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The Forgiving Messiah Joseph I am Joseph your brother, whom ye
sold into Egypt. … God did send me Tim Alexander A dream in a young man’s heart is an especially handsome trait, and Joseph ..was a beautiful young man. His mother Rachel was a woman who knew her husband’s love. His father Jacob had worked for seven years to win Rachel’s hand, and those years “seemed unto him but a few days for the love he had to her” (Genesis 29:20). The tenderness of that love between Joseph’s parents made an indelible mark on his young heart. When Joseph was born, his mother cherished him as if he were a gift directly from God, which he was. In fact, both parents loved him with the kind of parental fervor that is rarely described in Scripture. From the Genesis account, there is no doubt that Jacob loved his son Joseph beyond the love he had for any one of his previous children. Rachel was Jacob’s favorite wife and Joseph was Rachel’s firstborn. In that boy reposed all of Jacob’s hopes and dreams. Jacob had received from his father Isaac and from God that wonderful promise that through him and his seed all the families of the earth would be blessed. All the warmth, courage, and faith which that promise engendered in Jacob’s heart rested on that little boy. Jacob seemed to hope that in Joseph was the promise of future life. Joseph was born into a household that provided remarkable potential with tremendous challenge. He was the eleventh son of a father who had two wives and two concubines. In a culture where bearing a son, an heir, was the ultimate objective for a wife, how could a wife with only one son compete with a wife who had already given her husband six? This spirit among Jacob’s wives caused them to compete, using their sons as evidence of success and self-worth. Jacob’s preferential treatment of Joseph planted in most of those sons’ hearts the seeds of a spirit of rivalry and jealousy. But Joseph was different. Joseph’s young life was nurtured by a constant confidence that his father loved him more than his brothers. There was discipline, there was correction, but there was never a question whether Jacob loved him. Joseph never felt threatened by his brothers’ successes; he never questioned his father’s love. As a result of this confidence, neither jealousy nor rivalry ever found a place in Joseph’s heart. In addition to the skills Joseph learned from his father such as shepherding, finance, and business, he also absorbed the qualities of character such as tenderness, honor, courage, personal integrity, and accountability both to God and to man. Joseph carried these qualities of character with him through every experience of life, and they distinguished him as one whose spirit, whose intent, and whose conduct were above reproach. Sold Into Slavery At the age of seventeen Jacob sent Joseph to Shechem to check on the well-being of his brothers. Joseph finally found his brothers and their flocks in Dothan. His brothers knew that Joseph was their father’s favorite; they knew of Joseph’s propensity to be honest and open with his father about their behavior; and they knew that the promise of exaltation above them had come to Joseph more than once in dreams. The jealousy they harbored in their hearts for years overflowed and actually brought on thoughts of murder, of killing their own brother. When they saw him approaching and while he was still far away, they said to each other, “Behold this dreamer cometh. Come now therefore, and let us slay him … and we shall see what will become of his dreams” (Genesis 37:19,20). Little did they know that those very words prophesied against their own hearts. At the urgings of Reuben and Judah, Joseph’s life was spared and he was sold to traveling merchants who carried him to Egypt as a slave. He was sold for twenty pieces of silver, the going rate for a healthy male slave. The price produced perhaps two coins for each brother, a small price indeed for the pain of watching your younger brother carried away in chains, knowing the indignities that he surely would suffer. The culpability of the brothers’ hearts is greatly heightened when we read the account in Genesis 37:31,32, where they dipped Joseph’s coat of many colors in the blood of a young goat and said, with callous lips, to their own father, “This have we found: know now whether it be thy son’s coat or no?” When speaking to their father Jacob and intentionally deceiving him into thinking that his son whom he greatly loved was dead, they did not even call Joseph their brother. A Capable and Faithful Steward Upon arriving in Egypt, Joseph was sold to Potiphar, the “Captain of the Guard,” and probably the “Chief of the Executioners.” Potiphar was a man of some authority, and he immediately recognized the strength of character and trustworthiness of Joseph. Joseph was soon placed in a position of authority in Potiphar’s house, second only to the master himself, and there faithfully executed his duties. Potiphar was happy to entrust all the cares and responsibilities of his house to Joseph. After being falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife, Joseph was placed into the prison associated with the house he had previously managed. Although this was a decided injustice, the Genesis account makes no mention of Joseph filing a protest or complaint. He made no attempt to defend his behavior or to identify the falsehood of the allegations lodged against him. Once again Joseph’s character and integrity were quickly recognized, and he was given the responsibility of overseeing the operations of the prison where he was confined. After many years in prison and suffering for the selfishness of others, the value of Joseph’s services finally reached the ears of the Pharaoh, who hastily summoned Joseph to the palace and said to him: “I have dreamed a dream, and there is none that can interpret it: and I have heard say of thee that thou canst understand a dream to interpret it” (Genesis 41:15). Joseph answered from the heart, without even a hint of the bitterness or self-promotion that typically grows within a heart exposed to years of injustice: “Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, It is not in me: God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace” (vs. 16). With this answer Pharaoh quickly realized that the spirit of the true God was with Joseph, that the spirit within Joseph’s heart was wholly different than the hearts within the “servants” with whom Pharaoh was accustomed to dealing. Pharaoh said to his servants, “Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is?” (Genesis 41:38). Joseph was subsequently charged with preparing the whole land of Egypt for the impending seven years of famine, and he carried out his commission with the same care that had distinguished him in every previous role. The whole land of Egypt and Canaan was blessed by the fact that Joseph’s relationship with God was strong. In fact the life of every Egyptian parent and every Egyptian child was saved; every Egyptian sister and every Egyptian brother was rescued from the pit into which hunger would inevitably have cast them. Joseph and His Brothers This famine extended well beyond the borders of Egypt; it embraced “all the face of the earth,” and the land of Canaan was no exception. Before long, Joseph’s brothers, out of necessity, journeyed to Egypt in search of food. Joseph recognized his brothers and he immediately and carefully designed his dealings toward them. Joseph’s main purpose was to determine whether their hearts had changed, whether they had truly repented of the malice they had toward him many years ago. During the brothers’ two visits to Egypt, Joseph accused them of being spies, required all ten of them to spend three days in jail, required Simeon to spend the whole time between visits in jail, demanded they bring Benjamin to Egypt during the second visit, planted a “stolen” cup in Benjamin’s grain sack, and demanded that Benjamin remain in Egypt as Joseph’s slave, all the while concealing the truth that he was their brother, and that he still loved them. At first glance, Joseph’s disposition seems to have been harsh, but he wanted to accomplish two goals. First, he wanted to evaluate his brothers’ hearts to determine how much of their original hateful attitude remained. Second, he wanted to give them ample opportunity to demonstrate evidence of true repentance. Joseph’s approach was effective. Before the brothers left Egypt at the end of their first visit, Joseph required one of the brothers to remain in prison to ensure the return of the others with Benjamin. Joseph selected Simeon and bound him in chains in the presence of his brothers. What were those nine men thinking as they watched their brother Simeon being bound? What were their consciences suffering as they watched their brother carried away as a prisoner? Did they remember when they caused the same thing to happen to their other brother years before? And did their faces show Joseph what their hearts were truly feeling? The Brothers’ Remorse Yes, Joseph’s brothers collectively expressed true remorse. They genuinely regretted their actions toward Joseph. They said, “We saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear” (Genesis 42:21). Another evidence of their change of heart is that they realized it was God who was directing retribution on them and not merely Joseph. When they found their grain money returned to their sacks and realized the dilemma caused by that, “their heart failed them, and they were afraid, saying one to another, What is this that God hath done unto us?” (Genesis 42:28). As another evidence of their remorse, two of Joseph’s brothers offered to bear the responsibility of any evil that would befall their brother Benjamin. Reuben offered the lives of his own two sons as a deposit for the life of Benjamin. And Judah offered his own life as surety for the life of Benjamin. All of these evidences demonstrated to Joseph that true repentance had occurred in his brothers’ hearts, and he abundantly forgave his brothers with grace, warmth, and tenderness. A Forgiving Savior This account of Joseph’s life is a beautiful portrait of Jesus’ role as a forgiving savior. Like Joseph, Jesus endured tremendous injustice at the hands of sinful men (Hebrews 12:3). Jesus was taken from the prison house of death and placed in a heavenly position of authority second only to God himself (1 Corinthians 15:27). Like Joseph, one of the purposes for Jesus being exalted to this position as “Prince and Savior” was for the forgiveness of sin (Acts 5:31). Another purpose is so he can feed the whole world of mankind by giving them the Bread of Life: “The bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world” (John 6:51). After Joseph was raised to the position of Prince in Egypt, his name was changed to Zaphnathpaaneah, which means, “One who delivers from death by providing the Bread of Life” (Genesis 41:45). This is clear evidence that Joseph’s life illustrates the forgiveness of the life-giving Savior. Joseph had a seemingly limitless capacity to forgive. From where did that come? Why was Joseph so different than his brothers? His capacity to forgive came from two subtle differences in his life: 1) Joseph never wondered if his father loved him, and 2) he had a dream which he was confident would become a reality. Both of these conditions were clearly evident in Jesus’ life, and countless times Jesus’ strength was renewed by both. The Lesson for Us Every one of Jesus’ footstep followers has access to this same comfort and strength. Sometimes our confidence in God’s love for us is clouded by our own failure, by our disobedience, by our impatience, fear, or weakness. But God’s love for us still remains. Sometimes the dream in our hearts, the dream of blessing all the families of the earth, becomes obscured by the cares of this world, by the weaknesses of our flesh, or by attacks of the Adversary. But the dream is still sure. The ultimate lesson of Joseph’s life should give each of God’s children a tremendous capacity to forgive. If God be for you, who can be against you? (Romans 8:31). If I am confident that God loves me completely, then what can anyone do to me that I cannot forgive? And if I am securely confident in the promise of the kingdom, securely confident that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed, then what problem in life can rise to the level that I cannot forgive (Romans 8:18; Matthew 6:15)? Joseph’s life is a beautiful picture of Jesus’ work as a forgiving savior and it is also a wonderful template for an individual Christian’s life. Jacob felt the height of human parental emotion when watching his son Joseph. God felt that same parental emotion for his son Jesus. And we know God feels that same parental emotion for all of us. “If God be for us, who can be against us” (Romans 8:31). |