JOSEPH:  A MODEL OF VIRTUE… Understanding important truths from the Bible….

Genesis 37: 2-4 NKJV

² This is the history of Jacob.

Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brothers. And the lad was with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives; and Joseph brought a bad report of them to his father.

³ Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age. Also he made him a tunic of many colors. ⁴ But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peaceably to him.

Joseph is a comely (symmetry or due proportion) person.  He, in the account of him in scripture, always seemed to say and do the right things.  There are only two other people, Jesus not considered, who seem to compare with him—Daniel and the young king Josiah.

Whether it was right for Joseph to “rat out” his brothers I do not know.  I don’t know about their behavior or the culture of that day.  My ignorance is adequate excuse for my silence.

But without a doubt Jacob’s favoritism was sure to cause jealousy and spitefulness which quickly developed in Jacob’s family.

Andrew Fuller in his commentary on Genesis The Book of Genesis, Practical Reflections, 1805, London England, page 112-113, writes:

Joseph seems to have been the only one in the family who had hitherto discovered either the fear of God, or the duty of a child.  From these considerations his father might be allowed to love him with a peculiar affection, but his clothing him with a “a coat of many colours,” was a weakness calculated only to excite envy and ill will in his brethren.  If he had studied to provoke these dispositions, he could scarcely have done it more effectually.

The character of Joseph is so exceptional Arthur W. Pink in Gleanings in Genesis, lists 100 ways Joseph is a type of Christ.  This is at the best excessive, and at the worst an unfortunate mistake.

Fuller in the previously mentioned commentary states in a far more acceptable way,

I would offer a few words on the question, Whether Joseph is to be considered as a type of Christ?—I am far from thinking that every point of analogy which may be traced by a live imagination, was designed as such by the holy spirit; yet neither do I think that we are warranted to reject the idea.  We have already seen that God prepared the way for the coming of his Son, by a variety of things, in which the great principles of his undertaking were pre-figured, and so rendered familiar to the minds of men; and he pursued the same object by a variety of persons, in whom the life and character of Christ were in some degree previously manifest.  Thus Melchisedec prefigured him as a priest, Moses as a prophet, and David as a king; and I cannot but think that in the history of Joseph there is a portion of designed analogy between them.  (Page 111-112)

Whatever the reason may be, the Holy Spirit has not chosen to reveal Joseph’s faults.  He was a sinner.  We know this—he died.

But the last we hear of this Saint, he is saying:

Genesis 50:24-26

²⁴ And Joseph said to his brethren, “I am dying; but God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land to the land of which He swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” ²⁵ Then Joseph took an oath from the children of Israel, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.” ²⁶ So Joseph died, being one hundred and ten years old; and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.

Exodus 13:17, 19

¹⁷ Then it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, “Lest perhaps the people change their minds when they see war, and return to Egypt.”

¹⁹ And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for he had placed the children of Israel under solemn oath, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here with you.”

Hebrews 11:22

²² By faith Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the departure of the children of Israel, and gave instructions concerning his bones.

It is by the same faith that we believe that our Israel will bring our bones out of Egypt.  It is “when” not “if”.