Genesis 41:40

Gen. 41:40

Gen. 41:40, etc. This signifies the Father's investing of Christ the Mediator with the government of the Church and the world. Joseph was exalted out of the dungeon to be a prince and a ruler over all the land. So Christ was exalted from being a prisoner of vindic[a]tive justice out of the grave, and as it were out of the pit of hell, to be a prince, and to have all things put under Him. Pharaoh set Joseph over his own house. So God exalted Christ, and set Him over His Church, which is the house of God (Hebrews 3:6), and made Him King of heaven itself, which is the place of God. According to Joseph's word Pharaoh's people were to be ruled, only on the throne Pharaoh was to be greater than he. So Christ is made the head and ruler of angels and men; but yet God the Father is greater than Christ as Mediator; as Christ says, "My Father is greater than I," He is greater in His economical office than the Son, in that He is the person that sustains the dignity and maintains the right of the Deity. Pharaoh took off his ring from off his hand and put it upon Joseph's hand. So God the Father invested Christ with His own honor and dignity, that all men should honor the Son as they honor the Father, and they cried before Him, "Bow the knee," as it is said concerning Christ, "Let all the angels of God worship Him;" and agreeable to this it is said, Php_2:8-10…. Joseph was thus exalted as a reward for his being the means of saving the people from famine and death. So Christ is exalted to God's right hand, and all things put under His feet in reward for His working out the work of redemption. Pharaoh exalted Joseph and made him head over Egypt, and put the people and all the land into his hand, that he himself might have the immediate disposal and ordering of that office of saving the people from famine that he had laid the foundation for. So Christ is exalted to be a Prince and a Savior, to dispose of the affairs of the actual applying and accomplishing that redemption that He had purchased; all things were committed to Him of the Father, that He might give eternal life to as many as God had given Him. The food of the land by which the people were to be saved from famine was committed to Joseph's hands, that he might be the immediate dispenser of it. So the purchased blessings are committed to Christ. He has received gifts for men. When He ascended on high, He had the purchased blessings given to Him, that He Himself might bestow them on those that He purchased them for. He received the promise of the Father, even the Holy Ghost, without measure, to shed down on believers, as Joseph had corn brought into him in immense quantities (Genesis 41:49). Joseph had a vast flock in his hand. This signifies the sufferings of Christ for the supply of the wants of His people. Joseph was advanced thus to be a Savior to his brethren and kindred. So Christ was exalted to be the Savior of men, whom He became related to by His incarnation, becoming the brother of believers. The saints are Christ's near relations. He that hears the word of God and keeps it, the same is His mother, and sister; and brother. Joseph, by his exaltation in Egypt, made way for his brethren's reception there. He there prepared a place for them in Goshen, and made way for their reception there, by taking his brethren and presenting them to the king, and interceding with him for them (Genesis 47). Pharaoh gave them the best of the land by giving it to Joseph for them (Genesis 47:6), and Joseph nourished his brethren in Egypt. So Christ, by His exaltation in heaven, made way for their coming there, prepared, etc. Joseph saved his brethren, though they had been enemies, yea, though they had been his mortal enemies, though they would have put him to death, though they "sold" him. He saved them, by his banishment [and] those very sufferings which their sin, their enmity, brought upon him, as it was with Christ; and he saved them from famine. He first humbled them before he made himself known to them; he exercised them with a variety of dispensations, hopes, fears, disappointments, confusions, perplexities, to humble them before he made himself known to them. They bring their money with them to buy corn, whereas that was not their way to obtain it of Joseph; he would not accept of their money. So we must come to Christ for spiritual food, without our own righteousness, "without money and without price." Joseph at first made himself strange unto them, and spoke roughly to them; charges them with not coming as friends, but as enemies, and thereby he makes them sensible of their guilt in their former treatment of him. So when the elect are under convictions, and are first stirred up to seek to God for salvation, God is wont, as it were, to frown upon them, to express His anger, as though He looked upon them as enemies; thereby to bring their sins to remembrance, and make them sensible of their guilt in their former treatment of Him. Joseph insists on it that he should look upon them as enemies till they delivered up their younger brother, that one brother that they kept back; that they were tender of as a child; that they pitied and spared, and looked upon it that it would be too hard for him to be brought out of the family, and rent from the arms of his father and delivered up to another lord. So oftentimes sinners, when they begin to seek salvation, keep back something that is dear and tender in their eyes, and flatter themselves that they are not obliged to deliver it up; they think it is too hard and cruel for them so to expose such an enjoyment or possession; but God will surely look upon them as enemies till all is delivered up and nothing kept back. Joseph put them all together in ward three days. So God for a while holds sinners prisoners under conviction; they are shut up as condemned creatures; exposed to the execution of God's wrath. Joseph pities them, and weeps with compassion for them at the same time that he treats them thus roughly. So God oftentimes pities sinners under conviction at the same time that He seems terribly to frown on them. While they were backward to deliver up Benjamin, Joseph took from them Simeon, and bound him before their eyes. So while persons keep back some dear lust, God takes away some of their enjoyments from them. Before Joseph made known himself unto them, they did not understand his language; for he spoke to them by an interpreter. So sinners before their conversion don't understand God's language, and they therefore need the help and advice of ministers under their convictions, as interpreters for them. For a while they seem to have obtained their end; to have obtained food for their money; but this food lasts them but a little while before it was spent. So the false comfort that sinners obtain under conviction by their own righteousness lasts them but a little while before it is all spent. For a while they hoped their money was accepted; but they soon find it rejected, to their great disappointment and confusion. They come back to their father in the land of Canaan, who in this case represents the first Adam, or [the] nature which men have from him by their parents; the father whose tenderest and dearest child Benjamin was that was kept back; they consult with their father under this difficulty, as men under convictions in their difficulties are wont to consult nature. Their father blames them for yielding to the lord of the land so far as they had done, and greatly objects against delivering up Benjamin. He cries out, "All these things are against me," as persons under convictions often do in a kind of discouragement; but, however, he at length is forced to it by sore famine. So men are, as it were, forced to deliver up their dearest lusts, that it grieves them to part with, by sore famine, by a sense of the extreme necessity of their case. He is brought to it by the possessions of Reuben and Judah. Reuben here represents the family of reason, which is the eldest child of man's nature. Jacob in his blessing calls Reuben "excellency of dignity," and the "excellency of power." The standard of the camp of Reuben bore the image of a man. Reuben never consented to the selling of Joseph. Man's reason never consents to his sin. Judah, the progenitor of Christ, the Word of God, the other brother that persuaded Jacob to deliver up Benjamin, signifies the word of God: or Judah represents the ministers of the word who preach the word of Christ; and therefore he rehearses the words of Joseph, and particularly declares his threatenings and solemn declarations, to persuade Jacob to deliver up Benjamin. Jacob, after disputing with Judah, delivers up Benjamin, the right-hand son, as the name signifies. So nature, after it has long hung back, and much disputing with the word of God, and objecting against it, by the word being earnestly set home, at last yields to cut off and deliver up the beloved lust and right-hand sin. Jacob, being at length forced by the extreme necessity of the case, delivers up that one son that he was most fond of, [if it must be so now, says he;] he is brought, as it were, to yield up the case as to the enjoyment of his children. "If I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved." So sinners must be brought, as it were, to yield up the case as to the enjoyment of their sins. Nature must be brought to yield up the case as to the enjoyment of natural enjoyments. But now although the former price that Jacob sent to Joseph for corn was rejected, yet he, having delivered up Benjamin, is still for purchasing corn with his own price, and therefore sends the best fruits that his land afforded and double money. So sinners under conviction, after they have been seeking salvation by their own righteousness, and have trusted in it for a while, have had comfort in it, and then are disappointed, and find to their surprise that God rejects the price they have offered before their thorough reformation: yet after they have more thoroughly reformed and proceeded further in religion, they make a new attempt, though the price they offered before failed: yet they hope, by doubling their price and offering the best fruits of nature's land, and by delivering up Benjamin, to prevail. Now again Joseph's brethren have new perplexities and discouragements, they are ready to look on their case as desperate; they thought they were taken prisoners (Genesis 43:18). So it often is with sinners under convictions. After this distress they had a great deal of comfort and peace in hope of the acceptance of their present. The steward, who here represents conscience, says to them, "Peace be to you, fear not." They seem to be well accepted and very kindly treated in Joseph's house, and they enjoyed a feast. But this peace and joy of theirs soon vanishes again and comes all to nothing, and, to their great confusion, their double money is found rejected. For now Joseph, that they thought had accepted them, and treated them so kindly for their present, appears more angry than ever with them, and sends a dreadful messenger after them, and lays a heavy charge upon them; fastens the imputation of being enemies more fully than ever upon them, lays their vile treatment of him upon them as deserving death; yea, and by opening their sacks to their view makes the justice of the charge to appear, after they themselves had acknowledged that, if they were guilty as they were charged, death was a just punishment (Genesis 44:9). So sinners under conviction oftentimes, after going far in religion, and after many perplexities and troubles, have at last great peace and joy in their own righteousness, vainly thinking that God accepts them and loves them for their presents that they offer; and they have a feast of false joy: but all soon vanishes, and God appears more angry than ever with them, and a messenger of death is as it were sent to seize them, even Conscience. He that before said to them, "Peace be to you, fear not," and that invited them into Joseph's home, and there made a feast for them, now charges them with enmity and treason, and condemns them to death; and their hearts are laid open by conscience to let them see what is there, even as the steward opened the men's sacks to show them the stolen cup and money; and they are made to own that the crime deserves death. Upon this Joseph's brethren are seized and carried before Joseph, the lord they had sinned against, and there their lord sets the heinousness of their crime before them, and they are brought down to his feet, to lie on the ground before him. Their mouths are stopped, and they confess their iniquity (Genesis 44:16), and are brought to resign themselves into Joseph's hands, to yield that he should be their sovereign and they his servants, but yet to plead for mercy, and then they were prepared for comfort; then Joseph reveals himself to them as their brother; then they are received indeed as friends and brethren, with great and lasting comfort. Then Joseph reveals to them the whole mystery of their salvation from famine, by their selling him, and his humiliation and exaltation in Egypt. And Joseph gives them an inheritance in Goshen, and then they see that it was their brother, and understood his voice (Genesis 45:12). And hereupon they are accepted of Pharaoh, whose deputy Joseph was in the kingdom; and he even Pharaoh, the original king of Egypt, gives them inheritance in the land, and Joseph bids them not regard their stuff, their former possessions, for all the land of Egypt (in this case a type of heaven) was before them; and now they are all clothed with changes of raiment, and they had sufficient provision given them to support them by the way till they came to Egypt, to Goshen, their inheritance, and he charges them not to fall out by the way. When the king exalted Joseph, he gave him a new name. So Christ in the Revelation speaks of His "new name," by which is meant that new honor and glory which He received at His exaltation. Joseph's new name, Zaphnath-paaneah, signifies "revealer of secrets." Christ was the greater revealer of secrets (John 1:18) who came out of the bosom of the Father, and was the great prophet of God to bring to light mysteries that had been kept secret since the world began. Some translate Joseph's new name "the saviour of the world," [see Pool, Syn.] Joseph was in some respect exalted over the whole world; the whole earth was brought into a dependence on him for life. For it is said (Genesis 41:56; Genesis 41:57) all came bending to him, as Joseph's brethren did. So Joseph was in a sense the saviour of the world, and to him every knee bowed, not only in Egypt, but throughout the whole earth. Men were saved by Joseph's word, as we are saved by the Word of Christ. It was his predictions, his warnings, his counsels that saved Egypt, and saved the world.