The Lord may graciously help
me, I turn your prayerful attention to Genesis chapter 37 and part
of verse 16. Genesis 37 and part of verse
16. These are the words spoken by
Joseph. And he said, I seek my brethren. And he said, I seek my brethren. As the Lord helps, I would like
to speak on this precious character, Joseph, and how I believe we
have spiritual warrant, scriptural warrant, to see him as a type of the Lord Jesus Christ in his
great work in saving his people. Joseph, you see, was raised up
as a natural saviour for the whole region of his brethren
and Egypt. Was it not for Joseph's God-given
wisdom, Egypt would have perished with famine, and so would have
his family. But God gave Joseph this wisdom
and set him up in such a position of authority that he was able
to be a prince and a saviour to the whole region in a natural
sense. And so we see, I believe, something
of a foreshadowing of what the Lord Jesus would do. And this
morning in the Sunday school I spoke to the children, and
we spoke of, we showed that key that I impressed on that blue
tack, and showed that the print of the key could be seen in the
blue tack. It was not the key, but it was
a print of it. And that, and so these Old Testament
pictures and shadows and types are picturing one who was to
come, the Lord Jesus Christ, And as we look through these
things and see the parallels, I believe it is precious to our
faith to learn more of the Lord Jesus Christ himself, the great
antitype. Well, just before I go into that,
I'd like to just show some scriptural reasons why Joseph, I believe,
is a type of Christ. If you look in Genesis 49, these
are the words that Jacob spoke on his deathbed and he spoke
of all his sons and particularly a long account is given of Joseph. But in Genesis 49 verse 24 we
read, But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were
made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob. From thence
is the shepherd the stone of Israel. And both those terms
shepherd and stone are both terms that are applied throughout the
word of God to the Lord Jesus. a stone and a shepherd. You see, in Isaiah 28 verse 16,
we read this, thus saith the Lord God, behold, I lay in Zion
for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone,
a sure foundation, and he that believeth shall not make haste. You see, Joseph was a a foundation
stone to the whole of that region, was it not for the wisdom that
God gave Joseph, that whole region would have perished. He was such
a stone, a foundation thing, and of course the Lord Jesus
is that stone, that rock to his people. But the other term is
the shepherd. And you see the Lord Jesus is
that good shepherd of the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and we
read of Joseph as that shepherd. So these two terms of stone and
shepherd are both applied to Joseph, which were equally applied
to the Lord Jesus Christ. But then in the New Testament,
in Acts chapter 7, we have Stephen speaking because he was before
those that were trying to put him to death really because of
his faithfulness in speaking of the things of God. And he
gives a history of the patriarchs and those who had gone before
and showed that they were all pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ. In Acts 7 and verse 9 we read,
And the patriarchs moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt,
but God was with him, and delivered him out of his afflictions, and
gave him favour and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of
Egypt, and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house. Stephen gives us this description
in Acts 7, but then towards the end of his sermon, or close to
the end, he comes in verse 52 of Acts 7. Which of the prophets
have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them which
showed before the coming of the just one. In other words, Stephen
was saying these people that I've mentioned in my account
of the history of Israel These people were showing the coming
of the Just One, and the Just One is the Lord Jesus Christ.
So these people were showing something of the Lord Jesus,
of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers. You
know, in the event with Stephen, they stoned him to death, but
God vindicated him and his face shone as they did that. Well,
so that's an introduction, as I do believe it's scriptural,
to show that the life of Joseph had shadows and types of the
Saviour, and his dealing with his brethren as how the Lord
deals with his people and brings them. We sung in our opening
hymn, Grace first contrived a way to save rebellious man. And as we read through this account
of Joseph's brethren, we see the rebellion that his brethren
had against him. And you see the wonderful love
and mercy that they received at the hands of one they hated,
they rejected, and they did everything to kill. Well, if we think of
the family of Joseph, Joseph was born, he was the 11th son
in the family of Jacob. And it's interesting, when Joseph
was born, you can read of that in Exodus, sorry, Genesis 30. We read, and this is Rachel,
and she conceived, this is Genesis 30 verse 23, and she conceived
and bare a son and said, God hath taken away my reproach.
And she called his name Joseph and said, the Lord shall add
to me another son. And it came to pass when Rachel
had borne Joseph that Jacob said unto Laban, send me away that
I may go unto my own place and to my own country. So the birth
of Joseph was the beginning of Jacob wanting to return to the
land of promise, to inherit the inheritance of God. And you see,
this is the So in the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ at Bethlehem,
it was the beginning, as it were, of that returning of the people
of God in redemption. How it marked the beginning and
such a thing that we record at his birth. When he was born,
he was born to be king. He was born to save his people
from their sins. But we notice also that Joseph,
you see, was born into a difficult family. There was lots going
on that ought not to be going on. His older sister Diana, she
went off and defiled herself with some of the people from
Shechem, and then her two older brothers, they took it in their
hands to punish The people from Shechem wanted to make an allegiance
with Jacob and his sons, and they said, well, we can only
do that if you be circumcised. And so all the people of this
city became circumcised, and on the third day after they were
circumcised, then Levi and Simeon went and killed them. killed
all the males. There was a lot of treachery,
a lot of wickedness. And Jacob said, you've made my
name to stink. There was a lot of sin. Reuben
went up and defiled himself with his father's handmaid. There was lots of sadnesses. You read in the life of Judah
what he got up to in chapter 38. It doesn't make nice reading. There was a lot of sadness in
Joseph's family, but we're reminded, you see, the Lord Jesus came
into this world, into a world of sin, where sin was reigning,
you see, where so much sin was abounding. and Joseph was born
into such a family. And we do not really read of
Joseph really sinning. I'm not saying he didn't sin,
but it's not recorded. And I think that's showing something
of, of course, the one who he was prefiguring, which was the
Lord Jesus Christ, who had no sin, and was holy, harmless,
undefiled, and separate than sinners. So if we look at this
account then in Genesis 37 verse 2 it says, and these were the
generations of Jacob. Joseph being 17 years old was
feeding the flock with his brethren. So the first we read of Joseph
is Joseph was a shepherd. Such a type, of course, of the
Lord Jesus Christ who says, I am the good shepherd, the shepherd
to feed his people, and how Joseph was going to be the feeder of
the whole region in time to come. His wisdom, his God-given wisdom,
was going to cause that whole area to continue to exist, which
otherwise they would have been killed with the famine. Well,
here we have his feeding the flock with his brethren. The lad was with the sons of
Bilhar, with the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives. And Joseph
brought unto his father their evil report. I've already said
that there was a lot going on in Jacob's family which was very
wrong. It seems as far as we can tell
that at this time his All the brothers were not saved characters. They were not godly people. They
did not seem to know God. They seemed to live life unto
themselves. They thought they could deceive.
They thought they could get away with doing their own thing and
God didn't matter. But you see, the wonderful thing
is as we go through this account that God is going to change these
brothers. He's going to change them. We spoke this morning.
Nathaniel took the Sunday School and spoke of repentance. And
that's so vital, you see, and you see in the life of this narrative,
how much repentance, how much change we see in these brothers,
these brothers which were evil. Well, we're told in verse 2,
and brought unto his father their evil report. And of course, Joseph, it seems, was a godly
man. He was a godly man. And these
brothers were living ungodly. And he faithfully reproved them. He brought their evil report.
You see, the Lord Jesus, when he came to this world, and he
was amongst the scribes and the Pharisees, and they were all
twisting and turning the laws just to feather their own nests
and to give themselves the priority. And he went and said, woe unto
you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. He reproved them for sin. And
did that make him popular? Did that make the scribes and
the Pharisees love Jesus? Oh, they hated him. They hated
him. But you see, faithful are the
wounds of a friend. And Joseph was going to prove
himself to be a wonderful friend to these brethren. Not in anger,
but in thy dear covenant love. He was going to be a blessing
to these brethren, the brethren that hated him. In verse three we read, now Israel
loved Joseph more than all his children because he was the son
of his old age. When I looked it up, it's amazing
how old Jacob was when Joseph was born. It seems he was about
90 years old when Joseph was born. Because when Joseph presented
his father to Pharaoh, Jacob was 130 years old and Joseph
then would have been about 40 years old. So Jacob was 90 years
old when Joseph was born. So it was an equal age to what
Abraham was when he fathered Isaac. Israel loved Joseph more than
all his children, because he was a son of his old age and
he had made him a coat of many colours. Clearly, we are told
in the New Testament, fathers, provoke not your children to
anger, unless they be discouraged. What Jacob did in showing this
preferment to Joseph obviously caused much sorrow in the family,
and it seems that it was unwise in that sense. really as this
was done to Joseph, he couldn't help that in that sense. Israel loved Joseph more than
all his children. And we're noted here that Joseph
was loved of his father. And of course this is eminently
true of the greater than Joseph. The Lord Jesus Christ was loved
of his father. The father loved the son. And
you see there was such a bond of union and love between them. And we see that here, that the
love that there was, and he gave him this coat of many colors
to indicate that preferment. Of course, Joseph was, in one
sense, the oldest son of the marriage between Jacob and Rachel,
although he was the 11th son, because there was Leah and Zilpah
and Bilhah, the other ones. In verse four we read, when his
brethren saw that his father loved him more than all his brethren,
they hated him and could not speak peaceably unto him. And we read that in Acts, that
the brethren moved with envy. They were envious of him. And
therefore they turned to hating him and to rejecting him. And you see, whilst this is natural
to our hearts to reject those that are greater than us or more
privileged than us, It's totally wrong. You see, thou shalt not
covet. And these brethren, you see,
they hated Joseph. They hated him for the evil report,
and they hated him because of the preferment. And this is what
we are by nature. We're envious. And of course,
that is true today. There can be that envy and that
hatred. Well, in verse 5, Joseph dreamed
a dream and told it his brethren, and they hated him yet the more.
And he said unto them, Sit here, I pray thee, this dream that
I have dreamed. So he told them this dream of the sheaves. And all their sheaves bowed down
to his sheaves. In verse 8 it says, And the brethren
said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? Or shalt thou
indeed have dominion over us? and they hated him yet the more
for his dreams and for his words. You see, what were the dreams?
The dreams were really prophetic. They were prophesying something
of what would take place and did take place. They were prophecies
of that which was to take place. And as we see, you see this prophecy,
the Lord Jesus had that too. If we look in Matthew's Gospel,
chapter 26 and verse 62. We read this, Matthew 26, verse
62. And the high priest rose and
said unto him, Answerest thou nothing? What is it which they
witness against thee? But Jesus held his peace. And
the high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee
by the living God that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ,
the Son of God. Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast
said, nevertheless I say unto you, hereafter ye shall see the
Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the
clouds of heaven. A prophecy of what would take
place of the exaltation of the Saviour. And how was that greeted? How was that prophecy responded
to? Then the high priest rent his
clothes, saying he hath spoken blasphemy. What further need
have we of witnesses? Behold, now we have heard this
blasphemy. What think ye? They answered
and said, he is guilty of death. Then they did spit in his face,
and buffeted him, and others smote him with the palms of their
hands. Do you see a parallel? The prophecy,
these dreams showed the preferment, how that God was going to use
Joseph to be such a blessing to those people. And they absolutely
hated it. They were going to do everything
in their power to make absolutely certain that it wouldn't take
place. And that's what the brothers
of Joseph did. They were going to plan and scheme and they were
going to make sure that his dreams came utterly to nothing. But
you see here, grace first contrived a way to save rebellious man. I think there can be an idea
that, well you see, we need salvation but we're not that bad. But when
you actually trace out the way Joseph's brethren treated him. We see what sin really is, the
hatred, the rebellion of sin. And this is us by nature. And he dreamed another dream,
this is verse 9 of chapter 37. So he had another dream, the
sun, the moon, the 11 stars made obations to him. And he told
it to his father and to his brethren. And his father rebuked him and
said, what is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and
thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to
thee to the earth? Is it really going to be like
that? And his brethren envied him. But his father observed
the saying. His father, Jacob, observed it. He noted it. And you see, you
have a similar parallel in Luke 2 and verse 19. Luke 2 and verse 19. You have
a similar parallel in the life of Mary. Luke 2, verse 19. The shepherds, you see, came
and told Mary all the things that they had heard But Mary
kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. What did they
mean? What did it all mean? And Jacob,
what did it all mean? And of course, later on, we're
gonna find that Joseph gets sold, and as far as Jacob is concerned,
his son is dead. For more than 20 years, he's
led to believe that. But you see, it didn't change what God was
gonna do. Well, in verse 12, and his brethren
went to feed their father's flock in Shechem, about 40 miles away
from Hebron where they were. And Israel said unto Joseph,
do not thy brethren feed the flock in Shechem? Come, and I
will send thee unto them. And he said to him, here am I. So here we have a commission
ascending forth of Joseph. to go and visit his brethren.
The father sends the son, and we can't help thinking of, for
God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. He
sent his son. Now how much Jacob knew about
the hatred of the brethren against Joseph, I don't know. Joseph
knew it. Surely this was a dangerous thing
to do. For him to be put alone with
those brethren on his own, when they absolutely hated him, this
was a dangerous course. So what does Joseph say? Here
am I. Totally willing to go. You think
of what a dangerous course it was for the Lord of life and
glory to come to this earth. to send his beloved son to this
earth, and how would it fare with him? Well, it would fare
very difficultly, wouldn't it? He would be rejected. Come, here
is the heir, let us kill him, then the vineyard shall be ours.
We will not have this man to reign over us. So what does the
Lord Jesus say, knowing all things that lay before him? In Psalm 40 we have the words
of what he says, Then said I, Lo, I come, in the volume of
the book it is written of me. I delight to do thy will. I delight to go on this mission
of reconciliation, this mission of redemption, with all that
it would cost. Yes, Joseph didn't understand
all that it would cost. He must have been aware of some
of the difficulties that lay before him, but surely he must
have been shocked at all that took place. But Jesus, he knew
all that lay before him. I delight to do thy will, the
willingness of Christ to save his people, the willingness of
him to do his father's bidding. And he said to him, go, I pray
thee, this is verse 14 of Exodus 37, go, I pray thee, and see
whether it be well with thy brethren and well with the flocks, and
bring me word again. So he sent him out of the Vale
of Ebron, that presence of the Father, the love of the Father,
and he came to Shechem. And we've already mentioned what
happened at Shechem, it was a place of bloodshed. It was a place
where his older brothers had killed so many of the people.
It was a place of bloodshed. And that's where he was sent.
And a certain man found him, and behold, he was wandering
in the field. And the man asked him, saying, what seekest thou? And that's where we come to our
text. And he said, I seek my brethren. You could have said, Joseph,
you could have said, I seek my murderers. I seek my brethren. He's not ashamed to call them
brethren. I seek my brethren. And we see here the heart of
the Lord Jesus. I came to seek and to save. That which was lost. They weren't
in Shechem. They'd moved on. But you see, he went to seek
and to save. He didn't say, well, if they're
not in Shechem, I'll go back to my father. I've done the bidding. I went to where he told me to
go. I didn't find them, so I've come back. No, he went on to
search to find them. Where they'd gone, they'd gone
on to Dothan. But he wanted to seek and find them. And he said,
I seek my brethren. Tell me, I pray thee, where they
feed their flocks. And the man said, they are departed
thence, for I heard them say, let us go to Dothan. And Joseph
went after his brethren and found them in Dothan. And then listen to this, verse
18. And when they saw him afar off, even before he came near
unto them, he hadn't said a word to them. He hadn't said anything
to upset them in one sense. Even before he came near unto
them, they conspired against him to slay him. So here was
this determination. Now they had their opportunity
to kill him. The father was well out of the
way. He was back in Hebron, some 40 or more miles away. They could
do what they wanted to Joseph. They could cover his blood. They
could tell lies and they could deceived, and that would all
be covered up. And this is the heart of us by
nature, rebellious. We will not have this man to
reign over us, his dreams, that he will have some superiority,
that we are going to bow down to him. No, we will do our own
thing. We will live our lives to ourselves. We are in control of our own
destiny. And they said one to another,
behold, this dreamer cometh. You see, there's a ridicule here. A ridicule, this dreamer, dreaming
up his dreams. All this, we'll soon see what
will happen to that. Come now, therefore, let us slay
him and cast him into some pit. And we will say some evil beast
hath devoured him, and we will see what will become of his dreams. Oh, the hatred, the enmity, the
selfishness, the cruelty. You think of this, if this was
two of your children, went away from you on holiday or somewhere
away from you to work, and then that's what they did to one another.
Oh, you'd be so sad, wouldn't you? Two brothers, well, the
brothers all ganging up on one of them. because they all had
an agreement to do evil. And you see, Joseph upset that
agreement. You see, if Christ had gone along
with the scribes and Pharisees, and played along with the fact
that that's the way they did religion, and played along with
it, and patted them on the back that they were fine, then the
scribes and Pharisees would have been happy with Jesus. But he
didn't. He exposed sin for what it is,
because he's holy. He exposed sin for what it was,
and so did Joseph. He hated sin. But you see, he
loved his brethren, and he was going to be such a blessing to
those brethren. And it's incredible, you see, they had no idea when
they were saying these things of how precious and vital Joseph
was going to be to them in something like 20 years' time. Yes, now
they could ridicule him, they could mock him, they could despise
him, they could do everything evil against him, and so they
did to Christ. But you see, some of those on
the day of Pentecost, they came to realise what they'd done.
We have put to death the Lord of life and glory. Men and brethren,
what shall we do? How can we Get out of this one. How can we, where do we go? We've
killed the Lord of life and glory. But you see, the wonderful message
of redemption is this, that Joseph was going to be a blessing to
them. And Joseph, when he was in a position of authority and
power, did not use that position of authority and power to crush
them, but to do them good. Yes, he brought them to repentance.
but he was going to do them good. You see, because he loved them,
he was going to do them good. He was not going to pat them
on the back for sin. He was going to expose sin, not
to others, but to them so that they may find sin exceeding sinful. He was going to do that for them. Come now therefore and let us
slay him and cast him into some pit. And we will say some evil
beast hath devoured him. We will see what will become
of his dreams. and Reuben heard it, and he delivered him out
of his hands. We see that in the life of the Lord Jesus. Pilate
struggled to deliver Christ. Pilate did not want to put Jesus
to death. Pilate did not want to crucify Jesus. He did everything
he could to stop him. Well, everything. He certainly
tried hard to stop, and he tried to stop that happening, but he
didn't. And Reuben heard it and delivered
them out of his hands and said, let us not kill him. And Reuben
said unto him, shed no blood, but cast him into this pit. And
because he wanted to deliver him back to his father safely
at a later day. And then in verse 23, and it
came to pass when Joseph was come unto his brethren, they
stripped Joseph out of his coat, his coat of many colors. That
was the first thing they wanted to do. Take all sense of his
dignity, all sense of his preferment, strip it straight out. No respect,
no love. Strip him of his coat of many
colours. He'd come to see how they did. They'd no doubt probably
come to give provision to these very people. But they stripped
Joseph out of his many coat, his coat of many colours that
was on him and they took him and cast him into a pit and the
pit was empty and there was no water and they sat down to eat
bread. It seemed that after they'd done
this wickedness to their brother, they would just then just sit
down and eat bread. It's interesting that we have
a similar thing taking place in Matthew's gospel, chapter
27 and verse 36. And sitting down, They watched him there, sitting
down. They'd done their worst. They
crucified the Lord of life and glory and they sit down just
to relax, just to be satisfied with the great evil that they'd
done. No idea of the solemnity of what they had just done. And
they sat down to eat bread and then You see Judah in verse 26,
Judah said unto his brethren, what profit is if we slay our
brother and conceal his blood? Come and let us sell him to the
Ishmaelites and let not our hand be upon him. If we sell him,
we'll get some money and he won't die straight away. So that seems
a better option, says Judah. And Judah, you see, Judah is
gonna be the one who is going to be a surety for Benjamin some
20 years later. And we mentioned in Sunday School
how repentance is a returning, a turning round, and how Judah,
who now suggests to sell Joseph, totally turns around later on
in this precious account. Come and let us sell him to the
Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our
brother and our flesh, and the brethren were content. There
was a contentment in this evil. Then they passed by Midianites
merchantmen, they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit and
sold him to the Ishmaelites for 20 pieces of silver, sold him. They sold the Lord Jesus for
30 pieces of silver, Judas did. You see there's so many likenesses,
sold him. and they brought Joseph into
Egypt. And Reuben returned unto the
pits, and behold, Joseph was not in the pit. And he rent his
clothes, and he returned unto the brethren and said, the child
is not, and whither shall I go? So now they're gonna be involved
in a deceit. And what was the deceit in the
case of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? Well, when he rose from
the dead, there was these watchmen set Pilate had set a watch, and the
watchman saw Jesus arise from the dead, and they became as
dead men. They couldn't stop him, but they saw it, and they
went and told the chief priest what had happened, and what did
they do? Cover the evidence. Give them large sums of money
so that they would not, they said, oh, the disciples stole
the body away while we slept. And if this comes to the governor's
ears, we will confirm him. We will confirm you and we'll
persuade him. Deceit. And we read then in the New Testament
that this was commonly reported amongst the Jews. That's what
happened. Jesus was put in the tomb and
his disciples stole the body away. But you see, the truth cannot
be changed. And the truth was gonna come
out. And Jacob was going to, in the end, know all the details
about what had happened. He went right at his end. He
said to Joseph that your brothers did evil to you. He knew the
whole story in the end. And how we cannot hide from God.
It's foolish, isn't it, when we think about it? God who sees
everything. How do we think we can hide from
him? But we do think we can. But we can't. Well, it's a wonderful
thing, you see. if we see something of ourselves
in these brethren. Something of the realization
you see later on, those brethren, they were gonna come to realize
that they were guilty for something like 20 years. Their consciences
must have pricked them, but they suppressed it. But you see, there
came a time when they did realize that they were verily guilty.
And it was under Joseph's keen eye and his close questioning.
And you see a wonderful thing if we come guilty before God. It's the work of the Holy Spirit
to convince of sin. These brethren were sinful. They
were utterly unworthy of any favor and kindness from Joseph.
And yet, As we go on in this account we realise that they
ended up living the rest of their lives on the bounty, the kindness,
the love, the mercy, the grace of Joseph. A picture of our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ. In verse 31, they took Joseph's
coat and killed a kid of goats and dipped the coat in the blood.
And they sent the coat of many colors and they brought it to
their fathers and said, this have we found. Know now whether
it be thy son's coat or no. So they give this coat of many
colors with that blood of the goat on it and ask him this cruel
question. Does he know whether it's his
son's coat or not? And he knew it, and he said,
it is my son's coat. An evil beast has devoured him.
Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces. And Jacob rent his
clothes. Oh, what sadness. It must have
been for Jacob. And yet, you see, the Lord was
going to work in this family. But it was going to be a long
time. And you see this great plan of salvation to save rebellious
man. And here we want to see the work
of the Savior, the rejection of the Savior. He came unto his
own and his own received him not. There was those who like
Saul of Tarsus that spent their lives trying to put Christians
in prison for their faith and to death. But what a wonderful
thing that when the light of the glorious gospel shines and
they see that this one, He's actually their savior. That this
one, and you see, this is why Jesus becomes precious to his
people. You see, Joseph wasn't precious
to his brothers, was he? In chapter 37, they could only
think of how to get rid of him. And they thought, well, if we
get rid of him, we'll never have to worry about him again. But
you see, God was above him, wherein they dealt proudly. He was above
them. And he was going to, in sending
Joseph into Egypt, this was going to be a blessing to them and
to the whole region. Little did they realize. You
see, this is the great thing. And he said, I seek my brethren. The gospel preaching today. You see, we don't see a beauty
in Christ. in Isaiah 53, it says, Who hath believed our report,
and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow
up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground.
He hath no form nor comeliness, and when we shall see him, there
is no beauty that we should desire him. And that was true of Joseph
with his brethren. of the brethren towards Joseph.
They didn't see a beauty in Joseph. They didn't like his holiness.
They didn't like his uprightness. They didn't like his faithfulness.
They didn't like him. But you see, God was going to
work. And God was going to cause Joseph
to become the absolute lifeline for all the family. and for the
whole land of Egypt. And how that portrays ultimately,
looking forward, that God you see is going to be everything.
God ultimately becomes everything to his people in the whole land
and the whole region. In 1 Corinthians 15, it says
this. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 27. Verse 25, I'll start reading
from. For he must reign till he hath put all enemies under
his feet. The last enemy that is to be
destroyed is death, for he hath put all things under his feet.
But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest
that he is accepted which did put all things under him. And
when all things shall be subdued under him, then shall the Son
also himself be subject unto him. that put all things under
him, that God may be all in all. So God is going to be glorified. And you see, if you think of
the end of the account of Joseph, in the end, the whole of Egypt
was owned by Pharaoh. And in the illustration we have,
in a sense, Pharaoh was greatly exhorted through Joseph's management. and how ultimately everything
became his, and how the whole kingdom of God is his, and his
peoples are blessed as they bow down and confess their sins and
have repentance and turn from their evil ways to find this
Joseph precious to them, this one who they hated, they didn't
want to listen to, they didn't want to obey, they wanted to
go their own way, They wanted to, in Isaiah it says, all we
like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his
own way. The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. And you see as we, perhaps as
the Lord helps us this evening, as we go on in this account,
we see as the sufferings that Joseph suffered were all because
and linked to the brethren's sin. And you see, it would be
a wonderful thing, it would be a solemn thing, when you see
that the sufferings of Christ are linked to your personal sin. Not somebody else's. Peter pointed
at the Diapentikos, ye by wicked hands have crucified and slain. And the brethren, they knew that
they were guilty. They knew that it was their deed
that made so much of the suffering for Joseph. But Joseph was able
to say, ye meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. May we know that this is a heavenly
Joseph, the one that seeks his brethren and will not give up
till he finds them and will bring them back from the dark paths
of sin and make himself to be precious. May the Lord add his
blessing. Amen.