42. Joseph desired to be Remembered.

Said Joseph to the butler, "But think on me when it shall be well with thee" (40: 14). So, in connection with the Supper, the Saviour has said, "This do in remembrance of Me."

As we admire these lovely typical pictures, like the queen of Sheba, there is no more strength left in us, and we can only bow our heads and say, "How precious are Thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them!"

43. JOSEPH'S EXALTATION

GENESIS 41

Our present chapter opens by presenting to us the king of Egypt dreaming two dreams, and awaking with his spirit troubled. The court magicians and wise men were summoned, and Pharaoh told them his dreams, but "there was none that could interpret them to Pharaoh." Then it was that the chief butler recalled his experience in prison. He remembers how he had a dream, and that a Hebrew slave had interpreted aright its significance. He recounts this now to the king, and Pharaoh sends at once for Joseph, who explains to him the meaning of his own dreams. There are several important truths which here receive a striking exemplification:

First, we are shown that "The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of waters. He turneth it whithersoever He will" (Prov. 21:1). It was no accident that Pharaoh dreamed as he did, and when he did. God's time had come for Joseph to be delivered from prison and exalted to a position of high honor and responsibility, and these dreams were but the instrument employed by God to accomplish this end. Similarly, He used, long afterwards, the sleeplessness of another king to lead to the deliverance of Mordecai and his fellows. This truth has been expressed so forcefully and ably by C. H. M. in his "Notes on Genesis," we cannot refrain from quoting him:

"The most trivial and the most important, the most likely and the most unlikely circumstances are made to minister to the development of God's purposes. In chapter 39 Satan uses Potiphar's wife, and in chapter 40 he uses Pharaoh's chief butler. The former he used to put Joseph into the dungeon; and the latter he used to keep him there, through his ungrateful negligence; but all in vain. God was behind the scenes. His finger was guiding all the springs of the vast machine of circumstances, and when the due time was come, he brought forth the man of His purpose, and set his feet in a large room. Now, this is ever God's prerogative. He is above all, and can use all for the accomplishment of His grand and unsearchable designs. It is sweet to be able thus to trace our Father's hand and counsel in everything. Sweet to know that all sorts of agents are at His sovereign

disposal; angels, men and devils-all are under His omnipotent hand, and all are made to carry out His purposes (p. 307: italics are ours). How rarely one finds such faith-strengthening sentiments such as these set forth, plainly, by writers of today!

Second, we are shown in the early part of Genesis 41 how that the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. As it is well known, Egypt stands in Scripture as a figure of this world. In Joseph's time, the land of the Pharaoh's was the center of learning and culture, the proud leader of the ancient civilizations. But the people were idolaters. They knew not God, and only in His light can we see light. Apart from Him, all is darkness, morally and spiritually. So we see it in the chapter before us. The magicians were impotent, the wise men displayed their ignorance, and Pharaoh was made to feel the powerlessness of all human resources and the worthlessness of all human wisdom.

Third, the man of God was the only one that had true wisdom and light. How true it is that "the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him!" These dreams of Pharaoh had a prophetic significance: They respected the future of Egypt (typically, the world), and no Gentile, as such, had intelligence in the purpose of God respecting the earth. God was pleased to make known His counsels to a Gentile, as here, a Jew had to be called, each time, as interpreter. It was thus with Nebuchadnezzar. The wise men of Chaldea were as helpless as the magicians of Egypt; Daniel, alone, had understanding. So, too, with Belshazzar and all his companions-the aged prophet had to be called in to decipher the message upon the wall. Well would it be if leaders of the world today turned to the inspired writings of the Hebrew prophets of the things which must shortly come to pass.

Fourth: That "all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose," is writ large across our lesson. And well for us if we take this to heart. But the trouble is, we grow so impatient under the process, while God is taking the tangled threads of our lives and making them "work together for good." We become so occupied with present circumstances that hope is no longer exercised, and the brighter and better future is blotted from our view. Let us bear in mind that Scripture declares, "Better is the end of a thing than the

beginning thereof" (Ecc. 7:8). Be of good cheer, faint heart; sorrow may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. So it was with Joseph. For a season he suffered wrongfully, but at the last God vindicated and rewarded him. Remember Joseph then, troubled reader, and "let patience have her perfect work." But we must turn from these moralizings and consider the typical bearings of our chapter. We continue our previous enumeration.

43. Joseph, in due time, was delivered from prison.

Joseph had been rejected by his brethren, and treated unjustly and cruelly by the Egyptians. Through no fault of his own he had been cast into prison. But God did not suffer him to end his days there. The place of shame and suffering was to be exchanged for one of high dignity and glory. The throne was to supplant the dungeon. And now that God's time for this had arrived, nothing could hinder the accomplishment of His purpose. So it was with our blessed Lord. Israel might despise and reject Him, wicked hands might take and crucify Him, the powers of darkness might rage against Him; His lifeless body might be taken down and laid in the tomb, the sepulchre sealed and a watch set, but "it was not possible that He should be holden of death" (Acts 2:24). No; on the third day, He rose again in triumph o'er the grave, leaving the cerements of death behind Him. How beautifully this was prefigured in the case of Joseph. "Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him hastily out of the dungeon; and he shaved himself, and changed his raiment, and came in unto Pharaoh" (41:14). Compare John 20: 6, 7!

44. Joseph was delivered from prison by the hand of God. It is evident that, apart from Divine intervention, Joseph had been suffered to languish in the dungeon to the end of his days. It was only the coming in of God-Pharaoh's troubled spirit, the failure of the magicians' to interpret his dream, the butler's sudden recollection of the Hebrew interpreter-that brought about his release. Joseph himself recognized this, as is clear from his words to his brethren, at a later date: "And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you who sent me hither, but God: and He hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and Lord of all his house, and ruler throughout all the land

of Egypt. Haste ye, and go up to my father, and say unto him, Thus saith thy son Joseph, God hath made me lord of all Egypt" (45:7-9). So it was with the Saviour in being delivered from the prison of the tomb: "Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death" (Acts 2: 24). "This Jesus hath God raised up" (Acts 2: 32). Him God raised up the third day, and showed Him openly" (Acts 10:40).*

45. Joseph is seen now as the Revealer of secrets.

Like the butler and baker before him, Pharaoh now recounted to Joseph the dreams which had so troubled his spirit, and which the "wise men" were unable to interpret. It is beautiful to mark the modesty of Joseph on this occasion, "And Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, It is not in me: God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace" (41:16). So, in a much higher sense, the Lord Jesus said, "I have given unto them the words which Thou gavest Me" (Jno. 17:8). And again, "As the Father hath taught Me, I speak these things" (Jno. 8:28). Once more, "For I have not spoken of Myself: but the Father which sent Me, He gave Me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak" (Jno. 12:49).

Having listened to the king's dream, Joseph said: "God hath showed Pharaoh what He is about to do" (41:25), and then he made known the meaning of the dreams. How close is the parallel between this and what we read of in the opening verse of the Apocalypse! Just as God made known to the Egyptians, through Joseph, what He was "about to do," so has He now made known to us, through Jesus Christ, the things He will shortly do in this world. The parallel is perfect: said Joseph, "What God is about to do He showeth unto Pharaoh" (41:28), and the Apocalypse, we are told, is "the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him to show unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass."

46. Joseph warned of a coming danger, and urged his hearers to make suitable provision to meet it.

Joseph was no honied-mouthed "optimist," who spake only smooth and pleasant things. He fearlessly told the truth. He shunned not to declare the whole counsel of God.

There are other Scriptures which show that the Lord Jesus raised Himself (John 2:19; 10. 17. 18, etc.). But, above, we have quoted those which emphasized the fulfillment of the type.