Let us turn to that portion of
scripture we read in the book of Genesis, chapter 49. And I
want to read again that blessing that is pronounced upon Joseph. In chapter 49 of Genesis, verse
22 following, Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough
by a well. whose branches run over the wall. The archers have sorely grieved
him, and shot at him, and hated him. 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, even by the God of thy father who shall help
thee, and by the Almighty who shall bless thee with blessings
of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings
of the breast and of the womb, the blessings of thy father have
prevailed above the blessings of my progenators unto the utmost
bound of 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. Here then we have the blessing
that is pronounced by his father Jacob upon that one who was very
much his favorite son. Remember the coat of many colors. Here is the patriarch then. Father Jacob, Father Israel,
gathering his sons all together, we're told in the opening verse, that I may tell you that which
shall befall you in the last days." We have that expression, in the
last days. And as I've said many a time,
and I think I mentioned it even this morning, when we read such
expressions as the last days or that day, the great day of
the Lord, we're to recognize that It all has its fulfillment
in this day in which we're living. It's the day of grace. It's the
acceptable time. It's the day of salvation. And
so as we come to look at this particular portion that we've
read, we want to try to draw out something of the spiritual
significance of what's being said here. Yes, it's Jacob blessing
his 12 sons. And at the end we see how Jacob
gathers up his feet into the bed and yields up the ghost and
he's gathered unto his father. It's the final words that he
speaks to those sons. And we did look at it a little
recently, about two weeks ago now. We considered something
of what's being said in these verses, but we also considered
it in connection with another blessing that was pronounced
upon Joseph. Remember back in chapter 48,
and verses 15 and 16, we read of Joseph being blessed in his
two sons. But it's Jacob who pronounces
the blessing, he blessed Joseph. and said, God before whom my
fathers Abram and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life
long unto this day, the angel which redeemed me from all evil,
bless the lads and let my name be named on them in the name
of my fathers Abram and Isaac and let them grow into a multitude
in the midst of the earth. And then he puts his hands upon
these two sons He guides his hands very wittingly, it says,
because Manasseh was the first born. But he guides his hand
away from Manasseh and places it upon the head of Ephraim,
the youngest son. He is to have the chief blessing,
although Manasseh is also blessed. But here we see, or we saw those
couple of weeks ago, this is a blessing that is being pronounced
upon Joseph and so there is in that sense a double blessing
for Joseph he is blessed in his sons and then he's blessed in
his own person according to the portion that we've read tonight he has a far richer blessings
than any of the other sons I mean we read also the blessing that
was pronounced upon Benjamin just that short single 27th verse
Benjamin shall raven as a wolf in the morning he shall devour
the prey and at night he shall divide the spoil very short all
of the other blessings really are quite short The only one
that can be really compared with what we read concerning Joseph
is that that he's pronounced upon Judah in verses 8 through
12. But of course, the Christ is
to come of the tribe of Judah, the greatest of all blessings.
But all the blessings that are pronounced upon Joseph it is
a two-fold blessing is to be blessed in Providence and isn't
that really what we have spoken of in verses 25 and 26 the multitude of blessings here even by the God of thy father who
shall help thee and by the Almighty who shall bless thee with blessings
of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth on, the blessings
of the breasts and of the womb, the blessings of thy father.
I have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost
bounds of the everlasting hills. I shall be on the head of Joseph,
on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren.
He's separate from his brethren. What blessings he knows. Well,
we said something last time of providential blessings. He has
a double portion. in the promised land because
both Ephraim and Manasseh have that portion that is allotted
to them because of course the descendants of Levi have no possession
in the lands. It is theirs to serve God in
the tabernacle in the temple. And so there's that double blessing
that comes upon Josie. But we also saw last time to
say a little with regards to how this man was blessed in grace. We spoke of him being blessed
in grace in terms of the fear of God that was in his heart. when that wicked woman, the wife
of Potiphar, cast a lustful eye upon the young man, lusting after
him, and he refuses her wicked advances. How then can I do this
great wickedness, he says, and sin against God? Or the fear
of God was in his heart. What a grace is the fear of God!
By the fear of the Lord men depart from evil. says the wise man
in Proverbs, or that God would favour us then with the grace
of godly fear, that we might be kept from sinning. It's an
unctuous light to all that's right, a bar to all that's wrong,
the fear of the Lord. He was favoured with God's fear
and he certainly knew something of the love of God in his heart.
How Joseph in spite of all that they had done to him how he loved
his brethren and we see it repeatedly as they are constrained to come
to him in the time of famine in the land and he's been sold
into servitude and yet he's been so advanced and they know nothing
of these things and he's the chief man next to Pharaoh in
all of Egypt and they must come and they obtain corn from Joseph
and they come and he knows them they know not him but how he
loves them Back in chapter 45, Joseph could not refrain himself
before all them that stood by him. And he cried, cause every
man to go out from them, and there stood no man with him,
while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren. And he wept
aloud, and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard. And
Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph, doth my father yet
live? And his brethren could not answer
him, for they were troubled at his presence. how he loves them,
how he yearns after them, how in his great love for them he
will make every provision for them. We see it again in chapter 47
and verse 12 when eventually his father and his brethren and
all their families come into the land, we're told there in
that 12th verse, Joseph nourished his father and his brethren and
all his father's household with bread according to their families. How is his love so tangible? He loves his brethren, he makes
every provision for them. One can't but think of the language
of John there as he writes in that first epistle. He has much to say with regards
to what real love is, does John. 4 If a man say, I love God, and
hate of his brother, he is a liar. 5 For he that loveth not his
brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath
not seen? 6 And this commandment have we from him, that he who
loveth God love his brother also. And so it was with this man,
how he expresses his love towards him in very real way. the fear
of God in his heart, the love for the Brethren. These are graces.
He has faith. He has faith in God and faith
in the Word of God. And God had indicated certain
things to him back at the beginning of the account that we have,
remember, the generations of Jacob begin in chapter 37 and
those generations of Jacob are really taken up with the whole
history of Joseph and there at the beginning he dreams his dreams
and he sees the 11 sheaves of his brethren bowing to his sheave
and he tells his brethren and then he sees the sun, moon and
the 11 stars bowing before him And how the brethren despise
him. I know Jacob lays up those matters
in his heart. But that was God speaking to
him and he recognized he has fight and we see it at the end,
don't we? When his brethren are so fearful
he's now going to avenge himself on them for all their wicked
ways. Jacob is dead. And we're told what the brethren
do. The prophetic word that was communicated
to him in his dream is fulfilled in verse 18. His brethren also
went and fell down before his face. And they said, Behold, we be
thy servants. He believed what God had done,
you see. Joseph says to 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. He believed in
God. It was a day, of course, before
the Scripture, the canon of Scripture was complete and God did commune
with men and speak to men by visions and by dreams, but that
was God's Word to him and he believed the Word of God. And
so, as we come to consider this blessing that is being pronounced
upon him. The theme I want to take from
it really is that of the faith of Joseph. We've tried to consider
something of his history looking at various parts of these chapters
where we have the narrative concerning his life but thinking particularly
as we turn to these verses tonight of the faith, the faith of Joseph. And first of all, what do we
see here? We see the object. The object of his faith is set
before us. God alone is the object. Look
unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I
am God and there is none else. Faith is that looking to God. looking on to Jesus. Remember
Hebrews 12 and the force of the verb there, to look, it's a word
that indicates that the eye is taken off every other object.
You're looking away from everything else, you're looking to one object
alone. And what is that object looking on to Jesus? The author
and finisher of our faith. You tell me you want saving faith
tonight. I say look on to Jesus. looking
on to Jesus. And we see the faith of this
man and the object of his faith in the figures that are employed
at the beginning of the blessing. We read here of a well and a
wall. Joseph is a fruitful bough, even
a fruitful bough, by a well whose branches run over the wall. Think of the figures. We have
the well. And the well reminds us really
of the source of this man's faith. It's the Lord Jesus Christ who
is the source of his faith. We've already referred you to
those words in Hebrews 12 looking onto Jesus. The author and finisher
of our faith Faith begins with the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith
finishes, ends with the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Spirit himself comes,
of course, as the very Spirit of Christ, to work that faith
in the souls of sinners. Colossians chapter 2 and verse
12. The Apostle speaks of faith of
the operation of God. Lord Jesus says this is the work
of God that ye believe on him whom he hath sent. Faith is a
mighty work of God in the soul of the sinner. We know it's the
gift of God. By grace are ye saved through
faith and that unto yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
works. Lest any man should boast we
can never work up faith. And how does God work that faith
in us, well he deals with us in such a manner that we're brought
to the end of self. He turns us to destruction, we
can do nothing. We're made to feel what we are,
our utter helplessness, our spiritual impotence. The awful truth of
man's total depravity. God turns man to destruction.
All the language there in In Psalm 9 Moses says, Thou turnest
man to destruction and sayeth, Return ye children of men. And remember how the Lord speaks
of the well in the course of his ministry. When in John chapter 4 we see
him sitting on the well at Sychar and that woman comes to him.
And how the Lord deals with her. We made a little reference to
it this morning. The discerning of the Lord Jesus. She knew everything about that
woman. She has to acknowledge that when she goes back to her
neighbours. Come see a man that told me all
things that ever I did. He's not this, the Christ, she
says. But what does the Lord say to
her? He speaks of the well where he's sitting. "...whosoever drinketh
of the water that I shall give him," he says, "...shall never
thirst. But the water that I shall give
him shall be in him a well of water springing up unto everlasting
life." He speaks of the water of the well, and she thinks he's
speaking of the well there, but he's speaking of something far
greater. The water of the well. He is that well. The Spirit is that well. Again,
the Lord's ministry there in the 7th chapter of John is there
in Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles. And we come to the
very last day of the Feast, the Great Day. John 7.37 in the last
day. That great day of the feast Jesus
stood and cried, saying, If any man thirsts, let him come unto
me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the
Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
water. But this spake he of the Spirit,
which they that believe on him should receive, for the Holy
Ghost was not yet given, because of Jesus was not yet glorified.
But when Christ is glorified, when Christ's work is complete,
when He's risen from the dead, ascended to heaven, as we see
in Acts 2, He is the one who sheds abroad the Holy Ghost.
But what does the Spirit come to do? He doesn't come to speak
of Himself. He shall glorify Me, says Christ,
He shall take of Mine. and shall show it unto you."
Oh isn't the Lord Jesus the one who is truly the well of Bethlehem? Now David there in 2 Samuel 23
longs to drink of that well and his mighty men are around him
and what do we read David? And what does David say? Or that
one would give me a drink of the well of Bethlehem, which
is by the gate. And his mighty ones, they go
and they obtain the water. David doesn't drink it, he pours
it out as a sacrifice of worship to God. David knew the significance
of the well of Bethlehem. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. And
of course, John Kent brings it out so remarkably in that hymn
that we were just singing, 1091. What a hymn writer was dear John Kent. Those lovely words. Now we do well to read and reread
and ponder them. It's the Lord Jesus Christ who
is this well to cheer when faint, when sick
to heal, its wondrous virtues must prevail, my sins to crush,
my fears to quell, spring up a stream from Bethlehem's well. Joseph is a fruitful bough, even
a fruitful bough by a well. All his faith, his faith is in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Where does all this fruit come
from, a fruitful bough? even a fruitful bear. Well, the
Lord says through the prophet Hosea, from me is thy fruit found. He is by the well, he draws on
the well, there is the source of his faith. But then also we
see what we might term the trust, the trust of his faith. whose branches, it says, run
over the wall. It is the wall that supports
the branches. These branches laden with rich
fruits they need to be supported. And the wall is that that lends
the support. What is faith? Is it not leaning
upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that the strength of faith?
Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness? Leaning upon
her beloved, we read there in the Song of Solomon. And it's
the believer, leaning. The psalmist says, commit thy
way unto the Lord. Trust also in him, he shall bring
it to pass. And the margin tells us what
it means to commit thy way unto the Lord. Roll thy soul, he says. That's the Hebrew. Oh, it's heavy
leaning. It's rolling the soul upon the
Lord Jesus Christ. All the fruit comes only from
Him. Again, in that book of Hosea,
we're told Israel is an empty vine. He bringeth forth fruit
unto Himself. If we bring forth the right fruit,
then we'll see that fruit and glorify our Father which is in
heaven. From me is thy fruit found. Faith
is that life of complete and utter dependence. All of salvation
is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's where the believing
soul rests. But now we see also with regards
to this man Joseph the way in which he was made so fruitful.
And he's made fruitful by the trying of his faith. Verse 23,
the archers have sorely grieved him and shot at him and hated
him. Who were these archers? Who were
these archers? It's archers in the plural, isn't
it? And I say there are at least
three of them. First of all there, there's his own brethren. Oh and how they despised him. How they wanted rid of him. How they mocked at him. Remember
what we're told back in chapter 37. And there at verse 19. Here is Joseph, his brethren,
away from home, looking after the sheep. His father sends him
to them, and he approaches. And they said one to another,
Behold, his dreamer cometh. Come now, therefore, and let
us slay him, and cast him into some pit, and we will say, Some
evil beast hath devoured him, and we shall see what will become
of his dreams. and Reuben heard it and he delivered
him out of their hands and said let us not kill him but that's not the end of the
matter is it? verse 26 Judas says to his brethren
what profit is it if we slay our brother and conceal his blood?
blood 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
his brethren were content. They hearkened to this advice.
And there passed by Midianites, merchant men, and they drew and
lifted up Joseph out of the pit and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites
for twenty pieces of silver, and they brought Joseph into
Egypt. His brethren, how they hated
him! The psalmist speaks of those
who wet their tongue like a sword and then their bows to shoot
their arrows, even bitter words. And that was true of those brethren. The bitter words that they uttered
against him, the mockings, the scoffings, they referred to him
simply as the dreamer. It goes on there in the psalm
how they lie even among them that are set on fire, even the
sons of men whose teeth are as spears and arrows. Arrows like tongues that are
sharp swords. And that was those brethren.
Oh, the Psalmist well describes them there, and what they did,
their wickedness. These are those, you see, those
archers who shot at him. They had to be found amongst
his own brethren. He could say with the Psalmist
on another occasion, my soul is among liars. I lie even among
them who are set on fire of hell. That was his brethren. And we
think of the language also of David. Remember the words that
we have in Psalm 55. I know he's speaking maybe of
Absalom, probably more likely Ahithophel, his great friend
and his counselor. And how he felt it. again he says the words of his
mouth were smoother than butter but war was in his heart his
words were softer than oil yet were they drawn swords and yet
these were his friends and they would go with him to the house
of prayer how bitter it is you see when
friends turn against a man and treat him so cruelly He's the
experience of this man, his own brethren. What a trying of his
faith, they mock at his dreams. This dreamer, cometh they say. But then, also in a sense, it
wasn't part of his wife, one of these archers. When she speaks her wanton words
to him, and he refuses her, And then she turns to her husband
and makes false accusations against this young man. And he's cast
into the prison and there he's left languishing. Poor Joseph. All this experience
and yet he's not wearied, he's not embittered. It's strange
what we read here, is Beau abode in strength it says. He is bow abode in strength in
spite of all the troubles that come upon him in these remarkable
trials. Why? In a sense the trials have
the tendency of drawing him nearer to God. In that sense they are
amongst those cross-handed blessings that we spoke of last time when
Jacob had guided his hand so wittingly to place his right
hand upon the head of Ephraim as he were crossing his hands
as he blesses those two sons. Joseph knew something of cross-handed
blessings, how those things were sanctified to him. His arms,
the arms of his hands it says were made strong by the hands
of the mighty God of Jacob. What are we to make of those
words in verse 20-40? The archers, they hate him, they
shoot at him, but his bow abides in strength, and it's because
the arms of his hands are made strong by the hands of the mighty
God of Jacob. Now, the best remark I've found
is Hugh Latimer. Remember Bishop Latimer, Bishop
of Worcester, one of the English martyrs in the 16th century,
the Protestant Reformation. The great preacher was Latimer.
And in a sermon he refers to these words and explains the
significance of what's being said. He says that in England
the way in which they taught archery, and remember the archers
at the Battle of Agincourt were so decisive in the defeat of
the French. Well, Latimer says the way in
which a young boy was taught his archery was that a full grown
man would stand over him and place his hand upon the bow and
upon the string with the boy and teach him how to pull the
bow and how to direct his eye. And that's how they taught them.
What the great reformer and martyr then says is, well here we're
to understand this is how Joseph's hands were made strong. It was
the hands of the mighty God of Jacob that were upon him. And that's why he could endure
all of those troubles that came, even from such a wicked woman
as Potiphar's wife. Or the trying of this man's faith.
sold into Egypt, falsely accused, cast into the prison, left languishing
there forgotten by the butler. You know something of the history
of the man. And yes, he abides in strength because his
arms, the arms of his hands are made strong. Doubtless over those
many years he knew what it was to cry to God, to pray to God.
to commit all his troubles and all his concerns to his God.
But Harry was tried. He's tried by his brethren, he's
tried by this wicked woman. Thirdly, he's tried by God himself. The Word of God was such a sore
trial to this man. You see, his real trial was an
inward trial. There were awful things that
befell him physically, But really, the greatest of all His trials,
surely, is the Word of God. We have that verse in the 105th
Psalm, verse 19, "...until the time that His Word came, the
Word of the Lord tried Him." Until the time that His Word
came, there is a time for God's Word. There's a time to every
purpose under heaven, we know that. We read it in Ecclesiastes,
there's a time to be born, there's a time to die. There's a time
for the Word of God, until the time that His Word came, the
Word of God tried Him. We read there in the psalm, verse
18, previous to that statement about the trying of God's Word,
we're told how He was laid in iron. He was laid in iron and
the Word of the Lord tried Him. until the time that his word
came. Now, if you look at the margin, if you have a margin,
it's most helpful because it really brings out the force of
the Hebrew, the margin. It says in the margin, it's literally,
his soul came into iron. He was laid in irons, it says
in the text. But it literally says something
more than that. His soul came into iron. or the iron enters into this
man's soul. It's a spiritual trial that he's
having to endure. It's God's words. Was God's words
to him back in chapter 37 a dream? And nothing more than a dream.
Was it just a sweet experience that he had when he remembered
it? And he's quick to tell his brethren
and And the father knows also it was a sweet experience, but
was it just a false experience? Surely, in all of the trial that
follows, Joseph gets some insight into his own heart. Here is the trial, you see, there's
the working of native unbelief in him. He must have had those
moments of great doubts and fears. Where would it all end? Oh, he must have felt that inward
trial, that inward conflict, that warfare between the flesh
and the spirits. Now the flesh lusteth against
the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, says the Apostle,
and they are contrary one to the other, and ye cannot do the
thing that ye would. Wasn't this Joseph? He feels
it in his own soul. It's truth versus error. It's fact against fiction. And
it's faith fighting against unbelief. And yet, how wonderfully it's
all fulfilled in the end. And he sees it and he knows the
significance of what happens there Verse 18 of chapter 50,
when his brethren fell down before his face and said, Behold, we
be thy servants. Oh, the triumphs now of his faith.
And he can say to them, Fear not. And he asked the question,
Am I in the place of God? He will give God the glory. He
will give God the glory. You thought evil against me but
God meant it unto good 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
all the trial of his faith was what made him so fruitful a man
really He was separate from his brethren.
He was a different man, really, altogether. And the Lord was in all of these
things. All the blessings of thy Father
have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitor, says Jacob,
out of the utmost bounds of 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. a fruitful bow, even a fruitful
bow by a whale, whose branches run over the wall. The archers
have sorely grieved him, and shot at him and hated him. But
his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made
strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob. All from thence is the shepherd,
the stone of Israel." This was Joseph's real place of comfort, his faith in God,
or that God would grant that we might know such a faith as
he's witnessed in the life of this man. That Jacob's blessing
upon his sons as he speaks of those things that are to befall
in the last days, that they might fall out on us and bring blessings
into our souls. May the Lord bless His word to
us tonight. Amen.