Let us turn again to God's Word
and we turn to Genesis chapter 49 and that blessing that Jacob
pronounced upon his son Joseph. The portion we were considering
last Lord's Day in chapter 49 of Genesis and there at verse
22, 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 you shall help them, and by the Almighty you shall bless
thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep
that lieth under. the blessings of the breasts
and of the womb, the blessings of thy father hath prevailed
above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the
everlasting hills. Thy shall be on the head of Joseph
and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from
his brethren." Jacob then, as we said, is here the dying man
and he summons his sons to him there in the opening words of
the chapter Jacob called unto his sons and said gather yourselves
together that I may tell you that which shall befall you in
the last days gather yourselves together and hear ye sons of
Jacob and hearken unto Israel your father and then as we've
seen He blesses them. In verse 28, All these are the
twelve tribes of Israel. This is that that their father
spoke unto them, and blessed them every one according to his
blessing he blessed them. And then at the end of the chapter
We are told how Jacob, after he had made an end of blessing
his sons, gathered up his feet into the bed and healed up the
ghost and was gathered unto his people. The blessings then that
we have in this chapter are those that pertain to the twelve patriarchs,
the fathers of the twelve tribes of Israel. And we were considering,
as I say, something of the blessing that is pronounced upon Joseph
last Lord's Day morning. And we considered that blessing
then in a two-fold sense. We saw how he was a man blessed
in providence and also blessed in grace. Certainly he was a
man greatly blessed in providence. as we see there at verse 25.
The Almighty you shall bless thee with the blessings of heaven
above, the blessings of the deep that lie upon thee, the blessings
of the breasts and of the womb. And when at the end of Deuteronomy
we see Moses also blessing the twelve tribes, the blessing that
Moses pronounces upon Joseph, those two tribes that sprang
from Joseph Ephraim and Manasseh, how they were blessed with a
gracious, a glorious portion in the land of Canaan. But in particular thinking of
the blessings of grace that are also here pronounced upon Joseph. Last time we observed three aspects
of the blessing of grace in this man. First of all, he was blessed
with the fear of God. the fear of the Lord. Proverb
tells us by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil. And so this man is preserved
by that fear when that wicked woman Potiphar's wife casts a
lustful eye upon the youth and he refuses to go and lie with
her. What does he say? How then can
I do this great wickedness and sin against God? God's fear was
very much in his heart and as Joseph Hart says of that fear
of the Lord, it's an unctuous light to all that's right and
a bar to all that's wrong. How we should desire that we
might be blessed then with that fear. The fear of the Lord was
in this man's heart, but then also he knew something surely
of the love of God. And that love of God, as John
makes so plain, writing in his first epistle, is a very practical
love, is it not? There, in chapter 4 of John's
first epistle, at the end of the chapter, He says, If a man
say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar. For he
that loveth not his brother, whom he hath seen, how can he
love God, whom he hath not seen? And these commandments have we
from him, that he who loveth God, love his brother also. Now what remarkable love we see
in Joseph towards his brethren, how he was ready to forgive them. in spite of all the wickedness
that they had done to him. Remember when they'd come before
him, we were looking just a couple of weeks ago at chapter 45. Here they are the second time
in Egypt come to obtain corn in the years of great dearth.
And Joseph had recognized them, but they knew not Joseph. We're
told there at the beginning of chapter 45 that he could not
refraining himself before all them that stood by him. And he
cried, because every man should go out from me. 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. Does my father yet live? And
his brethren could not answer him for they were troubled at
his presence. Remarkable the way in which he
treats these men who had been so despicable in their attitude
to him. We're told later he fell upon
his brother Benjamin's neck and wept and Benjamin wept upon his
neck moreover he kissed all his brethren and wept upon them and
after his brethren talked. with him. Oh, there was that
love of God in the heart of this man, even a love manifest in
his attitude towards his brethren. And then also we observe grace
in the man in that he was favoured with faith. He believed in God
and he saw beyond circumstances, he saw him who is the great cause
of all things. as we saw there in chapter 50
after the death of Jacob when his brethren are afraid and they
think he will requite them for the evil that he had done to
them. But what does he say at verse 19 in chapter 50? Fear
not. Fear not, he says, for am I in
the place of God, he asks, 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 spoke kindly unto them. We see in this man the fruits
of that grace of faith in the way in which he speaks to his
brethren. And so this morning I want us
to consider something more of the faith of Joseph. This is
a theme that I want us to address for a while this morning, the
faith of Joseph and to observe his faith in this twofold sense.
First of all, to consider the object of his faith, And then
in the second place, to say something with regards to the trying of
his faith. First of all, the object. Now God alone is of course the
object of saving faith. How important it is that we remember
that the only object of faith, true faith, that faith that is
saving is the Lord God. He says, look unto me, and being
aside all the ends of the earth, For I am God, and there is none
else. We should be those then who would
look to the Lord by the eye of faith. And here we see that the
faith of Joseph is spoken of in verse 22 under these figures
of a well and a wall. Joseph is a fruitful bear even
a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall."
The language, of course, that Jacob is employing as he speaks
to his sons, as he gives commandment to his sons, as he blesses his
sons, is very figurative language. And certainly that is the case
here. He speaks of this man Joseph as fruitful. He's like a fruitful
bough Even a fruitful bough by a well. What does the well speak
of? Does it not speak to us of the
source of his faith? The source of his faith. I said
that faith has to do with God. God is the object of faith. He
says there in Isaiah 45, look unto me and be ye saved. When we come to the New Testament
we have those similar words at Paul's in Hebrews chapter 12
and verse 2, looking unto Jesus he says. The author and finisher
of our faith. Strange really, we know that
God is the object of faith but in order to obtain faith We have
to look unto Jesus. He is the author of faith. He is the finisher of faith. And how is it that Christ gives
and accomplishes that faith in the souls of His people? How
does He work faith in the soul? Well, look at the language that
Christ Himself employs in the course of His ministry in the
Gospel. There in John chapter 4 and verse
14 He is found, is he not, sitting at the well at Sychar? Are you
familiar with the chapter there? And now the Samaritan woman comes
to draw water from the well. And the Lord graciously deals
with this Samaritan woman, one who would be so despised by the
Jews. And He takes opportunity as she
is drawing water from this well, the well of Jacob, to speak of
the spiritual well. What does he say in verse 14?
"...whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall
never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be in
him a well of water." A well of water rising up to salvation
What is this water, this water of the well of which the Lord
Jesus is speaking? He is speaking, is he not, of
the Holy Spirit who must come. And when he comes, is he not
the Spirit himself who works faith in the soul? Again, in
the Gospel there in John chapter 7, Verse 37 We are told, in the
last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried,
saying, If any man thirst, 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 make he of the
Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive for the
Holy Ghost was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified. It's the same water, the water
of the well that is being spoken of in chapter 4 when the Lord
addresses himself to that Samaritan woman. He's speaking in chapter
7 quite clearly of the Holy Ghost. This is the source, you see,
the source of true faith. Even that ministry that comes
by the Spirit Himself. And so, when it comes to salvation,
what do we read in the language of the Prophet Isaiah? How with
joy they shall draw waters out of the wells of salvation. All
that gracious ministry of the Spirit. We sang in our opening
praise that lovely hymn of John Kent on the well of Bethlehem. And you may have seen the text
there at the head of the hymn is 2 Samuel 23 15. It's that
verse that speaks of David when he longed and said, oh, that
one would fetch me drink. of the water of the well of Bethlehem
by the gates." And of course what Kent is saying in that hymn
is that well of Bethlehem is one of the names that is really
given to the Lord Jesus Christ who was born of Bethlehem. He
is the well of salvation and it is of course only by faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ that any man or woman can live a life
that is truly fruitful before God? Or does he not say, from
me is thy fruit found? Here is Joseph, a fruitful bough,
even a fruitful bough by a worrious faith. But who is the one who
is the author of that faith? Where do we find the source of
that faith that was in this man? It is Christ and it is that gracious
ministry that Christ exercises by and through the Holy Ghost
whom he sends of course on the day of Pentecost. And so sinners
are brought to draw waters from that well of salvation. But then also here We learn something
more concerning the faith of this man, not just the figure
of a wow, but he goes on, his branches run over the wall. And doesn't this remind us of
the strength of his faith, or the trust of his faith? Here is one, you see, who is
fruitful. Why? There is support, there's support
granted, granted to this fruitful bough, it's stayed upon the wall,
and so too with Joseph and his faith. He was one whose trust
was in the Lord his God. The words of the psalmist remember
Psalm 37, Commit thy wife unto the Lord's trust also in him,
and he will bring it to pass. It was not that the faith of
Joseph He saw how God brought to pass his great purpose, that
purpose that had been intimated to him by those dreams that we
read of at the beginning of chapter 37. All he has to do is commit
his way, or as the margin says there in Psalm 37, roll thy way
upon the Lord, trust also in him, and he will bring it to
pass. Here is the wall there, supporting
this fruitful bound. It reminds us of the strength
that this man is able to obtain by his trusting in the Lord,
his God. It's like that one that we read
of in the Song of Solomon, coming out of the wilderness. Who is
this? That cometh up from the wilderness, it says, leaning
upon her beloved. or the fruitful values that we
read of here. So, laden with fruit, it needs
to be supported. And it is supported by the war. And so that believer who would
be fruitful to God must know the Lord's gracious support and
God's continual sustaining. It's interesting how in Isaiah
chapter 10 we see Israel as an empty vine. Not a fruitful vine,
not a fruitful bough. Israel is an empty vine. Why? He bringeth forth fruit unto
himself. Not so Joseph. For the source
of his faith is the Lord God. The strength of his faith is
the Lord God. And that fruit that we see, that
spiritual fruit, that grace that is so evident in the way in which
this man conducts himself in the fear of the Lord by the love
of God. Here is one who brings forth fruit to the glory of God. We see something then in the
imagery that's used here of the saving faith that was in the
heart of this man Joseph. And then in the second place
to say something more with regards to the trial of his faith, or
the trying of his faith. We read in verse 23, the archers
have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him. Now, who are the archers? Who are the archers that are
spoken of here? Well, surely we have to recognize
in some sense the reference here is to his brethren. and the way
in which they treated him, and the wicked arrows that they shot
at him. Remember what we're told back
in chapter 37, as he is sent by his father to his brethren,
verse 17 of chapter 37, rather verse 19 of chapter 37, they said one
to another, Behold, This 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. And Reuben
said unto them, Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit that
is in the wilderness, and lay no hand upon him, that he might
rid him out of their hands, and deliver him to his father again. But then Judah comes forward
and says in verse 26 What profit is it 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, for he is our
brother and our flesh, and his brother were content. And then
we're told how Midianites, merchantmen passed by, and they took Joseph
out of the pit and sold him to these Ishmaelites for twenty
pieces of silver, and he was brought into Egypt. This is the way in which his
brethren treat him. All the archers have sorely grieved
him, and shot at him, and hated him. What wicked things they
said! They dismissed him as a mere
dream. They despised his dreams, of
course, because he'd spoken of how he was to be exalted over
them at the beginning of that 37th chapter. The psalmist, does
he not speak of these things? Psalm 64 and verse 3, he mentions
there those who wet their tongue like a sword and bend their bows
to shoot their arrows, even bitter words. Now, the psalmist, you
see, is conscious, aware of these things. Again, in Psalm 57, we
find similar words. Psalm 57 and verse And verse 4, David says, My soul
is among lions, and I lie even among them that are set on fire.
Even the sons of men whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their
tongue is a sharp sword. Doesn't that apply to Joseph's
experience? Also, as we see him there at
the hands of his wicked brethren. His soul among lions, set on
fire, their teeth are spears and arrows, their tongue is a
sharp sword." Who are these archers that are spoken of here by Jacob
in verse 23? These are Joseph's brethren.
Joseph's brethren, but not only his brethren, Let us not forget
the wickedness of Potiphar's wife, when she could not obtain
her wanton wife, how she turns in against Joseph and brings
a false accusation against the youth. In chapter 39 and verse
17, she speaks unto her husband Potiphar, saying the Hebrew servant
which thou hast brought unto us came in unto me to mock me
and he came to pass as I lifted up my voice and cried that he
left his garment with me and he fled out and he came to pass
when his master heard the words of his wife which he spoke unto
him saying after this man did the servant to me that his wrath
was kindled, and Joseph's master took him and put him into the
prison, the place where the king's prisoners were bound, and he
was there in the prison. Oh, how the archers, you see,
shot at him. And yet, strangely, this man
Joseph, he's not, he's not embittered, He's not
wearied with these things? What are we told in verse 24? His bow abode in strength. His bow abode in strength. These things have no detrimental
effect upon him at all. These trials only draw him nearer
to his God. That's a strange thing with Joseph.
He seems to be a man who understands something of God's ways and the
mystery of God's ways. I find it very interesting what
we have in the previous chapter. We did look at it briefly last
week in chapter 48, where Joseph brings his two sons, the children
that had been born in Egypt. He brings him out between his
knees. We read there in chapter 48 and verse 12. And then brings
him and presents him to his father. And we're told in verse 13, Now
Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand towards Israel's
left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand towards Israel's right
hand. and brought them near unto him. Now they're significant, you
see, in that little detail. He directs Ephraim to Israel's
left hand, but Manasseh is the firstborn and he's directed to
Jacob's right hand. And then we're told how Israel
stretched out his right hand and laid it upon Ephraim's head. who was the younger, and his
left hand upon Manasseh's head, guiding his hands wittingly,
for Manasseh was the firstborn. And he blessed Joseph, and so
forth. Now, Joseph reacts to this, verse
17, when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon
the head of Ephraim, it displeased him. And he held up his father's
hand to remove it from Ephraim's head onto Manasseh's head. Joseph
says to his father, Not so, my father, for this is the firstborn.
Put thy right hand upon his head. But his father refused and said,
I know it, my son, I know it. He also shall become a people,
and he also shall be great. But truly his younger brother
shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude
of nations. And I remember many years ago,
I think it was a sermon, I think it was in conversation with the
late Leonard Broome, and he spoke to me about there we have a cross-handed
blessing. How Jacob quite deliberately
crosses his hands as he puts the right hand upon Ephraim's
head and the left hand upon Manasseh's is a cross-handed blessing and
are there not those blessings that come into the lives of God's
children that we might think to be cross-handed? how God seems
to deal in strange ways, He crosses us there's a mystery as I said
in all of God's dealings and this man Joseph must have known
something of these things when we see how God so sorely tried
his faith when the archers are shooting at him, when his brethren
are dealing so wickedly with him when this Woman Potiphar
comes and lays a false accusation against him. He finds himself
languishing there in the prison cell. These trials, I say, only
draw him nearer and nearer to God. Oh, where does this man
fire his arrows? Is he not one who does that by
directing his prayers to God? He must have been a man of many
prayers. Doubtless whilst he was there
in the prison cell, he would call upon his God, he would cry
unto his God. And we are told how the arms
of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God
of Jacob. Again, it's a lovely figure and
we're told how this was the way in previous days that youngsters,
young men were taught how to handle the longbow. It was 600 years ago, was it
not? The great battle of Agincourt. And it was, we're told, the archery
of those archers of England and Wales who obtained that great
victory over the French. How were they taught? Well, a
youth would be taken by a mature man, a senior man, a fully grown
man, and he would stand over the youth and show him how to
handle the bow, how to draw the string, how to direct the arrow. And this is what we have here,
as it were, God standing over this man His arms, the arms of
his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of
Jacob. He is preserved in the midst
of all these trials that come, be it his own brethren, his own
flesh and blood, or be it this wicked woman, the wife of Potiphar. But surely the greatest trial
of all that Joseph has to endured at this particular time is that
trial that comes by the Word of God. He is really tried by
God's Word. This is the trial of fact. It's
God's dealings. Oh yes, God might use various
means to try his people, but we have to look beyond the means
and see Him who is the Great First Cause of all things. Remember the language of Peter? There in the fourth chapter of
his first epistle he says, Beloved, think it not strange concerning
the fiery trial that is to try you as though some strange thing
happened unto you. All God's ways might be strange
and mysterious, but this is ever the way of God's. Where there
is faith, where God has worked that faith so graciously in the
heart of the sinner, that faith is tried. Again, Peter in the
opening chapter of that same first epistle speaks of it, the
trial of your faith, he says, being much more precious than
of gold and perishers, though it be tried with fire, is to
be found and to praise and honor and glory at the appearing of
Jesus Christ. How God tries the faith of His
children. Now, we sang, did we not, a short
portion in the 105th Psalm. And if you turn to that psalm
you'll see how in it the psalmist is recounting something of the
history of the children of Israel. And he speaks quite specifically
of Joseph. And we sang those verses that
clearly referred to Joseph when he was there in the prison. And what do we read in the psalm
at verse 19? Until the time that his word,
that is God's word, came, the word of the Lord tried him. He
was tried by the word of God. God had given his words. Now this is the Old Testament.
And God would speak in diverse manners, in diverse manner, in
different ways, to his people of old, before the canon of Scripture
was completed. He would speak his word through
prophets and through seers. He would sometimes speak his
word directly. He spoke the Ten Commandments,
did he not, there in Exodus chapter 20? He spoke directly. sometimes
he would reveal his purpose in dreams and in visions and this
man Joseph was one who received God's
word in that way in chapter 37 as we've already said and there
at verse 5 following by means of dreams God communicates to
him what's going to happen now he is going to be exalted above
all his brethren and exalted even above his father and his
mother that was God's words to him it was a strange dream and
his brother of course his brethren of course they so hated and despised
him because they understood the significance of the things that
he was saying we're told then in verse 11 of chapter 37 his
brethren envied him but it says his father observed the saying
Jacob knew there was something significant in what Joseph had
experienced. He was to be exalted. Oh, but what a strange way it
was in which the Lord dealt with him. He's sold into captivity
in Egypt, then in Egypt he's sold into slavery, and then he's
cast into the prison. And so we have it recorded there
in the Psalm concerning Joseph languishing in the prison." Verse
18, "...whose feet they hurt with fetters. He was laid in
iron, until the time that his word came, the word of the Lord
tried him." He was laid in iron, it says at the end of verse 18.
The Hebrew, we're told in the margin, literally says, "...his
soul came into How striking is the language that's actually
the literal rendering of the Hebrew in that verse. His soul
came into iron. His trial, the trying of his
faith, was not so much in the external things, the way in which
he was treated by his brethren, or the way in which his mistress
treated him. His trial was really an inward
trial and a spiritual trial. But isn't this often the way
in which God tries his people? He had received the word of God,
this man. But what might he think now?
Was God's word to him a dream? And nothing more? Was it just a sweet experience
that he had known all those years ago? A sweet experience, yes,
but now evidently such a false experience. It really meant very
little to him. how he was tried, how he was
tested and in the trial doubtless Joseph had some insights into
his own heart he's a man of like passions as
we are, he was not the perfect man, he had a sinful nature and
how he must have doubted the Word of God, questioned the Word
of God how unbelief must have at times manifested itself when
he was there in the prison. He had some insight, I would
say, into his own heart, the powerful workings of that unbelief,
that sin, which got so easily beset, as doubtless it beset
Joseph, as it beset you and me. He would have known it. He would
have known something of that conflict of which the Apostle
Paul speaks. when he writes in Galatians of
the flesh lusting against the spirit and the spirit against
the flesh and how these two are contrary one to the other that
ye cannot do the thing that ye would or there would have been
a conflict in the soul of this man the word of the Lord tried
him was he not there considering things and it was truth against
error it was fact against fiction. It was faith against unbelief. There was a conflict in the man.
He is tried and yet in the midst of all the trial his arms are
made strong. The arms of his hands were made
strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob. From thence is
the shepherd and stone of Israel. how God deals with these people
you see in these mysterious ways the trying of faith and those
if I say knew it now again in another of the Psalms, Psalm
84 we see the Psalm is speaking of those who are making the pilgrimage
to Jerusalem remember how the men three times in every year
they had to go up to the tabernacle And then to the temple of the
Lord for the great feasts. And the psalmist speaks of them
journeying and he says there in verse 6 of Psalm 84, "...who
going through the valley of Baca make it a well." Going through
the valley of Baca. And the word Baca means weeping. Or they go through the valley
of weeping. It was a bitter place. And yes,
They make it the well. And was it not Joseph's bitter
experiences that made that well of salvation, those wells of
salvation, it is a plural there in Isaiah, the wells of salvation. But all those wells centering
in the Lord Jesus Christ, of course, the well of Bethlehem. It's all those bitter experiences,
is it not, that makes the water of the well so sweet and so refreshing
and ultimately make this man Joseph to be such a fruitful
man we see so much of the grace of God in the way in which he
conducts himself but from whence is all that fruit found is not
from himself it's the work of God and so It is, friends, with
all who know anything of salvation, it is all the work of God and
all our fruit is to be then to the honor and the glory of his
name. Joseph is a fruitful bough, even
a fruitful bough by a well whose branches run over the wall. May the Lord be pleased to bless
his work to us.