JOSEPH: TESTIMONY BEFORE EXALTATION
JOSEPH: TESTIMONY BEFORE EXALTATION
No part of the Bible probably has so fastened itself upon the imagination of the young as the history of Joseph; many would account it almost the most interesting part of Scripture. But I do not believe that the history of Joseph was given to us as an interesting story, but because Joseph serves to set forth the truth concerning Christ; he comes before us as a figure of Christ as connected with Israel. Now it is in that way that I take up his history, not at all with the idea of expatiating on the history, save as in some way presenting to us the truth as to Christ. And I am justified in using the history in this way, from the allusion made to Joseph by Stephen in Acts 7; the latter there shows that those raised up of God for the deliverance of His people had always been first rejected, whoever it might be — Joseph, or Moses, or even Christ. This was just the perversity of the people against the sovereignty of God. That is the principle against which man constantly rebels, and such rebellion is the spring and source of infidelity in the present day. I think that it is intelligible, that if man has a will of his own, he is pretty certain to rebel against a will stronger than his. It is not only that God has a will, but God’s will is sovereign, and God will work out His own will; and it is against the sovereignty of God’s will that man kicks. Now that was illustrated in Israel; they invariably rejected and refused the vessel raised up of God before the deliverance came. It is in that sense I take up a few incidents in the history of Joseph in our particular chapter, bearing in mind that the history is a setting forth, figuratively, of what comes out in Christ, almost in every part of it, though I could not say in every detail.
[p. 2] Now in Israel the birthright is connected with Joseph. Birthright is looked at in Scripture as a privilege from God, and in old times it was customary to attach a good deal of importance to birthright. Esau despised his birthright, and though afterwards he sought the blessing carefully with tears, he found no place of repentance. As I said, the birthright in Israel is connected with Joseph, though lineally Christ was descended from Judah; the genealogy is Judah’s. We do not find in Scripture Judah ever looked at as a type of Christ; on the other hand, Joseph is a striking type of Christ, and it is the more interesting because of the birthright being connected with Joseph. It will not be very difficult hereafter for Israel to trace their genealogy, for they will trace it through Christ, and in Christ the birthright of Israel is secured. When Christ was born into this world He was the security to Israel of their birthright, and He had a due sense of the importance of the birthright of Israel, of what pertained to them according to God. But we see how the Jews despised their birthright; they said, “We have no king but Caesar”; but the birthright is maintained for them in Christ.
Now the first point of moment is the testimony of Joseph, a testimony which excited the dislike and envy of his brethren; the more he testified the greater was the dislike, until at last it became boundless. What Joseph bore testimony to, as I understand it, was the sovereignty of God; that was the point of his testimony. It was not a question of himself, but God had communicated His mind to him in dreams; and what God had communicated to him was the burden of his testimony, it expressed the sovereign will of God. His father, his mother, and his brethren were all to do obeisance to him. This was the sovereign will of God. And man’s will rebels against it, but God will do according to His own good will and pleasure. Christ in coming into the world says, “Lo, I come ... to do thy will, O God”; and He taught His disciples to pray, “Thy will be done in earth,
as it is in heaven”. The will of God is to rule.
The testimony of Joseph is remarkable; but I want to pass on to the testimony of the great anti-type, Christ Himself, and would also like to say a word with regard to the church.
It appears to me that before God gives exaltation He gives the testimony of exaltation. I see that principle running through Scripture. God does nothing until He has first given a testimony of it. He exalts whom He will, but before the exaltation is the testimony. That is seen here in regard to Joseph. Even the sun and the moon and the eleven stars were to do obeisance to him, but Joseph has first to be the vessel of God’s testimony. It is not, I am sure, a question of honour and dignity put upon Joseph, but of the sovereign will of God. He chose that Joseph should be exalted. But Joseph had to be humbled before he could be exalted. If he had been taken just as he was, and exalted, it might have been, morally, a poor look-out for him. He had to be passed through the discipline of God to be fitted for the exaltation that God intended to give him. In his exaltation he was to be the preserver of his brethren. God knew that they were to go down into Egypt, and Joseph was raised up of God for the preservation of his kindred. Joseph had to bear testimony to what was in the mind of God, but I do not think that Joseph was himself yet morally suitable for the exaltation. But any way Joseph had no part in the evil doings of his brethren. He was separate from them, and could bear testimony against them, because he was not partaker of their evil deeds.
Now Christ, when here, bore witness to the sovereign will of God. He bore witness, too, to the grace of God and to the condition of the people; but the great point in His testimony was the sovereign will of God, and, in connection with it, His own exaltation. I refer to an instance: in the parable of the marriage supper He says, “A certain king ... made a marriage for his son”. The marriage was for the king’s son. Then He told His disciples continually what would happen to Himself; He bore witness, too, to the place He would have at the right hand of God. He witnessed a good confession. The people were running after evil deeds, but Christ bore testimony to His own exaltation.
But there is one point to be mentioned in regard to the Lord, that if He bore witness to His exaltation He was morally suitable to it. Joseph was but a weak man. We do not find anything as to his moral suitability to be exalted. There is just one thing about him, and that is he was the object of his father’s special affection. But moral suitability for exaltation is seen in Christ all the way through this world. He could not stop short of any place but the right hand of God. I think we can see that from Psalm 16, “In thy presence is fulness of joy”. He could not find that down here. He might say, “The lines are fallen to me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage”; but it is “in thy presence is fulness of joy”. It is interesting to contrast in that psalm what the Lord could enter into down here, and what He looked for at the right hand of God. But, whether one or the other, there was moral suitability. Christ is in the highest place of exaltation as Man, and is perfectly at home there; He came from there, and He is gone back there, and He bore witness to this continually while down here. “The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand”. The Lord bore witness to that.
I pass on now to speak of the church. The church is in the place of Christ’s rejection, but is going to share His exaltation. That is the purpose of God in regard to the church, and it is left down here in testimony to that. The proper testimony of the church is that it does not belong to this scene at all, but to Heaven. But such testimony comes out very much more in what people are than in what they say, and the church has been left here that, in the power of the Holy Spirit, witness might be borne to its own proper place in heaven. You get this [p. 5] in Ephesians 2, Jew and Gentile are quickened together with Christ, and raised up together, and made to sit together in the heavenly places in Christ. God has raised them up together, and given them a place in heaven in Christ. But at the end of the epistle you find that the people who have been seated in heaven are left here to meet the power of evil, to stand against Satan, in the consciousness of their place in the heavenlies. I cannot say why God should have seen fit to give that place to the church, but it is given in the sovereignty of His will. Now we are in the light of that — made to sit in the heavenly places for His pleasure. But while that is so, we are left down here to be in moral suitability to it. We give no place to the enemy, but stand apart from the influences of the god of this world; we put on the “whole armour of God”, and withstand; we do not give in an inch to anything here, but stand in the truth of the sovereignty of God’s will. That is a difficult thing to do today. If Scripture were simply a book of ethics there would not be antagonism to it, but because it expresses the will of God — and man hates the idea of the sovereignty of God’s will — there is the effort to set aside the testimony of Scripture.
Now security for future blessing is on the ground of the will of God; everything has failed on the ground of creature responsibility, all is now bound up with the accomplishment of God’s own will; and everything must be consistent, too, with His nature, and that is love. But at the same time that everything is consistent with love, there is in all the expression of divine perfectness, righteousness, and holiness, and truth — every attribute of God is maintained, that all should be to the praise of His glory.
Joseph bore witness, perhaps in a feeble way, to his exaltation, according to the sovereign will of God. Christ, too, bore abundant witness to His exaltation; He accepted death and rejection down here, but, at the same time, bore witness to exaltation, and He is exalted! God has “highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name” — a name according to the sovereignty of His own purpose, “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow”. In truth, His brethren and His kindred and all will have to do obeisance to Him!
The same principle holds good in the church. The church shares the rejection of Christ down here, it is identified with Him, as seen in that which He says to Saul, “Why persecutest thou me?” The church’s place is in separation from the world, waiting for Him from heaven: “From whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself”.
Now the next point I notice is the effect that Joseph’s testimony had upon his brethren. In Acts 7: 9 we read, “And the patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt: but God was with him”. The motive that actuated them is thus plain enough, “they hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him”, their hatred intensified. Now the truth is this, their ways were evil, and Joseph had told their father of their evil deeds, and they hated him. Their ways were evil; there is the secret of man’s perversity, he will not come to the light because his deeds are evil. There was light with Joseph, and they cast him out, but it was God’s way for their preservation. Joseph was to be their preserver, if they had only known it. No one can suppose that envy and hatred spring from good works. But Joseph’s brethren were short-sighted in what they did to Joseph, for previous to their selling Joseph they were strong and united, but now they lost what I might, in a sense, call divine strength; they were strong before, but not after. It is remarkable to see this in those twelve brethren, but we find the same principle true in the Jews in connection with Christ. Why did not the Jews receive the testimony of God? Why did they not welcome the light?
[p. 7] The Lord gave abundant proof that He came from God; there was the most complete presentation of God to man: “in him all the fulness ... was pleased to dwell”. The presentation was complete; the Lord could say, “They have both seen and hated both me and my Father”, the Father dwelt in Him, and He did the works. He was a Man, it is true, but He had become a Man that God might come near to man in goodness. It was God presenting Himself to man in perfect, divine goodness. All the works of Christ were expressive of divine goodness, of perfect grace; the only miracle which had any other character was the cursing of the fig-tree, and that had of necessity to come to pass, but other miracles were for the relieving of man from the pressure which rested upon him down here. “Many good works have I showed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me?” and they say, “For a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy”! He said that He was the Son of God, but had He not given evidence of it? There was most abundant testimony that He was the Son of God, but in spite of the testimony of His works, and of the Father’s testimony to Him, they saw and hated both Him and His Father. Why did they hate Him? Because their own deeds were evil. Men will justify envy, but do you think that envy ever springs from good? Could there be such a thing as envy with God or with Christ? It is totally impossible. Envy is a work of evil; if evil were not existing there would be no such thing as envy in this world. A holy angel does not envy, simply because it is a holy angel.
But as was the case with the brethren of Joseph, the Jews paved the way for their own weakness; Christ was their strength, if they had only known it. He had become identified with them in being born among them, “of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came”; He was their strength, but they did not know it, and the consequence was that when they cast Him out they had to prove their own weakness; they fell to pieces. It is [p. 8] remarkable with regard to the disciples, that when a traitor came to light among them they became weak, they “all forsook him and fled”, they proved their weakness. I refer to it because it shows that this principle runs through Scripture, and things repeat themselves remarkably.
But in the latter part of verse 9 we have the significant clause, “but God was with him”; in all the discipline through which Joseph went God was with him. He had to be humbled, and a man must be humbled, that is certain. We are told that Joseph was apart from the evil of his brethren, but if Joseph is to be exalted, it is needful that he should be passed through exercise. Very often we do not know our own motives: even in condemning evil it is difficult to distinguish our motives; we have to be taught the difference between good and evil; many things pass muster as good, but one is not so sure about the motives in them. But the object of discipline is that we may discern between good and evil. We see this in the case of Job. It is great grace on the part of God that He should see fit to pass His people through exercise with this object. In any study in this world, whether it be art, or literature, or anything else, a man must be trained. Supposing I am taken to a gallery where there are many wonderful pictures, but among them some that are mere daubs, if I have not my senses exercised I may make great mistakes in my judgment of them: so we must have our moral senses exercised, we must be critics, and criticism must begin with myself; you will never be a good judge of good and evil in others except as you are a good judge of them in yourself. I am exercised so as to be able to discriminate between the varied motives by which a man may be actuated down here.
Now Joseph has to learn a very bitter lesson with his brethren, and it must have taught Joseph complete distrust of himself, but Joseph is not soured; when God is dealing with a man in discipline, and the man [p. 9] accepts it, that man is not soured. I do not know anything that has a worse effect on people than trials in which God is not with them; but on the other hand, if God is with them they are great gainers, and they have their senses exercised. Why should anything down here sour a christian? Supposing I am soured by the treatment of my kindred, or of fellow-christians. Who is soured? What is soured? It proves that there is something in me that may be soured; but we are exhorted, “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good”; and the end of discipline is that we may overcome in the power of good. While trials have the effect that God intends them to have, God sustains the man; as it was with Joseph, so it may be with me. And God gave Joseph deliverance; it was not, perhaps, the deliverance that Joseph would have chosen, but it was the deliverance that God intended for him. Reuben and Judah would have liked to bring him back to their father again — they were more tender than their brethren — but God’s way was otherwise.
What I see as a principle in the ways of God is, that if God is going to give deliverance, it must begin from Egypt. It was so with Israel, and it is so with us; that is the starting-point of every man. We have to realise that we are in Egypt, where God first begins to deal with man. Israel had to go down into Egypt, and it was there that they began to multiply; and it is from Egypt that God delivered them.
God delivers Joseph, and puts him out of reach of the machinations of his brethren. So God has set Christ in a place outside of all the hatred and malignity of men. God raised Him from the dead, and in resurrection He was set in a wealthy place. God has set Him in a place where man cannot come. The brethren of Joseph could do no more against him when he went down into Egypt. In the case of the Lord, the Jews were restrained for a long time, until the close of His pathway; then certain things were allowed, but God delivers Him.
[p. 10] You read in Psalm 22 the list of enemies, but He is “heard ... from the horns of the unicorns”. God delivered Christ, and set Him in a wealthy place, as I understand it, in resurrection.
Then there is another thing which could not be typified in Joseph, that, as being set in that wealthy place, Christ has power to subdue all things to Himself; one Man in resurrection is better than a world of men under death. Christ in resurrection is not only superior to all as being there, but exercises the power that has been exercised towards Him. He is vested with the very power that raised Him again from the dead. So we look for the Lord Jesus Christ from heaven “... according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself” — that is, according to what He is as raised again from the dead. And what of the Jews? They have become disunited and scattered. It was an evil day for Joseph’s brethren when they sold their brother into Egypt; it was an evil day for the Jews when they refused Christ, when they said, “This is the heir, come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance”. They never did seize on His inheritance; they were scattered abroad, and are suffering under the penalty of their rejection of Christ to this day. They will come eventually into their blessing on the ground of the sovereignty of God’s mercy, but they will have to recognise Him in resurrection whom they pierced. The important thing for us is that our souls might be in the light of the glory of the Lord, that we should appreciate the greatness of the place in which God has set Him. The right hand of God is far above all things; and that is where we are privileged to know Christ. All the gifts have come down from Christ, at the right hand of God, and we are in the light of Christ there. He is set down “far above all heavens, that he might fill all things”. It is a great place where Christ is set, where what is of sin, and of the flesh, and of Satan’s power cannot come; they cannot touch what is of resurrection.
[p. 11] And we have had good experience of His power, it has acted upon us morally; the thing is that He should subdue us to Himself. That is the power that Christ exercises in the place and scene where God has put Him.
I have taken up these few points in the chapter that we may see in them a portraiture of Christ, and I do not think that I have strained the truth at all, for Scripture has given us evidence that Joseph is presented to us as a striking type of Christ Himself, especially in His relations to Israel.
May God grant that we may have a true and right apprehension of Christ in the wealthy place in which He now is, and of the power with which He is vested, and by which He will subdue all things to Himself. As to His people, they are scattered over the face of the earth, having neither true God nor false god. And why? Because they were moved with envy, and rejected and refused their Deliverer. Yet, according to the Scripture, the “Deliverer will come out of Zion and turn away ungodliness from Jacob: ... this is my covenant unto them when I shall take away their sins”.