JOSEPH AS A MAN OF FAITH
[p. 22] JOSEPH AS A MAN OF FAITH
Hebrews 11:17-23; Hebrews 11:27
I desire, in speaking a little more about Joseph, to pass on to what is more personal, to look at Joseph as a man of faith; it is that which is before me at this time. We have had Joseph before us on previous occasions in different lights: we began with him as a dreamer, then we saw him as an interpreter of dreams, then as the saviour of his brethren; but there was something greater than all that in Joseph, and far more interesting to us. The truth of this is recorded in the Old Testament, but in Hebrews 11 we get the Spirit’s note of Joseph’s faith. I would rather see him as a man of faith than in any other light. His early conduct showed him to be a God-fearing man, but there was not much evidence of faith; it is another thing later on to see him as a man of faith.
All that was connected with his advancement in Egypt was of the providence of God. God cared, in His providence, for the preservation of His people, the household of Jacob, and what happened in the history of Joseph was really for the preservation of the sons of Jacob. These dealings were providential; no one could think that the sons of Jacob were in the light of God — the only one we could speak of, with any kind of certainty, as in the light, was Joseph. But God has everything at His disposal, and He can use all for the benefit of His people. He has done that for Israel, and at the present moment you can see how He causes things to work for His people. The family of Jacob was cared for in the famine; Joseph was the instrument of their preservation; but his own greatness was not in connection with the light but with the providence of God. Egypt was idolatrous and obnoxious to God, but Joseph was a great man in Egypt, and God was with him. It was God’s will that Joseph should have exaltation in Egypt, and all that may have a typical teaching; but after all the state of things was allowed in the providence of God, and in it Joseph was permitted to become great and to form certain links.
In contrast to that I want to bring Joseph before you in the light and line of God’s testimony. This is of the deepest interest; there is nothing that interests me more than the line of God’s testimony running through scripture. I have likened it to the building of an arch — the arch is built up bit by bit, until at last the keystone is put in place; now we have come to the keystone, to the arch of testimony which God was building up in the souls of men, and we see what particular place each person occupies in that line of testimony. Joseph has his place there, and as a man of faith he was greater than in his greatness in Egypt. It is remarkable that it is in dying he comes out as the man of faith. You get the same thing in the case of Jacob. “By faith Jacob, when he was a-dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph; and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff”. And so Joseph in dying spoke concerning the departure of the children of Israel, and gave commandment concerning his bones.
I will take up the subject of God’s testimony in a little larger way than in connection with Joseph. I dare say you have noticed, in reading the scripture, the persons in whom faith is illustrated; the line of testimony extends in a special way from Abraham to David. The links are maintained in certain persons — Joseph is one of them; after Joseph no other person is mentioned until Moses. As to place, it begins with Canaan and ends with Canaan. God calls Abraham out into a country which he should after receive for an inheritance, and the climax of faith as given in Hebrews 11 is that the walls of Jericho fall down; the Israelites are in the land. This is the sphere and extent of God’s testimony.
The point in God’s dealings with these men was to [p. 24] make known to them that the ground on which He was acting was that of resurrection. I think that is a point of great moment to us, as to them; it is specially marked in Abraham; he received Isaac again from the dead in figure. It was at the end of God’s dealings with him. Everything that comes out to others afterwards is upon that ground. These illustrations of faith follow one upon another. I will make that plain presently. Isaac follows upon Abraham, and Joseph follows upon Jacob, and Moses follows upon Joseph; there is a moral sequence.
The principle of resurrection is elaborated in connection with God’s dealings with Abraham in Romans 4. It recalls Abraham. “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness”, and it says that he believed in God who quickens the dead; and as to us, it says, “who believe in him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification”. God presents Himself to us in His testimony, on the ground and basis of resurrection, and in regard of this Abraham is our father. To get a clear thought as to that is important; I do not think you will be able otherwise to understand the ways of God. God has acted in regard of men in the person of His Son outside of sin and law and flesh, as known in the world, that is the import of resurrection, as the basis of God’s ways. Death has terminated man, but vicariously in the death of Christ; the blood is the witness of death. “Christ ... hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God”, and God presents Himself to man as acting outside of sin and the law and the flesh; He presents Himself to man in the One who has been raised again from the dead. God has set forth Jesus as a mercy-seat, through faith in His blood. God has spoken to us “in his Son”, sin, the law, and the flesh, all having for Him come to an end in death — death is their termination. And so, too, in application to us, the truth is that “he that is dead is justified from sin”, death is the end of the captivity of [p. 25] sin; then as to law, we are “dead to the law by the body of the Christ”, the death of Christ is the end of that bond; and as regards the flesh, how could flesh pass death? It may take a long time before I get practically free, but God in His testimony presents Himself in Christ entirely outside of all these questions. He has nothing at this time to say to man on that ground. The One in whom God presents Himself to man is a life-giving Spirit. There is but one Man before God in resurrection, and that is Christ. He has anticipated Adam in that respect; you have to learn that lesson, and that the one Man before God in resurrection is a life-giving Spirit. Then Christ has gone to the right hand of God, and has sent down the Holy Spirit. When you apprehend the light of God, there are two things for you — Christ and the Holy Spirit. Christ as the object of faith, raised from the dead — there is thus life out of death; and the gift of the Holy Spirit; and there is now nothing else. If you could put sin and flesh and the law out of account entirely, what is left to you and to me? Nothing in that sense. God has had to say to us in Christ in grace, and there is left to us simply Christ risen, and the Holy Spirit. It is in the apprehension of Christ risen that a man is justified; you apprehend that it is the mind of God to justify. If God presents Himself to me without raising any of the questions I have referred to, it tells me that His mind is to justify, and God does not raise any of the questions connected with responsibility, but shows us a way of deliverance from all. And then I partake of the life of that Man; I am on the ground of resurrection. I want you to apprehend that the ground on which God addresses Himself to man is that of resurrection — life out of death in Christ. All God’s testimony is in Christ, and He presents Himself in Christ of necessity as the Victor, and there is nothing left to us or for us but Christ. The world is left an absolute waste, there is nothing in it of life: “We ... judge, that if one died for all, then were all
dead”. There is but one Man before God, the Lord Jesus Christ, and He has given the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the point for christians is to hasten to get deliverance from sin and the flesh, to be practically apart from them for God.
Now, as we have seen, God began to teach this principle of resurrection to Abraham, and the great lesson that he had to learn was the closing lesson with him. Abraham had had to cast Ishmael out of his house, but the most severe discipline he had to be passed through was the offering up of Isaac. If we knew Christ after the flesh now, there would be no present salvation for man. I can understand Ishmael being cast out, but it is much deeper that in the ways of God Isaac must be offered. Christ in all His perfection as after the flesh must die; all after the flesh must go, even in its perfection, as we see it in Christ down here. But Abraham received Isaac again, in figure raised from the dead, when typically all after the flesh had gone. God made plain to Abraham the foundation of His dealings in grace with man in the death and resurrection of Christ. Abraham, perhaps, did not understand it fully; he had not the light of Romans, but I am sure Abraham was a long way on, for he believed in God “who quickens the dead” — he apprehended that God would act outside of man in the flesh, and God has acted in that way.
When we come to Isaac we see in him a type of the heavenly Man; Isaac brings out the truth that the church must come in before Israel; Rebecca comes in before Jacob; that is taught in figure in the Old Testament. Isaac gets the church — Rebecca; and this anticipates Israel, the head of the earthly family. Christ is to sit on the throne of David and to rule over the house of Jacob for ever; but in figure the risen man Isaac comes in between Abraham and Jacob. Isaac blesses both his sons, Jacob and Esau; God could not in blessing be limited to the family after the flesh, and I think Isaac, in a way, learnt that lesson; the line of promise was in [p. 27] Jacob, but in dying Isaac blesses both Esau and Jacob, I almost think that God uses men sometimes in faith beyond their intelligence; perhaps that is too much to say, but they have the light for the moment, and they act in that light. But it is not the same thing with us as with them. We are in the light as God is in the light; the history of Old Testament saints shows that they acted in the light of the moment.
Then Jacob blesses both the sons of Joseph — that is remarkable; Joseph had the birthright: he was not the firstborn, but he got the portion of the firstborn — a double portion. Elisha desired a double portion of Elijah’s spirit, a firstborn’s portion. Here both the sons of Joseph were blessed by Jacob. This had the effect of making thirteen tribes, thus going beyond the limits of administrative order. You cannot limit the God of resurrection by administrative order; there are the saints risen together with Christ outside of administration on the earth, they belong to heaven.
As far as I understand the church, it was set up here entirely in the power of the Holy Spirit, I do not think the apostles had anything much of administration before them. They have a place in administration — they are to sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. But there is something greater than administration, and that is the church’s relation to the Father; the identification with Christ of the many sons that God is bringing to glory. The church is the seat of perfect administration as the assembly of the living God; but it is the assembly of the firstborn which are written in heaven, and that is morally a greater thought. If you apprehend the God of resurrection, you cannot limit God to administration, any more than you can limit God’s blessing to the line of the flesh, and it is in that way that I understand that Jacob blessed both the sons of Joseph. That is what he did when this world was fading out of view; and he worshipped, leaning on the top of his staff.
[p. 28] There are two things that mark Joseph at the end: he made mention of the departing of the children of Israel, and gave commandment concerning his bones. Resurrection is the ground upon which God delivered His people out of Egypt; and the fact is this, except God acted on the ground of resurrection, there are questions which God would have to raise with men. But the blood was the witness of death; God’s righteousness had been vindicated, and in the Red Sea God had, as we have seen, acted on the ground of resurrection, apart from the question of sin, or the law, or flesh, to bring His people into His light. The brightest moment of Jacob’s life, if I might say so, was his death; the fathers died in faith, and Jacob’s brightest moment was perhaps when he died. So with Joseph: all his greatness in Egypt was gone, everything had faded from view, and what comes before him was that his brethren were in Egypt, and he makes mention of their departing; God would interfere for them, and deliver them out of the land of Egypt. And yet Egypt had been the scene of his glory; his children were born there, his links were there, but in the hour of his dying Egypt was gone from him. My conviction is that if Joseph had lived in the time of Moses, Joseph would have done what Moses did, for Moses carried out that of which Joseph spoke. Joseph had light to speak about it, but the time was not yet come for action; still, it formed part of the testimony of the God of resurrection, and all of that testimony will be made good in the power of resurrection. God does not deliver Israel out of Egypt again; it was the God of resurrection who brought them out. They never understood that, but, nevertheless, He was in that light, delivering His people out of the bondage of Egypt.
Joseph had not only light in that way, but he “gave commandment concerning his bones”; he would not leave any memorial in Egypt, and yet Egypt was the land of his greatness. After the flesh he might have [p. 29] looked to have a statue in Egypt, but he would not leave even his bones there. That is where Joseph shines out as a man of faith, and, as I said, had he lived in the time of Moses he would have been the instrument of God’s deliverance from Egypt. The strength and ability of Moses after the flesh could not deliver the people of God, only God could do this; faith brought in the light and the power of God, and therefore had Joseph lived in the time of Moses he would have been the deliverer of Israel. Joseph and Moses are brought together in Acts 7, both as being in the first instance rejected of the people, and yet ultimately the instruments of God to deliver them.
Joseph lived in his own day, and had to enjoy the light that God gave him; and a man can never go beyond his faith, he can act only on the light he has from God. But if Joseph had lived in our day, he would have understood that he was risen with Christ! I gather that from the fact that he would not leave a memorial in Egypt. Most of us have some kind of a name there, and I believe that until a person has entered into the mind of God for him by faith, until he sees that God’s mind toward him is that he is risen with Christ, he will not be willing to give up his name in the world. It is just as much the mind of God for us that we are risen with Christ, as that we are justified, and until it can be said of us that we are risen with Christ, I do not think we are clear of the reproach of Egypt. Joseph did not desire a memento in Egypt; in death his name died out with him, and his bones were not to be left there; not even would he be buried out of sight there — the break with Egypt in that sense was complete. Egypt had gone from view; Joseph would have been delighted to enter into the blessed truth of resurrection with Christ. It was when the children of Israel reached Gilgal that the reproach of Egypt was rolled away. People are not cleared of the reproach of Egypt when they are justified. It is a blessed thing to enter into deliverance from sin [p. 30] and the flesh and law; but it is a greater thing to be in spirit outside of all that is national and religious, where there is neither Jew nor Greek, neither bond nor free, but where Christ is all and in all, where everything is pervaded and regulated by the affections of Christ. If Christ is all and in all, He is in all in the sense of divine affections, and that is the scene which God has for His people. We do not find people always prepared to give up the Jew and the Greek; they cling a good bit to distinctions after the flesh, but these things have no place in God’s mind for us; it is just as much His mind for us to know our place in the christian circle as that we are justified. You would be wise to accept the thought of God about you. Joseph and Moses would have done so had they lived in our day.
Now, beloved, we accept the mind of God, and this is by faith; but then, if you enter into the mind of God, the work of God is corresponding to it. He has “quickened” you “together with Christ”, so that you can be with Christ without hindrance. It is not faith that brings you into conscious association with Christ, but God’s work, so that you may be qualified for the greatness of the position which God has for you.
But to be quickened with Christ means to be rejected in the world, and perhaps, too, not to have a very great place in the providence of God — you may not be favoured in that way. His providence is a veil behind which God hides Himself. But if you are sharing Christ’s rejection you will certainly get glory with Him. If you suffer with Him now, you will be associated with Him in the day of His glory; you form part of the heavenly city which has the glory of God, and in which God will Himself be in connection with the whole universe of bliss.
The men of whom we have spoken acted up to the light which God gave them. It was limited, and in a sense their faith came out when they were dying; but I think you will accept what I have said, that they [p. 31] would have thankfully accepted the light of God, that they were “risen with Christ”, and the reproach of Egypt rolled away, where the “body of the flesh” is put off not only for God, but for you too.
May God give us to enter into His mind, so that we may be prepared for the refusal of any name, or renown, or repute in the world.