Genesis Chapter Fifty
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(Clicking on these links will move you down this web page) Genesis chapter fifty Also Joseph as a type of Christ | |
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Chapter 50- Jacob made it to the Promised Land
Genesis 50:1 - 13 Good intentions versus faith The loss of a loved one Genesis 50:14 - 21 What is the Genesis 50:20 Rule? Do we make wrong comparisons? |
Will you choose kindness and forgiveness?
Genesis 50:22 - 26 Will you leave a good legacy? Joseph was a type of Christ The Fourth Dispensation |
Good intentions versus faith (Jacob had faith in God)
The loss of a loved one (Jacob was mourned and missed)
Joseph was a type of Christ. Let's look at a few examples how:
Each was loved by His Father
Each was hated by "his brothers" without a good cause
Each suffered rejection by "his brothers".
Each was conspired against to be put to death
Each acquired a (gentile) bride and became a blessing to many people
Joseph reconciled his brothers to himself and then exalted them. Christ will reconcile converted Israel to Himself and then exalt them
Each was in prison with two others (the Lord was crucified with them). One prisoner with Jesus was saved and one was lost. One prisoner with Joseph was saved and one was not saved (the chief butler was saved but the chief baker was not saved).
Each lived an innocent and pure life.
Each was wronged again and again- every wrong was a step in the pathway to His exaltation.
Each was sent to see after the peace of His brethren.
Each was delivered to death (Joseph thrown into the pit to die)- raised later to glory.
Like Jesus, Joseph had kindness of heart (Genesis 40:7-8).
Like Jesus, Joseph had integrity (Genesis 39:7-12).
Like Jesus, Joseph had humility (Genesis 41:16; 45:7-9).
Like Jesus, Joseph had wisdom (Genesis 41:33-57).
Like Jesus, Joseph had devoutness (Genesis 41:51).
Like Jesus, Joseph had faith (Genesis 45:5-8).
Like Jesus, Joseph was a prophet (Genesis 41:38,39, 44:15, 50:25; Exodus 13:19).
Like Jesus, God’s providence was with Joseph (Genesis 39:2-5; Psalms 105:17-22).
Christ was betrayed or sold for thirty pieces of silver but Joseph was betrayed and sold for twenty pieces of silver.
Joseph came up out of the pit- Christ came up out of the tomb.
A counsel was held to kill each of them.
They were each persecuted.
They each had spiritual gifts (Genesis 44:15).
They each were stripped (Genesis 37:23; Matthew 27:28).
They each left behind a coat or robe.
Each one faced temptation.
They were each falsely accused.
The person judging them knew they were innocent.
Each was thirty years old when they started their ministry.
Each was considered dead and then resurrected to greatness.
Each arose from His humiliation to a position of prominence.
And there are other examples that prove that Joseph was a type of Christ.
Jacob made it to the Promised Land
"And Joseph fell upon his father's face, and wept upon him, and kissed him. And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father: and the physicians embalmed Israel. And forty days were fulfilled for him; for so are fulfilled the days of those which are embalmed: and the Egyptians mourned for him threescore and ten days. And when the days of his mourning were past, Joseph spake unto the house of Pharaoh, saying, if now I have found grace in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh, saying, my father made me swear, saying, lo, I die: in my grave which I have digged for me in the land of Canaan, there shalt thou bury me. Now therefore let me go up, I pray thee, and bury my father, and I will come again. And Pharaoh said, go up, and bury thy father, according as he made thee swear. And Joseph went up to bury his father: and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, and all the house of Joseph, and his
brethren, and his father's house: only their little ones, and their flocks, and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen. And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen: and it was a very great company. And they came to the threshingfloor of Atad, which is beyond Jordan, and there they mourned with a great and very sore lamentation: and he made a mourning for his father seven days. And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, this is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians: wherefore the name of it was called Abelmizraim, which is beyond Jordan.
And his sons did unto him according as he commanded them: for his sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought with the field for a possession of a buryingplace of Ephron the Hittite, before Mamre"
(Genesis 50:1-13).
It was Jacob's faith that got him to the Promised Land. But what if a person only has good intentions- will not that get him or her to Heaven? No. Good intentions will not get one to Heaven. Are there any examples in God's Word about that? Yes. Achan may have had good intentions but he stole some things that belonged to God
(Joshua 7:21). Korah may have had good intentions but he gambled against God and lost
(Numbers 16:32). Ananias and his wife may have had good intentions but they lied to God
(Acts 5:3-5). Let us live a life of genuine faith- let us love God and our fellow man as much as we can
(Luke 10:25-28). Let us not rely on any good intentions but only rely on our faith to get us to Heaven like Jacob did.
Whether we lose a loved one by divorce, death, or some other way, it tears your guts out. In other words, it feels very painful. God wanted to spare us that feeling and that is why He forbid death in the very beginning
(Genesis 2:17). But Satan wanted to force death upon us and that is one reason why he lied to Eve and falsely accused God of being a liar
(Genesis 3:4). The death of a loved one also means abandonment. That is why Joseph cried and mourned after Jacob died. He loved and missed his father. Forty days were required for Jacob's embalming. Seventy days of mourning took place for a member of the royal family of Egypt. As well, seventy days was the amount of time required for the mummification of a body.
(Genesis 37:3; Matthew 3:17; John 3:35 & 5:20).
(Genesis 37:4; John 15:25).
(Genesis 37:20; Matthew 27:35-37).
(Genesis 41:45; Acts 15:14; Ephesians 5:25-32).
(Genesis 45:1-15; Deuteronomy 30:1-10; Hosea 2:14-18; Romans 11:1, 15, 25-26).
This is a brief note on the Fourth Dispensation for those who are studying the Word of God by this method. It is called the Dispensation of Promise and extends from
Genesis chapter 12 to Exodus chapter 12. The amount of time of this period is not known, but it is also known as the patriarchal period of time. Who was God's promise to? It was to Abraham and his descendants in the Abrahamic Covenant. The covenant was based upon God's grace and was unconditional. This dispensation ended in the national deliverance of the Hebrew race from Egyptian slavery (bondage). In this dispensation was
1) The story of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
2) The children of Israel (descendants of Jacob)
3) The story of Joseph
4) The nation of Israel's going into Egypt, their stay in Egypt, and their deliverance out of Egypt.
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As of September 5, 2013
"...you meant it for evil against me; but God meant it for good...". That is one of the first rules that a young Christian is supposed to learn in discipleship class in church. You may be persecuted, slandered, lied about, and horribly mistreated by others. They mean it for evil purposes to hurt you. But God is so BIG that He can turn any negative in your life into a positive for His glory. That is exactly what happened to Joseph and he explained that rule to his brothers. Later, Paul the Apostle, put it this way:
"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose"
Joseph's brothers were afraid, since Jacob was gone, that Joseph would take revenge on them for their attempted murder and slavery of him. They were worried. I have mentioned this before- if you worry about something that does not exist, are not you worrying about nothing? Is that logical? Why did they think that way? Possibly, because the brothers wrongly measured Joseph in relation to themselves rather than in relation to God. If you always measure one person against another, someone comes out a winner and someone comes out a loser. I did not like it, in secular college, when a professor would grade on the curve basis. Even if I was at the top of the curve, I felt sympathy for those who were at the bottom. To me, it was not a fair way of grading. One should be graded on the amount of knowledge that one learned about a particular subject rather than comparison graded on how one ranked against his or her peers.
Jesus does not grade you and I on a curve basis- rather, He grades on the cross. Instead of each of us comparing ourself against another person, each of us should compare ourself against Christ. How Christ-like are you? How well do you compare against Him? That is the real question. So, Joseph's brothers had wrong thinking and failed in their comparison of Joseph because they measured him against themselves rather than against God.
Joseph was a humble and patient man. As a type of Christ, he set a good example for us to follow. He was kind to his brothers and promised to help take care of them. He made a choice to forgive them. Your forgiveness of others is not an emotion, it is an act of your will- a choice. Life is full of choices and we are wise if we make the right ones. Jesus said:
"Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of Mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock"
Joseph was gone but not forgotten. Joseph left a wonderful legacy of faith behind him after he departed in death. While he was alive, he was able to pass that legacy of faith onto "Ephraim's children of the third generation: the children also of Machir the son of Manasseh were brought up upon Joseph's knees." What did Joseph teach them by his life and by his words? I am sure he taught them about God, salvation, right from wrong, their ancestors, and God's plan for their lives. My guess is that he compiled all available family tree documents and writings and had them published. That way they would readily be accessable to the person who God would choose to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt (Moses) many years later. Likewise, let us leave a wonderful family legacy of faith behind us as we depart this earth.
