Genesis 45:26

True to their commission, they testify of Joseph. His name is the first word of their message. They testify that he is alive, and they tell of his exaltation too. And the gospel tells of Christ — "The gospel of God, concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord," we read in Romans 1. And His resurrection stands out in that good news. "Joseph is yet alive," the sons of Jacob say. "Christ lives," we proclaim. He who died has risen as victor from the tomb. And God the Father has set Him high above all rulers and powers, thrones and dominions.

The exposure of his unbelief was the first result of hearing the good news. Twenty years before, these same men had brought a lying report to Jacob with evidences to support their lie. And without a question Jacob believed the lie. "Without doubt," he said, "Joseph is torn to pieces." Now his sons bring a true report of Joseph with evidences to support the truth, and at once Jacob doubts. His "heart fainted, for he did not believe them." Ever since Adam listened to the devil's lie it has been natural for fallen man to believe a lie. Only a work of grace enables men to believe the truth.

It was the Lord's doing — for so the fact was — but it was marvellous in Jacob's eyes. He "did not believe it for joy, and wondered," because this was receiving Joseph alive from the dead. At first this was too much for him.

So unprepared is the heart of man for the tender mercy of our God, that the very announcement of it caused Jacob's heart to faint. His sorrow had been so deep that an attempt to relieve it, with nothing yet to prove it true, almost destroyed him for a moment. It had taken much discipline to break his strong will and untamed nature, but that discipline had fully done its work. How broken is he now!

When the men returned and told Jacob that Joseph was still alive, he had before him the piled-up evidence of the eleven (besides, no doubt, many servants). Yet "his heart failed and he did not believe them" — even when they told him "all the words of Joseph." But when "he saw the wagons," his spirit revived, and he said, "It is enough, I will go." Those rough wooden carts were visible and touchable evidence of a brightened horizon and of a new and glorious world, still unknown and unseen. The sight of them settled his wavering mind. How true this is in the life of an "unbelieving believer": some small outward gift from the Lord confirms him more than the piled-up testimony of the eleven apostles and all their followers. It shows a low spiritual condition.

The grace and goodness of Joseph breaks down the unbelief of Jacob, and he says, "It is enough; Joseph my son is yet alive." This is the confession of faith. He believed with his heart and confessed the truth with his lips. Nor is there any other way of blessing for a sinner today. We may at first listen to the good news with unbelief. But as we hear the grace of the words of Christ, and see that everything has been done so that we might be blessed, our hearts are won.

If these events did not go beyond fable, they were true. So they bear the clear stamp of God's ordering. They picture in advance what the prophets pledge in Jehovah's name: what one greater than Joseph was exalted to do when His brothers rejected Him — to sit at God's right hand with richer supplies for a starving world.