Now we come to the story of Joseph. I believe probably every child
who's ever been to a Bible school or gone through Sunday school
class any amount of time knows the story of Joseph. Joseph,
no doubt, is probably the strongest type of Christ that there is
in the book of Genesis. From this page, from chapter
37 on to chapter 50, except for one chapter, is taken up with
Joseph. And Joseph is a very eminent
type of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me just briefly give you
a few comparisons. And then, of course, the next
few weeks we will look at him more closely. Joseph, well, first
of all, it says that Jacob loved him because he was the son of
his old age. And I thought of the Lord Jesus
Christ He is the Son of the Ancient of Days. He is the eternal Son
of God. Then Joseph was the favorite
of his father. It says his father loved him. And we'll see a little bit over
in John chapter 5, the father loveth the son and showeth him
all things that he himself doeth. Joseph was hated by his brethren.
He came unto his own and his own received him not. When they
saw Joseph afar off, they hated him. When Christ came to his
own, his own mercy did not. They hated him. The scripture
says they hated the Lord Jesus Christ without a cause. They
hated him for his words, just like they did Joseph. They were
envious and they hated him because of his dreams and because of
the words he spoke. He spoke the truth. God gave
him those dreams of revelations. And all he gave was what God
gave him. And they hated him for it. They hated him for it. Because they, being older than
he, was not going to bow down to him. So they fought. So they fought. Then Joseph was
sold for, it says, twenty pieces of silver. Our Lord was sold
for silver. Judas sold him out for silver.
Thirty pieces. And then Joseph did not yield to temptation.
We will see this as we go along. Remember Potiphar's wife? How
she tempted him time after time after time. And he never did
give in. He never yielded to temptation.
There's something that I never noticed until I was studying
it today. You'll see from chapter 37 to
chapter 50, not one time, And I read through all of the
verses, all the chapters. You know that not one time any
sin is ever mentioned about Joseph? Christ. But you know why? Christ
knew no sin. I'm not saying Joseph was without
sin, but it never points it out. Because he's a representative
of the Lord Jesus Christ who knew no sin. Never saw that before.
And then Joseph, Joseph was lied on. That woman,
Potiphar's wife, said, he tried to take me. She said he was here,
she had his garment, and she lied and went to prison for it.
Our Lord was lied on. I thought this was something,
too. We are about to, in Matthew, where we are at in Matthew, we
are ready to go through the part of our Lord being betrayed going
into judgment. And here we are in Genesis with
a type of Christ, Joseph, going through the same thing. The relationship
is going to be so close to the next few weeks. And then Joseph
suffered for sin. He didn't commit. He was put
into prison for sins he did not do. He didn't do a thing personally,
he did not do a thing personally to be cast into prison. Neither
did our Lord. Our Lord being a substitute for
His people, our sins were laid on Him. He suffered for our sins.
And then Joseph came out of prison and became the greatest in the
land. He became the greatest in the
land. Pharaoh said, you want anything from me? You go to Joseph. Boy, is that not a type of Christ?
If you want mercy? If you want grace, if you want
cleansing, forgiveness, go to Christ. Go to Christ. There it is. All blessings are
channeled through Him. All of them. Now, verse 1 starts
out with Jacob. Jacob dwelling in the land wherein,
it says, his father was a stranger. That is the land of Canaan. He
never became a citizen of that land. God said, I'm going to
give you Abraham, and then to Isaac, and then to Jacob. He
said, I'm going to give you this land. But you know they never
possessed a foot of it. They never built a house. They
were strangers in the land of promise. But the sense is this. He dwelt safely and peacefully. You remember when he was down
in Shechem? Of the trouble that was there? He said to his sons,
you've made me to stink among the inhabitants of the Shechemites,
and they're going to kill us. And then when he was with Laban
and all the trouble he had with Laban, Laban changing his wages
ten times. But here, he comes back to Bethel.
Back to the house of God where God told him to go to. Go back
to Bethel. And here, for a number of years, he dwells peacefully.
Things are quiet. And he dwells in that land. And
Jacob here, we know, is special. Jacob have I loved. Jacob was
special to God. Jacob have I loved. You know
what it says in Psalm 145? Happy is he that hath the God
of Jacob for his help. Sometimes you take your concordance
and you look up God of Jacob. He's called by that name more
than any name throughout the Scriptures. God of Jacob. I had a list of them down, but
it was too long to read. But in Numbers 23-21 it says
this. He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob. Now, the last few weeks,
we have seen what a rascal Jacob was. What a mess his family became. But it says in Numbers 23, 21,
He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob. Neither hath he seen perverseness
in Israel. Oh, the God of Jacob. Listen
to Psalm 24, verse 6. This is the generation of them
that's... Now listen to this. Let's turn over to it. I want
you to read it. I've got it written down, but turn over to it. Because
God is called Jacob. Here in Psalm 24. In Psalm 24,
verse 6. This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek
thy face, O Jacob." Of course, over in the margin it says, O
God of Jacob. But he calls himself there. He says, them that seek
thy face, O Jacob. Boy, he identified himself with
Jacob more than anyone else. Jacob was special to him. He
was special. And notice it says, these are
the generations of Jacob. Now, something interesting here,
I think. I did not go back and read chapter 36. I skipped over
that. If you want to try to pronounce
all those names, go ahead. But chapter 36 has a lot of hard
pronunciations. And all it is in verse 1, now
these are the generations of Esau who is Edom. Now chapter
36 is spent of all these descendants of Esau, and it says, Look down
at verse 16 and verse 15. These were the Dukes. These were somebody. These men
accomplished some things, earthly men, earthly things. These were
the Dukes of the sons of Esau, the sons of Eliphaz, the firstborn
son of Esau, Duke Teman, Duke Omard, and Duke Zepho, and Duke
Kenaz, Duke Korah, and it goes on, Duke, Duke, Duke. All those
important men. But when it comes to Jacob, he
said, these are the generations, plural, of Jacob. But it only
mentions one name. Joseph. Joseph. You notice he goes over in chapter
36 and you've got this whole list of dukes and all these important
people. Then he comes to this little
tribe of Jacob. And he said, these are the generations
of Jacob. And then notice what it says.
Joseph. Joseph. You see, Joseph is a
type of Christ. And the Father sees the whole
generation host of heaven in one person. Christ. Christ. He sees us all in Christ. We don't have all these individual
names out here. We have one name. Christ. And He sees all His hosts,
all His children, All the heavenly host is seen in one person. The Lord Jesus Christ. Joseph. He said generations. You expect
a list of names. You know, it's plural. But you
only see one name. Joseph. The generations of heaven
is bound up in one man. The man Christ Jesus. And then
it says in verse 3, Israel loved Joseph more than all his children. He's the son of his old age.
And he made him a coat of many colors. Jacob made it very evident. He
made it very evident. This is my son, Jacob. Born from his wife that he loved,
Rachel. It was his special son. And he
made no bones about it. In fact, Jacob did something
for Joseph that he did not do for his other sons. He made him
a distinct garment. A coat of many colors. And in
that day, this coat meant royalty. Royalty, that's what it meant.
He's saying, this is the heir. This is the heir. This is the
one, the blessing is going to come through. This is Joseph.
This is my son. And he made it very evident.
The Heavenly Father has made it very clear that he loves his
son, the Lord Jesus Christ. This is my beloved son. Hear him. This is my beloved
son in whom I am well pleased. Did he ever say that about anybody
else? Can you go through the whole
Word of God and find out where God spoke from Heaven and said,
this is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased? That's the
only one. That's the only one. The Heavenly
Father made it very clear that He loves His Son. It says in
John 5.20, the Father loveth the Son. Let's look over there. Gospel of John. In verse 19, he says, Then answered
Jesus, and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son
can do nothing of himself. They do not act independently.
But what he seeth the Father do, for what things wherever
he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Father
loveth the Son, and showeth him, reveals to him all things that
himself doeth, and he will show him greater works than these
that you may marvel. And it goes on down, it says,
for as the Father raises up the dead and quickeneth them, even
so the Son quickeneth whom He will. It's evident that the Father
loves the Son. Well, what about me? Does God love me? Now, listen. He loves the Son, and He loves
everyone that is connected to His Son. It has to do with our
union to the Lord Jesus Christ. If I am a part of His body, I
am loved of God. I have the same love that God
loves Christ with. He loves me with the same love
if I'm joined to Him. If I'm a part of Him. He said,
I am divine. You are the branches. And outside of that, now I'm
telling you, outside of that, The love of God is not. Outside
of Christ, outside of the ark, was there any love? It was inside
that ark. It was with those in the ark.
And that ark, you know, represented Christ. God loves those who are
in Christ. And then he gave him this coat
of many colors, which I said represented royalty. Royalty. distinguishing him from all others.
Jesus Christ is the King of kings and Lord of lords. This is the
Son. This is the heir. This is the
heir of all things. The Lord Jesus Christ. And Joseph's
brethren, in verse 4, his brethren hated him because their fathers
loved to him. They were jealous. Envious, now
listen, it would be wise as parents not to show partiality one to
another because you're going to have family problems over
it. But now here, it's evident that the father loves the son.
And listen, his children don't have any problem with it. Do
you have any problem with the father loving the son? Because
I know this, in Him, I'm loved the same. I'm loved the same. But His brethren hated Him for
it. They hated it because His Father loved Him. And they wouldn't
speak a kind word to Him. They wouldn't say, Shalom. You
see, when they would meet each other in that day, they would
say, Shalom. Peace. And if they didn't speak it to
you, you can be sure they had something in for you. And they
would not speak a kind word to Joseph. Now, how would you like
to live in that house? Well, he did. And all the time
he lived in it, he kept his character. Just as our Lord. Growing up. Growing up. Can you imagine growing
up with all those other brothers and sisters? That's just like
me and you. Yet he knew no sin. Not when he was a child, not
when he was a teenager, not when he was a man. He knew no sin. Our Lord was hated by His brethren. When He came unto His own, He
said His own received Him not. They hated Christ for His message.
They hated Him for the words that He spoke. They hated Him
for it. He was hated, the Scripture says, without a cause. Just like
Joseph. They had no reason to hate Joseph.
Joseph didn't do anything to them. Not at all. But here's another reason they
hated Joseph. I want you to get this. Let me go back here and
let me find this place. In verse 2. These are the generations
of Jacob. Joseph, being 17 years old, was
feeding the flock with his brethren. And the lad was with the sons
of Bilhah and with the sons of Zilphah, his father's wives.
And Joseph brought unto his father their evil report. Now it doesn't say what they
did, but it does say Joseph told on them. Joseph came back home and he
told Jacob whatever it was that they had done, whatever evil
it was they were in, he told on them. He told on them. And here's what they hated. Here's
what they hated. He had a superior, and this is the best
way I can put it, a superior moral character about him than
they did. He didn't hide their evil. He
came back to his father and exposed it. He came back and exposed
it. And they hated him for that.
They hated him for that. Joseph told his father of their
evil deeds. He didn't hide it. You know,
our Lord did not come to hide our sins. He came to put them
away. He came to put them away, not hide them. Christ said this in John chapter
7, verse 7. The world cannot hate you, but
me it hateth, listen, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil. That's why they hate me. That's
why they hated Joseph. He went home and he testified
to his father My brother's works are evil." And they hated him
for it. Well, Joseph dreams a dream.
He dreams a dream. It's a revelation from God. God
gives him a revelation. He being a type of Christ. And
in this, all his brethren are going to bow to him. They're
going to bow to him. And when he tells them this dream,
They hate him, he says, even more. And they say, shalt thou
indeed have dominion over us? Who else said that? Did not the
Jews say, we will not have this man to reign over us? Man, what
a parallel. What a parallel. They said, shalt
you reign over us? You're seventeen years old. You're
just a lad. You don't know anything. You're
wet behind the ears. And you are going to want rain over us? You know when he started to rain
over them, you know how old he was? 30 years old. The same time our
Lord entered in on His ministry. He was 30 years old. And then
he dreams another dream. In verses 9 through 11. And he
dreams of the sun and the stars And the sun, the moon, and the
stars all bowing to him. And then his father says, and
of course, Rachel is dead at this time, but he says, you think
me and your mother and our brethren are going to do this? But Jacob
thought, I better think about this one. There's something to
this. Jacob started realizing there's
something to this. But his brethren hated him to mourn. But here's
what this shows. Christ shall have every knee bow to
Him. The Scripture says every knee shall bow, every tongue
shall confess that He is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Everyone is going to bow to the Lord Jesus Christ. But it also
shows this, that He is the Sovereign of heaven and earth. He has all
rule. All power, all authority given
to Him in heaven and earth. It's all His. It's all His. Then it says, Joseph, his brethren
envied Him for it. They envied Him. They envied
Him. The Father sends His Son now. But over in the Scriptures, I
wrote it down I wrote down a little piece of paper and threw it away.
But the Jews over in Matthew, it says, for envy they delivered
him. For envy they delivered him.
And they delivered him to the Romans. Just like they deliver
him to the Medianites and get him out of town. So his blood
won't be on our hands. Murder in the heart is just the
same. It's the same. You know, the Jews, they did
not and would not kill Christ, they say it's just not lawful
for us to do that. So what do they do? They turn Him over to the Romans.
They say, you kill Him. Thinking that's going to make
them innocent of His blood. But Paul says over there, he
says, you have by wicked hands, Peter says, you have by wicked
hands slain the Lord of glory. You did it. You did it. Well,
here the Father now, listen, verses 12 through 17, and I'll
wind this down. The Father sends the Son His
favorite son. His only begotten son. The one he really loved. The heir. He sends his son to
seek his brethren. It says Christ came to his own.
When he came into this world, he came to the Jews first. He
came to them first. And he was sent to his brethren.
And he was sent to find him. And they were out in the wilderness.
Oh my, Christ was sent by the Father into this world to seek
the sheep. He said, I'm not sent but to
the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He came to seek his sheep. But like Joseph, when he came
to his own, his own received him not. When they saw Joseph
afar off, They said, here's that dreamer. Here comes that dreamer.
We'll show him what kind of dream he is. We'll show him who's the
ruler. We'll show him who's going to
bow. And they threw him in that pit.
And I believe it's over two or three more chapters, you'll find
out that Joseph is actually begging them not to do it. And they just
paid no attention to him. Threw him in the pit. It says,
wherein is no water, no comfort, nothing there to comfort him,
nothing but a pit. And they were going to let him
die in that pit. This is providential because
God's not through with him yet. He's going to be on the throne.
Who in the world could even conceive that this 17-year-old kid who
was a shepherd keeping the sheep is going to be the highest man
at that time on the earth beside Pharaoh? That was the highest
guy you can get on this earth. Right there beside Pharaoh. Who
would have thought that? God. God. So the father sends his son,
and when they see him, they plot against him. They plot against
him. How many times did the Jews plot against Christ to kill him,
take his life? His death was plotted just as
Joseph's death was plotted by his brethren. And they treated
him like a criminal. Treated him like a criminal.
He didn't do anything to them, but good. And they stripped him
of his coat. Took off that coat that so distinguished
him. And you know how this parallels
to Christ. When they stripped him of his
robe, standing there in the hall, they mocked him. And they stripped
him naked. Well, the parallel is so striking,
isn't it? And then they sold him for 20 pieces of silver. Christ was sold for 30 pieces
of silver, but they both sold for silver. And then they went home. And this shows you how depraved
we are by nature unless God does something for us. They go home. First they take his coat and
they dip it in blood. They dip it in blood. They kill
a kid. Blood is shed. And they dip his coat of many
colors. No doubt they probably shredded
it, cut it up, made it look like he was eaten up by an animal.
And they dip the coat in the blood. I think of that verse that says,
who is this that cometh out of Edom with his vesture dipped
in blood? Christ. That's who it is. Christ. And they sent the coat of many
collars and they brought it to their father. And they said,
this have we found. Now, is it your son's coat or
not? Is it his? And he said, it's his. It's my
son. An evil beast has devoured him.
Joseph, without doubt, is rent in pieces. Jacob ran his clothes
and put sackcloth upon his loins. My, what a trial. This man had
some real trials, didn't he? You would have thought after
he came back to Bethel and Deborah died, then shortly after that,
Rachel died, and you would have thought that that would have
been the end of his worst trials. But then this one, in his old
age, And his sons, his sons watching
him go through that unbelievable grief, knowing what they did. And yet, they didn't say a word.
That's human depravity. That's how depraved men and women
are by nature. Well, the next time we'll pick
up Well, we'll pick up in chapter 38. That's the chapter that deals
with Judah. And then we'll go back and pick
up Joseph. And we'll complete the type as he represents the
Lord Jesus Christ. The title of the message was
The Father Loveth the Son. The Father Loveth the Son. Jacob
loved Joseph. He loved Joseph. He made it known. There was no bones about it.
He made him a coat of distinction. Put royalty upon him. Sent him
to check on his brothers to see if everything's alright. Sent
him down to that wilderness, down to Shechem. The Shechemites, they were not
on friendly terms with Jacob because when they left town,
they was in some bad blood between them. But He sent His Son into
that place. His beloved Son. Just as God
the Father sent His Son into this world to save a multitude
of sinners and bring them home. To save, as He says in the end
of Genesis, to save much people alive. Much people alive. Okay, Cecil.