THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST (7)
[p. 126] THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST (7)
Genesis 39:19 - 23; Genesis 49:22 - 24; Exodus 2:11 - 15
JT In our consideration when last together of the sufferings of Christ, as seen in Joseph in Genesis 37, we noticed that he was loved of his father and distinguished by a vest of many colours, and because of this he became the object of the resentment of his brethren, he is a type of Christ as loved of the Father, and hated “without a cause”. Then because of the light that Joseph had through his dreams, he was further persecuted by his brethren. These features of the subject that we have had before us amplify what is said in the New Testament as to Christ and the apostles, and have a bearing on ourselves as beloved of God, as is said of the Thessalonians, (chapter 1:4). If they speak the truth fearlessly, Christians come into persecution because of their relation with God and because of the light they have.
We may be helped on this occasion in seeing that Jehovah is said to be with Joseph as in prison. Man is against us and does his utmost to carry out his evil intention, and we may have certain of our brethren against us; but Jehovah was with Joseph, which is a very significant fact. I think it is alluded to four times in the chapter. God’s presence with us, whatever the outward appearances, settles everything. He made Joseph prosperous. Whatever his hand touched, prospered. Those who are true to the light are also prospered of God in spiritual things. He honours them in that way. Faithfulness brings us into the position of suffering, for it is said of Joseph: “They afflicted his feet with fetters; his soul came into irons”, (Psalm 105:18). But God was with him.
ANW The Psalm from which you quoted goes on to say, “Until the time when what he said came [p. 127] about: the word of Jehovah tried him”, (Psalm 105:19). How does that fit in?
JT It would mean the government of God in these circumstances. He turned them into blessing. The word of God tried him; “word” here refers to some specific divine saying, testing him for his good. He would be questioning why he was in prison. “Until the time when what he said came about”, would refer to the fulfilment of his dreams. Under God’s ordering, prophetic truth occurs with perfect accuracy. In the meantime the discipline of love goes on, so that we may be fitted for our place according to God’s counsels.
CAM That would be a sort of proof that God was with him, inasmuch as he could hold out.
JT Yes; many of us suffer under the government of God other than by His word. To be tried by the word of God involves spirituality on the part of those tried. Joseph was not overcome by the trial; he was buoyant and so able to help others with him in prison.
AFM Which is figurative of death in Joseph’s case — his being in the pit or in the prison house?
JT I think the pit. There was no water in it; had there been water, it would suggest that it was death as penalty, like the death of the Lord on the cross. But it was more to show the attitude of his brethren towards him. It is said of the remnant in Zechariah that they were “prisoners of hope”. They were in a “pit wherein is no water” (Zechariah 9:11,12); that is, the pit was not penal. It was not like the lake of fire; they come out of it.
AFM His brethren purposed to slay him; that would connect with the pit.
JT That was the testimony they brought to his father. They said he had been slain, and that was the understanding Jacob had.
JS The report of Joseph’s death was carried through to his father.
JT That is how the matter stood publicly. Jacob accepted the false report of his sons and mourned for Joseph “many days”.
JS The persecution here in chapter 39 is because of his faithfulness.
JT Yes; and what comes out before this attack is that he is prospered, even as a slave. I think it is to show that the greatest limitations do not hinder faith from operating, or hinder God from supporting faith. We may chafe under the limitation, but limitations in themselves do not hinder spiritual prosperity. They rather add to it where faith is active.
WGT The prosperity did not turn him aside.
JT No. He was sober in his circumstances, although he had emerged practically from slavery into governorship over Potiphar’s house. This passage shows how God can promote us in spite of external limitations.
CAM Is Satan able to use such prosperity? Do you read that into the snare laid for Joseph here?
JT Yes, but there is no evidence that it succeeded. Hardly anything is mentioned save the prosperity. That is what is stressed in the early part of the chapter, and I think the object of this is to show that however limited our circumstances may be outwardly — if God is with us, we shall be prospered. That is the lesson for us. A brother may say, I have a hard job; I have to work early and late, and it is difficult to get to the meetings; I could get on better if I were not so limited. The truth is that, generally speaking, the limitations that I chafe under are intended to help me. As I accept this, God is with me, and I shall prosper.
JHE Would Paul be an example of this? He says, “I would to God, both in little and in much,
[p. 129] that not only thou, but all who have heard me this day, should become such as I also am, except these bonds”, (Acts 26:29).
JT He was greatly limited outwardly, but morally greater than Agrippa. We get the greatest teaching from Paul while he was in prison.
FHL If the pit was a step towards the prison, was not the position in Potiphar’s house a step towards supreme rulership?
JT It was preparatory to it. The prison was, of course, a trial, but this was in view of the great service for which Joseph was destined.
AFM Both Potiphar’s house and the prison house were most testing.
JT Yes, and he prospered in both. The lesson for us is that in certain circumstances we are apt to chafe, saying, The demands made upon us are too irksome, while others are in easier circumstances and can devote themselves freely to the things of God, and we cannot. But God can overrule the most adverse circumstances and make us prosperous in spite of limitations — more prosperous even than those who are in easy positions.
AP What is the difference between Joseph suffering at the hands of his brethren and suffering in the prison? What does the first refer to?
JT The first refers to the persecution Christ received at the hands of the Jews. That is typically what it meant. But it is what any of us may receive at the hands of our brethren now. The Scriptures always bear on the present time.
WFK In the second instance, is Joseph a type of the Lord Jesus being falsely accused?
JT Yes; the first is the treatment he received at the hands of the Jews out of envy. Pilate knew they delivered Him up because of envy, but there was also false accusation. The Lord was immaculate; He was absolutely free, being always apart from sin.
“[p. 130] Which of you convinces me of sin?” He asked (John 8:46). Nevertheless He was accused most grievously.
ARS What do you make of the fact that while the Jews rejected Christ and finally crucified Him they never put Him in prison? He was not imprisoned like John the baptist or like Joseph here.
JT That was all divinely ordered; every effort to take Him was frustrated until His “hour” came. Everything with regard to Christ was necessarily ordered in the most minute way — even His burial; but, nevertheless, it is said, “He was taken from prison and from judgment”, (Isaiah 53:8). The word “prison” in the Authorised Version may not be correct, but the thought is there. He was limited in that sense. He was a Prisoner, even if only for a day.
JS The moment the band led Him away, He was their Prisoner.
WB-w Would Potiphar’s wife represent false accusation?
JT Yes, and this is nowhere seen more than at the judgment seat of Pilate and in the house of the high priest.
WB-w Why is Judah’s misconduct mentioned in chapter 38?
JT To expose the state of Israel seen in Judah, who represented the leading tribe. It comes between the apprehension and selling of Joseph, and his imprisonment in Egypt. It is typically the low moral state of the Jews at the time when Christ was crucified.
JS What element would Potiphar’s wife represent?
JT Remorseless false accusation. It is the spirit of false accusation in one of no integrity; a terrible thing to deal with because conscience is given up.
AP She was [p. 131] quite unscrupulous.
JT Quite; the Jews were utterly unscrupulous in the way that they accused the Lord.
JS That comes to light after the Spirit of God brings out the traits of Christ typically in Joseph.
JT Quite; he kept himself. “Every one begotten of God does not sin, but he that has been begotten of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him”, (1 John 5:18).
JS After the account of his prosperity in Potiphar’s house, the passage says, “And Joseph was of a beautiful form and of a beautiful countenance”, (Genesis 39:6). Then we have the attack of Potiphar’s wife.
CAM I wondered whether it was in that way that Satan was able to get so near to Joseph. Paul warns not only of the reproach of the devil, but of the snare of the devil; compare 1 Timothy 3:7.
JT Just so. If a brother is promoted, he is the more exposed. Joseph, being true, had the power to keep himself.
JS As promoted, one becomes a more distinctive target for Satan.
ANW I wondered what took place in the Lord’s life that would correspond with Joseph’s soul coming into irons?
JT I think the pressure of Gethsemane. That was the supreme test to Christ, when Satan came back to Him with all his force. I suppose that was what Joseph typified when the word of Jehovah tried him. “The word of Jehovah” governed Christ in Gethsemane. “Lo, I come (in the roll of the book it is written of me) to do, O God, thy will”, (Hebrews 10:7). He had taken up that position. Now He says, “not my will, but thine be done”, (Luke 22:42).
JS So He tastes death in His spirit in Gethsemane, but not the article of death, yet.
AP Would you even extend it on to His being held by Pilate? “Pilate therefore says to him,
[p. 132] Speakest thou not to me? Dost thou not know that I have authority to release thee?” (John 19:10).
JT The imprisonment is from the time He was apprehended until He died. Even in death He was held, but He came out of it in glorious liberty.
JS “The bars of the earth closed upon me for ever”, (Jonah 2:6).
ANW His soul being in irons is a strong term, and would show that it is typical of Gethsemane.
JT “My soul is very sorrowful even unto death”, (Matthew 26:38).
WGT “The word of Jehovah” would date back to the dreams that he had.
JT Instead of the sun, moon, stars, and sheaves bowing down to him, he is now a prisoner. How trying that was!
CAM It seems a very affecting thing that the One who came to bring the captive to the end of his sorrows, had to feel all those sorrows Himself.
JT That is very affecting because it brings out the moral qualification of Christ to preach. “Christ indeed has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God; being put to death in flesh, but made alive in the Spirit, in which also going he preached to the spirits which are in prison, heretofore disobedient, when the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noe” (1 Peter 3:18 - 20); that is, the Sufferer is the Preacher. The Lord’s suffering is suggested in the smiting of one of the sons of the prophets who witnessed to Ahab. He was wounded violently before he spoke to Ahab, see 1 Kings 20. The Lord went through all that those in prison have to go through, and knows what it means more than any of us; so Jonah, the great preacher of the Old Testament, typically, went down to the bottom of the mountains, and was vomited up, and went to preach to Nineveh.
APT The butler and the baker offended [p. 133] the king; whereas, there was no offence with Joseph.
JT In that fact he is also a type of Christ. What comes out emphasises what is possible in the limitations of a prison. Instead of pining there and giving up as John the baptist did, Joseph was superior and ready to help others. John said to the Lord, “Art thou the coming one? or are we to wait for another?” (Matthew 11:3). How could he preach Christ in that prison?
JS He had no converts in that situation, so different from Paul and Silas. They were in prison with their feet fast in the stocks, but they preached, and the jailor was converted.
JT Look at the Lord Jesus; as we were saying, He was in prison from the time of His arrest. He spoke the truth to Pilate, to Caiaphas, and to the thief on the cross; He converted the latter and that day he was with Him in Paradise. That is the idea. It is what one may do in prison; but John the baptist could do nothing while in unbelief. With Paul and Silas it is faith working through love in suffering and limitation.
FHL With John in Patmos there was much for God.
JT See what he did there! That is another excellent example. You get it constantly through the Scriptures. Take the three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. See what happened in the fiery furnace!
ANW How interesting that the first male convert in Europe should have been a prison keeper!
AFM It is remarkable that through Joseph, in those prison conditions, the question of good and evil was to a large extent solved; that is, in the butler and the baker. Then it comes out later with regard to Pharaoh’s two dreams — the seven years of good, and the seven years of evil.
JT Also out of this prison the thought of the cup is developed. Pharaoh’s cup is the introduction in Genesis of an idea; that thought runs right through Scripture and enters into the Lord’s supper. Joseph was where the king’s prisoners were kept. I apprehend they were not ordinary prisoners, but represent Christians who are under the discipline of God. It is a remarkable kind of position, and Joseph immediately gained favour with “the chief of the tower-house”, and is at once promoted. It was not a very rigorous prison. I doubt not that Christians of any spiritual account have experienced that prison, or what corresponds with it now.
JS Is that how the apostle Paul would regard himself — “I, the prisoner in the Lord, exhort you”, (Ephesians 4:1).
JT That is right. He was one of the king’s prisoners. First, he was “prisoner of the Christ Jesus”, (Ephesians 3:1). He was not merely a prisoner of Caesar, although he had appealed to Caesar. Then he was “prisoner in the Lord”, (chapter 4:1). It worked out thus. The Lord was keeping him in prison for Himself and for the saints.
JS Because of the testimony.
JT Quite so; we have the greatest things coming forth from that prison; the epistles to the Philippians, Ephesians, Colossians, and 2 Timothy are examples of this.
WFK Joseph said to the butler, “Only bear a remembrance with thee of me when it goes well with thee, and deal kindly, I pray thee, with me”, (verse 14). How do you apply that to Christ?
JT That applies to you when you are in prison. The Lord requests that when you are released you might think of Him. He would impress you with the fact that He has been there too. This prison in Egypt is a remarkable place; the king’s prisoners are confined there, and Joseph was promoted there and everyone is under his hand. Then the cup- [p. 135] bearer and the baker of the king are put in custody there; and what comes to light is a dream of a vine and the king’s cup; and further, a dream of bread and all manner of victuals for Pharaoh that the baker makes. It is what you might speak of as the bread and the cup. The butler is released and the baker is hanged. All that is very searching, because it comes to light in the prison; in the place of testing I find that I have not been ministering to Pharaoh, that the things I made were of my head, and exposed, so that Satan came and took them away.
CAM That is very striking. Will you say more about that? Paul and Silas at Philippi did not have the truth merely in their heads, but in their hearts, and the atmosphere of liberty came into the prison.
JT In prayer, they sang praises to God. The king’s prison, I think, discloses where we are in our service; we must look at Pharaoh here as supreme, and as typical of God Himself. But what have I ministered to Him? Is it a head matter or a heart matter? That is the question for our consciences.
JS It will not do if what is presented is a mere mental thing. We must have our minds controlled by our hearts.
JT That is the thought. According to his dream, the butler pressed the grapes into Pharaoh’s cup, and hence he is restored.
AFM What the butler gave to Pharaoh, having pressed the grapes into Pharaoh’s cup, would be fresh.
JT That is very important. The Lord’s supper is not stale; what is celebrated in Christendom is stale — the same forms and words are used today that were in use three hundred years ago; whereas freshness should mark every celebration of the Lord’s supper. The grapes are, as it were, pressed into the cup as the saints are rightly in assembly.
WGT Why is the bread not presented?
JT The bread in the Lord’s supper represents Christ’s body in which the will of God was effected. The baker did not answer to this. What marked Christ as Man was the doing of the will of God. He says, “thou hast prepared me a body ... Lo, I come ... to do, O God, thy will”. (Hebrews 10:5,7) Romans is the great epistle for young Christians to become grounded in; it results in: “I myself with the mind serve God’s law”, (Romans 7:25). That is a fundamental element in the soul with a view to functioning in the assembly.
AR I notice with regard to the vine here, there is development until you get the ripened grapes. Might it suggest what is seen in the Lord Jesus?
JT Yes. He is “the true vine”. It is a question of how the truth works out now, spiritually. The cup is the love side. There is the energy of life here “its blossoms shot forth, its clusters ripened into grapes”, (verse 10). Joseph carries forward the thought of the cup afterwards, when he puts his cup into Benjamin’s sack. We have to link this on spiritually, so that Joseph’s cup tested the brethren as to where they were. The one in whose sack it was found had to go back to be tested in Joseph’s presence and be retained by him. This leads to the disclosure of Joseph’s relation to the sons of Israel.
CAM That helps us to understand Joseph’s remark in chapter 44:15. He puts it in the form of a question.
JT Just so. Such a man as he divined.
WB-w Do you look at Joseph from one point of view as a bondman; and then from another as a free man? The latter seen in the liberty in which he was spiritually.
JT He is free as superior to his circumstances. There is the gradual emerging on moral lines until he is ruling Egypt. We have to follow the Spirit’s trend. There is a wonderful opening up of the truth typically in [p. 137] this prison.
AFM Would the three days that are frequently mentioned with regard to these two bondmen refer in any way to the resurrection of Christ? “And it came to pass the third day — Pharaoh’s birthday — that he made a feast to all his bondmen”, (chapter 40:20). It was the third day that the butler’s liberation came into effect.
JT The resurrection of Christ brought release and clarity typically to the butler. The three days would be completed exercise as to what is presented. The hanging of the baker on that day would, I suppose, allude to the judgment of God in the cross on what the baker represents.
AP Does it infer that there was not a work of God in the baker’s soul?
JT I think so. The hanging is a type of God’s condemnation of what is seen in him. His products were not preserved for the king, but taken by the enemy. Abraham had set an example of what God approves in such circumstances. He watched his sacrifice, so that when the birds came he scared them off. That is carefulness as to what you offer to God.
NFP For this a measure of divine formation in our souls is needed.
JT Yes; the things of God are too precious to be exposed to the enemy. “Keep, by the Holy Spirit which dwells in us, the good deposit entrusted”, (2 Timothy 1:14). Keep it by the Holy Spirit. The baker was not doing that typically.
WGT Three baskets would not suggest one loaf.
JT No; it is just the general principle that the kind of humanity suggested is not according to God. General principle also applies.
AP It says in Deuteronomy 28:26, “And thy carcase shall be meat unto all the fowl of the air”, referring to those who disobeyed the voice of Jehovah.
JT Which shows what is meant here. The verse says further, “there shall be no man to scare them away”.
AR The cup would suggest what is circumscribed. The basket is something open. There is a difference, is there not?
JT Open vessels are always exposed. So that in the types, if one dies in the house, the open vessel is rendered unclean; even the wagons that the Levites had for carrying the heavy things of the tabernacle, were covered.
GMacP Would not the butler’s forgetfulness correspond with many believers at the present time?
JT Yes; he was asked by Joseph to remember him, but he did not. Many do not remember the Lord according to His wish, although they owe all to Him; Joseph said, “bear a remembrance with thee of me when it goes well with thee”, (verse 14).
AR The recovery of the butler was in the cup. The recovery for the brethren is in Joseph’s cup. It is a silver cup. Is there something in that?
JT There is; it is a further thought, involving the claims of love. The true brother, the overcomer, is brought to light in Benjamin. It was in Benjamin’s sack that the cup was found, and that brought to light the brethren. They are restored on these lines, and recovery of what is for God today is in relation to the Lord’s supper. It is a test as to whether one loves the Lord. If I love Him, I want to remember Him. The butler forgot Joseph.
CAM This is testimony to what God gets out of prison conditions. At first sight it looked as if the enemy had the advantage, but subsequently we see that God gains immensely out of it.
JT The cup has a great place; even though the butler forgot Joseph, the thought is carried forward in chapter 44, where the cup effects much. It brings Benjamin to light, the true brother. Benjamin had never done anything against Joseph; he is the overcomer,
[p. 139] and the cup is found in his sack, which was an advantage to him, for it led to the brethren coming to light in Judah, and to Joseph making himself known to them. The Lord’s supper is contemplated in this section.
AP Would you say that the greater part of Christendom is represented in the cup-bearer, who had received a measure of light from Joseph but did not go on to the remembrance?
JT Christendom has forgotten Christ; as was said of Moses, “the man that has brought us up out of the land of Egypt — we do not know what is become of him!” (Exodus 32:1).
WGT Many professing Christians have disregarded the covenant. There was, in a sense, a covenant between Joseph and the cup-bearer.
JT If he had been a man with a heart, he would never have forgotten such a benefactor.
ARS Do you mean that Christians today that are not remembering the Lord through His supper have forgotten Him?
JT Yes. It is His appointed way of remembering Him.
AFM As regards the order of the Lord’s supper, whatever instructions are given in the synoptic gospels, they are all put together in what the Lord indicated to Paul from heaven; nothing is left out; as if the full thing should be before us.
JT Yes, that is important to remember. Paul speaks about eating and drinking as well as the memorial. The Lord, in instituting His supper, did not eat and drink of it; He formally separates the Supper in Luke from the passover, of which He had partaken. The eating and drinking is Matthew’s side.
AR In referring to the recovery; do we come to a point where the feelings of the Lord Jesus come into evidence typically? Scripture says, “And Joseph could not control himself before all them that [p. 140] stood by him, and he cried, Put every man out from me!” (chapter 45:1). Would it imply the intimacy of Christ’s relation with His brethren when He said, “Come near to me”, (verse 4)?
JT The Lord’s supper is intended to bring us to that point. That is a collective idea between the Lord and His own. It may be that there are persons in the room that are unconverted, but they cannot enter into the spiritual side.
JHE Is there a spirit of judgment in this king’s prison? The chief of the bakers is taken from it and hanged. The book of Revelation also shows this spirit of judgment.
JT Yes; here it is not only a place of penalty, but of light involving judgment.
FHL Out of this prison came the “Saviour of the world”, which is implied in the name Pharaoh gave to Joseph.
JT Quite so. Now another view of Joseph is his tribal relation. It comes in late in the blessing in chapter 49, but he gets the greatest place. The archers shot at and hated him; he is a fruitful bough by a well; his branches shoot over the wall. He is not a narrow-minded brother; his outlook is wide; he is not stinted, but is by a well, where there is a constant supply of refreshment. Why then should he be shot at? This is another view of Christ and of the saints, too, but as prospered. If the Spirit is recognised, there is fruitfulness, and if fruitful, why should saints in such circumstances be shot at? That is another consideration.
JS Are the Gentiles in view here in connection with the branches going over the wall?
JT That is the principle. It is the largeness of view. We are not narrow in our outlook.
CAM Why should the Lord or the saints be shot at? That seems to be [p. 141] the point.
AFM The more prosperous the saints are, the more they are persecuted.
JT Exactly. It says, “Joseph is a fruitful bough; A fruitful bough by a well; His branches shoot over the wall. The archers have provoked him, And shot at, and hated him; But his bow abideth firm, And the arms of his hands are supple By the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob. From thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel”.
JS Was not the Lord shot at in the fulfilment of this in Luke 4, as He spoke in the synagogue of Nazareth and began to testify of the blessing of God outside of Judaism?
JT Yes. Then they led Him up to the brow of the hill to cast Him down.
CAM I suppose an archer is a distant enemy. People who attack in this way are not near the blessing.
JT Yes, I suppose that is what archery means spiritually. It is a means of attack from a distance.
ANW It is rather remarkable that the combat in Ephesians 6, in which there is wrestling, should also have darts, which suggest a long-distance attack.
JT In warfare generally you have hand-to-hand conflict as well as artillery. Wrestling is a very hand-to-hand matter. Close combat tests us most, but there is the long-distance conflict, too, which is harrowing.
GMacP Would you mind saying a word distinguishing between Joseph being in prison and being a fruitful bough by a well?
JT The position at the well implies [p. 142] the Spirit,
prominent in Genesis. The Lord in Luke 4:18 says, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me”. There He is a fruitful bough by a well. He is serving in the power of the Spirit.
WGT Saul was brought down by the archers at the end of 1 Samuel; whereas David taught the men of Judah the use of the bow.
JT David is a man that learned by experience. Archery was known early; Ishmael was an archer. Jacob also, for he speaks of using his bow against the Amorite (Genesis 48:22), and here in chapter 49:24 it is said that Joseph’s “bow abideth firm”. Ishmael would attack the fruitful bough by a well; as born after the flesh, he persecuted him that was born after the Spirit.
ANW Joseph has his own bow, and it abode in strength, and he was victorious.
JT God is never at a disadvantage. The enemy can never outdo Him in weapons or in any strategy of war, and He always chooses His own battlefield and weapons.
RDG Is it not remarkable that Joseph is outstandingly superior, whether in his father’s house, in Potiphar’s house, in prison, or in Pharaoh’s house?
JT Very true. Writing also has the character of a long-distance weapon. It was evidently present in the world before God used it; but He can take all man’s weapons and turn them against him. The first record of writing we get in Scripture, as far as one knows, is in Exodus 17, which is written for young Christians specially; on the occasion of the battle of Rephidim. The account of the battle was to be written in the book, and rehearsed in the ears of Joshua. Then later God wrote on the tables of stone, which had a widespread effect. The law convicted men everywhere. Writing, today is a long-distance weapon, and the Scriptures are a weapon in a very special way.
JS [p. 143] The word of God is said to be quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword.
AR In hand-to-hand combat you have no difficulty in knowing where the enemy is. In long-distance warfare there is often difficulty in locating him.
JT That is right. But the arrow “at a venture” reached Ahab. That is divine archery; the word of God does not return void to Him; it always reaches its object.
AFM Two thoughts would be found here: “But his bow abideth firm, And the arms of his hand are supple By the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob”. The bow is held in the hand and needs strength to keep it firm, but accuracy of aim is also needed.
JT Quite so; the suppleness would imply dexterity in handling the weapon, supported by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob.
CAM It is remarkable about Ahab, because as far as the archer was concerned, the bow was shot at a venture, but God directed the arrow accurately.
JT That is the ground you take in preaching the gospel. You do not know what is going on in the hearts of your hearers, but God knows.
Rem Here it says Joseph was shot at. It does not say that he was hit. Of the assembly, it says that “hades’ gates shall not prevail against it”, (Matthew 16:18).
JT They took the Lord out to the brow of the hill to cast Him down, but they did not do it. “He, passing through the midst of them, went his way”, (Luke 4:30).
FHL This military feature of Joseph is striking.
JT It is a very fine passage, referring to Christ as suffering in this way; but He overcomes in the conflict. “From thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel”. He will take care of the sheep, and being “the stone of Israel”, things are stable.
AP Does Joseph represent the highest feature of truth in the idea of fruitfulness, and is he thus the particular object of the enemy’s attack?
JT Comparing this passage with Deuteronomy 33 — Moses’ blessing of the tribes — we see that Joseph represents Ephesians, the heavenly side of the truth, but in the tribal setting. Moses sees the land as occupied anticipatively by the tribes; Ephesians contemplates heaven with the saints in it. It is a great thing to be able to bear the attack of the enemy and hold your ground, as Joseph did in relation to the tribes, that is, in relation to the saints.
ANW What did you mean when you spoke about Joseph representing Ephesians tribal-wise?
JT Well, it is the Lord seen in relation to the tribes. It is the love setting. John 17 is that He has the saints with Him.
JS So the blessing of Joseph comes in here in relation to the other tribes.
JT Yes; and he holds his ground as attacked. “Let these go away”, the Lord said; (John 18:8). He protected the brethren, confronting the enemy alone.
JS So He is the Stone of Israel. All are included.
JT Yes; a permanent order of things would now be established, which opens up the truth of the assembly.