Note: Devotion based on last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 37:
Genesis
37 begins the inspired narrative of the life of Joseph, an account which extends
through Genesis 50. It tells us how his envious brothers hated him and sold him
into slavery. What do we draw from this inspired account?
We
are reminded that there is a sovereign God who is working out his perfect and
all-wise will in all the providential circumstances of this life, including in
the face of evil, in grief and pain and loss.
It
is noteworthy that the name of God nowhere explicitly appears in this chapter.
He is not always named, but He is always there.
And
we see something in this lesser story, shadows and hints, of a greater story,
if we compare Joseph with the Lord Jesus Christ:
Joseph
was the beloved son of his father Jacob (Genesis 37:3).
The Lord Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of
the Father from all eternity, made flesh in the fullness of time (John 1:14, 18;
Galatians 4:4).
Joseph
was given special revelation by God, as a dreamer (37:5-11, 19).
Christ is the prophet, priest, and king, who
spoke the Word of God. In the Sermon on the Mount, he said, over and again, “Ye
have heard it said….but I say unto you…”
Joseph
was hated of the brothers he was sent to deliver from the death of famine (37:4).
John said of Christ, “He came unto his own, and
his own received him not” (John 1:10). Christ himself said in John 3:19, “And
this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved
darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”
Joseph
came seeking his brethren to do them good on behalf of their father (37:13).
John 3:16 says, “God so love the world that he
gave [sent] his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not
perish but have everlasting life.”
Christ told in Mark 12 the parable of the
vineyard owner whose husbandmen abused his servants sent to them, till finally he
sent his own dear son, and they said, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him,
and the inheritance will be ours” (Mark 12:7).
Joseph
was stripped of his coat and cast into a waterless pit (37:23).
Christ was stripped of his clothing for which the
soldiers cast lots; he was crucified, and then placed in a tomb.
Joseph
was sold by his brother for 20 pieces of silver (37:28).
Christ was betrayed by Judas one of the twelve, a
friend like a dear brother, for 30 pieces of silver (Matthew 26:15).
Joseph’s
coat was dipped in the blood of a kid of a goat (37:31).
Christ shed his own blood on the cross, and He gave
himself a ransom for many.
Jacob
mourned and wept at the loss of his son, though he did not know Joseph still
lived (37:34-35).
The disciples wept and mourned at the death of
Christ, not knowing, at first, that he would, as he said, be gloriously raised
on the third day.
Our Lord was under the power of death for three
days. For 36 terrible hours. 12 hours Friday evening. 24 hours from midnight
Friday to midnight Saturday. And for six more hours from midnight Saturday till
the early morning on the first day of the week. But then he was gloriously
raised just as he said, and death was swallowed up in victory.
One
of the great themes throughout this Joseph account will be summed up when Joseph
meets those brothers years later in Genesis 50:20, and he says to them, “ye
thought evil against me, but God meant it for good.” That is the Old Testament
equivalent to Romans 8:28: “And we know that all things work together for good
to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
Joseph
was a great man with a great story, and he had a great role in God’s plan of
salvation. But Christ is a greater man than Joseph, with a greater story. He is
the Savior of all men. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen.
Grace
and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle
