JOSEPH’S ADVANCEMENT.
It is instructive to notice how many things were combined, by the
providential care of God, to promote the advancement of Joseph: 1. He
dreamed; 2. He told his dreams to his brethren; 3. He went and visited
them at a distance from their father’s home—and, prior to that, he had
been envied by them on account of his father’s partiality; 4. Reuben
and Judah interposed to prevent his being murdered; 5. The Ishmaelites
passed opportunely through Dothan; 6. They bought him; 7. They carried
him into Egypt, and sold him to Potiphar—not a person of minor
influence; 8. Joseph was tempted to sin, but resisted the temptation,
and was thrown into prison on a false accusation; 9. He had for his
fellow-prisoners two of Pharaoh’s household; 10. They dreamed dreams;
11. Pharaoh did the same; 12. A former fellow-prisoner of the Hebrew
lad was at hand, to remind the troubled king of that lad’s power. And
only at the end of this long chain—to which still other links might
have been added—was Joseph raised from his degradation; only then did
it appear that he who chooses weak things to confound the mighty had a
great work to accomplish in Egypt by the instrumentality of that man.
It seemed darkness without one ray of light when Joseph was torn from
his father and his father’s country, and made not merely a slave, but a
close prisoner for several years. But he who makes the wrath of man to
praise him, needed Joseph in Egypt; and by terrible things in
righteousness the purposes of the Eternal were wrought out.
Now this finely illustrates the exquisite adaptations of the providence
of God to accomplish his designs. The links, how delicate and manifold,
yet how firm! The agents, how free, yet how perfectly controlled! The
devices, how deep in some cases, how simple in others; yet how
beautifully all conspire to promote the desired end! Is not this the
finger of God? Does he not vivify all, or restrain all, ever one in
purpose as he is one in essence; and making all advance his glory?
Contemplate Joseph now, then. He is at the right hand of Pharaoh; for
that monarch has said to him, “See, I have set thee over all the land
of Egypt. Thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word
shall all my people be ruled; only in the throne will I be greater than
thou.” Joseph had power now to “bind even princes at his pleasure;” and
we cannot help contrasting the recent slave and prisoner with the
friend and counsellor of royalty, united in the same person. He is
adorned with Pharaoh’s ring, and with a chain of gold. If he has lost
his coat of many colours, he wears the royal raiment of Egypt in its
stead. He rides, moreover, in a chariot of state; and men, as we have
seen, now cry before him, “Bow the knee.” Joseph is, in truth, all but
royal; and though such things would not much affect him, if he was what
we believe him to have been—that is, righteous before God—yet they do
furnish a vivid contrast to Joseph’s recent condition. They show us
that when God over all has work to do, he will both find agents and
gift them with the means of accomplishing his purposes. Man seeks to
withdraw himself and his affairs entirely from the control of the
Supreme; but he bridles, fetters, or gives liberty, according to his
pleasure; and blessed are they who are his willing people.
And who could not quote a hundred such examples as that of Joseph from
the history of the past? Nay, may not every man who has had wisdom to
watch the ways of God in dealing with his own soul, single out examples
of similar wisdom in the providence of the Holy One? It may be for
retribution on the guilty, or for encouragement to the men who fear
God; but whatever be the design, many signal examples are recorded, to
show that God watches over all human plans, guiding and controlling
them, so as to promote the good pleasure of his will. Man proposes, but
God disposes; and he that is wise to mark the wisdom of the Supreme in
such things, will not want for proof of the loving-kindness of the
Lord. During a recent memorable siege in the East, for example, it was
the design of hordes of dark-souled men to explode a mine, and blow
their beleaguered victims into the air; but that mine was prematurely
fired, and destroyed only those emissaries of evil who dug it. Now,
this is only a specimen of what takes place in the providence of God;
at least that mine at Lucknow was morally anticipated in the selling of
Joseph by his brethren, and his exaltation to the right hand of Pharaoh
by God, compared with their humiliation before him at last.
Further: we need only to look forward to the closing scene of all, the
last and great Assize, to see examples countless of this general law!
What multitudes then will be seen to have been caught in their own
pitfall! How manifest will it then become that God was over all, even
when men were asking, like Pharaoh of old, “Who is the Lord, that I
should fear him?” Now, this may well supply strength to every tried
one. God may permit sorrow to assail; but do we, in godly sincerity,
commit our way to him? Then glory will emerge from that threatened
shame; and grief, as in Joseph’s case, will be found the precursor of
joy everlasting.