EXTRACTS

What follows from Genesis 37 is the interesting history of Joseph, to which even children ever yield a ready ear, although ignorant of all the beauties which the believer finds who knows Jesus, and recognises Him as prefigured there: for there is an intrinsic beauty, where the heart is not yet hardened, in all that reveals Him. Joseph, as revealed in his dreams (faith alone could thus own it), is, in the counsels of God, heir of the glory and chief of all the family. His brothers are jealous of this; so much the more that he is the beloved of his father.

He is sold to the Gentiles by his brethren, and, in the figure, instead of being put to death, as the Jews did to the true Joseph (that being not possible), is passed for dead. Meanwhile Judah falls into every kind of shame and sin, which does not deprive him, however, of the royal genealogy. Joseph is brought low among the Gentiles, through false accusations put in prison, his “feet made fast in the stocks”. “The iron enters into his soul”—“till the time came that his cause was known, the word of the Lord tried him”.

Rising out of his humiliation, he is elevated, unknown now of his brethren, to the right hand of the throne; and the administration of all power over the Gentiles committed to him. In his humiliation, interpreter of the thoughts and counsels of God; in his elevation, he administers with power according to the same wisdom, and reduces all under the immediate authority of him who was seated on the throne.

At the same time another scene presents itself. His brethren, who had rejected him, forced by famine, are brought, by the path of repentance and humiliation, to own him at length in glory, whom they had once rejected when connected with themselves. Benjamin, type of the power of the Lord upon earth among the Jews, is united to him who, unknown, had the power of the throne among the Gentiles; that is, Christ unites these two characters. But this brings all the brethren into connection with Joseph.

Finally, Jacob and his family are placed, as a people apart, in the most favoured country of all that was under the power of the throne of the great king. Nothing can be more touching than the conduct of Joseph towards his brethren; but I must leave these reflections to the hearts of my readers, placing them as far as my hearty desires can, under the precious influence of the Spirit of God. The rapid survey I have given, gives the type a clearer application than more detail would, and that is what is of the deepest interest here.

J. N. Darby (Synopsis Vol 1., pp.45, 46)

CHH In Leviticus 14: 1 it is said that the leper was to be brought to the priest, before it is said that the priest was to go outside the camp to him.

JT Well, that would be in the sense of testimony. The thing is brought to you, and then going out to where he is, is the principle that there is identification with that position. The Lord Himself suffered outside the camp. It is only to enlarge upon the position of the Priest as seen in Christ as entering into death.

CHH Would that involve a distinct work in the one under discipline, which would be brought to the attention of the priest?

JT That is the idea—that recovery is taking place. Leviticus 13 shows that that has been going on, but chapter 14 contemplates that the man outside the camp is healed of the leprosy, and now the priest goes out to him. There is testimony as to his state and progress, and now the priest goes out to him. Death takes place outside; the bird is killed there.

CHH Concerning the inspection, does the type warrant that we should go out to one who is judged as a leper? Does it give liberty for anyone to visit such, apart from a particular testimony that there is healing?

JT No one should visit such except as a characteristic priest. If I visit on social lines I do harm. People do that, ignoring the judgment, and visit on mere personal or social lines, and you might say link with them, which practice is very wrong and damaging. Leviticus 14, verses 1–4, says—“This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing—he shall be brought unto the priest, and the priest shall go out of the camp; and when the priest looketh, and behold, the sore of leprosy is healed in the leper, then shall the priest command ...”. The priest finally decides the matter. He is outside the camp, but the time of the cleansing of the leper has come, for the whole previous chapter shows how that comes about. Bringing him to the priest would mean that the priest is acquainted with his progress, but then it finally says, “And when the priest looketh, and behold, the sore of leprosy is healed in the leper”, verse 3; that means he has reached the final judgment of it.

J. Taylor (Vol. 48, pp.348, 349)

Some may say, I wonder, if God is your Father, that He does not interfere more on your behalf. But I answer, I know His love, and the more I know it, the less I need demonstrations of it. Christ had little or no demonstration of that love, but He never lost the sense that He was ever the object of it; and it imparts the greatest dignity to be in His path—to be nobody to man, but to be an object to God. And often in the very place where we have been made little of in the eyes of men, there God makes us remarkable. At Philippi, where Paul and Silas were made so little of before men, they are made much of as God’s men, not as the world’s men.

God says, I will have you acknowledge that man; he is a man of God. There is “a God that judgeth in the earth”. God thus comes in to maintain the cause of His people, though not always at the time.

It is an immense thing for the heart to get hold of “Sanctify them through thy truth”—the knowledge that I am of the Father. But can you walk through the world and say, I do not appeal to it? It is just the difference between a man in the wilderness and a man in Egypt. In Egypt I turn to the world, but in the wilderness I have not got anybody but God. If I am of the world, of course I can claim its protection. And yesterday I might be in it—a man in Egypt, but today I am in the wilderness—in the same town, in the same business, in the same house. What is the difference? Why, today, in the wilderness, I have none but God; and it is this knowledge of the Father that sanctifies me; it has the most wonderful separating power; through it I escape “the corruption that is in the world through lust”. I am not dependent on the world for any one thing here, for I have a Father outside and apart from it all.

J. B. Stoney (Vol. 3, p.189)

In John’s baptism the Lord took His place with the godly ones here upon earth; He cut Himself off from that which connected Him with Judaism. There were three parts in His life. He lived a private life for thirty years; then for three years He was the servant of God, until His service culminated in the mount of transfiguration; then He comes down from this point, after He had been the perfect Man both in private life and in public life, to become the victim—to meet the judgment of God which we had incurred for ourselves; He sets His face steadfastly to go to Jerusalem. And now we are entitled to glory, because the Person who paid our debt has been raised by glory.

J. B. Stoney (Vol. 8, p.448)

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