The Patriarchs Part 19

There is no speech or language here, but a voice is heard, clear, full, and harmonious, by the ear that is awakened. And as we look back on Joseph alone, we see a page of sacred story, full of Jesus; a _rejected_ Jesus first, a _risen and ascended_ Jesus then, and now at the end, a _millennial_ Jesus, Jesus in His inheritance and kingdom.

"Known unto G.o.d are all His works from the beginning of the world." But what we do not get teaches us this as surely as what we do. He has formed the light and the darkness. "The day is thine, the night also is thine." In all this pa.s.sing and magnificent exhibition of the inheritance, there is one whom we might have expected to see _chiefly_, and yet we see her _not at all_. Asenath the wife is not found here. She and her children get no portions in this great settlement of everything in the land; they are not so much as seen or mentioned. Is it that they were forgotten? That could not be. But she was the heavenly one, the wife given to Joseph from among the Gentiles in the day of his separation from his kindred, and her portion is more excellent than what the land in its best condition could afford her; it is in him and with him who is the lord and dispenser of it all. Asenath is lost in Joseph; or, to be seen only in Joseph.

And thus the _full_ end is told at the beginning; for all this in the Book of Genesis is "the dispensation of the fulness of times," when G.o.d shall gather together all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth. And surely it is happy, beloved, in the sight of the world's present confusion, in the midst of the agitation of human thoughts which is ever around us, to learn in the mouth of such witnesses, that the end is thus before Him, and has been so from the beginning. "The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever, the thoughts of His heart to all generations." His people and His purposes are alike before Him; and such truths comforted the apostles, when they found themselves in the midst of church disappointments. See 2 Tim. ii. 19.

_Part IV._ (xlviii.-l.)--This is rather, I might say, an appendix to the history, than the fourth part of it. It is made up of a few detached actions in Joseph's latter days.

The first thing, however, which we get is kindred with what we have seen to be the characteristic of the history itself. Chapter xlviii., which opens this fourth part, shows us the bestowing of the birthright upon Joseph; and the birthright and the inheritance are, in some sense, one.

In Israel, or under the law, the birthright carried the double portion.

The firstborn was to have a double share of the father's goods; and the law enjoined that this should be his by an indefeasible t.i.tle, a t.i.tle that was not to be challenged. The double portion was not to be given to any other child of the family on any ground of personal affection or partiality whatever. Deut. xxi. 15-17.

But though this were so, the birthright might have been either sold or forfeited by the firstborn himself. His own acts might alienate it, though his father's partialities or prejudices could not. And we find this to have been the case. Esau sold it, and Reuben forfeited it.

Genesis xxv.; 1 Chron. v. In the case of the sale of it by Esau, Jacob who bought it, of course, had t.i.tle to it. The bargain and sale made it his. That is clear. But in the case of the forfeiture of it by Reuben, who is to take it? It reverted to the father; but on which of the sons would he confer it? That was a question, and it is that question which this chapter answers. It presents us with the solemnity of the aged father, dying Jacob, investing Joseph with the birthright which Reuben his firstborn had forfeited.

Upon hearing of the illness of his father, Joseph comes to his bedside, bringing his two sons, Mana.s.seh and Ephraim, with him. None of the other sons of Jacob are present. The Spirit of G.o.d, through Jacob, has a special business with Joseph.

Jacob begins the action by reciting to Joseph the divine grant of the land of Canaan. This was a setting forth of the family estate, the property which he had to leave among his children. He then _adopts_ the sons of Joseph; for this was needed to the investing of them with the rights of children, inasmuch, as, in a great legal sense, they were strangers to Abraham. Their mother was an Egyptian. They were a seed, therefore, whom the law would, in its day, have put away. Ezra x. 3. But Jacob adopts them. He takes them into the family. "And now," says he to Joseph, "thy two sons, Ephraim and Mana.s.seh, which were born unto thee in the land of Egypt before I came unto thee into Egypt, are mine." They are const.i.tuted of the seed of Abraham, and made children of Jacob; and this being done, Jacob at once sets them in the place of the firstborn; for he adds immediately, "As Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine."

This was a solemn act of invest.i.ture, by which the rights of the eldest, the double portion which attached to the birthright, pa.s.sed over to Joseph in the persons of his two sons. See 1 Chron. v.; Ezek. xlvii.

13.4

4 The t.i.tle now bestowed was afterwards realized, when the family estate, the land of Canaan, came to be divided between the tribes; for Joseph then gets two portions in his two sons, who are treated as though they had been two distinct sons of Jacob.

But we have still to ask, Why was Joseph thus preferred? The forfeited right had reverted to Jacob, and from his hand it had to be disposed of afresh. But why was it given to Joseph? Was this merely grace? I could not say so. Grace, I know, on this great occasion, takes its way; and were we duly emptied, we should delight in the way of grace, even though we ourselves might get, in its distributions, only a left-hand or Mana.s.seh blessing. But while all this is so, I still question whether it were _merely_ grace which thus conferred the rights of the eldest son upon Joseph.

I rather judge that Joseph _earned_ it. If Jacob aforetime bought it, Joseph, I believe, had now earned it.

We have already, in the history, tracked his path to the inheritance. It was the path, like that of his divine Master, whose shadow in the distance he was, of sorrow and rejection and separation, and yet of righteousness and testimony. And this path had ended with praise and honour and glory in the kingdom or inheritance; and the birthright is kindred with the inheritance.

It is, therefore, easy for us to say, as we have said, that Joseph earned the birthright. Judah earned the royalty, Levi the priesthood, and so Joseph the double portion. And his father gave him a pledge, "an earnest of the inheritance," which was characteristic of this; for at the end of this action Jacob says to him, "Moreover I have given to thee one portion above thy brethren, which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow." This was an earnest. But not only so; it was a _sample_ also. It was characteristic. It spoke of the inheritance as it was to be in the hand of Joseph. This portion had been _won_, and so had Joseph's. The sword of Jacob had gained this parcel of ground, as the patience of Joseph had gained the inheritance and the birthright; and it is according to this that the dying father afterwards celebrates him. "The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors, unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him _that was separate from his brethren_." Or as Moses, the man of G.o.d, says of him, "Let the blessing come upon the head of Joseph, and upon the top of the head of him that was separated from his brethren."

The apostle speaks of "the reward of the inheritance," words which may not sound as if they exactly suited each other; for the inheritance is of grace, and reward is of work. So the Lord speaks of giving "a crown of life," words which may also sound in the ear as somewhat discordant; for life is of grace, and a crown is a reward. But the soul accepts these things, and makes no difficulty of them. "All purchased and promised blessings be with you," said the dying martyr to his wife. And he spoke wisely, as he did blessedly; for blessings in one sense are all purchased; in another, promised or given. As a sweet hymn, which we all know, has it--

"Lord, I believe Thou hast prepared, Unworthy though I be, For me a _blood-bought free reward_, A golden harp for me."

And Joseph, I judge, got the birthright or the inheritance in this way.

It was in his hand "the reward of the inheritance." It was a bought thing, and yet a given thing; an earned thing, and yet a free thing. We see grace in the bestowment of it upon him, but we see also the fruit or issue of that path of martyr-sorrows which he, and he alone, of all Jacob's sons, had trod in patience and in triumph.

This action, therefore, is in full company with the leading character of Joseph's history. We see the heir in him, and with that the right of the firstborn, the double portion, with its earnest, "the earnest of the inheritance," made over to him, in the action of this chapter.

In the next chapter (xlix.) Joseph is only one of the many sons of Jacob--Jacob the father being princ.i.p.al. Joseph and his brethren are together under the eye and before the thoughts of the dying patriarch, who was led of the Spirit to tell them what should befall them in the last days. This I take no further notice of here, but refer to the history of Jacob, where I have already considered it.

In the last chapter (l.) Joseph is again princ.i.p.al; not, however, so much mystically as personally; that is, not as the _heir_, but as the _man_. We see Joseph himself here, his character and his virtues, rather than the lord of Egypt, his place and his dignities. And considered personally, he is perhaps the most attractive character in the book of Genesis. There is more of the fruit and force of G.o.dliness in him than in either of his fathers. We have in him the steadiest, most consistent walk in the ways of G.o.d. There is less elevation, I am sensible, than in Abraham, as of course there is less exercise of spirit than in Jacob; but through all circ.u.mstances, trials, honours, changes, he is still the man of G.o.d who walked in His fear and before Him. His history is not made up of failures and recoveries, or a doing of first works over again. It is a path of light, if not of such light as s.h.i.+nes more and more unto the perfect day, yet of light which s.h.i.+nes clear and calm and constant. In his history we have not angelic visits, nor apparitions of the Lord, or audiences of divine oracles; but in Joseph himself we have a vessel used of G.o.d, because approved of Him; a very precious thing with G.o.d. It is not Peniel or Beersheba again, occasional refreshments and illuminations, but rather an abiding witness within, so that he knew the way of G.o.d, and kept it. "Until the time that _his word_ came, the _word of the Lord_ tried him." The authority which Egypt, in due season, owned in him, he had before owned in the Lord. He was the obedient one himself, and then became the one set in authority. He continued as with Christ in His temptations, and then he was appointed to a kingdom.

Subjection was his path to honour, the due path of all the heirs of the same kingdom.

But there are some peculiarities in the story of Joseph beyond this. We do not find the altar and the tent with him, as we do with his fathers.

Because it is not strangers.h.i.+p in the earth that we see in him, but the inheritance or the kingdom, after suffering and humiliation. It is not the tent of his fathers that we see in his history, but the pit and the prison, which were his alone, and not his fathers'. The tent and the altar may duly be the symbols of their calling; the pit and the prison first, and then the throne, become the symbols of his.

And as another peculiarity, we may observe that the Lord is never called the G.o.d of Joseph, as He is called "the G.o.d of Abraham, and the G.o.d of Isaac, and the G.o.d of Jacob." But this, likewise, we may account for.

Joseph was rather among the _sons_ than the _fathers_. The covenant was not made with him, as it had been with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; nor was any one set aside in order that he might have the blessing. The covenant was made with Abraham separated from country, kindred, and father's house. It was renewed with Isaac, to the setting aside of Ishmael. It was renewed again with Jacob to the setting aside of Esau.

But it was not renewed with Joseph; for he was only one of the sons of Jacob, and they were all alike interested in it; they were all the seed contemplated by it; and Joseph was no more of that seed than either of the others. So that we have no ground for the characteristic t.i.tle, "the G.o.d of Joseph." For, while grace was displayed in the call of Abraham, and then again in the choosing of Isaac the younger, and in the choosing of Jacob the younger, it was displayed in Joseph only in its common measure in behalf of all the seed, a measure that reached to others as to him.5

5 G.o.d is afterwards called "the G.o.d of Israel," as before He had been called the G.o.d of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. Because His covenant was with the nation of Israel.

Thus Joseph takes his place in our sight, and we look at him either _morally_ or _mystically_; with his characteristic virtues, or in his peculiar typical place. But we have not quite done with him yet.

He was, I would now add, _a great weeper_.

Paul says that he was "mindful" of Timothy's tears; and there were many tears in the eyes of Joseph which we might well be mindful of. David and Jonathan were weepers, as well as Paul and Timothy. But were I careful to do so, I might claim it for Joseph, that he exceeded them all. The occasions of his tears were more various. And indeed it is an earnest, real, and hearty flow of affections that we have to covet in the midst of the more cultivated and orderly attainments of this day. Tears are ofttimes precious things, and sometimes sacred too.

At the beginning, when Joseph saw conviction awakening in the conscience of his brethren, he wept. These were tears both of sorrow and of joy. He felt for them pa.s.sing through the agony; but he must have rejoiced to see the needed arrow reaching its mark, and the bleeding of the wounds that followed.

He wept again when he saw Benjamin. The son of his own mother, her only child besides himself, whose birth too had been her death, and the only one in the midst of his father's children (who were all then before him) who had not been guilty of his blood. Such an one as this was at that moment seen by him in Benjamin. These tears, therefore, nature could account for.

He wept again as he saw the work of repentance going on in his brethren.

In his way, he greatly longed after them; till at the last, Judah's words were too much for him; conviction of conscience had then ended in restoration of heart. "The old man" and "the lad" again and again on the lips of Judah had eloquence which prevailed, and Joseph could no longer refrain himself. He sobbed aloud, and the house of Pharaoh heard him.

But these were more than the tears of nature. This was the bowels of Christ, or the tears of the Father upon the neck of the prodigal.

Each of these weepings was beautiful in its season; but we have more still.

He fell on his father's face, and wept, as his father had just yielded up the ghost. This was as the grave of Lazarus to Joseph; and there he and his Lord can weep together.

And again he wept, when, after his father's death, his brethren began to suspect his love. He was disappointed. An unworthy return to the ways of a constant, patient, serving love, made him weep--in the spirit of Him, I may say, who wept over Jerusalem. For years had he been doing all he could to win their confidence. He had nourished them and their little ones. Years had now pa.s.sed, and not one rebuke of them do we find either in his life or in his ways. Grief over their departed father had just freshly given them to know what common affections they had to bind them together. He had supplied them with every reason to trust him. And yet, after all, they were fearing him. This was a terrible shock to such a heart as Joseph's. But he did not resent it, save with his tears, and renewed a.s.surances of his diligent, faithful love. And have not such tears as these, I ask, as fine a character as tears can have? They were as the pulses of the aggrieved spirit of the Lord. "How long shall I be with you?" "Why are ye fearful?" "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me?" These were kindred pulses of an aggrieved heart in Jesus. Jesus has _sanctified_ tears, and made them, like everything else that went up from Him to G.o.d, a sacrifice of a sweet-smelling savour; Joseph and David and Paul, yea, Jonathan and Timothy too, have made them _precious_, and put them among the treasures of the Spirit in the bosom of the Church.

Such an one was Joseph, and in such company we put him; again, I say, perhaps the most attractive character in the Book of Genesis. We see in him the grace and blamelessness that we get in Isaac, the "piety," as we speak, marking him in all his relations in life. But withal, there was combination which we do not find in Isaac. There was firmness--energy as well as sensibility.

It remains for him to do the last office of this piety to the memory of his father; and he does it, we need scarcely say, in all grace and faithfulness. He buries his father, as his father had willed it, in the land of Canaan. But the whole is conducted with much solemnity--and the occasion is such, that we must wait upon it for a little moment.

In other days, wors.h.i.+p was a magnificent ceremonial. Temples, altars, feasts, holy days, sacrifices, and the like, furnished it, and officers of different orders, in appropriate vestments, conducted it. Because in those days wors.h.i.+p pointed onward to certain great mysteries which had then to be realized. But now these mysteries have been accomplished in the manifestation of Christ, His person, work, sufferings, and victories--so that gorgeous wors.h.i.+p is now but a reproach on all that which is found in Him, in its full substance and efficacy.

So as to funerals, as well as wors.h.i.+p. In other days they were to be gorgeous. Because resurrection was then only in prospect; and funerals then were a kind of pledge of the expected resurrection; and it was fitting that the pledge should be magnificent according to the glory of that which it pledged. But now, since resurrection has been realized in the person of the Lord Jesus, the Son of G.o.d, the gorgeous funeral, like the ceremonious wors.h.i.+p, is rather a reproach, as though the great mystery itself had not been yet realized in its substance and efficacy.

For it is not funereal pomp which is now the pledge of our coming resurrection--the resurrection of the Lord is that, the first-fruits of a promised harvest.

Accordingly, wors.h.i.+p and funerals are now, in like simplicity, to bespeak the Church's faith in _accomplished_ mysteries. We are now in sight of the victory of the Lord Jesus. We no longer give or receive pledges of it, as in ordinances, but we celebrate it. Joseph of Arimathea gave His body a costly burial, as Joseph the son of Jacob here gives the body of his loved and honoured father. We read of Jesus: "He made His grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death." In that day of Joseph of Arimathea the grave had not been spoiled; and pledges therefore--like pledges with these in the day of the Patriarch--might still be given. But in the burial of the Lord Jesus we properly see the last of these pledges; because in Him we see the first-fruits of them that slept. The grave-clothes and the napkins lie in the empty sepulchre as spoils of a glorious war, and trophies which tell of glorious victory. Death was overthrown, and faith now celebrates what offices and usages, as well as ordinances and ceremonies, had once only pledged and foreshadowed. And let me add, that faith did learn this lesson, for the burial which followed that of Jesus had neither its embalming nor its magnificence. It was shortly disposed of, reverently withal, and lovingly. "Devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him."

Had we faith, deeply should we prize all this. Our privileges are great indeed. In the services of the house of G.o.d now, the table has succeeded the altar, and instead of a sacrifice we have a feast upon a sacrifice.

And so have we to see death and burial, too, in the light of the resurrection of Jesus.

These things we notice in connection with Jacob's funeral. His death has its moral operation in the family, bringing out (as is often the case when the head of a family is removed) what before was not suspected to be there. But I must meditate on this for a while.

The simplicity of patriarchal _faith_ is very remarkable. It was like their manners--beautiful from their artlessness. There was nothing of the spirit of bondage in the Genesis-saints. The patriarchs walked in the a.s.surance of this, that G.o.d was their G.o.d, His promises their portion, and the city and land of the glory their inheritance. They lived and died in this spirit of faith. No suspicions or reserves, no questionings, no mistrust of grace, defiles their souls. And this is surely the more strange because, while we nowhere among them trace this spirit of bondage, we see it everywhere else, immediately after we leave the Book of Genesis, and then all through Scripture. It would be vain to follow all the notices of it which Scripture furnishes. It works naturally and abundantly in us. Surely we know it in ourselves, and see it in all around us.