Joseph - Reflections (8)

 

“And He called for a famine upon the land; He broke the whole staff of bead. He sent a man before them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave. They afflicted his feet with fetters, he himself [his soul] was laid in irons; until the time that his word came to pass, the word of the LORD tested him” (Psalm 105:16 – 19).

 

There is a sense in which we can speak of three Josephs when we read Genesis and Psalm 105. This may seem strange to us, it may even seem outrageous to some, but it is the truth. It would not have always been viewed strangely, certainly not, I think, in the early days of the Church, the Church which was seeing Christ throughout all Scripture, and in seeing Christ was seeing His Body, and in seeing His Body was seeing themselves.

 

In Joseph we see Jesus Christ. We see Jesus rejected by His brothers, sold into death, released from prison, exalted to the right hand of God. In Jospeh we see Jesus in that what men meant for evil, God meant for good. In Joseph we see Jesus in forgiveness. In Joseph we see the salvation of many through suffering, and thus we see Jesus. Joseph becomes a source of salvation, a refuge for many, a picture of Jesus the Christ. Just as Joseph’s brothers rejected the message of Joseph’s dreams, so Jesus’ brothers, Israel, along with mankind rejected the Word of Jesus. Just as the Word of the LORD was tried in Joseph, so the Word was tried within Jesus Christ. “Though He were a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered” (Hebrews 5:8 – 9).

 

There are, of course, contrasts in the story of Joseph and Jesus. Jacob did not knowingly send Joseph down into Egypt; the Father knowingly, willingly, and lovingly gave His Only Begotten Son. Joseph did not understand that betrayal, slavery, and prison lay between his dreams and their fulfillment, Jesus knew that the Cross beckoned Him.

 

If then we see Jesus Christ in and through Joseph, we also see the Body of Christ in and through Joseph, for as Augustine says, “As with the Head, so with the Body.” That is, if we are the Body of Christ, then we participate with Christ in His story, in His calling, in His mission. This is a theme of the Bible and an explicit teaching of the New Testament. We love as He loves, we are in the Trinity in Him, we are sent as the Father sent Him, we are to live in the koinonia of His sufferings, we are even to “fill up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions” (Col. 1:24, whatever that may mean). We are, let us recall, to be conformed to His image (Romans 8:29).

 

This means that we suffer on behalf of others, that what others mean for evil, our God means for good. It means that we, as His Body, are tried in the fires of testing and obedience and persecution just as Joseph and Jesus were tried. It means that God’s Word is tested within us, as His Word was tested in Joseph and Jesus (1 Peter 1:3 – 9). It means that the calling of God the Father is within us, just as it is in Jesus Christ. It means that the Incarnation continues within us because Christ lives within us His Body.

 

This further means that when we read “they afflicted his feet with fetters” that we can read, “They afflicted His feet with fetters.” The feet of the Body of Christ were afflicted with fetters, they are being afflicted with fetters, they are bound, their movement is restricted, they are in prison.

 

Can we see “they afflicted His feet with fetters” in Romans 8:18 – 25? Can we see that “the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us” (Rom. 8:18)? Just as the sufferings of Joseph were not worthy to be compared with his exaltation to Pharoah’s right hand and his feeding of the people and his family, just as the sufferings Jesus were not to be compared with the “joy set before Him” (Heb. 12:2), so our present sufferings pale in comparison to the coming glory of Christ in us and us in Christ. Indeed, Christ in us fully and completely is our “hope of glory” (Col. 1:27; see also 2 Thess. 1:10 – 12).

 

The culmination of the suffering of the saints in Revelation is the glory of God in His People and His People in God (Revelation chapters 21 – 22).

 

O dear friends, our hope is in Jesus and His Word, our hope is in the promises of our Father, through which we partake of His Nature (2 Peter 1:4). The temptation while we are in prison is to scheme our own way out rather than wait for God. We have pressure to build the House of God when only God can build His House (Psalm 127:1 – 2). Our Christianity is driven by a “make it happen” mentality which abandons abiding in the Vine (John 15:1ff).

 

We have left our first love, and we pride ourselves on our sparkling and entertaining and man-centered Christianity – we have no grain with which to feed the people, there is a famine for the Word of God (Amos 8:11 – 12). Let there be no mistake, we can know the Bible in the sense of knowing its informational content and not know the Word of God. The Word of God transforms us into the image of Jesus Christ. The Word of God results in radical obedience to Jesus. The Word of God emanates from the Cross of Christ. The Word of God bears the fruit of Matthew 25:34 – 40, a fruit which transcends political, economic, social, national, and cultural considerations – in fact, it puts the earthly to death.

 

I take great hope in Psalm105:16 – 22 and the story of Joseph. I believe that while our feet may be in fetters, that while the Word of God tries us, that Romans 8:18 – 25 awaits us. I believe that the manifestation of the sons of God not only awaits us, but that blessing awaits the peoples of the earth, for whatever we are experiencing is for the glory of God and the blessing of others.

 

Just as Joseph was able to say, just as Jesus has told us again and again, we also can say both now and in the consummation of the ages, “What you meant for evil. God meant for good.”

 

As the Father sent Joseph, as the Father sent Jesus, so Jesus sends us (John 17:18; 20:21).