This resulted in a covenant between Abraham and GOD, that would include Abraham’s physical descendants (in the way of temporal blessings) as well as his spiritual descendants who exhibited the same faith in GOD as Abraham did (and inherit the kingdom of Israel (ACTS 1:6; REV 20) and become equal inheritors with the church and other saints in the eternal kingdom; REV 21 and 22).
This included his personal family line, starting with the son of promise, Isaac. Remember that before Isaac came, Abraham had Ishmael (through Hagar), but he wasn’t the son that GOD promised to come through Sarah; the one that GOD promised would be the vehicle by which all the world will be blessed!
We see how GOD’s promise to Abraham will carry on through Isaac and Jacob, and the twelve patriarchs.
Isaac is a type of Christ as seen in GENESIS 22. His bride Rebekah was representative of Christ’s bride, the church (GEN 24). The line of promise continued from Isaac to Jacob (not Esau), and while Jacob and his mother Rebekah connived and schemed on how they might procure both “the blessing” and “the birth right” from the elder son (Esau), none of that was necessary. GOD was with Jacob – even when he was scheming and managing his own life, rather than trusting in the LORD.
We see this when Jacob stayed with his Uncle Laban, and if Jacob was a Master schemer, Uncle Laban was a Grand Master! Nevertheless, GOD watched over Jacob not because he was deserving, but because of GOD’s grace and His promises (This is demonstrated throughout GENESIS 27-35 and beyond):
PSALM 105:7-15IN GENESIS 28 Jacob dreams a vision sent to him by GOD in Bethel (“house of GOD”) and marks his first divine encounter with the LORD. Jacob promises loyalty to the LORD if He will provide for him (not the most spiritual of motivations).
7 He is the LORD our God; His judgments are in all the earth. 8 He remembers His covenant forever, the word which He commanded, for a thousand generations, 9 The covenant which He made with Abraham, and His oath to Isaac, 10 and confirmed it to Jacob for a statute, to Israel as an everlasting covenant, 11 saying, "To you I will give the land of Canaan as the allotment of your inheritance," 12 when they were few in number, indeed very few, and strangers in it. 13 When they went from one nation to another, from one kingdom to another people, 14 He permitted no one to do them wrong; yes, He rebuked kings for their sakes, 15 saying, "Do not touch My anointed ones, And do My prophets no harm.
From GENESIS 29-31 Jacob retreats to Paran and his uncle’s house and receives not one, but two wives (through Laban’s trickery – how does it feel Jacob to have the tables turned on you?). Through Rachel and Leah, Jacob becomes the father of twelve children and eventually departs Uncle Laban’s residence.
GENESIS 32-33 we see Jacob finally reunited with Esau whom he tries to placate with many gifts. Jacob wrestles with “the angel of the LORD” (a theophany of Christ) and He blesses Jacob – how? By making him a cripple (…?!). This is when Jacob’s name was changed to Israel and where he learned to trust in and depend on GOD in his weakness and inability to “manage things” any longer.
Then in GENESIS 35, Jacob recommits his life and his family to the LORD, purging out the idols and all their pagan accoutrements. GOD reaffirms His covenant with this newly named man, Israel.
What does all of this have to do with the Gospel??
You see, GOD is patiently, methodically building a familial line that will bring forth an entire nation, and a kingdom and finally the Messiah. He’s not in a hurry, He doesn’t do anything slipshod and wants to teach us valuable lessons along the way.
We all need the Gospel because we are all born sinners. And these narratives as told in the Old Testament, reveals the live of His saints – but they were far from perfect! Imperfect saints – isn’t that a contradiction? Not at all.
“Saint” in biblical terms simply means those who are elect of GOD, called out of the world to have a special relationship and purpose with the LORD. But by showing the flaws, inconsistencies, and even independent acts of faithlessness, the Bible amply demonstrates that we are a people chosen by GOD in spite of our imperfections. Even so, we see spiritual growth, advancement, maturity among these records of the saints, from which we who have received the Gospel can draw encouragement from!
Now we come to the life of Joseph, and he is an extraordinary type (or model) of Christ in so many ways! In Gleanings In Genesis, A.W. Pink rendered 100 distinct points in which Joseph is a type of Christ!
GENESIS 37:3
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.
While this was an inappropriate example of favoritism on Jacob’s part, as a type, Joseph is used as an example of the LORD Jesus Whose Name is exalted above every name and worshiped worthily – just as Joseph’s brothers eventually worshiped Joseph (exactly as his prophetic dream revealed).
PHILIPPIANS 2:9-11GENESIS 37:4
Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
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.
And just as Joseph was despised and rejected by his brothers, likewise the LORD Jesus was despised.
ISAIAH 53:3It’s important to realize that Joseph and his dreams of exaltation were not well received by his brothers. They rejected him in his youth. But once he matured to manhood, once he was brought to a place of exalted rule, they bowed before him and received him and his exalted position.
He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
LUKE 19:14
"But his citizens hated him, and sent a delegation after him, saying, 'We will not have this man to reign over us.'
The people of Israel, this extended family of Hebrews initially only intended on staying in Egypt until the end of the famine. But due to Joseph being hailed as the savior of Egypt, and the commodious welcome of Jacob and sons by the Egyptian Pharaoh, a brief stay turned into hundreds of years.
In fact, life became so comfortable that GOD had to raise up a Pharaoh “that knew not Joseph” (EXOD 1:8) and that’s when life became hard. Oppressive enslavement to Pharaoh and his kingdom caused the Hebrews to cry out in their bondage.
There is a New Testament parallel at the post-ascension of Christ, Who commanded His disciples to go out into all the world and preach the Gospel – but life in Jerusalem was (relatively) comfortable. So as with Pharaoh with the Hebrews, so the LORD ordained in His sovereignty Saul of Tarsus to assault the church. It was then that they went “out into all the world and preach[ed] the Gospel”!
GOD sent the Deliverer Moses – who like Joseph was not received the first time around when he attempted to deliver the Hebrew slaves by his own power. But upon Moses’ return to Egypt from the land of Midian, endowed with the authority and power of GOD, he was received by his people.
Both Joseph and Moses perfectly model the LORD Jesus Christ in that He too was not received by His people (JOHN 1:11) but upon His return at the battle of Armageddon He will be! This is what Stephen was attempting to teachthe Sanhedrin at his trial in ACTS 7, but when they saw where he was heading (that Israel is destined to receive Y’shua as their Messiah when He presents Himself the second time), that was too much for him, and they martyred Stephen.
What’s the purpose of all these “types” (one could call them models) of Christ? They are sign posts – biblical “heads up” to point to the central Person of the Scriptures. The entire Book is not only for our learning (ROM 15:4), but as a witness of the Coming One (JOHN 5:39).
GENESIS 37:25-27
25 And they sat down to eat a meal. Then they lifted their eyes and looked, and there was a company of Ishmaelites, coming from Gilead with their camels, bearing spices, balm, and myrrh, on their way to carry them down to Egypt. 26 So Judah said to his brothers, "What profit is there if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? 27 "Come and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother and our flesh." And his brothers listened.
Those of us who know the story understand that it was the intent of many of Joseph’s brothers to kill him, but Reuben intervened, and Judah who convinced them all to sell him into slavery. How interesting that Judah thought of the idea of selling Joseph, when it was the descendent of Judah – Y’shua ha Mashiach – Who was Himself sold by Judas for thirty pieces of silver – ten more shekels than the going price for Joseph (GEN 37:28).
Then when it came time to face their father Jacob, they did so with Joseph’s glorious garment with the blood of a kid on it. That “coat of many colors” was a glory to Joseph, and his father saw it stained with blood (presumably that of his son, as far as Jacob knew).
The LORD Jesus Christ laid aside His glory, and allowed Himself to be slain, shedding his blood for the remission of our sins.
Joseph as a member of the human race was of course a sinner just like the rest of us, but as a foreshadowing of Christ, the record of Scripture doesn’t record any overt instance of any sin he might have committed!
Even when he was faced with inordinate temptations – such as the continual luring of Potiphar’s wife (GEN 39:10), he maintained his integrity:
GENESIS 39:8-9
8 But he refused and said to his master's wife, "Look, my master does not know what is with me in the house, and he has committed all that he has to my hand. 9 "There is no one greater in this house than I, nor has he kept back anything from me but you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?"
On a side note: though he was innocent, Potiphar imprisoned Joseph. I might be stretching this too far, but if Potiphar truly believed his wife’s story, he would have been justified in killing a slave like Joseph. He didn’t – but he had to respond to this infraction in some way. To ignore it would be unseemly. So he put Joseph in prison – incidentally, that’s the one place Joseph would be safe from Potiphar’s wife: a blessing in disguise!
As the rest of this book of GENESIS plays out, we see Joseph, having been gifted with the interpretation of dreams by the LORD, was able to interpret Pharaoh’s dreams (not unlike Daniel was able to interpret Nebuchadnezzar’s dream) and showed uncommon wisdom in his counsel to Pharaoh.
The ruler of the then world empire according to his shrewd discernment appointed Joseph as the “second in command” over all of Egypt. Joseph went from a place of utter humiliation – sold into slavery, falsely accused and imprisoned – to a place of exaltation and glory.
He was in a position then to spare Pharaoh, his entire royal household as well as all Egypt from the tremendous dearth that plagued the entire Middle East, including Canaan where his family dwelled. This is a microcosm in the physical of the greater spiritual salvation of Christ offered to all the world (1 TIM 2:4; 1 JOHN 2:2)
Joseph summed it up rather well concerning his brother’s misdeed:
GENESIS 50:20
"But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.
And because of GOD’s orchestrating things behind the scenes, observing the sin against Joseph, but still able to see His will done, the family of Israel survived, and thrived in Goshen, there in Egypt.
In GENESIS Ch. 49 we see Jacob prophesying over all of his sons, and the one of particular note is not his first born (Reuben) or even Joseph, of whom this latter portion of Scripture focuses on.
GENESIS 49:8-12
8 "Judah, you are he whom your brothers shall praise; Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; Your father's children shall bow down before you. 9 Judah is a lion's whelp; From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He bows down, he lies down as a lion; And as a lion, who shall rouse him? 10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor a lawgiver from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes; And to Him shall be the obedience of the people. 11 Binding his donkey to the vine, And his donkey's colt to the choice vine, He washed his garments in wine, And his clothes in the blood of grapes. 12 His eyes are darker than wine, And his teeth whiter than milk.
We see here that “the scepter” will not depart from this tribe, speaking of the political power and government of the nation. We learn that the tribe of Levi is not spoken of favorably here (along with Simeon; GEN 49:5-7) but later on they inherited the priesthood and the ministry of the Tabernacle (and the Temple).
These tribes were mutually exclusive in their duties; no one of the tribe of Judah was to become a priest; no one of Levi was to become a king. And none of the other ten tribes could become either (with the sole exception of Saul, the first king of Israel who came from the tribe of Benjamin).
GEN 49:10 states: “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor a lawgiver from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes; And to Him shall be the obedience of the people.”
Judah’s men were eligible to lead in their government, and we see later on that this was specified to the House of David, but all such leadership would end, when? When “Shiloh” comes. A word we now understand is in reference to the Prince of Peace, the Messiah.
This was why the religious leadership was in mourning around 6-7 C.E., because their autonomy was stripped from them by the Roman Empire, effectively removing “the scepter” and yet Shiloh had not yet come. They believed the Word of GOD had been broken (an impossibility), but they didn’t know that in Nazareth there was a young Jewish boy, learning a trade by his step-father, whose name was Joseph (both he and his wife being of the House of David). This One Who was born of a virgin and in a couple of decades would step into the Jordan, be baptized and begin a three year ministry that would irrevocably change the world.
As we examined previously, as with Joseph and Moses who were both rejected by the people the first time, received the second – the LORD Jesus also was rejected of men (ISA 53:8; JOHN 1:11) but when He returns, this latter half of the prophecy uttered by Jacob will be fulfilled:
“…And to Him shall be the obedience of the people.”
Jacob and his kin entered Egypt as a family – and they will leave it as an entire nation – and GOD’s perfect plan of the Gospel continued! Israel would one day enter the land promised to Abraham, all twelve tribes, including the tribe of Judah, from which would come the Messiah!
But the plan in all of its marvelous details GOD still had much to reveal throughout the entire Torah and the rest of the Tanakh! Next time we’ll look into EXODUS and choose some specific aspects of this Perfect Plan!
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