. “And they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said unto them: and when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived. And Israel said, It is enough; Joseph my son is yet alive: I will go and see him before I die.” It was the word and the wagons. And, as we take the wagons as a figure of the Holy Spirit, the meaning is unquestionable. Sinners are convinced, not by the word of the gospel alone, but by the Word and the Spirit. And the Spirit on earth is the evidence to men that Christ has been received up into glory, that He is alive and at the Father’s right hand in the heavens. (See John 16:8-118And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: 9Of sin, because they believe not on me; 10Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; 11Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. (John 16:8‑11).) And I refer, not to His work, but His presence. He is at work, and without His work no sinner will believe; but His very presence in this world in answer to man’s rejection of Christ is the convicting evidence to men that He, whom they unrighteously adjudged a malefactor, has been raised from the dead and exalted by the Father in righteousness. This is the real meaning of the expression, “of righteousness, because I go to My Father.” This testimony may be, and is, no doubt, lost upon the mass of men. So is the testimony of creation to the heathen. But it is a testimony just the same. And “let God be true, but every man a liar.”
But no matter if the picture is ideal, it was the sight of the wagons that convinced the aged Jacob, “the supplanter.” And rising above his natural unbelief, Israel (note the change in the name) says, “It is enough.” And will you not say the same, my unsaved hearer?
“What more can He say than to you He hath said?”
And I would add, in prose, What more can He do than for you He hath done? The work that saves is done. God’s testimony to that work is perfect and complete. And we, like Israel’s sons, testify concerning it to you. We are sent for that very purpose. We want to persuade you to come with us to heaven. Oh, will you go, will you go? Hear Jacob’s final word: “I will go and see him before I die.” The die is cast; his choice is made. Make yours to-night.
It must be before you die, remember. “After death the judgment,” Scripture says. The Bible knows no such thing as probation after death. It is a falsehood — twin lie to the teaching of another chance for Christ-rejecters after Jesus comes. “Before I die,” says Jacob. “Before you die” you must be saved, if saved at all, the Scriptures testify. Our Lord tells of one who died without salvation; and He says, “In hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments.” Oh, awful end! Oh, fearful doom! Escape it while you may, dear soul. Do not deceive yourself to hell by thinking you will have another offer of salvation after death. Do not act like the drunken man: In his intoxication he thought he saw two candles burning, so he blew out one and was left in darkness! And men intoxicate themselves to-day with thoughts and doctrines of probation after death. But like the drunkard, they see double. “Now is the accepted time.” “The redemption of their soul is precious,” Scripture says, “and it ceaseth forever.” This takes place at death.
“There are no pardons in the tomb.”
And there is no grace beyond the grave; and there is no hope in hell. Let your one chance slip — die in your sins, and you are damned FOREVER!
Who here will say like Jacob, It is enough? Who among the unsaved here to-night will rise from their indifference and unbelief and say, I will see Jesus now before I die and am forever lost? “Every eye shall see Him.” Some see Him now, as a Saviour, by faith. And the sight has saved their souls and gladdened their hearts forever. Some (as poor Balaam lamented he should) are going to see Him, but not now; they shall behold Him, but not nigh. They will see Him as a Judge in eternity, upon the great white throne. They will behold Him then, not near, as His redeemed ones, but at such a distance as must forever exist between a holy, righteous Judge, and a sin-loving and sin-laden sinner who has refused, or neglected until too late, the only and all-sufficient remedy for sin — Christ and His precious blood.
May all here see Him “now” and “nigh.” Amen!