Chapter 50

Verses 15-17: this is a lie. There was no such thing said by Jacob before he died, but the brothers were frightened out of their wits. The ten brothers look at life from the human viewpoint and they impugn Joseph’s motivation. They thought that Jacob’s death would remove any restraint that Joseph had and that the only reason Joseph was holding back vengeance was because of the fact that the father was still alive. So they come up with this thought pattern: “Joseph will hate us.”

There is a very important principle in this thought pattern. They judged Joseph by themselves instead of using the criterion of grace. They judged Joseph by themselves and whenever a person does this he simply reveals his own meanness of soul. These brothers are saying in effect that they would kill Joseph at this point. “Father is dead, we would kill him, so we assume that he would do that to us.” They do not understand the principle of grace, they have no nobility of character. They are judging Joseph, and they are judging him because this is what they would do. They are small, mean-souled, petty, carnal believers. But Joseph didn’t have this area of weakness, he was a strong believer, a mature believer, and they simply could not understand Joseph at all.

It should be noticed in all of this that Joseph kept his eyes on the Lord. He habitually looked at life from the divine viewpoint, he lived by doctrine, by the Word, and so his reaction is one of grace. It is characteristic of weak people to impugn the motivation of others and that is why the brothers were afraid. Weak people measure others by themselves and therefore weak people never find nobility in others. Because of their evil criticism and thinking that Joseph harboured resentment and had bitterness in his soul the ten brothers are now filled with fear.

“And Joseph wept” – he wept because he realised that here were ten of his brothers who were saved, but here were ten brothers who had not matured as believers. They were saved but they had human instead of divine viewpoint. Joseph was never as disturbed about his brothers when they were unsaved but when they are saved they are representing the Lord. Now that they belong to the Lord he sees something that the Egyptians cannot see. He can read their minds at this point. They have revealed it to him. And how did they reveal it? They sent a messenger, they didn’t come themselves, they were afraid they might be killed. “Dad said before he died, Don’t touch us.” Jacob didn’t say that at all. Jacob in the last 17 years of his life grew up spiritually, and he understood that his son Joseph was a strong man in grace, and he understood that Joseph was one person on the face of the earth who would not return evil for good. Joseph would only return good for evil under grace. Joseph was filled with nobility and his brothers were small, petty people. The tragedy of our day is that there are too many believers like the ten brothers. The lied, and Joseph knew they lied. Now Joseph must comfort them and take them like little children and show them not to be concerned.

Verse 18 – there is one thing the brothers haven’t met with and that is grace. They are about to learn the lesson of grace.

Verses 19-21, Joseph expresses grace.

Verse 19 – the concept of the faith-rest technique. “And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God?” This means that Joseph has put the whole matter in the Lord’s hands. Principle: Don’t get in the Lord’s way. You can never do as good a job as the Lord can on someone who has wronged you.

When Jacob puts a matter in the Lord’s hands he forgets it. What is putting it in the Lord’s hands? True forgiveness. Colossians 3:13; Ephesians 4:32. Joseph directs the brothers’ attention to God, and then he expresses the divine viewpoint.

Verse 20 – “ye thought.” What was it they thought? Genesis 37:4—“they hated him and could not speak peaceably unto him.” Verse 5—“they hated him yet the more.” Verse 8 – “and they hated him yet the more.” Verse 11 – “his brethren envied him.” Verse 18, 20 – “they conspired against him to slay him.”

“but” – here is what happens when you put your life in the Lord’s hands, when you operate on the basis of the faith-rest technique—“God meant it for good.” Cf. Romans 8:28. Who but God can turn cursing into blessing? Grace!

“but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.” And who is He saving alive? Not only these ten brothers but their families, their children. He has delivered them from starvation, he has been able to put them in a place of prosperity, and there are actually about 72 people that were delivered. Did they deserve it? No. God worked all these things together through grace.

Verse 21 – God always treated Joseph in grace, and Joseph is a man who is mature and he treats others in grace.

Verse 22 – “And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he, and his father's house.” This implies that there was peace among the brothers. This was undoubtedly the tremendous accumulation of doctrine in the mind of Joseph. Occupation with Christ is the technique of spiritual maturity, and Joseph is not only mature from the human standpoint but he is mature spiritually. Therefore, not only is he ruling Egypt, and not only is Egypt prospering, but he is ruling his own family and they, too, are prospering. Now they are enjoying something that in all of their lives they have never known before. So it suggests to us that Joseph was not only ruling the empire of Egypt well, which was his secular responsibility, but he was fulfilling a marvellous spiritual responsibility. He was preparing Israel, the patriarchs, the family of some 72 people that came down from Palestine to Egypt, for the next step in their history—400 years of captivity. The period of the patriarchs was a very difficult time in the starting of a family but now at the end of the period, in the time that Joseph ruled after his father’s death, there is peace in the family, a peace that will last some 30 years after Joseph’s death, and then the catastrophe will come. Four generations of Jews will be in slavery but out of some 72 people who went into slavery will come 2-million people. Genesis 15:13—the prophecy to Abraham. Joseph had this prophecy in mind when he was about to die.

Verse 24 – “And Joseph said unto his brethren, I [am about to] die.” Now he gives them the message which in effect becomes the Word of God to the Jews during the 400 years of enslavement. “God will surely visit you” – at the time that Joseph said this the Jews were in great prosperity in Goshen, a province of Egypt. But 30 years afterward the new dynasty in Egypt would enslave these people. They are going into slavery but from this slavery “God will visit.” The word visit means to deliver. God will visit with deliverance “and bring you out of this land [Egypt], unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” The word sware means to make a solemn promise. God made a solemn promise to Abraham—Genesis 13:14,15; to Isaac—Genesis 26:3; to Jacob—Genesis 35:12. Notice the sustaining factors during the 400 years: promises, doctrine, and one other factor—Joseph’s strange request. He is going to say, “Do not bury me,” and in that way the bones of Joseph plus the doctrine that he passed on from Genesis 15, plus the promises starting in Genesis 13:14, are the sustaining factors through the time of slavery.

Here are four generations that never had relief from slavery but they had inner happiness, inner peace, inner power, inner blessing. The reason they had these things is because they had doctrine, promises, and the bones of Joseph.

Verse 25 – “And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you [deliverance], and ye shall carry up my bones from hence.” In other words, they were not to bury him. His bones were to remain in the coffin but he was not to be buried.

Verse 26 – “So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old: and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.” For 400 years the Jews were going to go to the place of that unburied coffin. Fathers would say to their sons, “Son, here are the bones of Joseph. Before Joseph died he spelled out the prophecy with regard to the fact that God is going to visit us, that we have a future, that we are not going to stay in slavery forever.” The bones of Joseph was the Bible long before the Bible was written. The promises of Genesis were passed on from generation to generation, the gospel was clearly declared, and in the Exodus generation every person who walked out of Egypt as a Jew was born again. Every Gentile who left with them were born again. It was a regenerate generation that left. The gospel message was perpetuated throughout 400 years of slavery, the doctrine of eschatology was perpetuated, the promises were passed on. For this reason Joseph was put in a coffin but he was not buried. Exodus 13:19—“And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him: for he [Joseph] had straitly sworn the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you; and ye shall carry up my bones away hence with you.” During the 40 years of going through the desert the bones of Joseph were carried.

And after the 40 years when they crossed the Jordan river and encamped at Gilgal the bones of Joseph were kept at the encampment until the land was partially conquered. Then for a final disposition of the bones of Joseph, Joshua 24:32—“And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, buried they in Shechem, in a parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for an hundred pieces of silver: and it became the inheritance of the children of Joseph.” Shechem is the Hebrew word for shoulder and it means power. God’s Word is always powerful. God revealed Himself to these people in a powerful way, a doctrine of eschatology from Genesis 15, promises to the patriarchs, and the bones of Joseph never placed in a tomb until this moment.

There is one other principle in the bones of Joseph: the principle of resurrection, the principle of looking at the future, the principle of knowing what the future holds, the principle of living in the future while you are in time. This is what Joseph did. Joseph was buried in his own piece of property in his own land. He was buried near his great grandfather Abraham, and his grandfather Isaac, and his father Jacob. And in the resurrection the soul and spirit of these four generations of patriarchs will all rise from the same spot. The bones of Joseph will take on flesh, the flesh of the resurrection body, and he will see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob standing beside him. The four patriarchs spanning four generations in resurrection will see what God has promised and will rejoice in that which He has provided.