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Genesis Chapter
Forty-five
Genesis 45
Chapter Contents
Joseph comforts his brethren, and sends for his father.
(1-15) Pharaoh confirms Joseph's invitation, Joseph's gifts to his brethren.
(16-24) Jacob receives the news of Joseph's being alive. (25-28)
Commentary on Genesis 45:1-15
Joseph let Judah go on, and heard all he had to say. He
found his brethren humbled for their sins, mindful of himself, for Judah had
mentioned him twice in his speech, respectful to their father, and very tender
of their brother Benjamin. Now they were ripe for the comfort he designed, by
making himself known. Joseph ordered all his attendants to withdraw. Thus
Christ makes himself and his loving-kindness known to his people, out of the
sight and hearing of the world. Joseph shed tears of tenderness and strong
affection, and with these threw off that austerity with which he had hitherto
behaved toward his brethren. This represents the Divine compassion toward
returning penitents. "I am Joseph, your brother." This would humble
them yet more for their sin in selling him, but would encourage them to hope
for kind treatment. Thus, when Christ would convince Paul, he said, I am Jesus;
and when he would comfort his disciples, he said, It is I, be not afraid. When
Christ manifests himself to his people, he encourages them to draw near to him
with a true heart. Joseph does so, and shows them, that whatever they thought
to do against him, God had brought good out of it. Sinners must grieve and be
angry with themselves for their sins, though God brings good out of it, for
that is no thanks to them. The agreement between all this, and the case of a
sinner, on Christ's manifesting himself to his soul, is very striking. He does
not, on this account, think sin a less, but a greater evil; and yet he is so
armed against despair, as even to rejoice in what God hath wrought, while he
trembles in thinking of the dangers and destruction from which he has escaped.
Joseph promises to take care of his father and all the family. It is the duty
of children, if the necessity of their parents at any time require it, to
support and supply them to the utmost of their ability; this is showing piety
at home, 1 Timothy 5:4. After Joseph had embraced
Benjamin, he caressed them all, and then his brethren talked with him freely of
all the affairs of their father's house. After the tokens of true reconciliation
with the Lord Jesus, sweet communion with him follows.
Commentary on Genesis 45:16-24
Pharaoh was kind to Joseph, and to his relations for his
sake. Egypt would make up the losses of their removal. Thus those for whom
Christ intends his heavenly glory, ought not to regard the things of this
world. The best of its enjoyments are but lumber; we cannot make sure of them
while here, much less can we carry them away with us. Let us not set our eyes
or hearts upon the world; there are better things for us in that blessed land,
whither Christ, our Joseph, is gone to prepare a place. Joseph dismissed his
brethren with a seasonable caution, "See that ye fall not out by the
way." He knew they were too apt to be quarrelsome; and having forgiven
them all, he lays this charge upon them, not to upbraid one another. This
command our Lord Jesus has given to us, that we love one another, and that
whatever happens, or has happened, we fall not out. For we are brethren, we
have all one Father. We are all guilty, and instead of quarrelling with one
another, have reason to fall out with ourselves. We are, or hope to be,
forgiven of God, whom we have all offended, and, therefore, should be ready to
forgive one another. We are "by the way," a way through the land of Egypt,
where we have many eyes upon us, that seek advantage against us; a way that
leads to the heavenly Canaan, where we hope to be for ever in perfect peace.
Commentary on Genesis 45:25-28
To hear that Joseph is alive, is too good news to be
true; Jacob faints, for he believes it not. We faint, because we do not
believe. At length, Jacob is convinced of the truth. Jacob was old, and did not
expect to live long. He says, Let my eyes be refreshed with this sight before
they are closed, and then I need no more to make me happy in this world. Behold
Jesus manifesting himself as a Brother and a Friend to those who once were his
despisers, his enemies. He assures them of his love and the riches of his
grace. He commands them to lay aside envy, anger, malice, and strife, and to
live in peace with each other. He teaches them to give up the world for him and
his fulness. He supplies all that is needful to bring them home to himself,
that where he is they may be also. And though, when he at last sends for his
people, they may for a time feel some doubts and fears, yet the thought of
seeing his glory and of being with him, will enable them to say, It is enough,
I am willing to die; and I go to see, and to be with the Beloved of my soul.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Genesis》
Genesis 45
Verse 1
[1] Then
Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him; and he
cried, Cause every man to go out from me. And there stood no man with him,
while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren.
Judah and his brethren were waiting for an
answer, and could not but be amazed to discover, instead of the gravity of a
judge, the natural affection of a father or brother. [1.] Cause every man to go
out - The private conversations of friends are the most free. When Joseph would
put on love, he puts off state, which it was not fit his servants should be
witnesses of. Thus Christ graciously manifests himself and his loving kindness
to his people, out of the sight and hearing of the world. for continuation to
item No. 2 [2.] V. 2. Tears were the introduction to his discourse. He had
dammed up this stream a great while, and with much ado, but now it swelled so
high that he could no longer contain, but he wept aloud, so that those whom he
had forbid to see him could not but hear him. These were tears of tenderness
and strong affection, and with these he threw off that austerity, with which he
had hitherto carried himself towards his brethren; for he could bear it no
longer. This represents the Divine compassion towards returning penitents, as
much as that of the father of the prodigal, Luke 15:20; Hosea 11:8,9. for continuation to item No. 3
[3.] V. 3. He abruptly tells them; I am Joseph - They knew him only by his
Egyptian name, Zaphnath-paaneah, his Hebrew name being lost and forgot in
Egypt; but now he teaches them to call him by that, I am Joseph: nay, that they
might not suspect it was another of the same name, he explains himself. I am
Joseph your brother. This would both humble them yet more for their sin in
selling him, and encourage them to hope for kind treatment. This word, at
first, startled Joseph's brethren, they started back through fear, or at least
stood still astonished: but Joseph called kindly and familiarly to them. Come
near, I pray you. Thus, when Christ manifests himself to his people he
encourages them to draw near to him with a true heart. Perhaps being about to
speak of their selling of him, he would not speak aloud, lest the Egyptians
should overhear, and it should make the Hebrews to be yet more an abomination
to them; therefore he would have them come near, that he might whisper with
them, which, now the tide of his passion was a little over, he was able to do,
whereas, at first, he could not but cry out. [4.] He endeavours to sweep their
grief for the injuries they had done him, by shewing them, that, whatever they
designed, God meant it for good, and had brought much good out of it. for start
of item, ie. No. [1.]
Verse 5
[5] Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me
hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.
Be not grieved or angry with yourselves — Sinners must grieve, and be angry with themselves for their sins; yea,
though God, by his power, bring good out of them, for that is no thanks to the
sinner: but true penitents should be greatly affected with it, when they see
God bringing good out of evil. Though we must not with this consideration
extenuate our own sins, and so take off the edge of our repentance; yet it may
do well thus to extenuate the sins of others, and so take off the edge of our
angry resentments. Thus Joseph doth here. His brethren needed not to fear that
he would revenge upon them an injury which God's providence had made to turn so
much to his advantage, and that of his family. Now he tells them how long the
famine was likely to last, five years yet, Genesis 45:6, and what a capacity he was in of
being kind to his relations, which is the greatest satisfaction that wealth and
power can give to a good man.
Verse 8
[8] So
now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father
to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of
Egypt.
See what a favourable colour he puts upon the
injury they had done him, God sent me before you - God's Israel is the particular
care of God's providence. Joseph reckoned that his advancement was not so much
designed to save a whole kingdom of Egyptians, as to preserve a small family of
Israelites; for the Lord's portion is his people: whatever goes with others,
they shall be secured. How admirable are the projects of Providence! How remote
its tendencies! What wheels are there within wheels; and yet all directed by
the eyes in the wheels, and the Spirit of the living Creature! for start of
item, ie. No. [1.] [5.] He promises to take care of his father and all his
family, during the rest of the years of famine. (1.) He desires that his father
might speedily be made glad with the tidings of his life and honour. His
brethren must hasten to Canaan, and acquaint Jacob that his son Joseph was lord
of all Egypt - He knew it would be a refreshing oil to his hoary head, and a
sovereign cordial to his spirits. He desires them to give themselves, and take
with them to their father, all possible satisfaction of the truth of these
surprising tidings.
Verse 12
[12] And,
behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that it is my mouth
that speaketh unto you.
Your eyes see that it is my mouth - If they
could recollect themselves, they might remember something of his features and
speech, and be satisfied. for (1.) (2.) He is very earnest that his father and
all his family should come to him to Egypt.
Come down unto me, tarry not — He allots his dwelling in Goshen, that part of Egypt which lay towards
Canaan, that they might be mindful of the country from which they were to come
out. He promiseth to provide for him, I will nourish - Our Lord Jesus being,
like Joseph, exalted to the highest honours and powers of the upper world, it
is his will that all that are his should be with him where he is. This is his
commandment, that we be with him now in faith and hope, and a heavenly
conversation; and this is his promise, that we shall be for ever with him.
Verse 24
[24] So he sent his brethren away, and they departed: and he said unto them,
See that ye fall not out by the way.
See that ye fall not out by the way - He knew
they were but too apt to be quarrelsome; and what had lately passed, which
revived the remembrance of what they had done formerly against their brother,
might give them occasion to quarrel. Now Joseph having forgiven them all, lays
this obligation upon them, not to upbraid one another. This charge our Lord
Jesus has given to us, that we love one another, that we live in peace, that
whatever occurs, or whatever former occurrences are remembered, we fall not
out. For, 1. We are brethren, we have all one father. 2. We are his brethren;
and we shame, our relation to him, who is our peace, if we fall out. 3. We are
all guilty, verily guilty, and instead of quarrelling with one another, have a
great deal of reason to fall out with ourselves. 4. We are forgiven of God,
whom we have all offended, and therefore should be ready to forgive one
another. 5. We are by the way, a way that lies through the land of Egypt, where
we have many eyes upon us, that seek occasion and advantage against us; a way
that leads to Canaan, where we hope to be for ever in perfect peace.
Verse 26
[26] And
told him, saying, Joseph is yet alive, and he is governor over all the land of
Egypt. And Jacob's heart fainted, for he believed them not.
We have here the good news brought to Jacob.
When, without any preamble, his sons came in crying Joseph is yet alive. The
very mention of Joseph's name revived his sorrow, so that his heart fainted. It
was a good while before he came to himself. He was in such care and fear about
the rest of them, that at this time it would have been joy enough to him to
hear that Simeon is released, and Benjamin is come safe home; for he had been
ready to despair concerning both these; but to bear that Joseph is alive, is
too good news to be true; he faints, for he believes it not.
Verse 27
[27] And
they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said unto them: and when he
saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their
father revived:
When he saw the waggons his spirit revived — Now Jacob is called Israel, for he begins to recover his wonted vigour.
It pleases him to think that Joseph is alive. He saith nothing of Joseph's
glory, which they had told him of; it was enough to him that Joseph was alive:
it pleases him to think of going to see him|. Though he was old, and the
journey long, yet he would go to see Joseph, because Joseph's business would
not permit him to come to him. Observe, He will go see him|, not I will go live
with him; Jacob was old, and did not expect to live long: but I will go see him
before I die, and then let me depart in peace; let my eyes be refreshed with
this sight before they are closed, and then it is enough, I need no more to make
me happy in this world.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on
Genesis》
45 Chapter 45
Verses 1-3
Joseph made himself known unto his brethren
Joseph and his brethren
I.
JUDAH’S
PATHETIC APPEAL FOR THE RELEASE OF BENJAMIN (Genesis 44:30-34). In this appeal the
following points are made:
1. Jacob’s strong attachment to Benjamin.
2. That Benjamin was the mainstay of Jacob in his advanced age.
3. A strong sense of personal honour.
II. JOSEPH’S DEEP
EMOTION.
1. Manifested in the tears he shed.
2. Manifested in his eager inquiry concerning his dear father.
3. Manifested also in the desire to take in his brothers to his
heart.
III. JOSEPH’S
DEVOUT ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF GOD’S GRACIOUS HAND IN ALL HE HAD SUFFERED AND
ENJOYED. Lessons:
1. A very touching lesson is here taught the sons and daughters of
aged parents concerning their greatest need in their declining years--not
expensive clothing or luxurious living, but the manifestation of real, tender,
loving sympathy.
2. Joseph’s readiness to forgive his brothers, and his deep emotion
when he saw their sincere love for his father, contain timely lessons, not only
for brothers and sisters according to the flesh, but also for brethren and
sisters in Christ..
3. The deep insight into the purposes of the providence of God, and
perfect acquiescence in them, and joy that they have wrought out good for others,
even though at a cost of personal sacrifice, are fraught with instructive
lessons.
The soul in silence
No one doubts that Joseph is a type of Christ; in nothing is he
more so than in that significant record,. “there stood no man with him while
Joseph made himself known to his brethren.” Egypt and its idols were shut out;
Pharaoh and his pomp; officers of state; obsequious servants; men of
business--“he caused every man to go out from him”; and then in the silence he
spoke in his own Hebrew tongue, with no interpreter then, and made himself
known to his brethren. What is this most plainly and evidently but a parable of
God and the soul? What is prayer but a speaking to God in silence? Silence is
the height of worship. Conversing is silencing the world, silencing the tumult
of sin, silencing the clamour of the passions. Growth in grace and holiness is
but silencing human interests, human love, human pleasures. What is God’s
purpose in sickness but to create a silence in the soul in which He may make Himself
known? So with sorrows, losses, deaths, calumny, persecution: they make a
solitude round the soul; “there stands no man with us,” but God stands with us,
and it is far better. And what are all these things but preparations for,
rehearsals before that great last reality--death? At that hour the soul is
alone, and a great silence reigns; one by one all persons and things have been
severed from the soul; one by one the senses fail, and all communion with the
world and with creatures is eat off; most familiar things, most necessary
things, faces, sounds, acts, all are not; the soul lives, but lives in silence;
the silence deepens and deepens till it becomes absolutely perfect, and then
death has come, and the soul finds itself sensibly face to face with God. This
is the end of all human life. (F. C. Woodhouse, M. A.)
Joseph discovers himself
I. A BROTHER’S
PARDON. Joseph’s.
1. Of a great injury.
2. Of brothers. The crime therefore greater. More easy to forgive
the offence of a stranger than of a friend (Psalms 41:9; Psalms 55:12-13; Psalms 55:20).
3. The pardon magnanimously bestowed. Proved by deeds as well as
words. Their sin extenuated. He dwells on the good that came out of it, not on
the evil that was in it. Tried to soften down their harsh self-censure. The
method of professing pardon may detract from its value, and suggest a doubt of
its sincerity.
4. Marked by deep affection. He could not repress his emotions, nor
conceal his joy. Judah, the darkest character, not excepted.
5. Practically demonstrated. He will henceforth care for them during
the famine.
II. A KING’S
GRATITUDE. Pharaoh’s.
1. It had been already proved. He had exalted Joseph.
2. He now cares for Joseph’s friends. Royally lays himself out for
their present good. Strange contrast to the conduct of many kings towards their
deliverers and helpers (Charles I. and Earl Stafford; Charles II., and his
treatment of the faithful adherents of his house in its misfortunes; also David
and Barzillai).
3. It was bountifully expressed. Will have all Joseph’s family
invited to Egypt. Promises that they shall have “ the fat of the land.” Sends
with the invitation the means of conveyance. Enjoins the free use of means and
subsistence. “Regard not your stuff,” &c. (Genesis 45:20).
III. A FATHER’S
ZOO. Jacob’s.
1. Imagine Jacob’s home. The old man of 130 years, feeble, doubtful,
fearful, apprehensive. Waiting for the return of his sons. Anxious concerning
Benjamin.
2. Picture the arrival at home. They are all there. Benjamin amongst
them. Simon also. Joyful greeting.
3. They tell their story. Good news. Joseph yet alive! governor of
Egypt.
4. Jacob’s doubts. He is suspicious of his sons.
5. The arrival of the waggons convinces him. His spirit revives. His
great joy. New hopes. He will see Joseph again, and in such a robe of office as
his affection could not have provided. What greater joy can a father know than
that excited by good news of absent children. Those who leave home with good
principles the most likely to create such joy. Religion supplies the only true
basis of character. The Lord was with Joseph. He will be with us in our
wanderings, if we begin them with Him. Learn: Let love be without
dissimulation. Forgive injuries and prove the reality of forgiveness. (J. C.
Gray.)
Joseph’s dealings with his brethren
Joseph recognized his brethren at once, though they failed, as
they bowed before the mighty vicegerent of Egypt, to recognize in him the child
by them so pitilessly sold into bondage; and Joseph, we are told, “remembered
the dreams which he had dreamed of them”; how their sheaves should stand round
about and make obeisance to his sheaf; how sun and moon and eleven stars should
all do homage to him. All at length was coming true.
I. Now, of
course, it would have been very easy for him at once to have made himself known
to his brethren, to have fallen on their necks and assured them of his
forgiveness. But he has counsels of love at once wiser and deeper than would
have lain in such a ready and off-hand declaration of forgiveness. His purpose
is to prove whether they are different men, or, if not, to make them different
men from what they were when they practised that deed of cruelty against
himself. He feels that he is carrying out, not his own purpose, but Cod’s, and
this gives him confidence in hazarding all, as he does not hazard it, in
bringing this matter to a close.
II. Two things
were necessary here: the first that he should have the opportunity of observing
their conduct to their younger brother, who had now stepped into his place, and
was the same favourite with his father as Joseph once had been; the second,
that by some severe treatment, which should bear a more or less remote
resemblance to their treatment of himself, he should prove whether he could
call from them a lively remembrance and a penitent confession of their past
guilt.
III. The dealings
of Joseph with his brethren are, to a great extent, the very pattern of God’s
dealings with men. God sees us careless, in easily forgiving ourselves our old
sins; and then, by trial and adversity and pain, He brings these sins to our
remembrance, causes them to find us out, and at length extracts from us a
confession, “we are verily guilty.” And then, when tribulation has done its
work, He is as ready to confirm His love to us as ever was Joseph to confirm
his love to his brethren. (Archbishop Trench.)
Joseph makes himself known
I. THE ENDURING
STRENGTH AND WORTH OF FAMILY AFFECTION. Nothing more beautiful in man than
this. Age does not congeal it, nor death destroy it. A holy, perennial fire. It
begets gentleness, patience, long suffering, forgiveness of injury, oblivion of
wrong.
II. THE CONSTANT
FEAR WROUGHT BY CONSCIOUS GUILT. The tender emotion of Joseph was not shared by
his brethren. His declaration, “I am Joseph,” drew from them no glad
expressions of joy. They were silent from dismay. “His brethren could not
answer him; for they were troubled at his presence.” Conscious guilt filled
them with alarm and anxious questioning. Could he ever forgive them? Since he
had them now in his power, and he had become so great, would he not take
vengeance upon them? Their sense of guilt had not perished or weakened with
time. It was as enduring as Joseph’s love.
III. GOD CHOOSES
THE WICKED TO ACCOMPLISH HIS DIVINE PURPOSES. Joseph had been sold, from
malice, by his brethren into Egypt. And yet God had sent him there. It seems
like an irreconcilable contradiction of facts, and yet the thing alleged was
true. And our view of the world’s events is inadequate unless we believe that
God in a similar way always takes a controlling part in the affairs of men. Did
this fact lessen the guilt of the sons of Jacob? Did Joseph mean that they were
excused on account of it? Certainly not. Their guilt was according to their
intention.
IV. THE INVITED
FIND GRACE BECAUSE OF THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO THE GOOD, For his father’s sake and
for Benjamin’s sake, Joseph forgave them all they had done to him. What
magnanimity of spirit! It was as if he had blotted out their sin and remembered
it no more. And his efforts to allay and banish their fears assured them that
from him they had nothing to dread. It was a beautiful fore-gleam of the grace
of the Gospel. So Christ has sought to assuage our guilty fears by speaking to
us of His Father and our Father, and by owning us as His brethren. Well is it
for us that we are connected in this way by ties of relationship with the good
of earth and sky. If we stood alone, unconnected with others whose prayers and
merit move heaven’s favour in our behalf to give us further opportunity to
repent, or which win for us undeserved consideration from our fellow-men--who
show us kindness for the sake of a father, or a mother, or a sister,or some
other--it would be far worse with us. But their merit, like charity, covers a
multitude of sins in us. We are clad in a borrowed grace, derived from them,
and our faults are excused and borne with, and our meagre virtues rated far
above their real value.
V. THE GROUND OF
PEACE FOR WRONG-DOERS. When Joseph had fallen upon Benjamin’s neck and wept,
and had kissed all his brethren and wept upon them, “after that his brethren
talked with him.” The speechless terror exhibited by them at first then
vanished away. What cured their trouble of heart? It was the assurance they had
that Joseph looked upon them graciously for their father’s and brother’s sake,
and that he entirely forgave their sin. This assurance had been wrought in them
by the words and acts of Joseph. The kiss he had given them, and his tears of
joy, formed an indubitable token of pardon and reconciliation. In his treatment
of them we have, therefore, a hint of God’s treatment of men for their sin, and
of the way a guilty soul may find peace. Two things are required:
1. A worthy Mediator to whom we are so related that His merit will
procure us Divine favour.
2. Indubitable evidence of acceptance and pardon through Him. The
Christ was such a Mediator. He was “holy, harmless, undefiled,. . . higher than
the heavens,” and “not ashamed to call us brethren.” Through our relationship
with Him as brethren, we are invested with His righteousness. (A. H.Currier.)
Joseph and his brethren
I. THE EXCELLENCE
OF FORGIVENESS.
II. THE SACREDNESS
OF FAMILY TIES. The relation of children to their parents, and of brothers and
sisters to each other is peculiarly sacred. Other connections we may determine
for ourselves; this is appointed by God. It brings great opportunities and
great risks. There are no others we can hurt so sorely, or make so glad, as
those in our own household.
III. THIS STORY
ILLUSTRATES CHRIST’S FORGIVENESS. The great Elder Brother suffers at our hands;
yet loves us when we will not love Him, and waits for years till our need shall
bring us to His feet. Even then He cannot take us at once to His bosom. The sense
of guilt must be awakened, the tears of penitence flow. (P. B. Davis.)
I. THE RIPENESS
OF THE TIME.
Joseph made known to his brethren
II. HIS DELICACY
OF FEELING.
III. HIS ENTIRE
FORGIVENESS.
1. He strives to prevent remorse.
2. He bids them see in their past history the plan of God. (T.
H.Leale.)
Joseph reveals himself
I. JOSEPH’S
INTERVIEW WITH HIS BRETHREN,
1. Observe the delicacy of Joseph’s feelings in removing all the
witnesses of his emotion. Feeling, to be true and deep, must be condensed by
discipline.
2. Notice the entireness of Joseph’s forgiveness.
II. THE SUMMONS OF
JACOB BY PHARAOH.
1. Remark, Pharaoh rejoiced with Joseph (Genesis 45:16). Love begets love. Joseph
had been faithful, and Pharaoh honours and esteems him.
2. The advice given by Joseph to his brethren (Genesis 45:24). We should do well to
ponder on Joseph’s advice, for when that wondrous message was given to the
world that God had pardoned man, men at once began to quarrel with each other.
They began to throw the blame on the Jew alone for having caused His death;
they began to quarrel respecting the terms of salvation.
3. Last]y, we remark the incredulity of Jacob, “his heart fainted.”
There are two kinds of unbelief, that which disbelieves because it hates the
truth, and that which disbelieves because the truth is apparently too glorious
to be received. The latter was the unbelief of Jacob; it may be an evidence of
weakness, but not necessarily an evidence of badness. (F. W. Robertson, M.
A.)
Recognition and reconciliation
I. DISCLOSURE. “I
am Joseph.” Were ever the pathos of simplicity, and the simplicity of pathos,
more nobly expressed than in these two words? (They are but two in the Hebrew.)
Has the highest dramatic genius ever winged an arrow which goes more surely to
the heart than that? The question, which hurries after the disclosure, Seems
strange and needless; but it is beautifully self-revealing, as expressive of
agitation, and as disclosing a son’s longing, and perhaps, too, as meant to
relieve the brothers’ embarrassment, and, as it were, to wrap the keen edge of
the disclosure in soft wool.
II.
CONSCIENCE-STRICKEN SILENCE. An illustration of the profitlessness of all
crime. Sin is, as one of its Hebrew names tells us, missing the mark, whether
we think of it as fatally failing to reach the ideal of conduct, or as always,
by a Divine nemesis, failing to hit even the shabby end it aims at. “Every
rogue is a roundabout fool.” They put Joseph in the pit, and here he is on a
throne. They have stained their souls, and embittered their father’s life for
twenty-two long years, and the dreams have come true, and all their wickedness
has not turned the stream of the Divine purpose any more than the mud dam built
by a child diverts the Mississippi. One flash has burned up their whole sinful
past, and they stand scorched and silent among the ruins. So it always is.
Sooner or later the same certainty of the futility of his sin will overwhelm
every sinful man, and dumb self-condemnation will stand in silent
acknowledgment of evil desert before the throne of the Brother, who is now the
prince and the judge, on whose fiat hangs life or death. To see Christ
enthroned should be joy; but it may be turned into terror and silent
anticipation of His just condemnation.
III. ENCOURAGEMENT
AND COMPLETE FORGIVENESS (Genesis 45:4-8). More than natural
sweetness and placability must have gone to the making of such a temper of
forgiveness. He must have been living near the Fountain of all mercy to have
had so full a cup of it to offer. Because he had caught a gleam of the Divine
pardon, he becomes a mirror of it; and we may fairly see in this ill-used
brother, yearning over the half-sullen sinners, and seeking to open a way for
his forgiveness to steal into their hearts, and rejoicing over his very sorrows
which have fitted him to save them alive, and satisfy them in the days of
famine, an adumbration of our Elder Brother’s forgiving love and saving
tenderness.
IV. MESSAGE TO
JACOB.
1. It bespeaks a simple nature, unspoiled by prosperity, to delight
thus in his father’s delight, and to wish the details of all his splendour to
be told him. A statesman who takes most pleasure in his elevation because of
the good he can do by it, and because it will please the old people at home,
must be a pure and lovable man. The command has another justification in the
necessity to assure his father of the wisdom of so great a change. God had sent
him into the promised land, and a very plain Divine injunction was needed to
warrant his leaving it. Such a one was afterwards given in vision; but the most
emphatic account of his son’s honour and power was none the less required to
make the old Jacob willing to abandon so much, and go into such strange
conditions.
2. We have another instance of the difference between man’s purposes
and God’s counsel in this message. Joseph’s only thought is to afford his
family temporary shelter during the coming five years of famine. Neither he nor
they knew that this was the fulfilment of the covenant with Abraham, and the
bringing of them into the land of their oppression for four centuries. No
shadow of that future was cast upon their joy, and yet the steady march of
God’s plan was effected along the path which they were ignorantly preparing.
The road-maker does not know what bands of mourners, or crowds of holiday
makers, or troops of armed men, may pass along it.
V. THE KISS OF
FULL RECONCILIATION AND FRANK COMMUNION. The history of Jacob’s household had
hitherto been full of sins against family life. Now, at last, they taste the
sweetness of fraternal love. Joseph, against whom they had sinned, takes the
initiative, flinging himself with tears on the neck of Benjamin, his own
mother’s son, nearer to him than all the others, crowding his pent-up love in
one long kiss. Then, with less of passionate affection, but more of pardoning
love, he kisses his contrite brothers. The offender is ever less ready to show
love than the offended. The first step towards reconciliation, whether of man
with man or of man with God, comes from the aggrieved. We always hate those
whom we have harmed; and if enmity were only ended by the advances of the
wrong-doer, it would be perpetual. The injured has the prerogative of praying
the injurer to be reconciled. So was it in Pharaoh’s throne-room on that long
past day; so is it still in the audience chamber of heaven. “He that might the
vantage best have took, found out the remedy.” “We love Him, because He first
loved us.” (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Joseph discovering himself to his brethren
“I am Joseph.”
1. It is an expression of great humility. The governor of Egypt
remembered that he was Joseph, a Hebrew--the son of an old pilgrim who now
sojourned in Canaan, and the brother of these plain and vulgar strangers who
depended on his goodness and solicited his clemency.
2. Here is soft and gentle reproof. He hints at their crime, but
without menaces or reproaches. He alludes to it as if he only aimed to palliate
it.
3. Here is the language of forgiveness.
4. Here is a pious reference of his brethren to the wonderful works
of Providence. Your Joseph, whom you had doomed to death or perpetual slavery,
is employed of God to preserve you and your families from misery and ruin.
5. This is an expression of filial affection; for mark what
immediately follows: “Doth my father yet live?” How tender, how affectionate,
how dutiful the question.
6. Here is an expression of general benevolence. “I am Joseph, whom
ye sold in Egypt God did send me before you, to preserve life.” He considered
himself as promoted to power, not for his own sake, but for the public good;
and to this end he applied the power which he possessed. (J. Lathrop, D. D.)
The reconciliation
1. The modes in which our Lord makes Himself known to men are
various as their lives and characters. But frequently the forerunning choice of
a sinner by Christ is discovered in such gradual and ill-understood dealings as
Joseph used with those brethren. It is the closing of a net around them. They
seem to be doomed men--men who are never at all to get disentangled from their
old sin. If any one is in this baffled and heartless condition, fearing even
good lest it turn to evil in his hand; afraid to take the money that lies in
the sack’s mouth, because he feels there is a snare in it; if any one is
sensible that life has become unmanageable in his hands, and that he is being
drawn on by an unseen power which he does not understand, then let him consider
in the scene before us how such a condition ends or may end. There is always in
Christ a greater love seeking the friendship of a sinner than there is in the
sinner seeking for Christ.
2. In finding their brother again, those sons of Jacob found also
their own better selves which they had long lost. They had been living in a
lie, unable to look the past in the face, and so becoming more and more false.
Trying to leave their sin behind them, they always found it rising in the path
before them, and again they had to resort to some new mode of laying this
uneasy ghost. So, too, do many of us live as if yet we had not found the life
eternal, the kind of life that we can always go on with--rather as those who
are but making the best of a life which can never be very valuable, nor ever
perfect. There seem voices calling us back, assuring us we must yet retrace our
steps, that there are passages in our past with which we are not done, that
there is an inevitable humiliation and penitence awaiting us. It is through
that we can alone get back to the good we once saw and hoped for; there were
right desires and resolves in us once, views of a well-spent life which have been
forgotten and pressed out of remembrance, but all these rise again in the
presence of Christ.
3. A third suggestion is made by this narrative. Joseph commanded
from his presence all who might be merely curious spectators of his burst of
feeling, and might, themselves unmoved, criticise this new feature of the
governor’s character. In all love there is a similar reserve. (M. Dods, D.
D.)
Joseph’s disclosure of himself to his brethren
Why was it he so long, and by artifices so strange, delayed the
disclosure which an affectionate heart must have been yearning to make? There
is a question antecedent to this, which forces itself on the student of the
narrative, and to which Scripture can scarcely be said to furnish a reply. How
came it that Joseph had made no inquiries after his family; or had not
attempted to have had intercourse with his father, during the many years that
Jacob had been bewailing his loss?--for more than twenty years had elapsed from
his having been sold to the Ishmaelites to his meeting his brethren; yet he
does not seem to have sent a single message to Jacob, though there was free
communication between Egypt and Canaan. Fourteen of those years he had, indeed,
been in trouble, and it may not have been in his power to transmit any account of
himself; but, for the last six years, he had been ruler over the land; and you
might have expected the first use made of his authority would have been to
obtain tidings of his father--to ascertain whether he survived--and, if he did,
to minister to his comforts in his declining years. Yet it appears that Joseph
did nothing of the kind; he attempted no intercourse with his family, though
his circumstances were such that, if attempted, it would have been readily
effected. It is evident that Joseph considered himself as finally separated
from his father and brethren, for we read, as his reason for calling his
first-born Manasseh, “God hath made me forget all my toil, and all my father’s
house.” It might be inferred from this expression, that Joseph regarded it as
an appointment of God that he should forget his father’s house. At all events,
there is ground enough for concluding that it was through Divine direction that
he abstained from making himself known; and, though strange would be the
silence of Joseph, if you supposed it to have proceeded from his own will, yet
there are reasons enough to vindicate it, if maintained at the bidding of God.
We would have you remember that Jacob had to undergo the retribution of his
grevious fault, in having deceived Isaac his father, and gained by fraud, the
blessing. The retribution commenced when he himself was deceived by Laban, who
gave him Leah for Rachel; but it did not reach its full measure till he in turn
was imposed on by his own sons, who persuaded him that Joseph was slain. God
alone could determine for how long a time it was just that Jacob should be a
victim of this cruel opposition; yet, when we understand that his being
deceived was in recompense of his having deceived Isaac, we may readily believe
that Joseph was not sooner allowed to make himself known, because the
punishment of Jacob was not sooner complete. It would not be difficult to
suppose other reasons; for, by effecting in so circuitous a manner, and after
so long a time, the reunion of Joseph with the house of his father, God
afforded occasions for the display of His over-ruling power and providence,
which hardly could have occurred on any supposition, and which could not have
been wanting but with great loss to the Church in every age. But, admitting
that Joseph acted under the direction of God, in remaining so many years
without intercourse with his father, and that therefore his silence is no proof
of want of good affection, what are we to say of his conduct when his brethren
were brought actually before him--of his harsh language--of his binding
Simeon--of his putting the cup in Benjamin’s sack? Joseph, it must be
remembered, was an injured man, and the persons with whom he is called upon to
deal are those from whose hands his injuries had come. Unto a man of less pious
feeling, the temptation would have been strong of using his present superiority
in avenging the wrongs which had been heaped upon his youth. While, however,
Joseph had no thought of avenging himself on his brethren, he must still have
borne in mind the evil of their characters; and knowing them, by sad
experience, to have been men of deceit and cruelty, he would be naturally
suspicious both of the uprightness of their actions, and the veracity of their
words. Now, if we keep this in mind, it will serve as a clue to much that is
intricate. It was Joseph’s ruling desire to obtain accurate tidings as to the
existence and welfare of Jacob and Benjamin; many years had rolled away since
treachery and violence had torn him from his father--he had been as one dead
unto his kindred, and his kindred as the deadunto him; therefore when his
brethren who hated him, and cast him out, suddenly stood before him, his first
impulse must have been to ascertain whether his father and the brother of his
affections were yet among the living. And why, then, you may say, did he not
follow the impulse--make himself known, and propose the question? Ah! he knew
his brethren to be cruel and deceitful; they might have hated and practised
against Benjamin, as they had done in regard to himself: and it was clear that,
if Benjamin also had been their victim, they, when they found themselves in the
power of Joseph, would have invented some false account as a shield from the
anger which the truth must have provoked. Hence the method of direct
questioning was not open to Joseph; he therefore tried an indirect method;
brings an accusation against his brethren--the accusation of being spies--which
he knew could only be refuted by some appeal to their domesticor national circumstances.
Thus he throws them off their guard, and by making it their interest to tell
the truth, he diminishes in a measure the likelihood of falsehood. Thus far, we
ask you, was not the conduct of Joseph intelligible and exceptionable? He
wanted information which he could not procure by ordinary means, therefore he
took extraordinary means; for, if the brethren never returned, he would know
too well that Benjamin had perished; but, if they returned, and brought
Benjamin with them, his happiness would be complete. Hence, then, the
harshness--though, by taking care that his brethren should depart laden with
corn, and every man with his money in his sack, did he but, after all, give
sufficient proof that the harshness was but assumed, and that kindness, the warmest
and truest, was uppermost in his breast. But what shall we say of Joseph’s
conduct, when his brethren returned and brought Benjamin with them? It is
somewhat more difficult to explain. Strange, that in place of at once falling
upon Benjamin’s neck, Joseph should have used deceit to make him seem a robber!
Though the long delay of his brethren in Canaan might have strengthened the
suspicions of Joseph, yet his suspicions must all have disappeared when
Benjamin stood actually before him; and we hardly see why he need have put upon
himself the painful restraint so pathetically described. “He made haste; for
his bowels did yearn upon his brother: and he sought where to weep; and he
entered into his chamber, and wept there.” And yet still he did not make himself
known to his brethren, but allowed them to depart, providing, by concealment of
the cup, for the after interruption of their journey. We may suppose that
through this strange artifice, Joseph sought to ascertain the disposition of
the ten brothers towards Benjamin; there was no doubt but that he was planning
the bringing of the whole family to settle in Egypt, and it was needful, before
carrying out this plan, that he should know whether the whole family were well
agreed, or whether they were still divided by factions and jealousies: thus, by
putting Benjamin apparently in peril, convicting him of theft, and then
declaring his intention of punishing by enslaving him, he was morally sure of
discovering the real feelings of the rest. For if they had hated Benjamin as
they had hated him, they would treat his fate with indifference; whereas, if he
were in any measure dear to them, the fact would become evident by the
manifested emotions. The artifice succeeded--the agony which the ten brothers
displayed, when they heard that Benjamin must be kept as a bondsman, put out of
question that the son of Jacob’s old age was beloved by the children of Leah,
and removed the natural apprehension that the feuds of early years remained to
mar the plan with which Joseph was occupied. And further, may it not be
possible that Joseph wished to assure himself that the children of Rachel were
as dear to Jacob now as they had been in their youth. He might have thought
that Jacob’s affections had possibly been alienated from Benjamin and himself;
this he would be naturally desirous to ascertain, before he discovered himself
in the ruler of Egypt. If the ten were quite ready to leave Benjamin behind, it
would be too evident that they were under no fear of the consequences of meeting
their father unattended by their brother, and Joseph would have reason to
conclude that Jacob’s love had been estranged from the children of Rachel. On
the contrary, if the ten showed by their conduct that to return without
Benjamin would indeed be to “bring down Jacob’s gray hairs with sorrow to the
grave,” there would be no place for any suspicion: nothing would remain but for
Joseph to throw aside his irksome disguise, and hasten to be enfolded in the
arms of his parent. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
I am Joseph
“I am Joseph!” Joseph, and yet more than Joseph. We are not the
same twenty years afterwards that we are to-day. The old name--yet may be a new
nature. The old identity; yet there may be enlarged capacity, refined
sensibilities, diviner tastes, holier tendencies. I am Joseph 1 It is as if the
great far-spreading umbrageous oak said, “I am the acorn!” or the great tree
said, “I am the little mustard-seed!” Literally it was Joseph; yet in a higher
sense it was not Joseph, but Joseph increased, educated, drilled, magnified,
put in his right position. You have no right to treat the man of twenty years
ago as if twenty years had not elapsed. I don’t know men whom I knew twenty
years ago! I know their names; but they may be--if I have not seen them during
the time, and if they have been reading, thinking, praying, growing-entirely
different men. You must not judge them externally, hut according to their
intellectual, moral, and spiritual qualities. To treat a man whom you knew
twenty years ago as if he were the same man is equal to handing him, in the
strength and power of his years, the toys with which he amused his infancy. Let
us destroy our identity, in so far as that identity is associated with
incompleteness of strength, shallowness of nature, poverty of information,
deficiency of wisdom; so that men may talk to us and not know us, and our most
familiar acquaintance of twenty years ago may require to be introduced to us
to-day as if he had never heard our name. But the point on which I wish to
fasten your attention most particularly is this: That there are in human life
days of revelation, when people get to know the meaning of what they have been
looking at notwithstanding the appearances which were before their eyes. We
shall see men as we never saw them before. The child will see his old despised
mother some day as he never saw her. And you, young man, who have attained the
patriarchal age of nineteen, and who smile at your old father when he quotes
some old maxim and wants to read a chapter out of what he calls the Holy Bible,
will one day see him as you never saw him. The angel of God that is in him will
shine out upon you, and you will see whose counsel you have despised and whose
tenderness you have contemned. We only see one another now and then. Sometimes
the revelation is quick as a glance, impossible to detain as a flash of
lightning. Sometimes the revelation comes in a tone of unusual pathos, and when
we hear that tone for the first time we say, “We never knew the man before.
Till we heard him express himself in the manner we thought him rough and
coarse, wanting in self-control, and delicacy, and pathos; but that one tone I
Why, no man could have uttered it but one who has often been closeted with God,
and who has drank deeply into Christ’s own cup of sorrow.” (J. Parker, D. D.)
Joseph weeps
It was his third weeping, the great weeping, although one other
had more pain in it. It was the flood of love pent up and pressed back for so
many years by man’s sin and God’s righteousness, now loosed by righteousness
and greater love. It was noble, God-like weeping, which we need not fear to
interpret by the tears of the Lord Jesus. It not only reminds us of the weeping
of Jesus at the grave of Lazarus on the brow of Olivet; it helps us to
understand these stranger tears. The spring-head of both was the same, the love
of God--though here it appeared as but a little stream, there as the river of
life. The immediate moving cause was the same, sympathy with the sorrowful,
compassion for the erring--though here the objects of compassionate love were
but some twelve persons, seventy at most, there a multitude whom no man can
number. Even when He was about to reveal the fulness of His love at the grave
of Lazarus, Jesus groaned in spirit and was troubled, because He felt how hard
it was to bring men to believe and accept that love: Joseph’s soul now
travailed with anguish keener than that of Dothan, in the effort to persuade
his trembling brothers that he did indeed love them, and wished nothing but
their love in return. (A. M. Symington, D. D.)
The value of circumlocution
There is an old English proverb that tells us that “the longest
way round” is, or may be, “the shortest way home.” Sometimes there may be no
other route at all but a roundabout or zigzag one. It would be impossible for
the great lumbering Swiss diligence to climb the Simplon Pass and get over into
Italy, were it not for that wonderful zigzag road that so patiently winds right
and left, seeming to gain but a few feet in an hour, but at last emerging at
the top of the Pass. Military engineers, too, know the value of zigzag. Except
on this principle how could the besiegers of a fortress get their trenches up
towards the walls? But a moral or spiritual path--that, surely, must never be
tortuous: are we not to “make straight paths for our feet, and look right on?”
And yet there is at least one branch of Christian duty in which a patient
zigzag course is often the most effectual; and that is in laying siege to
another’s soul. Nathan’s parable is a familiar instance: what success could he
have expected if he had attacked David with a direct charge? Our Lord’s
treatment of the lawyer in the tenth chapter of St. Luke--not answering
directly his question as to who his neighbour was, but telling him a story
first and making him apply it--is a case of yet higher authority; and so is His
dealing with the Syro-Phoenician woman. And does not God deal so with us now?
And what was the object of these strange dealings--of this zigzag course? It
was twofold:
1. to test their character, to see whether they repented of their
past life, whether they were now good sons to Jacob, and good brothers to
Benjamin;
2. If their disposition was not changed, to change it. (E. Stock)
A son’s affection
While Octavius was at Samos after the battle of Actium, which made
him master of the universe, he held a council to examine the prisoners who had
been engaged in Antony’s party. Among the rest there was brought before him an
old man, Metellus, oppressed with years and infirmities, disfigured with a long
beard, a neglected head of hair, and tattered clothes. The son of this Metellus
was one of the judges; but it was with great difficulty he knew his father in
the deplorable condition in which he saw him. At last, however, having
recollected his features, instead of being ashamed to own him, he ran to
embrace him, and begged Caesar that they might be put to death together.
Verse 4
Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you
Separation ending in union
It was by a strange and seemingly circuitous route that these
brethren of Joseph were brought near to him.
Between Joseph and his brethren there was an immeasurable distance--all the
difference between a nature given over to God and one abandoned to the force of
evil passion. We may see in this narrative a type of the ways and means God
still employs for bringing the wandering brothers of Joseph’s great Antitype
near to Him.
I. In order that
the brothers may be really drawn near to Joseph, they have first to be
separated from him by their own sin.
II. The next step
towards bringing them near is their own want.
III. When they get
into Joseph’s presence they are suddenly subjected to the most unlooked-for and
crushing trials.
IV. They are
smitten to the heart with the recollection of bygone sins; these are brought to
their remembrance as sins against their brother.
V. They were
alone with Joseph when he made himself known to them. (W. HayAitken, M. A.)
Joseph’s treatment of his brethren
I. THERE IS AN
ILLUSTRATION HERE OFFERED ON THE RETRIBUTIVE POWER OF AN AWAKENED CONSCIENCE.
II. NOTICE, ALSO,
THE ILLUSTRATION OFFERED OF THE SEEKING LOVE OF GOD. It is Joseph who makes all
the advances here. “I pray you”: it is the monarch who invites, the judge who
pleads. “Without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better.” It was
always so. Adam had hardly eaten of the forbidden fruit before the voice of the
Lord was heard in the garden asking for him. Our Maker takes no pleasure in the
death of the wicked, but would rather that the wicked should turn unto Him and
live.
III. HERE, TOO, IS
AN ILLUSTRATION OF THE EXACT DESIGN OF THE GOSPEL. Men need many things: as
those brethren needed food then, for themselves, their families, and their
beasts. But Joseph knew that temporary relief would amount to little. What they
most wanted for all the long future was simply himself in reconciliation. “Come
near to me” is exactly what Jesus Christ has always been saying to such as
labour and are heavy laden.
IV. So COMPLETE IS
OUR ILLUSTRATION IN THIS STORY, THAT IT LIKEWISE EXHIBITS THE NEED OF LAW-WORK
IN REDEMPTION. Much as he yearned over them, he would not even for an instant
relieve them of the salutary consciousness of so grievous a sin. Hence his
earliest words were: “I am Joseph, your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.” No
doubt he meant to bring these men into greatest perplexity, and fill them with
consternation. The first revelation of the Gospel is very much like a
reiteration of the law. In some respects the rays from Calvary resemble those
from Sinai; just as in some respects sunshine resembles lightning; but sunshine
never strikes, and lightning often clears out a poison of impurity and so makes
sunshine more welcome.
V. MARK THE
EXCELLENT ILLUSTRATION WE HAVE HERE OF THE REVELATION OF DIVINE GRACE. When
those brothers in that awful interview stood suppliant and frightened at the
feet of the ruler, there was pictured something very like the literal
fulfilment of a dream they must have remembered, when Joseph told them of the
eleven wheat-sheaves he had seen bowing before the one upright. “I am your
brother”: this one disclosure covered the whole ground. Sold--but a brother; a
monarch--but a brother; a judge--but a brother! “I am Joseph”: here he probably
began to talk in their own language; they heard the familiar accents of their
home-speech. Benjamin recognizes his own mother’s son.
VI. THERE IS AN
ILLUSTRATION IN THIS STORY OF THE COMPLETENESS OF PARDON, AND RELIEF FROM PAIN.
Watch how solicitous Joseph is lest his brothers should be “grieved or angry
with themselves “ any longer over that old, acknowledged, but not forgotten
sin. When our Saviour perceives that true repentance is already in the heart of
a sinner; when He knows that he understands his whole responsibility for his
sins; then He is prepared to administer for his comfort some of the sweet
assurances he has of God’s wisdom in causing even man’s wrath to praise Him.
Christ seems to say then: “I am the Lord of glory, whom ye with wicked hands
have crucified and slain; but God has over-ruled even this crime to His own
glory and your redemption; be not grieved with yourself therefore, over-much,
for Divine foreknowledge sent Me before you to preserve life.”
VII. SEE HERE WHAT
AN ILLUSTRATION WE HAVE OF THE SINFULNESS AND FOLLY OF REJECTING THE GOSPEL. Of
course, there is nothing in the story which suggests the thought; but there is
room for imagination just to make the conjecture: how would it seem? Suppose
Simeon, just out of prison, had turned his back upon Joseph’s offer! Suppose
Benjamin, just delivered from accusation, had refused to have Joseph’s arms
around his neck! Suppose Judah, his eyes still moist with pleading, had
rejected Joseph’s kiss! And some have resisted the loving pleading and gracious
tenderness of the Son of God who gave His life a ransom for us. (Charles S.
Robinson, D. D.)
Joseph and his brethren
I. We think that
the condition and posture of Judah and his brethren at the feet of the throne
of Joseph, trembling in alarm, well describe THE CONDITION AND POSITION OF
EVERY TRULY AWAKENED SINNER.
1. By different methods Joseph had at last awakened the consciences
of his ten brethren. The point which seemed to have been brought out most
prominently before their consciences was this: “We are verily guilty concerning
our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and
we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us.” And though, in the
speech which Judah made, it was not necessary to accuse themselves of crime,
yet in the confession, “God hath found out the iniquity of thy servants,”
Joseph could see evidently enough that the recollection of the pit and of the
sale to the Ishmaelites was vividly before their mind’s eye. Now, when the Lord
the Holy Ghost arouses sinners’ consciences, this is the great sin which he
brings to mind: “Of sin because they believed not on Me.” Once the careless
soul thought it had very little to answer for: “I have not done much amiss,”
said he; “a speedy reformation may wipe out all that has been awry, and my
faults will soon be forgotten and forgiven”; but now, on a sudden, the
conscience perceives that the soul is guilty of despising, rejecting, and
slaughtering Christ.
2. A second thought, however, which tended to make Joseph’s brethren
feel in a wretched plight was this: that they now discovered that they were in
Joseph’s hands. There stood Joseph, second to none but Pharaoh in all the
empire of Egypt. Legions of warriors were at his beck and command; if he should
say, “take these men, bind them hand and foot, or cut them in pieces,” none
could interpose; he was to them as a lion, and they were as his prey, which he
could rend to pieces at his will. Now to the awakened sinner, this also is a
part of his misery: that he is entirely in the hands of that very Christ whom
he once despised; for that Christ who died has now become the judge of the
quick and dead, He has power over all flesh, that He may give eternal life to
as many as His Father has given Him. The Father judgeth no man, He has
committed all judgment to the Son. Dost thou see this, sinner, He whom thou
despised is thy Master?
3. Under a sense of all these things--note what the ten brethren
did. They began to plead. Ah! nothing makes a man pray like a sense of sin.
II. We turn,
however, now to remark, that THE SINGULARLY ROUGH BEHAVIOUR OF JOSEPH IS A
NOTABLE REPRESENTATION OF THE WAY IN WHICH CHRIST DEALS WITH SOULS UNDER
CONVICTION OF SIN. Joseph always was their brother, always loved them, had a
heart full of compassion to them even when he called them spies. Kind words
were often hastening to his lips, yet for their good he showed himself to be as
a stranger and even as an enemy, so that he might bring them very low and
prostrate before the throne. Jesus Christ often does this with truly awakened
souls whom He means to save. Perhaps to some of you who are to-day conscious of
guilt but not of mercy, Christ seems as a stern and angry Judge; you think of
Him as one who can by no means spare the guilty; your only idea of Him is of
one who would say to you, “Get thee behind Me, Satan, thou savourest not the
things that be of God.” You went to Him in prayer; but instead of getting an
answer He seemed to shut up your prayer in prison and keep it like Simeon bound
before your eyes. Yea, instead of telling you that there was mercy, He said to
you as with a harsh voice, “It is not meet to take the children’s bread and
cast it unto dogs.” He appeared to shut his ear to your petitions and to hear
none of your requests, and to say to you, “Except ye renounce a right eye sin
and a right arm pleasure, and give up your Benjamin delights, ye shall see My
face no more,” and you have come to think, poor soul, that Christ is hard and stern,
and whereas He is ever the gentle Mediator receiving sinners and eating with
them, whereas His usual voice is “Come unto Me all ye that labour and are heavy
laden and I will give you rest,” to you He seemeth no such person, for He has
put on a disguise, and ye understand not who and what He is. But you will
perceive, brethren, in reading the narrative, that even when Joseph disguised
himself there was still much kindness discoverable in his conduct; so to the
awakened sinner, even while Jesus appears to deal hardly, there is something
sweet and encouraging amid it all. Do you not remember what Joseph did for his
brethren? Though he was their judge he was their host too; he invited them to a
great feast; he gave to Benjamin five times as much as to any of them; and they
feasted even at the king’s table, So has it been with you. Christ has rebuked
and chastened you, but still He has sent you messes ‘from his royal table. Ay,
and there is another thing He has done for you, He has given you corn to live
upon while under bondage. You would have despaired utterly if it had not been
for some little comfort that He afforded you; perhaps you would have put an end
to your life--you might bare gone desperately into worse sin than before, had
it not been that He filled your sack at seasons with the corn of Egypt. But
mark, He has never taken any of your money yet, and He never will. He has
always put your money in the sack’s mouth. You have come with your resolutions
and with your good deeds, but when He has given you comfort He has always taken
care to show you that He did not confer it because of any good thing you had in
your hands. When you went down and brought double money with you, yet the
double money too was returned. He would have nothing of you; He has taught you
as much as that, and you begin to feel now that if He should bless you, it must
be without money and without price. Ay, poor soul, and there is one other point
upon which thine eye may rest with pleasure; He has sometimes spoken to thee
comfortably. Did not Joseph say to Benjamin, “God be gracious unto thee, my
son”? And so, sometimes, under a consoling sermon, though as yet you are not
saved, you have had a few drops of comfort. Oh! ye have gone sometimes out of
the house of prayer as light as the birds of the air, and though you could not
say “ He is mine and I am His,” yet you had a sort of inkling that the match
would come off one day. He had said--“God be gracious to thee, my son.” You
half thought, though you could not speak it loud enough to let your heart
distinctly hear it, you half thought that the day would come when your sins
would be forgiven; when the prisoner should leap to lose his chains; when you
should know Joseph your brother to have accepted and loved your soul. I say,
then, Christ disguises himself to poor awakened sinners just as Joseph did, but
even amidst the sternness of His manner for awhile, there is such a sweet
mixture of love, that no troubled one need run into despair.
III. JOSEPH
AFTERWARDS REVEALED HIMSELF TO HIS BRETHREN, AND SO THE LORD JESUS DOES IN DUE
TIME SWEETLY REVEAL HIMSELF TO POOR CONSCIENCE-STRICKEN PENITENT SINNERS.
1. Notice that this discovery was made secretly. Christ does not
show Himself to sinners in a crowd; every man must see the love of Christ for himself;
we go to hell in bundles, but we go to heaven one by one. Each man must
personally know in his own heart his own guilt; and privately and secretly,
where no other heart can join with him, he must hear words of love from Christ.
“Go and sin no more.” “Thy sins which are many are all forgiven thee.”
2. Mark, that as this was done in secret, the first thing Joseph
showed them was his name. “I am Joseph.” Blessed is that day to the sinner when
Christ says to him, “I am Jesus, I am the Saviour”; when the soul discerns
instead of the lawgiver, the Redeemer; when it looks to the wounds which its
own sin has made, and sees the ransom-price flowing in drops of gore; looks to
the head its own iniquity had crowned with thorns, and sees beaming there a
crown of glory provided for the sinner.
3. Having revealed his name, the next thing he did was to reveal his
relationship--“I am Joseph, your brother.” Oh, blessed is that heart which sees
Jesus to be its brother, bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh, the son of Mary
as well as the Son of God.
4. And then will you please to notice, that having thus proved his
affection, he gave them an invitation to approach. “Come near to me, I pray
you.” You are getting away in the corner. You want to hide away in the chamber
alone; you do not want to tell anybody ,about your sorrow. Jesus says, “Come
near to Me, I pray you. Do not hold your griefs away from Me. Tell Me what it
is you want. Confess to Me your guilt; ask Me for pardon, if you want it. Come
near to Me, do not be afraid. I could not smite with a hand that bought you; I
could not spurn you with the foot that was nailed for you to the tree. Come to
Me!” Ah! this is the hardest work in the world, to get a sinner to come near to
Christ.
5. I want you to notice again, having given the invitation, what
consolation Joseph gave! He did not say, “I am not angry with you; I forgive
you”; he said something sweeter than that--“Be not angry with yourselves,” as
much as to say, “As for me, ye need not question about that: be not grieved nor
angry with yourselves.” So my blessed, my adorable Master, says to a poor, cast
down, dejected sinner--“As for My forgiving you, that is done. My heart is made
of tenderness, My bowels melt with love; forgive yourself; be not grieved nor
angry with yourself: it is true you have sinned, but I have died; it is true
you have destroyed yourself, but I have saved you.”
6. Last of all, having thus given them the consolation, he gave a
quietus for their understanding in an explanation. He says, “It was not you, it
was God that sent me hither.” So doth Christ say to the poor soul that feels
itself guilty of the Lord’s crucifixion. “It was not you,” says He, “it was God
that sent Me to preserve your lives with a great deliverance.” Man was the
second agent in Christ’s death, but God was the great first worker, for He was
delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God; man did it to
destroy righteousness, but God did it to save even the ungodly. Man hath the
crime, but God hath the triumphing; man rules, but God over-rules. (C. H.
Spurgeon.)
Forgiveness of injury
A little boy being asked what forgiveness is, gave the beautiful
answer: “It is the odour that flowers breathe when they are trampled upon.”
Philip the Good, when some of his courtiers would have persuaded him to punish
a prelate who had used him ill, he declined, saying, “It is a fine thing to
have revenge in one’s power; but it is a finer thing not to use it.”
Verse 5
Be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves
The duty of self-forgiveness
Is it allowable, in any case, to forgive ourselves?
Some of those who have a proper sense of man’s responsibility to his Maker
would be inclined at first to say, No. Most of those whose views of man’s
responsibility are inadequate would at once reply, Yes. It is only too evident,
in fact, that they do forgive themselves where they ought not. But does it
follow that their reply can never, in any case, be correct? The text implies,
on the one hand, that we ought to grieve for our sins; and, on the other, that
there is a proper limit to grief.
I. LET US
CONSIDER OUR SINS IN THEIR ASPECT TOWARDS GOD, the most serious aspect of all.
Acts of enmity and rebellion, treating God’s law with dishonour and scorn.
Cause enough here for being grieved and angry with ourselves. Yet, if these
sins are repented of, and if we have true faith in the Redeemer’s blood, there
is an appointed balm for this wound.
II. THE EFFECTS OF
OUR SINS UPON MAN. “One sinner destroyeth much good”--like an infectious
disease introduced into a community. There is not a greater murderer in
existence than the man who, through neglect or obstinacy, should introduce a
fever into a city. Is the man very much better who sins against other men’s
souls? Yet we have done this, all of us, in our time; we have sinned against
many a soul, and we have occasioned many a pang and many a sin by our sins. On
this account, therefore, it well becomes us to be grieved; and yet, as before,
not to grieve in the way of despair. For if our sins have been repented of and
forgiven, they are not the things that they were, either in God’s sight or in
their effects upon men. (Homilist.)
Divine Providence in things evil
It were a mockery to tell us that we should have safety by the
hand of Omnipotence, in regard to the powers of irrational nature; but that in
all that concerns the free or the wicked actions of men, we must rely on
ourselves or on chance. It were a crippled and insufficient Providence which
should guard us against the serpent or the tornado, but which should leave us
to ourselves the moment a moral and responsible agent came upon the stage. Yet
this is the strange uncomfortable doctrine which prompts the language heard in
many a Christian circle. Which of us has not listened to such words as these:
“I could bear this trial if it were ordered of God, but it proceeds from man.
It is not Providential, but from wicked human beings.” There is in this a sad
confusion. Such a government as is here assumed would be no Providence at all;
and would render all rule impossible, as excluding the very agencies which are
most important. And we venture to say that the Bible teaches no such doctrine.
While it abhors the thought of making God the author of sin, it does not
exclude sinful acts from His wise and holy plan. While it evermore denies God’s
participation in the evil of wicked deeds, it still asserts that, in the
directing and governing of such deeds, there is a sovereign Providence, working
out its own wise and holy ends: “Man’s goings are of the Lord; how then can a
man understand his own way?” “A man’s heart deviseth his way, but the Lord
directeth his steps.” The wrath of man shall praise Him, and the remainder of
wrath He will restrain. Let it be clearly fixed in our minds, as the only true
philosophy of this subject, that an act may be wicked as to the intent of its
agent, and yet its result may be really intended by God. Were it not so we
could have no relief under our worst sufferings, namely, those which we endure
from depraved and malignant human creatures. But these also are Providential.
Joseph’s brethren committed a great sin. This none can deny, so far as they
were concerned. Yet was it strictly and particularly Providential: “So now it
was not you that sent me hither, but God.” (Christian Age.)
A comforting thought for the penitent
To say to a hardened, reckless man that God will ever rule his sin
for some good end, will only make him more regardless than ever. But when a man
is truly penitent, and seems almost paralyzed by the perception of his guilt,
to show him that God has brought good out of his evil will exalt God’s grace
and wisdom in his eyes, and lead him more implicitly to cling to Him. It is a
comforting thought, that while we cannot undo the sin, God has kept it from
undoing us, and has over-ruled it for greater good to ourselves and greater
blessing to others than perhaps might otherwise have been attained. We can
never be as we were before we committed it. Always there will be some sadness
in our hearts and lives connected with it and springing out of it. But still,
if we really repent of it and return to God, there may come to us “meat out of
the eater, and sweet out of the bitter.” It may give us sympathy with others,
and fit us for being helpful to others; so that, though we may be sadly
conscious of the evil of our course, we may yet see that through it all God was
preparing us for the saving of those who, humanly speaking, but for our
instrumentality would have gone down to perdition. But mark the condition--if
we truly repent. There is no comfort otherwise; but that being secured, then
the penitent may take the consolation, that out of his worst sin God can and
may bring good both to himself and others, and he ought to look for the means
of bringing that about. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.)
Cranmer and the traitors; or, forgiveness of great injury
Archbishop Cranmer appeared almost alone in the higher classes as
the friend of truth in evil times, and a plot was formed to take away his life.
The providence of God, however, so ordered it that the papers which would have
completed the plan were intercepted and traced to their authors, one of whom
lived in the archbishop’s family, and the other he had greatly served. He took
these men apart in his palace, and told them that some persons in his
confidence had disclosed his secrets, and even accused him of heresy. They
loudly censured such villainy, and declared the traitors to be worthy of death;
one of them adding, that if an executioner was wanted he would perform the
office himself. Struck with their perfidy, after lifting up his voice to
heaven, lamenting the depravity of man, and thanking God for his preservation,
he produced their letters, and inquired if they knew them. They now fell on
their knees, confessed their crimes, and implored forgiveness. Cranmer mildly
expostulated with them on the evil of their conduct, forgave them, and never
again alluded to their treachery. His forgiveness of injuries was so well known,
that it became a byword, “Do my lord of Canterbury an ill-turn, and you make
him your friend for ever.” (Moral and Religious Anecdotes.)
Providence difficult to interpret
The book of Providence is not so easily read as that of nature;
its wisdom in design and perfection in execution are by no means as plain. Here
God’s way is often in the sea, His path in the mighty waters, and His footsteps
are not known. But that is because the scheme of Providence is not, like
creation, a finished work. Take a man to a house when the architect is in the
middle of his plan, and with walls half-built and arches half-sprung, rooms
without doors, and pillars without capitals--what appears perfect order to the
architect, who has the plan all in his eye, to the other will seem a scene of
perfect confusion. And so stands man amid that vast scheme of Providence which
God began six thousand years ago, and may not finish for as many thousand years
to come. (T. Guthrie.)
God did send me before you
Joseph’s recognition of God’s hand in his life
The words of Joseph in the text contrast somewhat strangely with
the words spoken by his brethren of themselves. It is clear that the view he
took of their conduct was the one most likely to give them ease. He assured
them that after all they were but instruments in God’s hands, that God had sent
him, that God’s providence was at work for good when they sold him as a slave.
Both views are true and both important. The brethren had done what
they did as wickedly and maliciously as possible; nevertheless it was true that
it was not they, but God, who had sent Joseph into Egypt.
I. That God
governs the world we do not--we dare not--doubt; but it is equally true that He
governs in a way which we should not have expected, and that much of His
handiwork appears strange. So strange, indeed, that we know that it has been in
all times, and is in our time, easy to say, God cares not, God sees not; or
even to adopt the bolder language of the fool, and say “There is no God.”
Scriptural illustrations of the same kind of contradiction as we have in the
text are to be found--
II. Our own lives
supply us with illustrations of the same truth. Who cannot call to mind cases
in which God’s providence has brought about results in the strangest way,
educing good from evil, turning that which seemed to be ruin into blessing,
making even the sins and follies of men to declare His glory and to forward the
spiritual interests of their brethren? We see human causes producing effects,
but we may also see God’s hand everywhere; all things living and moving in Him;
no sparrow falling without His leave; no hair of one of His saints perishing. (Bishop
Harvey Goodwin.)
Providence in life
I. The story of
Joseph is to all men for ever the best proof of the working of the hand of Providence.
II. As through the
life of Joseph, so through our life, there are threads which connect the
different scenes and bind together the destinies of the different actors.
III. This history
and the inspired commentary on it in Psalms 105:1-45. teach us the wonderful
continuity of God’s plan and the oneness of the thread that binds together the
histories of Israel and of Egypt. (Dean Butcher.)
Joseph’s statement
The principles illustrated in Joseph’s statement are these:
1. God’s absolute control over all creatures and events.
2. That while sinners are encouraged to hope in His mercy, they are
left without excuse for their sin.
3. That God orders all human affairs with a view to the preservation
of His sacred and gifted family--the Church.
Human and Divine agency inseparably connected
That the Scripture ascribes the actions of men both to themselves
and to God. I shall endeavour to illustrate the truth, the propriety, and the importance
of this doctrine.
I. We are to
consider, THAT THE SCRIPTURE DOES ASCRIBE THE ACTIONS OF MEN BOTH TO THEMSELVES
AND TO GOD. It will be universally allowed that the Scripture ascribes the
actions of men to themselves. It ascribes to Abel his faith, to Cain his
unbelief, to Job his patience, to Moses his meekness. Having just premised
this, I proceed to adduce instances in which the Scripture ascribes the actions
of men to God as well as to themselves. The first instance that occurs is in
the history of Joseph.
II. THY PROPRIETY
OF ASCRIBING HUMAN ACTIONS TO BOTH HUMAN AND DIVINE AGENCY. Human agency is
always inseparably connected with Divine agency. And though it may be proper in
some cases to speak of man’s agency alone, and of God’s agency alone, yet it is
always proper to ascribe the actions of men not only to themselves, but to God.
The propriety of the Scripture phraseology on this subject is so plain and
obvious, that it is strange so many have objected against it, and endeavoured
to explain it away. But since this is the case, it seems very necessary to
show--
III. THE IMPORTANCE
OF ASCRIBING THE ACTIONS OF MEN TO GOD, AS WELL AS TO THEMSELVES. We have no
reason to suppose that the sacred writers would have used such a mode of
speaking, unless it were necessary and important. It is the design of God, in
all His works, to set His own character, and the character of all His rational
and accountable creatures, in the truest and strongest light. This leads me to
observe--
1. It is a matter of importance that the actions of men should be
ascribed to themselves. They are real and proper agents in all their voluntary
exercises and exertions.
2. The importance of ascribing men’s actions to God as well as to
themselves. He is really concerned in all their actions; and it is as important
that His agency should be brought into view as that theirs should be brought
into view; for His character can no more be known without ascribing His agency
to Himself, than their characters can be known without ascribing their agency
to themselves.
Improvement:
1. In view of this subject, we learn when it is proper to ascribe
the actions of men to themselves, and when it is proper to ascribe them to God.
Whenever men are required or forbidden to act, and whenever they are approved
or condemned for acting, there is a propriety in ascribing their actions to
themselves, without any reference to the Divine efficiency. It is their own
free, voluntary agency, which alone constitutes their virtue or vice, and which
renders them worthy of either praise or blame. Though they always act under a
Divine influence, yet that influence neither increases their virtue nor
diminishes their guilt, and of consequence ought never to be brought into view
when they are to be praised or blamed for their conduct. But when the power,
wisdom, goodness, or sovereignty of God in governing their views and actions
are to be displayed, then it is proper to mention His, and only His, agency in
the case.
2. Since the Scripture ascribes all the actions of men to God as
well as to themselves, we may justly conclude that the Divine agency is as much
concerned in their bad as in their good actions.
3. If the actions of men may be ascribed to God as well as to
themselves, then it is easy to form a just and full view of Divine Providence.
If God is actually concerned in all human actions, it necessarily follows that
He constantly and absolutely governs the moral as well as the natural world.
4. If it be true that all the actions of men may be ascribed to God
as well as to themselves, then it is proper to submit to God under all the
evils which He brings upon us by the agency of created beings.
5. If the actions of men may be ascribed to God as well as to
themselves, then God will be glorified by all their conduct. Whether they have
a good or bad intention in acting, God has always a good design in causing them
to act in the manner they do.
6. If the actions of men may be ascribed both to God and to
themselves, then we may see the duty and nature of true repentance.
7. Finally, if it be true that the actions of men may be properly
ascribed both to God and to themselves, then it is of great importance for
mankind to believe and acknowledge this truth. (N. Emmons, D. D.)
Verses 9-13
Thus saith thy son Joseph
Lessons
1.
Providence
may order traitors to be messengers of better news than they intended.
2. Gracious children are speedy to take off grief from their
parents’ hearts.
3. God orders those events of mercy to be declared unto His, which
they sometimes would not believe.
4. Joseph’s spirit owneth his afflicted father in all his own glory.
5. Joseph’s heart ascribes all his glory unto God only.
6. Joseph contents not himself to be in plenty and glory, but to
have his father with him (Genesis 45:9).
7. Certain and fertile habitations are human motives to draw from
barren places.
8. Nearness to dearest relations may persuade to change habitations
(Genesis 45:10).
9. Alimony is a duty of children to parents in straights.
10. Assurance of nourishment may well draw from places where bread is
wanting.
11. God’s continuance of famine should move souls to follow His
providence for food.
12. It is beseeming God’s servants to provide under Him against
impoverishing of their families. So Joseph (Genesis 45:11).
13. Eyewitnesses and they dear ones of God’s gracious events, should
persuade good souls to believe them (verse 121.
14. Gracious souls may urge their dignity to help the distressed, but
not in vain glory.
15. Grace makes nature speedy in the execution of its duty.
16. Gracious children desire earnestly their parents with them in
their fulness (Genesis 45:13). (G. Hughes, B. D.)
Verse 14
And he fell upon his brother Benjamin’s neck, and wept; and
Benjamin wept upon his neck
Tears of love
This incident is the most unquestionable instance in the Bible of
tears of love.
No other feeling but love made Joseph weep.
I. Tears of love
are true evidences--and evidences which can scarcely speak falsely.
II. Tears have
much of the nature of sacrifice in them.
III. Though there
are no tears in heaven, yet loving tears on earth come nearer than anything
else in the world to the alleluias of the saints, for they are the outbursts of
an irrepressible emotion.
IV. Tears of
kindness act back again, and make the kindness from which they spring. In order
to have the heart soft enough for tears--
Lessons
1. Grace forbids not natural working of affection in its measure.
2. Mutual workings of hearts in brethren is but natural (Genesis 45:14).
3. Sincere kisses and tears of injured brethren to offenders are
remarkable.
4. Brotherly communion may be freely had, when grace had put away
all offences, and accepted offenders (Genesis 45:15). (G. Hughes, B. D.)
The first embrace for Benjamin
There was an instinctive delicacy in selecting that one for his
first embraces who was best able to return them freely. It gave the others
time. Not that he thought of that and planned it; but the instincts of a good
heart are very wise. Benjamin could weep tears of unmingled joy, for he had
love only to accept--not forgiveness as well. One looks eagerly through the
story to find some word telling that the others wept, the ten men who were over
forty years of age, the sinners convicted, humbled, pardoned. Such a word would
be very welcome; but I do not find it. We have to be content to take another
lesson in the mystery of restoring love--that it is easier for God to forgive
us than for us to forgive ourselves; that the part of Christ’s work which most
proves the omnipotence of His grace, is when He persuades us to believe that He
has forgiven us. That once believed by the heart, tears flow fast. There is
only One who can so look on us that we shall go forth and weep bitterly.
Leaving Benjamin after a time, Joseph went from one to another of his brethren,
kissing them and weeping on them. I see him beginning with Reuben and Simeon,
ending with Judah. The appeal, if one may translate so tender an utterance of
the heart into any words, meant this, “I love and forgive you: love me and
trust me, trust me and love in return.” “And after that his brethren talked
with him.” The struggle had been a hard one, but love had conquered. It matters
little what they talked about--the wonders of Egypt, the storehouses, the
capabilities of Goshen, Asenath and Manasseh and Ephraim, the state of the
flocks at home, the children of each, their father, the dreams; the great thing
was that they talked at all. It was not now as it had been at the banquet
yesterday; restraint and stratagem had gone for ever; brother talked to
brother, heart to heart. (A. M.Symington, D. D.)
Verse 15
He kissed all his brethren
A day of reconciliation
A day of reconciliation! A family made one.
Brethren coming together again after long separation. It is a beautiful
picture. Why should it not be completed, where it needs completion, in our own
day amongst ourselves? Ministers sometimes have misunderstandings and say
unkind things about one another--and exile one another from love and confidence
for years. Is there never to be a day of reconciliation and Christian
forgetfulness of wrongs, even where positive wrong has been done? Families and
households often get awry. The younger brother differs with his eldest
brother--sisters fall out. One wants more than belongs to him; another is
knocked to the wall because he is weak; and there comes in the heart bitterness
and alienation, and often brothers and sisters never have a kind word to say
about one another. Is it always to be so? Don’t merely make it up, don’t patch
it up, don’t cover it up--go right down to the base. You will never be made
one, until you meet at the Cross and hear Him say, “He that doeth the will of
My Father, which is in heaven, the same is My mother, and sister, and brother.”
It is in Christ’s sorrow that we are to forget our woes, in Christ’s sacrifice
we find the answer to our sin, in Christ’s union with the Father that we are to
find all true and lasting reconciliation. But who is to begin? That is the
wonderful question that is often asked us. Who is to begin? One would imagine
that there were some very nice people about who only wanted somebody to tell
them who was to begin. They want to be reconciled, only they don’t know who is
to begin. I can tell you. You are! That is exactly how it is. But I am the
eldest--yes, and therefore ought to begin. But I am the youngest. Then
whyshould the youngest be an obstinate pig-headed child? Who are you that you
should not go and throw yourself down at your brother’s feet and say, “I have
done you wrong, pardon me!” Who is to begin? You! Which! Both! When! Now! Oh!
beware of the morality which says, “I am looking for the opportunity, and if
things should so get together--” Sir! death may be upon you before you reason
out your wretched casuistry; the injured or the injurer may be in the grave
before you get to the end of your long melancholy process of self-laudation and
anti-Christian logic. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The reconciled brethren
I. JOSEPH’S
AVOWAL.
II. MUTUAL
SALUTATIONS.
III. THE MESSAGE TO
JACOB. Learn:
1. To avoid strife.
2. To repel any revengeful feelings.
3. To be kind and ready to forgive. (W. S. Smith, B. D.)
Emblem of forgiveness
Nothing is more moving to man than the spectacle of
reconciliation; our weaknesses are thus indemnified, and are not too costly,
being the price we pay for the hour of forgiveness; and the archangel who has
never felt anger has reason to envy the man who subdues it. When thou
forgivest, the man who has pierced thy heart stands to thee in the relation of
the sea-worm, that perforates the shell of the mussel, which straightway closes
the wound with a pearl. (W. Richter.)
Verses 16-20
Take your father and your households, and come unto me: and I will
give you the flood of the land of Egypt
Pharaoh’s invitation to Jacob and his sons
I.
THIS
SPEAKS WELL AS TO HIS DELICATE CONSIDERATION FOR JOSEPH.
II. THIS SHOWS THE
VALUE HE SET UPON JOSEPH.
III. THIS TEACHES
US HOW GREAT IS THE INFLUENCE OF CHARACTER. (T. H.Leale.)
Bring your father; or, Christmas gatherings
Family gatherings are old as history! Governments change. There
was government Patriarchal--government by Judges--government by Kings in old
Judea; and there are governments now, Imperialist--Monarchical--Republican. But
the family remains ever and always, founded by God, and rooted in the
constitution of human life, as the mountains are rooted in the earth.
I. A GOOD MAN
CARRIES THE OLD HOME IS HIS HEART. Joseph’s was not a self-chosen pilgrimage;
“so then, it was not you that sent me hither, but God.” He knew that. It was a
history over-ruled by God for highest ends. It is wise and well that enterprize
and energy should characterize a nation’s sons, but they need not forget the
old home. Surely, however, if any one might have cut off the remembrances of
home, it was the castaway Joseph! That he owed his brethren nothing everyone
must admit--nothing, indeed, but that which all Christians owe to their enemies
and to themselves--the sovereignty of love over enmity. This man, successful,
honoured, uplifted to be Prime Minister of Egypt, tried to exile the old home
from his heart. The narrative in a previous chapter tells us this--“And Joseph
called the name of the firstborn Manasseh: for God, said he, hath made me
forget all my toil, and all my father’s house” (Genesis 41:51). But one sight of the dear
old faces broke down all his power to exclude them from his love.
II. IN A TRUE HOME
EVERY LOST CHILD CREATES A BLANK. God wants every wandering child home. While
we are yet a great way off, He comes forth to meet us. Jacob had many sons, and
these sons had wives, and then fresh children came into the world--“his sons
and his sons’ sons”; “his daughters and his sons’ daughters.”
Children--grandchildren! But these words, “Joseph is not!” constitute a little
window into Jacob’s heart. If you have ever lost a child, you still say in the
words of the beautiful poem, “We are seven!” And if Joseph is away--far
away--lost to you in the saddest of all senses, still he lives in your heart.
III. THE TIME COMES
WHEN THE FATHER VISITS THE SON. This is beautiful. And it is a parable of that
which occurs sometimes now. The old home circle visits the successful son, and
he heads the table, and feels not that he does his father honour, but that the
father honours him by his presence; this is all-glorious. I am not sure that
the old world, of which China is one of the permanent shoots, does not set us
an illustrious example in this respect, viz., the honour due to age and parentage;
but I am sure that ancient Greece might teach us reverence, for a young man
would rise in an assembly there and give his place to an aged man at once.
Flippant familiarity in speech is unseemly in relations between the young and
the old, for speech is an index of character. Joseph’s speech is touched with
reverence, and he seems to feel a culmination of kindly providence in the fact
that his father should know of his glory in Egypt. I trust that many a son’s
heart will leap in future days when he sees, amid the faces looking on with
rapt interest in a season of honour and reward, the features of his father.
IV. THE JOURNEY IS
THAT OF A RELIGIOUS OLD MAN. Israel took his journey, and “came to Beer-sheba,
and offered sacrifices unto the God of his father Isaac.” Then he thought of
his father. We smile at old men finding it difficult to think themselves old,
but their childhood is only a little way behind. (W. M. Statham, M. A.)
Verses 21-24
Provision for the way
Divine provision for human wants
I.
But
for the provision Joseph sent them for the way, Jacob and his sons’ sons and
daughters could never have crossed the hot desert. But the impossible had been
made possible by the command of Pharaoh and the love of Joseph. The journey was
accomplished successfully, the desert was traversed without peril, without
excessive fatigue, by means of the waggons sent out of the land of Egypt. When
Jacob saw the waggons his heart revived.
II. Let us apply
this to our Lord and to ourselves. Jesus Christ, the true Joseph, remembers us
in His prosperity, and He sends an invitation to us by the desire of God the
Father, who loveth us. He dots not bid us come to Him in our own strength,
relying only on the poor food which a famine-struck land yields--does not bid
us toil across a burning desert, prowled over by the lion, without provision
and protection. There are sacraments and helps and means of grace, which He has
sent to relieve the weariness of the way, to carry us on, to support us when we
faint, to encourage us lest we should despair.
III. Let us not
despise the means of grace. We may not ourselves want them, but others do. Go
in your own waggon, or on your feet, if you can and dare, but upbraid not those
who take refuge in means of transport you have not tried, or do not require.
Those sacraments, those means of grace, those helps, ever new, yet old as
Christianity, have borne many and many a blessed one along to the “good land,”
who is now resting in Goshen and eating the fat of the land. (S.
Baring-Gould, M. A.)
Joseph equips his brethren for their journey
I. HIS RESPECT
AND HONOUR FOR HIS FATHER. This is seen--
1. In the portion he gave to Benjamin
2. In the portion he sent to his father.
II. HIS SHREWD
WISDOM (Genesis 45:24). (T. H. Leale.)
Verse 24
See that ye fall not out by the way
Good advice to Christians
I.
THE
RELATIONSHIP OF CHRISTIANS. They are brethren.
II. THE COURSE OF
CHRISTIANS. On their way from Egypt to Canaan, from house of bondage to
Father’s house above.
III. THE DANGER OF
CHRISTIANS. Falling out by the way--disagreeing, quarrelling, separating.
IV. THE DUTY OF
CHRISTIANS. To watch against this danger. Why?
1. Because brethren.
2. Because travelling to a place where there is no falling out.
3. Because you can’t fall out without falling down--lowering
Christian character.
4. Because you can’t fall out without disobeying your Father, who
tells you to love one another.
5. Because you can’t fall out without giving your enemies occasion
to triumph. Fall out with yourselves, and with Satan, but not with one another.
(J. F. Smythe.)
Christians walking harmoniously on the road of life
They whom Joseph thus addressed were all--
I. MEMBERS OF THE
SAME FAMILY. Brethren: the relations Christians bear to each other (1 Peter 3:6; Romans 12:10; Hebrews 13:1).
II. PARTAKERS OF
THE SAME GRACE. Forgiven ourselves, we are to be forgiving.
III. ASSOCIATES IN
THE SAME SERVICE. Concerted action is required of us.
IV. TRAVELLING TO
THE SAME HOME. (J. F. Poulter, B. A.)
Christian agreement
Well would this text apply to that quarrelling among nations,
which under the name of war has been thought honourable and often profitable,
whereas it must ever be in the end most ruinous and disgraceful to the whole
family of mankind. See then that in this respect “ye fall not out by the way.”
See that you never be tempted, by any supposed honour or profit of war, to
speak of it as desirable, or to wish for it in your hearts. Well would this
text in like manner apply to natives of the same country, members of the same
political community; and to the tumult, and strife, which of late years more
especially have distracted the peace of society. Well does this rule apply also
to those who esteem themselves members of the same household of faith. What can
be more scandalous in the eyes of the scoffer, what can be more inconsistent
with true piety in ourselves, than that all we, who would fain hope that we are
going to the same heaven, and going by the same road of true faith in Christ,
should embitter our few and evil days on earth by religious, or rather
irreligious, contentions with each other. I might go on to apply the text to
the variances and disputes, which arise often to mar the peace of a
neighbourhood, the harmony of a parish, or the union of a charitable or
friendly society. I speak to you of your brethren and sisters, of your parents
or children, of your masters or servants, of your husbands or wives. And of
these severally, whatever members you may each have, in the household to which
you belong, of these severally I say, “See that ye fall not out by the way.”
1. Be humble. The more you are aware of your own failings, the more
allowances you will make for those you live with. The less you will be disposed
to fret at their selfishness and pride, the more heartily you are vexed at your
own.
2. Be not selfish. Next to pride, if it be not the very same thing,
stands selfishness, as the fruitful source of ill-temper. “‘Look not,” then,
“every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others” Philippians 2:4).
3. Set in watch over your lips. And when an angry thought arises,
for a while be resolutely silent. Words are to anger, as air to kindle flame.
Without them it soon dies for want of vent.
4. Avoid whatever you have found to be your usual provocations to
anger.
5. Take, then, in the last place, this one direction more, “Overcome
evil with good.” “A soft answer turneth away wrath.” (E. Blencowe, M. A.)
Joseph’s charge to his brethren
“Prevention is better than cure.” Better keep out of debt than let
someone pay your bills; better for a family to take care that all causes of
difference and disagreement should be removed, than to be constantly making up
quarrels. Joseph then would say, “See that ye fall not out by the way”--
1. Because ye are brethren.
2. Because ye are passing through an enemy’s country.
3. Because ye are the bearers of precious treasure.
4. Because ye are representative men. All these thoughts will apply
to the Church of Christ. (A. F. Barfield.)
See that ye fall not out by the way!--a necessary warning
How well he knew human nature! They were going home with news
which would reveal to their father that they had been the cause of their
brother’s disappearance, and had imposed on him with a deliberate falsehood;
and for anything they knew, he might turn upon them and upbraid them with their
cruelty and deceit. What so likely, therefore, as that they should begin to
accuse each other--that crimination should lead to recrimination, and words to
blows? Reuben might say again, “It was not my fault, for I sought to save his
life, and I went back to the pit hoping to find him and restore him to our
father.” Judah might respond, “But for me he would have died, and it is to my
happy suggestion to sell him to the Ishmaelites that we are indebted for all
the good fortune that seems now to be coming to us”; while the rest, conscious
of their share in the nefarious transaction, might have sought to still the
upbraidings of their consciences by uttering bitter things against each other.
All that might have happened on their journey home, and so Joseph was not
giving unnecessary counsel when he said, “See that ye fall not out by the way.”
And they heeded his advice, for they reached home in peace; and it may be that,
so far from quarrelling, they spent some of their time as they rode in
conversing on the marvellous manner in which, in spite of their antagonism, and
without their consciousness of anything in the least degree out of the way, the
dreams of their brother had been fulfilled, and they had done obeisance at his
feet. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.)
Luther’s prayer
Controversy may be sometimes needful; but the love of disputation
is a serious evil. Luther, who contended earnestly for the truth, used to pray:
“From a vainglorious doctor, a contentious pastor, and nice questions, the Lord
deliver His Church!”
Melancthon and his mother
Philip Melancthon, being at the conferences at Spire, in 1529,
made a little journey to Bretten, to see his mother. This good woman asked him
what she must believe amidst so many disputes, and repeated to him her prayers,
which contained nothing superstitious. “Go on, mother,” said he, “to believe
and pray as you have done, and never trouble yourself about religious
controversies.”
Fraternal affection
Fraternal affection approaches very nearly to self-love, for there
is but a short remove from our own concerns and happiness to theirs who came
from the same stock, and are partakers of the same blood. Nothing, therefore,
can be more unnatural than discord and animosity among members so allied, and
nothing so beautiful as harmony and love. (L. N. Stretch.)
Church contention
When Caesar solicited the consulship he found Crassus and Pompey
at variance, so that he could not apply to either of them for help, lest he
should make the other his enemy. He determined to reconcile them by
representing that if instead of fighting against each other, and thus raising
enemies that might be formidable against them both, they would act in concert,
by their united counsels and interest they might subdue all opposition. The
scheme was successful, and Caesar by their help attained a pinnacle of power;
and though neither Crassus nor Pompey gained any particular advantage by the
league, if they had but used their united power wisely they might have affected
great good. He who can bind together those who are at variance may procure for
the state or for the Church a marvellous blessing. Never is a foe so ready to
advance as when he sees those who should be one to attack him wounding and
slaying each other. The battle of the sects has not only provoked ill blood in
the Church of Christ, but has weakened her for offensive movements, because
when she ought to have been increasing her armaments and completing her
equipments for an aggression on the enemy’s territory, she has rather been
engaged in quarrelling over some trivial point of doctrine, or perhaps some
piece of church furniture, to her own dishonour and the enemy’s triumph. (New
Handbook of Illustration.)
Trivial dissensions
Dr. Cannon was once appealed to by a certain church where
there was a great commotion in regard to the point, whether in newly painting
their church edifice the colour should be white or yellow. When the committee
had stated their case, and with an emphasis, not to say acrimony, which gave
sad proof of the existence of a fearful feud upon the unimportant question, the
doctor quietly said, “I should advise you, on the whole, to paint the house
black. It is cheap, and a good colour to wear, and eminently appropriate for a
body that ought to go in mourning over such a foolish quarrel among its
members.” (Homiletic Encylopoedia.)
Verse 27
When he saw the waggons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the
spirit of Jacob their father revived
Probability an aid to faith
We see here how probabilities are the handmaids and the helpers of
faith.
Slight tokens become the aliment, the very food, on which action feeds,
strengthens, nurtures itself, and goes forth to fulfil the work marked out by
Providence for the life.
I. Jacob’s heart
fainted; but old men, dying persons, often feel that some unrealized object
detains them here. Jacob was like watchers who have gone to the point and taken
lodgings, to be the first to hail the ship; and as pennon after pennon flutters
in sight they hail it, but it is not the expected vessel, and the heart faints,
until at last the well-known signal waves in the wind. Sense sees it, and faith
revives.
II. The lesson of
the patriarch’s history is that faith may not realize all it desires, but it
may realize what confirms, revives, assures. “He saw the waggons”: “Faith
cometh by hearing”; it is a moral principle created in the mind, not so much by
facts as probabilities. Faith is moved and swayed by antecedental
considerations. So these waggons were, in all probability, an aid to faith, and
his heart revived. Treasure up marks and tokens of another country; you will
find they will not be wanting.
III. If you deal
faithfully with the tremendous hints and probabilities sacred to your own
nature, sacred to the Holy Word, sacred to the infinite manifestation of God in
the flesh in the person of Jesus Christ, they will hold you fast in the power
of awful convictions, and in the embrace of infinite consolations. The waggons
assured Jacob that Joseph was yet alive, and there are innumerable conveyances
of grace which assure us that Jesus is yet alive. (E. Paxton Hood.)
The joyful news told to Jacob
I. IT IS, AT FIRST,
RECEIVED WITH INCREDULITY.
II. IT IS
AFTERWARDS ACCEPTED UPON OUTWARD EVIDENCE.
III. IT ENABLED
JACOB TO VINDICATE HIS OLD CHARACTER
1. His faith triumphs.
2. His dark destiny is about to be cleared up.
3. He anticipates his peaceful end. (T. H. Leale.)
Joseph’s waggons
1. No wonder certainly that Jacob could not believe his sons. You
know from their history, and particularly from that part which is mingled with
the earlier days of Joseph, how deceitfulness (inherited, too, from their
parents and ancestry) had marked their conduct towards their father Jacob,
whose life, I suspect, was often rendered very bitter by sad instances of their
deceitfulness, and by the painful reflections upon his own conduct in his
earlier days, which those instances would produce. Even Joseph’s messages were
not believed by Jacob, not because Jacob doubted them, but because he could not
believe the messengers.
II. And that Jacob
believed at last, was convinced of the truthfulness of the messages, and going
down to Egypt, he saw Joseph, often enjoyed his society, and finished his
eventful pilgrimage there in peace, and with the full certainty of being buried
in “the promised land.” A sight of Joseph’s waggons convinced him.
III. We have in
this affecting narrative an illustration of two important ways by which truth
may be received, and indeed through which it may be communicated. The
difference betwixt the mode of teaching a truth by a simple revelation or
message, and by the medium of the sight, is not, indeed, in the strictest sense
of the term, that of an “objective “ and a “subjective” truth; but it is very
nearly this. For though indeed it may be said truly enough that teaching by
means of any of the senses is “objective,” there is nearly all the difference
between “objective “ and “subjective “ in teaching by means of the sight and by
means of words; because whatever the eye learns is learned by a real object, or
by an object which does not profess to be the thing itself, but a recognized
representation thereof. Thus the message of Joseph delivered by his brethren to
their father was really (in my view) a “subjective” truth; I mean it was truth
which he was to receive. But then, though the ear was the medium of reception,
faith or credibility in the veracity of his children was necessary ere he could
profit by it. And this faith he had not in them. He could not believe them, and
he only became agitated; but the sight of the waggons convinced him. The truth
was exhibited by another means; but I think also it was truth in another form.
It was the truth that Joseph was alive, “objectively” brought home to Jacob by
visible tangible realities. They were not like Joseph; they were not pictures,
“carvings,” imitations of him; but there was a reality, a matter of fact
truthfulness about what he there saw before him, which, though not a convincing
demonstration, was a thoroughly satisfying “objective” realization to the eye
of what would not have happened but for the true loving tenderness of his long
lost son. And this “objective” truth seen as an object by the eye gave reality
to the “ subjective” message, heard by the ear, indeed, but receivable only by
the mind through faith, so that though it is said of that “subjective” truth
Jacob believed not the messengers, it is immediately recorded of the
“objective” truth that “when he saw the waggons which Joseph had sent to carry
him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived, and he said, “It is enough;
Joseph, my son, is yet alive: I will go, and see him before I die.”
IV. The application
of these observations to the Lord’s Supper, and indeed to either of the
Sacraments, appears to me to be obvious and easy. Your only means of salvation
is Christ Jesus, crucified for you and risen. God in Christ reconciling the
world unto Himself; Christ, the Son of God, who, by His one oblation offered
once for all, hath put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, forms, through the
Holy Spirit, your great hope of acceptance with God. The messages sent to you
from heaven are true, and abound in tenderness; they are like Joseph’s message,
full of truth and love. From various causes men demur to receive them. We who
bring the messages are often not believed, You to whom the messages are
delivered are conscious of many things which you think incapacitate you from
applying them to yourselves. The blessed truths of salvation thus presented for
your faith to receive and to make personally your own “subjectively,” are too
often not received. But then, amidst all this clatter of disputings, doubtings
and arguing, what meaneth this service? What meaneth it that to-day, that every
Sunday throughout Christendom, in thousands and thousands of churches, and by
many thousands and even millions of Christians, a simple though significant act
is celebrated, even as it has been since the last Passover, and will continue
to be so “till He come” who at first appointed it? Why is it that Christians
from time to time gather together to break this bread and to drink this cup?
What mean ye by this service? It is “objectively” for you what the waggons
proved to Jacob. It is a very simple, but “objective” act, which brings before
you vividly the love of Christ, in giving His body and His blood upon the Cross
for you. (G. Venables, S. C. L.)
The king’s waggons
The Egyptian capital was the focus of the world’s wealth. In ships
and barges there had been brought to it from India frankincense, and cinnamon,
and ivory, and diamonds; from the north marble and iron; from Syria purple and
silk; from Greece some of the finest horses of the world, and some of the most
brilliant chariots; and from all the earth that which could best please the
eye, and charm the ear, and gratify the taste. As you stand on the level beach
of the sea, on a sunny day, you look either way and there are miles of breakers
white with the ocean foam dashing shoreward, so it seemed as if the sea of the
world’s pomp and wealth, in the Egyptian capital, for miles and miles flung
itself up into white breakers of marble temple, mausoleum, and obelisk. This
was the place where Joseph, the shepherd boy, was called to stand next to
Pharoah in honour. What a contrast between this scene and his humble standing,
and the pit into which his brothers threw him! Yet he was not forgetful of his
early home--he was not ashamed of where he came from. The Bishop of Mentz,
descended from a wheelwright, covered his house with spokes, and hammers, and
wheels; and the King of Sicily, in honour of his father, who was a potter,
refused to drink out of anything but earthen vessels. So Joseph was not afraid
of his early surroundings, or of his old-time father, or of his brothers. When
they came up from the famine-struck land to get corn from the king’s corn-crib,
Joseph, instead of chiding them for the way they had maltreated and abused him,
sent them back with waggons, which Pharoah furnished, laden with corn; and old
Jacob, the father, in the very same waggon, was brought back that Joseph, the
son, might see him, and give him a home all the rest of his days. Well, I hear
the waggons--the king’s waggons--rumbling down in front of the palace. On the
outside of the palace, to see the waggons go off, stands Pharaoh in royal
robes, and beside him prime-minister Joseph, with a chain of gold around his
neck, and on his hand a ring, given by Pharaoh to him, so that any time he
wanted to stamp the royal seal upon a document he could do so. Waggon after
waggon rolled down from the palace, laden with corn, and meat, and changes of
raiment, and everything that could help a famine-struck people. One day I see
aged Jacob seated in the front of his house; he is possibly thinking of his
absent boys (sons, however old they get, are never anything more than boys),
and while he is seated there he sees dust arising, and he hears waggons
rumbling, and he wonders what is coming now, for the whole land had been
smitten with famine and was in silence. But after awhile the waggons come near
enough, and he sees his sons in the waggons, and before they come up they
shout: “Joseph is yet alive!” The old man faints dead away. I do not wonder at
it. The boys tell the story how that the boy, the long-lost Joseph, has got to
be the first man in the Egyptian palace. While they unload the waggons the wan
and wasted creatures come up and ask for a handful of corn, and they are
satisfied. One day the waggons are brought up for Jacob; the old father is
about to go to see Joseph in the Egyptian palace. You know it is not a very
easy thing to transplant an old tree, and Jacob has hard work to get away from
the place where he bad lived so long. He bids good-bye to the old place, and
leaves his blessing with his neighbours; and then his sons steady him while he,
determined to help himself, gets into the waggon, stiff, old, and decrepid.
Yonder they go, Jacob and his sons, and their wives and their children,
eighty-two in all, followed by herds and flocks, which the herdsmen drive
along. They are going out from famine to luxuriance, they are going from a
plain country home to the finest palace under the sun. My friends, we are in a
world by sin famine-struck, but the King is in constant communication with us,
His waggons coming and going perpetually; and in the rest of my discourse I
will show what the waggons bring and what they take back.
1. In the first place, like those that came from the Egyptian
palace, the King’s waggons now bring us corn and meat, and many changes of
raiment. We are apt to think of the fields and the orchards as feeding us, but
who makes the flax grow for the linen, and the wheat for the bread, and the
wool on the sheep’s back? None but a God could clothe and feed the world. None
but a King’s corncrib could appease the world’s famine. None but a King could
tell how many waggons to send, and how heavily to load them, and when they are
to start. Oh! thank God for bread--for bread!
2. I remark, again, that, like those that came from the Egyptian’s
palace, the King’s waggons bring us good news. Jacob had not heard from his boy
for a great many years. He had never thought of him but with a heart-ache.
There was in Jacob’s heart a room where lay the corpse of his unburied Joseph;
and when the waggons came--the king’s waggons--and told him that Joseph was yet
alive, he faints dead away. Good news for Jacob! Good news for us! The King’s
waggons come down and tell us that our Joseph--Jesus--is yet alive; that He has
forgiven us because we threw Him into the pit of suffering and the dungeon of
shame. He has risen from thence to stand in a palace. The Bethlehem shepherds
were awakened at midnight by the rattling of the waggons that brought the
tidings. Our Joseph--Jesus--sends us a message of pardon, of life, of heaven;
corn for our hunger, raiment for our nakedness. Joseph--Jesus--is yet alive 1
The King’s waggons will, after a while, unload, and they will turn round, and
they will go back to the palace, and I really think that you and I will go with
them. The King will not leave us in this famine-struck world. The King has
ordered that we be lifted into the waggons, and that we go over into Goshen,
where there shall be pasturage for our largest flock of joy; and then we will
drive up to the palace where there are glories awaiting us which will melt all
the snow of Egyptian marble into forgetfulness.
3. I think that the King’s waggons will take us up to see our lost
friends. Jacob’s chief anticipation was not of seeing the Nile, or of seeing
the long colonnade of architectural beauty, or of seeing the throne-room. There
was a focus to all his journeyings--to all his anticipations--and that was
Joseph. Well, my friends, I do not think heaven would be worth much if our
brother Jesus was not there. Oh! the joy of meeting our brother Joseph--Jesus!
After we have talked about Him for ten, or fifty, or seventyyears, to talk with
Him I and to clasp hands with the Hero of the ages, not crouching as underlings
in His presence, but as Jacob and Joseph hug each other. The king’s waggons
took Jacob up to see his lost boy; and so I really think that the King’s
waggons will take us up to see our lost kindred. How long is it since Joseph
went out of your household? How many years is it, now, last Christmas, or the
fourteenth of next month? It was a dark night when he died, and a stormy day it
was at the burial; and the clouds wept with you, and the winds sighed for the
dead. The bell at Greenwood’s Gate rang only for a few moments, but your heart
has been tolling, tolling, ever since. You have been under a delusion, like
Jacob of old. You put his name first in the birth-record of the family Bible,
and then you put it in the death-record of the family Bible, and you have been
deceived. Joseph is yet alive l He is more alive than you are. Of all the
sixteen thousand millions of children that statisticians say have gone into the
future world, there is not one of them dead, and the King’s waggons will take
you up to see them. In my boyhood, for some time, we lived three miles from
church, and on stormy days the children stayed at home, but father and mother
always went to church. That was a habit they had. On those stormy Sabbaths when
we stayed at home, the absence of our parents seemed very much protracted, for
the roads were very bad, and they could not get on very fast. So we would go to
the window at twelve o’clock to see if they were coming; and at a quarter to
one; and then at one o’clock. After awhile, Mary or Daniel, or De Witt would
shout, “The waggon’s coming!” and then we would see it winding out of the
woods, and over the brook, and through the lane, and up in the front of the old
farmhouse; and then we would rush out, leaving the doors wide open, with many
things to tell them, asking them many questions. Well, I think we:are many of
us in the King’s waggons, and we are on the way home. The road is very bad, and
we get on slowly; but after awhile we will come winding out of the woods, and
through the brook of death, and up in front of the old heavenly homestead; and
our departed kindred who have been waiting and watching for us will rush out
through the doors, and over the lawn, crying: “The waggons are coming! the
King’s waggons are coming!” Hark! the bell of the city hall strikes twelve.
Twelve o’clock on earth; and likewise it is high noon in heaven. (Dr.
Talmage.)
Verse 28
And Israel said, It is enough; Joseph my son is yet alive
Joseph a type of Christ
Joseph is a type or figure of the Lord Jesus Christ.
1. Joseph, in his younger days, was distinguished from his brethren
by a purity of life which became the more observable in contrast with their
dissolute manners, and caused an evil report to be sent to their father. His
brethren saw him afar off, and conspired to kill him. In this we have a true
picture of the Jews’ treatment of Christ.
2. Joseph was carried down into Egypt, even as was Christ in His
earliest days. Joseph was cast into prison, emblematic of the casting of Jesus
into the grave, the prison of death; Joseph was imprisoned with two accused
persons--the chief butler and the chief baker of Pharaoh; Christ was crucified
between two malefactors. It was in the third year that Joseph was liberated,
and on the third day that our Saviour rose.
3. It is as a liberated man that Joseph is most signally the type of
our Redeemer. Set free from prison, Joseph became the second in the kingdom,
even as the Redeemer, rising from the prison of the grave, became possessed in
His mediatorial capacity of all power in heaven and earth, and yet so possessed
as to be subordinate to the Father. Joseph was raised up of God to be a
preserver of life during years of famine. Christ, in His office of Mediator,
distributes bread to the hungry. All men shall flock to Jesus, eager for the
bread that came down from heaven.
4. Joseph’s kinsmen were the last to send into Egypt for corn, just
as the Jews have been longest refusing to own Christ as their Deliverer. (H.
Melvill, B. D.)
Joseph and his brethren
I. 1. The first
truth which I would point out to you as being strikingly illustrated and
confirmed by this history is this: that THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD REGULATES THE
MINUTEST MATTERS, and that He doeth all things according to His will, in the
armies of heaven, and amongst the inhabitants of the earth. None are so
besotted as not to acknowledge the existence of a Supreme Being; but the extent
of His agency, and the interest He takes in the affairs of men, are far from
being duly appreciated.
2. Another truth which this history equally confirms is that WICKED
MEN, THOUGH FOLLOWING THEIR OWN DEVICES AND ACTUATED SOLELY BY THEIR OWN EVIL
INCLINATIONS, DO BUT BRING TO PASS THE SECRET PURPOSES OF THE MOST HIGH. NO
one, indeed, can read this history and not see the truth of the psalmist’s
exclamation, “Surely the wrath of man shall praise Thee Psalms 76:10). And truly many events
recorded in the Scriptures teach us the very same thing. What caused the gospel
of Christ to be preached throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria by the
early converts? The persecution raised at Jerusalem against the infant Church,
and intended for its utter destruction (Acts 8:1). Again, when the Apostle Paul
had gone through part of Asia and Greece, it was God’s intention that he should
preach the gospel at Rome also; but who were the agents employed to bring about
this His purpose? The Asiatic Jews, who raised a tumult which threatened the
apostle’s life; scribes and Pharisees and wicked men, who bound themselves by
an oath to kill him; and two Roman governors, one of whom, though he doubted
not his innocence, to please the Jews, left him in prison, and the other, who,
from no better motive, obliged him to appeal to Caesar, that he might not be
taken back to Jerusalem.
3. Another truth which in this history we see clearly brought before
us is that GOD’S PEOPLE ARE OFTEN TRIED BY GREAT AND LONG-CONTINUED AFFLICTION.
“Many are the afflictions of the righteous” (Psalms 34:19).
4. Another truth which this history strongly confirms is that,
HOWEVER LONG OR SOUNDLY CONSCIENCE MAY SLEEP, WHEN GOD IS PLEASED TO AROUSE IT,
THE MOST STOUT-HEARTED SINNER WILL BE STRUCK WITH TERROR AND ALARM.
II. But I will now
direct your attention to some of THE LESSONS OF INSTRUCTION WHICH THIS HISTORY
MAY FURNISH US WITH.
1. And, first, we may learn from it to put full and entire trust in
the promises of God, and not to be moved from our confidence by any apparently
untoward events.
2. Learn from this history to maintain uprightness and integrity in
all your dealings, and to combine an active use of means with an earnest prayer
for a blessing upon them. When Jacob determined to send his sons a second time
into Egypt, he bids them take back the money found in the mouths of their sacks,
saying, “Peradventure it was an oversight.”
3. Learn, again, from this history, that, as Joseph behaved towards his
brethren, so God often deals with His people, and with the same object,
namely, to make them sensible of their sins and to effect their humiliation.
4. Learn, lastly, from the example of Joseph, not to be overcome of
evil, but to overcome evil with good. (T. Grantham.)
I will go and see him
before I die
The old folks’ visit
Jacob had long since passed the hundred-year milestone. In those
times people were distinguished for longevity. In the centuries after persons
lived to great age. What a strong and unfailing thing is parental attachment!
Was it not almost time for Jacob to forget Joseph? The hot suns of many summers
had blazed on the heath; the river Nile had overflowed and receded, overflowed
and receded again and again; the seed had been sown and the harvest reaped;
stars rose and set; years of plenty and years of famine had passed on, but the
love of Jacob for Joseph in my text is overwhelming dramatic. Oh, that is a
cord that is not snapped, though pulled at by many decades! Joseph was as fresh
in Jacob’s memory as ever, though at seventeen years of age the boy had
disappeared from the old homestead. I found in our family record the story of
an infant that had died fifty years ago, and I said to my parents, “What is
this record, and what does it mean?” Their chief answer was a long, deep sigh.
It was to them a very tender sorrow. What does all that mean? Why, it means our
children departed are ours yet, and that cord of attachment reaching across the
years will hold us until it brings us together in the palace as Jacob and
Joseph were brought together. That is one thing that makes old people die
happy. They realize it is reunion with those from whom they have long been
separated. Oh parent, as you think of the darling panting and white in
membranous croup, I want you to know it will be gloriously bettered in that
land where there has never been a death, and where all the inhabitants will live
on in the great future as long as God! Joseph was Joseph notwithstanding the
palace, and your child will be your child notwithstanding all the reigning
splendour of everlasting noon. What a thrilling visit was that of the old
shepherd to the Prime Minister, Joseph! I see the old countryman, seated in the
palace, looking around at the mirrors and the fountains and the carved pillars,
and oh, how he wishes that Rachel, his wife, was alive; she could have come
there with him to see their son in his great house. “Oh,” says the old man,
within himself, “I do wish Rachel could be here and see all this!” I visited at
the farmhouse of the father of Millard Fillmore, when the son was President of
the United States, and the octogenarian farmer entertained me until eleven
o’clock at night, telling me what great things he had seen in his son’s house
at Washington, and what Daniel Webster said to him, and how grandly Millard
treated his father in the White House. The old man’s face was illuminated with
the story until almost midnight. He had just been visiting his son at the
capital. And! suppose it was something of the same joy that thrilled the heart
of the old shepherd as he stood in the palace of the Prime Minister. It is a
great day with you when your old parents come to visit you. Blessed is that
home where Christian parents came to visit! Whatever may have been the style of
the architecture when they came, it is a palace before they leave. By this time
you will notice what kindly provision Joseph made for his father, Jacob. Joseph
did not say, “I can’t have the old man around this place. How clumsy he would
look climbing up these marble stairs and walking over these mosaics. Then he
would be putting his hands upon some of these frescoes. People would wonder
where that old greenhorn came from. He would shock all the Egyptian court with
his manners at table. Besides that, he might get sick on my hands, and he might
talk to me as though I were only a boy, when I am the second man in all the
realm. Of course he must not suffer, and if there is famine in his country--and
I hear there is--I will send him some provisions, but I can’t take a man from
Padan-aram and introduce him into this polite Egyptian court. What a nuisance
it is to have poor relations!” Joseph did not say that, but he rushed out to
meet his father with perfect abandon of affection, and brought him up to the
palace and introduced him to the king, and provided for all the rest of the
father’s days, and nothing was too good for the old man while living, and when
he was dead, Joseph, with military escort, took his father’s remains to the
family cemetery at Machpelah, and put them down beside Rachel, Joseph’s mother.
Would God all children were as kind to their parents! “Over the hills to the
poor-house” is the exquisite ballad of Will Carleton, who found an old woman
who had been turned off by her prospered sons; but I think I may find in my
text “Over the hills to the palace.” As if to disgust us with unfilial conduct,
the Bible presents us with the story of Micah, who stole a thousand shekels
from his mother, and the story of Absalom, who tried to dethrone his father.
But all history is beautiful with stories of filial fidelity. Epimandes, the
warrior, found his chief delight in reciting to his parents his victories.
There goes AEneas from burning Troy, on his shoulders Anchises, his father. The
Athenians punished with death any unfilial conduct. There goes beautiful Ruth
escorting venerable Naomi across the desert amid the howling of the wolves and
the barking of the jackals. John Lawrence, burned at the stake in Colchester,
was cheered in the flames by his children, who said, “O God, strengthen Thy
servant and keep Thy promise.” And Christ in the hour of excruciation provided
for His mother. Jacob kept his resolution, “I will go and see him before I
die,” and a little while after we find them walking the tessellated floor of
the palace, Jacob and Joseph, the Prime minister proud of the shepherd. I may
say in regard to the most of you that your parents have probably visited you
for the last time, or will soon pay you such a visit, and I have wondered if
they will ever visit you in the King’s palace. “Oh,” you say, “I am in the pit
of sin.” Joseph was in the pit. “Oh,” you say, “I am in the prison of mine
iniquity.” Joseph was once in prison. “Oh,” you say, “I didn’t have a fair
chance; I was denied maternal kindness.” Joseph was denied maternal attendance.
“Oh,” you say, “I am far away from the land of my nativity.” Joseph was far
from home. “Oh,” you say, “I have been betrayed and exasperated.” Did not
Joseph’s brethren sell him to a passing Ishmaelitish caravan? Yet God brought
him to that emblazoned residence, and if you will trust His grace in Jesus
Christ you too will be empalaced. Oh, what a day that will be when the old
folks come from an adjoining mansion in heaven, and find you amid the alabaster
pillars of the throne-room and living with the King! They are coming up the
steps now, and the epauletted guard of the palace rushes in and says, “Your
father’s coming, your mother’s coming.” And when, under the arches of precious
stones and on the pavement of porphyry, you greet each other, the scene will
eclipse the meeting on the Goshen highway, when Joseph and Jacob fell on each
other’s neck and wept a good while. (Dr. Talmage.)
The lost found
There was once a boy in Liverpool who went into the water to
bathe, and he was carried out by the tide. Though he struggled long and hard,
be was not able to swim against the ebbing tide, and he was taken far out to
sea. He was picked up by a boat belonging to a vessel bound for Dublin. The
poor little boy was almost lost. The sailors were all very kind to him when he
was taken into the vessel. One gave him a cap, another a jacket, another a pair
of shoes, and so on. But that evening a gentleman, who was walking near the
place where the little boy had gone into the water, found his clothes lying on
the shore. He searched and made inquiries, but no tidings were to be heard of
the poor little boy. He found a piece of paper in the pocket of the boy’s coat,
by which he discovered who it was to whom the clothes belonged. The kind man
went with a sad and heavy heart to break the news to the parents. He said to
the father, “I am very sorry to tell you that I found these clothes on the
shore, and could not find the lad to whom they belonged; I almost fear he has
been drowned.” The father could hardly speak for grief; the mother was wild
with sorrow. They caused every inquiry to be made, but no account was to be had
of their dear boy. The house was sad; the little children missed their
playfellow; mourning was ordered; the mother spent her time crying, and the
father’s heart was heavy. He said little, but he felt much. The lad was taken
back in a vessel bound for Liverpool, and arrived on the day the mourning was
to be brought home. As soon as he reached Liverpool, he set off toward his
father’s house. He did not like to be seen in the strange cap and jacket and
shoes which he had on, so he went by the lanes, where he would not meet those
who knew him. At last he came to the hall door. He knocked. When the servant
opened it, and saw who it was, she screamed with joy, and said, “Here is Master
Tom!” His father rushed out, and, bursting into tears, embraced him. His mother
fainted; there was no more spirit in her. What a happy evening they all,
parents and children, spent! They did not want the mourmng. The father could
say with Jacob, “It is enough; my son is yet alive.” (E. P. Hammond.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》