He sent a man before them Joseph was sold for a bondman.
Psalm 105 is a song of thanksgiving. It retells Israel's history to show how God kept His promise to Abraham's family. Verse 17 reaches one of the darkest moments in that story — a boy sold into slavery by his own brothers — and calls it a sending.
The verse before speaks of a famine; this one speaks of a slave. One writer sees a single hand behind both:
Verse 17 tells us that Joseph was sent on purpose into Egypt. A harsh light shines here on the cruelty of his dungeon. His feet were hurt with fetters, the iron entered into his soul. That was how he was prepared for the great role he was to fill. God sent the famine; God sent Joseph.
The food supply was never the whole point. Another writer traces the wider aim behind the sending:
Where is there greater cruelty to a young brother, a poor crying boy, who begged them while their hearts stayed hard? And once a slave, an imprisoned slave, where is a more sudden and surprising change from a dungeon to a throne than Joseph's? These are the means that prepare the way for Israel's stay in Egypt. God prepares Egypt for them; then He sends famine and drives them there. Truly we see His hand in every step... To provide food was not the main object, but a smaller purpose, made to serve the greater one: that in Joseph there might be a picture of a greater than he, who suffered from a deeper hatred, and who is a greater Deliverer from a worse famine.
The verse names a man sent and a man sold. Joseph himself later kept both, and cancelled neither:
As to the past, Joseph will not allow any regrets to spoil their enjoyment of his love. The sin had been confessed, and Joseph will not only forgive, he will remove every lingering regret and self-reproach. He assures them that behind their sin — yes, by means of their sin — God was working out His purposes of blessing. It is true, "You sold me here," Joseph has to say, but he adds, "God sent me before you to preserve life."
Naming God as the sender does not make the brothers innocent. Edward Dennett sets their crime beside the greatest crime of all:
The immediate reason for their going down to Egypt was the famine. But through the famine, and through the wickedness of Jacob's sons in selling their brother to the Ishmaelites, God was only carrying out His own purposes... It fills us with wonder to think that whatever men do, even in wickedness and open rebellion, God makes it help establish His plans of grace and love. As Peter said on the day of Pentecost about Christ, "this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men." So even the wrath of man is harnessed to the chariot wheels of God's decrees.
Being sent by God did not spare Joseph a single hardship of being sold.
But if God preserves His own, He also tries them. It was He who sent a famine in the land... But He had sent His servant Joseph to Egypt beforehand, though as a slave sold to a foreign master. And he was not spared the personal trial this involved. He was put in prison, his feet hurt with irons. But God's trials have limits. Joseph was unexpectedly released from prison. He became the deliverer of Egypt from the pains of famine, and very soon the deliverer of his own family too... The trial of his sufferings had fitted him well for a position of such rare greatness.
Joseph's road ran from the pit to the throne. C. H. Mackintosh reads that road as a portrait of Christ:
Notice how strongly Moses speaks of Joseph being separated from his brothers. He was rejected and thrown into the pit. In figure he passed through the deep waters of death, and so reached the place of dignity and glory. He was lifted from the dungeon to rule over the land of Egypt, and to be the preserver and sustainer of his brothers. A striking picture of Him who hung on the cross, lay in the grave, and is now on the throne of the majesty of heaven.
- Sent. God sent the famine, and He sent Joseph ahead of it, on purpose.
- Sold. The sending ran through a real crime. "You sold me here" and "God sent me" describe one event, and neither cancels the other.
- Chained. God's sent man still wore fetters. The trial was the training for the place that followed.
- Loosed. God's trials have limits. The dungeon ended, and the prisoner became the preserver of Egypt and of the family that had betrayed him.
- Foreshadowed. Rejected, brought down to death in figure, then raised to rule and to feed the starving. Joseph traces the path of the One who hung on the cross and now reigns.
They afflicted his feet with fetters; his soul came into irons;
Psalm 105 retells Israel's history as God's own work. It does not soften what happened to Joseph: the man God sent ahead to save a starving family first had his feet clamped in irons — so why the chains, and what were they for?
The fetters follow straight after the statement that God sent a man ahead. One writer joins the two verses and shows what that sending cost.
Verse 17 tells us that Joseph was sent ON PURPOSE into Egypt. A harsh light here shines on the cruel severity of his dungeon. His feet were hurt with fetters, the iron entered into his soul. In this way he was prepared for the mighty role he was to fulfil. God sent the famine: God sent Joseph.
"Fetters" are shackles for the feet. The ESV says his neck was put in a collar of iron; older translations read "he was laid in iron", and the margin note behind it has passed into everyday speech.
Psalm 105:18 shows us that it was a terrible experience. Speaking of Joseph, it reads, "whose feet they hurt with fetters; he was laid in iron." The margin of the Bible says, "Hebraism: his soul came into iron." Do we not have a saying in English, "The iron entered his soul"? Nothing is more depressing than captivity like that: day after day, night after night, summer and winter, year in and year out. The weariness, the discomfort, the sameness, the hopelessness — all of it is a great test. Under such a test character either collapses or is brought out. Trials make or break a man. They prove what a man is made of.
Nothing in the record suggests he was ever given a hearing.
Joseph was cast into prison, and his feet were hurt with fetters (Ps. 105:18), though it does not appear that there was any trial about the crime of which he was accused.
One writer reads the two halves as two depths of suffering: one in the body, one in the soul. He also calls Joseph a type of the Lord — a living picture of Christ.
It reminds us of Joseph, who is also a wonderful type of our Lord. Psalm 105:18, in the margin and in the new translation, reads, "Whose feet they hurt with fetters: his soul came into iron." In the first half of the verse we see the external suffering that Joseph endured. In the last half we find a deeper and keener suffering that went into the inmost part of his being.
Years of this were not wasted time. They were forming the man who would one day hold a nation's food supply.
A mere boy, a shepherd lad of seventeen, needed severe discipline to fit him for the brilliant future that lay before him. For thirteen long years he was shut up in prison. His feet were hurt with fetters, the iron entered his soul. One more day he woke to the dreary experience of prison life. Before the sun had set, he was proclaimed second only to Pharaoh in the land, the food controller of a mighty empire. His discipline under the hand of God had fitted him for the fulfilment of his God-given dreams.
Behind the injustice of men, another hand was at work — and its motive was love.
God, Who loved him, made all this "affliction of Joseph" into His discipline; for as we read, "the word of God tried him" (Ps. 105:19). Under God's hand this suffering worked patience in him, and through it his crown was growing brighter.
Release did not come for years. One writer explains why deliverance is often slow.
Whoever is truly cast on God improves the circumstances of trial he is in, whether they are temporary or permanent. No adverse circumstances can crush true living energy... In every trial, however gloomy, there are gleams of light and relief. But full deliverance is often delayed by our own anxiety to get it. God, not the deliverance, is to be the satisfaction of His servant. So deliverance is often postponed until we have no prospect of it and no expectation of it.
The chains were not a detour from God's plan for Joseph. They were the road.
Note, the humiliation of Joseph was God's path to his exaltation.
- Sent — God sent Joseph ahead on purpose. The fetters were part of that sending, not an accident.
- Iron — the margin reads "his soul came into iron". One suffering was outward, in his feet; a deeper one reached inside him.
- Unjust — no trial, no charge answered, years of unbroken sameness. Such a test either makes or breaks a man.
- School — the discipline came from a God who loved him. It worked patience, and formed the character the throne would need.
- Path — his humiliation was God's road to his exaltation. Until release came, God Himself was the servant's satisfaction.