The Story of Joseph and His Brethren/Part 2/Chapter 2
CHAPTER II.
AFTER his birth, as I have already remarked, we learn nothing more of Joseph till he was seventeen years of age. He is then introduced to us as Israel's best beloved son. As Rachel was more loved than Leah, Joseph, the first-born of Rachel, was loved more than the sons of Leah, and more than Benjamin also. The resemblance and analogy of this in the case of Jesus is well known. Jesus is called the beloved son of his Father, or the son of his Father's love. At the Lord's baptism, when the heavens were opened unto Him, there came a voice from heaven, saying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased;" and a similar voice was heard at His transfiguration. There is a difference in the nature of the connection between Jesus and His Father and that of the connection between Joseph and his father, as great a difference as there is between the infinite and the finite. The Lord and His Father are not two distinct persons, as Joseph and Jacob were. At first they were two distinct natures, the Divine and human; and even now, though not two distinct natures, they are two distinct principles, or essentials, like the soul and body in each of us. If Joseph was a type of the Lord as the Son of God, Jacob or Israel may, in a certain sense, be considered as a type of God as the Father of Jesus. But what can be the meaning of the statement that Jacob loved Joseph because he was the son of his old age? It is certain that old age cannot be predicated of the Father of Jesus, for "He is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." Old age in those who represented God signified the eternity of God—He whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. But still more resembling the idea of old age is the description of the Eternal in Daniel, where He is called "The Ancient of Days."
As a manifestation of Jacob's love for Joseph, he made him a coat of many colours. This we shall find, if we reflect, has a very beautiful meaning in reference to the Lord Jesus. Before we can see it, we must attend to the Scripture signification of garments. In the Revelation we read that they who followed the Lamb, that is the Lord, were arrayed in fine linen, white and clean; for fine linen is the righteousness of saints. Here it is plainly stated that the spiritual garments of saints is their righteousness. It is common for us to speak of things belonging to the mind in this kind of language. We speak of fine writers and speakers clothing their thoughts in beautiful language. And so may we with equal propriety speak of virtuous people clothing their good and benevolent intentions in beautiful deeds, these deeds being garments of righteousness. So the pure and holy deeds of saints are their spotless and shining garments. But our Lord's garments are frequently spoken of, not only while He was on earth, but after He had ascended into and now that He is in heaven. We read of persons being healed by touching the hem of His garment, and of the soldiers at His crucifixion dividing His garments and casting lots on His vesture. We read also that when He was transfigured on the mount, His face was as the sun, and His raiment was white as the light. While the Lord was on earth He was indeed clothed with natural garments, but these garments signified His righteousness, and those with which He is said now to be clothed are His righteousness. It was because His garments had this meaning that the touching of them healed the diseased; and that the rending and dividing of His garments at His crucifixion represented the rejection by the wicked of His truth and righteousness from themselves. What, then, did Joseph's coat of many colours signify in reference to the Lord, whom Joseph represented? We may here repeat that Joseph's coat was made of many pieces, which the word more strictly means. Yet it is no doubt to be understood that these pieces were of different colours; for the coats or garments worn in those times would not require to be made of many different pieces, unless it had been for the sake of having it composed of different colours. As the Lord's garments signified or represented His righteousness, Joseph's the literal sense, for this clothes the spiritual sense; for in the literal sense of the Word the Lord's Divine thoughts are clothed in language and in imagery that bring them down to our feeble capacities. If the literal sense of the Word is understood by the coat which Jacob made for his son, then the many different books of which the Bible is composed, are the many pieces of the mystic coat; Genesis is one piece of this sacred garment, Exodus another, the Psalms another, Isaiah another, and all the other books are different parts. Each of all these may be said to have a different colour: that is, each presents the Lord's Divine truth under a different quality and aspect; no two are alike, yet they all harmonise like the various colours of the rainbow. As all the various colours come from the one pure white light, so do all the different books, and even all the different truths of the Divine Word, come from the one pure truth, which has its fountain in God, as pure white light has its fountain in the sun. The history tells us that Joseph's father made this peculiar coat for Joseph, which fact teaches us, in its reference to the Lord, that the Divine nature which dwelt within Him was the fountain of that ineffable Divine light, which was manifested in the human nature of our Lord in the various beautiful truths He taught and the many beneficent works He performed, which, we have remarked, were shed forth like so many rich hues and varieties of Divine truth to charm and instruct our minds.