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Paul Mahan

Joseph: The Beloved Son Slain

Genesis 37
Paul Mahan January, 31 1996 Audio
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Genesis

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The kind and sacred sweet before
we reach the heavenly abode. Thank you. I do hope the Lord will answer
our brother's prayer. I was blessed by it. Thank you, Brother Terry. I love the Old Testament types. I can't get enough of them. I
learned to love them under a faithful teacher and preacher, elder. Brother Charlie Payne was his
name. We went to be with the Lord in a few years now. But nearly every time I remember
hearing him preach, he preached from an Old Testament type, and
he dug and dug and dug and searched, and he brought some things out
that we had just never seen before. He'd go over and judges and chronicles
and just dig. And it was such a blessing. The
Old Testament types convinced me of the truth of God's Word. When I see them so clearly, I'm
absolutely convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that God wrote this
book. It's too amazing. It all tells the same story.
It convinces me of who Christ is. I come away after seeing
such a clear picture. You like that verse over in Isaiah
that says, Walked in darkness shall see out of obscurity. In other words, they'll see glorious
light in obscure places, little obscure passages back in the
Old Testament. They'll see just amazing things. Have them revealed to them by
God. And it convinces me of who Christ
is. It builds up my faith in him. I have some favorites. I must
admit to having some favorites. Old Testament types, and I would
have to say, right or wrong, I would just have to say that
my favorite is Boaz. I just love that picture. I love it. I could preach on
it. If you could hear it, I could preach it once every six months. Mephibosheth is right up there. Son of David, David as a type
of Christ. Abraham and Isaac going up that
mountain, Mount Moriah. Abraham to offer Isaac up there.
I love that. I love that. This whole story
of Joseph is just marvelous. It's a lengthy and a glorious
type of the Lord Jesus Christ. Nowhere in Scripture is the beauty
and the glory and the wisdom of God's word more clearly seen
than in this type of Christ. He brings about so many things
in the life of Joseph, every single event, the names of the
people, the places, every move it seems that was made, Joseph
made, the things he said concerning his brethren, Everything is such
a beautiful picture of Christ. It's like a carefully crafted,
like they're all like carefully crafted pieces of a large puzzle.
Puzzles always amaze me, you know. And this one is, or it's
like a better, maybe a better illustration would be a tapestry.
a finely hand-woven tapestry to the untrained eye, or the person
that's ignorant of the whole scope of Scripture, or picture
of Scripture. They're looking at Scripture
as each Scripture when they come to it, and they're looking at
the back of the tapestry, the back of the rug, as it were. And it doesn't make any sense
that way, does it? And you see individual threads.
If you turn it over, you'll see a picture. How'd all those individual
threads come together to make one glorious picture? If you
keep that in mind, you just marvel. It's like a tapestry. You ever
turn one over, a rug, and you think, how in the world can all
that jumble and all that stuff come together to make that one
beautiful picture on the other side? Such is God's Word. This is no cunningly devised
fable, like Peter said. He said this is no cunningly
devised fable. I don't care how cunning a fellow
is, he couldn't have devised it. This is no man-made collection
of fiction. This is the marvelous, infinitely
wise and glorious, inspired in error and infallible Word of
the living God, beyond the shadow of a doubt, and no story goes
And more toward proving that than this one before us things
we've already seen I'm going to go back over. When I met when
I stated that some of you may not have been here Sunday I thought
I was reminded we have three ladies here that were not here
Sunday morning are three teachers are three teachers and they need
to hear some of the things we've already seen. All right let's
look at it. Yes, it's thirty-seven. Well,
look back at chapter thirty. The name of Joseph has significance. His name means something. And he has more than one name.
Did you know that? Joseph has more than one name.
Joseph has more than one name. Do you know that, Joseph? He
does. Look at chapter thirty. Here's the name given to him
by his father and mother. Verse twenty-four. He says that
Rebekah, or Rachel I mean, conceived and bare a son and said, God
hath taken away my approach. She called his name Joseph and
said, The Lord shall add to me another son. The name Joseph
means adding, or the Lord shall add. And Joseph being a picture
of Christ, that's significant. You see, Adam, the first Adam,
was a great subtractor, didn't he? We lost everything in the
first Adam. When the second Adam came, he
added everything. Not only did we recover all lost
in Adam, but he added more. He added to that, didn't he? We've received of the Lord's
hand, the Lord Christ, double. He added to. And only Christ
can add to God's family, add to heaven's population. He's
the adder, our Joseph. He's the adder. All right, another
name over in chapter 41. Chapter 41, another name given
to Joseph, was given by Pharaoh. And you could say that this was
divinely inspired, because it means something. Chapter 41,
look at verse 45. And Pharaoh called Joseph's name
Zapnapania. Zapnapania. I like the sound of Joseph better,
don't you? Steve, what if you had to call your son all the
time? Come here, Zephnaphania. He'd be out of earshot by the
time you got to spit it out. Come here, Joe. But Zephnaphania means something. It has all the names in Scripture.
I'm not making fun of it at all. But it means something glorious,
it really does. That painea means the revealer
of secrets. That's good, the revealer of
secrets. Now look over to Luke chapter
2. Luke chapter 2. Look over here. And keep your
place over here in at least the three Gospels. Just put a bookmark
over there because we're going to be turning over and see the
correlations between Genesis thirty seven and the gospel Luke
to look over here Luke two so Joseph's name means adding and
that the media means the revealer of secrets. And this that's the
Lord Jesus Christ the great revealer look at Luke two verse thirty
four. Simeon this was Simeon blessing the child in the temple
and said unto Mary his mother behold this child is set for
the fall and rising again of many in Israel for a sign which
shall be spoken again yea a sword shall pierce through my own soul
that the thoughts of many hearts shall be revealed. He's a great
great revealer. Christ revealed the father's
will. Scripture says the only begotten son he hath declared
him. He's a revealer, that's why he's called the Word of God.
Christ reveals men's sins to them. He reveals our hearts to
us. He said in one place, he said,
I testify of the world that its works are evil. He said that. He testified. All right, back
to the text. Joseph, so his name means something. He has a double name, Joseph,
Zephnapanea. His name is Jesus, and here's
another name. Joseph was his name given by
his earthly parents. Zephaniah came by divine inspiration,
and Christ Jesus, he's the son of man and the son of God. His
name Jesus, his earthly name, and Christ the son given. And
just on and on you could go with that. But Joseph was a shepherd
by occupation. That was Joseph's occupation.
He was sent down to take care of the flock. Joseph was a shepherd.
Christ is called the good shepherd, the great shepherd, the chief
shepherd, the chief shepherd. And like David, I believe Joseph
was probably a good one. I'm sure he didn't lose a wand,
certain of it. I know our Joseph never has. Fed the flock. All right, look
at verse 2 in the text, Genesis 37. Joseph was opposed to evil,
too. He, Joseph, appeared to be, as
I said before, he was a man, a young man even, of impeccable
character. And that was a good type of Christ. Verse 2, Joseph, seventeen years
old, was feeding the flock with his brethren. The lad was with
the sons of Billa and the sons of Zilpah and his father's wife.
Joseph brought unto his father their evil report. He heard them
talking and saw them their evil actions. And he came and told
the father their evil report. Now, Joseph was not a tale-bearer,
a tattler per se. Joseph was just so his righteous
soul was vexed with their conversation. And he was not a tale-bearer,
but a truth-bearer. like Christ. Christ is the great
revealer. And they hated him for them.
They hated him for revealing all about them. And Christ, I
said this last week, Christ does not cover our sins first. When God, when our Lord begins
to deal with us, he does not first cover our sins. God doesn't
come and say, God loves you, or Christ The Holy Spirit, through
the preaching of the gospel, doesn't say, God loves you and
Christ died for your sins, etc. That's not the first thing he
does. No, he exposes us. He reveals our wickedness, doesn't
he? He reveals us to us. And if we're false brethren,
like these, they hated him for doing that. And so will the Pharisee
and the Sadducee and the false brethren creeped in. The untrue, a Christian in name
only, will hate this, all this talk of their sin, their evil
and all. But the true child of God will
say, true Lord, true. And they'll be thankful that
God revealed their state to themselves. So he's the truth bearer, not
a tale bearer. All right, look at verse three.
Joseph was loved. Israel loved Joseph more than
all his brethren. He was loved over and above all
his brethren. The Lord says this, and he said
it from heaven twice, this is my beloved son. Just like a father
would the son that he's so proud of. This, that's my boy. But there's only one son, only
one man truly worth saying that about. That's the son of the
Most High God. This is my beloved son, the Holy
Father said, in whom I am well pleased, and I love him above
and beyond any other. He alone is worthy of the Father's
love. Joseph was loved more than all
his children. That's all right. Even this Joseph
deserved it, didn't he? And certainly the altogether
lovely one, the Lord Jesus Christ alone deserves the father's love,
not us, not us, not unto us. He was the son of his father's
old age. Look at verse three. It said Joseph was the son of
his old age. That's a picture of Christ. Christ
is the son of the eternal father, old age. God is from everlasting
to everlasting, the eternal father. I remind you, Proverbs 8 says,
I was with him from the beginning. I was set up with him from before
the foundation of the earth. I was by him. I was daily his
delight. He's the son of God's old age,
if you will, the son of the eternal father. And then Joseph or Jacob,
Israel, because of his special love for his son Joseph, son
of his old age, his favorite son, he gave him a distinguishing
gift, a coat, verse 3, he made him a coat of many colors, a
coat of many colors. We saw how that represents Christ's
character, whereas one of the old writers writes in such a
copious fashion. Christ, this is the coat which
represents Christ's excellencies and glories and the infinite
perfections of his marvelous character. I like that. The multifaceted character of
Christ's coat of many colors, or that glorious, righteous life
that he lived on this earth and imparted to us, imputed and imparted
to us. Verse 4, because of his character,
his brethren And his love, the love his father had, verse four,
his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren.
They hated him. They hated him. They hated him
without a cause. Had Joseph done anything to deserve
their hatred? No. You say, well, he told on
them. Well, he just told the truth. And Stephen, he probably
didn't tell at all. He told the truth. It was true
what he said about him and more. But Joseph did nothing. There
was nothing in him. They could find no sin in him,
no fault in him. There was nothing worthy of their
hatred in Joseph. They hated him without a cause.
And so men hated our Lord Jesus Christ without a cause. They hated Joseph because of
his character. And that's what our Lord said
in places. He said, Marvel not, brethren,
if the world hate you, they hated me. Know that they hated me first. And if you're anything like me,
they'll hate you. And they'll say all manner of evil, falsely.
Make up stories about, even made stories up about Christ. Slander
his character, all false. Christ said, though blessed are
you. Blessed are you. If they shall say all manner
of evil falsely against you for my name, say that's what they
did to the prophets, he said. All untrue, God knows. You're
in good company, he said. They did it to me, Christ said.
Me! They made up stories of me, they'll make them up about you.
But, you know, some of them might be true about us, or halfway,
but not Christ. Not Christ. So don't let it bother
you, he said, fret not, because of evil doer. They hated me,
Christ said, without a cause, for his marvelous character.
And they might call you a goody two-shoes, but that's all right.
I want my two shoes to walk well, don't you? I want my two shoes
to walk in paths of righteousness. Call me a goody two-shoes. I
remember using that very statement myself years ago. Call me that,
that's fine, that's fine. I hope that I live a life in
such a manner that somebody will hate me for my, for righteousness'
sake." They hated him because of the Father's special love
for him. And all of God's people, they say, God loves a people,
a certain particular people, and God chose a people. He has
an elect of people, and God loves only those, and I'm one of them. They get mad at you for that,
Terry? No, no, I ain't. God loves everybody. Yeah, he
just loves you. He doesn't love God. Well, that's
right. He loves and elects people. Oh,
they'll hate you for that, won't they? They'll hate you for that. And his dreams. They hated Joseph
for his dreams. Joseph said, I've had some things
revealed to me, some truth revealed to me, and he told them, and
they said, You haven't had things revealed to you. Well, we had
things revealed to us. You know, you're just a dreamer.
You're just a dreamer. Verse 11 said, And he told those
dreams to the brethren, and they didn't believe them. Much like
the child of God, or our Lord Himself, coming down and revealing
the Father's will to men, and men didn't believe Him. They
didn't believe Him. They didn't believe what He said.
And in one place he said this, he said, for which good work
do you stone me? They started stoning him one
day. And they said, not for good work, but what you said. We're
not stoning you now for good work. We don't like what you
said. You're being a man, make yourself
equal to God. And that's what they said about
Joseph. Shall we bow down to you? Yes, they will. We'll see that over here in another
chapter. They did. They came down and they bowed
down to Joseph. And so did their father. And
that's a picture of Christ. He told a dream in verse 9, it
says, The sun, the moon, and the eleven stars made obeisance
to me. That's what Philippians says,
doesn't it? Everything shall, at the name of Christ, every
knee shall bow and every tongue confess of things in earth and
things under the earth. things in heaven, everything,
and all things, he will have the preeminent. Everything, sun,
moon, stars, angels, devils, even God will say, Thy throne,
O God, is forever. Even God will acknowledge, He's
my equal. Think about that. Think about
it. All right. Verse eleven says
that he was envied by his His brethren envied him, but his
father observed to say. Turn back to Matthew 27. Matthew
27. His brethren envied him. The
word envy means they were jealous of him. They were jealous of him. Matthew 27. Look at this. The
very word is used here. Matthew 27. This is amazing. It's just amazing, the correlation. Matthew 27, verse 17, "...therefore
when they were gathered together, Pilate said unto them, Whom will ye that I release unto
you, Barabbas, or Jesus, which is called Christ? For he knew
that for Envy they had delivered him." Isn't that amazing? Envy. They envied. They were jealous
of him. The Pharisees, who claimed to
worship God, were jealous of the Son of God. They claimed
to be waiting on the Messiah, the Christ. It's no different
today, either, in religion. All this talk about loving Jesus,
they hate the sovereign Christ. They hate him. The ones who were
waiting on the Messiah, the Messiah came, and they were jealous of
him. All right, verse 13. Verse 13,
Israel said unto Joseph, now this is where Israel sent Joseph
down to his brethren. Verse 12, let's read that. His
brethren went to feed their father's flock in Shechem. And Israel
said unto Joseph, Do not thy brethren feed the flock in Shechem? And I will send thee, come, and
I will send thee unto them." And Joseph, as an obedient son
that he was, said, Here I am. Here am I. I'll go. Didn't hesitate. He knew those evil sons. He knew
their wickedness. They weren't worth checking on. Worth it. They weren't worth
caring for. Joseph said, Leave those guys
alone. Why should we have anything to
do with them? I told you their evil report. You see the picture? But he was sent by the Father.
You see, herein is love. Not that we love God, but that
he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our
sin. Not ours only, but the sins of the whole world. Jew and Gentile
You know, there's no mention of these brethren having any
communication or anything to do with Jacob. You don't find
anything in this story, through Genesis, of these brethren being
close to Jacob. When we get over to Jacob blessing
his sons, we're going to see that. Unlike most fathers, he doesn't
pat them all on the back. He doesn't brag on them. He tells
them what they are. In blessing them, he tells them
like it is. He says, like Reuben. He says,
Reuben, he's unstable as water. And on down the line, he talks
about those boys. Except one. You remember who
it was? One boy. Judah. At any rate,
that doesn't apply to this type. That's another story altogether.
But there's no mention of the father, Jacob, Israel, loving
his other sons at all. There's no mention of them having
any communion with Jacob. There's no mention of them ever
inquiring about their father. They didn't ask. There's nothing
in this story to say, to tell us that these sons ask the Father
to send the Son down to help them. Huh? And isn't that us? That's a picture of mankind,
isn't it? We didn't ask for the Son of God to come, and when
He came, we flew Him, just like this. We didn't ask the Father,
but He willingly, here in His love, not that we love God. That's
the reason I hate to hear people brag and boast and do all this
talking about their love for God. I don't think a child of
God ever does that. Like Peter, when the Lord asked
him, when the Lord asked him, Peter, do you love me? He'll
say, yes, from the heart he'll say yes. But he doesn't go around
bragging there about, oh, how I love you, sir. No, hearing is love. Not that
we love God. Isn't that what the scripture
says? Not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his
son. Sent his son. These boys didn't
love their father, but he loved them and sent his son. Isn't
that glory? Sent by the Father. Well, Joseph
seeks the welfare of his brethren. Verse 14. Israel said to Joseph,
he said, You go, I pray thee, see whether it be well with thy
brethren, well with the flocks, bring me word again. And like
I said, in spite of their evil, in spite of the evil report of
their sin and their wickedness, he came. Anyway, Joseph, the
obedient son, the loving younger brother, came to his own, came
down He could have said, no, no, no, I'm not going. I don't
want to go. I don't want to have anything
to do with those guys. They're evil. Daddy, they're
evil. I don't want to go down there. Didn't have to. But as
an obedient son over his own house, he came. I'll go. I'll go. And he sought
the welfare of his brethren. And that's what Christ said.
He said, I didn't come to condemn the world. didn't have to come
at all. I didn't come to condemn the
world," he said, in spite of the evil report that was sent
to him of mankind. God looked down from heaven to
see if there were any that did understand, if there were any
that seek after God, and none righteous, no, not one, none
good, no, not one. They all together become filthy.
Christ said, I'll go. I'll go anyway. And he comes to seek the welfare
of his brethren. He didn't do this for all. He
came for his brethren. There are many, probably many
men out there tending some flocks, and many men out in the land
of Shechem, he came to his brethren. He came to his own. Call his name Jesus, for he shall
save his people from their sin. Well, look at it, verse fourteen.
So he sent him, Israel sent Joseph out of the veil of Hebrew. And
he came to she go. Every word. Is significant every
job and to. You know what he brought me to
gain out of the value of the one of that line which I never
heard that before have you heard that use the scripture for the
value of Hebrew. The value of the inner courts
or the a place that's separated from another, a veil of Hebron. Hebron meaning the seat of association,
or the company. And that's a picture of Christ
who left his Father's throne, left the seat where he was seated
with the Father from the beginning, a seat of association. left that
seat, that place of love and peace of his father's house,
the company of the angels and the saints, and he left them. Heaven knows he left that company,
that seat of authority. He left Hebron, came out of the
veil of the Holy of Holies to come down to Shechem. Now, do
you know what Shechem means? Shechem means shoulder. as implying that it was a place
where heavy burdens were to be borne. As a shoulder is a place where
burdens are borne, so Christ came down here, the scripture
says, surely he hath borne our grief and carried our sorrow. Scripture says God hath laid
on him the iniquity of us all, on his broad shoulders. He came
down here and shouldered the blame, didn't he? He came down
here and shouldered the sheep. He came to Shechem, the Shechem,
the place. And Shechem is also, Shechem
is also, if you remember back in chapter 34, is placed, his
name for this fellow named Shechem, who was And all that, and it's slain,
blood was shed, and evil, and wickedness, and malice, and just
a place of sin, sorrow, evil, and bloodshed. That depicts this
earth that Christ came to, doesn't it? Depicts it so well, that
Christ came to visit Shechem, a place of sin, sorrow, evil,
and bloodshed. All right. Verse 15. A certain
man found Joseph. Behold, he was wandering
in a field. He was a wanderer. Joseph came
down. He was a wanderer. He left his
father's home, a place of peace and tranquility. He had a home,
his father's house. He left it and came down here
to be a stranger and a sojourner in this world of wonder. Didn't
he wander through this wilderness called Earth? He said, The Son
of Man hath not where to lay his head. Wandering about. Wandering about. What was he
doing wandering about? Verse seventeen, he says, verse
sixteen, he said, I seek my brethren. I'm on the, I'm seeking the sheep.
I'm seeking my brethren. Verse seventeen, it says, The
man said, They're departed hence. I heard them say, Let's go to
Dothan. And Joseph went after his brethren and found them. He came seeking
his brethren, and he went after them, and he sought them until
he found them. He was given a job by his father,
he said. The father said, Go to my sons.
Go to your brethren. See how they do. Bring me word
again. Go." He said, I'll go. And he
wasn't coming back, Joe, until he got the job done. And isn't
that our Joseph, our Christ who came? He wasn't going to quit
until the work was finished. Such was this Joseph and such
is our Joseph. Joseph went after his brethren
and says he found them. Where'd he find them? Dothan.
Where's that? You know what Dothan means? Get
ready, hang on your seats, as Pharaoh would say, we're going
to jump a creek. Watch it now, he'd say, watch it. Dothan means
law. He found them under the law.
Came to his brother, and in the fullness of time, God sent forth
his son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them
that were under the law. Isn't that beautiful? Christ
came to Dothan to find his brethren who were in bondage to the law. Well, verse 15, he came to his
own. They didn't receive him. Verse
18, I'm sorry. When they saw him afar off, even
before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to
slay him. And Christ, Scripture says, he was a man of sorrows
from his youth up. You know the story of how Herod
conspired against him when he was born. From cradle to grave,
he was conspired against. And I'll not have you turn, but
over in Matthew 12, it says that when Christ first came publicly
as a young man, thirty years old, began his public ministry,
it says that as soon as he started preaching, it says the Pharisees
took counsel how they might slay him. They didn't like him as
soon as they saw him. Before he came near, they conspired
against him to slay him. Now, verse 19, they said one
to another, Behold, this dream art coming. Come now, therefore,
let's slay him and cast him into some pit. And then it talks about
Reuben. Reuben hearing this, and Reuben
seeking to deliver Christ out of their hands and trying to
prevent them from slaying him. And what does Reuben, who does
Reuben represent? I don't know. I don't have the
fault list who he represents. I don't know. So let's go on. I'm sorry, I
don't know. Neither did the Iron Man company.
John Gill didn't know either. Matthew Henry didn't know either.
Arthur Fink didn't say a word about it. So that's the secret
things that belong to the Lord. Now, maybe it might mean the
elder, the old man, will serve the younger. That could mean
that. That sin shall not have dominion
over you, that he's able to subdue all things unto himself, even
the old man, to serve his purpose somehow. I don't know. change
that old Adam into one who's not against God before. All right.
What they said, he's nothing but a dreamer. In verse 19 and
20. He's a dreamer. Let's cast him
into a pit. Now turn over to Matthew 27.
Matthew 27. He's nothing but a dreamer. All
that he said, he made it up. Silly notions in his head. Christ's
brethren. When they came to Christ and
he was preaching one time, that is, his earthly brethren, as
was supposed, the sons of Mary and Joseph, James and Joseph,
and some of them, they said, he's beside himself. Well, he's
beside himself. What's he done? All this talk
about, I came down from heaven. They heard him, Nancy, didn't
they? They heard him. All this, what do you mean you're... Joseph's your daddy? Mary, our
mother? That's your mother? Why, he's
just a dreamer. A little dreamer. He was labeled a dreamer by everyone.
Look at verse 39 and following. It says, When Christ hung on
the cross, they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads,
and saying, Thou that destroyest the temple. They're mocking him.
Or you who said you would destroy the temple and build it in three
days, save yourself if you be the Son of God. Come on down.
Likewise, also the chief priest mocked him and the scribes and
elders. He saved others. Himself he cannot
save if he be the King of Israel. As he said, let him now come
down from the cross. We'll believe him. He trusted
in God. Let him deliver him now if he
will have it. He said, I'm the Son of God.
Dreamer, nothing but a dreamer. Look at verses 63 and 64. When they buried Christ, these
Pharisees came to Pilate and said, Sir, we remember that this
deceiver, this dreamer, said while he was yet alive, after
three days I will rise again. Command therefore that we know
he's just dreaming, but just in case. He's just a dreamer
and there's nothing to this but set a watch over that door. Lest
his disciple come by night and steal him away and say to his
people, he's risen. So the last error shall be worse than the
first. He's just a dreamer. That's what they were saying.
Let's see if his dreams will come true. Now back in the text.
Back to the text, Genesis 37. And you remember they cast him
down into a pit verse thirty seven or verse. Verse twenty
sixty. Verse twenty six. Joseph is sold. Verse twenty six. Judah said
unto his brethren. What profit is it if we slay
our brother. And conceal his blood. Come let's
sell him to the Ishmaelites. You know what the name Judah
is in the Greek? Judas. Isn't that amazing? The very Hebrew
name Judah in the Greek in the New Testament is Judas. Judas
said, let's make some money off of him. Let's sell him. It was Judas' idea. Judah's idea. Judas in the New Testament who
betrayed our Lord for 30 pieces of silver. Here it was 20 pieces. The significance of that I do
not know. Well, verse 23, it says that it came to pass when
Joseph was come, they stripped Joseph out of his coat. They
stripped him out of his coat. Look over Matthew 27 again in
verses 27 and 8 quickly. Matthew twenty-seven, verse twenty-seven,
twenty-eight, the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into
the common hall, gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers,
and they stripped him, put on him a scarlet robe. And over in verse thirty-six
it says, Sitting down they watched him there. Back at the text,
turn back to the text, it says that They cast him into a pit,
verse 25, and they sat down to eat bread and lifted up their
eyes and looked. Sitting down, they watched him
there. It was said of our Lord. And
so did these fellows. They sat down after they'd cast
him into the pit. Joseph was humiliated, and so
was our Lord, stripped naked. Cast into a pit. Joseph appears
to be slain. Appears to be. Joseph appears to be slain. Look
at verse 31. They took Joseph's coat and killed
the kid of the goats. Dipped the coat in the blood.
They sent the coat of many colors and brought it to their father.
Hmm. And they say, and said, This have we found. Is this your
son's coat? Or not? And he knew it, and said,
It's my son's coat. Would you like to carry on some
of it? This is good. This is good. Joseph appears to be slain, but
he's not. But he needs to appear as a lamb
that had been slain. Christ, our scapegoat, was slain. His blood And here's blood. Joseph's blood was presented
to who? Who'd they take the blood to?
The father. The father. To see if the father
would accept it as a son's blood. And it says the father knew.
He said, yep, that's my son's blood. And we are accepted in
the beloved. Huh? We have this coat wrapped
on us like a weasel had those girls Harry garments on him we
have this bloody robe wrapped about us and we come to the father
and the spirit and the law and everything says to the father
is that your son's blood covering that old center and he says yep
that's his blood and he knows us he knows us he accepts us
in the blood he acknowledges the sacrifice the blood he accepts
it as so and though the son's not dead He's not dead. Well, Joseph was cast into a
pit. I said that in verse 24 and 25. They cast him into a
pit where there was no water. He had nothing to drink. Huh. Joseph got thirsty down there.
Huh. Huh. He may have asked for water.
It doesn't say he did, but he may have. Brethren, just a drink. I thirst. No water in it. Isn't that marvelous? Well, he was cast into a pit,
and I believe this is typical of Christ being buried. Christ said, as Jonah was three
days and three nights in the belly of the whale, in the pit
of the earth, even so shall the Son of Man be three days and
three nights in the heart of the earth. Verse 28. They passed by Midianites, merchantmen,
and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit. Joseph's not
dead. He's alive. And he came out of
that pit. They cast him into the pit, but
Joseph's not dead. He's alive, and he came out of
that pit. And Joseph's going to Egypt.
That's where Joseph's going. He's going to Egypt. And that's
where he's going to live. That's where he's going to live
for a while. What's he going to do there?
Well, eventually he's going to make intercession for his brethren. He's got to live. Why? That they
might live also. He's got to live that they might
live also. He's going to Egypt, where he's
going to live. He's going to make intercession
for his brethren, to Pharaoh. the ruler, and later on he's
going to reveal himself to those brethren as the king that they
had slain, as it had been slain. And that's what the angel said
to, you know, Ruby. The story goes that Reuben came
back and found him and said, well, he's not here. He's not
here. Well, that's what the angel said.
Why do you seek the dead among the living? He's not here. He's
not here. He's risen, as he said. He's no dreamer. He said he would. That temple he was talking about,
destroyed. He's destroyed this temple, he
said. I'll raise it again three days.
What temple is that? His body. He said, kill this
body. After that, there's no more you
can do. But I can. I'll raise it again. And he won't
touch it again, this body. Why seek ye the dead among the
living? He's not here. He's risen, as he said. He's
on the throne, as he said. Every knee shall bow, as he says. Because he lives, you shall live,
as he says. He will receive his brethren.
He said he went to prepare a place for them, that where he is, they
might be also. And he'll come again to receive
them unto himself, as he said. And it could have
been said to those brethren, the last time you saw him, he
was meek and lowly and in a pit. The next time you see him, he'll
be seated on a throne, reigning and ruling over all. And he'll reveal himself to you.
I'm Joseph. I can't wait to get to that.
I can't wait. We got time? We will. We will. All right, stand with
me and I'll dismiss it. Our Lord God, how we thank you
for this glorious book. The word of the living God. There's
no doubt in our minds. Right now there's no doubt. We
thank you for it, Lord. We glory in it. We marvel in
it. We admire and Stand in amazement and wonder at your marvelous
hand in all of this, the life of Joseph, he who portrayed our
Lord Jesus Christ, our Joseph, who has gone into Egypt, gone
into heaven itself, there to appear before the Father on high
for us, he who is in charge of the storehouses to whom we shall
go. someday and he'll open those
storehouses to us. And Lord, we thank you for the
sacks of food you've given us now. You've given us sacks. You've filled our sacks with
food. And more than that, you've loaded our wagons. And we want
to come back again and again and again to feast at your granaries,
at your Word, on this Joseph, this type of the Son of God. ever lives for us. Thank you,
Lord, for revealing it to us. We are a blessed people indeed.
We are an elect people indeed. You revealed these truths unto
us and unto our children. How we thank you, Lord. You hid
them from the wise and prudent and revealed them unto us. Let
us never take them for granted, but never let us lose our amazement
of them until we meet again at the Lord's Day. Go with us. Bless us with your favor and
your presence. In Christ's name, amen.
Paul Mahan
About Paul Mahan
Paul Mahan has been pastor of Central Baptist Church in Rocky Mount, Virginia since 1989; preaching the Gospel of God's Sovereign Grace.
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