Genesis 50: 17 (from "And Joseph wept") – 21

(iii) Jim Munro

I think this is one of the most excellent passages we can find in the Scriptures. The Scriptures are full of passages like this. Our brothers have spoken of our departed brother as suffering; this book gives us the sufferings of Joseph, a type of the Lord Jesus. Who suffered like the Lord Jesus – infinite sufferings, bearing our sins in His body on the tree? Joseph suffered at the hand of his brethren; it says "they hated him" (chap 37: 4), and they hated him yet the more because of his dreams. But his dreams came to pass. He was exalted later but the way to his exaltation was by way of suffering. He was sold for a bondman and he suffered at the hands of the Egyptians too. He was put in prison – a type of death. The Lord Jesus actually went into death, He tasted death (see Heb 2: 9), tasted it in all its reality! There is no one who suffered like Jesus. Where I have read, the sufferer is the one who is ministering comfort. That is very encouraging to my heart. The Lord Jesus how has suffered so much, and that for us, is on the line of comforting. There is no comforter like the Lord Jesus. I think we have all proved that. Joseph had recovered his brethren and had already said he would maintain them, and here he is repeating the words because they did not know his heart. Thank God most of us here know the heart of the Lord Jesus; we have proved it and are experiencing it even now. The words we have heard are for comfort, encouragement and consolation. So Joseph says "Ye indeed meant evil against me: God meant it for good, in order that he might... save a great people alive'. There is no people like the people of God; they are despised in the world generally but they area great people because God has taken them up and they have a wonderful prospect before them – to be with Christ for ever. Can anything match that? That has come to us by way of the sufferings of the Lord Jesus. He bore them for us, He bore them for me'. But I have the assurance in my soul that I will be with Him.

So here the sufferer is on the line of comforting. The Lord Jesus was made sin for us that we might become God's righteousness in Him (see 2 Cor 5: 21). It involved intense suffering which we cannot measure. He was in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights, but God did not allow Him to remain there, He raised Him from the dead by His glory, and He is now at God's right hand, waiting for the time when He is going to be publicly recognised and acclaimed in a world which has despised and rejected Him. He came here in order that men might be blessed, and what did they say? "Away with this man", Luke 23: 18. But God has "highly exalted him, and granted him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow", Phil 2: 9,10. That is the one we have been speaking of; our brother would have delighted in Christ being well spoken of.

So it says that Joseph not only comforted them but spoke consolingly to them. I love that. I think it involves more than comfort. When the lord Jesus arose from the dead, according to Luke's gospel, and came amongst His brethren, they were not very easy in His presence, just like these brethren of Joseph. But Jesus spoke consolingly to them. May we all experience this in a fresh way, for His Name's sake.

Burial of John Munro

GRANGEMOUTH

5 January 1989