entirely for itself. The Lord met such, as we all do at times. There was
constant faithfulness in His dealing with the disciples. He did not let
their mistakes pass. He was rebuking them very commonly, because He
loved them very perfectly, and was training their souls rather than
indulging Himself. But there did come a moment when faithfulness must
yield up the place, and tenderness fill it. I mean, the hour of
_parting_, as we get it in John xiv.-xvi. It was then too late to be
faithful. Education of the soul under the rebukes of a pastor was not to
go on then. "O ye of little faith," or "How is it that ye do not
understand?" was not to be heard then. It was the hour of parting, and
the heart had leave to take it entirely into its own hand.
Now a time of _reconciliation_ is, in this, like the hour of parting.
The heart claims it for itself. Tenderness alone suits it; faithfulness
would be an intruder. And thus we find it with Joseph here. He wept
aloud, so that the house of Pharaoh heard it. He wept on the neck of all
his brethren and kissed them, fell on his brother Benjamin's neck and
wept, and kissed him. And if he spoke in the midst of his tears, it was
only to encourage their hearts, and give them pledges and reasons why
they should be in full confidence and ease before him.[22]
[22] Neither Pharaoh, nor Pharaoh's house, nor any in Egypt seem ever
to have been told of the sin of the brethren.
Surely I may claim these rights and privileges for the hour of
_parting_, and for the hour of _reconciliation_. And this was so, as we
see, in this time of Joseph's restoration to his brethren. But when all
this is over, and he has introduced them to Pharaoh and the palace, and
they are in readiness to return to Canaan, in full preparation to bring
their aged father into Egypt to Joseph, when they are just standing,
Benjamin with them, and Simeon with them, and all was the exultation of
a favoured and prosperous hour, one word of warning would not be out of
season, and Joseph has it for them, "See that ye fall not out by the
way." "Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?" addressed the heart of
Peter much in the same spirit, and at a kindred moment, when the
reconciliation, as I may call it, had been accomplished, and Peter's
unbroken net had gathered 153, and he had dined with his denied Master
on the sea shore.
Surely the whole of this, from first to last, is perfect. There is a
moral magnificence in Scripture which makes it, of a truth, the
chiefest, as we may say, of the works of God. The Spirit breathes in it
all. Its tenderness, its grandeur, and its depth, are alike His. In the
issue of the story of Joseph and his brethren we see something that is
very excellent. The rights and the wrongs of Joseph, the claims which he
had made, and the injuries he had endured, were all wonderfully
answered. Whatever dignities his dreams had pledged him, he gained them
all in full measure. Whatever wrongs he had suffered, they were all
avenged in the very way his own heart would have chosen. The judgment of
their sin against him was executed in the bosoms of the brethren
themselves; not a hard word touching it passed his lips from first to
last.
These were the issues of both the rights and wrongs of Joseph. "This
also cometh forth from the Lord of hosts, who is wonderful in counsel,
and excellent in working."
But I must look back at all this for another moment. Conviction of
conscience may be but natural, the ordinary necessary working of the
soul, the absence of which would be resented as the evidence of a seared
or hardened state. But when it is more than the mere stirring of the
soul under the authority of nature--when the Spirit of God has produced
it--He takes His own object or instrument to work by. David, under the
convicting Spirit, says to God, "Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned,
and done this evil in Thy sight." And thus will it be with Israel in the
day of their conviction; for their conscience will then be linked with
the once rejected, crucified Jesus. As the Lord says by the prophet, I
will pour upon them the spirit of grace and of supplications: and _they
shall look upon Me whom they have pierced_, and they shall mourn for
Him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for
Him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. This is conviction,
when the Spirit of God takes that business out of the hand of nature
into His own hand. This is conscience doing its work, as the apostle
speaks, "in the Holy Ghost." In such a day, under such authority and
power, Israel will address themselves directly to Jesus. Isaiah liii.
shows us the same in another form. And precious work this is in the
soul--_needed_ work still in each of us.
Now this is seen in Joseph's brethren. Another has noticed it already in
a general way. But it is deeply worthy of notice. It was their sin
against Joseph they called to mind in the day of their distress. "We are
verily guilty concerning our brother," they say, "in that we saw the
anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear." Other
sins might have been present to the conscience then. Reuben might have
thought of the defilement of his father's bed, Simeon and Levi of their
blood-shedding and treachery, and Judah of his marriage; but, stirred
into life, not merely by the trouble which had come upon them, but by
the Spirit, they are mindful of the _common_ sin, and speak, as with one
conscience, of their wickedness touching Joseph. And it is this which
bespeaks the Spirit's work in this conviction.
Needed work, again I say, this is in every one of us. But the _fountain_
has to do its work as well as the Spirit of grace. Joseph, as we saw,
interpreted his sorrows, though at their wicked hands, very differently
from what their fears and guilt had interpreted them. They said, and
very rightly, "we are verily guilty concerning our brother;" he says,
and very truly, "God did send me before you, to preserve life." And this
is the gospel. We are convicted, but saved. We learn that we have
destroyed ourselves, but that in Him is our help. The blood meets the
spear. The fountain is opened in those very wounds which our own hands
have inflicted. And this will be the experience of the Jewish election
(whose history that of these brethren foreshadow, as we know) in the day
of Isaiah liii. and Zechariah xiii. The cross is the witness. Faith
stands before it, and there learns _ruin_ and _redemption_.
In the progress of this wondrous story, the reconciliation, as we have
now seen, is accomplished. Joseph has received his brethren; and all is
therefore ready for Israel's full blessing. Restoration must follow
conversion. Times of refreshing and restitution must come upon Israel's
repentance. The aged father, with his household and flocks, is brought
from Canaan, and with his sons presented to Pharaoh, and they are seated
in the very best of the land, the land of Goshen in Rameses.
They were told that they might leave all their own stuff _behind_ them,
for all the good of the land of Egypt was _before_ them. And so it
proved to be. Their empty sacks had come down to Egypt at the first to
be made full, and they were still to prove that there were a heart and a
hand there, both equal and ready to give without measure, and the
emptier they came down the fuller they would learn this.
They were but shepherds, it is true, and such were an abomination to the
Egyptians. But Joseph "is not ashamed to call them brethren." Strangers
they were, and pensioners; but the man of that day, the lord of Egypt,
again I say, was "not ashamed to call them brethren." He owns them in
the presence of the king, of the palace, and of the nation. And the king
proves to be of the same mind. That they were Joseph's brethren was
enough for Pharaoh. Truly this has language in our ears. A day is at
hand, when all this shall be made good in the great originals of Christ
and Israel. He will return to them and say, "It is my people;" and they
will say, "The Lord is my God."
But though this is great and excellent, it is not all. The earth itself
has to be settled and blest, the inheritance has to be received and
displayed, as the brethren, the Israel of Christ, had to be thus
quickened and restored; and this we are now to see. Joseph in chapter
xlvii. becomes the upholder of the world in life and order. By him life
is preserved in the earth, and order maintained. And all the people are
made willing in that day of his power. All is right that Joseph does, in
the eyes of all the people. Their money, their cattle, their lands, and
themselves, are made over to Pharaoh; and yet all pleases them, for they
owe their lives to Joseph. Egypt, in those days, was a sample of the new
world, the world brought back to God by _redemption_. It was a
"purchased possession," just what the millennial earth is to be. Eph. i.
14. It was creation reconciled, delivered from the doom of famine, from
death and the curse, by the hand of a saviour. Joseph's corn had bought
the land, the cattle, and the people. All was under Pharaoh in a new
character, as a purchased possession, standing in the grace of
redemption. Pharaoh, who had been king of the country, is king of the
country still; but he has another, a redeemer of the land and people,
associated with him now, as once he had not. As in millennial days. What
a picture has the hand of God drawn for us here! what a pledge have we
here, yea, what a sample of the earth in the days of the kingdom!
Pharaoh had trusted Joseph, and Joseph had pledged Pharaoh, in earlier
days, when as yet nothing was done. Ere the word of Joseph began to be
accomplished Pharaoh had seated him in dignity and power, given him a
wife from among the daughters of the excellent of the land, and put upon
him a name that told already to all who read it, what he thought of him,
and how he received him.[23] And Joseph, in the confidence that all
would be according to the interpretations which God had given him to
deliver, accepted all this at Pharaoh's hand; and then, but not till
then, the plentiful years came, one after another, to make good the
pledges of Joseph to Pharaoh, and to vindicate all the honours which had
been conferred by Pharaoh on Joseph. See chap. xli.
[23] Zaphnath-paaneah, in the old Egyptian tongue, is said to have
signified "the saviour of the world"; in the Hebrew, as we
understand, it might be rendered "the revealer of secrets."
Precious notices of all that which finds its originals, its counselled
and eternal reality, in the secrets which have been between God and His
anointed! We have only to bow and worship; and as we gather the spoils
and riches of the word of God, to rejoice and be thankful. "I rejoice in
thy word as one that findeth great spoil." "I have rejoiced in the way
of thy testimonies, as much as in all riches."
It was fitting that we should have this sample of the new world, or the
coming millennial condition of the earth, in the history of Joseph; for,
as we said at the beginning, he is the _heir_, set to represent such an
one in the grace of God, after his fathers had told out, each his
several part, in the same fruitful and abounding grace. _Election_, as
we have seen, we got in Abraham; _sonship_, to which election
predestinates us, in Isaac; _discipline_, to which sonship introduces
us, in Jacob; and now, _the heir and the inheritance_ which follows,
closing the mystery which grace has counselled, and closing likewise the
Book of Genesis, in Joseph.
There is no speech or language here, but a voice is heard, clear, full,
and harmonious, by the ear that is awakened. And as we look back on
Joseph alone, we see a page of sacred story, full of Jesus; a _rejected_
Jesus first, a _risen and ascended_ Jesus then, and now at the end, a
_millennial_ Jesus, Jesus in His inheritance and kingdom.
"Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world." But
what we do not get teaches us this as surely as what we do. He has
formed the light and the darkness. "The day is thine, the night also is
thine." In all this passing and magnificent exhibition of the
inheritance, there is one whom we might have expected to see _chiefly_,
and yet we see her _not at all_. Asenath the wife is not found here. She
and her children get no portions in this great settlement of everything
in the land; they are not so much as seen or mentioned. Is it that they
were forgotten? That could not be. But she was the heavenly one, the
wife given to Joseph from among the Gentiles in the day of his
separation from his kindred, and her portion is more excellent than what
the land in its best condition could afford her; it is in him and with
him who is the lord and dispenser of it all. Asenath is lost in Joseph;
or, to be seen only in Joseph.
And thus the _full_ end is told at the beginning; for all this in the
Book of Genesis is "the dispensation of the fulness of times," when God
shall gather together all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and
which are on earth. And surely it is happy, beloved, in the sight of the
world's present confusion, in the midst of the agitation of human
thoughts which is ever around us, to learn in the mouth of such
witnesses, that the end is thus before Him, and has been so from the
beginning. "The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever, the thoughts of
His heart to all generations." His people and His purposes are alike
before Him; and such truths comforted the apostles, when they found
themselves in the midst of church disappointments. See 2 Tim. ii. 19.
_Part IV._ (xlviii.-l.)--This is rather, I might say, an appendix to the
history, than the fourth part of it. It is made up of a few detached
actions in Joseph's latter days.
The first thing, however, which we get is kindred with what we have seen
to be the characteristic of the history itself. Chapter xlviii., which
opens this fourth part, shows us the bestowing of the birthright upon
Joseph; and the birthright and the inheritance are, in some sense, one.
In Israel, or under the law, the birthright carried the double portion.
The firstborn was to have a double share of the father's goods; and the
law enjoined that this should be his by an indefeasible title, a title
that was not to be challenged. The double portion was not to be given to
any other child of the family on any ground of personal affection or
partiality whatever. Deut. xxi. 15-17.
But though this were so, the birthright might have been either sold or
forfeited by the firstborn himself. His own acts might alienate it,
though his father's partialities or prejudices could not. And we find
this to have been the case. Esau sold it, and Reuben forfeited it.
Genesis xxv.; 1 Chron. v. In the case of the sale of it by Esau, Jacob
who bought it, of course, had title to it. The bargain and sale made it
his. That is clear. But in the case of the forfeiture of it by Reuben,
who is to take it? It reverted to the father; but on which of the sons
would he confer it? That was a question, and it is that question which
this chapter answers. It presents us with the solemnity of the aged
father, dying Jacob, investing Joseph with the birthright which Reuben
his firstborn had forfeited.
Upon hearing of the illness of his father, Joseph comes to his bedside,
bringing his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, with him. None of the other
sons of Jacob are present. The Spirit of God, through Jacob, has a
special business with Joseph.
Jacob begins the action by reciting to Joseph the divine grant of the
land of Canaan. This was a setting forth of the family estate, the
property which he had to leave among his children. He then _adopts_ the
sons of Joseph; for this was needed to the investing of them with the
rights of children, inasmuch, as, in a great legal sense, they were
strangers to Abraham. Their mother was an Egyptian. They were a seed,
therefore, whom the law would, in its day, have put away. Ezra x. 3. But
Jacob adopts them. He takes them into the family. "And now," says he to
Joseph, "thy two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, which were born unto thee
in the land of Egypt before I came unto thee into Egypt, are mine." They
are constituted of the seed of Abraham, and made children of Jacob; and
this being done, Jacob at once sets them in the place of the firstborn;
for he adds immediately, "As Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine."
This was a solemn act of investiture, by which the rights of the eldest,
the double portion which attached to the birthright, passed over to
Joseph in the persons of his two sons. See 1 Chron. v.; Ezek. xlvii.
13.[24]
[24] The title now bestowed was afterwards realized, when the family
estate, the land of Canaan, came to be divided between the tribes;
for Joseph then gets two portions in his two sons, who are treated
as though they had been two distinct sons of Jacob.
But we have still to ask, Why was Joseph thus preferred? The forfeited
right had reverted to Jacob, and from his hand it had to be disposed of
afresh. But why was it given to Joseph? Was this merely grace? I could
not say so. Grace, I know, on this great occasion, takes its way; and
were we duly emptied, we should delight in the way of grace, even though
we ourselves might get, in its distributions, only a left-hand or
Manasseh blessing. But while all this is so, I still question whether it
were _merely_ grace which thus conferred the rights of the eldest son
upon Joseph.
I rather judge that Joseph _earned_ it. If Jacob aforetime bought it,
Joseph, I believe, had now earned it.
We have already, in the history, tracked his path to the inheritance. It
was the path, like that of his divine Master, whose shadow in the
distance he was, of sorrow and rejection and separation, and yet of
righteousness and testimony. And this path had ended with praise and
honour and glory in the kingdom or inheritance; and the birthright is
kindred with the inheritance.
It is, therefore, easy for us to say, as we have said, that Joseph
earned the birthright. Judah earned the royalty, Levi the priesthood,
and so Joseph the double portion. And his father gave him a pledge, "an
earnest of the inheritance," which was characteristic of this; for at
the end of this action Jacob says to him, "Moreover I have given to thee
one portion above thy brethren, which I took out of the hand of the
Amorite with my sword and with my bow." This was an earnest. But not
only so; it was a _sample_ also. It was characteristic. It spoke of the
inheritance as it was to be in the hand of Joseph. This portion had been
_won_, and so had Joseph's. The sword of Jacob had gained this parcel of
ground, as the patience of Joseph had gained the inheritance and the
birthright; and it is according to this that the dying father afterwards
celebrates him. "The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the
blessings of my progenitors, unto the utmost bound of the everlasting
hills: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head
of him _that was separate from his brethren_." Or as Moses, the man of
God, says of him, "Let the blessing come upon the head of Joseph, and
upon the top of the head of him that was separated from his brethren."
The apostle speaks of "the reward of the inheritance," words which may
not sound as if they exactly suited each other; for the inheritance is
of grace, and reward is of work. So the Lord speaks of giving "a crown
of life," words which may also sound in the ear as somewhat discordant;
for life is of grace, and a crown is a reward. But the soul accepts
these things, and makes no difficulty of them. "All purchased and
promised blessings be with you," said the dying martyr to his wife. And
he spoke wisely, as he did blessedly; for blessings in one sense are all
purchased; in another, promised or given. As a sweet hymn, which we all
know, has it--
"Lord, I believe Thou hast prepared,
Unworthy though I be,
For me a _blood-bought free reward_,
A golden harp for me."
And Joseph, I judge, got the birthright or the inheritance in this way.
It was in his hand "the reward of the inheritance." It was a bought
thing, and yet a given thing; an earned thing, and yet a free thing. We
see grace in the bestowment of it upon him, but we see also the fruit or
issue of that path of martyr-sorrows which he, and he alone, of all
Jacob's sons, had trod in patience and in triumph.
This action, therefore, is in full company with the leading character of
Joseph's history. We see the heir in him, and with that the right of the
firstborn, the double portion, with its earnest, "the earnest of the
inheritance," made over to him, in the action of this chapter.
In the next chapter (xlix.) Joseph is only one of the many sons of
Jacob--Jacob the father being principal. Joseph and his brethren are
together under the eye and before the thoughts of the dying patriarch,
who was led of the Spirit to tell them what should befall them in the
last days. This I take no further notice of here, but refer to the
history of Jacob, where I have already considered it.
In the last chapter (l.) Joseph is again principal; not, however, so
much mystically as personally; that is, not as the _heir_, but as the
_man_. We see Joseph himself here, his character and his virtues, rather
than the lord of Egypt, his place and his dignities. And considered
personally, he is perhaps the most attractive character in the book of
Genesis. There is more of the fruit and force of godliness in him than
in either of his fathers. We have in him the steadiest, most consistent
walk in the ways of God. There is less elevation, I am sensible, than in
Abraham, as of course there is less exercise of spirit than in Jacob;
but through all circumstances, trials, honours, changes, he is still the
man of God who walked in His fear and before Him. His history is not
made up of failures and recoveries, or a doing of first works over
again. It is a path of light, if not of such light as shines more and
more unto the perfect day, yet of light which shines clear and calm and
constant. In his history we have not angelic visits, nor apparitions of
the Lord, or audiences of divine oracles; but in Joseph himself we have
a vessel used of God, because approved of Him; a very precious thing
with God. It is not Peniel or Beersheba again, occasional refreshments
and illuminations, but rather an abiding witness within, so that he knew
the way of God, and kept it. "Until the time that _his word_ came, the
_word of the Lord_ tried him." The authority which Egypt, in due season,
owned in him, he had before owned in the Lord. He was the obedient one
himself, and then became the one set in authority. He continued as with
Christ in His temptations, and then he was appointed to a kingdom.
Subjection was his path to honour, the due path of all the heirs of the
same kingdom.
But there are some peculiarities in the story of Joseph beyond this. We
do not find the altar and the tent with him, as we do with his fathers.
Because it is not strangership in the earth that we see in him, but the
inheritance or the kingdom, after suffering and humiliation. It is not
the tent of his fathers that we see in his history, but the pit and the
prison, which were his alone, and not his fathers'. The tent and the
altar may duly be the symbols of their calling; the pit and the prison
first, and then the throne, become the symbols of his.
And as another peculiarity, we may observe that the Lord is never called
the God of Joseph, as He is called "the God of Abraham, and the God of
Isaac, and the God of Jacob." But this, likewise, we may account for.
Joseph was rather among the _sons_ than the _fathers_. The covenant was
not made with him, as it had been with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; nor
was any one set aside in order that he might have the blessing. The
covenant was made with Abraham separated from country, kindred, and
father's house. It was renewed with Isaac, to the setting aside of
Ishmael. It was renewed again with Jacob to the setting aside of Esau.
But it was not renewed with Joseph; for he was only one of the sons of
Jacob, and they were all alike interested in it; they were all the seed
contemplated by it; and Joseph was no more of that seed than either of
the others. So that we have no ground for the characteristic title, "the
God of Joseph." For, while grace was displayed in the call of Abraham,
and then again in the choosing of Isaac the younger, and in the choosing
of Jacob the younger, it was displayed in Joseph only in its common
measure in behalf of all the seed, a measure that reached to others as
to him.[25]
[25] God is afterwards called "the God of Israel," as before He had
been called the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. Because
His covenant was with the nation of Israel.