[Many believe: “Pharaoh Ramesses II (about 1279-1213 B.C.),” was the “new king over
The
carved statue shown above depicts him holding an offering table.]
PREFACE
My first essay at
Scripture Biography was made on the Life of Joseph. And ever since Joseph’s life has had a
special charm for me, not only for its intrinsic beauty, but because of its
vivid anticipations of the Life that lights all lives.
I remember seeing the huge
In fact, there are scenes in the life
of Joseph which probably foreshadow events that are timed to happen in the near
future, and which depict them with a vividness and minuteness not to be found
elsewhere on the page of Scripture.* It is here only that we can fully
realize what will take place when the Lord Jesus makes Himself known to his
brethren according to the flesh, and they exclaim, “It is Jesus
our brother!”
- F. B. MEYER.
[EDITOR’S FOREWORD
We do well to
always keep in mind the fact that Joseph’s persecution by his “brethren,” is also typical – (as all other
aspects of his holy life, which the Holy Spirit has recorded for our learning will
show) - of persecution which will come from our “brethren.” That is, from amongst those who are members of God’s redeemed family!
Joseph’s dreams
had to do with a future God-given earthly authority; and with rulership
over
his brethren: and that, in turn, points us toward unfulfilled
prophetic events which Jesus has said will take place in the near-distant
future, - “Ye shall be delivered up even by parents, and
brethren … you shall they cause to be
put to death…” (Lk.
21: 16.)! Why?
For speaking God’s TRUTH: for
making other members of His redeemed family aware of the Divine Truth
that our Lord Jesus, the Christ/Messiah - will be coming back to this
earth to enter into His “inheritance”
(Lk. 20: 14); and to appoint positions of authority to
those “accounted
worthy,” from
amongst those within His redeemed family, to be with Him in the “Age” yet to
come, (Lk. 20: 35).
At the Judgment
Seat of Christ, there will be a selection out from amongst members in the “body” of the Jesus Christ – the “Second Adam”. As Eve was brought out of the First
Adam’s body, to have dominion with him over all
creation; so they (in the antitype) will be chosen, by God out of His “Body” to
rule as consort queen with His Messiah after His Second Coming: and that scriptural
truth is being rejected today by multitudes of regenerate believers! Gen. 1: 28; 2: 22; 3: 17b, 18; Gen. 24: 3, 4; Rev. 19: 7, 8.
The Apostle Paul
has warned us against the dire consequences of the apostasy in 1 Cor. 9: 24-10: 11.
Never, (as far as
I am aware) has there ever been a time in the history of Christendom, where so
many books, written by Anti-millennialist authors, has
been available: they are designed to negate
Therefore, to
encourage those who are presently in the process of God’s child-training in
preparation for service in the Messianic “Kingdom,”
– (as was the case in Joseph’s life after rejection by his brethren, for
service under Pharaoh king of Egypt) - the Holy Spirit has recorded the details
of his life for our encouragement, instruction and preparation for our service
under “the Lord of lords, and King
of kings,” when “the government [of
this earth] shall be upon his shoulder;”
and “the [restored]
earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.”
Rev.17: 14; Isa. 9: 6; 12: 9, R.V.
“I know thy tribulation, and thy poverty (but thou art rich), and the
blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and
they are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.
Fear not the
things which thou are about to suffer:
behold, the devil is about to cast some of you
into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have a tribulation of ten
days. Be thou faithful” - [in holy living, as was Joseph
during his lifetime] – “and I will give thee
the crown of life.”
This “crown of life” – will be given to those who have paid
attention to God’s conditional
promises and responsibility
truths: and who have (and presently are) being “persecuted for
righteousness sake” (Matt. 5:
10); and for proclaiming the TRUTH
of His word, and in the “preaching the gospel [i.e., the good news] of the kingdom.”
This “Word (or ‘message’,
N.I.V.) of the kingdom” [Matt. 13: 19, A.V., R.V.]), has to do with fruitbearing:
it has nothing whatsoever to do with “the free
gift of God,” which Paul says is “eternal life” (Rom. 6: 23, R.V.)!
The message of eternal
salvation by grace; justification by faith,
by means of the imputed righteousness of our Saviour; and the free
gift of eternal life; is a message for all who are presently outside
of God’s redeemed family to hear, understand and believe: but “the message of the kingdom”; the
undisclosed standard of a disciple’s active, personal
righteousness, and “life” in the “age” to come, is for those who are eternally saved:
and Jesus says, - “When persecution ariseth because of the word, - [i.e., ‘the word of the kingdom’] - straightway he stumbleth.” (Matt.
13: 21, R.V.).
Disciples of
Christ stumble because they don’t understand this ‘Kingdom’ message, and very often there is no one
willing or able to explain it to them correctly; they stumble because, “like the
unregenerate Jews today, believe only one aspect of God’s truth) and
reject the other – that of a ruling Messiah upon this earth;
they stumble because they think the future “salvation
of
souls”(1 Pet. 1: 9, Lt. Gk.),
is synonymous with the eternal salvation which they received at the time of
first faith in Christ; they stumble because they believe Messiah has only one ‘Kingdom,’ when throughout God’s Word we read of two,
(1 Cor. 15: 24. cf.
Rev. 3: 21); they stumble because they think
they can ascend into Heaven (before receiving a redeemed body of
“flesh and bones” (Lk. 24: 39. cf. Rom. 8: 23.) and before
the time of Resurrection (2 Tim. 2: 18; Jn. 3: 13. cf. Heb.
9: 27):
and so they act as though they know all that is needed to know about
what the Word of God teaches! Will they,
if they chose to remain in their ignorance, receive “the Reward,” “the Prize,” “their
Crown,” and the “iheritance”? Do they not know that our God is a Righteous
Judge, who will reward to each of us according to our
works? If we continue to believe
in one
“Rest” - that of resting in Christ for
eternal salvation - will we enter into His future millennial “Sabbath-Rest” which is spoken of in Psa. 95: 11 and Heb. 4: 1? If we continue in disobedience we are in danger of the
Holy Spirit leaving us until the time we repentance and restoration,
(Jud. 16:
20. cf. 1 Sam. 28: 16)! If we stumble at the truth of the god of this
world (Satan); who is soon to be replaced by its rightful Heir (Jesus
Christ), are we not placing ourselves in dire danger of being used
by him as dupes assisting him in his deception and lies! There is no fool like one who believes with
all his heart that he is right, when the Word of God says he is wrong (Lk. 24: 25)! And
that, simply because he refuses to believe “all that the prophets have spoken” (verse 25)!
Let us keep in mind the fact that Satan is in the business of trying
to keep it that way! He delights
in his dupes who have accepted his teachings and ERRORS, which are so blatantly
contrary to God’s written TRUTH! Let us ask Lord for more wisdom and
understanding, so grow in His grace into mature disciples of His; who are not
tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine: let us find His grace and
forgiveness of our ignorance; being ever mindful of the fact that this
sin-cursed world is His inheritance; and that He intends to
see to it that what happened in the Garden of Eden will be reversed and
redeemed, before He will create “a new heaven
and a new earth” (Rev. 21: 1). Let us press on …
“As many as I love, I reprove
and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I
stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my
voice and open the door, I will come into him, and he with me. He that overcometh,
I will give to him
to sit down with me in my throne,
as I also overcame, and sat down with my father
in his throne.
He that hath an ear,
let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches:” (Rev. 2: 10; 3: 19-22, R.V.)]
* * *
CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1.
EARLY DAYS Page 9
CHAPTER 2. THE PIT. Page 16
CHAPTER 3. IN THE HOUSE OF
POTIPHAR Page
25
CHAPTER 4. THE SECRET OF PURITY Page 37
CHAPTER 5. MISUNDERSTOOD AND
IMPRISONED Page
42
CHAPTER 6. THE STEPS OF THE
THRONE Page 54
CHAPTER 7. JOSEPH’S FIRST INTERVIEW
WITH HIS BRETHREN Page 67
CHAPTER 8 JOSEPH’S SECOND INTERVIEW
WITH HIS BRETHREN Page 78
CHAPTER 9. JOSEPH MAKING HIMSELF KNOWN Page 89
CHAPTER 10. JOSEPH’S ADMINISTRATION OF
CHAPTER 11. JOSEPH’S FATHER Page 108
CHAPTER 12. JOSEPH AT THE DEATH-BED OF JACOB Page 118
CHAPTER 13. THE SECRET OF FRUITFULNESS Page 129
CHAPTER 14. THE SECRET OF STRENGTH Page 137
CHAPTER 15. THE SECRET OF BLESSEDNESS Page142
CHAPTER 16. JOSEPH’S LAST DAYS AND DEATH Page 150
* * *
[Page 9]
1
EARLY DAYS
(GENESIS 37)
“Behind our life the Weaver stands
And works his wondrous will;
We leave it all in his wise hands,
And trust his perfect skill.
Should mystery enshroud his
plan,
And our short sight be dim,
We will not try the whole to scan,
But leave each thread to Him.”
- C. MUPRAY.
It was said by Coleridge that our greatest mission is to
rescue admitted truths from the neglect caused by their universal
admission. There is much force in
this. When a truth is fighting for
existence, it compels men, whether they love it or not, to consider it. But when its position is secured, it becomes
like a well-used coin, or the familiar text which
hangs unnoticed on the wall. It is a
great mission to rescue such truths from neglect; to flash upon them the strong
light which arrests attention; to play the part of Old Mortality, who, chisel
in hand, was wont to clear the mould of neglect from the gravestones of the
Covenanters, so that the legend might stand out clear-cut. It is something like this that I attempt for
this exquisite story. We think we know all about it; and yet
there may be depths of meaning and beauty which, by their very familiarity,
escape us. Let us ponder together the
story of JOSEPH; and as we do so, we shall get many a foreshadowing of Him
who was cast into the pit of death, and who now sits at the right hand of
Power, a Prince and a Saviour.
[Page 10]
1. THE FORMATIVE
INFLUENCES OF HIS EARLY LIFE. -
Seventeen years before our story opens, a little child was
borne by Rachel, the favourite wife of Jacob.
The latter was then living as manager for his uncle Laban, on the ancient
pasture-land of Charran, situated in the valley of
the Euphrates and the
But what a history has passed in that interval! When yet a child he was hastily caught up by
his mother, and sustained in her arms on the back of a swift camel, urged to
its highest speed, in the flight across the desert that lay, with only one oasis,
between the bank of the Euphrates and the green prairies of Gilead. He could just remember the panic that spread
through the camp when tidings came that Esau, the dread uncle, was on his
march, with four hundred followers. Nor
could he ever forget the evening full of preparation, the night of solemn
expectancy, and the morning when his father limped into the camp, maimed in
body, but with the look of a prince upon his face.
More recently still, he could recall the hurried flight from
the enraged idolaters of Shechem; and those solemn hours at
If this were so, these impressions were soon deepened by three
deaths. When they reached the family
settlement, they found the old nurse Deborah dying. She was the last link to those bright days
when her young mistress Rebekah came across the desert to be Isaac’s bride; and
they buried her with many tears under an ancient but splendid oak. And he could never forget the next. The long caravan was moving slowly up to the
narrow ridge along which lay the ancient
These things made Joseph what he
was. And the little
sympathy that he received from his family only drove
him more apart, and compelled him to live “by the
well” (Gen.
49: 22), and to strike his roots deeper
into the life of God.
It may be that these words will be
read by youths of seventeen who have passed through experiences not unlike
Joseph’s. They have lost
sainted friends. They have
been emptied from vessel to vessel. They feel lonely in the midst of their home. Let me solemnly ask them if they have entered
into covenant with God. Have you avouched God to be your God? Have you put your hand into the hand of “the mighty
God of Jacob”? It is an urgent question, for the answer to
it may mark the crisis of your lives. Choose Christ; and, in choosing Him, choose life,
and blessedness, and heaven.
And when you [Page 12] have chosen Him, cleave close to Him, and send the
rootlets of your existence deep down into the hidden wells of communion and
fellowship.
2. THE EXPERIENCES OF
HIS HOME LIFE. –
Joseph was endowed with
very remarkable intelligence.
It would
almost seem as if he were chief shepherd (ver. 2), the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah
acting as his subordinates and assistants.
The Rabbis describe him as a wise son, endowed with knowledge beyond his
years. It was this, combined with the
sweetness of his disposition, and the memory of his mother, that won for him
his father’s peculiar love. “
And this love provided the coat of many colours. We have been accustomed to think of this coat as a kind
of patchwork quilt, and we have wondered that grown men should have been moved
to so much passion at the sight of the peacock plumes of their younger
brother. But further knowledge will
correct these thoughts. The Hebrew word
means simply a tunic reaching to the extremities, and describes a garment
commonly worn in
Now we can understand the envy of his brothers. This sort of robe was worn only by the
opulent and noble, by kings’ sons, and by
those who had no need to toil for their living.
All who had to win their bread by labour wore short, coloured garments
that did not show stain, or cramp the free movement of the limbs. Such was the lot of Jacob’s sons, and such
the garments they wore. They had to wade
through morasses, to clamber up hills, to carry wandering sheep home on their
shoulders, to fight with robbers and beasts of prey; and for such toils the
flowing robe would have been quite unfit.
But when Jacob gave such a robe to Joseph, he declared in effect [Page 13] that from such hardships and toils his favourite son should be
exempt. Now in those times the father’s
will was law. When, therefore, they saw
Joseph tricked out in his robe of state, the brethren felt that in all
likelihood he would have the rich inheritance,
whilst they must follow a
life of toil. “And when his
brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not
speak peaceably unto him.”
The case was aggravated by his plain speaking. “He brought unto his father
their evil report.” At first sight this does not seem a
noble trait in his character. Love
covereth the multitude of sins, as the two elder sons of Noah covered their
father’s shame. At the same time there
may have been circumstances that justified, and even demanded, the
exposure. It is sometimes the truest
kindness, after due and repeated warning, to expose the evil deeds of those
with whom we live and work. If they are
permitted to go on in sin, apparently undetected, they will become hardened and
emboldened, and eager to go to greater lengths.
Moreover, Joseph was probably placed over them, and was responsible to
his father for their behaviour. He was
jealous for the family name, which they had already “made to stink
among the inhabitants of the land.”
He was eager for
the glory of God, whose name was continually blasphemed through their
means. And, therefore, without attempting
to conceal the evil, he told their father just how matters stood.
But this was enough to make them hate him. “Every
one that doeth evil hateth the light.” “I hate him,”
said the infuriated Ahab when speaking of Micaiah, “because he doth not prophesy good of
me, but evil.” “The world cannot hate you,” our Lord said sadly; “but Me it hateth, because I
testify of it, that its works are evil.”
So will it be always: if the world loves us and speaks well of us, we
may gravely question if we are salt, pure and stinging, amid its corruption, or
lights in its midnight gloom. As soon as
our lives become a strong contrast
and reproof, we shall arouse its undying hate.
“What [Page 14] evil have I done,” said the ancient Cynic, “to make all men speak
well of me?”
But still further, Joseph dreamed that he should become the centre of the family life. All young
people dream. Unless our lot has been
peculiarly hard and untoward, we all, in the sunny days of youth, don Joseph’s
tunic, and dream - how great and successful we shall be! - how
noble and heroic! - how much good we are to get and
give! The heavens shall rain soft
showers of benediction! The earth shall
yield flowers for our feet and fruits to our taste! We shall surpass all who have preceded us;
sitting on the throne of supremacy, whilst our detractors and foes do us
obeisance! Alas, our raiment soon drips
with blood, and we find ourselves down in the pit, or sold into captivity. But there was this in Joseph’s dreams, they foretold not only his exaltation, but his
brothers’ humiliation. If he were the
central sheaf, their sheaves must do obeisance, by falling to the earth around
it. If he were on the throne, sun, moon,
and stars must do him homage. This was
more than the proud spirits of his brethren could brook, and “they hated
him yet the more.”
But the root of their enmity lay even deeper. In
[Page 15]
Do you know by sad experience what Joseph felt beneath those
Syrian skies? Do the archers shoot at
you? Are you lonesome and depressed, and
ready to give up? Take heart! - see the trampled
grass and the snapped twigs; others have gone this way before you. Christ your Lord suffered the same treatment
from His own. Go on doing right, in
nothing terrified by your adversaries.
Be pitiful and gentle, forgiving and forbearing. Be specially careful
not to take your case into your own hands; demanding redress in imperious and
vindictive tones. If you are servants,
forbear to answer back. Give your backs
to the smiters, and your cheeks to them that pluck
off the hair. Avenge not yourselves, but
rather give place unto wrath. Put down
your feet into the footprints of your Saviour, who left an example that we
should follow Him. He did no sin,
neither was guile found in His mouth: and yet, when He was unjustly reviled, He
reviled not again; when He suffered beneath undeserved contumely and reproach,
He did not even remind the perpetrators of the righteous judgment of God, but
was dumb as a lamb, and threatened not, and committed Himself to Him that
judgeth righteously.
And what was the result?
Joseph was carried through the hatred and opposition of his [brethren and] foes;
and his dreams were literally fulfilled in the golden days of
prosperity, which came at length. Just as Jesus was eventually seated at the right hand of God, as
Prince and Saviour. And your
time, sufferer, shall come at length, when God shall vindicate your character,
and avenge your sorrows. “Trust in
the Lord, and do good; fret not thyself in any wise to do
evil; for evil-doers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit
the earth. He shall bring forth
thy righteousness as the light,
and thy judgment as the noonday” (Ps. 34).
* *
*
[Page 16]
2
THE PIT
(GENESIS 37)
“All is of God that is, and is to be;
And God is good! Let
this suffice us still;
Resting in childlike trust upon his will,
Who moves to his great ends, unthwarted
by the ill.”
- J. G.
THE cross of our Lord Jesus Christ is the centre of human
history. It is the sun around which the
firmament circles; the key to all Scripture history and type; the fact which
gives meaning and beauty to all other facts.
To ignore the cross is to repeat the error of the old philosophers; who
thought that the earth, and not the sun, was the centre of our system, and to
whom therefore the very heavens were in confusion. To know and love the cross - to stand beside
it as the faithful women did when Jesus died - is to obtain a deep insight into
the harmonies of all things in heaven and earth.
It is remarkable to learn that, on the day of our Saviour’s
passion, it being equinox, the whole habitable world was lit up between the
hours of nine a.m. and six p.m. Could an
angel have poised himself in mid-air during those memorable hours, he would
have seen each continent bathed in successive sunshine. At nine a.m. it was noon in India, and all
Asia was in light to its far eastern fringes; at noon all Europe and all Africa
was in light; at 6 p.m. the whole continent of America had passed into the
golden glory. This may serve as a
parable. Poise yourself above the cross;
look back to the morning of earth’s history, and onward to its evening - and
all will be [Page 17] light. The radiance that streams from the cross
illumines all events, and banishes all darkness.
When an artist in music, colour, or stone, conceives a
beautiful idea, he seems reluctant to let it drop: he hints at it before he
expresses it in complete beauty; nor is he satisfied until he has exhausted his
art by the variety of ways in which he has embodied his thought. The practised sense may detect it now in the
symphony, and then in the chorus; now in the general scheme, and again in the
minute detail. It recurs again and
again. There is the hint, the outline,
the slight symptom, anticipating the fuller, richer revelation. Is not this true also of the death of our
beloved Lord? The Great Artist of all
things, enamoured with the wondrous cross, filled the world with foreshadowings
and anticipations of it long before it stood with outstretched arms on the
little hill of Calvary. You may find
them in heathen myths, or in ancient sayings and songs. You may find them in touching incidents of
human history. You may, above all, find
them upon the pages of the Bible. The
ages that lie on this side of the cross are full of references to it - it
shapes them as it shapes each cathedral church; but I suppose that the ages on
the other side were quite as full, though the observers may not have been so
keen to see them.
The sun which now shines, so to speak, from the other side of
the cross, so as to fling its shadow forward clear and sharp on the canvas of the
present, once shone from where we now stand, and flung its shadow backward upon
the canvas of the past. One of these
shadows is caught and photographed for us in this sweet story of Joseph.
To the casual reader the story of Joseph’s wrongs, and of his
rise from the pit to vice-regal power, is simply interesting, as an old-world
story must ever be, for its archaic simplicity and the insight into the past
which it affords. But to the man on
whose heart the cross is carved in loving memory there is a far deeper
interest. It is
[Page 18]
We can do no better than take it line by line, and mark the
fulfilment of the shadow in the glorious reality.
1. JOSEPH’S
It was this that gave point to Jacob’s question, “Do not thy
brethren feed the flock at Shechem?” He had heard them
speak of going there in search of pasture; long weeks had passed since he
received tidings of their welfare, and the memory of the past made him very
anxious about them. And this solicitude
became so overpowering that it forced him to do what otherwise would never have
entered his thoughts.
He was alone in
* Khevron:Associating, joining together.
[Page 19]
On Joseph’s part there was not a moment’s hesitation. In the flash of a thought he realized the perils
of the mission - perils of waters, perils of robbers, perils of wild beasts,
perils in the lonely nights, perils among false brethren, who bitterly hated
him. But “none of these things moved him, neither counted he his life dear unto himself.” As soon as he knew his father’s will, he said, “Here am I.” “So Jacob sent him; and he came.”
But Joseph did not go in search of his brethren simply because
his father sent him. Had this been the
case, he would have returned home when he found that they had safely left the
dreaded Shechem. But instead of that he
sought them, because he loved them, and went after them until he found them.
Is not all this full to overflowing of a yet loftier theme?
Our Lord never wearied of calling Himself the Sent of the Father. There is hardly a page in the Gospel of John
in which He does not say more than once, “I came not of Myself,
but My Father sent Me.” He loved to find an analogy to His mission in
the name of the brooklet that flowed “hard by the
oracle of God,”
and which was called Siloam (which is by interpretation, “Sent”). Thus it
became a constant expression with the New Testament writers, “God sent
forth his Son”; “The Father sent the Son to be
the Saviour of the world.”
It must have cost Jacob something to part with the beloved
Joseph: and this can be gauged by those who
have lost their beloved. But who can
estimate how much it cost the Infinite God to send his only-begotten Son, who
had dwelt in his bosom, and who was his Fellow from everlasting? Let us not think that God is passionless as
the sphinx, which, with expressionless face and with stony eyes, stares
unmoved, unfeeling, over the desert waste.
If his love be like ours (and we know it must be), He must suffer from
the same causes that work havoc in our hearts, only He must suffer
proportionately to the strength and infiniteness of his nature. How, much, then, must God have loved us, that
He should be willing to send his Son! Truly
[Page 20] God so loved the
world! But who shall fathom the depths
of that one small word?
But our Saviour did not come solely because He was sent. He came because He loved his mission. He came to seek and to save that which was
lost. And He especially came in search
of his brethren, his own, the children of the Hebrew race. Could you have asked Him, as you met Him
traversing those same fields, “What seekest Thou?”
He would have replied in the self-same words of Joseph, “I seek my
brethren.” Nor was He content with only seeking the lost; He
went after them until He found them. “Joseph went
after his brethren until he found them in
Beautiful as is the parable of the Prodigal Son, to me there
is a no less priceless beauty in the parables of the Lost Sheep and the Lost Silverling, because in each of these two there was seeking
on the part of one who could not bear to lose, and the seeking was never
abandoned until the lost was found. It
may be that the Lord Jesus is seeking you: for many weary days He has been
seeking for you, with bleeding feet or with a lighted candle. You of yourself might never have the desire
or the courage to seek Him; yet take heart, since He will never rest till He
has found you.
2. JOSEPH’S RECEPTION. – “They saw him afar off, even before he came near unto them, and they conspired against him to slay him.” And he would doubtless have been ruthlessly
slain, and his body flung into some pit, away from the haunts of men, if it had
not been for the merciful pleadings of Reuben, the eldest brother. “And it came to pass, when Joseph was come unto his brethren, that they stripped him of his coat, his coat of many colours, and
they took him, and cast him into a pit.”
Our mother earth has seen many dark crimes committed on her surface by
her children; but she has never seen a darker one than this. It was a mean, cowardly, dastardly deed for
nine grown men to set upon one timid, unresisting lad.
[Page 21]
The calm prose of the historian does not dwell on the passion of
the brothers, or on the anguish of that young heart, which found it so hard to
die, so hard to say good-bye to the fair earth, so hard to descend into that
dark cistern, whose steep sides forbade the hope that he could ever scramble
back into the upper air. But the
confession of those cruel men, made to one another after the lapse of
twenty-five years, enables us to supply the missing colouring for this deed of
horror.
Years after they said one to another, “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.” What a revelation
there is in these words! We seem to see
Joseph, in those rude hands, like a fleecy lamb in the jaws of a tiger. He struggles to get free. He entreats them with bitter tears to let him
go. He implores them for the sake of his
old father, and by the tie of brotherhood.
The anguish of his soul is clearly evident in his bitter cries, and
tears, and prayers. Alas, poor young sufferer!
Would that we could believe that thine were the only anguished cries
which brutal passion has extorted from gentle innocence!
What a genesis of crime is here! There was a time when the germ of this sin alighted on their
hearts in the form of a ruffled feeling of jealousy against the young
dreamer. If only they had quenched it
then, its further progress would have been stayed. Alas! they did not
quench it; they permitted it to work within them as leaven works in meal. And “lust, when
it had conceived, brought forth sin; and sin, when it was finished, brought forth death.” Take care how
you permit a single germ of sin to alight and remain upon your heart. To permit it to do so,
is almost certain ruin. Sooner or later
it will acquire overwhelming force.
Treat that germ as you would the first germ of fever that entered your
home. At the first consciousness of sin,
seek instant cleansing in the precious blood of Christ.
Unforgiven sin is a fearful scourge. Year passed after year; but the years could not obliterate
from their memories that [Page 22] look, those cries, that scene in the green glen of
Dothan, surrounded by the tall cliffs, over-arched by the blue sky, whose
expanse was lit up by a meridian sun.
They tried to lock up the skeleton in their most secret cupboard, but it
contrived to come forth to confront them even in their guarded hours. Sometimes they thought they saw that agonized
young face in their dreams, and heard that piteous voice wailing in the night
wind. The old father, who mourned for
his son as dead, was happier than were they, who knew him to be alive. One crime may thus darken a whole life. There are some who teach that God is too
merciful to punish men; yet He has so made the world that sin is its own
Nemesis - sin carries with it the seed of its own punishment. And the men who
carry with them the sense of unforgiven sin, will be the first to believe in a
vulture for ever tearing out the vitals, a worm that never dies, a fire that is
never quenched.
But Joseph’s grief was a true anticipation of Christ’s. “He came to his own, but his own
received Him not.” They said, “This is the heir, come let us kill Him, and the inheritance shall be
ours.” “They caught Him, and
cast Him out, and slew Him.” “They parted his
raiment among them.” They sold Him to the Gentiles. They sat down to watch Him die. The anguish of Joseph’s soul reminds us of
the strong cryings and tears wrung from the human
nature of Christ by the near approach of His unknown sufferings as the
scapegoat of the race. The comparative
innocence of Joseph reminds us of the spotlessness of the Lamb who was without
blemish, and whose blamelessness was again and again attested before He
died. No victim destined for the altar
was ever more searchingly inspected for one black hair or defect than was
Jesus, by those who were compelled to confess, “This Man hath done nothing
amiss.”
Here, however, the parallel stays. Joseph’s sufferings stopped before they reached the
point of death. Jesus tasted death. Joseph’s sufferings were personal; the
sufferings of Jesus were substitutionary and mediatorial; “He died for
us”; “He gave [Page 23] Himself for me.” Joseph’s sufferings had no efficacy in
atoning for the sin that caused them; but the sufferings of Jesus atone not
only for the guilt of his murderers, but for the guilt of all; “He is the
propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.”
3. JOSEPH’S FATE. – “They sat down to eat bread.”
With hardened unconcern they took their midday meal. Just at that moment a new and welcome sight
struck their gaze. They were sitting on
the plain at Dothan, a spot which still retains its ancient name; and anyone
stationed there, and looking eastward towards the valley of the Jordan, would
be able to trace the main road that led from the fords of the Jordan towards
the coast of the Mediterranean. This
road was one of the main thoroughfares of
The sight of these travelling merchants gave a sudden turn to
the thoughts of the conspirators. They
knew that there was in
It was the work of a few minutes; and then Joseph found
himself one of a long line of fettered slaves, bound for a foreign land. Was not this almost worse than death? What anguish still rent his young heart! How eager his desire to send just one last
message to his father! And with all
these thoughts, there would mingle a wondering thought of the great God whom he
had learned to worship. What would He
say to this? Little did he
think then that hereafter he should look back on that day as one of the most
gracious lines in a chain of loving providences; or that he should ever say, “Be not
grieved, nor angry with yourselves: God did send me here before you.”
It is very sweet, as life passes by, to be able to look back on dark and
mysterious events, and to trace the hand of God where we once saw only the
malice and cruelty of man. And no doubt the day is coming when we shall be able to speak thus of all the dark passages of
our life.
Joseph was betrayed by his brothers; Jesus by His friend. Joseph was sold for money; so was our
Lord. Joseph followed in the train of
captives to slavery; Jesus was numbered with transgressors. The crime of Joseph’s brothers fulfilled the
Divine plan; and the wicked hands of the crucifiers of Jesus fulfilled the
determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God.
God will “make the wrath of man to praise Him; and the remainder of wrath will He restrain.” “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and of the
knowledge of God! how
unsearchable His judgments, and His ways past
finding out!”
* *
*
[Page 25]
3
THE HOUSE OF POTIPHAR
(GENESIS 39)
“Many, if God should
make them kings,
Might not disgrace the
throne He gave;
How few who could as well
fulfil
The holier office of a slave!
Great may he be who can command,
And rule with just and
tender sway;
Yet is diviner wisdom
taught
Better by him who can obey.”
-
A. A. PROCTOR.
THE Midianite merchantmen, into whose hands his brethren sold
Joseph, brought him down to
He was bought by Potiphar, “the captain
of the guard.” The margin tells us he was the chief
of the slaughter-men or executioners. He
was, in all likelihood, the chief of the military force employed as the royal
bodyguard, in the precincts of the [Page 26] court. The Egyptian monarchs had the absolute power
of life and death; and they did not scruple to order the infliction of a
variety of summary or sanguinary punishments, the execution of which was
entrusted to the military guard, which was always at hand, and afforded the
readiest and most efficient instrument for torture or death.
Potiphar was an Egyptian grandee; a member of a proud
aristocracy; high in office and in court favour. He would no doubt live in a splendid palace,
covered with hieroglyphs and filled with slaves. The young captive, accustomed to the
tendernesses of his simple and beloved home, must have trembled as he passed up
the pillared avenue, through sphinx-guarded gates, into the recesses of that
strange, vast Egyptian palace, where they spoke a language of which he could
not understand a word, and where all was so new and strange. But “God was with him”; the sense of the presence and
guardianship of his father’s God pervaded and stilled his soul, and kept him in
perfect peace; and, though severed from all whom he knew, it was rest and
strength to feel that the mysterious wings, engraved on the porticoes of so
many Egyptian buildings, were emblems to him of the outstretched wings of his
great Father’s care - an unsleeping care beneath which his soul might nestle
evermore. Who would not
rather, after all, choose to be Joseph in
Let us consider how Joseph fared in Potiphar’s house.
1. JOSEPH’S PROMOTION. – “The Lord was with Joseph; and he was a prosperous man.”
The older versions of the Bible give a curious rendering here: “The Lord was
with Joseph; and he was a luckie
fellow.” I suppose the meaning is that everything he
handled went well. Success followed him
as closely as his shadow, and touched all his plans with her magic wand. Potiphar and his household got into the way
of expecting that this strange Hebrew captive could untie every knot, [Page 27] disentangle every skein, and bring to successful issues the most intricate
arrangements. This arose from two
causes.
In the first place, though stripped of his coat, he had not been stripped of his
character.
See to it,
young people, that no one rob you of that: everything
else may be replaced but that! He was
industrious, prompt, diligent, obedient, reliable. When sent to find his brothers, he had
carried out, not the letter only, but the spirit of his father’s instructions,
and did not rest till he had traced them from Shechem to
When his fellow-servants were squandering the golden moments,
Joseph was filling them with activities. When they were content with a good
surface appearance, he toiled upward to success from carefully-laid
foundations. When they worked simply to avoid the frown or
the lash, he worked to win the smile of the great Taskmaster, whose eye was
ever upon him. They often pointed at him
with envy, and perhaps said, “He is a lucky fellow.” They did not think that his luck
was his character; and that his character meant God. Men often speak thus of each other, “He was always a lucky fellow”; “He was born beneath a lucky star”; “He is sure to have good luck.” But there is no such thing as luck, except
that luck means character. And if you wish to possess such a character as will insure your success in
this life, there is no true basis for it but Jesus Christ. You must build [your life-style, beliefs and
teachings] on Him; or your structure will be swept away in the
first hurricane.
But when once
you [Page
28] have touched
Him, the Living Stone – [and the rejected Stone], with the first courses of faith -
then rear the
building after the plan given in His own lovely life. Tier on tier let it rise: and you
will find that “Godliness is
profitable unto all things, and has the promise
of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.”
In the second place: “The Lord made all that he did to prosper. The Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house for
Joseph’s sake; and the blessing of the Lord was upon all that he had in the
house, and in the field.” This blessing was not the exclusive
privilege of Joseph: it is
promised to overtake all those “who hearken diligently unto the voice of God,
and who observe to do all his commandments”
(Deut. 28: 1, 2).
Such blessing would oft be ours if we walked as near to God as Joseph
did. It is of little use to cry with Jabez, “Oh, that Thou wouldest bless me indeed!” unless, like him we add, “Keep me from
evil.” But when the blessing comes, “it maketh
rich, and addeth no sorrow.”
Let us see to it that we live so that God may be with us. “The Lord
is with you, while ye be
with Him: and
if ye seek Him,
He will be found of you; but if ye forsake
Him, He will forsake you.”
These words may be read by servants of various kinds - the household
domestic, the office-boy, the apprentice, the clerk. And if so, they will surely be helped by the
example of this noble youth. He did not
give himself to useless regrets and unavailing tears. He girded himself manfully to do with his
might whatsoever his hand found to do.
He was “faithful in that which was least,” in the most menial and trivial duties
of his office. He believed that God had
put him where he was; and in serving his earthly master well he felt that he
was really pleasing his great heavenly Friend, who was as near him in those hieroglyphed palaces as in Jacob’s tents. This is the spirit in which all service
should be done. “Stay where you are,” said the apostles to the vast slave
populations of their time, who gladly embraced the Gospel that made them free
with a freedom which no thongs or chains could limit. But “let every man, wherein he is called,
therein abide with God. [Page 29] Art thou
called, being a servant? care not for it; for he that
is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord’s freeman.” “Ye serve the Lord
Christ.
Whatsoever ye do, do
it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men.”
“Be obedient to them that are your masters, in singleness of heart, as
unto Christ.” “Adorn the doctrine
of God our Saviour in all things.” “Christ” - the great Servant – “suffered for us, leaving us an example that ye should follow His steps.”
These voices from the page of inspiration still speak to
servants. If only they were acted upon,
all such would as much ask the will of Christ before leaving a situation as a
minister before leaving his charge. The
most trifling things would be done on the loftiest principles, just as the
shape of a dew-drop upon a rose-leaf is determined by the same laws as
controlled the moulding of our earth into its present form. Yes: and every kitchen, dwelling-room, and
office, would be trodden with the same reverence and love as the floors of a
temple or the golden pavement of heaven.
Our lots in life are much more even than we think. It is not so important what we do as how we
do it. The motive that inspires us is
the true gauge and measure of the worth or importance of our life. A mean man may belittle the most momentous
affairs by the paltriness of his spirit. A noble man may so greaten trifles by
his nobility, that they shall become subjects for the conversation of burning
seraphim, or of cherubim with folded wing.
These words may be read by masters. We cannot estimate the worth of a true
Christian servant. Happy the household
which is thus equipped! The Egyptian
Potiphar must have been agreeably surprised at the sudden tide of prosperity
which set in towards him. All things
went well with him - his cattle throve in the field; his affairs prospered in
the house. He may often have questioned
the cause, but little guessed at first that it was owing to the Hebrew
slave. “The Lord
blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake”; He paid him handsomely
for His servant’s keep. So is it
still. Ungodly masters owe many a
blessing to the presence of some Christian servant [Page 30] or employee beneath their
roof. No angel would ever alight there; no
living spring would bubble there; no music would ever sweeten the daily din of
work; no ladder would link that building to the skies - if it were not for some
Eliezer, or Joseph, or Rhoda, that was living
there. When we reach heaven, and are
able to trace the origin of things, we shall find that many of the choicest
blessings of our lives were procured by the prayers or presence of very obscure
and unrecognized people who were dear to God.
2. JOSEPH’S TEMPTATION.
- Years passed on,
and Joseph became a prosperous man, the steward and bailiff in his master’s
house. “He left all that he
had in Joseph’s hand, and he knew not aught he
had, save the bread which he did eat.” And it was just here that Joseph encountered
the most terrible temptation of his life.
We may expect temptation in days of prosperity and ease rather than in
those of privation and toil. Not on the
glacier slopes of the Alps, but in the sunny plains of the Campagna;
not when the youth is climbing arduously the steep ladder of fame, but when he
has entered the golden portals; not where men frown, but where they smile sweet
exquisite smiles of flattery - it is there, it is there, that the
temptress lies in wait! Beware! If thou
goest armed anywhere, thou must, above all, go armed here. Yet this is so hard. It is easy to keep the armour on when we
ascend the desolate mountain pass, struggling against the pitiless blast, and
afraid that any boulder may hide an assassin.
It is hard to keep it buckled close when we have reached the happy valley,
with its sultry air. But unless we keep
armed there, we are lost. “Watch and
pray, that ye enter not into temptation. The flesh is weak.”
Temptation is hardest to resist when it arises from the least
expected quarter.
Egyptian women
in those days enjoyed as much liberty as English women do now: this is
conclusively proved by the Egyptian monuments, which also testify to the
extreme laxity of their morals. It may
be that Potiphar’s wife was not worse than many of her sex, though we blush to
read of her infamous proposals. They
must have startled Joseph like a shock of earthquake, and filled him with a
sudden tumult of thoughts. The sudden
appeal to his passions invested the temptation with tenfold force. God has so arranged it that, for the most
part, the sailor is warned against the coming storm; he is able to reef his
sails, and close his portholes: but, alas for him if he is caught by a sudden
squall! Christian, beware of sudden
squalls! Men are suddenly overtaken by
faults.
Policy and conscience are often at variance in respect to
temptation. It seemed essential to
Joseph to stand well with his master’s wife.
To please her would secure his
advancement. To cross her would make her
his foe, and ruin his hopes. How many
would have reasoned that, by yielding for only a moment, they might win
influence which they could afterwards use for the very best results! One act of homage to the devil would invest
them with power which they might then use for his overthrow. This is the reasoning of policy, one of the
most accursed traitors in man’s heart.
It is this policy which leads many to say, when tempted to do wrong, by
master, or mistress, foreman, or chief customer, “I
did not care for it, or wish I yielded because my bread depended on it; I did
not dare offend them.” The only
armour against Policy is FAITH that looks to the long
future, and believes that in the end it will be found better to have done
right, and to have waited the vindication and blessing of God.
Well was it for Joseph that did not heed the suggestions of policy: had
he done so, he might have acquired a little more influence in the home of
Potiphar; but it could never have lasted
- and he would never become prime minister of Egypt, or had a home of his own,
or have brought his boys to receive the blessing of his dying father.
The strength of a temptation lies in the response of our
nature to its suggestions.
It is said
that the germs of the potato and vine disease are always floating in the air;
but they can find [Page 32] no place of operation - no bed - in
healthy plants. But directly plants
become degenerate and unable to resist their attacks, then they sweep away the
farmer’s hopes in dreadful ruin. So it
is with us; if only we were like our Lord, we should pass unscathed through a
whirlwind of temptations; they would find nothing in us. It is because our hearts are so
desperately wicked that we need to stand in constant watchfulness. “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” There is no sin in
having certain tendencies, appetites, and desires; else there would be sin in
hunger, and in drowsiness leading to soft sleep. But the danger lies in the fear that they
should be gratified to an immoderate excess, or from wrong and improper
sources. Human nature is very liable to
this. It is biassed
thus; and stolen waters are sweet.
Therefore Joseph must have suffered the more.
We should always carefully distinguish between the appetites
and desires which are natural to us; and those which we have acquired by evil
habit. About the latter we need have no hesitation. We can give them no quarter. They
must be cut up root and branch; as weeds from garden soil are thrown upon the bank, that the sun may scorch out their life. But the former need careful
watching; because though in themselves they are natural and beautiful, yet they
are always liable to demand excessive gratification in respect to right
objects, or gratification in directions which are unnatural and forbidden. We must never expect the time to arrive, on
this side of death, when these natural tendencies will be rooted out; and so
long as they remain in us, they will constitute a nidus in which the germs of temptation may sow themselves, and
fruit. No thoughtful man, who knows his own weakness, can ever dare to affirm
his immunity from temptation, or the impossibility of his yielding. If he stand it is only by the grace of God.
There were peculiar elements of trial in Joseph’s case. The temptation was accompanied by opportunity: “there were
none of the men there within.” It was well timed, and
if he had [Page 33] yielded, there was not much fear of detection and
punishment; the temptress would never publish her own shame. The temptation was also repeated day by
day. How terrible must have been that
awful persistency! Water, by constant
dropping, will wear away rocks; and the temptation that tries at last to win
its way by its very importunity is to be feared most of all.
Yet Joseph stood firm. He reasoned with her.
He urged his master’s kindness and trust. He held up the confidence he dared not
betray. He tried to recall her to a
sense of what became her as his master’s wife.
But he did more. He brought the
case from the court of reason to that of conscience, and asked in words for ever memorable, and which
have given the secret of victory to tempted souls in all ages: “How shall I do this great wickedness, and sin against God!”
There are few subjects which require
more notice both from speakers and writers than this great subject of
chastity. Society is merciless on the
occasional consequences of unchastity and on the wretched victims; but it hears
of the sin itself with an averted smile, or calls it by some other name. But there is no one sin which sooner corrupts
the heart, weakens the intellect, and destroys the body. The poet Robert Burns wrote out of a bitter
experience in his “Letter to a Young Friend”:
“The hallowed lowe o’weel-placed love,
Luxuriantly indulge it;
But never tempt the illicit
rove,
Though naething
should divulge it.
I waive the quantum o’ the
sin,
The hazard o’ concealin’;
But oh, it hardens a’
within,
And petrifies the feelin’.”
And Lord Byron, ending his brief and unchaste life at the age thirty-six, closed his last poem with
these mournful words:
[Page 34]
“My days are in the
yellow leaf,
The flower and fruit of
love are gone:
The worm, the ca’nker, and the grief,
Are mine
alone!”
There is no one sin which will sooner bring about a nation's
fall. If history teaches anything, it
teaches that sensual indulgence is the surest way to national ruin. Society in not condemning this sin condemns herself.
It is said that the temptations of our great cities are too
many and strong for the young to resist.
Men sometimes speak as if sin were a necessity. Refuse to entertain such thoughtlessness and
dangerous talk. Whilst the case of Joseph remains on record, it is a standing
contradiction to the whole. A young man can resist; he can overcome; he can be pure, and chaste, and sweet. We
must, however, obey the dictates of Scripture and common sense.
Avoid all places, books, and people which minister to evil
thoughts. Resist the first tiny rill of temptation,
lest it widen a breach big enough to admit the ocean. Remember that no temptation can master you
unless you admit it within your nature;
and since you are too weak to keep the door shut against it,
look to the mighty Saviour to place Himself against it. All hell cannot break the door open which you
entrust to the safe keeping of Jesus.
What a motto this is for us all! “How can I do this great wickedness?”
I, for whom Christ died. “How can I do this great wickedness?” Others call it “gaiety”;
“being a little fast”; “sowing wild oats.” I call
it SIN. “How can I do
this great wickedness?”
Many wink at it; to me it is a great sin. “How can I sin
against
God?” It seems only to concern men; but in
effect it is a personal sin against the holy God.
It might have been better if Joseph had not gone into the
house to do his business, but probably he had no choice except to go. He took care not to be with her (ver. 10) more than he could help. We have no right to expect God to keep us if
we voluntarily put ourselves into temptation.
But if we are [Page 35] compelled to go there by the
circumstances of our life, we may count upon His faithfulness. If the [Holy] Spirit driveth us into the wilderness to be tempted, we may expect to enjoy
also the ministry of the angels.
Joseph did a wise thing when he fled. Discretion is often the wisest part of valour. Better lose a coat and many a more valuable
possession than lose a good conscience. “Flee youthful
lusts.” Do not parley with
temptation. Do not linger in its
vicinity. Do not stay to look at
it. It will master you if you do. “Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay in all the plain.”
There is no sin in being tempted. The Sinless One Himself was tempted of the devil. The mob may batter at the palace gates; but
the national life is safe so long as sin does not penetrate into the
throne-room, and thrust itself into the royal seat. The will is the citadel of our manhood; and
so lone, as there is no yielding there, there is none anywhere. I cannot be accused of receiving stolen
goods, if I am simply asked to take them in - a request which I indignantly
repudiate. The sin comes in when I
assent, and acquiesce, and yield. At the
same time, it is in the highest degree unwise to relinquish the battle until it
comes into the inner shrine of our being. Much better fight it in the first
circle of defence - in the first suggestion, or insinuation, or desire. Resist the devil there, and he will flee from
you; and you will be saved a struggle within, which will leave its scar on your
soul for years to come.
May we have grace and faith [and God-given strength] to imitate the example of Joseph [the overcomer], and, above all, of our stainless Lord.
We may be quite sure that no temptation will be permitted to assail us -
but such as is common to man, or that we
are able to resist. The onset of temptation indicates that God knows that we are strong
enough to resist, and that sufficient grace is surely within our reach.
And the Almighty Father would lead
us to put forth that [God-given] strength, and to
avail ourselves of His resources. “He that abideth in Him
sinneth not.
He that sinneth hath not seen Him,
neither known Him.” Never forget
that we who [Page 36] believe in Jesus are seated with
Him at the right hand of power: nor that
Satan is already, in the purpose of God, a defeated foe beneath our feet. Let the Overcomer into your heart, for Him to overcome in you, as He overcame in His own mortal life (1 John 4: 4; and John 16: 33). Open
your whole being to the subduing grace of the Holy Spirit. And thus we shall be more than conquerors
through Him who loves us.
* *
*
[Page 37]
4
THE SECRET OF PURITY
(GENESIS 39. See also Prov. 4: 23; 1 Pet. 1: 5; 2 Tim. 1: 12)
“Against the threats of malice, or of sorcery,
or that power
Which erring
men call Chance, this I hold firm:
Virtue may be
assailed, but never hurt;
Surprised by
unjust force, but not enthralled;
Yea, even
that which mischief meant most harm,
Shall, in the happy trial, prove most glory.”
-
Joseph learnt, hundreds of years before our Saviour taught it
from the Mount of the Beatitudes, the blessedness of the pure in heart. He could not have anticipated the exquisite
symmetry of the form in which the law of that blessedness was expressed. That could only be coined and minted by the
lips which spake as never man spake. But
he most certainly drank a deep draught of divine sweetness and light from the
crystal vase of his manly purity.
There is nothing which we more earnestly admire than purity,
like that which Milton, our great Puritan bard, so exquisitely paints in his “Comus”; and which, like the
sunbeam striking through the atmosphere of some foetid court, can pass through the
murkiest conditions, without surrendering a ray of its celestial glory. Men familiar with the secret of self-control
- or who, not having been exposed to the gusts of temptations which sweep over
and master other lives, have never sullied their robes- always attract to
themselves the admiration and reverence of their fellows. The snow-capt
summits of purity, in their lofty, heaven-reaching majesty, appear so
inaccessible [Page 38] to ordinary men, that they wonder
greatly at any who are able to scale their rugged sides and breathe the rare
atmosphere of the heavenly world.
We must always bear in mind that there is no part of our
nature, no function of our human life, which is in itself common or
unclean. As Adam came from his Maker’s
hand, and stood before Him in his native innocence, he did not even need the
fig-leaf drapery. All was sweet, and
pure, and right, and very good. There
was no desire or appetite of his nature which in itself was less sacred than
any other. And if only he had ever willed
God’s will - if only the will, and law, and purpose of God had been kept
supreme in his inner economy - there had been no lust, no inordinate desire, no
passion, in the world. Like Moses, the
great lawgiver, on the wilderness march, who received the commands of God and
handed them to the officers and elders for the obedience of the host, so could
conscience have received from God, and transmitted to the entire economy of our
human nature, those enactments, the legitimate out-working of which had been towards
the glory of God on the one hand, and man’s well-being on the other.
But when man sinned in the glades of
This fact must be borne in mind then, in considering ourselves
or others; and we must take into account the operation of the great law of
heredity, by which we have become possessed of appetites and tendencies, which,
however pure in their original intention, have been vitiated through the abuse
of the [Page 39] many generations from which we have sprung. And there is, therefore, a strong tendency in
us all by nature towards the forbidden fruit.
Who amongst us has not been often conscious of a bias towards selfish
indulgence in two distinct ways - first, to gratify the senses in directions
which are wholly forbidden; and next, to gratify them to an excessive extent in
directions which are in themselves legitimate?
It is inevitable, therefore, that we should begin life under
serious disadvantages, since by our very origin we are closely related to a
race which, through ages of previous history, has been tainted by the poison of
self-will, and swept by the storms of passion.
We cannot but start under serious disadvantages as compared with Adam.
Not that we are condemned for his sin, for we are told that the second Adam has
met for us all those penal consequences which must otherwise have accrued to us
on that account; but that we are terribly handicapped by the disadvantage of
being the children of a fallen race. And
is not this what is meant by the theological term, original sin; and by
To guard against all possible misconstruction, we reiterate that
we do not hold sin to consist in a merely physical state or act; but that we
are predisposed to sin by the very nature which we have inherited, and which is
so susceptive of Satanic temptation on the one side, and so subtle, swift, and
disastrous in its influence on the will upon the other: and no philosophy of
the inner life can be satisfactory that does not recognize the presence of this
body of flesh, which is not in itself sin, but [Page 40] which so readily lends itself to evil
suggestion, that, falling on it as sparks on gunpowder, tends to inflame the
imagination, heart, and will.
So long, therefore, as we are in the body, we cannot say that
we stand where Adam stood when he first came from the moulding hand of
God. There is a great difference between
us and him, in that at that moment his nature had never yet yielded to evil;
whilst ours has done so thousands of times, both in those from whom we have
received it, and in our own repeated acts of self-indulgence. The glad time is coming when [at the return of our Lord Jesus
Christ] we shall exchange this body of humiliation for one in the likeness of our
Saviour’s Resurrection [body]. Then one great source of temptation and failure
will be removed, and we shall no longer have to complain that the law in our
members wars against the law of our mind, with the design of bringing us into
its fatal captivity.
Is there then no deliverance in this life from that
bondage? Surely there is. The law in the members may war against the
law of the mind, and yet not succeed in bringing it into captivity, because it shall be garrisoned and held by the law of the Spirit of Life, which
is in Christ Jesus, and which makes free from the law of sin and
death.
The one-sufficient power by which the promptings of our evil
nature can be held in check is by the indwelling and in-filling of the Holy Spirit. “Walk
in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust
of the flesh.
The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, that ye may not do
the things that ye would.”
Never in this life will
the tempter cease to assail. Even in the
heavenly places - the upper regions of spiritual experience - we shall still be
exposed to the attacks of the hosts of wicked spirits; and so long as we tabernacle in this body, we shall carry with us that
susceptibility to evil which is the bitter result of Adam’s fall. Like a thrill of electricity which pervades
in a single moment the entire range of a telegraphic system, so some flash of unholy suggestion may rush
through our nature, causing it for a moment to vibrate and thrill.
[Page 41]
But when the Holy Spirit fills us, the tempter may do his worst, and his suggestions will fall fruitless and
ineffectual at our feet; our nature will not respond to the solicitations which
are made to it from without. We all know
what happens when matches are struck on damp surfaces; and it will be thus with
our temptations. The old nature, which was once as inflammable as gunpowder,
will be deprived, so to speak, so long
as the [Holy] Spirit is in possession, of its
terrible facility of response. And even more, when the [Holy] Spirit is in mighty power within, He will take away the very desire to yield
to sin, and change the old love into hate, so that we shall loathe and shudder
at things which we formerly chose and revelled in.
And in many cases, where He is trusted to the uttermost, He
does his work so quietly and effectually in keeping the sinful tendencies in
the place of death, that the happy subject of His grace supposes that they have
been extracted from the nature. They are
as if they were not. The self-life seems
to hibernate; and this blessed experience continues, just so long as the soul
lives in the full enjoyment of the Blessed [Holy] Spirit’s [indwelling] work.
Would that it might be the happy portion of each reader of
these lines!
* * *
5
MISUNDERSTOOD AND IMPRISONED*
(GENESIS 39
& 40.
See also Ps. 105: 17-19)
* Some thoughts in this
chapter were suggested by an article in the “Expositor’s Notebook” by S. Cox.
“Choose for us, Lord, nor let our weak preferring
Cheat us of good Thou hast for us designed:
Choose for us, Lord; Thy wisdom is unerring,
And we are fools and blind.
Let us press on, in patient
self-denial,
Accept the hardship, shrink not from the loss:
Our portion lies beyond the hour of trial,
Our crown beyond the cross.”
- W. H. BURLEIGH.
BETWEEN
the pit and the prison there was only a transient gleam of sunlight and
prosperity. The sky of Joseph’s life was
again soon overcast. For when Potiphar
heard the false but plausible statement of his wife, and saw the garment in her
hand, which he recognized as Joseph’s, his wrath flamed up; he would hear no
words of explanation, but thrust him at once into the
state prison, of which he had the oversight and charge.
1. THE SEVERITY OF HIS
SUFFERINGS. - It was
not a prison like those with which we are familiar - airy, well-lit, and
conducted by humane men. To use Joseph’s
own words, in the Hebrew, it was a miserable “hole.”*
“I have done nothing that they
should put me into the ‘hole’.”
We are reminded of the words, describing old
* - Bor.
Those who have seen the dreary prison at Tangier will be able
to form a better conception of what that “hole”
must have been like. Imagine a large
gloomy hall, with no windows, paved with flags black with filth, no light or
air, save what may struggle through the narrow grated aperture, by which the of
the wretched inmates, or some pitying strangers, pass in the food and water
which are the sole stall of life: no arrangements of any kind being made for
cleanliness, or for the separation of the prisoners. All day long there is the weary clank of
fetters round manacled feet, as the victims slowly drag themselves over the
floor, or revolve again and again around the huge stone columns which support
the roof, and to which their chains are riveted. In more ways than one does the
Gospel of Christ preach deliverance to the captives.* In some such sunless “hole” must Joseph have been confined.
[* See Matt. 16: 18, Luke 16: 19-31 and Rev. 6: 9-11. Here is a rejected divine truth which few
Protestants today will accept! and yet we read that Christ - as a
disembodied “soul”
was there, immediately after His crucifixion with “one
of the malefactors” who repented, (Luke 23:
39-43, R.V.): and the Apostle Peter informs us that when there, “He went and preached to the spirits in prison,
which aforetime were disobedient, when the longsuffering of God waited in the
days of Noah, while the ark was preparing, wherein few, that is, eight
souls, were saved through water:” (1
Pet. 3: 19, 20, R.V.)
Who and where are these ‘spirits in prison’? We dare not say there are no “spirits in prison”: but
it is very unlikely that Christ would preach to evil spirits! That is, fallen angelic creatures, who, along with Satan rebelled against Him. Could not this statement be
a reference to “the Nephilim” – the result of
angelic activity at that time, “When the
sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and bare children
to them”, (Gen. 6: 4)?
The Church of Rome, for centuries used this text, as a
scriptural proof of their ‘Doctrine of
Purgatory’: but now have discarded that false teaching! Why?
Possibly because there are no human spirits in the Underworld of
the dead! It was Christ’s disembodied “soul” which “descended”
there, immediately after the time of His death! So says the Scripture: “Thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol” - (= ‘Hades’ in Gk., LXX); “neither
wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption,” (Psa. 16: 10, R.V.): a statement proving a select
resurrection out from the dead by our Lord Jesus Christ, as stated
previously to Peter, James and John on their descent from the Mount of
Transfiguration: “Tell the vision to no man, until the
Son of man be risen [out] from the dead,” Matt.
17: 9, R.V., - the preposition “out” is shown in the Greek text.)
This fact of a select resurrection of Messiah “out from the dead,” is expounded by Peter at
Pentecost: “He,” - (says Peter, referring to King David’s prophetic statement from Psa. 16: 9 where it is written: “Moreover, also my flesh shall rest in hope,”
LXX: could not possibly have any reference to the time of Messiah’s
resurrection, as the remainder of his words prove without any doubt) -
“foreseeing this spake of the resurrection of the Christ,
that neither was he - (i.e., David’s ‘Lord’ and the Jews’ ‘Messiah,’ after committing His animating ‘spirit’
into His Father’s “hands” for safekeeping: see Luke 23: 46; Mk. 15: 37, Matt. 27: 50, John 19: 30.
cf.
Luke 8: 53, 54; Acts 7: 59; Job 34: 14; Eccl. 12: 7) – “left in Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption” … “For David ascended not into the heavens…”
(Acts 2: 31,
34a, R.V.)]
And this was hard enough for one who was wont to wander freely
on the broad Syrian plains.
Confinement is
intolerable to us all, but especially to youth, and of all youth most so to
those in whose veins flows something of that Arab blood which dreads death less
than bondage. I do not wonder at the
pathetic story which tells how, on London Bridge, a sunburnt sailor, fresh from
the docks, bought cage after cage of imprisoned wild birds, and let them fly
rejoicing to their native woods, assigning as his reason to the wondering
on-lookers that he had languished too long in a foreign prison not to know how
sweet freedom was. We do not realize how priceless freedom is, because we have
never lost it. And Joseph never valued
it as he did when he found himself shut up in that stifling “hole”.
But in addition to the confinement of the prison, there was [Page 44] the constant clank of the fetter. He was bound, and his feet were hurt by fetters. True, he
enjoyed the favour of the keeper of the prison, and had exceptional liberty
within the gloomy precincts so as to reach the inmates; but still, wherever he
moved, the rattle of the iron reminded him that he was a prisoner still. You remember a touching allusion of another
of the Lord’s prisoners to this self-same thing. So Paul took from the hand of his amanuensis
the pen with which to write his autograph, “the token in every epistle” of genuineness and authenticity; and
as he did so he felt the pull of the chain that fastened him to the soldier of
the imperial guard; and we can almost hear the clanking of the iron in the
words, “Remember my bonds” (Col. 4: 18).
But besides all this, his religious notions added greatly to his distress. He had been
taught by Jacob the theory which comes out so prominently in the speeches of
Job’s three friends, and which was so generally held by all their teachers and
associates in that olden, Eastern, philosophic, deeply-pondering world: that
good would come to the good, and evil to the bad; that prosperity was the sign
of the Divine favour, and adversity of the Divine anger. And Joseph had tried to be good. Had he not always kept his father’s
commandments and acted righteously, though his brethren were men of evil
report, and tried to make him as bad as themselves?
But what had he gained by his integrity? Simply the murderous
jealousy and hatred of his own flesh and blood. Had he not, in the full flush of youthful
passion, resisted the blandishments of the beautiful Egyptian, because he would
not sin against God? And what had he
gained by that? Simply the stigma which
threatened to cling to him of having committed the very wickedness it was so
hard not to commit; and, in addition, an undeserved punishment. Had he not always been kind and gentle to his
fellow-prisoners, listening to their stories, speaking comfort to their hearts? And what had he gained by that? To judge by what he saw, simply nothing; and
he might as well have kept his kindness to himself.
[Page 45]
Was it of any use, then, being good? Could there be any truth in what his father
had taught him of good coming to the good, and evil to the bad? Was there a God who judgeth righteously in
the earth? You who have been
misunderstood, Who have sown seeds of holiness and love to reap nothing but
disappointment, loss, suffering, and hate - you know something of what Joseph felt in that wretched dungeon hole.
Then, too, disappointment poured her bitter drops into the bitter cup. What had become of those early dreams, those dreams of
coming greatness, which had filled his young brain with splendid
phantasmagoria? Were these not from God?
He had thought so - yes, and his venerable father had thought so too;
and he should have known, for he had talked
with God many a time. Were those
imaginings the delusions of a fevered brain, or mocking lies? Was there no truth, no fidelity, in heaven or
earth? Had God forsaken him? Had his father forgotten him? Did his brothers ever think of him? Would they ever try and find him? Was he to spend all his days in that dungeon,
dragging on a weary life, never again enjoying the bliss of freedom: and all
because he had dared to do right? Do you
wonder at the young heart being weighed almost to breaking?
And yet Joseph’s experience is not alone. You may have never been confined in a dungeon; and yet
you may have often sat in darkness, and felt around you the limitation which forbade
your doing as you wished. You may have
been doing right, and doing right may have brought you into some unforeseen
difficulty; and you are disposed to say, “I have been
too honest.” Or you may have been
doing a noble act to someone, as Joseph did to Potiphar, and it has been taken
in quite a wrong light. Who does not
know what it is to be misunderstood, misrepresented, accused falsely, and
punished wrongfully?
Each begins life so buoyantly and hopefully. Youth, attempting the solution of the strange
problem of existence, fears nothing, forebodes no ill. The minstrel, Hope, keys her chords [Page 46] to the loftiest strains of
exultation. The sun shines; the blue
wavelets break in music around the boat; the sails swell gently; Love and
Beauty hold the rudder-bands; and though stories of the wreckage of the
treacherous sea are freely told, there is no kind of fear that such experiences
should ever overtake that craft. But presently disappointment, sorrow. and
disaster over-cloud the sky and blot out the sunny prospect; and the young
mariner wakes as from a dream, “Can this be I, who
imagined that I should never see ill?”
Then come several tremendous struggles of the soul to wrench itself free. The
muscles are strained as whipcord; the beads of perspiration stand on the brow:
but every effort only entangles the limbs more helplessly. And at last, exhausted and helpless, the
young life ceases to struggle, and lies still, cowed
and beaten, as the wild denizen of the plains, when it has lain for hours in
the hunter’s snare. Surely there was
something of this sort in Joseph’s condition, as he lay in that wretched
dungeon.
2. THESE SUFFERINGS
WROUGHT VERY BENEFICIALLY. -Taken on the lowest around, this imprisonment served Joseph’s temporal interests. That prison was the place where state prisoners were
bound. Thither court magnates who had
fallen under suspicion were sent. Chief butler and chief baker do not seem much to us, but they were
titles for very august people. Such men would talk freely with Joseph; and in doing so would give him
a great insight into political parties, and a knowledge
of men and things generally, which in after-days must have been of great
service to him.
But there is more than this. Psalm 105: 18, referring to Joseph’s imprisonment,
has a striking alternative rendering “His soul entered into iron.” Turn that about, and render it in our
language, and it reads thus, Iron entered into his soul. Is there not a truth in this?
It may not be the truth intended in that verse, but it is a very
profound truth, that sorrow and privation, the yoke borne in the youth, the
soul’s enforced restraint, are all conducive to an iron tenacity and strength
of [Page 47] purpose, an endurance, a fortitude, which are the indispensable
foundation and framework of a noble character.
Do not flinch from suffering. Bear it silently, patiently, resignedly; and be assured that it is God’s way of infusing
iron into your spiritual make-up.
As a boy, Joseph’s character tended to softness. He was a little spoilt by his father. He was too proud of his coat. He was rather given to tell tales. He was too full of his dreams and
foreshadowed greatness. None of these
were great faults; but he lacked strength, grip, power to rule. But what a difference his imprisonment made
in him! From that moment he
carries himself with a wisdom, modesty, courage, and manly resolution,
that never fail him. He acts as a
born ruler of men. He carries an alien
country through the stress of a great famine, without a symptom of revolt. He holds his own with the proudest
aristocracy of the time. He promotes the
most radical changes. He had learned to hold his peace and wait. Surely the iron had entered his soul!
It is just this that suffering will do for you. The world wants iron dukes, iron battalions, iron
sinews, and thews of steel. God wants iron saints [to rule with Him]; and since there is no way of imparting iron to the moral nature than by
letting his people suffer, He lets them suffer.
“No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless
afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.”
Are you in prison for doing right?
Are the best years of your life slipping away in enforced monotony? Are you beset by opposition,
misunderstanding, obloquy, and scorn, as the thick undergrowth besets the
passage of the woodsman pioneer? Then
take heart; the time is not wasted; God is only putting you through the iron
regimen. The iron crown of
suffering precedes the golden crown of glory. And iron is entering
into your soul to make it strong and brave.
Is some aged eye perusing these words? If so, the question may be asked, Why does God sometimes fill a whole life with discipline,
and give few opportunities for showing the iron [Page 48] quality of the soul? Why give iron to the soul, and then keep it
from active service? Ah, that is a
question which goes far to prove our glorious destiny. There must be another world
somewhere, a world of glorious ministry, for which we are training. “There is service in
the sky.” And it may be that God
counts a human life of seventy years of suffering not too long an education for
a soul which may serve Him through the eternities. It is in the prison that Joseph
is fitted for the unknown life of Pharaoh’s palace; and if he could have
foreseen the future, he would not have wondered at the severe discipline.
If only we could see all that
awaits us in the palace of the Great King, we should not be so surprised at
certain experiences which befall us in earth’s darker cells. You are being trained for service in God’s
Home, and in the upper spaces of his universe.
3. JOSEPH’S COMFORT IN
THE MIDST OF THESE SUFFERINGS.- “He was there in the prison; but the Lord was with him.”* The Lord was with him in the
[* See
Psa. 139: 8b, R.V.,
LXX.]
Moreover, the Lord showed him mercy.
Oh, wondrous
revelation! He did not stand in a niche
on the mountainside, as [Page 49] Moses did, whilst the solemn pomp
swept past; and yet the Lord showed him a great sight - He showed him his
mercy. That prison-cell was the mount of
vision, from the height of which he saw, as he had never seen before, the
panorama of Divine loving kindness. It were well worth his while to go to prison to learn
that. When children gather to see the
magic lantern, the figures may be flung upon the sheet, and yet be invisible,
because the room is full of light.
Darken the room, and instantly the round circle of light is filled with
brilliant colour. God our Father has
often to turn down the lights of our life because He wants to show us
mercy. Whenever you get into a prison of
circumstances, be on the watch. Prisons are rare places for seeing things. It was in prison that Bunyan saw his wondrous
allegory, and Paul met the Lord, and John looked through heaven’s open door,
and Joseph saw God’s mercy. God has no chance to show his mercy to some of us except when we are in
some sore sorrow. The night is the time
to see the stars.
God can also raise up friends for his servants in most unlikely places, and of most unlikely people.
“The Lord gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of
the prison.” He was probably a rough, unkindly
man, quite prepared to copy the dislikes of his master, the great Potiphar, and
to embitter the daily existence of this Hebrew slave. But there was another Power at work, of which
he knew nothing, inclining him towards his ward, and leading him to put him in
a position of trust. All hearts are open to our King: at his girdle swing the keys by which
the most unlikely door can be unlocked.* “When a man’s ways please the Lord, He maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.” It is as easy for God to turn a man’s heart,
as it is for the husbandman to turn the course of a brook to carry fertility to
an arid plot.
[* See Rev.
1: 10.]
There is always alleviation for our troubles in ministry to
others.
Joseph found
it so. It must have been a welcome relief
to the monotony of his grief when he found himself entrusted with the care of
the royal prisoners. A new interest came into [Page 50] his life, and he almost forgot the heavy pressure of his own
troubles amid the interest of listening to the tales of those who were more
unfortunate than himself. It is very interesting to notice
what a deep human interest he took in the separate cases of his charges,
noticing the expression of their faces, inquiring kindly after their welfare,
sitting down to listen to their tale.
Joseph is the patron of all prison philanthropists; but he took to this
holy work not primarily because he had an enthusiasm for it, but because it
gave a welcome opiate to his own griefs.
There is no anodyne for heart-sorrow like ministry to
others. If your life is woven with the
dark shades of sorrow, do not sit down to deplore in solitude your hapless lot,
but arise to seek out those who are more miserable than you are, bearing them
balm for their wounds and love for their heart-breaks. And if you are unable to give much, practical
help, you need not abandon yourself to the gratification of lonely sorrow, for
you may largely help the children of bitterness by imitating Joseph in
listening to their tales of woe or to their dreams of foreboding. It is a great art to be a good listener. The burdened heart longs to pour out its tale
in a sympathetic ear. There is immense relief
in the telling out of pain. But it
cannot be hurried; it needs plenty of time; it cannot clear itself of its silt
and deposits unless it is allowed leisure to stand. And so the sorrowful turn
away from men engaged in the full rush of active life as too busy, and seek
out those who, like themselves, have been “winged,”
and are obliged to go softly, as Joseph was, when the servants of Pharaoh found
him in the Egyptian dungeon. If you can
do nothing else, listen well, and comfort others with the comfort wherewith you
yourself have been comforted by God.
And as you listen, and comfort, and wipe the falling tears, you
will discover that your own load is lighter, and that a branch or twig of the
true tree - the tree of the Cross - has fallen into the bitter waters of your
own life, making the Marah, Naomi, and the marshes of salt tears will have been [Page 51] healed. Out of such intercourse you
will get what Joseph got - the key which will unlock the heavy doors by which
you have been shut in.
And now some closing words to those who are suffering wrongfully.
Do not be surprised. You are the followers of One who was misunderstood from the age of twelve to the day
of his ascension; who did not sin, and yet was counted as a sinner; concerning
whom the unanimous testimony was, “I find in Him no fault at all”; and yet they
called Him Beelzebub! If they spoke thus
of the Master of the house, how much more concerning the household! “Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial that is to
try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you”; only be sure that you suffer wrong
fully, and as a Christian.
Do not be weary in
well-doing. Joseph might
have said, “I give all up; of what profit is my
godliness? I may as well live as others
do.” How much nobler was his course of patient continuance in well-doing! Do
right, because it is right to do right; because God sees you; because it puts
gladness into the heart. And then, when
you are misunderstood and ill-treated, you will not swerve, or sit down to
whine and despair.
Above all, do not
avenge yourselves. When Joseph
recounted his troubles, he did not
recriminate harshly on his brethren, or Potiphar, or Potiphar’s wife. He simply said: “I was
stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also have I done nothing
that they should put me into the hole.”
He might have read the words of the apostle, “Avenge not
yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath.” “If when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take
it patiently, this is acceptable with God.” We make a great mistake
in trying always to clear ourselves; we should be much wiser to go straight on,
humbly doing the next thing, and leaving God to vindicate us. “He will bring forth our
righteousness as the light, and our judgment as the noonday.” In Psalm 105:
19 there follow words which, rightly
rendered, read thus: “The word of the Lord cleared him.”
What a triumphant clearing did God give His
faithful servant!
[Page 52]
There will come hours in all our lives, when we shall be
misconstrued, misunderstood, slandered, falsely accused, wrongfully
persecuted. At such times it is very
difficult not to act on the policy of the men around us in the world. They at once
appeal to law* and force and public opinion. But the [wise and obedient] believer takes his case into a higher court, and lays it before his God. He is prepared to use any means that may appear divinely suggested. But he relies much more on the divine
clearing than he does on his own most perfect arrangements. He is
content to wait for months and years, till God arise to avenge his cause. It is a very little thing for him to be
judged adversely at the bar of man: he
cares only for the judgment of God, and awaits the moment when the righteous
shall shine forth in the kingdom of their Father, as the sun when it breaks
from all obscuring. mists. “When Christ, who is
our life, shall be manifested, then shall ye
also with Him be
manifested in glory” Ah! what a
clearing-up of mysteries, what dissipating of misunderstandings, what
vindication of character shall be there! Oh, slandered ones, you can afford to await
the verdict of eternity; of God, who will bring out your righteousness as the
light, and your judgment as the noonday.
[* See 1 Cor. 6: 7, 8.]
In all the discipline of life it is of the utmost importance
to see but one ordaining overruling will.
If we view our imprisonments and misfortunes as the result of human
malevolence, our lives will be filled with fret and unrest. It is hard to suffer wrong at the hands of
man, and to think that perhaps it might have never been. But there is a truer and more restful view,
to consider all things as being under the law and rule of God; so that though
they may originate in and come to us through the spite and malice of our
fellows, yet, since before they reach us they have had to pass
through the environing atmosphere of the Divine Presence, they have been
transformed into his own sweet will for us.*
[* See Matt. 5: 10;
It was Judas who plotted our Saviour’s death, and filled the
garden with the capturing bands and flashing lights; and yet the Lord Jesus said that the Father was
putting the cup to [Page 53] his lips. And though He was murdered by the chief
priests and scribes, yet He so thoroughly acquiesced in the Father’s
appointment, that He spoke of laying down his life, as if his death were entirely his own
act. There is no evil to them that love
God; and the believer loses sight of second [more important] causes, so absorbed is he in the contemplation of the unfolding of the
mystery of his Father’s will. As the dying Kingsley said, “All is
under law.”
We must not be surprised when dark passages come in our
outward life, or our inner experience.
Unbroken sunshine would madden our brains; and unsullied prosperity of soul
or circumstance would induce a spiritual excitement, which would be in the last
degree deleterious. We must be
sometimes deprived of feeling, that we may acquire the art of walking by faith. We must lose the supporting cork belt that we
may be compelled to trust ourselves to the buoyant wave. We must descend into the
darksome den, that we may test for ourselves the reliability of the staff and
the rod, which before we may have considered as superfluities or as ornaments.
He sent a man before them,
Even Joseph, who was
sold for a servant,
Whose feet they hurt with fetters;
He was laid in iron,
Until the
time* that His word came:
The word of the Lord tried him.
The king sent and loosed him,
Even the ruler of the people, And let him go free.
He made him lord of his house,
And ruler of all his substance;
To bind his princes at his pleasure,
And teach his senators wisdom.
- PSALM
105: 17-22.
[* Where is Joseph today? According to God’s Word he is in the place of
the dead, in “
Jesus of Nazareth, God’s rightful “Heir”
and “King” of this earth, will one “Day” come into His inheritance. For it is written: “This
day I have begotten thee. Ask of me, and
I will give thee the nations
who for thine inheritance, And the uttermost parts
of the earth for thy possession,” (Psa. 2: 8,
R.V.). And again:-
“In his days shall the righteous flourish; and
abundance of peace, till the moon be no more.
He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, And from the
River*” – (See Ex. 23: 31) – “unto the ends of the earth,” (Psa. 72: 7, 8, R.V.).]
* *
*
[Page54]
6
THE STEPS OF THE THRONE
(GENESIS 41)
“The heights by great men reached and kept
Were not obtained by sudden flight;
But they, while their
companions slept,
Were toiling upward in the
night.
Standing on what too long
we bore,
With shoulders bent and
downcast eyes,
We may discern - unseen before -
A path to higher destinies!”
- LONGFELLOW.
THE facts of Joseph’s exaltation from the
prison-cell in which we left him, to the steps of Pharaoh’s throne, are so well
known that we need not describe them in detail.
We will dwell briefly on the more salient points.
1. HOPE DEFERRED.- “Remember me when it shall be well with thee.”
It was a modest and pathetic prayer that Joseph made to the great
officer of state, to whose dream he had given so favourable an
interpretation. Some, however, have said
he had no right to make it. They have
said that he had no right to ask this man to plead with Pharaoh, when he
himself had access to the King of kings, and could at all times plead his case
at his court. The Moslem thought
embodies itself in a characteristic legend.
It says that God had changed his cell into a pleasant and cheerful place
by causing a fountain to spring up in the midst, and a tree to grow at the door
with shadowing branches and luscious fruit: but that, when he [Page 55] made this request to the chief butler, the fountain fell down and the tree
withered; and this because, instead of trusting in God, he had relied on the
help of a feeble man.
Well, there may be some truth at the
foundation of all this; and yet it ill becomes us to bear hardly on the captive
in the hour of his soul’s deepest anguish.
The strongest faith has wavered at times. Elijah
sank down on the desert sand, and asked that he might die. John
the Baptist, daunted and despondent, sent from his gloomy cell in Herod’s
castle to know if Jesus were indeed the Christ.
Savonarola, Luther, Edward Irving, passed through darkness so thick that it almost put
out the torch of their heroic faith; and if at this moment Joseph eagerly
snatched at human help, as being nearer and more real than the help of God, who
of us can condemn him? who of us can help sympathizing
with him? who of us would not have behaved in like
manner? Many a time when we have professed that our soul waited only upon God,
we have either eagerly hinted at or openly shown our needs to those whom we
thought likely to assist.
This cry, “Remember me,” reminds us of the prayer of the dying thief to our
Lord, as he was entering into the thick darkness. But how different the reply! The promise was quickly made and swiftly kept. And as the sun was setting over the western
hills, the believing penitent had entered the city which is never bathed in
sunset glory, and had learnt [later on that self-same day] what it is to be in
The great man no doubt readily acceded to his request, and
promised all he asked. “Remember you,” he said; “of
course I will.” And, doubtless,
in the fulness of his heart, he resolved to give Joseph a place among the
under-butlers, or perhaps in the vineries.
And as he passed out, we can imagine him saying, “Good-bye: you will hear from me soon.” But he “forgat”. Oh, that word “forgat”!
How many of us know what it means!
Day after day, as Joseph went about his duties, he expected to receive
some token of his friend’s [Page 56] remembrance and intercession. Week
after week he watched for the message of deliverance, and often started because
of some sudden knock which made him think that the warrant for his release had
come. Then he invented ingenious excuses
for the delay. No doubt the butler had had
to receive the congratulations of his friends; arrears of business had perhaps
accumulated in his absence, and now engrossed his attention; many things had
probably gone wrong which required time and pains to set right; or perhaps he
was waiting for a good opportunity to urge the claims of his prison friend on
the king. How many hours of anxious
thought were spent thus, hoping against hope, combating a sickly fear, which he
hardly dared to entertain! But at last
it was useless to hide from himself the unpalatable
truth, which slowly forced itself upon his mind, that he was forgotten.
Hope deferred must have made his heart sick. But he kept steadfast. If he was disappointed in man, he clung the more tenaciously to God. “My soul,” said he, in effect, “wait thou only upon God; for
my expectation is from Him. He
only is my rock and my salvation.” Nor did he trust in vain; for, by a chain of
wonderful providences, God brought him
out of prison, and did better for him than could have been done by the chief
butler of Pharaoh’s court.
It may
be that some who read these lines are in perplexity or distress which may be
compared to that of Joseph when in the dungeon.
And they have again and again schemed to effect
their own deliverance. They helped a
friend to emigrate, on the understanding that, if he got on well, he should
send money to help them over too. They have applied to people who were
befriended by them when they lived in the same poor street, but who have
subsequently risen greatly in the world.
They have got certain manufacturers and men of influence to make a note
of their name and address in their pocket-book.
But nothing has come of it all.
They were at first very hopeful.
They thought each post would bring the expected letter. There was a woman in
2. THREE BRIEF PIECES OF ADVICE TO THOSE IN SIMILAR CIRCUMSTANCES.
1. Cease ye
from man, whose breath is in his nostrils! We cannot live
without human sympathy and friendship.
We long for the touch of the human hand and the sound of the human
voice. We eagerly catch at any
encouragement which some frail man holds out, as a drowning man catches at
twigs floating by on the stream. But men
fall us; even the best prove to be less able or less willing than we thought:
the stream turns out to be a very turbid one when we reach it, in spite of all
reports of its sufficiency. “Cursed be the
man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his
arm, and whose heart departeth
from the Lord: for he shall be like the heath in
the desert, and shall not see when good cometh: but shall inhabit the parched places in the wildeness, a salt land and
not inhabited.”
2. Turn from the failure
and forgetfulness of man to the constancy and faithfulness of God! “He abideth faithful.”
He cannot promise and fail to perform.
He says Himself: “Thou shalt not be forgotten by Me.”
A woman may forget her sucking child, and be unmindful of the son of her
womb, “yet will I not forget thee.”
He may leave you long without succour.
He may allow you to toil against a tempestuous sea until the fourth
watch of the night. He may seem silent and austere, tarrying two days still in the same place,
as if careless of the dying Lazarus.* He may allow your prayers to accumulate like
unopened letters on the table of an absent friend. But at last He will say, “0 man, 0 woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt.”
[*
See also Hosea
5: 15 - 6: 2.]
3. Wait for God!
We are too feverish, too hasty, too impatient. It is
a great mistake. Everything comes only
to those [Page 58] who can wait. “They that
wait on the Lord shall inherit the earth.”
You may have had what Joseph had when still a lad - a vision of power
and usefulness and blessedness. But you
cannot realize it in fact. All your
plans miscarry. Every door seems shut. The years are passing over you with the
depressing sense that you have not wrought any deliverance in the earth. Now turn your heart to God; accept
his will; tell Him that you leave to Him the realization of your dream. “Wait on the Lord, and keep his way, and He shall exalt
thee to inherit the land: when the wicked
are cut off thou shalt see it.”
He may keep you waiting a little longer; but you shall find Him verify
the words of one who knew by experience his trustworthiness: “The salvation
of the righteous is of the Lord; He is their
strength in the time of trouble. And the Lord shall help them, and deliver them; He shall
deliver them from the wicked and save them, because
they trust in Him.”
3. THE LINKS IN THE
CHAIN OF DIVINE
The dream was twice repeated, so similarly as to make it
evident to the dullest mind that something was intended of unusual
importance. The scene in each case was
the river [Page 59] bank; first the green margin of grass, next the rich
alluvial soil. To say the least, it was
a bad omen to see the lean kine devour the fat, and
the withered ears devour the full: nor can we wonder that the monarch of a
people who attached special importance to omens and portents should send in hot
haste for the army of priests who were always in close attendance upon him; and
who on this occasion were reinforced by all the wise men, adepts in this branch
of science. But there was none that
could interpret the dream of Pharaoh. “God made
foolish the wisdom of this world.”
Then, amid the panic of the palace, the butler suddenly
remembered his prison experiences, and told the king of the young captive
Hebrew. Pharaoh eagerly caught at the
suggestion: he sent and called Joseph; and they brought him hastily out of the
dungeon - the margin says, “they made him run.” Still the king’s impetuous speed was compelled to wait till he
had shaved himself and changed his prison garb.
Perfect cleanliness and propriety of dress were so important in the eyes
of Egyptians that the most urgent matters were postponed until they were
properly attended to. Alas, that men should be so careful of their appearance before one another, and so
careless of their appearance before God!
Many a man who would not think of entering a drawing-room if his linen were
not snowy white is quite content to
carry within his breast a heart as black as ink.
It is beautiful to notice Joseph’s reverent references to God
in his first interview with Pharaoh. “It is not in me: God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace.” “God hath showed Pharaoh
what He is about to do.” “The thing is established by
God;
and God will shortly bring it to pass.”
The hypocrite is quick enough to interlard his conversation with the
name of God: no doubt this is owing to his belief that a true child of God will
often do so; and there is some truth in the belief. When the heart is full of God, the tongue
will be almost obliged to speak of Him; and all such references will be easy
and natural as flowers in May. Oh that
our inner life were [Page 60] more full of the power and love and
presence of Jesus! If our hearts were inditing a good matter they would boil over, and we should
speak more frequently of the things that touch our King. Joseph was not ashamed to speak of his God
amid the throng of idolaters in the court of Egypt: let us not flinch from
bearing our humble witness in the teeth of violent opposition and supercilious
scorn.
This position of recognizing Jehovah being assumed and
granted, there was no difficulty in interpreting the consumption of the seven
good kine by the seven lean kine,
and of the seven full ears by the seven empty ears, blasted by the east wind;
or of indicating that the seven years of great plenty should be followed by
seven years of famine, so sore that all the plenty should be forgotten in the
land of Egypt, and that famine should consume the land.
Now that the interpretation is before us, it seems wonderful,
not that Joseph gave it, but that the wise men of Pharaoh’s court failed to
discover it. But perhaps God ordered it
that the diviners should be rendered stupid and “mad,” so that an opportunity should be made
for the advancement, to which, from his childhood, Joseph had been
destined. In this, as so often befalls,
there was an illustration of the Divine words, “Thou hast hid these things
from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed
them unto babes: even so, Father, for so it seemed good
in thy sight.”
Then, in the presence of the thronged and breathless court,
surrounded by the evil eyes of the magicians, who could ill afford to surrender
their prestige and place, or the rich emoluments of their office, the young
Hebrew interpreted the royal dream. That
dream was framed in a thoroughly Egyptian setting, and was connected with the
But perhaps the thing which gave Joseph most influence in that
court was not his interpretation, but the wise and statesmanlike policy on
which he insisted. As he detailed his
successive recommendations: the appointment of a man discreet and wise with
this exclusive business as his life-work; of the creation of a new department
of public business for the purpose of gathering up the resources of Egypt in
anticipation of the coming need; of the vast system of storage in the cities of
the land - it was evident that he was speaking beneath the glow of a spirit not
his own; and with a power which commanded the instant assent of the monarch and
his chief advisers. “The thing was
good in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of
all his servants. And Pharaoh said unto his servants, Can we find such an one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is?”
Oh that we might carry with us, even into business relationships, the
evident stamp of the Spirit of God! It were worth
languishing, even in a dungeon, if only we might have time to seek it. But it is to be had on easier terms: “Ask and have;
seek and find; open your
heart and receive.”
There is an interesting illustration given to us here of the
words, “Them that honour
Me, I will honour.” When Joseph had interpreted the dream
and given his advice - little thinking as he did so that he was sketching his
own future - Pharaoh said unto his servants, “Can we find such an one as this is, a man in whom is the Spirit of God?”
Then he turned to Joseph [Page 62] and said, “Forasmuch as God hath showed thee this, there is
none so discreet and wise as thou art: thou shalt be over my house, and according to thy word shall all my people be ruled: only in the throne will I be greater than thou. See, I have set thee over the whole
It was a wonderful ascent, sheer in a single bound from the dungeon
to the steps of the throne. His father
had rebuked him; now Pharaoh, the greatest monarch of his time, welcomes
him. His brethren despised him; now the
proudest priesthood of the world opens its ranks to receive him by marriage
into their midst, considering it wiser to conciliate a man who was from that
moment to be the greatest force in Egyptian politics and life. The hands that were hard with the toils of a
slave are adorned with a signet ring.
The feet are no longer tormented by fetters; a chain of gold is linked
around his neck. The coat of many
colours torn from him by violence and defiled by blood, and the garment left in
the hand of the adulteress, are exchanged for vestures of fine linen drawn from
the royal wardrobe. He was once trampled
upon as the offscouring of all things; now all
“The Lord killeth, and maketh
alive;
He bringeth down to the
grave, And bringeth up.
The Lord maketh poor, and maketh
rich;
He bringeth low, and lifteth up.
He raiseth up the poor out of the dust,
And lifteth up the beggar
From the dunghill,
To set them among princes,
And to make them inherit
The throne of glory.”
[Page 63]
All this happened because one day, for the sake of God, Joseph
resisted a temptation to one act of sin.
If he had yielded, we should probably never have heard of him again; he
would have been slain by the siren who has slain so many more strong men, and
would have gone down to the dark chambers of death. No happy marriage, no wife, no child, would
have fallen to his lot. No honour or
usefulness, or vision of the dear faces of his kin, would ever have enriched
his life with their abundant blessing.
What a good thing it was that he did not yield!
Let us stand firm; let us seek first the
And when that day comes, let us ascribe all to God. I admire the names which Joseph gave to his
sons. They show the temper of his heart when
in the zenith of his prosperity. Manasseh means “forgetting” - God had made him forget his
toils. Ephraim means “fruitfulness” - God had caused him to be fruitful. Be
true! You shall forget your sorrow
and long waiting; you shall be fruitful.
Then be sure and give God the praise.
4. THE PARALLEL BETWEEN
JOSEPH AND THE LORD JESUS. - It is surely more than a coincidence. “Coming events cast their shadows
before.” The Holy Spirit, enamoured with the mystery of
love which was coming, anticipated its most striking features in the life of
Joseph. Joseph was rejected by his
brethren; Jesus by the Jews, his brethren according to the flesh. Joseph was sold for twenty pieces of silver
to the Ishmaelites; Jesus was sold by the treachery of Judas for thirty pieces,
and then handed over to the Gentiles.
Joseph was cast [Page 64] into prison: Jesus[’ ‘body’] abode in the grave [Joseph’s
tomb; and His ‘soul’ descended into ‘Hades’].
Joseph in prison was able to preach the gospel of deliverance to the
butler; Jesus went and preached the gospel to the spirits in the prison. The two malefactors of the cross find their
counterpart in Joseph’s two fellow-prisoners.
Joseph, though a Jew by birth and rejected by his own brethren,
nevertheless was raised to supreme power in a Gentile state, and saved myriads
of them from death; Jesus, of Jewish birth and yet disowned by Jews, has
nevertheless been exalted to the supreme seat of power, and is now enthroned in
the hearts of myriads of Gentiles, to whom He has brought salvation from death,
and spiritual bread for their hunger.
The very name that Pharaoh gave to Joseph meant “Saviour of the world” - our Saviour’s title.
Yes, and we must carry the parallel still farther. After Joseph had been for some time ruling
and blessing
We have now, therefore, to think of Jesus as seated on his
throne, Prime Minister of the universe, the Interpreter of his Father’s will,
the Organ and Executor of the Divine decrees.
On his head are many crowns; on his finger is the ring, of sovereignty;
on his loins the girdle of power.
Glistering robes of light envelop Him.
And this is the cry which precedes Him, “Bow the knee!”
Have you ever bowed the knee at his feet? It is of no avail to oppose Him. The tongue of malice and envy
may traduce Him, and refuse to let Him reign.
But nothing can upset the
Father's decree and plan. “Yet have
I set my Son upon my holy hill.” “In his name
every knee shall bow, and every
tongue shall confess that He is Lord.” Agree with Him quickly. Ground your arms at his feet. “Kiss the Son, lest He be angry.”
5. THE WORLD’S NEED FOR
CHRIST.- You remember Pharaoh’s dream.
Seven buffaloes, which had escaped from [Page 65] the torturing heat into the
comparative coolness of the water, came up on to the banks and began feeding on
the sedge. Shortly after, seven lean kine came up, and, finding nothing left for them to eat, by
one of those strange transformations common to dreams, swallowed up their
predecessors. So the seven shrivelled
ears devoured those which were rank and good.
This is a symbol of a fact that is always happening, and is happening
now.
Our rulers, like Pharaoh, are having troublesome visions just
now. In Europe and in
It may be that seven years of famine have been passing over you,
devouring all that you had accumulated in happy bygone times,
and leaving you bare. Do you not guess
the reason? There is a rejected Saviour transferred to some
obscure dungeon in your heart. There
never can be prosperity [Page 66] or peace so long as He is
there. Seek Him forthwith. Cause thyself to run to Him.
Ask Him to forgive years of shameful neglect. Reinstate
Him on the throne.
Give the reigns of power into His hand.
And He shall restore to thee the years that the cankerworm
has eaten.
* *
*
[Page 67]
7
JOSEPH’S FIRST INTERVIEW
WITH HIS BRETHREN
(GENESIS
42)
“Oh hateful spell of
sin! - when friends are nigh
To make stern memory tell
her tale unsought,
And raise accusing shades of hours gone by
To come between us and all kindly thought!”
- KEBLE.
The life
of Joseph, as the Prime Minister of Egypt, was a very splendid one. Everything that could please the sense or
minister to the taste was his. The walls
of Egyptian palaces still exist in the rainless air to attest the magnificent
provision that was made for all necessaries and luxuries. In point of fact, the civilization of our
nineteenth century in many points has nothing of which to boast over that of
the age in which he lived, and of which the record still remains. His palaces
would consist of numberless rooms opening into spacious courts, where palms,
sycamores, and acacia trees grew in rare luxuriance. The furniture, consisting of tables, couches,
and consoles, would be elegantly carved from various woods, encrusted with
ebony and adorned with gilding. Rare perfumes rose from vases of gold and
bronze and alabaster; and the foot sank deep in carpets covering the floors, or
trod upon the skins of lions and other ferocious beasts. Troops of slaves and officials ministered to
every want. Choirs of musicians filled
the air with sweet melody. Such is said
to be a true description of the outward circumstances of Joseph’s lot.
But though one of rare splendour, his life must have been one of
considerable anxiety. He had to deal with a proud [Page 67] hereditary nobility, jealous of his power, and with a populace mad with
hunger. During the first seven years of
his premiership he went throughout all the
He was, however, eminently qualified for this work; for there was something in him that could
not be accounted for by any analysis of his brain. As Pharaoh had said most truly, “He was a man
in whom was the Spirit of God.”
Oh, when will men learn that the Spirit of God may be in them when they
are buying and selling, and arranging all the details of business or home? When will they believe that those will do
their part best in the market-place, and in the house, who
are most sensible of the gracious and forceful indwelling of the
Holy Ghost? May God send us
all the simple reverent spirit of this man, who amidst the splendour and
business of his proud position set God always before his face! Such a temper of mind will make us a blessing
to our times; for, at last, when the days of famine came, Joseph was able, as
he afterwards said, to be a “father” unto Pharaoh, and to save the land.
All these events took time. Joseph was a lad of seventeen summers when he was torn away
from his home; and he was a young man of thirty when he stood for the first
time before Pharaoh. Seven years for the
golden time of plenty must be added; and perhaps two more whilst the stores of
the granaries were being slowly exhausted: so that probably twenty-five years
had passed between the tragedy at the pit’s mouth and the time of which we are
thinking now. During those years the
life in Jacob's camp had flowed uneventfully and quietly [Page 69] through the same unchanging scenes, like the course of some river in a
flat, unbroken country, where a quick eye is required to discover the direction
of the stream. The chief sign of the
number of the slow passing years was the growing weakness in the old father’s
step and the increasing infirmity of his form.
He pathetically speaks much of his “grey hairs”.
The sons of
[* “I will go down to Sheol” – (the name of the
abode of the dead, answering to the Greek Hades, Acts
2: 27) – “to my son mourning,” (Gen. 37: 35b,
R.V., including its footnote.).]
Meanwhile, the sons had become middle-aged men, with families
of their own. They probably never
mentioned that deed of violence to each other.
They did their best to
banish the thought from their minds. Sometimes in their dreams they may
have caught a glimpse of that young face in its agony, or heard the beseechings of his anguished soul; but they sought to drown
such painful memories by deep draughts of the Lethe-stream of
forgetfulness. Conscience slept. Yet the time had come when God meant to use
these men to found a nation. And in
order to fit them for their high destiny it was necessary to bring them into a
right condition of soul. Yet how could their soul be in health, so long as they had not repented of
the sin which cast its lurid light over their history?
The great Physician never heals over a wound from above, but from below,
and after careful probing and searching.
The foundations of noble
character must touch the rock of genuine repentance. But it seemed almost impossible to secure
repentance in those obtuse and darkened hearts.
However, the Eternal brought it
about by a number of wonderful providences; and as we study them, let us
notice how God will subordinate [Page 70] all the events of our
outward lives to try us and prove us, and see what there is in our hearts, and
to bring us to Himself.
This, then, is our theme: God’s gracious methods of awakening
the consciences of these men from their long and apparently endless sleep. And it is a theme well worth our study; for if there is
one thing more than another that is needed in Christian congregations and in
the world, it is the deep conviction of sin. Well would it be
if some resurrection trumpet could sound and awaken the sleeping consciences of
men, causing long-forgotten but unforgiven sins to arise and come forth from
their graves. Of
what use is it to present the Saviour to those who do not [daily] feel to need Him? And
who can scatter seed with hope of harvest, unless the ploughshare has first
driven its iron into the soil?
1. THE FIRST STEP
TOWARDS THEIR CONVICTION WAS THE PRESSURE OF WANT. - There was dearth in all lands; and
the famine reached even to the
So long as the hills were green and the pastures clothed with
flocks; so long as the valleys were covered over with corn and rang with the
songs of reapers - just so long Jacob might have mourned alone; but Reuben,
Simeon, and the rest of them would have been unconcerned and content. But when the mighty famine came,
the hearts of these men were opened to conviction; their carnal security was
shattered; and they were prepared for certain spiritual experiences of which
they would never have dreamed. Yes; and
they were being prepared for the meeting with Joseph.
It is so that God deals with us [His redeemed people]. He breaks up our nest.
He loosens our roots. He sends a
mighty famine which cuts away the whole staff of bread. And at such times, weary, worn, and sad, we
are prepared to confess our sins, and to receive the words of Christ, when He
says, “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.”* Is your life just now passing through a time of famine? Do your supplies threaten to fail? Does your heart fail you, as you look forward
to the disasters that menace you? Yet take courage; this is simply the motion of the current which is
drifting you to Christ and to a better life. In
after-days those men looked back upon that time of sore straitness as the best
thing that could have happened to them: nothing less would have brought them to
Joseph. Yes,
and the time is coming when you will bless God for your times of sorrow and
misfortune. You will say, “Before I was afflicted I went astray; but now have I kept thy Word.”
[* See Heb. 4: 11. cf.
Psa. 95: 8-11.]
2. THE SECOND STEP WAS
THE ROUGH USAGE THEY RECEIVED AT THE HANDS OF JOSEPM - It would seem that in some of the
larger markets he superintended the sale of the corn himself. He may even have gone there on purpose,
prompted by a sort of hope that he might catch sight of one of the Ishmaelites,
whose faces he never could forget; or in some other way hear tidings of his
home. He may have even cherished, and
prayed over, the fancy that his brethren might come themselves. At last the looked-for day arrived. He was standing as usual at his post,
surrounded by all the confusion and noise of an Eastern bazaar, when all of a
sudden his attention was attracted by the entrance of those ten men. He looked with a fixed, eager look for a
moment, his heart throbbing quickly all the while; and he needed no further
assurance: “he knew them.”
Evidently, however, they did not know him. How should they? He had grown from a lad of seventeen to a man
of forty. He was clothed in pure white
linen, with ornaments of gold to indicate his rank, a garb not, altogether
unlike that famous coat, which had wrought such havoc. He was governor of the [Page 72] land,*
and if they had thought of Joseph at all when entering that land (and no doubt
they did), they expected to see him in the gangs of slaves manacled at work in
the fields, or sweltering in the scorching brickyards, preparing material for
the pyramids. So, in unconscious
fulfilment of his own boyish dream, they bowed down themselves before him with
their faces to the earth.
[* See Isa. 9: 6, 7. cf.
Matt. 13: 41-43; Lk. 22: 28-30; Rev. 3: 21, 22, R.V.]
Joseph instantly saw that they failed to recognize him; and
partly to ascertain if his brethren were repentant, partly in order to know why
Benjamin was not with them, he made himself strange unto them. He spake roughly to them. He accused them of being spies. He refused to believe their statements, and
put them in prison until they could be verified. He kept Simeon bound.
In all this, I believe he repeated exactly the scene at the pit’s mouth;
and indeed we may perhaps see what really happened there, reflected in the
mirror of this scene. It is not unlikely
that when they saw him coming towards them, in his prince-like dress, they had
rushed at him, accusing him of having come to spy out their corrupt behaviour,
and take back an evil report to their father, as he had done before: if so,
this will explain why he now suddenly accused them of being spies. No doubt the lad protested that he was no spy
- that he had only come to inquire after their
welfare; but they had met his protestations with rude violence in much the same
way as the rough-speaking governor now treated them. It may be that they had even thrust him into
the pit with the threat to keep him there until his statements could be
verified, in much the same way as Joseph now dealt with them; and Simeon may
have been the ringleader. If this were
the case - and it seems most credible - it is obvious that it was a powerful
appeal to their conscience and memory, and one that could not fail to awaken
both.
You remember the story of Hamlet. Hamlet’s uncle murdered his brother, the
father of Hamlet, and King of Denmark.
The deed was done secretly; but the young prince knew of it, [Page 73] and instructed the players to repeat the murder, in dumb show, before the
royal but guilty pair, and their guests.
They did so. At last the king
could bear it no more. He rose hastily
from his seat and went from the hall, saying:
“Oh, my offence is
rank, it smells to Heaven;
It hath the primal eldest curse upon it,
A brother’s murder.”
And as those men, each in his dungeon, considered the usage
which they had experienced, it must have vividly brought to their minds their
treatment of that guileless lad, years on years before.
There is another story in the Old Testament of which we are reminded
now - that scene
at Zarephath when the child died, and the mother burst into the presence of the
prophet saying, “Hast thou come to call my sin to remembrance?” She had tried to forget her sin. She had buried it deep in a far down dungeon,
like that in the old
Memory is one of the most wonderful processes of our nature. It is the faculty that enables us to record and recall
the past. If it were not for this power
the mind would remain for ever in the blank condition of childhood, and all
that had ever passed before it would leave no more impression than images do
upon the plain surface of a reflecting mirror.
But important as it is, it conducts its operations in perfect
mystery. The room is shuttered from all
human gaze; the camera is covered by a black
veil. This, however, is the one fact of
interest to us - that it has a universal retentiveness. Nothing has ever passed athwart it that has
not left a record on its plastic slabs.
It is important, however, to distinguish between memory and
recollection. We remember all things: there is a
record [Page 74] of everything that ever we saw or did, somewhere in
the archives of memory; but we cannot always recollect an incident, or recall
it at the required moment. Supposing you
were never to burn your letters, but kept them all in one huge box - that would
resemble memory; but supposing you were never to index or classify them, so as
to be unable readily to lay your hands on the one required - that would be like
a failure of recollection; whilst a ready recollection would find its analogy
in the ease with which you could produce a required letter at a given
time. The failure to find a letter would
not argue that the letter was not in the box, but simply that the classification
was bad; so the failure to recall the past does not argue that it is lost to
memory, but simply that the power of recollection is feeble. In other words, our memory really retains
everything; and though sometimes our recollection is bad, yet a very trivial
thing may excite it and enable it to fetch up things long past from the deep
compartments of memory into which they have been cast, and in which they have
been unceasingly held.
The reader may have been brought up in a house surrounded by an
old-fashioned country garden; but you have not thought of it for years, till
the other day you happened to see a plant or smell a scent peculiarly
associated with it, which brought the whole back to your recollection. So is it with sin. Long years ago, you may have committed some
sin; you have tried to forget it. It has
not been forgiven and put away; you have almost succeeded in dropping it from
your thoughts: but believe me, it is still there; and the most trivial incident
may at any moment bring it all back upon your conscience, as vividly as if
committed only yesterday. If sin is
forgiven, it is indeed forgotten: God says, “I will remember it no more.”
But if only forgotten, and not forgiven, it may have a most
unexpected and terrible awakening.
This was the case with Joseph’s brethren. They said one to another, as they heard the reiterated
demand of the strange governor for evidence that they were not spies, “We are verily
guilty concerning our brother; in that we saw
the anguish of [Page 75] his soul, when he
besought us, and we would not hear: therefore is
this distress come upon us.”
3. THE THIRD STEP
TOWARDS CONVICTION WAS THE GIVING OF TIME FOR THEM TO LISTEN TO GOD’S SPIRIT,
SPEAKING TO THEM IN THE SILENCE OF THE PRISON-CELL. - Without the work of the Holy Ghost
they might have felt remorse, but not guilt.
It is not enough to feel that sin is a blunder and a mistake, but not
guilt. This sense of sin,
however, is the prerogative of the Spirit of God. He alone can convict of sin. When He is at work, the soul cries out, “Woe is me, I am a sinful man!”
“We are verily guilty concerning our brother.”
Will not these words befit some lips that read these pages? Are you not verily guilty? In early life you may have wronged some man
or some woman. You may have taught some
young lad to swear. You may have laughed
away the early impressions from some anxious seeker, until they fled to return
no more. You may not have done your best
to save those committed to your care.
And now others seem to be treating you as you treated the associates of
earlier days. You now are eager for
salvation; and you learn the bitterness of being ridiculed, thwarted, tempted,
and opposed. You recall the past; it
flashes before you with terrible intensity. You cry, “God
forgive me! I am verily guilty
concerning that soul whom I betrayed or wronged.” And this is the work of the Holy
Spirit. Let Him have his
blessed way with you till you are led by Him to the foot of that tree which
buds like Aaron’s rod, though for eighteen hundred
years it has ceased to grow, and the leaves of which are for the [healing of the] nations!
There is at least one Brother whom you have wronged.
Need I mention
his name? He is not ashamed to call you
brother; but you have been ashamed of Him.
He did not withhold Himself from the cross; but you have never thanked
Him. He has never ceased to knock at the
door of your heart for admittance to bless you; but you have kept Him waiting
amid the dropping dews of night. He has
freely offered you the greatest [Page 76] gifts; but you have trampled them
beneath your feet, and done despite to Him, and crucified Him afresh. There is, no doubt, a time coming when the Jews shall say of
Him, whom they once rejected and put into the pit of death, but who has since
been giving corn to the Gentiles, “We are verily guilty concerning our Brother.”
But these words may
also be humbly and sorrowfully appropriated by many of us [His redeemed people]. We must plead, “Guilty! guilty! guilty! guilty concerning our
Brother!
Whilst these men spoke thus, Joseph stood by them. There was no emotion on those compressed
features, no response in those quiet eyes. “They wist
not that he understood them.” Ah, how often do anguished souls
go to priests, ministers, and friends, with the bitter tale of anguish! They wist not that
One is standing by who hears and understands all, and longs to throw aside
every barrier in order to bring them aid. True, He [sometimes] speaks to them
by an interpreter [for not all may interpret correctly]; but if they would only speak straight to Him, He would
speak directly to their waiting hearts.
There is a curious contrast in the twenty-fourth
verse. First, we learn that “he
turned himself about from them and wept”; and next we are told that he “took Simeon
and bound him before their eyes”. The brethren saw only
the latter of these two actions, and must have thought him rough and
unkind. How they must have trembled in
his presence! But they knew not the
heart of tender love that was beating beneath all this seeming hardness. Nor could they guess that the retention of
Simeon was intended to act as a silken cord to bring the brothers back to him,
and as part of the process of awakening the memory of another brother, whom
they had lost years before.
It is thus continually in life’s discipline. We suffer, and suffer keenly. Imprisoned, bereaved, rebuked, we count God
harsh and hard. We little realize how
much pain He is suffering as He causes us pain; or how the tender heart of our
Brother is filled with grief, welling up within Him as He makes Himself
strange, and deals so roughly with us.
If we could but see the [Page 77] tender face behind the visor, and
know how noble a heart beats beneath the mailed armour, we should feel that we
were as [eternally] safe amid his rebukes as ever we were
amid his tenderest caresses.
There were alleviations also in their hardships. The sacks were filled with corn; provision was given for the journey
home, so that they needed not to come on the stores they were carrying back for
their households; and every man’s money was returned in his sack’s mouth (verse 25).
All this was meant in tender love; but their hearts failed them with
fear, as they emptied their sacks and saw the bundles of money fall out among
the corn. A guilty conscience
misinterprets the kindest gifts and mercies which God sends to us, and with
evil ingenuity distils poison out of the sweetest flowers. How often, like these men, we cry, “What hath God
done to us?” and are filled with
fear, when, in point of fact, God’s dealings with us brim with blessing, and
are working out a purpose of mercy which shall make us rejoice all our days.
There is no lot, however hard, without its compensations. Be sure to look out for these. Prize the little touches of tender love which
reveal the heart of Jesus, as a girl will dwell upon the slightest symptoms of
an affection which, for some reason, must be concealed beneath a strange and
unconcerned exterior. Amidst his
chastenings, the Master inserts some delicate souvenirs of his love to keep the
heart from entire despair. Make much of
them until the discipline is over, and the sun of his regard bursts from all
restraining clouds.
“Judge not the Lord
by feeble sense,
But trust Him for His
grace;
Beneath a frowning Providence
He hides a smiling face.”
* *
*
[Page 78]
8
JOSEPH’S SECOND INTERVIEW WITH HIS
BRETHREN
(GENESIS 43)
“Kind hearts are here; yet would the tenderest one
Have limits to its mercy: God has none.
And man’s forgiveness may be true and sweet,
But yet he stoops to give it.
More complete
Is Love that lays forgiveness at thy feet.
And pleads with thee to raise it. Only heaven
Means crowned, not vanquished, when it says ‘Forgiven!’”
- A. A. PROCTER.
Where is
there such another story as this of Joseph?
It seems sometimes impossible to believe that the events happened
thirty-five centuries ago, in the solemn, rainless land of the
I feel it impossible to dwell on it line by line; I must content
myself with taking only the broad outlines of the story.
Our next chapter will deal with that affecting scene, when
Joseph caused every man to go out from him, while he cast aside his dignity,
stepped down from his throne, and fell upon the necks of his brethren and
wept. We have a lesser task just now,
yet full of interest; we have to consider the successive steps by which that
wayward family was brought into a position in which its members could be forgiven
and blessed. May the Holy
Spirit help us to understand this; because Joseph, who was exalted from the pit
to the palace, is an evident picture [Page 79] of Him who lay in the grave,* but
is now exalted to the right hand of the Father to give repentance unto Israel
and the remission of sins! And as we review the
successive steps by which Joseph led his brethren, we shall probably catch a
glimpse of those various processes by which the Saviour humbles us and leads us
to Himself. Should these words be read
by the members of some family which is living in this famine-stricken world,
minding only the things of sense and sin, ignorant of the great Brother who
lives yonder on the throne of God and loves us - let them read, mark, learn,
and inwardly digest them, for they may shed a light on some dark landings of
their life, and explain things hard as the riddle of the Sphinx.
[* NOTE.
Keep in mind: for as long as our Lord’s “body” (or “flesh”) lay in Joseph’s tomb, He, as a disembodied
“soul,” “Went” - (down into “the
heart of the earth” into “Sheol” = “Hades,” Matt. 12: 40.) - “and preached
unto the spirits in prison.” 1 Pet. 3: 19b,
R.V.
At the time of “the resurrection of
Christ,” His “flesh” and “soul” were reunited. King David “forseeing this spake of the resurrection of the Christ,
that neither was he
left in Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus did God raise up, whereof we are witnesses. Being therefore by the right hand of God exalted, and
having received of the
Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath poured forth this,
which ye see and hear. For David ascended not into the
heavens …” Acts 2: 31-34a, R.V.]
1. THERE WAS THE PRESSURE OF POVERTY
AND SORROW (43: 1).
Jacob had never turned his thoughts to
There is a touching picture given of the conversation between
the old man and his sons, a kind of council of war. Reuben seems already to have
lost the priority which his birthright would have secured, and
Thus God in his mercy shut up every other door but the one
through which they might find their way to plenty and blessedness. There was no alternative but to go down to
So is your life. You have had all that this world could give. Beauty, money, youth, health, success, have
come up and poured their horns of plenty into your lap. You have had all that man could wish. But what has been your state of heart
meanwhile? Have you bethought
yourself of your ill-treatment of your great Elder Brother? Have you set your affections upon things
above? Have you lived for that world
which lies beyond the narrow horizon of the visible? You know you have not. So God has called for a famine on your land,
and broken the whole staff of your bread.
You have lost situation and friends.
Your business is broken. Beauty,
youth, health - all have vanished. Joseph is not; Simeon is not; and Benjamin is
on the point of being taken away.
Everything has been against you.
It is a severe measure: how will you bear it? In the first burst of the tempest, you say stubbornly,
“I will not go down; I will not yield; I will stand
out to the last.” But, beware! It
is a fatal mistake to wrestle against the love of God. Jacob tried it by the Jabbok
ford; and he limped on a halting thigh until he gathered his feet up into his
deathbed. God will have his way at last
if not at first. The famine must
continue until the wanderer arises to return to the Father, with words of
penitent contrition on his lips. It is
in vain to row to bring the ship to land: the sea will not cease her raging
until the runaway prophet is on his way back to his home. “I will be,” saith the Lord, “unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of
2. THERE WAS THE
AWAKENIING OF CONSCIENCE. For twenty years conscience had
slept. And as long as this was the case
there could be no real peace between Joseph and his brethren. They could never feel sure that he had forgiven them. He would always feel that there was a padlock on the
treasure-store of his love. You never
can feel at perfect rest with your friend, so long as there is some unexplained
wrong between you. Conscience must awake
and slowly tread the aisles of the temple of penitence, telling the beads of
confession. This is the clue to the
understanding of Joseph’s behaviour.
Joseph, to arouse their
dormant consciences, repeated as nearly as possible to them, their treatment of
himself.
This has
already engaged our thought. “Ye are spies,” was the echo of their own rough words
to himself. The prison, in which they lay for three days, was the counterpart of
the pit in which they placed him.
Men will
best learn what is the true nature of their own iniquities
when they experience the treatment which they meted out to others. And Joseph’s device was a success. Listen to their moan, “We are verily
guilty because of our brother.”
Here again is a clue to the mysteries of our own lives. God sometimes allows us to be treated as we have
treated Him, that we may see our offence in its true
character, and may be obliged to turn to Him with words of genuine
contrition. Your child has turned out
badly enough: you did everything for him; now he refuses to do what you wish,
and even taunts you. Do you feel
it? Perhaps this will reveal to you what
God feels, in that, though He has nourished and brought you up, yet you have
rebelled against Him. Your neighbour,
when in trouble, came to you for help, and promised to repay you [Page 82] with interest, with many protestations: now he prospers, and you ask him
to repay you; but he either laughs at you, or tells you to wait. Do you feel it? Ah, now you know how God feels, He who helped
you in distress, to whom you made many vows, but who reminds you in vain of all
the past. You know what it is to stand day
after day a suppliant, waiting at a gate which never opens, listening for a
footstep that never comes. Do you feel
it? Ah, now you know what He feels who twenty years ago stood at
the door of your heart and knocked, and is there now waiting full-handed, to
enrich you. That conscience must indeed
be fast in slumber that awakens not at such appeals.
3. THERE WAS THE DISPLAY
OF MUCH TENDER LOVE TOWARDS THEM. As soon as Joseph espied them he
invited them to his own table to feast with him. The brothers were brought into his house,
where every kindness was shown to them; as if, instead of being, poor
shepherds, they were the magnates of the land.
Their fears as to the return of the money were allayed by the pious,
though prevaricating, assurance of the steward that if they had discovered it
in their sacks it must have been put there by God, as there was no doubt about
the price of their corn having come into his hands. And when Joseph came they prostrated
themselves before him in striking fulfilment of his own boyish dream. He asked them tenderly about the well-being
of their father; and there must have been a pathos in his words to Benjamin
which would have revealed the whole secret if they had not been so utterly
unprepared to find Joseph beneath the strange guise of the great Egyptian
governor.
What an inimitable touch is that, which tells us how Joseph’s
heart welled up into his eyes, so that he needed to make haste to conceal the
bursting emotions, which threatened to overmaster him. “He sought where to weep, and he entered into his chamber, and wept there. And he washed his face, and went out, and refrained
himself; and said, Set on bread.”
[Page 83]
There may
be prophetic touches here. And we may [will] yet see the counterpart of this scene
literally fulfilled, when the Lord comes forward to recognize and receive his
ancient people. But in the meanwhile what shall we say
of his love to
ourselves? Ah, we need the fervid heart and the
burning words of a
work of conviction is complete, and He can
pour the full tides of affection on us, without injury to others or harm to
ourselves.
4. THERE WAS THE
DESTRUCTION OF THEIR SELF-CONFIDENCE. They thought their word was good, but when they told their family
history, Joseph refused to believe it, and said it must be proved. They were
confident in their money; and as they paid down the shining pieces, they
congratulated themselves that in this respect at least they were even with this
rough governor - now at least he cannot touch them or count them as
defaulters. But when they reached their
first halting-place on their way home, “as one of them opened his sack to
give his ass provender, he espied his money; for, behold, it was in the sack’s mouth: and
he said unto his brethren, My money is restored; and lo, it is even in my sack: and their heart failed them,
and they were afraid, saying one to another, What is this that God hath done unto us?”
[Page 84]
How often this happens in the experience of sinful men! They want to stand right with God; but they like to do
so in their own way. Like Cain, they
bring the fruit which their own hands have raised. Like these men, they bring their hard-earned
money. Like the Pharisees, they bring
prayers and tithes and gifts. But when
these gifts have been laid upon the altar, their donors are amazed to find that
they count for nothing, and are even given back. No! the mercy of God, which is the
true bread of the spirit, is not to be bought by anything we can bring; it must
be received as a gift without money and without price. Jacob said, “Peradventure it was an
oversight”: but it
was not; it was part of a deeply-laid plan, designed and executed for a special
purpose. There is no oversight, and no peradventure,
in the life of man.
“All nature is but art unknown to thee;
All chance, direction which thou canst not see;
All discord, harmony not understood;
All partial evil, universal good.”
They were confident also in their integrity.
Little knowing
what was in the sack of one of them, when the morning was light they started on
their return journey for the second time.
They were in high spirits. Simeon
was with them; so was Benjamin, notwithstanding the nervous forebodings of the
old father. They were evidently in high
favour with the governor, else they had not been
treated to so grand a feast on the previous day. Their sacks were as full as they could
possibly hold. But they had hardly got
clear of the city gate, when they were arrested by the steward’s voice. “Stop! Stop! Why have ye rewarded evil for good?” And they said, “Wherefore saith my lord these
words?
Behold, the money which we found in our sacks’
mouths we brought again unto thee: how then
should we steal silver or gold out of thy lord’s house?”
Some men resemble Benjamin. They are naturally guileless and beautiful. Some faint traces of original innocence
linger about them. Their type is shown
forth in the young man whom Jesus loved, as he stood before Him breathless with
haste, protesting that he had kept all the commandments blameless from his
youth. We do not reckon sin to such; and they do not reckon it to themselves. The publican and the sinner may stand in
urgent need of the blood of Christ; but surely nitre and soap will suffice for
them. But this reasoning is full of
flaws. Such people seem good, only because
they are compared with sinners of a blacker dye. Compare them with the only standard of
infinite purity; and they are infinitely condemned. “If I wash myself with snow-water,
and make my hands never so clean, yet shalt Thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me.”
The servants think the linen clean as it hangs upon the line, contrasted
with the dingy buildings around; but when the snowflakes fall, they wonder that
they never before discerned its lack of whiteness. The schoolboy thinks his writing good, only
so long as he contrasts it with that of a worse penman than himself; but he
soon alters his opinion when he catches sight of the copy. So estimable characters pride themselves on
their morality, only until they behold the seamless robes of Christ, whiter
than any fuller on earth could whiten them.
But these must be taught their utter sinfulness;
they [Page 86] must learn their secret unworthiness; they must be made to
take their stand with the rest of men.
Benjamin must be reduced to the level of Simeon and Judah. The cup must be found in Benjamin’s sack.
A preacher of the Gospel was once speaking to an old
Scotchwoman, who was commonly regarded as one of the most devout and
respectable people in that part of the country.
He was impressing on her her
need of Christ. At last, with tears in
her eyes, she said, “Oh, sir, I have never missed a
Sabbath at the kirk; and I have read my Bible every
day; and I have prayed and done good deeds to my neighbours; and I have done
all I knew I ought to do: and now do you mean to tell me that it must all go
for nothing?” He answered, “Well, you have to choose between trusting in these and
trusting in the redemption which God offers you in Christ. You cannot have both. If you are content to part company with your
own righteousness, the Lord will give you his; but if you cling to your
Bible-reading and Sabbath-keeping and good deeds, the Lord’s righteousness
cannot be yours.” It was quite a
spectacle, he said afterwards, to see that old woman’s face. The cup was found in Benjamin’s sack. For some time she sat in silence, her elbows on the table, her
face buried in her hands: a great struggle was going on within. At length the tears began to stream from her
eyes, and, lifting up her clasped hands to heaven, she cried out, “Oh, my God, they shall all gang for naething!” In a moment more she cast herself on her
knees and accepted the Lord Jesus as her Saviour. It is when the cup is found in Benjamin’s
sack that he, too, is brought to the feet of Jesus.
There is a stolen cup in your sack, my respectable,
reputable, moral friend. You are
probably unconscious of it. You pride
yourself upon your blameless life. You
suppose that Christ Himself has no controversy with you. But if you only knew, you would see that you
are robbing Him of his own. You use for
yourself time and money and talents which He bought with his own precious
blood, and which He meant to be a chosen vessel unto Himself. It is remarkable that you, [Page 87] who are so scrupulous in paying
every man his dues, should be so careless of the daily treachery of which you
are guilty in defrauding the Lord of his own purchase.
But if you hide the unwelcome truth from yourself, you cannot hide it
from your Lord. “Wot ye not
that such an one as He can certainly divine?” “He searcheth the
hearts and trieth the reins of the children of men.”
And “he
that is first in his own cause seemeth just; but his neighbour cometh and
searcheth him.”
How then shall we act?
First, Do
not linger. “Except we had lingered, surely now ere
this we should have returned twice.” Except you had
lingered, ere this you would have become an earnest, happy Christian. “The angels
hastened
[*
See Luke 13: 25-29. cf. Rev. 3: 20.]
Secondly, Make full confession or restitution. “They came near to the steward of Joseph’s
house and communed with him, “and told him all about the finding of the money,
and offered it back in full weight. Commune with Christ as you close this
story. Tell Him all that is in your
heart. Restore what you have taken
wrongfully from Him or from others. Make
full and thorough restitution. “When I kept
silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring
all the day long; for day and night thy hand was
heavy upon me: my moisture was turned into the
drought of summer. I acknowledged my sin unto Thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. And thou forgavest the
iniquity of my sin.” “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper; but whoso confesseth and
forsaketh them shall have mercy.”
Thirdly, Throw yourself on the mercy of Christ.
* *
*
[Page 89]
9
JOSEPH MAKING HIMSELF KNOWN
(GENESIS 45)
“Thou know’st our bitterness - our joys are Thine -
No stranger Thou to all our wanderings wild:
Nor could we bear to think, how every line
Of us, thy darkened likeness, and defiled,
Stands in full sunshine of thy piercing eye,
But that Thou call’st us
Brethren: sweet repose
Is in that word - the Lord who dwells on high
Knows all, yet loves us better than He knows.”
- KEBLE.
“The cup was found in
Benjamin’s sack.”
What a discovery was that! There
in the open road, in the early morning light, as the villagers were passing
into the city with melons and leeks and onions, and as the city was beginning
to bestir itself, the cup of the great Premier, in
whose hands was the power of life and death, was found lying in the corn, half
hidden, as by stealth. But how did it
come there? The brothers could not tell.
They neither could nor would believe that Benjamin had known anything of it.
Yet how to explain the mystery was a problem they could not solve. It seemed as if some evil genius were making
them its sport, first in putting the money in their sacks, and then in
concealing the cup there.
And yet, in a moment, each brother must have wished that the
cup could have been found in any sack rather than in Benjamin’s. They all remembered their father’s strange
unwillingness to let him come. The old
man had seemed to have a presentiment of coming disaster. When first they returned from
Let us study the scene that followed. It demands our care; for it throws light on
our Lord’s dealings with contrite souls, and it is an anticipation of the time
when
1. NOTICE THE
CIRCUMSTANCES IN WHICH THEY FOUND THEMSELVES. Their conscience was now awakened, and
it was ill at ease.
There was no
need for them to mention that crime of twenty years before; and yet it seemed
impossible for them to refrain from mentioning that which was uppermost in
their minds. They were evidently
thinking deeply of that dark deed by the pit’s mouth; their own sorrows had
brought the sorrows of that frail young lad to their minds; they could not but
feel [Page 91] that there was some connection between the two; and thus the
first words uttered by Judah their spokesman, as they entered the audience -
chamber of Joseph, betrayed the dark forebodings of their thoughts: “What shall we
say unto my Lord? What shall we speak? or how shall we clear ourselves? God hath found out
the iniquity of thy servants.”
God will always find out our iniquity. The sleuth-hound is on your track: it
may take years to run you down; but it will never leave the trail until it has
discovered your hiding-place and found you out.
“Be sure your sin will find you out.” Tens of years may pass over your life; and
like these brethren you may be congratulating yourself that the sin is
forgotten, and you are safe: and then a train of circumstances, little
suspected, but manipulated by a Divine hand, will suddenly bring, the truth to
light, and write God’s sentence in flaming characters upon the walls of the
house in which you riot in careless ease.
The unforgiven sinner is never safe. A terrible incident in point is
recorded by Dr. Donne, once Prebendary of St.
Paul’s. On one occasion some excavations
were being made in the precincts of the cathedral, and amongst other relics
thrown up to the surface, there was a skull with a nail in it. He happened to be standing by; and having
taken up the skull, and examined it, he asked the old sexton if he knew whose
it was, and how the owner died. “Ah,” said he, carelessly, “it
is the skull of an aged man, who died very suddenly some years ago: his wife is
living yet; she married again soon after his death.” Dr. Donne found her out, and confronted her
with the skull. The woman turned at once
deadly pale; and confessed that she had taken her husband’s life, and that she
had no rest since by day or by night.
This is a terrible example of a frequent law of God’s world. And if all sin is not traced home to its
authors in this world, at least
there is enough to show how terrible that moment will be, when, at the “great white
throne,” the
secrets of all hearts will be disclosed, and God will bring to light the hidden
things of darkness. There is absolutely
no chance of escape for a man, [Page 92] save
in the wounds of Jesus; these are the city of refuge into which the pursuer
cannot enter, and in which the fugitive is safe.
But, in addition, they felt that they were absolutely in
Joseph’s power.
There he
stood, second to none but Pharaoh in all the
Moreover, they saw that appearances were strongly against them. There was no doubt that the cup had been found in Benjamin’s
sack; and though they were certainly innocent of the theft, yet they could not
but feel that they were unable to clear or excuse themselves. As far as the evidence went, it pointed
clearly and decisively to their guilt.
The divining cup is familiar enough to all students of
ancient literature. It was sometimes
made of crystal and of precious stones; and it was supposed that all secrets
would be reflected by the liquid it contained.
Homer sings of the cup of Nestor.
And our own Spenser tells us how the royal maiden, Britornart,
found Merlin’s cup in her father’s closet, and used it to discover a secret
which closely concerned her. We, of
course, do not believe that Joseph used such a cup for such a purpose; but it
was his desire to maintain the character of an Egyptian of high rank. All Egyptian noblemen used such a cup. To
appeal to it was most natural; and in their conscience-stricken condition, the
brothers were too depressed to contest its decisions, or to ask for one more
decisive test of their innocence or guilt.
2. NOTICE THEIR BEHAVIOUR. “They fell before him
on the ground.” As they did so, they unconsciously fulfilled his own prediction,
uttered when a boy. How vividly that
memorable dream of the harvest field must have occurred to Joseph’s mind! Here were their sheaves making obeisance to
his sheaf, standing erect in the midst.
But who was to be their spokesman? Reuben had always had something to say in self-justification,
and had been so sure that all would be right that he had pledged the lives of
his children to his father for the safety of Benjamin; but he is dumb. Simeon was probably the cruel one, the
instigator of the crime against Joseph; but he dares not utter a word.
Benjamin, the blameless one, the prototype of the young man whom Jesus
loved, is convicted of sin, and has nought to say. Who then is to speak? There is only one, Judah, who at the pit’s
mouth had diverted the brothers from their first thought of murder. And notice how he speaks. He does not attempt to hold up any
extenuating circumstances, or to explain the past, or to excuse Benjamin or
themselves. He throws himself helplessly on Joseph’s mercy: “What shall we
say unto my lord? what
shall we speak? or how
shall we clear ourselves?”
This is a good example for us to follow still. There is no doubt about our guilt. We are verily guilty concerning our treatment
of that great Brother-man, who once lay in the pit, but who is now seated at
the right hand of power. If we try to
extenuate our faults, to excuse ourselves, to explain away the past, we shall
only make bad worse: we shall be brought face to face with the damning evidence
of our guilt; every mouth will be stopped; and we shall be obliged to cry, “God hath
found out the iniquity of his servants.” But if we throw
ourselves on his mercy, we cannot fail.
[Page 94]
We stand on surer ground than ever they did. They had no idea
of the gentleness of Joseph’s heart; they had not seen him turn aside to weep;
they had not understood why on one occasion he had hastened from their
presence; they could not guess how near the surface lay the fountains of his
tears. They only knew him as rough, and
stern, and hard. “The man, who is lord of the land, spake roughly to us.”
But we know the gentleness of the Lord Jesus. We have seen his tears over Jerusalem; we
have listened to his tender invitations to come to Him; we have stood beneath
his cross and heard his last prayers for his murderers, and his words of
invitation to the dying thief; we know that He will not break the bruised reed,
nor quench the smoking flax. We then need not fear for the issue when we cast
ourselves upon his mercy. We then need
not stand trembling in the ante-chamber, saving, “If I perish, I perish.” We need not look
nervously towards his throne to see if the golden sceptre of his grace is
extended towards us. Failure and
rejection are alike impossible to the soul that pleads guilty, and that casts
itself on the mercy of God which is in Jesus Christ our Lord.
In all literature, there is nothing more pathetic than this appeal of Judah. The eagerness that made him draw near; the humility
that confessed Joseph’s anger might righteously burn, since he was as Pharaoh;
the picture of the old man, their father, bereft of one son, and clinging to
this little one, the only relict of his mother; the recital of the strain which
the governor had imposed on them, by demanding that they should bring their
youngest brother down; the story of their father’s dread, only overmastered by
the imperious demand of a hunger that knew no law, and brooked no check; the
vivid picture of the father’s eagerness again to see the lad, in whose life his
own was bound up; the heart-breaking grief at not seeing him amongst them; the
heroic oder to stay there a slave, as Benjamin’s
substitute, if only the lad might go home; the preference of a life of slavery
rather than to behold the old man sinking
with sorrow into his grave - all this is touched [Page 95] with master-hand. Oh, how much of
poetry and pathos lie behind some of the roughest men, only waiting for some
great sorrow to smite open the upper crust, and bore the Artesian well! But if
a rough man could plead like this, think, ah think,
what must not those pleadings be which Jesus offers before the throne! What moonbeams are to sunshine; what the
affection of a dog is to the passionate love of a noble man - such is the
pleading of
Thus Joseph’s object was attained. He had wished to restore them to perfect rest and
peace; but he knew that these were impossible so long as their sin was
unconfessed and unforgiven. But it had
now been abundantly confessed. Then,
too, he had been anxious to see how they felt toward Benjamin. With this object in view he had given him
five times as much as he had given them.
Some think that he did this to show his special love. It may have been so; but probably there was
something deeper. It was his dream of
superiority that aroused their hatred against himself:
how would they feel toward Benjamin, if he, the younger, were treated better
than them all? But notwithstanding the
marked favour shown him, they were as eager as before for his return with them. Besides, he wanted to see if they could
forgive. It was Benjamin who had brought
them into all this trouble: had they treated him in the spirit of former days,
they would have abandoned him to his fate; but if so, they could not have been
forgiven. “If ye forgive not men their
trespasses, neither will your Heavenly Father forgive you.”
But they had no malice against this young lad. So far from showing malice, they tenderly
loved and clung to him for the old father’s sake and his own. Evidently then all Joseph’s purposes were
accomplished; all the conditions were fulfilled; and nothing remained to hinder
the great unveiling that was so near.
[Page 96]
3. NOTICE THE REVELATION AND RECONCILIATION.
“Then Joseph could not refrain himself.”
There was no effort needed to bring himself to
the point: the effort consisted in having restrained himself so long. If he had yielded to his natural feelings, he
would have broken out long before. It
was only because he studied their lasting welfare, that he refrained himself so
long. But when
And Joseph cried, “Cause every man to
go out from me.”
There was great delay here. He did not want to expose his brethren; and yet
he wanted to say words which could not be understood by the curious ears of
mere courtiers and place-seekers. His
brethren, too, must have a chance to be themselves. “And so there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren.”
We must stand alone before Christ, if we would know Him. The priest, the minister, or the Christian friend, must alike go out.
There are joys, as there are sorrows, in which no stranger can
intermeddle. As Peter met our Lord alone on the resurrection morning, for “He [Page 97] was seen of Cephas” - so alone must each man meet Christ. Why not at once?
And he wept aloud. He gave forth his voice in weeping, so that the Egyptians
heard the unusual sounds and wondered.
Was this joy or grief? I am disposed
to think it was neither. It was pent-up
emotion. For many days he had been in
suspense; so anxious not to lose them, so afraid that they might not stand the
test. When from some secret coign of vantage he had watched them leave the city in the
grey light, he may have chided himself for letting them go at all. His mind had been on the stretch; and now
that the tension was removed, and that there was no further necessity for it,
he wept aloud. Ah, sinner, the heart of
Christ is on the stretch for thee!
And he said, “I am Joseph.” He spoke in deep emotion; yet the words must
have fallen on them like a thunderbolt. “Joseph!”
Had they been dealing all the while with their long-lost brother? “Joseph!”
Then they had fallen into a lion’s den indeed. “Joseph!” Could it be? Yes, it
must be so; and it would explain a great many things which had sorely puzzled
them. Well might they be troubled and
terrified. Astonishment as at one risen from the dead, terror for the consequences, fear lest he
would repay them the long-standing debt - all these emotions made them
dumb. They could not answer him. So he said again, “I am Joseph, your
brother, whom ye sold into
“And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near unto me.” They had gone farther and farther back from him; but
now he bids them approach. This is a
beautiful illustration of the way in which a sinner may be reinstated in the
loving favour of God. We are not set to
serve a time of probation. We need not
stand afar off. We may step right into the deepest and closest intimacy with
the Son of God. Once “far off,” but
now “made nigh”
by the blood of Jesus. One moment the rugged road of repentance; the next the Father’s
kiss and the banquet in the Father’s home.
A moment more saw him and Benjamin locked in each other’s
arms, their tears freely flowing. And he kissed all his brethren.
Simeon? Yes.
Reuben? Yes. Those who had tied his hands and mocked his
cries? Yes. He kissed them all.
And after that they talked with him. So
shall it be one day. The Jews are slowly filtering back to
* *
*
[Page 99]
10
JOSEPH’S ADMINISTRATION OF
(GENESIS 47)
“We see him as he moved,
How modest, kindly, all-accomplished, wise,
With what sublime repression of himself,
And in what limits, and how
tenderly.”
- TENNYSON.
While
all the domestic details on which we have been meditating were transpiring,
Joseph was carrying his adopted country through a great crisis- I might almost
call it a revolution. When he became
Prime Minister, the Egyptian monarchy was comparatively weak; but after he had
administered affairs for some thirteen years, Pharaoh was absolute owner of all
the
During the seven years of plenty,
Joseph caused one-fifth of all the produce of every district to be hoarded up
in its town; so that each town would contain, within immense granaries, the
redundant produce of its own district.
At last the years of famine came.
And recent sad experiences in
The slender stores of the Egyptians were soon exhausted; and
when all the
But the money was soon exhausted: it lasted just one year. What was to be done now? There was nothing left but persons and lands;
the people were naturally loth to pledge these, but there was no alternative;
and so they came to Joseph, and said, “Why should we
die? Buy
us and our land for bread.” In
other words, they became Pharaoh’s tenant farmers, and paid him twenty per
cent, or one-fifth of their returns, as rent.
This may seem a heavy tax; but it
is not heavier than the rentage in almost every European country in the present
day.
[Page 101]
1. LET US STUDY THE
SPIRIT OF JOSEPH’S ADMINISTRATION. It is summed up in
three brief sentences: He was “diligent in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.”
Of his diligence in business there is ample proof.
When first raised to the proud position of Premier, “he went out through all the
These are simple rules, but most important. Make the most of your time. The biggest fortunes that the world has [and will one ‘DAY’ be] seen were made by saving what
other men fling away;* so be miserly over the moments, and
redeem the gold-dust of time, and they will make a golden fortune of leisure.
Be punctual. Some men are always out of step with old Father
Time. They do not miss their
appointments; but they always arrive five minutes late. [Page 102] It would seem as if they were born late, and have never been
able to catch up their lost moments. Be methodical. Arrange, so far as you can, your daily work, as postmen
do their letters, in streets and districts; subject always, of course, to those
special calls which the Almighty may put in your way. Be prompt.
If your work
must be done, do it at once: well-earned rest is sweet. Be energetic. An admirer of Thomas Carlyle met him once in
[* See 2 Tim. 2: 3, 5, 6, 10-12, 15, 19. Let us make sure we don’t ‘fling away’ these:- Verse 2 –
the things heard from Paul; veres 3 – suffering as ‘a good soldier of Christ’; verses
5 & 6 – contending ‘lawfully’ to be ‘crowned’;
verses 10-12
– endurance for ‘the elect’s sake’ and the future
‘salvation’ with age-lasting ‘glory’ by living and ‘also’
reigning with Him; and finally, verse 19 - diligence
to present ourselves approved unto God; and finally verse 19 – God’s ‘firm
foundation’ in His word of ‘TRUTH’ shown here in the context above.]
But Joseph was also fervent in spirit. “He was a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches ran over the wall.” It is almost impossible to exaggerate
the beauty of this similitude. Yonder is
the scorched land. You dare not expect
verdure, much less fruit. Suddenly you
descry greenery, and far-reaching boughs laden with luscious grapes. Why? Ah! down there
lies a deep, deep well, and the rootlets of the vine go down into those cool
depths, and draw up a moisture which the torrid heat cannot exhaust. Joseph’s life was spent in a dry and thirsty
land; here was not much in
[Page 103]
Would that more of our business men were “fervent in
spirit”! There is too little of this. Time for the
ledger, but none for the Bible. Time for the club or
society [with the special hand-shakes],
but none for the prayer-meeting. Time for converse with friends, but none for God. And, as the result, the bloom soon passes off
the spirit, and the light dies away from the eyes, and the elasticity from the
step. Men get to look wearied, tired,
restless, and dissatisfied. Life bears a
sombre aspect. And men in this
condition are not able to refresh weary souls that pass hard by, searching
in vain for the rich clusters of refreshing fruit. We cannot produce fruit by any efforts of our
own. We can
only be fruitful by sending our rootlets [deep] down to the [divine] well. We must make
time for private prayer and for the loving study of the Bible. Then the glow of fervour would
never die down in the heart; and the leaf would never look sere; and seasonable
fruit would never be wanting. Think not that fervour of spirit is
impossible to those who live amid the stir of business. It was not impossible to Joseph: it
need not be impossible to any who will adopt the simple rules of the
Bible and of common sense. It is
not enough to light a fire - we must feed it. And yet how many of my readers may have gradually sunk into habits of
carelessness in private devotion, such as are bound to reduce and extinguish
fervour of soul! There is the well of
God’s own word! Get near it; strike deep into it; draw up from it by
loving habitual study. Thus shall you be able to resist the
insidious agencies that would drain away your enthusiasm and your power.
But Joseph was also a servant of God. God was in
all his thoughts. “I fear God,” was his motto.
“It was not you that sent me hither, but God; and He hath made me ... ruler
throughout all the
There are a good many unfaithful servants about in the world;
and if you rebuke them, you receive as answer, “My
wages are so poor”; “My mistress takes no
interest in me”; “I am treated as a slave”;
“I shall leave as soon as I can.” Stop! Who put you where you are? Had Christ anything to do with it? If not, how
came you there without asking his leave?
If He had, how dare you leave
unless you are sure He calls you
away? And as for service - why do
you serve? For money,
or thanks, or habit? No, for Christ. Then do your best for Him.
Every room you enter is a room in his temple. Every vessel you touch is as holy as the
vessels of the Last Supper. Every act is
as closely noticed by Him as the breaking of the alabaster box. On every fragment of your life you may write,
“Sacred to the memory of Jesus Christ.” This would give a new dignity to toil, and a
new meaning to life. Let us never forget
how the thought of our dear Lord will equalize all life, and act as the
complement of its needs. Those who [Page 105] are called as free, are slaves to Him; and those who are slaves to men are
free in Him. And all life reaches its
true unity and ideal just in so far as He is its Head, and Lord (1 Cor. 7: 22).
2. NOTICE THE CONFESSION
OF THE EGYPTIANS. .
What a splendid endowment is coolness, foresight, presence of mind! They are the gift of God; and they have
enabled many men to be the saviours of their fellows. That engineer had it who,
some time ago, turned on the steam from the broken cylinder on the ocean
steamer that seemed doomed. Livingstone
and Stanley have had it among travellers; and it often saved them and their
followers from infuriated mobs of savages.
Cromwell and
But there is something higher than this. As I see these Egyptians crowding round Joseph with these
words upon their lips, it makes me think of Him of whom Joseph was but a type. Joseph lay in
the pit; and from the pit was raised to
give bread to the brethren who had rejected him [as Saviour of ‘the world’], and to a nation of Gentiles. Jesus[’ body]
lay in the grave [i.e., Joseph’s tomb]; and from its dark abyss He was raised [out of ‘Hades’ (Acts. 2: 31), and
united to it, (Lk.
24: 39)] to give salvation to his brethren the Jews, and to the millions of Gentile people. Already I hear the sound of countless myriads, as they
fall before the sapphire throne, and cry, “Thou hast saved us!” The Egyptian name of Joseph meant, “the Saviour of the
world”; but the salvation wrought by him is hardly to be named in the same breath
with that which Jesus has achieved. Joseph saved
[* NOTE. See a very important illustration of
this truth in that section of Scripture recorded in Acts
8: 9-22,
R.V.- 9 “But there was a
certain man, Simon by name, which beforetime in the city used sorcery, and amazed the people of Samaria, giving out that himself
was some great one: 10 to whom they all
gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is that power of
God which is called Great. 11 and they gave heed
to him, because that a long time he had amazed them with his sorceries. 12 But when they believed Phil
preaching good tidings concerning the
14 “Now when the apostles which were at
Jerusalem” - (and therefore some distance from where Philip was at this time in “the city of Samaria,” verse 4) - “heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John: 15 who, when they were come
down,” - (at some
undisclosed time later) -
“prayed for them, that they
might receive the Holy Ghost: 16 for as yet he was fallen UPON NONE OF THEM: only they had been
baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus.
17
Then laid they their hands on them, and they received
the Holy Ghost. Now when Simon” –
(who was amongst those
who “believed”
Philip’s “preaching the good tidings concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ,”
and was “baptised” in vv.
12 & 13 above) - “saw that through the laying on of the apostles’
hands the Holy Ghost was given, HE
OFFERED THEM MONEY, saying, GIVE ME also this POWER, that whomsoever I lay
my hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost.
But Peter said unto him, Thy silver perish with
thee, because thou thought to obtain the GIFT of God with MONEY. 21 Thou hast NEITHER PART NOT LOT IN THIS
WORD: for THY HEART IS NOT RIGHT BEFORE GOD.
22 Repent therefore ON THIS THY
WICKEDNESS, and pray the Lord, if perhaps the thought of thy heart shall be
forgiven thee. 23 For I see that
THOU ART IN THE GALL OF BITTERNESS AND IN THE BOND OF INOQUITY. 24 And Simon answered and said, Pray ye for
me to the Lord, that none of the things which ye have spoken come upon me.”
What lessons can regenerate believers learn here? (1) That miracles by sorcery and accompanied
by pride, are Satanic! (2) They mislead
people into believing they are from God!
(3) That faith “concerning the
Is there not here a biblical answer to the question: “Why is it that regenerate believers refuse agree
with each other – even on one, simple to
understand, apostolic statement: “the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given TO THEM THAT OBEY HIM” (Acts 5: 32, R.V.)? Is God the
Author of confusion; or is Satan hard at work in the hearts of those who are DISOBEDIENT, who are unwilling to believe
some very important passages of His inspired Word?”]
3. REMARK THE RESOLVE OF
THESE EGYPTIANS. “Let us find grace; and we will be Pharaoh’s servants.” “Thou hast saved our
lives; and we will be thy servants.”
How could we state better the great argument for our consecration to our
Saviour? “He has
saved us: ought we not to be his servants?”
There are many arguments by which we might urge acceptance of
the yoke of Christ. There is such dignity in it: the old butler is proud to wear
the livery of a ducal house; but what livery is so worthy as that which
Christ’s servants wear? “I bear the
marks of the Lord Jesus.” There is such happiness in it; it is
perfect freedom. To be free of Christ is
to grind in slavery. To obey Christ - is
to go forth into the glorious liberty of the sons of God.
But I pass by these arguments now to present one more cogent,
more pathetic, more moving. It is this:
Jesus has saved you - will you not serve Him?
These are the successive steps: mark them well! Recognize that Jesus bought you to be his by
shedding his own blood as your ransom-price, and by giving his flesh for you
and for the life of the world. Then give
yourself entirely to Him, saying, humbly, lovingly, trustfully, “I do now, and here, offer a present unto Thee, 0 Lord,
myself, my soul and body, to be a reasonable, holy, and lively sacrifice to
Thee.” From that moment you are
no more your own, but his; He takes what we yield, at the moment of yielding;
reckon on Him to keep you, and to supply all your need. Take Jesus to be moment by moment your
Saviour, Friend, and Lord; and yield to Him an obedience
which shall cover the entire area of your being, and shall comprehend every
second of your time. When solicited to leave
Him, appropriate the words of the ancient Hebrew slave, and say, “I love my
Master. I
will not go out free.”
He deserves this. For
you He lay in
* * *
[Page 108]
11
JOSEPH’S FATHER
(GENESIS 47:
1-11)
“We
live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths;
In feelings, not in figures on a dial;
We should count time by heart’s throbs.
He most lives
Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best.”
P. J. BAILEY.
We
always turn with interest from an illustrious man to ask about his father and
his mother. The father of Martin Luther
and the mother of the Wesleys hang as familiar
portraits in the picture-gallery of our fancy.
It is not, therefore, to be wondered at that we find in the Bible
something to gratify this innocent curiosity; and especially in the story of
Joseph we are permitted to glance behind the scenes, and to consider the
relations between him and his old father, Jacob.
1. JOSEPH’S UNDIMINISHED
FILIAL LOVE. From the first moment that Joseph saw his
brethren among the crowd of all nationalities that gathered in the corn-mart,
it was evident that his love to his father burnt with undiminished
fervour. Those brethren little guessed how eager he was to learn if the old man was yet
alive, nor what a thrill of comfort shot through his heart when they happened
to say, “Behold, our youngest brother
is this day with his father.” Evidently, then, though
twenty-five years had passed since he beheld that shrunken, limping, yet
beloved form, his father was living still.
And when his brethren came the second time, they must have
been surprised to notice the delicate tenderness with [Page 109] which he asked them of their welfare, and said, “Is your
father well, the old man of whom ye spake? is he yet alive?” Yes, and Judah little realized what a tender
chord he struck, and how it vibrated, almost beyond endurance, to his touch,
when he spoke again and again of the father at home, an old man, who so
tenderly loved the young lad, the only memorial of his mother: that father who
had been so anxious lest mischief should befall him; and whose grey hairs would
go down with sorrow to the grave, unless he came back safe. It was this repeated allusion to his father
that wrought on Joseph’s feelings so greatly as to break him down. “He could not refrain himself.”
And so the very next thing he said, after the astounding announcement, “I am Joseph,” was, “Doth my father yet live?”
And in the tumultuous words which followed, words throbbing with passion
and pathos, sentences about the absent father came rolling out along with
utterances of reconciliation and forgiveness to his brethren: just as the
swollen mountain flood hurries along in its eddies, boulders, timber, and
everything that barred the way. “Haste ye,
and go up to my father, and
say unto him: Thus saith thy son Joseph,
‘God hath made me lord of all
The weeks and months that intervened must have been full of
feverish anxiety to Joseph; and when at last he heard that the old man had
reached the frontier of Egypt, in one of the waggons
which, with thoughtful consideration, he had sent to fetch him, he “made ready
his chariot, and went up to meet Israel his
father.” Oh, that meeting! If the old man was sitting in some recess of
the lumbering wain, weary with the long journey, how
he would revive when they said “Joseph is coming”! I think he would surely dismount, and wait,
straining his aged eyes at the approaching company, from out the midst of which
there came the bejewelled ruler to fall on his neck and weep there a good
while, “Let me die,” said [Page 110] he, as he looked at him, from head to
foot with glad, proud, satisfied eyes: “Let me die, since I have seen thy face; because
thou art yet alive.” I wonder how he felt, as he recalled
his sad lament, “All these things are against me.”
But this was not all.
Joseph loved his father too well to be ashamed of him. When Pharaoh heard of the arrival of his father and
brethren, he seemed mightily pleased, and he directed Joseph to see to their
welfare. “The
We cannot but admire the noble frankness with which Joseph
introduced his father to the splendid monarch, habituated to the manners of the
foremost court of the world. There was a
great social gulf fixed between
There is a great laxity in these respects in all classes
of our community, but especially among the children of working men in large
industrial towns. The young people
are able to earn such good wages as to be largely independent of their
parents. And when they have paid some
small amount for their keep, they are apt to imagine that their parents have no
further claim. They forget the long
arrears of obligation. They do not care
to remember the cost of those long years of helpless childhood, when they were
only a burden and a care. They are unmindful of the tender kindness that nursed them through long
and dangerous illnesses; that freely sacrificed sleep and [Page 111] rest; that thought them angels,
saints, and heroes; that bore with their petulance and fretfulness; or that sat
far into the night, contriving dresses, playthings, and other pleasant
surprises.
In some cases the behaviour of grown-up children to their parents is still more
dishonourable.
It is a common
thing to see men rise in a few years from obscurity to considerable
wealth. With increasing money there
comes a vast change in a man’s social position.
He puts the magic letters “Esq.” after
his name. He lives in a fine house, and
gives large parties. He keeps his
carriage, and sends his children to expensive schools. But what of his aged
parents? He allows them a meagre
annuity; but takes care to keep them out of his family and his
home - for, to tell the truth, he is rather ashamed of them. It is a false shame indeed! And the man who does so is almost certain,
unconsciously, to say or do something which will reveal to his new associates
his lowly origin far more readily than the mere presence of his parents at his
board could do. I prefer the noble
magnanimity of Joseph, who seemed proud to introduce the withered, crippled
patriarch to his mighty friend and liege lord.
Young people, honour your parents! Do not treat them the worse, just because you
know they love you enough to bear with your impertinences. The politeness is mere veneer which is not
gentle to near kin. Do not call them by
slang or unmeaning names: glory in the noble titles, “Father,”
“Mother.”
They may have their peculiarities and faults; but it is ungenerous and
unkind to dwell on them. It is possible
so to fix your attention on these minor points as to become oblivious to many
noble qualities, which are more than a compensation.
Imitate the sons of Noah in the filial respect which flung a mantle even over
their father’s sin.
2. PHARAOH’S QUESTION.
“How old art thou?” This was Pharaoh’s
first inquiry, as Jacob entered his presence.
It was, perhaps, suggested by the patriarch’s withered look and bent
form. It is a question that often rises
to our lips; but it is [Page 112] suggested by a very false standard of
estimating the length of a man’s life.
The length of a life is not measured by the number of its
days; no, but by the way in which its days have been used.
“We live in
thoughts, not breaths;
In feelings, not in figures
on a dial.”
Some live for many years, and at the end have little or nothing
to show for them. Take out the wasted
hours, hours of drowsy lethargy, hours of luxurious sloth, and hours of self-indulgence;
and only a few hours of real life are left.
There are men who will be seventy next birthday, but who have only lived
six months out of the whole time. It is
surprising in
Others live for few years, but they have crowded them with
strenuous, noble life: they have been punctual, industrious, methodical: they
have redeemed the time; they have treasured the moments with frugal and miserly
care; they have made the most of odd bits which others would have flung away as
useless - and, as the result, they have much to show. What books they have read! What deeds they have done! What ministries they have set afoot! What friends they have made! What characters they have built up! They have lived long. They will be thirty
next birthday; but in those few years they have lived the life which most men
live in sixty years.
Permit a stranger to ask of each reader, standing in the
palace of life, “How old art thou?”
How old art thou? Seventeen? That
is indeed a critical time. It is the
formative time: what thou art now, thou wilt be. Thou art leaving the sheltered bay of early
life to launch out into the great ocean. Beware!
it is winsome-looking, but it is treacherous. Be sure and take on board the great Master,
Christ: none but He can pilot thee through the shoals and quicksands
which lie hidden on thy course. Take on board none but those whom He
chooses as the crew.
How old art thou? Twenty-one? That is often described as the time of a man’s majority, or
independence. Never forget that there is at least One of whom
thou canst never be independent. Thou
mayest disown Him, and go into a far country to waste his substance and thine
own in riotous living; but thou wilt have to come back to Him at last. There is no true rest, or food, or honour,
outside his palace-home. Prodigal child,
come home! Come home!
How old art thou? Thirty? It was at that age that our Lord emerged from obscurity: and
think how many men have lived a great life and died before they reached this
age. Alexander among
generals; Kirke White among singers; McCheyne and Spencer among ministers. What art thou doing in the world? Come, make haste! Thy life will soon slip away. Take care, lest at the close thou be constrained
to say, “I have spent my life in laboriously doing
trifles.”
“‘Tis a
mournful story,
Thus in the ear of pensive eve to tell
Of morning’s firm resolves the vanished glory,
Hope’s honey left within the with’ring
bell,
And plants of mercy dead, that
might have bloomed so well.”
But this need not be your sad retrospect, if only you will
yield your whole being to the Lord Jesus, asking Him to keep down your
self-life, and to think in your brain, to live in your heart, to work through
your life, and to fulfil in you the good pleasure of his will, “and the work
of faith with power.”
How old art thou? Forty? Take care! Very few are
ever converted who have reached the downward slopes of forty. If thou art not Christ’s yet, the chances of
thy becoming his lessen at a tremendous ratio every week.
[Page 114]
How old art thou? Fifty? Sixty? Seventy? The snows are beginning to silver thy head. Familiar pursuits must be abandoned. Familiar places must be visited no more. Affairs once thy pride must be given over to
the stronger nerve of others. The dip in
yonder path shows how near is the valley of the shadow of death, with its dark,
dark river. How art thou going to meet it? Shivering, cringing,
cowering, the victim of an irresistible fate? Or with
brave welcome, such as animated the worn prisoner of the Mamertine dungeon? “I have fought a good fight, I
have finished my course, I have kept the
faith; henceforth there is laid up
for me a crown of righteousness.”
Old friends, we look on you to teach us how to await our end, and how to
die.
It is a solemn question, How old art
thou? It is well to face the growing
fewness of our years; to see how envious Time is eating away the narrow shoal
on which we stand. My favourite piece in
all
“Fly, envious Time, till thou run out of race.”
Oh to be able to say that without
tremor or misgiving!
3. JACOB’S ANSWER.
“And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The
days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years; few and evil have the days of the years of my life been,
and have not attained unto the days of the years of the
life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.”
They had been few in comparison with those of his ancestors. Terah reached the
age of 205; Abraham of 175; Isaac of 180.
But “the whole age of Jacob was an hundred forty and seven years.”
They had been evil.
As a young man
he was wrenched from his dearest associations of home and friends, and went
forth alone to spend the best years of his life as a stranger in a strange
land. Arduous and difficult was his
service to Laban, consumed [Page 115] in the day by drought, and in the sleepless
night-vigils by frost. He escaped from
Laban with difficulty; and no sooner had he done so than he had to encounter
his incensed and impetuous brother. In the
agony of that dread crisis he met with the Angel Wrestler, who touched the
sinew of his thigh, so that he halted to the end of his life. These calamities
had hardly passed when he was involved in extreme danger with the Canaanites of
Shechem, and passed through scenes which have blanched his hair, furrowed his
cheeks, and scarred his heart. Thus he
came to Luz, and Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and was buried beneath an oak,
which was thenceforth called the Oak of Weeping. “And they journeyed from
Such was the exterior of Jacob’s life. Few have trod a path more paved with jagged flints, or bound
around their brows a crown more full of thorns. You would have called his life a
failure. Compare it with the lot of
Esau; and what a contrast it presents! Jacob obtained the birthright; but what a life of suffering and
disaster was his! Esau lost
the birthright; but he had all that heart could wish. Wealth, royalty, a line of illustrious sons -
these were the portion of his cup. The
thirty-sixth chapter of Genesis contains a list of the royal dukes of [Page 115] his line. How often must Esau have
pitied his brother! “My poor brother, he was always visionary, counting on the
future, building castles in the air; as for myself, I say, make the best of
this world while it lasts. Let us eat
and drink, for to-morrow we may die.”
And yet when this same Jacob stands before Pharaoh, the
greatest monarch of the world bends eagerly to catch his blessing. “Jacob blessed Pharaoh.”
I know that Jacob in his earlier life was crafty, a mere bargain-maker,
a trickster., but all seems to have been eliminated in the fierce crucible of
suffering through which he had passed; and he had reached a grandeur or moral
greatness which impressed even the haughty Pharaoh. Esau would never have been able to bless Pharaoh. But this way-worn pilgrim can now do that
which his wealthy and successful brother never could have done. “Without
contradiction, the less is blessed of the greater.” Evidently, then, Jacob was a greater man than
the greatest monarch of his time. There
is, therefore, a greatness which is
wholly independent of those adventitious circumstances which we sometimes
associate with it. The ermine does
not make a judge; a crown does not make a king; nor does wealth, or rank, or
birth make a great man. Jacob was one of
the truly great. He was a royal man with a Divine
patent of royalty. God Himself said, “Thy name shall be no more called Jacob, but
Three things made Jacob royal; and will do as
much for us.
(1) Prayer. On the moorland, strewn with
boulders, he saw in his dreams the mighty rocks pile themselves into a
heaven-touching ladder. This struck the
keynote of his life. He ever after lived
at the foot of the ladder of prayer, up which the angels sped to carry his
petitions, and down which they came, with beautiful feet, to bring the golden
handfuls of blessing. Learn to pray without ceasing. It is the secret of greatness. He who is oft in the audience-chamber of the
great King becomes kinglike.
(2)
Suffering. His nature was
marred by selfish, base, and [Page 117] carnal elements.
He took unlawful advantage of his famished brother; deceived his aged
father; increased his property at the expense of his uncle; worked his ends by
mean and crafty means. But sorrow ate away all these things, and gave him a new dignity. So does it work still on those who have received the new nature, and who meekly learn the lesson which God’s
love designs to teach them. Do not shrink from pain and sorrow; they come to crown you. The Lamb sits on the throne to-day
because He was slain; and the throne is reserved for those who have learnt to suffer with Him, and with Him to die.
(3) Contact with Christ. “There wrestled
a man with him until the breaking of the day.”
Who was He? Surely
none less than the Angel Jehovah, whose face may not be seen, or his name
known. It was the Lord
Himself, anticipating his incarnation, and intent on ridding his servant of the
evil and weakness which had clung so long and so closely to him, sapping his
spiritual life. And from that hour Jacob was “
* * *
[Page 118]
12
JOSEPH AT THE DEATH-BED OF JACOB
(GENESIS 47:
27-31)
“This hath He done; and shall we not adore Him?
This shall He do; and can we still despair?
Come, let us quickly fling
ourselves before Him,
Cast at His feet the burden of our care.
“Yea, thro’ life, death, thro’ sorrow, and thro’ sinning,
He shall suffice me, for He hath sufficed:
Christ is the end - for Christ was the beginning;
Christ the beginning - for the end is Christ.”
- F. W. H. MYERS.
Jacob
dwelt in the
Evidently there is something to repay us. The Bible is a book of life. Its pages are devoted to the deeds rather
than the deaths of its heroes. Their
biographies fill whole books, whilst single
verses are enough for their dying words.
[Page 119] Whenever, therefore, a death-scene is described with
some minuteness, we may be sure that there is something which demands our
attentive heed. So it is here.
1. JOSEPH’S FIRST VISIT
– “The time drew
nigh that
But his death was a rift in the dark clouds that veiled the
future world from his sons and their children, giving them a glimpse of its
reality and beauty. And we can gather
some of the conceptions which must have flashed across the mind of Joseph, as
he obeyed the summons of his father, and stood beside that dying bed.
One of the most sublime verses in the New Testament declares
that “Christ has abolished death, and
brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel.” There is a most inspiring rhythm in the words;
but we must not suppose that the Gospel has revealed that concerning which
nothing was previously known. Long before
our Lord walked this world, carrying at his girdle the keys of Resurrection and
Life, men cherished the hope of eternal life: the Gospel simply threw fuller
light on that which had been before partially hidden, as the rising sun reveals
the clear outlines of the landscape which had lain indistinct and hazy in the
grey dawn. Christ drew from the window the curtain, through which the morning
light had been feebly struggling to the sleeper’s eyes.
[Page 120]
The evidence of this is not far to seek. Daniel teaches in plainest language the truth
of a general resurrection to endless life or endless shame. Ecclesiastes closes with an explicit
statement of the spirit’s return to its giver, and of final judgment. The book of Job, whatever date may be assigned
to it, has been called a very hymn of immortality: he knew at least that his “Redeemer
lived, and that he should stand up
at the last upon the earth,
and after his skin had been destroyed, yet from his flesh he should see God” (Job 19: 25, 26, R.V.). In the Book of Psalms
we have no uncertain evidence of the tenacity with which pious Jews clung to
these hopes. “Thou wilt not leave
my soul in sheol, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
Thou wilt show me the path of
life” (Ps. 16: 10, 11, R.V.). And it
is just this faith in and yearning after a life [‘upon the earth’ and] beyond [‘Sheol’
and] the grave which is the true key-note of the lives of the
three great patriarchs who lie together in Machpelah’s ancient cave.
Why did they wander to and fro in the land of promise as
sojourners in a strange land? Why were they content to have no inheritance - no, not so much as a place to put their feet on? Why did Abraham dwell with Isaac and Jacob in
frail, shifting tents, rather than in towns like
At first, no doubt, they thought that
This belief in “the city of
And notice, Jacob did not regard the future life as a mere state of existence stript of all
those associations which make life worth the having. Indeed, in this he seems to have had truer
thoughts than many who are found in Christian churches. He said, “I am to be gathered unto my people.”
He surely did not mean simply that he was to
be buried in their tomb, for he expresses that thought afterwards in the words,
“Bury me with my fathers in the
Year after year the people have been gathering there, as highland
clans in olden days were gathered to a central trysting-place by the bearers of
the Fiery Cross. All noble, saintly
souls are assembled yonder, and await us. And when we leave this world, it will
not be to go into a cold, un-sympathizing, grave-like realm, where no voice
shall greet, no smile welcome us. But we
shall go to our people; those whom we have loved and lost; those who are
awaiting our coming with fond affection, and who will administer a choral entrance
to us into that [‘
[* See Lk.
23: 43. cf.
16: 22,
R.V.]
But it was not simply to express these hopes that the dying
patriarch summoned the beloved Joseph to his side. The father wanted to bind
the son by a solemn promise not to have him buried in the land of his exile,
but to carry him back to that lone cave, which seemed an outpost in the hostile
and distant
Human nature was not different then from what it is to-day. Our truest home is still by the graves of the beloved
dead. Wherever we wander, our hearts
return thither, as the eye of the sailor to the Pole-star. And for this cause, many a warrior, dying in
some distant land, has asked that his remains might be placed, not in the
splendid Minster or the national Walhalla, but in the quiet country graveyard,
where the moss-covered tombstones repeat in successive generations the family [Page 123] name. It was natural, then,
for Jacob to wish to be buried in Machpelah.
But there was something more than natural sentiment. He was a man of faith.
He knew and
cherished the ancient promise made by God to His friend, the patriarch Abraham, that
“If now I have found grace in thy
sight, put, I
pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly with me. Bury me not, I pray thee, in
2. JOSEPH’S SECOND VISIT
- Tidings came to the
Prime Minister of Egypt that his father was sick and wished to see him. And he went to him without delay, taking with
him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. He, no doubt, guessed that his father’s
sickness was the last stage of his decay; and the form of the message may have
been agreed on by them in previous conversations as the significant sign from
one to the [Page 124] other that the sands of time had nearly run out in that
aged, battered, and time-worn body.
When Joseph arrived at his father’s dwelling, the gift of his
own munificence, the aged patriarch seems to have been lying still, with closed
eyes, in the extreme of physical exhaustion.
He was too weak to notice any of those familiar forms that stood around
him. But when one told him and said, “Behold, thy son Joseph is come,” the sound of that loved name revived
him, and he made a great effort, and, propped by pillows, sat up upon the bed.
There was clearly no decay in his power of recollection, as
the old man reviewed the past. Again he
seemed to be lying at the foot of the mystic ladder, with its angels trooping
up and down, whilst God Almighty stood above, and pledged Himself to make him
fruitful, and to give to him and his seed the land in which
his forefathers had been strangers, for an everlasting [‘Olam’
age-lasting] possession. No lapse of time could
erase the impression which those words had made. Even though he had lived to out-measure the
years of a Methuselah, they would still ring in musical cadence within his
heart. And had not God fulfilled them a
thousand times over, so that not one good thing had failed? - and his seed was sure of the land, though as yet far removed
from its actual possession. And as his
recollection embraced the past, it was also vividly alive to more recent
incidents in the family history. He did
not forget that Joseph, who leant over his dying form, had two sons; and he
announced his intention of adopting them as his own. “Thy two sons, which were born unto thee in the
And when he had said so much, his mind
wandered away.
He saw again
that scene on the hilly road to
“Be near me when all
else is from me drifting,
Stars, sky, home-pictures, days
of shade and shine,
And kindly faces to my own
uplifting,
The love that answers mine.
“Suffice it, if my
good and ill unreckoned,
And both forgiven by Thine
abounding grace,
I find myself by hands familiar beckoned,
Unto my fitting place.”
-
When the old man came back from his pathetic reverie, the
first sight which arrested him was the presence of the awe-struck boys, who
were drinking in every look and word, with fixed and almost breathless heed.
“Who are these?” said
“They are my sons,” was the proud and immediate reply, “whom God hath
given me in this place.”
And
And so they were brought near, and the aged lips were pressed
on the young foreheads, and the aged arms were put feebly around the young and
slender forms. And then again the dying
man wandered back to a grief which had left as deep a scar as his sorrow for
the beloved Rachel, and turning to Joseph, he reminded him of the long years
during which he thought he would never look again upon his face. But now, God, who may keep men waiting, but loves
to fill their lives ultimately with blessing, had shown him also his seed.
[Page 126]
With prophetic insight he crossed his hands, as the two lads
waited before him for his blessing, so that his right found its way to the head
of the younger, whilst his left alighted on that of the elder. By that act he reversed the
verdict of their birth, and gave the younger precedence over the elder. It was useless for Joseph to remonstrate, and
to urge the claims of his first-born.
The old man knew quite well what he was doing, and that he was on the
line of the divine purpose. “I know it, my son, I know it; he also shall become a people, and he also shall
be great: but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall
become a multitude of nations.”
There was nothing arbitrary in this; for in all likelihood
there were qualities in Ephraim, as afterwards in his descendants, which
naturally put him in the foremost place.
The Old Testament is full of hope for younger sons: Jacob was a younger
son; so was Moses; so was Gideon; so was David.
It is not an unmitigated blessing to be born into the world with a great
name and estate and traditions; it is better to trust in one’s own right arm
and in the blessing of the Almighty. God is no respecter of persons, and He will
lift the youngest into the front rank if only he sees the qualities which warrant it; whilst He will put back the
foremost into the lower ranks if they are deficient in noble attributes. Thus the first become last, and the last
first.
With hands crossed over the young heads the patriarch spoke
sweet and grateful words of the Angel who had redeemed him from all evil; and
his words are so chosen, and that name is so placed in parallelism with the
name of God who had shepherded him all his life long, that we are convinced
that he is speaking of the Angel-Jehovah, who is so often referred to on the
pages of the Old Testament; and who can be no other than the Second Person of
the ever-blessed Trinity, whose delights have always been with the sons of men,
and who, before He took on Himself the form of a man, was often found in that [likeness] of an angel.
[Page 127]
We, too, have an Angel guardian, yea, the Angel, who is Jesus
Christ the Lord. If you want to be
redeemed from all evil, especially from the evil of sin, make much of Him. And if He
began his redemptive work long years before He suffered, died, and rose, how
much more will He do for us now that He sits on the right hand of God! Take
heart, you who are anxious about your daily food. Listen to the testimony of this dying man,
that God had fed him all his life long unto that day. And if God did so for a hundred and
forty-seven years, surely He will not forget you during the briefer span of
your few days.
There was one thing only more to say, before this memorable
interview ended. Years before, Jacob had
become embroiled through the dastardly treachery of his sons, in conflict with
the original inhabitants of
Would that all young persons who read these lines may so act
towards their parents that they may never give them an anxious moment: that
they may be their pride in life; their stay in death: so that in after-years
they may have the memory of death-bed blessings, and may have nothing to
regret! A [godly] parent’s dying blessing is a richer
legacy than gold or lands.
3. JOSEPH’S THIRD AND
LAST VISIT - Once
more Joseph visited that death-chamber.
This was the third time and the last.
But this time he stood only as one of twelve strong, bearded men, who
gathered around the aged form of their father, his face shadowed by death, his
spirit aglow with the light of prophecy.
How intense the awe with which they heard their names called, one by
one, by the old man’s trembling voice, now pausing for breath, now speaking
with great difficulty! The character of
each is criticized with prophetic insight; the salient points of their past
history are vividly brought to mind; and some fore-shadowing is given them of
their future.
This scene is an anticipation of the Judgment-seat: where men
shall hear the story of their lives passed under review; and a sentence passed,
against which there shall be no appeal.
But the dying patriarch speaks with peculiar sweetness
and grace, when he comes to touch on the destiny of his favourite son. His words brim with tenderness, and move with
a stateliness and eloquence, which indicate how his heart was stirred to its
depths. This was his swan-song, the
final outburst of the music of his soul, the last flash of that [Holy] Spirit
of Inspiration, which dwelt also in him.
What a glimpse is given to us into the depths of his soul, the secret
thoughts of fruitfulness, patience, and strength, and the far-reaching
conceptions of blessedness, which had been wrought out within him by the slow
process of years of sorrow and training!
A few more sentences to Benjamin, and
the venerable patriarch drew up his feet into his bed, and quietly breathed his
last, and was gathered unto his people. But that eager, much-tried spirit passed up and away into other scenes
of more exalted fellowship and ministry, with no pause in his life, for in after-years
God attested his continued existence and energy when He called Himself “the God
of Jacob”, for God is not God of the dead, but of the living. And Joseph fell upon his father’s face, and
wept upon him, and pressed his warm lips on the death-cold clay; and he
commanded the physicians to embalm his body, so cheating death of its immediate
victory.
* *
*
[Page 129]
13
THE SECRET OF FRUITFULNESS
(GENESIS 49: 22)
“Do I need here
To draw the lesson of this life: or say
More than these few words, following up the text:
The vine from every living limb bleeds wine,
Is it the poorer for that spirit shed?
Measure thy life by loss instead of gain;
Not by the wine drunk, but the wine poured forth;
For love’s strength standeth in love’s sacrifice;
And whoso suffers most hath most to give.”
- MRS. HAMILTON KING.
“A FRUITFUL bough by a well.” Often had the eyes of the dying man
been refreshed by such a spectacle greeting him amid wastes of sand - an oasis
in the desert. For hours the weary
caravan has been pressing on, parched tongues cleaving to the mouths, eyes
scorching in the head, the strength of the patient beasts and of the women and
children almost giving out. When, lo,
the monotony of desert is broken by a welcome sight! Over some grey crumbling
stones a vine reaches out its verdant and fruitful arms; and all press forward
with redoubled haste, knowing most surely that down beneath the rootlets must
be spreading themselves in dark, cool depths, where the longed-for water is
stored.
It will well repay us to go into the vinery, and talk with
some experienced vine-dresser of the growth of the vine, which had been a
familiar object with our blessed Lord from early [Page 130] boyhood, and led Him to select the
vine as the emblem of the union between Himself and those who believe. “I am the true Vine,” said He, the Vine of which all others
are parables and types. He might have
chosen the summer corn, or the olive, or the forest tree; but He chose the
vine, which clings, stretching out innumerable tendrils by which to hold and
climb.
“And as it grows it
is not free to heaven,
But tied unto a stake; and if its arms stretch out
It is but cross-wise, also forced and bound;
And so it draws out of the hard hill-side,
Fixed in its own place, its
own food of life.”
Visit the vine in the late autumn, when its treasures have
been torn from it. Whilst the land is
full of joy it stands stripped and desolate. Its sap sinks down to the root; its branches
are cut back to the stem; its very bark is peeled off; and it is left to the
nipping of the merciless frost. Nothing
more desolate and dismal can be conceived in plant-life than the death which
reigns supreme over the vine through the long, lone winter. And as we contrast the glory of the spring
with such desolation, we remember the words of Him who said, “Except a corn
of wheat fall into the ground and die, it
abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit”; and how, outcast and forsaken, He
hung upon the Cross, in what may well be said to have been the darkest, saddest
hour of winter through which earth ever passed.
But when the sun leads back the spring, the sap begins to flow
again; and beneath its impulse the branches start right and left from the long
bare stems, and presently, when there is sun, flowers and the promise of fruit
appear.
“The flower of the
vine is but a little thing,
The least part of its life. You scarce could tell
It ever had a flower; the fruit begins
Almost before the flower has had its day.”
[Page 131]
Sunshine is essential. Without it the vine bears “nothing but leaves” - leaves in profusion, but leaves
only. It is not enough for us to be connected by a living faith
to Jesus: we must hold fellowship with Him, sunning ourselves in his smile,
communing with Him, and surrendered to his companionship; so only can we hope
to bear something more than the leaves of a mere profession.
But though the vine needs sunshine, it must also have the darkness. During the night it is said to rest: it does not grow,
but it recuperates itself and prepares for the putting forth of fresh energy. During the day it consumes more sap than it
can draw up from the root; and during the dark hours of night it is
accumulating. stores on which to feed. And this may suggest why sometimes after periods of much activity the great Husbandman draws down the
blinds and plunges us into the black night of sorrow, or solitude, or
depression. We have been too prodigal of our resources, and need time in order
to recuperate our exhausted vigour, and to gather up stores for days to come.
The fruitfulness, however, of the vine largely depends on the
care with which it is pruned. There is no tree pruned so mercilessly and incessantly, first
with the sharp knife, and then with scissors. The Lord has many such implements. There is the golden pruning knife of his Word, by
which He would prune us if we would let Him (John 15: 3), so escaping the rougher and
more terrible discipline of the iron pruning knife of affliction. Our Lord uses the
knife, with its sharp clean strokes, which cut deep into our nature, and leave
scars which it will take years to heal, or even to conceal. And there are the scissors also
in his hand - cross events, daily circumstances which appear contrary to each
other, but which nevertheless work together in the end for good.
So great are the spring prunings that more branches are taken
out than left in; and the cuttings which litter the ground are said to be
utterly worthless and fit only for the fire. Apple and pear prunings are used in many ways,
such as supports [Page 132] for young and frail plants; but not
so these. And so there are many [fruitless] professors amongst us, who have
neither part nor lot with us, who must [for one day] be taken
away; just as there are many things in us all which need pruning out. What a comfort it is that the Vine-dresser
leaves the pruning to no ’prentice hand! The novice does anything but that. No hand but the most skilled may handle the
knife. “My Father is the husbandman.”
It is a recognized rule that no shoot should have more than
one bunch of grapes. All but that one are nipped off. And I
am told that the vine-dresser will obtain a greater weight of better grapes in
that one bunch, than he would by permitting two or three clusters to form. And so with merciless hand he picks off bunch
after bunch of unformed fruit and berry after berry from the reddening swelling
cluster. It is thus that we are
sometimes shut away from one after another of our chosen directions of
Christian activity: not that our Father would diminish our fruit-bearing, but
that the strength of our life may be saved from dissipation, and conducted by
one channel to a better and richer fruitage.
How many pruned ones may read these words! They are inclined to say that the Lord hath
dealt very bitterly with them. Husband
and sons buried in a distant land; poverty and want supreme in a deserted and
darkened home, only one left of all the merry circle of bygone years: and yet
out of all this shall come a golden harvest of blessing; and the one little
grandson pressed to the heart, and his line to David, the sweet Psalmist and
mighty king, shall be better than seven sons, and shall make the aged heart
young again. “No
chastisement for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless
afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which
are exercised thereby” (Ruth 4:
15; Heb. 12: 11).
It is very needful that the pruned branch should abide constantly
in the vine. “Abide in Him!”
(1 John 2: 28). This command was given first to little children. It was thus the beloved Apostle, whose head was
silvered with many winters, wrote to young men and fathers, in the tender
relationship of their [Page 133] father in the Gospel of Jesus. But there is a sense in which we too must become as little children, ere we can learn this
sweet lesson of abiding in Him.
The little child is not self-confident: it fears the untried
and unknown; it seeks the companionship of mother or friend; and it is willing
to be led. Oh for the child-heart, with
its simplicity and trust; its unbounded faith and lovely guilelessness! Many strong men may read these words who glory in their strength, but they must be converted, and
become as little children, if they would learn the secret of abiding in Him. When we are emptied of our own strength and self-confidence, and are
utterly beaten and broken, we shall be ready to obey this saintly counsel, which
is the echo of the Master’s own command – “Abide in Me!”
It is said of the great soldier Naaman that “his flesh came to him as the flesh of a little child.”
It was a splendid combination! The stalwart form of the man of war combined
with the soft, sweet flesh of childhood. And these qualities should blend in each of us
- strong and simple, manly and childlike; like David, the champion of
It is not easy to abide in Christ all at once. It is the growth of years; the result of perpetual
watching and self-discipline; the outcome of the blessed [Holy] Spirit’s tender influence on the inner
life. It is not at first
easy to get the creeper to entwine itself in some chosen direction. The string, and hammer, and knife, must be
used; but in time it is satisfied to adopt the new and forced attitude. And the clinging of the soul to Christ comes
as the result of prolonged habit and
self-discipline beneath the culture of the Spirit of God.
The Holy Spirit will teach us [how] to abide in Him. “The anointing which
ye have received of Him abideth in you”; and anointing [Page 134] is always used
as a symbol of the [Holy] Spirit’s grace. “And even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him.” This blessed art is taught by the Holy Spirit to those who are willing – eager - to learn. Never leave your room in the morning without
lifting up your heart to Him and saying, “Teach me, 0 blessed [Holy] Spirit, to abide in Christ for to-day: keep me in abiding fellowship with Him; even when I am not directly thinking of Him, may I be still
abiding.” Expect that He will do this. And when drifting from these moorings lift up
your heart and say, “0 my Lord, who art the Life and Light of men, give me more* of thy [Holy] Spirit, that I may better abide in Thee.”
Abiding in Christ does not mean that you must always be
thinking about Christ. You are in a house,
abiding in its enclosure or beneath its shelter, though you are not always
thinking about the house itself. But
you always know when you leave it [and when He leaves you!]*. A man may not be always thinking of his sweet home
circle; but he and they may nevertheless be abiding in each other’s love. And he knows instantly when any of them is in
danger of passing out of the warm tropic of love into the arctic region of
separation. So we may not always be
sensible of the revealed presence of Jesus; we may be occupied with many things
of necessary duty - but as soon as the heart is disengaged it will become aware
that He has been standing near all the while: and there will be a bright flash
of recognition, and a repetition of the Psalmist’s cry, “Thou art near,
0 Lord!” Ah, life of bliss, lived under the thought of His [indwelling] presence; as dwellers in Alpine
valleys live beneath the solemn splendour of some grand snow-capped range of
mountains!
[* See Jud.
16: 20. cf.
Matt. 25:
3; 26: 14, 69-74.]
Abiding in Christ means a life of converse with Him. To tell Him all; to talk over all [failures, weaknesses,] anxieties and occurrences with Him;
to speak with Him aloud as to a familiar and interested friend; to ask his
counsel or advice; to stop to praise, to adore, and utter words of love; to
draw heavily upon His resources, as the branch on the sap and life of the vine;
to be content to be only a channel, so long as His power and grace are ever
flowing through; to be only the bed of a stream hidden from view [Page 135] beneath the hurrying waters, speeding without pausing towards
the sea. This is abiding in Christ; this
is what David must have meant when he said, “One thing have I desired of the Lord,
that will I seek after,
that I may dwell in the house of the
Lord all the days of my life: to behold the
beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.”
When this abiding is secured, the root will supply all needed
power in fruit-bearing. Methinks I have overheard the branches
complaining that it is quite impossible to expect from them the ruddy clusters
of the autumn. “Alas!”
they sigh, “if you look for fruit from us, you are
expecting impossibilities: we can never produce it.” But they are not expected to produce it; they
have only to be still, and let the root pour its tides of sap through their
open ducts. And it will be discovered in
blessed experience that there need be no striving, no effort, no “must” in the matter; but
that spontaneously and naturally and easily the juices of the plant will break
forth into manifestation, and will swell into the luscious cluster of purple
grapes. The difficulty will not be in
bearing, but in not bearing. There is a whole heaven of difference
between fruit and works - the fruits of
the [Holy] Spirit, and the works of the flesh.
Oh that Christian people would learn that there is a great
danger in their putting forth their own self-directed energies in Christian
living; and that their true power consists in being still, while Jesus from his hidden life in heaven pours out through them his grace and power and blessing on the world.
This is the true cure for depression on the one hand, and for
pride on the other. For
depression: because however weak we are, our weakness cannot be a barrier to
the forth-putting of his might. Indeed, it will be the chosen condition of its
greatest manifestation; for surely more glory will accrue to Him, if He
produces much fruit through those from whom no such results could otherwise
have been anticipated. For pride:
because clearly the branch cannot exalt
itself as the creator of the fruit, when it has been simply the channel through which the fruit has
been produced.
[Page 136]
The whole life of the vine with its fruitful boughs is a
parable of self-sacrifice. The one aim of its existence is to bear fruit, “to cheer God
and man.” Not even rule over the trees is to be compared
with this (Judges
9: 13). And the passion which fills the heart of Jesus, and of us also, if we have drunk into his spirit, is
to bear fruit for the glory of the Father, in the blessing and salvation of
men. Our Lord is set on revealing to men
those hidden beauties of the nature of God, with which He has been familiar
from before the birth of time; and He communicates this desire to his true
disciples (John 15: 8).
It is clear, therefore, that our pleasure and plans and
personal gains must all be laid aside in order that this purpose may be
secured. It was said by James Hinton,
who had seen deeply into the heart of Christ, “If God
could give us the best and greatest gift, that which above all others we might long
for and aspire after, even though in despair, it is this - that He must give us
the privilege He gave his Son, to be used and sacrificed for
the best and greatest end.” But how few of us have really entered into the
spirit of this thought! We seek our
life; we hedge ourselves about; we are ambitious to get a brief power; we give
to others what we can easily spare. And so we lose from our lives their joy and power. But if we could but learn to efface ourselves
in daily, hourly self-sacrifice, always considering what Jesus desires to do by
us, and what will best promote the highest welfare of earth’s weary and toiling
myriads, then our joy would be full; we should live at the well-head of life;
we should climb with elastic steps those higher levels of [spiritual] experience, where men may see the
pavement of sapphire stones and the clearness of the light of heaven.
* * *
[Page 137]
14
THE SECRET OF STRENGTH
(GENESIS 49: 24)
“My faith looks up to claim that touch divine
Which robs me of this fatal strength of mine,
And leaves me wholly resting, Lord, on thine.
“Yea,
make me such an one as Thou canst bless;
Meet for thy use, through very helplessness –
Thine, only thine, the
glory of success.”
- LUCY A. BENNETT.
As the
battle swept over the fatal field of
Is it not marvellous then that he should be able to add, “but his bow abode in
strength”? It is one of those strange paradoxes, of which
there are so many instances in Scripture. Here are some of them: “The lame
take the prey”; “When I am weak,
then I am strong”;
“God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.” These [Page 138] are specimens of many
more, in which the natural weakness and
impotence of the mortal is nevertheless made sufficient to withstand the onsets
of the foe, and hurl them back, becoming more than victorious.
Has not this been also proved true in our own experience? We too are weak enough, sorely pressed by our
foes, and sometimes almost driven to despair. And yet we have continued until now; nay, we
have been [allowed and] enabled to abide in some measure of
strength. The foe has not prevailed. At the moment when he seemed on the point of
victory, he has suddenly been compelled to give way; his legions have been
scattered as by the invisible, but [by the] irresistible breath of God. The fire has burned under water. One has chased a thousand; and two have put
ten thousand to flight.
The secret it not a hidden one. It is clearly revealed in the following words,
which tell us that
“The arms
of his hands were made strong By the hands of the
mighty God of Jacob.”
It is a beautiful picture. There stands the weak child in whose slender
arms there are no muscles strong enough to draw the string or bend the bow,
which he vainly tries to use. They
resist his utmost endeavours. Evidently
he has neither might nor strength.
But now see, on his weak hands there are laid other hands,
mighty hands, hands that wove the tapestry of the heavens, and that hold in
their hollows the depths of the seas: one of these is placed where the left
hand holds the bow; the other where the right hand plucks the string. And now with what ease those thin hands wield
the bow; it is a plaything in their grasp; and without apparent strain the
arrow flies to its mark. Is not this
what David meant in after-days, when he sang,
“He teacheth my hands to war
So that a bow of steel is broken
By mine arms”?
[Page 139]
There is another Old Testament incident, which gives a vivid
illustration and enforcement of these striking words. Elisha was near his end. His had been a mighty life. Like a war-chariot with its fiery steeds he
had brought deliverance to his fatherland. What wonder then, in that sad time when
disasters were falling thick and fast on
“Take bow and arrows,” said he. “And the king took unto him bow and
arrows.” Then as the king put his strong muscular sun-browned
hands on the bow, the old man put his above them, and the two shot the arrow of
the Lord’s deliverance through the window opened toward the sun-rising, where
beyond the
Perhaps this touching incident would have better illustrated
the words of Jacob, if the chill hands of the dying prophet had been under the
warm powerful palms of the king. But
still the main point is to notice the combination; and to see how weakness
becomes able for deeds of strength, when it permits itself to be moulded,
guided, wielded, used, by the hands of a mighty man of
valour.
The Apostle, who was the most like Christ, and the best loved,
tells us a secret when he says, “Our fellowship is with the Father, and with
his Son, Jesus Christ.” And the word
rendered fellowship might be
translated partnership; the common
interests into which the saintly heart may enter with the mighty God.
Ah, what a combination
is here! We cannot; but He can! Our weakness supplemented by His Strength! Our impotence married in immortal union with
his Omnipotence. Here, indeed, is a
compensating balance. The less there is of us, and the feebler
our condition, the greater scope is there for the forth-putting of a Might
before which cables snap as stalks of straw; and by which opposition [to HIM and the TRUTH of His Word] is swept away as the cobweb swung across the garden path is caught on the
dress of [Page 140] the impetuous child rushing along in an ecstasy of exuberant life.
The old legend tells us that Ulysses, returning home after
long years, proved his identity by bending a bow which had defied the efforts
of the stoutest heroes who had tried it in his absence. There are a good many of these defiant bows lying all around us. Tasks that deride our puny
efforts; empty churches that will not
fill; wicked neighbourhoods that will not yield; hardened soils that will not
admit the ploughshare to cut into their crust. The one thing of which we need to assure
ourselves is - whether it be God’s will for us to take them in hand: if not, it is
useless to attempt the task; we may as well husband and reserve our strength.
But if it is made clear to us that we
are to take up armour, methods, instrumentalities, once wielded by giant-hands, but now as unbefitting these poorer times
as the armour of the age of chivalry mocks at the smaller make of modern
warriors - let us not hesitate for a single moment, let us assume the armour of
defence and the weapons of attack; and, as we do so, we shall become aware of a
strength being infused into us - not ours, but His: “the arms of our hands will be made strong by the
hands of the mighty God of Jacob.”
The condition of this strength is our consciousness of [our] utter weakness. We are too strong for God. Our self-confidence
shuts Him out of our lives. We require
to be taken down to Gideon’s brook, that we may be reduced to the minimum of our own energy, and be filled to the maximum
of his. It was this that made Paul glory
in his infirmities, where other men would have thought their infirmities debarred
them from Christian usefulness. He
accounted that they were the greater reason for anticipating success. Tell him that his words lacked eloquence, or that his appearance was unprepossessing, or that his thorn in the flesh made him a
cripple in Christ’s army - he would have answered, “I rejoice in them all - nay, I glory in them. All hail, ye blessed arguments for self-abasement,
and for reckoning more completely on the mighty power of Christ!”
[Page 141]
Do no longer assume that you cannot bend the bow of difficulty
lying at your feet. You cannot do it alone; but God and you can do it together.
Only do not try to feel able to do it
before you take it up. You will never
feel strong enough; but when you take it in hand and try to bend it, you will
discover that as your day so is your strength. In the act of getting up, the paralysed man
received strength to stand. Act as if
you had omnipotent power; and you will discover that you have it allied with
you, and working through you, to the accomplishment of purposes of which you
had not dared to dream in the wildest flights of fancy.
“All power,” said our Lord, “is given to Me in heaven and on earth: go ye therefore, and teach.” And it is added, with blessed
emphasis, by another evangelist, and in beautiful corroboration of the spirit
of these words, “They went forth
and preached everywhere; the Lord working with them, and confirming the Word with signs following.” This was no extraordinary circumstance; it is simply the normal state of those who have yielded themselves up as
channels for the mighty God to work through their lives.
A telegraph wire may as easily carry the power generated by a
* *
*
[Page 144]
15
THE SECRET OF
BLESSEDNESS
(GENESIS 49: 25, 26)
“He always wins who sides with God - to him no chance is
lost;
God’s will is
sweetest to him, when it triumphs at his cost.
Ill that He blesses
is our good, and unblest good our ill;
And all is
right that seems most wrong, if it be His sweet will.”
- F. W. FABER.
Unto
what a rapture did the old man rise when describing
the blessedness of his favourite son. Indeed
his language failed him. His words staggered
beneath the weight of meaning with which he charged them. Reverting to the
blessings which his progenitors had invoked on their first-born sons, and
recalling the memorable words which in that strange moment of mingled emotion
the patriarch Isaac had uttered years before over his own bowed head, he
declared that his blessings prevailed above the blessings of all who had
preceded him. And then, as old men will,
he travelled away from the flat sand plains of Egypt, unbroken by mound or
hill, to the mountainous country of his earliest years, and avowed that his
desire for the blessedness of Joseph reared itself above all other, as the
everlasting hills tower up above the plains lying outspread at their feet.
But even though he had gone on to heap metaphor on metaphor,
hyperbole on hyperbole, he could have given but vague hints of that weight of
glory and [first-born]
blessedness which are
ours in Him of whom Joseph was an imperfect representative and type. Yea, even the multiplied Beatitudes of Deut. 28. do but
furnish the barest outlines for us to fill in with colours borrowed from the
palettes of the Gospels and Epistles. The [Page 143] last glimpse
that the Apostolic band caught of the ascending Lord
was with the outspread hands of blessing. So He left us: so He continues through the
ages. He still sits on the Mount,
calling his disciples unto Him, and saying “Blessed.”
And in the Apocalypse there are several
additional Beatitudes recorded, part of a great multitude which no man can
number, ever proceeding from his dear lips.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ.”
THE BLESSINGS OF DAILY HELP. – “The God of thy father shall help thee.” The earthly father must die; but the Heavenly
Father abides as a very present and unfailing help. In every emergency we may hear His still small
voice hushing our fear, and saying -
“Fear thou not; for I
am with thee:
I the Lord thy
God will hold thy right hand,
Saying unto
thee, Fear not, I will help thee.”
Well then may we join with one sacred writer in boldly saying,
“The
Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man
shall do unto me”;
and with the Apostle, who more than most had learnt to lean hard on God’s
helpfulness, “Having, therefore, obtained help of God, I continue unto this day.”
God’s help does not, for the most part, come miraculously or
obviously. It steals as gradually into
our life as the grass of spring clothes the hills with fresh and verdant robes.
Before men can say, “Lo, here! or lo, there!” it has suddenly entered into our need
and met it. A smile, a flower, a letter,
a burst of music, the picture of a bit of mountain scenery, a book, the coming
of a friend - such are the ways in which God comes to our help. Not helping us far in advance, but just for
one moment at a time. Not giving us a store of strength to make us proud, but supplying our
need as the occasion comes. [Page 144] Sometimes the Almighty helps us by
putting his wisdom and strength and grace into our hearts; sometimes by
manipulating circumstances in our behalf; and sometimes by inclining friends or
foes to do the very thing we need. But
it matters little as to the channel - only let us rest confidently in the
certainty of receiving what we need. It may be delayed to the last moment; but it will come. “God shall help when the morning
appeareth” (Ps. 46: 5, marg.). If the last post has come in
without bringing the expected assistance, then wait up and expect a special messenger. “There is none like unto the God of
Jeshurun, who rideth
upon the heaven in thy help, and in his excellency on the sky.”
When the godly man ceaseth and the faithful fail, there is no
cry that so befits our lips as the brief ejaculation with which the Psalmist
commences Psalm
12.; and this is the response attested by
old experience, and by the spirit of inspiration: “The God of
thy father shall help thee.”
THE BLESSINGS OF HEAVEN ABOVE. - All that God is and has He has
deposited in our blessed Lord Jesus, as the Trustee and Representative of his
own. “It was the good pleasure of the
Father that in Him should all the fulness dwell.” And thus it is gloriously true, that “in Him
dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily; and in Him ye are made full.” (
This fulness of heavenly blessing is laid up for us in Jesus,
as water is stored in Eastern countries for use through the long drought. The only difference being that in the latter
case the sun may dry up, or the dam break, or the
demand be too great for the supply. But
in the case of Christ, the stores of grace have never ceased to brim. In spite of all the demands made on Him by
ages of needy saints He is as full at this hour as ever. The sun may shine less brilliantly; the moon
grow withered through the ages; the course of Nature waste more quickly than
the reparative processes can renew - but the stores of Jesus are absolutely as
they were when, in the first flush of [Page 145] his Ascension glory, He sat down at
the right hand of the throne of God. “They shall
perish; but Thou continuest: and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; and as a mantle shalt Thou roll them up - as a garment - and they shall
be changed: but Thou art the same, and Thy years shall not fail” (R.V.).
The difference that exists between believers lies, not in any
arbitrary distinction in the Divine allotment, for God gives to each one of us
all that He has and is; and to each He says, “All that I have is thine.” But the difference lies in the use which each makes of his divine portion. It is as if a wealthy father were
to bequeath to each of his five sons the sum of £10,000. One of them is unable to believe that so great
a sum stands to his name in the bank, and so makes no use of it at all; leads a pauper’s life, and dies in an almshouse.
Others have faith enough to believe that there may be £1,000 to their credit,
and work up to that limit, thankful for so much, but fearing to go beyond. Whilst
the fifth, and youngest, believes that the father has not promised what he could not perform, and so goes on claiming
more and ever more, till his whole patrimony has been absorbed; and then he
discovers that a proviso in his father’s will also permits him to use all the
unemployed sums which had stood in his brother’s names, but which they had
forborne to use. “Take the
talent from him, and give it unto him which hath
ten talents. For unto every one that hath shall be given; and he shall have abundance.” The same unsearchable riches are for each and
all: but some do not use their rightful portion; others only in part; and the number is comparatively
small of those who really dip deeply into the perennial all-sufficiency of
Jesus.
It is the work of the Holy Spirit to convey these heavenly
blessings into the soul. From his throne
our Master is ever sending fleets of heavy-laden argosies
to us beneath the convoy and guidance of the Holy Spirit, who glorifies Christ
in revealing what He is, and making us the happy recipients of grace on grace.
What blessedness might be ours if
only we opened all the [Page 146] ports of our being to the heavenly merchantmen bearing in to us from all
the winds of heaven! It would be in
the inner realm, as it is said to have been in
We are to be in this world as our Master was: we are to have a
similar access to the throne of grace, and the same power in prayer; to share
his joy, his peace, his power; to be the members of the body through which He
works, and on which He expends tender care in nourishing and cherishing it; to
be called his friends, to whom He confides those secret things which his Father
makes known to Him. We are to be so
filled with all the fulness of God; so strong, and healthy, and robust, that
there shall not be “one feeble person” in all the host, but that “the feeble shall be as David, and the
house of David as God, as the angel of the Lord
before them.” All this is God’s intention for us, and might
be ours if only we would arise to claim by faith that which is
ours by the gift of our Heavenly Father, and the purchase of the precious
blood.
THE BLESSINGS OF THE UNDERLYING DEEP. - In all likelihood these words refer
to some kind of thought that underneath the surface of the earth there lie vast
deeps of water which supply “the brooks of water, of fountains, and depths that spring out
of valleys and hills.”
There is physical truth in this; and, above all,
spiritual truth. For the
depths have also blessings for us. The
deep things of God, which pass the comprehension of the natural man: which eye
hath not seen, no ear heard. nor the heart conceived;
but which God hath prepared for them that wait for Him, and revealed to them that love Him - what deeps are these! The deep of his Eternal
prescience and counsel. The deep
of his covenant, spanning with rainbow are the dark mystery of evil, and
ordered in all things and sure. The deep
[Page 147] of a love which would descend to shame and agony; willing
rather to bear our sin than to lose us. The deep of his marvellous patience, which tires not amid our
fretful petulance and frequent backslidings. Ah, what deeps are these! Deep calls unto deep, as wave challenges wave;
and the Atlantic calls across the
THE BLESSINGS OF CH1LDREN.- The Eastern glories in the number of his children. “Blessed is the man that hath his
quiver full of them,” is the glad response to the primal command, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish
the earth.” Nor was there any need to dread the
multiplication of children in a land where shepherds were needed for flocks,
and high-born maidens did not shrink from what we should call menial work. And then there were abundant spaces on the
rolling pasture-lands, or on the lone hillsides, for the vast expansion of the
arts of life; and for husbandry and tillage. Under such circumstances children were indeed
welcome for the defence and aggrandisement of family life; and such thoughts
must have been in the heart of the dying man.
And there is a sense in which we may say that God has no
higher blessing to give than to allow us to look on many spiritual children. To be greeted as the instrument of the
salvation of many who but for us had never known Christ and his salvation; to
anticipate the moment of standing with them before God, saying, “Behold, I and
the children whom the [Page 148] Lord hath given me”; to think of the ever-widening circles of influence which
must spread from any one soul truly born for our Redeemer: is there under the
sun a purer joy than this? But this
blessing is within our reach, through the grace of God.
We must never forget, however, the condition on which all these blessings depend. “They shall be on the crown of
the head of him that was separate from his brethren.” We must not expect that we can have these choice blessings
from God, unless we devote ourselves exclusively to Him and to his service. He gives his prizes, as the world gives its,
to those who devote themselves wholly to their pursuit. Joseph
was not only separated from his brethren and father by the distance which lay
between
We, too, must come out and be
separate; not adopting any particular style of dress, but cultivating the inner
temple, which confesses that its true home lies beyond the stars; that its aim
is to do the will of God, and that its loftiest ambition is to have
the smile of the Master’s glad “Well done!”
And when once the will has assumed
this position, surrendering many things for the one thing
- not only is there a great peace in the heart, but there is a growing appreciation of the blessings
which we have so inadequately portrayed. They seem to bulk more largely on the vision;
to become more real, and precious, and satisfactory; until they engross the
soul with their rapturous fascination into
an even greater separation from the passing shows of time. These two tempers act and re-act. On the one side we choose the blessedness of
the separated life, [Page 149] because God bids us: and on the
other, the more we know of it, the more
we are weaned away from the delights with which the world attracts its votaries;
and we say with the Psalmist, “Lord, my heart is
not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty; neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me. Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child.”
* * *
[Page 150]
16
JOSEPH’S LAST DAYS AND DEATH
(GENESIS 50: 24, 25)
“Twilight and
evening bell,
And after that the dark;
And may there be no sadness of farewell
When I embark.
“For when from out
our bourne of time and place,
The flood shall bear me
far,
I hope to see my Pilot face
to face,
When I have crossed the bar.”
- TENNYSON.
“God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence.” These were the dying words of Joseph. And it is somewhat remarkable that these are
the only words in his whole career which are referred to in the subsequent
pages of the Scriptures. His life was a
noble one, and, with one exception, the most fascinating in the sacred record;
but this last dying speech is singled out from all the rest for special notice
of the Holy Ghost. Of course, I refer to
those words in Heb. 11., where it is said, “By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of
the exodus of the children of
Let us notice:
1. - THE CIRCUMSTANCES
UNDER WHICH THESE WORDS WERE SPOKEN. Joseph was now an old man. One hundred and ten years had stolen away his strength,
and left deep marks upon his form. It was three and ninety years since he had
been lifted [Page 151] from the pit to become a slave. Eighty years had passed since he had first
stood before Pharaoh in all the beauty and wisdom of his young manhood. And sixty years had left their papyrus records
in the State archives, since, with all the pomp and splendour of
But the shadows of his own decay were small compared with
those which he saw gathering around his beloved people. Sixty years before, when Jacob gathered up his feet
upon his bed and died, his favourite son was in the zenith of his glory. The days of mourning for the patriarch, just
because he was Joseph’s father, were only two less in number than those of a
king. There was no difficulty in obtaining
from Pharaoh the necessary permission to go three hundred miles to intern the
remains beside those of Abraham and Sarah, of Isaac and Rebekah, and of Leah.
And, indeed, that funeral procession must have been of a sort
not often seen. There was not only the
family of
But sixty years had brought great changes of which there is
evidence in the text. When Jacob died
all was bright; and he was honoured with a splendid funeral, because he had
given to the land of Egypt so great a benefactor and saviour in the person of
his son; but when Joseph died, all was getting dark, and the shadow of a great
eclipse was gathering over the [Page 152] destinies of his people. No notice seems to have been taken in
Three hundred years before, the great founder of the nation
had watched all day beside an altar, scaring away the vultures which, attracted
by the flesh that lay upon it, hovered around. At length, as the sun went down, the watcher
fell asleep - it is hard to watch with God - and in his sleep he dreamt. A dense and awful gloom seemed to enclose him,
and to oppress his soul, and on it, as upon a curtain, passed successive glimpses
of the future of his race - glimpses which a Divine voice interpreted to his
ear. He saw them exiled to a foreign
country, enslaved by the foreigner, and lingering there whilst three
generations of men bloomed as spring flowers, and were cut down before the keen
sickle of death. And as he beheld all
the terror of that enslavement, the horror of a great darkness fell upon his
soul. We know how exactly that horror
was justified by the events which were so soon to take place. “The Egyptians made the children of
Israel to serve with rigour: and they made their
lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar, and in brick, and in all
manner of service in the field, all their
service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour.” The first symptoms of
that outburst of popular “Jew-hate” were already, like stormy petrels,
settling about the closing hour of the great Egyptian premier.
We cannot tell the precise form of those symptoms. Perhaps he had been banished from the councils
of Pharaoh; perhaps he was already pining in neglect; perhaps the murmurs of
dislike against his people were already rising, just as the roar [Page 153] of the breakers against a harbour-bar tells how the mighty ocean is
arousing itself to frenzy; perhaps acts of oppression and cruelty were
increasingly rife, and increasingly difficult to bring to justice. In any case, the twilight of the dark night
was gathering in; and it was this which made his words
more splendid: they shone out as stars of hope.
Moreover, his brethren were around him. His forgiveness and love to them lasted till the
testing-hour by that great assayer, Death. Nor did they fail. From
something narrated in the previous verses of this chapter, it would appear
that, for long, his brethren, judging of him by their own dark and implacable
hearts, could not believe in the sincerity and genuineness of his forgiveness. They thought that he must be feigning more
than he felt, in order to secure some ulterior object, such as the blessing and
approval of their old father. And so
they feared that, as soon as Jacob was removed, Joseph’s just resentment, long
concealed with masterly art, would break forth against them. It seemed impossible to believe that he felt
no grudge, and would take no action at all with reference to the past; and they
said, “Joseph will certainly requite us all the evil which we did
unto him.” And Joseph wept when they spake; wept that
they should have so misunderstood him after his repeated assurances; wept to
see them kneeling at his feet for a forgiveness which he had freely given them
years before.
“Fear not,” said he in effect; “do not kneel there; I am not God: ye thought evil
against me; but God meant it for good, to save much people alive, as
it is this day.”
This forgiveness might well be wonderful to these men; because
it was not of this world at
all. The Lord Jesus, who lighteth every man
coming into the world, was in Joseph’s heart, though less clearly in Joseph’s
creed; and his behaviour was a foreshadowing of Incarnate Love.
Reader! He waits to forgive thee thus. Though thou
hast maligned, and refused, and crucified Him afresh, and put Him to an open
shame; yet, for all that, He waits to forgive thee so entirely, that not one of
these things shall be ever mentioned against thee again; yea, [Page 154] if they are looked for, they shall never be found, any more than a stone
can be found which has been cast into the bosom of the Atlantic waves. Oh, give Christ credit for his free
and entire forgiveness! And
remember that when once He forgives, it is unnecessary and distrustful to go to
Him again about the same sin. He cannot
forgive the same sin twice; and when once He has pronounced the Words of
Absolution over a kneeling penitent, that penitent need never go to Him, as did
the brethren of Joseph, and say, Forgive, I pray thee, my trespass and my sin,
concerning which, Thou knowest, I came to thee with tears and sighs so many
years ago.
It is said of the love of the Lord
Jesus that, having loved his own, which were in the world, He loved them unto
the end; or, as the margin of the Revised Version puts it, “to the
uttermost.” He is able to save to the uttermost, because
He loves to the uttermost. So was it
with the love of Joseph; it had outlived the frosts of the early spring, and it
bore fruit and looked fresh now in the late autumn of his last days. Oh that we might love and forgive like this! It is possible on one condition only - viz., that we open our hearts for the entrance and indwelling of Him who, so long before his incarnation, had already found a home beneath the
doublet of this great Egyptian statesman.
Lastly, he was dying. He had warded off death from
It was under all these circumstances that Joseph said, “God will surely visit you; and ye shall carry up my bones from hence.”
2. LET US INVESTIGATE
THE FULL IMPORTANCE OF THESE WORDS. And we may do so best
by comparing them with Jacob’s dying wish: “Bury me with my fathers in the cave
that is in the field of Machpelah.” This was most natural:
we all love to be buried by the beloved dust of our departed. And Jacob knew that there would be no great
difficulty in carrying out his wish. Joseph
was then in the plenitude of his power. There
was no great faith therefore in asking for that which could so easily be
accomplished. But with Joseph it was
different. He too wanted to be buried in
the
To Joseph’s natural vision these
things were most unlikely. When he spoke,
Again was that promise reiterated to Jacob
as he lay at the foot of the shining ladder, “The land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed.” These [divine] promises had been carefully treasured and handed on, as in the old Greek race they handed
on the burning torch. Jacob on his
death-bed reassured Joseph that God would certainly bring them to the land of their
fathers; and now Joseph re-animated the trembling company that gathered around
him with the self-same hope. In the
memories of all these men the word spoken two hundred years before rang like a
peal of silver bells in a moss-grown tower. “They shall come hither again” (Gen. 15: 16). Joseph could not trace the method of the
Divine workmanship: it was enough for him to know that God had said, “They shall come hither again.” And so he commanded that his bones should be
unburied, so that at any moment, however hurried, when the trumpet of exodus
sounded, they might be ready to be caught up and borne onward in the glad march
for
What a lesson must those unburied bones have read to
We have no unburied bones to animate our faith,
or to revive our drooping zeal; but we have something better - we have an empty grave. Oh, what volumes does that mutely tell us! When John the Baptist died, his disciples
dispersed; when Jesus died, his disciples not only clung together, but sprang up into
an altogether new vigour. And well they might!
And the difference was made by that
empty grave in the garden of Joseph of Arimathaea. And what it did for them it will do for us. It tells us that He is risen.
It tells us that not death, but life, is to be the guardian angel of our desert
march. It tells us that this [evil] world is not our resting place or
home; but that we must seek these above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand
of God. It tells us that resurrection is
not possible only, but certain; and that ere long we [hope we] shall be where He is [going to be]*. He will go with us along the desert pathway,
till we go to be with Him, where the shadow of death is never flung over
flower, or child, or friend.
[* See Rev. 2: 25-29; 3: 11-13, 21-22; Rev. 20: 4-6. cf. Lk. 20: 35, 36; 22: 28-30; Phil. 3: 11; Heb. 11: 35b.]
3. LET US REALIZE THE
SPIRIT THAT UNDERLAY AND PROMPTED THESE WORDS. It was above all a pilgrim spirit. Joseph bore an Egyptian title. He married an Egyptian wife. He shared in Egyptian court-life, politics,
and trade. But he was as much a pilgrim
as was Abraham pitching his tent outside the walls of
* Maclaren’s Sermons; second series, p. 139.
[Page 158]
We sometimes speak as if the pilgrim-spirit
were impossible for us who live in this settled state of civilization. Our
houses are too substantial; our lives too unromantic; our movements too closely
tethered to one narrow round. But if that thought should ever cross our hearts again, let us turn
to the life of Joseph, and remind ourselves how evidently he was animated by
the [prophetic] spirit of those “who confessed that they were
pilgrims and strangers on the earth.” Ah, friends, what are we living for? Are our pursuits bounded by the narrow horizon
of earth, and limited to the fleeting moments of time? Are we constantly engaged in
lining as warmly as possible the nest in which we hope to spend our old age and
die? Are we perpetually seeking to make
the best of this world? I fear me, that
these are the real aims of many professing Christians; and, if so, it is simply
useless for them to claim kinship with that mighty stream of pilgrims, which is constantly pouring through
the earth, bound to the city which hath foundations, their true home and
mother-city. On the other hand, it is quite conceivable
that you may be at the head of a large establishment, engaged in man permanent
undertakings, closely attached to the present by imperious duties; and yet, like Joseph, your heart may be detached from things seen and
temporal, and engaged, in all its secret longings, to the things unseen [millennial]
and eternal.
The pilgrim-spirit will not make us impractical. Joseph was the most practical man in his time. Who are likely to be as prompt, as energetic,
as thorough, as those who feel that they are working for eternity, and that they are building up day by day a fabric in which they shall live hereafter? Each day is character-building for better or
for worse: each deed, well or ill done, is a stone in the edifice; each moment
tells on [what will be here and in] eternity. We shall receive a reward according to our deeds.
But the pilgrim-spirit will make us simple. There are two sorts of simplicity: that of
circumstances; and that of heart. Many a
man sits down to bread and milk at a wooden table, with a heart as proud as
pride can make it: whilst many [Page 159] another who eats off a golden plate is as simple as Cincinnatus at his plough. The world cannot understand this. But here in Joseph is an illustration. Ah, my friend, it is not the un-jewelled
finger, nor the plain attire, nor the unfurnished room, that
constitutes a simple unaffected life: but that vision of the spirit, which
looks through the unsubstantial wreath-vapours of the morning to the peaks of
the everlasting hills beyond and above.
What a contrast there is between the opening and closing words
of Genesis! Listen to the opening words: “In the
beginning, God.” Listen to the closing words, “A coffin in
[* NOTE.
God speaks of what is to be in the future, as though it is
established TODAY! Only God can and
will do this, for only He has the power to bring it to pass IN
HIS APPOINTED TIME. “He giveth power to the faint;
and to him that hath no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall
faint and be weary, and the young men shall
utterly fall: but they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength:
they shall mount up” (in the
Resurrection) “with wings as eagles; they
shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not
faint:” (Isa.
29-31,
R.V.). Again: “Remember
me, O
LORD, with the favour that thou bearest unto thy people: O visit me with thy
salvation; that I may see the prosperity of thy chosen, that I
may rejoice in the gladness of thy nation, that I may glory with THINE
inheritance” (Psa. 106: 4, 5, R.V. cf. Psa. 2: 8. 9; Rev. 2: 26.).]
THE END