Seeking for the help of the Lord
I direct your prayer for attention to the chapter we read Genesis
chapter 45 and we read for our text just part of verse 26 In verse 26 we read these words,
Joseph is yet alive. It is when they came to their
father and told him, saying, Joseph is yet alive, and he is
governor over all the land of Egypt And Jacob's heart fainted,
for he believed them not. It is a wonder that Jacob didn't
completely faint under such tidings when we think that Joseph was
17 when he left home and then he was 30 when he stood before
Pharaoh 13 years had gone by and then there was 7 years of
plenty that's 20 years And then he says in this chapter that
there were yet five more years of famine, so there had already
been two, so that's 22 years. And as far as Jacob was concerned,
his son was long ago dead. but to hear this, that Joseph
is yet alive. And it is again to continue this
evening with the types in the Old Testament of our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ. My desire and I hope each of
you is, that you might see the Lord Jesus Christ in the Word. It is the Christian's delight
to see the Saviour there and to believe on Him, and it is
God's purpose that these who have gone before both in types
like Noah's Ark we had a couple of weeks ago or in the case of
people like Isaac or like here with Joseph that we see the Lord
Jesus Christ and as Joseph after his trials could look back and
see it more clearly that God had sent him there. So we with
the New Testament can look back to the Old and it really shows
us even more clearly the work of our Lord and aspects of his
ministry and what he is to his people. These are not just things
that we might say, well here is a nice illustration of our
Lord. No, they are types, they are
put there by God for this purpose. It's like with Moses said, a
prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you like unto me,
him shall ye hear. And he was pointing to the Lord
Jesus Christ and that he should be or Moses was a type of the
Christ that was to come and so with Joseph as well and especially
the word that we've read by means of a text in looking at the life
of Joseph and to shine upon our Lord Jesus Christ the most important
thing we might say with our Lord Jesus Christ is that he lives
that the tomb is empty that He rose again, and with Joseph,
that He wasn't dead, He was alive, and He had been sent before to
preserve life. And so that is vital. We have
a living God, a living Saviour. And Joseph, as dead as what his
father thought was of no use, but a living Joseph, what a blessing
and what a saviour. And he was only really beginning
to know and to realise what a great thing that that was. And so I want to look with the
Lord's help at the life of Joseph and how we may see our Lord there. And I want to divide his life
up into three sections. Firstly, his being sent before
to preserve the lives of his brethren and in that we just
an overview as it were from his sending right to his position
with Pharaoh and then we'll go back in the second point to look
at Joseph's sufferings and to see the Saviour's sufferings
set forth there. And then lastly, how Joseph dealt
with his brethren, because our Lord Jesus Christ deals with
his brethren, with his people, and we can see many parallels
and many illustrations that I hope will be a real encouragement,
especially to those that actually are now the subject of the Lord's
dealings with them and be able to see how Joseph dealt with
his brethren. So I want to look then first
at his being sent before to preserve the lives of his brethren. We
read concerning our Lord Jesus Christ that he was the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world, that it was a covenant that was
made before the world was between the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit. Thine they were, thou gavest
them thee. And concerning our Lord, whose
goings were from of old, from everlasting. And so when we see
with Joseph we see the Lord giving those intimations of what he
would do, and he gave him two dreams. He gave him the dream
firstly of sheaves that belonged to himself and his brothers. And he said that his sheaves
stood up and the other sheaves they bowed down and did obeisance
to his sheave. And his brethren were angered
at that. They thought that they should
all bow down to their younger brother Joseph And then he had
another dream, and he told that also to them and to his father,
and his father gently reproved him. Does thou think that we
shall all bow down to thee? And in that dream he dreamt that
the stars of heaven also, that they all bowed down to him. And no doubt, as was said of
his father, his father he laid up these words and we think of
those things that happened when our Lord was born and the tidings
of the shepherds and Mary his mother also pondered their words
and she laid them up in her heart it was going to be for her another
30 or so years before she would really see this same as here
that her son Jesus rose from the dead and then to clearly
understand what was being told by the shepherds and by Simeon
and by Anna. But we see of course with our
Lord Going right back to the first promise in Genesis 3.15,
the seed of the woman that should bruise the serpent's head, and
we have that expectation right through the Old Testament with
the prophets of He that should come and what He should be his
kingdom, his greatness, and what he should accomplish, and all
the time there's that expectation being built up, and yet not knowing
how it would come to pass, and we find that with Joseph's dreams. There's an intimation, there's
a showing that there's a plan, there's a purpose. God is showing
what is to come to pass, and yet it's hidden. But what we're
reminded at is this, that God doesn't make his plans on the
fly as it were. Those counsels are of old, they're
eternal counsels. While on earth, before he suffered,
he prepared his disciples, he told them what should happen,
how the Son of Man should be taken and crucified and slain. I tell you beforehand that when
it come to pass, ye may believe that I am he." And my question
was, Joseph, why, to tell his brothers? Well, it was needful,
in a way, because when it was shown what those dreams meant,
then they could see, they could know, that this wasn't something
that had just happened. it was planned by God and God
had already foretold it though they rose up against it and so
we have in those dreams of Joseph a pointing to the purposes of
God and a highlighting with our Lord Jesus Christ how much through
these scriptures he is pointing to what he would do at Calvary
what he would accomplish So Joseph in this chapter, when he makes
himself known to his brethren, he is able to very clearly set
before them in verse 7, And God sent me before you to preserve
you a posterity in the earth and to save your lives by a great
deliverance. That is why Joseph had been sent
before them. The Lord knew the famine that
he was going to bring. He knew their need of being saved
from that famine. And he brought Joseph in a position
to be able to save them from that famine. And that very famine,
as later we'll see, was the means of bringing the brethren to Joseph. And also, it was to fulfill the
promise that had been made to Abraham that his seed should
be a stranger in a strange land, and that in the fourth generation
they would come again into the land of Canaan. God had already
told that, so again we get another picture of God's plan and purposes
being told to his people before they come to pass, and then it
unfolded, and then coming to pass, and we see the means that
the Lord used to actually to bring it to pass. So we have
the words even of Joseph that he was sent before them. Our
Lord Jesus Christ was sent before his people. Before ever Joseph's
brothers had any idea of their need. Before, years before there
was any famine or any need at all, that provision had been
made. and we get a beautiful type of
this before ever you or I ever felt a need of a saviour the
provision is made already God has gone before already it is
there and we can see it with Joseph sometimes it helps in
a way when it's a shorter time scale we might say we believe
that God knows from eternity but When you can get something
as seen with Joseph in the span of 22 years, then we can see
in a more clearer way that poor finite minds can grasp, that
here is a plan made then, that is then brought to pass later.
We remember what we are told of prayer, before they call,
I will answer. How far before? An hour, two hours, a day, a
month, a year, a thousand years. It doesn't matter with the Lord,
does it? But the fact that it is before, and we see the Lord's
marking of the Lord's dealings. He makes provision before we
actually feel the need of it. Remember that. Another aspect with our Lord
being sent before to preserve his brethren's lives is that
he was sent by his Father. Our Lord Jesus Christ was sent
by the Father. And we find this with Joseph. And Joseph, he knew that his
brethren, they envied him, Jacob, He didn't hide the love that
he had for Joseph, and that made the brothers full of envy, and
of course the coat of many colours that his father had made as well,
and they rose up against that. But even though Joseph may have
fully known what his brothers were like, yet to venture and
to go to see them in obedience to his father and it's often
struck me with Joseph what hung upon his obedience to his father
what if he just said well my brothers they don't like me and
I don't want to go and see them but he still went and we find
a very similar thing with David When he went again with his father's
bidding to go into the battle when Goliath was challenging
Israel, and Eliab his elder brother again spoke very scornfully of
him, what great things have happened in the lives of Joseph and David
just because there was obedience to their father in a manual task,
as it were, that led to great things. And we should remember
that. But it points to our Lord, the
obedience of our Lord to his Father. And our Lord knew how
he would be treated. He knew if Joseph knew what kind
of reception he would have from his brethren, our Lord well knew
what reception he would have from his brethren too. And so
we have a type there again of our Lord Jesus Christ. Then we have what was said of
Joseph. When the man found him wandering
in the field, the brethren had moved on, and he said that he
heard that they'd gone to Dothan. But Joseph said to that man,
he said, I seek my brethren. I seek my brethren. It's a beautiful
word, really, when we think of our Lord, that he seeks his brethren. He is not ashamed to call them
brethren. That is our Lord. Not ashamed
to call those His brethren who hated Him, who despised Him,
who were going to treat Him as they did. And we see then Joseph
sent on his way, sent to go to Egypt And then we skip over,
just for the time being, the sufferings, and we picture Joseph
in a position next unto Pharaoh. A position of authority, a position
of power, a position of able to do, under Pharaoh, all that
he desired to do. And yet, even in that position,
it's often struck me that Joseph did not delegate other people
to be giving out the corn he was actually doing it himself
when the brethren came he saw and recognized them and we think
of the great position that Joseph was in and yet he had a hands-on
dealing with those that were coming and that's a beautiful
thing to think of our Lord however great however high he is And
you might say, well, Moses, he was told to delegate to 70 the
elders of Israel, the judgment of Israel. But our Lord, he doesn't. He deals with his people himself,
his own hands. Joseph was able to say to his
brother, see, it is my mouth that speaks with you. He'd been
speaking by an interpreter up to that time. They thought he
was Egyptian. They didn't know he spoke. their own language,
and yet they were to know it was not one of the stewards,
not one of a servant, but his own mouth. And when we think
of our Lord in that way, does the Lord speak to his people?
Yes. My sheep hear whose voice? My
voice. The Lord directly, not indirectly. What a beautiful thing to think
about. He speaks through the ministry, but we hear His voice. And we see Him, the heavenly
Joseph, in such a position. We have a type there as well
with Mordecai in the book of Esther. After all the things
that had gone on there, at the end we find Him next unto the
King and speaking peace to all His seed. And we find this with
Joseph. in a position of authority, and
able to do what He will with His own, His brethren, His Father,
and to be able to give them all the best of the land, and to
supply their need in famine, to feed them, to satisfy them,
and especially to have them to be with Him. That was His desire. Come, come and be with Me. Father,
I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am,
that they may behold my glory. What did Joseph say? Tell my
father of all the glory I have in Egypt. And he gave him tokens
of that, gave the brethren to take the wagons and to take the
goods and the riches of Egypt, so that Jacob wasn't just left
to take the word alone. There was those things that accompanied
salvation, those things that were joined with it, that were
really the evidences of the reality of it, and those are precious
times in our lives, when not only does the Lord speak through
His Word, He speaks through providence as well, and He speaks through
His hand, opening His hand, satisfying the desires of every living thing,
ordering our lives, and within my life's minutest circumstances,
subject to his eye, he has ordered this, he has managed it, he is
in the position to do so, and he has done so, and this is very
strengthening to our faith. The Lord doesn't, like Joseph,
just rely on his word, he shows by his authority that he has
power in heaven and earth, he can do what he will the cattle
upon a thousand hills are his and he has control over the hearts
of all men and that is a great comfort and blessing to the people
of God so we see in our Lord Jesus Christ we see those things
that in Joseph's life it magnifies what our Lord has done the position
that he is in now for poor sinners that first begin to feel their
need, a position of authority and power, a position sent there
by his father, a position because he knew the need that his people
would come into. And we may say because of the
sufferings and that which Joseph went through, also a sympathizing
high priest our Lord is, as Joseph would sympathise with his brethren
too. And so may we be helped to see
in that overall of Joseph what our Lord has done in the position
that he is in for us. How strengthening to faith to
realise such a provision to realize what a elder brother we have. In Joseph's case he was a younger
brother, but the important thing is one of their brethren. However
many Joseph may have held from many other lands, what is highlighted
in all that account is in that which he did for his brethren. And so I want to look then at
the sufferings that Joseph went through to bring him to that
position, to fit him and qualify him for it, and to put him in
that position. He didn't just go there, it went
through sufferings, and we see that with our Lord and Saviour
as well. So let's look at then Joseph's
sufferings and to look through them and to our Lord's. The first thing that I'd mention
is that he was separate from his brethren. Joseph, when he
blessed Joseph at the end of his life, and he makes mention
of this that his Boabodian strength that he says this at the end
of there's quite a long passage in in chapter 49 and from verse But he says, The blessings of
thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors
unto the utmost bound. 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 separate from his
brethren and I've often thought of this because when I was 19
and my father and mother and my brothers and sister they moved
away from me over into Tasmania from Melbourne And I live separate,
I was on my own for nine years. Not only that, the Lord had called
me by grace, but as yet he has not called them. I pray that
he will yet. But so physically wise I was
separate from them, and spiritually as well. And there's many of
the Lord's dear people that know what that is. to not only be
separate physically, but it may be that as the Lord begins to
work in one's heart and the desire to follow the Lord, that then
those even that they've been very close to, brothers after
the flesh, they cannot have that same walk with them. Not that there's not a love naturally,
But there's different likes, there's different desires, there's
a desire to follow the Lord on one part and on the other part
there's a desire for nothing of his ways. And so I've always
looked at this, on the head of him that was separate from his
brethren, is one that actually knew and felt what it was to
be separate from my brethren and sometimes it really lies
heavy on the heart and to enter into something of the
Lord's sufferings you know he came from his father unto this
world he is made like unto his brethren but sin accepted and
though he is bone of our flesh and bone of our bone flesh of
our flesh yet he is separate and none can really fully enter
into his path and really comprehend of what he went through and yet
he gives us those things that bring us to have some fellowship
with Him in His sufferings. There's many paths that the Lord's
people walk in that are lonely paths and they're designed for that
so that the Lord brings them to Himself and to have dealings
with Him and not to rest in man alone but we think of the path
of Joseph and then the path of our Lord and that aspect of
his sufferings maybe we haven't thought about it before of how
he was upon this earth and his people as brethren to
him And yet we read that neither did his brethren believe on him,
the things that they said, even after the flesh. Then the other
aspect of his sufferings was what was said of our Lord. He
came unto his own, and his own received him not. Joseph, he
came unto his brethren, those that should have protected him,
looked after him, helped him, And yet they said, Behold, this
dreamer cometh. Let us slay him, and then we'll
see what will become of his dreams. And they sought to slay our Lord.
They sought to cast him down from the brow of a hill. They
sought at last to slay him. They did. They crucified him.
You wonder how much the brothers really thought, too, that their
brother was no longer living. They certainly wanted to give
that impression to their father. But how Joseph was so dealt with
by his brethren, cast into the pit and then sold. Our Lord also
was sold, thirty pieces of silver, by even one of his own disciples,
the apostles. Judas Iscariot, and we were able
to see, in looking at what Joseph endured from his brethren, a
little of what the Lord endured at the hands of his brethren. We said that Joseph had been
sent before by God, so had our Lord. Peter in Acts 2 says that
he that was delivered by the determinate counsel and for knowledge
of God ye have taken and by wicked hands crucified and slain. Yes, Joseph was delivered by
God's determinate counsel and purpose, and it was their wicked
hands. But as Joseph said to them afterwards,
in this chapter we've read, that it was God that sent him hither. And so in the sufferings that
our Lord went through, the sufferings that Joseph went through, may
it shine more upon our Lord and we understand a little and see
a little bit clearer of what the Lord endured at the hands
of his brethren. We have Joseph then becoming
a servant sold into servitude, and our Lord was spoken of as
a servant as well. His Heavenly Father spoke of
Him as My Servant. He came amongst them. He says, I am among you as one
that serveth. Joseph also was falsely accused
by part of his wife and then thrown into prison. Our Lord
was falsely accused as well, many, many times, but then at
the last, in His trial, and then as prophesied, from prison unto
judgment, and then unto the cross. With Joseph we read in Psalm
105 that his feet they hurt with fetters. And we read something
else as well, how that he was tried until his time came, The
word of the Lord tried him, and our Lord was brought to be tried
in Satan's sieve, in the temptations in the wilderness. So also Joseph
was tried, tried with sin, in the temptation of Potiphar's
wife, and tried in those words that he'd had, the visions that
he'd had, the purposes of God. in our Lord there was to be a
walking out of those counsels and purposes of God and we can
be so tempted to think well he was God he knew the outcome he
knew what would happen therefore his sufferings weren't as bad
and yet when we look at the times and we can enter a little bit
into the reality of the sufferings of Joseph And as the Lord speaking
to us, the sufferings of my beloved son were just as keen. And sometimes it may be in our
lives that we suffer in a similar way from brethren, from those
that we least expect. We might say like Job did of
his brethren, miserable comforters are ye all. And he suffered under
the hand of those that at first had come to sympathize with him,
and to walk with him in his trial, but then they turned accuser. And so, in the sufferings that
Joseph went through, we are pointed to our Lord, and certainly when
our Lord was on the way to Emmaus with those two, it is the sufferings
that he highlighted on in all the Scriptures Ought not Christ
to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory? A suffering Saviour, preparing
to come into a position to minister to His people and to save His
people. And so we see that pattern with
our Lord, through sufferings made perfect, a preparation in
that way, and we may Translate that a bit, too, into how we're
told we are to go. There's not a dissimilar path
to the Lord. Our Lord says, In me shall have
peace, but in the world ye shall have tribulation. The tribulation,
ye must through much tribulation enter the kingdom. Shall our
Lord suffer, and we repine? Shall he have a path like Joseph,
but we have not a path in measure? chosen by the Lord through the
cross to behold the crown, through that path that Joseph was led
into, shepherded into, in one sense it was completely taken
out of his hands. It wasn't in his hands, was it?
Providence had taken over. in what his brothers did and
yet it was in his Heavenly Father's hands and we see the outcome
and the ordering of it and the blessing that was in it. May
we look through the sufferings of our Lord and see that extra
seal upon the position that he is now in to be a sympathising
high priest and to minister to his people. On to look then in
the third place of Joseph's dealings with his brethren. As Christ calls his brethren
as he calls his people, as he has them to be with him. So Joseph,
and when we read the whole account, Joseph had many dealings with
his brethren. And it is looking at those dealings
that we can get a little glimpse of the dealings that the Lord
has with his people. Now, what brought his brethren
first to come to him well again it was the father and yet tied
in with the famine the famine came the very thing that joseph
was sent before them to preserve life that came and brought them
into need so that jacob he hears and he says i have heard that
there is corn in Egypt there is a remedy there is a help for
this trial that is here in Egypt so go to Egypt and we think of
one being brought into need in a providential way and then being
brought to their knees and brought to the Lord in prayer through
that or brought to know their sin brought to know what they
deserve at God's hand, that they have sinned and come short of
the glory of God, all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God, but when a man first feels it and first knows it and labours
under that, and then that very thing that the Lord came and
was sent before to preserve their lives from, it is that very thing
that brings them to Him. So it was Joseph sent before
to save them from the famine that was to come, and it was
the famine that was there that brought them to Joseph. And so it is in the way of the
brethren of our Lord, God's people, first being brought to the Lord. And the Lord says, no man cometh
unto me except the Father which sent me draw him. and in a literal
way it was Joseph's father that sent Joseph to his brethren that
also sent his brethren to Joseph unknowingly because we have that
hearing of the corn there so go and his brethren they go and
the Lord will always have a means of course Joseph had no hand
in literal way in this but our Lord did in ordering it and certainly
in the dealings of God with his children he will ordain those
means and ways that they will first come unto him and first
there be a beginning of his dealings with them now when they first
came then to Joseph with the idea of getting corn and satisfying
their need at that time then we find that he knows them but
they did not know him and we see the effect of that and the
way that Joseph could not only recognize them But he could also
understand them as well. When they spoke, he understood
what they were saying. He also knew about them. He was able to place them, when
they came for a meal, in age order, which made them so wonder
and marvel, how does this man know so much about us, and yet
we don't know him? And we find the Lord dealing
in a similar way with Nicodemus, he saw him under the fig tree,
before that Philip called him. Whence knowest thou me? Zacchaeus,
he knew him from the tree, and the woman of well of Samaria
as well, he knew about them. And as we can see in the way
that Joseph dealt with his brethren, God knows the Lord Jesus Christ
knows his brethren before they know him. And I hope there's
some of us, we can look back to things that have done in our
lives. You know, the Lord knows our
frame. He remembers that we are but
dust, but with Joseph's brothers, the Lord knew what they'd done
to him. He knew what they were like. He began the dealings with them
knowing that they were not perfect people, he knew they were sinners,
he knew their enmity, their malice, their hatred, he knew what they
were like, and yet he began to deal with them, and at first
he dealt with them in a rough way, he accused them of being
spies, and in dealing with them in a rough way, then It was used
to bring their sin to remembrance. We mentioned how many years,
22 years, or in this case it's probably 20, 21, that they hadn't
seen their brother. But when Joseph is dealing with
them in a rough way, then it has that effect of bringing even
the very words that Joseph had sent and the anguish of his soul
to their remembrance. Now the hymn writer says past
offences pain my eyes and you know I prove this that years
can go by and it will not erase the memory of sin. Things that
I have said and done in childhood they pain my eyes now and maybe
fifty years ago And yet, here those things are happening
and they're bringing these to remembrance and it's causing
them anguish and concern. Now think of this, Joseph is
a type of Christ and this is how he's dealing. Maybe one of
you that hears me this evening, the Lord is dealing with you
in a way and you don't know him, you don't know it's him that
is doing this but you're recalling past things and they cause pain
and they cause you sorrow and to go over them and it brings
you low as a sinner brings you to feel what you really are in
the sight of God, it's a dealing to your pride and is aggravating
maybe a present trial that you're walking through. And think of
this time, how Joseph is dealing with his brethren. You say, did
the Lord do that on earth? Does he do it now? He did it
with the woman, the Canaanitish woman, Syrophoenician woman. You know, she came to him seeking
for help for her daughter, But the Lord spoke roughly to her. Firstly, he didn't answer a word.
Then he said that he is not sent but unto the lost sheep of the
house of Israel. Then he said it wasn't made to
take the children's bread and to give it unto dogs. But she
kept coming back. Dear friends, don't be discouraged. if the Lord appears to be dealing
roughly with you, that it's bringing painful thoughts, it's bringing
things to your remembrance, or sin to remembrance. You think
of this type, as to how Joseph dealt with his brothers. And
though he was dealing with them like this, he made sure there
was always something to bring them back again. Yes, the famine,
that was a constant thing. Their hunger, their need. But
then he locked up Simeon, and he told them not to come again
unless they brought Benjamin. He made sure that there was powerful
reasons, that in spite of how he was dealing with them, that
they would come back. Is that with you and me? There
are things that discourage on one side, but there's other things
that mean you've got to come, and you've got to seek the Lord,
and you've still got to cry unto Him in your need. And we see
how the Lord deals in the way that Joseph was dealing as well
and they kept coming back and then we have him in this
chapter making himself known unto his brethren it's a beautiful
chapter isn't it it's lovely how he makes himself known to
them and we see how his heart is towards them. He weeps now. He'd wept before when they came
in all his dealings. They see a hard man dealt hardly,
but in the background he's weeping. Jesus wept. We see again a little
glimpse of this. You might think the Lord is dealing
hardly with you. but he is a sympathising high
priest, he knows our frame, he remembers that we are but dust,
our Jesus turns aside to weep. Remember this beautiful type
here, and how he points, behind the scenes as it were, to the
Lord dealing with us, and you might be like these brethren,
and later on, and when Jacob died, They thought now that Jacob's
gone then Joseph will truly take it out on us and they really
tried to seek mercy and to again confess their sin. They could
hardly receive, they could hardly think that Joseph could forgive
them. They could hardly think that
he'd be genuinely thinking good thoughts towards them. The Lord
says, I know the thoughts I think towards you, thoughts of peace
and not of evil, to give you an expected end. But His people,
when they feel their sin, they think, He must surely be thinking
evil against me. Is that how you're thinking this
evening? Surely He must be thinking evil against me, how He's dealt
with me, or what I've done, all the sins and all my backslidings
and how I've treated Him. And yet we see with Joseph again
and again, he keeps telling them the love that he has. Our Lord
says, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands. My walls
are ever before thee. The love the Lord has, I love
thee with an everlasting love. Joseph shows this concerning
his dear brothers. And so he makes himself known
to them, speaks to them in their own language, and they know him. A beautiful chapter, lovely word. And then he provides for them,
provides for them in the best of the land of Goshen, looks
after them through all those years of famine. Dear friends,
don't think that when the Lord reveals himself to his brethren,
brings them to himself and blesses them, that then he'll leave them. No, Joseph didn't, did he? That
was only the beginning. Paul says in Romans that if while
we were yet enemies we were reconciled unto God, how much more being
reconciled we shall be saved through his life. How much more
if Joseph had blessed his brethren while they were at enmity with
him, how much more when they were reconciled shall he provide
for them in the best of the land and in Goshen. And he did, and
looked after them, and nourished them and their little ones, and
then sent those tokens to his father, and brought the whole
of them into Egypt, just as God had promised to Abraham before. know all the promises of God,
a yay and amen in Christ Jesus, and he will have his dear people
with him, and he will minister to them, and he will help them,
and he will bless them. May we look past Joseph and see,
even if it were this evening, one glimpse of our Lord in one
aspect of Joseph's life, in the purposes and the provision, in
the sufferings and then how he deals with his dear brethren
and makes himself known to them and provides for them. May we see our heavenly Joseph,
our great provider. May the Lord grant us faith to
view him as those Old Testament saints would look through past
these types imperfect as they were, as a type only can be in
a certain way, but look past, to our perfect, pure, eternal
High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Great Antitype. May the Lord
bless this work.