Who was Joseph in the Old Testament?

Eleventh son of Jacob and first of Rachel. The interesting history of Joseph is too well known to need being given in its detail, but attention should be given to the many respects in which Joseph was a striking type of the Lord Jesus. He was the beloved one of his father: this with the intimations given to him of his future position, destined for him by God in the midst of his family, stirred up the envy of his brethren and resulted in his being sold to the Gentiles: as the Lord was hated by His brethren the Jews, and sold by one of them. Joseph was accounted as dead. He was brought very low, being cast into prison, under a false accusation against him because he would not sin: his feet were 'made fast in the stocks,' and the iron entered his soul: in all these circumstances he was foreshadowing the Lord in His humiliation.

Of the many biographical sketches in the Bible none for interest exceeds that of Joseph. It therefore attracts those of tender years not yet hardened by intercourse with the world, or sophisticated by the spirit of the age. It is distinguished even among the patriarchs by domestic affections no less than hatred of evil, by personal purity sustained and guarded by faith, by the favour of Jehovah that communicated His secrets to one that feared Him from youth, throughout an unusually diversified life and the extremes of slavery, of prison, and of the highest position next to the greatest throne then on earth without a cloud, the most prudent and kind of viziers in times of abundance no less than of famine, the most skilful of statesmen for his master's interest. Again what can one think of his filial honour to his father? what of his gracious returns to his envious and spiteful brethren (only short of his blood)? And though for a believing Israelite he seems to have gone far in complying with the words of a heathen, and to have risen up to the airs of a great lord as to the manner born, his heart sustained the divinely given hopes of Israel, as evinced by his punctual heed to his father's burial, where lay Jacob's father and his father's father.

Nor did his earthly rank in Egypt dim his own faith before his death, that God would surely visit his brethren and bring them into the land promised by His oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He too took their oath when that day came to carry up his bones hence along with them.

The long desired son of his mother Rachel, — herself his father's first and tenderest love, he derived a name from her (Gen. 30:23-24), Joseph i.e. adding; which pointed to another son, the son of his father's right hand, who was to be the occasion of her death. Sadly impatient with God's dealings in her case, grace opened her heart to Jehovah's goodness and gave her to look on through her son of unexpectedly wondrous destiny to another son, about to be born in Palestine, the little one who should become great both in the land and to the ends of the earth in its own season. For Benjamin figures in that day of earthly power and glory. Joseph is the vessel of divine wisdom in humiliation, despised by his brethren, suffering from them, and sold to Gentiles who punish him yet more; but, unknown to Israel, exalted to the right hand of power for unmeasured blessing to both, and married to a Gentile wife, the names of whose sons testify to his forgetting his past toil with his kin, and his fruitfulness in another land. Yet at the end like Christ he that was separated makes himself known to his brethren whom he established in the best of the land. Even from this brief summary the reader will gather how hard it would be in all O.T. scripture to find so rich a mine of typical wealth, so varied and comprehensive a figure of the Lord Jesus.

Joseph, it appears from comparison of clear dates in scripture, was born in his father's ninety-first year. He was the elder son of Rachel, long desired by his mother, and at length given of God, when her impatience had met its just rebuke. Leah had her six sons already born; and a daughter followed who later became the occasion of shame and grief to her kin, of a reckless and revengeful desolation to a city of Hivites, far beyond the demerit of the one that wronged her.

Joseph’s brothers sold him to a company of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead en route to Egypt. They were carrying spices, balm and myrrh. Some of the brothers tried to placate their consciences, choosing to sell him instead of slaying him. They would profit from the twenty pieces of silver. The communication sent to their father in the form of a robe dipped in blood prompted their father to conclude that an evil beast had devoured him. Meanwhile Joseph had gone "wrapped" with the myrrh and spices of the Ishmaelites to Egypt. Was it his fragrance that attracted Potiphar to purchase him?

Between Genesis 37 and 41 we see great testing. Joseph had many trials in Egypt, but the Lord was with him and prospered him. He was pure, honest and faithful — a real servant. During the various difficult experiences with their deep personal exercises, the Lord was preparing him for greater things. Finally he was exalted as lord in Egypt next to Pharaoh and was the saviour of that whole inhabited part of the world.

"And of Joseph he said, Blessed of the Lord be his land, for the precious things of heaven, for the dew, and for the deep that couches beneath, and for the precious fruits brought forth by the sun, and for the precious things put forth by the moon, and for the chief things of the ancient mountains, and for the precious things of the lasting hills, and for the precious things of the earth and fullness thereof, and for the goodwill of him that dwelt in the bush; let the blessing come upon the head of Joseph, and upon the top of the head of him that was separated from his brethren. His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns; with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth: and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh."

Joseph is a very remarkable type of Christ. We have dwelt upon his history in our studies on the book of Genesis. The reader will notice the emphatic way in which Moses speaks of the fact of his having been separated from his brethren. He was rejected and cast into the pit. He passed, in figure, through the deep waters of death, and thus reached the place of dignity and glory. He was raised from the dungeon to be ruler over the land of Egypt, and the preserver and sustainer of his brethren. The iron entered into his soul, and he was made to taste the bitterness of the place of death ere he entered the sphere of glory. Striking type of Him who hung upon the cross, lay in the grave, and is now on the throne of the majesty of heaven.

We cannot but be struck with the fullness of the blessing pronounced upon Joseph, both by Moses, in Deuteronomy 33 and by Jacob, in Genesis 49. Jacob's utterance is uncommonly fine. "Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well," — Exquisitely beautiful figure! — "whose branches run over the wall. The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him: but his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob; (from thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel) even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee; and by the Almighty who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lies under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb: the blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors, to the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren."

Joseph is a beautiful type of Christ, in that he was loved by his father, hated by his brethren, sold for twenty pieces of silver, passing in figure through death and resurrection in his prison life in Egypt, and finally exalted to the place of rule and authority, becoming in figure the Saviour of the world.

He interpreted his dreams, that there were to be seven years of great plenty, of abundant harvests, to be followed by seven years of biting famine. He gave Pharaoh good advice as to preparing for the years of famine with the result that Pharaoh on the spot chose Joseph to be the greatest food controller the world has ever seen. In one day this slave only thirty years of age, apparently in hopeless captivity from man’s standpoint, was lifted out of his dungeon to be ruler over the whole of Egypt.

Jacob loved Joseph more than all his other sons, which caused them to hate Joseph; they also hated him for the communications given to him through dreams, and eventually sold him to the Ishmeelites. Again Jacob was dealt with deceitfully; his sons pretended that they had found Joseph's coat stained with blood, and Jacob was greatly distressed. But God was watching and overruling all for good. When Jacob and his household arrived in Egypt, he as a prince of God blessed Pharaoh king of Egypt. He lived in Egypt seventeen years, and died at the good old age of 147.

Besides being a type of the Messiah, he was the providential means of bringing the family into Egypt, God overruling and shaping the effect of his brethren's hatred to bring it to pass. As to his personal faith, the Spirit of God singles out his latest act as its bright evidence. (Heb. 11:22.) The splendour of the king's court did not blind him to the promise made to his fathers. Egypt was no resting-place for him. By faith he foretold the departure of the children of Israel, "and gave commandment concerning his bones." But, like his fathers, he must be tried. In each case, that for which the trial came was made prominent. Abraham's trial brought out the triumph of faith over death. Isaac's testing showed the absolute certainty of the counsels of God, which neither Isaac's carnal appetite, nor Esau's tears, could set aside. Jacob's testing extended over the greater part of his life, and because so long, admirably proves the patient waiting of God, the grace which is so prominent a feature in His dealings with Jacob, the faithfulness to His word, "I will never leave thee." This blessed promise is the motto, in large characters, impressed upon the title-page of the history of his life. In Joseph rectitude and moral purity are exemplified; it is the answer of faithfulness on man's part to grace on God's part.

One event is given which, while showing the power of godliness, tells too what the faithful may expect from this world — maligned, falsely accused, and a prison. This was the first effect of faithfulness. Was there ever a trial or a testing sent from God where the faithful saint was not first left to feel the world's malignity? Why? That God's blessing and approval may afterwards come all the sweeter. In Potiphar's wife we see the world in no uncommon character, whose prince is first the tempter, then the accuser of saints. Joseph 1 has to wait more than two full years before God appears for him. Faith and patience must have their perfect work. Then the reward comes, not merely liberty, but exaltation to the highest power short of the throne. Pharaoh's dream is added to those of the butler and of the baker, where the wisdom of God is displayed in Joseph, the inspired interpreter