Road to Emmaus:
Joseph
Genesis 50:20
But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.
Ok, raise your hand if you have heard this story.
I can’t see your hands so I’ll just tell you.
First I’ll tell you about this moment, then I’ll tell you how they got to this moment.
Joseph, the son of Jacob – Israel, is the prime minister of Egypt, this is the time of the great famine of seven years.
I have attached this post which I wrote, in which I show a portion of Joseph’s promotion to Egypt’s highest position just under Pharaoh.
At this point Joseph reveals his identity to his brothers who had sold him into slavery.
Joseph could have been bitter against them, and may have taken the opportunity to give them a taste of what they gave him, but had ultimately forgiven them (Genesis chapters 42-45).
Forgiven from what? You ask? I’ll get to that.
Joseph has a greater insight throughout his lifetime ordeal, he has consistently honored God, and has demonstrated over and over that he trusted, even in the trial.
His brothers had hated him for several reasons, mostly jealousy. They never really ever learned how to relate to him.
All they could ever see when they looked at him was red, he was in their way, and would have killed him if they were unanimous.
Now, their experience with the man of Pharaoh is a humbling experience. They don’t know this is their brother, only that he has great authority.
It never fails, every time I read through this chapter, it always brings me to tears. I love the way that he loves his brothers; he is tender with them. He has this awesome authority, yet he is tender with them!
Forgiveness!?
No, it’s so much better, he has wiped it completely out.
He is looking more at what God was working out (Romans 8:28-29), molding him into being who he is today for more than his own benefit but for all the people who would be saved by his work.
Now, let me take you back to his youth, when he was just a young man.
In this link, if you would like to read it, I will give another bit of Joseph’s experience. I think I’ll expound on that as well.
(“Adam Hues” is also a series looking at several aspects of Jesus’ humanity, you might like it.)
Their story begins in Genesis 37.
Joseph has been favored by his father, Jacob. Joseph was one of two sons that his wife Rachel gave him before her death.
The rest of the sons were from 3 different wives, one of which was Rachel’s sister Leah, and the other two were servants of Rachel and Leah.
They were 12 sons, and Joseph was the favorite.
Joseph had dreams, literally, not just the kind that you have to become or to have, they were plans that God had for him, giving Joseph glimpses of his future.
He told his father and brothers his dreams, and his brothers hated him for his dreams, as well as being the favorite.
One day, his brothers were out with their father’s flock, a long way from home, and Jacob wanted an update about his sons’ business, so he sent Joseph to bring him news.
When they saw him coming they started plotting to kill him, but one of the brothers was opposed to killing him.
Instead, while Joseph was still approaching, they decided to throw him into a pit. They might have killed him otherwise.
While the opposing brother was gone the others decided to sell Joseph into slavery to be rid of him forever.
That alone was heartless, what they did next was cruel and devious, as well as heartless.
They took Joseph’s coat, they ripped it up, then they killed a baby goat and drenched Joseph’s coat in the blood of the kid (baby goat), and they brought it to their father.
For some 13 years they let their father believe Joseph was dead.
The next season of Joseph’s life also has spiritual revelations, but I will bypass them because of the distraction and length it would be.
So now we come to the revelation to his brothers, and his acceptance of God’s will regardless of his own trial.
I sense nothing from Joseph but love and restoration with his brothers, his family, and his father.
As I had originally considered Joseph’s parallel to Christ, my focus was only on the coat of many colors (colours).
The way it was ripped up, drenched in the blood of the baby goat, and the presentation of it to Jacob.
I believe I have sufficiently addressed the crucifixion of Christ throughout my journey down the Road to Emmaus.
You can read any of them and find my perspective of the crucifixion.
Yet, if you are reading (one of) my post(s) for the very first time, I will again present what I have seen.
After all, the Old Testament speaks very often of the crucifixion of Jesus to come as of then.
We don’t ever see the crucifixion in the Old Testament, but the parallels are there.
My opening text in this lesson says ..
“…ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good…”
The brothers’ personal animosity towards Joseph resembles the animosity of the religious leaders of Israel.
They knew that Jesus was more than a rabbi, they knew he was more than a prophet (John 3:2). They knew that he had come from God.
Jacob is a parallel of God who sent his son to his brothers, the keepers of the flock.
Jesus spoke a parable about this.
“…But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son…”
Matthew 21:37
In Matthew 21:33-40, Jesus spoke a parable about a man who owned a vineyard, he planted it, and made it flourish.
He had to leave so he let it out, or he leased it to tenants, or renters to work the vineyard.
After some time, he wanted fruit from the vineyard, so he sent messengers to bring back some fruit, but were met with hostility, some were even killed.
Then the owner sent his son, believing that they would honor him, but they took him and killed him as well.
How did they think they were going to inherit the vineyard?
Did they think they were going to overthrow the landlord as well?
My thought is that throughout his lifetime, Jacob saw what kind of men his sons were, even before their deception about Joseph.
I say this because in Genesis 49, Jacob calls his sons to tell them all of his heart before he dies.
He tells them about those things that he has seen in them, disappointments, and expectations lost.
If anyone is at the head, maybe it’s Judah, but not for him, but for the law giver that will come from him.
I believe that the head of the house of Jacob now is Joseph.
Being the right hand of Pharaoh who can challenge him?
Joseph’s brothers are a parallel as well to the Jews; the priests, scribes and Pharisees who wanted nothing more than to be rid of Jesus.
Jesus said…
“…The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat:
All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not…”
Matthew 23:2-3
To read Matthew 23 is to see Jesus laying out the scribes and Pharisees like filleting a fish.
I don’t believe that Jesus meant it to degrade or defame them, as much as to say that this is not what righteousness looks like.
Righteousness is a life lived in honor and duty to the Lord, to show the way to life and be pleasing to the Lord.
Jesus said…
“…But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in…”
Matthew 23:13
The obvious duty of the righteous is to invite the unrighteous to life in Christ.
The Pharisees and scribes had the keys to eternal life, but were not opening the door for the people, only giving them burdens. That’s another lesson.
Also my thought is that though they had the keys, they did not know how to use them, they did not really pursue holiness, but the image of holiness.
Jesus is brother to the Jews, being one born with all the blood rights to Abraham, and of the house of Judah.
“…Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people…”
Hebrews 2:17
“Made like unto his brethren”, the Jews were not only a religion, they were a physical people. They had flesh, blood, and bones. It was their genetic makeup.
Jesus, to be one of them, had to meet those same requirements.
Galatians 4:4-5
But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,
To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
“Made under the law”, this looks to me like the expression of those who inherit the law: the Jews.
When we read Romans 3:2, we see…
“…unto them were committed the oracles of God…”
The oracles, sayings, laws, the commandments.
Then we see in verse 19…
“…Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law…”
It is surely accepted that the law was given to the people of God, the Jews by nature.
The term “Jew” doesn’t show up until 2 Kings 16:6, but they are the people of God.
Even being, as of yet, at the time of Moses, the laws were to the Hebrew people only.
But the rest of Romans 3:19 says…
“…that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God…”
The inclusion of the world with the Jews brings us all under the same penalty of death, as well as under the same offer of salvation through Jesus.
What did Paul say about this?
“…Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;
That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ…”
Ephesians 2:11-13
There are many more scriptures to express the inclusion of gentiles with Jewish blessing.
But this is what I wanted to get to. Joseph had said…
“…But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive…”
Joseph was looking at their known world at the time.
In my past studies of this event, I have seen that in this representation of Egypt that it is a type or shadow of the church.
Pharaoh had said to the people to do what Joseph commanded them to do, so Joseph is the type of Christ in the church.
The grain wasn’t the miracle, it was the allowance of grain throughout the famine, not only for Egypt, but for all the world, had they only come to Egypt.
The grain symbolizes the Word of God, which for the previous 7 years was being stored up until the famine, then the storehouses were opened.
We are Egypt, at least this type of Egypt as the church, we have the grain, and we have access to Jesus (Joseph, as it were).
I think many times that the church has a repelling force in the way we live and speak, so that the world finds no need for what we have.
Rather, the compelling force of the church is a life lived in honor and an attraction to the world, to bring them to Jesus.
We have the grain that they need.
The storehouses are the church houses where they can come and receive from Jesus.
Also, the 7 previous years of plenty represent (to me) the lifetime of the building of scripture; from Genesis to revelation, with the number 7 as the number of completion.
There has been no more scripture given since then. What we have is an abundance of scripture gathered from prophets, scribes, priests, farmers, and fishermen.
Abundance of scripture had been laid up for us, forever.
The 7 years of famine began at the end of the book of the Revelation to John.
Technically, we are in the 7 years of famine, at least for the last 2000 years, and the storehouses are still overflowing in abundance.
Although God has no longer spoken through prophets as he had throughout the Bible, we know that Jesus is the final Word (Hebrews 1:1-2)
Now the storehouses are managed by those appointed in Ephesians 4:11(-14)
Still so much grain, and bread and still so much to see.
Jesus loves you.
God bless.
Pedro Villarreal
The LORD bless thee, and keep thee:
The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:
The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.
Numbers 6:24-26