After being falsely accused, Joseph was wrongly convicted and put in prison. We think of our blessed Lord Jesus, who was falsely accused, wrongly convicted and put to death. The death of the Lord Jesus on the cross was part of God’s great plan of redemption and reconciliation. Peter said that He was delivered by “the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God” (Act 2:23).1 In the book of the Revelation, the apostle John referred to the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev 13:8).
Joseph reminded his brothers that all that took place, from their betrayal of him and selling him to the Ishmeelites to his being put in prison, was all in God’s plan of providing a saviour. “God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God” (Gen 45:7-8).
Joseph was brought out of prison and made ruler of Egypt (Gen 41:14-45). The Lord Jesus was buried and on the third day He rose from the dead (Mat 20:19; Act 10:40). Following the glorious triumph of the cross and His victory over death in resurrection power, He was exalted to the right hand of God and seated on the throne (Php 2:9-11; Heb 1:3; 10:12).
Joseph was given a place of honour, distinction and reverence. As he rode in his chariot, they cried before him, “Bow the knee.” Paul wrote of how God exalted the Lord Jesus following His submission and willing obedience unto death, even the death of the cross. “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Php 2:9-11).
The famine that Joseph interpreted according to Pharaoh’s dreams (Gen 41:29-32) eventually came to pass. The famine was in all lands, and all countries came to Joseph, for he was the only means by which they could be saved (v57). Paul stated in the book of Romans that all the world is guilty before God and that “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:19,23). The Lord Jesus, through His sacrificial, atoning death on the cross and His precious blood outpoured, is the only means by which a person can be delivered from the bondage and penalty of sin. Paul wrote to Timothy, “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all” (1Ti 2:5). The apostle John wrote concerning the Lord Jesus, “He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (1Jn 2:2).
As his brethren bowed before him, Joseph remembered the dreams that he had concerning their sheaves which bowed before his sheaf (Gen 37:6-9). In spite of the fact that Joseph’s brethren betrayed and sold him, he forgave them and invited them to come near to him (45:4) and promised to take care of them and provide for them (50:21). In spite of the fact that we have sinned against God, God has made provision through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus on the cross, whereby all who trust Him as Saviour can experience the forgiveness of sins and be brought nigh to God through the precious blood of Christ (Eph 1:7; 2:13). In fact, believers are invited to come boldly before the throne of grace that they might obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Heb 4:16).
As exalted ruler, Joseph was able to dispense out of the abundance of provision to sustain the people of Egypt as well as his own people. The Lord Jesus has been exalted to the throne of heaven and from there intercedes on behalf of His redeemed people (Heb 7:25). His abundant store of provision is sufficient to meet all the needs of every child of God. The apostle Paul wrote, “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Php 4:19).
Joseph placed his family in the best of the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen (Gen 47:6,11). It is both interesting and instructive to note that the word “Go-shen” means “drawing near.” The child of God, too, enjoys a place of nearness and is “blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” (Eph 1:3; 2:13).
Jacob’s last words concerning his son Joseph are recorded for us on the pages of the sacred Scriptures. He wrote, “Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall” (Gen 49:22). The blessing Joseph experienced extended well beyond his own immediate circumstances, and was used to save “much people alive” (50:20). Likewise, the spiritual benefits and blessings of the sacrificial, atoning death of the Lord Jesus, and His triumphant resurrection and ascension, are extended worldwide, to whosoever believes in Him (Joh 3:16). John wrote, “The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world” (1Jn 4:14).
It is interesting to note that the fruitful bough is by a well. The Lord Jesus is a well of living water (Jer 2:13; 17:13; Rev 7:17). He said, “Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (Joh 4:14).
Jacob said regarding his son Joseph, “From thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel” (Gen 49:24). Joseph derived his strength from the shepherd and the stone of Israel. The shepherd and the stone bring before us in wonderful picture and type our blessed Lord Jesus Christ. He is the good shepherd (Joh 10:11), the great shepherd (Heb 13:20) and the chief shepherd (1Pe 5:4). He is also the stone which the builders refused and is become the head stone of the corner (Psa 118:22; Mat 21:42).
1 Bible quotations in this article are from the KJV.
