284 Joseph: Type, Foreshadow of Jesus?

Beginning With Moses
& the Prophets

Joseph, a type, a
foreshadow of Jesus?

Genesis 37 - 50

Introduction

            The
greatest example that prefigures the King of Glory, who foreshadows the Savior
of the world, is that of Joseph. The whole history of Joseph, chapters 37 to
50, provides us with a great illustration of God’s overriding providence &
should inspire in us a strong confidence of God’s never ceasing protection of
those who are His own. 

Many of the Old
Testament leaders typified a feature of the Messiah who was to come &
fulfill the promises & predictions - such as in:

Melchizedek we see Jesus as High Priest of the
Most High God;

Moses, we see Jesus as the mediator between God
& man;

David, we see Jesus as shepherd, ruler, &
King;

Joseph, we see Jesus as preserver, provider,
& Saviour.

The story of Joseph is
the longest narrative in Genesis; beginning with chapter 37 to the end of
Genesis with chapter 50. There are 449 verses with the exception of 30 verses,
chapter 38, which deals with the incident of Judah and his daughter-in-law
Tamar.

There appears to be two
views given by commentators: one is disagreeing that Joseph be seen as an
almost perfect type / foreshadow of Christ in that there is no place in the New
Testament that says this.

Those scholars say that
there are dangers in making allegorical interpretations so it is safer to keep
from spiritualising or making typological interpretations except where it is
warranted Biblically & it is explicit. 

Joseph was a great man
though never obtained the spiritual stature of Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob. God
never appeared to him as He did to them. He didn’t give him any of the covenant
promises in any special way, & of the sons of Jacob, it was Judah, not
Joseph through whom God would fulfill the coming of the Saviour. So it is best
not to interpret Joseph’s story as a type/foreshadow of Christ.

On the other hand
others, like Biblical scholar, H. A. Ironsides, who pastored Moody Church in
Chicago 1929-1948, states: “. . . in studying Scripture there is not only the literal application,
which is always important, but every part of the Word of God has a spiritual,
typical, and dispensational application as well, and in Joseph's character and
experience we have a wonderful type of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We have to keep in
mind that though, that even if Joseph’s life shines forth from Holy Scripture
as almost, practically flawless. It’s not that he was actually sinless, he had
the same corrupt nature as all descendants of Adam, as Scripture clearly says
in Romans 3:23 that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God;
Psalm 14:3 All have turned away, all have become corrupt; there is no one
who does good, not even one. Psalm 53: 1-3 There is no one
righteous, not even one there is no one who understands; there is no one who
seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless;

            As another commentator said, at best
Joseph was a young good-boy sinner. So it kind of rings hollow when you attempt
to say Joseph never did anything wrong. In 37: 2 where it says “Joseph brought
back a ‘bad report’ . . .” about his brothers, the word translated “report” dibba
is always used in the rest of scripture in the negative sense of an untrue
report; here it is qualified by the adjective ra’a, “evil”. So Joseph at
best maligned or misrepresented his brothers.

A true report but
somewhat exaggerated or inaccurate -- 

I think a lot of that
goes on all the time, usually in the form of gossip and then twisting it just
enough or saying it with a certain inflection of voice so as to misrepresent
what actually transpired.

Joseph, was in effect,
a tattle-tale. So he truly was just like all the rest of humanity. Jesus, I
believe, does not fit into this category of being a tattler. 

So how then can Joseph
be looked at or seen as a type or foreshadow of Christ?

1)- The Beloved of the Father's Heart -- Israel
(Jacob) loved Joseph more than all his children because he was the son of his
old age, he made him a coat of many colors. (37:2) -- Matthew 3:17 a voice out of the heavens
said, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased." 
John 1:18  No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God
who is in the bosom of the Father. This implies a relationship of devoted attachment, of true very deep
affection. The Father loved Him before the foundation of the world and
always delighted to honor Him.

2)- Joseph dreamer of
dreamers with Premonitions of Coming
Glory -- Joseph had a dream,
vision, where his brethren and all his father's house bowing down to him,
37:5-8; and this was the vision granted to our Lord Jesus Christ. Matt.
24:30-31, And
then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes
of the earth will mourn, and they will see the SON OF MAN COMING ON THE CLOUDS
OF THE SKY with power and great glory. 31 "And He will send forth His
angels with A GREAT TRUMPET and THEY WILL GATHER TOGETHER His elect from the
four winds, from one end of the sky to the other. Philippians 2:9-11 we read of
Christ, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is
above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those
who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue
will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 

3)- Seeking His Brethren, that’s how Joseph first comes as the
one who left the father's house and went forth. Jacob’s heart was toward the
sons who were caring for the flock, first at Shechem and then at Dothan, and he
sent Joseph to see how they were doing and to declare his concern for them.
This sets the mission of our Lord Jesus Christ who came "not to
condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved;"
(John 3:17) He came from the Father's house into this world of sin seeking His
brethren that He might declare the Father's Name to them and manifest the
Father's love. . . . both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all
from one [Father;] for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren, (Hebrews 2:11). 

As
the story proceeds we have,

4)-
The Rejection of the Son -- by those whom he sought out for blessings,
and they hated him more because of the father's love for him & detesting
him because of his superior virtue. Let me paraphrase as how we would probably
say it, here comes dreamer boy, let’s kill him and through him in a pit and
say some wild animal devoured him, ate him up, then let’s see what comes about
his dreams. (Gen. 37: 19-20). So tale of their hatred and rejection we have
more than a foreshadow of the treatment that Israel and the Gentiles would yet
accord to God's beloved Son. Not every detail fits like a glove with the
experiences of our Lord and His unbelieving brethren, still we can see plainly
that the story is one and the same: the love of the Father's heart, the
yearning of the Son, and the cruelty by those whom He loved so tenderly; all
clearly manifested.

Hated, Joseph is
thrown into the pit, speaks of death; then sold to the Gentiles and carried
down into Egypt. Our Lord was sold first and then crucified, but both stories
alike tell of the corruption of the human heart and the love of the heart of
God.

5)- Next Scene we
have, The Tempted One --
Joseph experiences illustrate the testing’s and triumphs of our Lord who was
"in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin" (Hebrews
4:15). Here we have a man sinful by nature triumphing in the hour of testing
because of the fear of the Lord. "How then can I do this great wickedness,
and sin against God?" (Gen. 39:9) This was his strength. As for our Lord,
yes, He is the sinless One and His temptation was the demonstration of this.
"Holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners," (Hebrews 7:26) it
was unthinkable that sin should ever hold dominion over Him. He stood
unflinchingly against every attack of the evil one, and He could ever say,
"The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me" (John
14:30). 

Joseph's temptation
and victory we clearly see the way in which every one of us can overcome. It is
as the Word of God is hidden in our hearts that we shall be kept from sinning
against Him. 

But Joseph wasn’t just
tested in Potioher’s house where he was living in luxury; there were more
trials, false accusations, he suffered for righteousness' sake in the
prison-house. In prison his integrity was demonstrated and the fear of God
preserved him. He shone just as brightly in the dungeon as he did in the
mansion. D. L. Moody once said, "Character is what a man is in the
dark," and this indeed comes out in the case of Joseph. They put
him in fetters of iron, but the prison-cell was only the antechamber to the
royal palace.

He was still the
messenger of Jehovah while in the prison, interpreting the dreams of the butler
and the baker, just like when he told his own dream so long before. There was
no break in his communion with God. He could interpret a dream as to see
visions, he was under the control of the Holy Spirit.

6)- Exalted in Glory

He had been despised,
rejected, hated, spurned, given up for dead, sold into slavery, falsely accused
& imprisoned, and in due time came forth to share the throne of Phataoh as
preserver of the lives for the Egyptians & all his fathers house. 

Asenath, his Gentile
bride; gives a hint of the fact that our Lord, rejected by Israel, found a
bride among the Gentiles, & Joseph’s two sons, Manasseh, (forgetful) &
ephraim (fruitful), tells us how he was made to forget all his sorrows because
fruitfulness of his ministry by the Spirit among the Gentiles.

Then the day came when
all of Egypt & the peoples of the distant lands came and bowed at his feet
and cried to Pharaoh “give us food,'' his answer was “Go to Joseph”; he was the
custodian of all the treasured corn of Egypt, and today just as during the
Millennium, all blessing is centered in Christ, and to every hungry soul
seeking food for life the Father says,

7)- Go to Jesus -- For there is none other name under
heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12) but
the Name which was written above Him when He hung rejected on Calvary's cross,
and, thank God, no other name is needed, for He declares,

 "All
power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth" (Matt. 28:18). He
is exalted to God's right hand, speaking peace to all who trust Him and
ministering grace to every seeking soul.

Joseph's dreams were fulfilled when his
brethren came in their abject need, bowing at his feet, glad to receive from
his hand that which would maintain physical life, and so now Jesus who is
greater than Joseph gives eternal life to bankrupt sinners who bow before Him
confessing their guilt and owning His grace.

Joseph deep compassion for his brethren comes
out clearly when he reveals himself to them, and again when they doubted his
love after his father's death. He was a man of tears just like Jesus; he could
not refrain from weeping, and when they feared that he would remember their
sins after the burial of Jacob, their distrust of his love moved him again to
uncontrolled sobs . He loved to be trusted; he could not bear to be doubted,
and in this he truly he portrays the character of the Lord Jesus.

But the type falls far short of the reality,
and the book of Genesis closes with the death of Joseph and his body placed in
a coffin in Egypt. Praise be to God Almighty, that the One of whom Joseph
speaks lives to die no more, but just as Joseph gave commandment concerning his
bones, and Israel carried those bones all through the wilderness and at last
laid them to rest in the land of Canaan, so we also a pilgrim people today are
called upon to always bear about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that
the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in us. 

As the bones of Joseph were the memorial of
death. We too have that which reminds us of our Saviour's death, "As often
as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till He
come" (1 Cor. 11:26). Some day we will be through forever with the
memorials of death when we shall have gone to that rest which remains for the
people of God, and there we shall have our blessed Lord in all His fullness to
be the delight of our hearts throughout an eternity of bliss, while a
regenerated world will see Him enthroned in highest glory and all peoples will
be nourished by His beneficence and bow at His feet in rapt adoration.