Joseph - Separate From His Brethren

by David Smith, Ayr, Scotland | Category: General | Jun 1987

Of all the Old Testament prophets and saints who typified the life and character of the coming Christ, none portrayed His suffering and glory more vividly or with more moving passion than did Joseph. He was the elder of the two sons born to Jacob of Rachael and was loved by him more than all his children "because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours" (Gen. 37:3). Jacob rightly discerned that God was dealing with Joseph in a very special way, and so in retrospect did Moses when he blessed the children of Israel before his death saying, "Let the blessing come upon the head of Joseph, and upon the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren" (Deut. 33:16).

Joseph from the beginning was separated from his brethren by three principal factors, factors which form an obvious parallel with the life of the One whom God the Father sanctified and sent into the world, and through whom all the eternal purposes of God will yet have fulfilment.

Loved Of His Father

Love is a profound and inexplicable characteristic of life which originates with God who is love (1 John 4:8) and runs through all human and animal creation. Although universally evident, it remains a mystery, and the course of its flow unaccountable. In the Scriptures we are given clear instructions as to how our love should be fostered and directed, including the need for parents to show an impartial attitude towards their children. No doubt Jacob was conscious of this need in his family, but natural affection demanded an exceptional place in his love for "the child of his old age". Thus Joseph was given a unique place in his father's affection and one which changing circumstances were never to alter. Neither Joseph's absence and suffering nor his exaltation in Egypt would ever impair Jacob's tender attachment to him.

Yet how indistinct is this ancient shadow of a father's love for his son, when contrasted with the love that has ever existed and ever will exist between God the Father and the Son of His love (Col. 1:13). No human mind can penetrate to measure or explore the deep and intimate relationship of infinite love that binds the Son to the Father. He knew that love before He came to this world and revealed its import when He said "the Father loveth the Son" (John 5:20); "Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world" (John 17:24). He loved the Son with a permanent and unchanging love before this vast universe was ever arranged. He loved Him with all the capability of deity, and that love found its full complement when the Son in effect responded to the divine appeal saying "Here am I send Me". Whether He was lying in the manger at Bethlehem or sitting at meat with publicans and sinners, that sacred relationship was not one fraction impaired, but rather enhanced by His response and enriched by His submission to the Father's will. He who dwells in the bosom of the Father (John 1:18) and occupies that unique place for ever, a place which no created being, even though an archangel, could ever usurp, was found resting in the deserts of Galilee. That is surely sufficient to bestir our love for Him and our wonder at His condescending grace. He arose to the call of His Father, who morning by morning wakened His ear to hear that He should know how to sustain with words him that was weary (Is. 50:4).

Neither circumstances nor surroundings could ever affect the love which eternally exists between Father and Son. Even the awful sufferings of Calvary could not diminish the affection of the Godhead, the sublime value of which He endorsed when He said "Father into Thy hands I commend My Spirit" (Luke 23:46).

Instrument of Divine Purpose

Purpose must always remain abstract unless implemented by divine or human energy. And the great purposes of God, conceived in the deep and undivided counsels of deity are no exception. Divine policy requires men chosen and fitted of God to serve Him and carry out His will. Such a man was Joseph, whom the Lord had prepared for something more than the mundane duties of life. When Jacob "sent him out of the vale of Hebron" God's hand was moving him on his way to Egypt, and He would use the Ishmaelites to bring him there. As the lonely youth stared at the walls of the dark dungeon, he saw in a very special sense "Him who is invisible". When he watched Potiphar barter with the Midianites who sold him for a servant, he knew the Lord was with him. But what he did not know was that the Lord in calling far a famine in the land of Caanan, was sending a man into Egypt before His people to save life (Ps. 105:16,17). Joseph was the one the Lord was sending, although "his feet they hurt with fetters; he was laid in chains of iron". Yet as governor of Egypt he would provide bread for the Lord's people in time of famine. The sent one of God was to meet their every need and to implement the divine purpose of preservation, "God did send me before you to preserve life ... to preserve you a remnant in the earth" (Gen. 45:5,7).

How beautifully the details of Joseph's life, from his father's side, through pit and prison to the throne of Egypt, reflect the glory of Him whom the Father sent to save the world and to implement all divine purpose, who "endured the cross, despising shame, and hath sat down at the right hand of the throne of God" (Heb. 12:2). He could say, "the Father hath sent Me", and like Joseph, "He that sent Me is with Me". What that must have meant to Him, as the lovely lonely Man sojourned in this desert world, as day by day He faced the hostility of the human heart, often perverted by feigned religious devotion. He beheld the ravages of sin and suffering, as night after night He resorted to the mountains to pray. In all His varied experience the presence of the Father meant everything to Him whose meat was to do the will of the One who had sent Him and to accomplish His work (John 4:34).

We live in a day of great innovation and achievement, yet nothing of any age can ever eclipse or reduce in significance the stupendous work which the Lord Jesus Christ undertook and accomplished when He put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Having reconciled all things to God through the blood of His cross He now sits exalted on heaven's throne, "angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto Him" (1 Pet. 3:22).

Hated of His Brethren

Nothing in this life is so alienating, whether among brethren or among nations of men, as the hatred of the human heart. If that fleshly evil which the scripture calls enmity (Gal. 5:20) is allowed to influence our lives it may develop into a paralysing malady, subjecting innocent people to fear and isolation. The evidence of this is clearly seen in the attitude of Jacob's sons

to Joseph. Their conspiracy against him (Gen. 37:18) was the product of an inward aversion, unjustified and without any tinge of love.

The proposal put forward, "Come... let us slay him", like the echo in the parable "This is the heir; come, let us kill him" (Mat. 21:38), expresses the callous character of human hatred which to some extent resides in every human heart. It is not surprising that Paul should write, "Put ye also away... malice" (Col. 3:8). In the over-ruling goodness of God, who knows the thoughts of all men, Joseph was spared the cruel death which family hatred had designed. The true Joseph, the Lord Jesus Christ, came unto His own, but "His own received Him not" (John 1:11). The attitude of the darkened nation of Israel was undoubtedly reflected in His home experience. We may never know the poignant grief and the silent sorrow which was His portion many a night when He felt "a stranger unto My brethren, and an alien unto My mother's children" (Ps. 69:8). In His case the animosity of His brethren went far beyond the family circle. Israel, because they had not the love of God in them (John 5:42), received Him not. In spite of all His wondrous works and miracles they rejected Him, and although nothing worthy of death was done by Him, yet the multitude cried, "Away with this man", "Crucify, crucify Him". Jealousy, which is cruel as the grave, joined hands with envy, malice and hatred in refusing God's sinless Son, whom men "hated without a cause". That attitude remains to the present day, for whatever the extent of Christianity or the impact of religion, the world is basically at enmity with God and His Christ.

Just as Joseph's brethren, troubled in his presence, had in grief and tears to acknowledge their wrong, so in a day to come unbelieving Israel will in circumstances of unprecedented affliction and distress acknowledge that the One they once so despised and rejected is indeed their Messiah and their long awaited Deliverer. In that day, "They shall look unto Him whom they have

pierced: and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourneth for his only son" (Zech. 12:10 RVM). And a great mourning will take place in Jerusalem, the same literal Jerusalem which today is "a cup of reeling unto all the peoples round about". baffling the great world powers as the present centre of all the trouble and tension in the Middle East. Joseph shared the throne of Egypt; in a coming day He who was "rejected indeed of men", "shall be king over all the earth" (Zech. 14:9), and "of His kingdom there shall be no end" (Luke 1:33).

David Smith, Ayr, Scotland | Jun 1987
General