Joseph and His Brethren
“And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near unto me, I pray you.” Gen. xlv. 4.
‘TpHE reconciliation of Joseph with his brethren is a beautiful illustration in the graces of forgiveness of injuries, and brotherly love, but it is also so overwhelmingly prophetical and typical that it would be a waste of opportunity to confine the exposition to the merely ethical import of the scene. Beyond doubt we have here a picture-prophecy of that future rec-A prophetic picture.
Gen. xlv.
Deut. XXX.
Mo 3loom in tfje 3nn
Isa. xi.
10-12.
Jer. xxiii.
7, 8.
Ezk. xxxiv.
11-16.
Ezk.
xxxvii.
21-25.
Ezk. XX.
33-42.
Zech. xii.
10.
Rom. xi. I J
2, 26, 27.
The two
advents.
Acts ii. 23.
Matt. xiii.
11-13.
Acts XV.
14-17.
onciliation of the Hebrew people to their long rejected Messiah, which is the theme of some of the most glowing pages of the prophets. The current notion, based upon an entire misconception, or misreading of two New Testament passages, that Israel, in the national sense, is forever rejected, is unwarranted by Scripture. On the contrary, both the Old Testament and the New are at one in the declaration that the Hebrew people are to be restored to Palestine, converted, and then enter upon the period of their greatest earthly exaltation and distinction.
In the divine knowledge lay not only the first advent and rejection of Messiah, but also the interval following, that is, the age in which we live, and which is marked by the ‘’ mysteries of the kingdom of heaven,” and also by the calling out from among the Gentiles of the anb (0tf)er interpretations;
New Testament church, a Bride for Himself — typified by Asenath, Joseph’s Egyptian bride — an interval which will terminate in His second advent for the restoration and conversion of Israel.
The Old Testament prophets foretold both advents. The first, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass.” And the second, ‘’ And his feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives which is before Jerusalem... And the Lord shall be King over all the earth.”
The prophets were naturally enough exercised over the seeming paradox of their own prophecies, foretelling, as they did, both the sufferings of Messiah, ‘* He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted
Eph. V.
25-32.
2 Cor. xi.
The prophetic perplexity.
Zech. ix. 9,
Matt.
5.
Zech. xiv.
4-9.
Matt. xxiv.
29-44.
Isa. liii. 3.
io yom in tfje 3nn
Isa. ix.
lO-II,
with grief ... he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities,” and in striking contrast, His earthly exaltation and glory: ‘* For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever.” Peter tells us that ‘’ they searched diligently “for a solution of their own apparently irreconcilable writings, which in one breath made the coming One to be “a Man of Sorrows,” and in the next a resistless Sovereign “executing justice and judgment in the earth,” upon the restored throne of David.
^S3
Then, according to Peter, they were assured, simply, that the prophecies were not to be fulfilled in their day. But they did not see the Church, for the Church is not in Old Testament prophecy. “How that by revelation he made known unto me (Paul) the mystery which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; that the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the Gospel.”
The prophetic testim.ony concerning the restoration of Israel may be thus summarized:
I. When the Gentile Church, which is Christ’s body, is complete, He will receive her unto Himself.” If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself, that where I am.
Eph. iii.
2-10.
The restO’
ration of
Israel,
John xiv.
3.
I Thess. iv.
14-16.
Acts XV.
14-16.
yo Boom in ttie Jinn
Matt. xxiv.
30.
The
church.
Matt. xvi.
1 8.
Matt. ii.
I, 2,
Matt. iv.
23.
Matt. X.
John xvi.
12, 13.
there ye may be also.” This Is an absolutely new promise to an absolutely new body, the Church. It is never connected in Scripture with that which follows, viz.: His return visibly to earth: “They shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.”
Our Lord did no more respecting the Church than to announce His purpose to build it, Indeed He mentioned the Church but twice, using the word three times in His earthly life. He came as King of the Jews; accordingly spoke of the kingdom rather than the Church.
To have developed the doctrine of the Church before His crucifixion and resurrection would have been mere confusion to His disciples. It was one of the “many things “which they “could not bear” and which was left for the anti 0tftt 3Jnterpretations{
^S5
coming ministry of the Spirit; but He could sow the seed of that doctrine, prepare the way for it, and that He did in the wonderful passage in His High Priestly prayer: “That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.”
The essential truth concerning the Church is that it is the body of Christ. Our Lord’s preparatory doctrine uses the similitude of a vine and its branches; the Comforter’s completed doctrine uses the similitude of the human body: ‘^ As the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being mnay, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptised into one body.’’
2. He will restore the Davidic monarchy of which He is heir, and will regather dispersed Israel.
John xvii.
21-23.
IV hat is
the church f
Eph. i. 22,
I Cor. xii.
12, 13.
John XV.
1-4.
Acts XV.
16, 17.
Luke i. 22,
33-
yom in tfie 3nn
Rom, i. 3.
Deut. XXX,
6.
Ezk. XX.
33-42.
Zcch. xii.
10.
‘’ After this I will return and will build again the tabernacle of David which is fallen down.”
3. He will reveal Himself to regathered Israel, and thus convert them. ‘* The Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.”
No one can read the glowing and tender prophecies of this coming day of Israel’s reconciliation without perceiving how great a place it holds in the heart of Jesus. How beautifully the reconciliation of Joseph and his brethren typifies this. Rejected and in intention slain, Joseph goes to the Gentile Egypt, where he becomes a blessing and receives a bride. This done, the touching scene of the reconciliation follows. And this is precisely the prophetic order.