Three Lessons From Joseph

    “And when Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him. And they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying, So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin; for they did unto thee evil: and now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him. And his brethren also went and fell down before his face; and they said, Behold, we be thy servants. And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God? But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them

    Joseph is held before us in the book of Genesis as a beautiful, instructive type and picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. In his betrayal, in his humiliation, in his exaltation, in opening the storehouses, and in the saving of his family, and in many other ways the typical instruction is crystal clear. A. W. Pink, in his Gleanings in Genesis, gave 101 comparisons between Joseph and Christ.

    In Genesis 50, Joseph has finished the work God sent him to do. All Israel had been saved from death and dwelt in the peaceable habitations of Goshen. Jacob was now dead. Nothing remained but for Joseph’s brothers to dwell in the land in peace, pursuing their ordinary work as shepherds, with gratitude to Joseph for his goodness to them. They now had nothing to fear. All was well.

    Yet, Joseph’s brothers were uneasy. Their former transgressions made them fearful. Their guilt caused them to be suspicious of Joseph’s goodness. In spite of all the kindness they had experienced at Joseph’s hand, they were not assured of their acceptance with him. They feared that they might yet be made to suffer for what they had done to him. Therefore, they sued for mercy in the name of their father Jacob, whom they knew Joseph loved dearly.

    They sent a messenger to Jacob with a message from Jacob (vv. 15-17). When Joseph heard their request, his tender heart broke and he wept (vv. 17), because of his love for Jacob and because of his love for his brothers, but probably their suspicions of him, more than anything else, broke his heart. What an evil thing it is for sinners saved by the grace of God in Christ to be suspicious of his great goodness. Yet, it is an evil of which we are all, far too often, guilty.

    Then Joseph’s brothers themselves came before him (vv. 17-18). They confessed their sin. They sought forgiveness in Jacob’s name, upon his word. And they bowed before Joseph as his servants. This was the thing they had refused to do before. It was this very thing which had before been the cause of their hatred. When they heard that they must bow as servants to Joseph, they said, “Shalt thou indeed reign over us?” (Gen. 37:8). Then they sold him into bondage. But now they are humbled. Now, they bow and say, “We be thy servants.”

    This is the issue that must be settled in the hearts of men. We must bow to Christ (Luke 14:25-33). He must be owned and acknowledged as our rightful Lord (Rom. 10:9-10). There is no salvation without the voluntary surrender of our hearts and lives to Christ’s dominion as our Lord. When they bowed before Joseph as their rightful lord and master, he assured them of his good intentions toward them and comforted them (vv. 19-21). What a tender picture we have before us. It is a scene which needs no explanation. It is full of spiritual instruction for our souls. It clearly sets forth three lessons which we should each lay to heart.

    The first lesson is a lesson about God’s abundant grace and forgiveness of sin in Christ. It is written, “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound” (Rom. 5:20). There is abundant grace for guilty sinners in Christ. Our God is a God who “delighteth in mercy” (Mic. 7:18).

    Let us learn from Joseph’s brothers something about the nature of true repentance. The Spirit of God, who preserved this event for us and caused it to be recorded by Moses, gives us no reason to question the sincerity of these men. Joseph’s penitent brothers show us what true repentance involves. Though fear is not itself repentance, repentance does involve a terrifying sense of guilt. These men were afraid because they were guilty of great sin and they knew it. It also involves an acknowledgement and confession of sin (1 John 1:9). Like the publican our Lord mentioned (Luke 18:13), all who truly repent acknowledge and confess themselves to be sinners at heart, by nature, and in practice, without one shred of righteousness with which to commend themselves to God.

    Pardon will never be granted until sin is confessed, confessed with a broken heart, and confessed completely. I do not mean that we must list all our sins. That would be impossible. But I do mean that we must not cover our sins (Pro. 28:13). And we must completely confess our sin, offering no excuses for the evil of our sinful nature, our deeds of sin (our wicked acts and thoughts), or the corruption of our attempts at righteousness, acknowledging that even our “good works” and personal righteousnesses are but filthy rags before the holy Lord God (Isa. 64:6).

    Repentance, in its essence, is a voluntary surrender to Christ as our Lord and Master. It is taking his yoke upon us. Someone once said, “He who abandons himself to God will never be abandoned by God.” We must lay ourselves at Christ’s feet if we would have him take us into his arms.

    This grace of repentance, the gift of Christ to redeemed sinners (Acts 5:31), arises from faith in the Word of God. Joseph’s brothers came to him and made their plea upon the basis of his father’s word. -- “Thy father did command..” So, too, penitent sinners come to Christ in hope of mercy upon the basis of what God himself has spoken in his Word (John 3:14-16). Believing God’s record, we cast ourselves into the arms of the crucified Christ in hope of life eternal.

    Let us ever remember the tenderness of our Savior toward us. As “Joseph wept when they spoke unto him,” so our Lord Jesus Christ is “touched with the feeling of our infirmities.” Our Savior is as full of sympathy and tenderness for his saints now, though he is exalted, as he was when he dwelt upon the earth.

    Let us, also, try to realize how thorough and complete God’s forgiveness of our sin is. We nailed our Savior to the cursed tree. We caused his blood to flow. His blood might justly be upon us forever. But so great, so thorough, so complete is his forgiveness that our Savior, rather than charging us with the sin and guilt of his death, blesses us through it! Joseph said to his brothers, “Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves...for God did send me before you to preserve life” (Gen. 45:5). As John Newton put it…

    “With pleasing grief and mournful joy My spirit now is filled,

    That I should such a life destroy, Yet live by Him I killed!”

    Let every believer understand clearly that Christ has forgiven us of all our sin. We need never fear that he will deal with us upon the basis of our sin, neither by way of punishment, nor by loss of reward. Our great Savior, like Joseph, speaks comfortably to his people and assures us that he will nourish us. His word to us, with regard to all retaliation for sin is, “Fear not!” No wonder David sang, “Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin” (Rom. 4:8).

    The second lesson in this passage is a lesson about he universal providence of our God (vv. 19-20). I am sure that Joseph, when he was in that pit, when he was cast into prison, when he lay at night on the cold earth, shackled like a common felon, must have often wept in his loneliness, wondered why he was made to experience so much pain and sorrow, and must have often wondered how his circumstances could be so bad when God had promised to bless him. But the end of his life vindicated God’s promise and explained the necessity for every event in his life. Joseph’s complicated life unraveled and was exhausted exactly as God had ordained it; and with profound simplicity, Joseph said, “I am in the place of God!” The lesson from this man’s life is “the Lord reigneth!”

    Every child of God in this world should be constantly aware of this fact. – “The Lord reigneth!” Let us ever rejoice in this glorious fact and take to ourselves the comfort it affords. May God give us grace to believe him. We ought to trust him whose providence is so manifestly displayed to us. Here are five areas in which the sovereignty of God in providence¹⁹ is clearly displayed.

    1. God’s sovereignty, his absolute control of the universe is seen in the accomplishment of redemption by the death of Christ (Acts 2:23; 4:27-28).

    2. God’s sovereign rule of providence is manifest in the exaltation and glory of Christ (John 17:2; Rom. 14:9). Like Joseph, our Savior is “in the place of God...to save much people alive.” And he came to be in that place by God’s sovereign employment of the wicked men who crucified him (Acts 2:22-36).

    3. Certainly, we see the greatness of God’s sovereignty in providence in the fact that he overrules evil for good (Psa. 76:10). What Joseph’s brothers meant to be evil, God used for good. Adam’s fall made way for our redemption by Christ. Pharaoh’s slaughter of the Hebrew children brought Moses into his house. Thus the tyrant’s wickedness was both the instrument of his own destruction and of Israel’s deliverance from Egyptian bondage for the fulfilment of God’s covenant. Truly, “all things work together” for the eternal good of God’s elect. As it is written, “All things are of God” (2 Cor. 5:18; Rom. 11:33-36).

    4. Certainly, the history of every chosen sinner is a revelation of God’s wise, good, adorable providence (Rom. 8:28). Providence prepares the sinner for grace and preserves him unto the appointed day of grace (Psa. 107; Hos. 2:8). The old writers called this “prevenient grace,” that grace that goes before and prepares the way for grace. Our heavenly Father’s secret providence orders all the affairs of our lives, yea, all the affairs of the world, for the good of his people.

    5. God’s great and glorious, good and wise providence will be so manifest at the conclusion of history that everything will render praise to him (Rev. 5:11-14). A. J. Gordon, who succeeded C. H. Spurgeon as pastor at the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London, England, said, “God’s providence is like the Hebrew Bible; we must begin at the end and read backward in order to understand it.”

    The third lesson to be learned from this story is a lesson about brotherly love. Do you see how this man, Joseph, loved his brothers? He loved them so much that he not only forgave their crimes against him, but spoke kindly to them and sought to remove all their fears. His heart was so tender toward them that he wept when they suspected his kindness. Let us ever seek grace from our God to truly love our brethren in Christ in this way, and to show that love by our attitude and actions.

    When we have wronged a brother or a sister in Christ, we must with humility seek forgiveness and reconciliation with them. “Confess your faults one to another” (James 5:16). To wrong a friend is great evil; but to compound the wrong by refusing to acknowledge it is even more wicked. That will soon destroy a friendship (Matt. 5:23-24).

    When we have been wronged, we must freely forgive the wrong and the wrongdoer (Matt. 6:14; Eph. 4:32 - 5:1). Nothing in this low, ruined world so beautifully reflects the character of the Son of God as forgiveness. As Joseph forgave his brothers, let us forgive one another. As God, for Christ’s sake, has forgiven us, let us, for Christ’s sake, forgive one another.

    Let us lay these three lessons to heart. (1.) God’s grace is abundant and free in Christ. We have great reason to give thanks to him. (2.) God’s providence is always good for his people. We should always be content with what our heavenly Father brings to pass. (3.) The love of God in Christ, when experienced, teaches saved sinners to love and forgive one another.