The Story of Joseph and His Brethren/Part 2/Chapter 4
CHAPTER IV.
THE next act of cruelty which Joseph's brethren did to him is one that finds an obvious similitude in the history of our Lord. Their selling Joseph to the Ishmaelites has its counterpart in Judas selling Jesus. And here there is this special resemblance, in that Judah was the one who counselled his brethren to sell Joseph. Judah and Judas are the same names, and in their perverted character these two men have the same spiritual signification—the highest good turned into the deepest evil. Judah also had gain in view as an end, for he said—"What profit is it if we slay our brother and conceal his blood? come, let us sell him." There is not in these two transactions a perfect likeness. Judah sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites, Judas sold Jesus to the Jews; Joseph was sold for twenty pieces of silver, Jesus was sold for thirty. I do not wish to be understood to say, or try to shew, that there is a strict similarity between the two histories; I only wish to point out such similarities as do exist. Joseph was, indeed, like many others, a type of Jesus; but the similarity between their two histories is an internal one. Outward resemblances are only occasional; but they do occur, and, when they appear, some of the inward analogies are seen cropping out on the surface, and shewing something of what lies below. The purely internal sense lies too deep for young minds clearly to understand it, and therefore only so much is attempted to be given here as seems adequate to the apprehension and the wants of young members of the Church. There is, however, even here, a nearer resemblance between the histories of Joseph and of Jesus than at first sight appears. The Ishmaelites, and also the Midianites who are mentioned in connexion with them, were Gentiles, and represented the Gentiles who existed at the time our Lord came into the world. But the Gentiles are spoken of as enemies to the Lord as well as the Jews, and were equally concerned with the Jews in the Lord's death, though they were not equally guilty. The Gentiles are mentioned by the Lord in connection with the subject of Judas selling Him. In the 20th chapter of Matthew, ver. 18, our Lord says—"Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes; and they shall condemn Him to death, and shall deliver Him to the Gentiles, to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify." This literally took place. The Jews condemned Jesus, and delivered Him into the hands of the Romans, who were Gentiles, who mocked Him, by putting on Him a purple robe and a thorny crown, and who scourged and crucified Him. The reason of this was, that the Jews at that time were subject to the Romans, and these "Gentiles" retained the power of execution in their own hands. When, therefore, the brethren sold Joseph, they delivered him unto the Gentiles. We do not, indeed, read of these Gentiles mocking and scourging Joseph; but they in their turn delivered him unto the Egyptians, who inflicted great suffering upon him.
But there were two classes of Gentiles, as there are two classes of Jews—a class that were good and a class that were absolutely or relatively bad. The good among the Jews were represented by Reuben among the brethren of Joseph, for he not only objected to the proposal of his brethren to put Joseph to death, but endeavoured to rid him out of their hands, and deliver him to his father; the others, who sold Joseph, represented the wicked among the Jews. So there were two different tribes of Gentiles concerned in the disposal of Joseph. He was bought by the Ishmaelites and sold by the Midianites—the Ishmaelites representing the good among the Gentiles who received and acknowledged the Lord at His coming, the Midianites, those who rejected and denied Him.
In Joseph's being taken down into Egypt we behold another striking resemblance or analogy in the Lord's history. Jesus was carried down into Egypt by an express divine command. Here again, indeed, there is a want of strict historical conformity of Joseph's with our Lord's history. The Lord was carried down to Egypt when a "young child;" Joseph when he was a young man. Yet here again there is a greater similarity than at first sight appears. Joseph, in this part of the history, is called a child. When Reuben, who was absent when his brethren sold Joseph, came to the pit into which he had been cast, and found he was not there, he exclaimed in his agony of spirit—"The child is not; and I, whither shall I go?" And the Lord, by the prophet Hosea, speaks of Joseph and of the whole family of Israel who went down to him in Egypt in the same way—"When Israel was a child then I loved him, and called my Son out of Egypt" Israel is said to have been then a child, to express the comparative innocence of the Israelites at that time, and also in allusion to their infancy as a people. This passage in Hosea is quoted by Matthew in relation to the Lord. When relating the flight of Joseph with Jesus and His mother into Egypt, the evangelist says that this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying—"Out of Egypt have I called my Son." (ii. 15.) It is here plainly stated that the descent of Joseph and his father's household into Egypt, was typical of the event of Jesus being carried down there to escape the vengeance of Herod. As Israel went down to be preserved alive in the famine, so Jesus was carried down to be saved alive from the cruelty of the bloody Herod.
But what was the reason for both being led down into that country? It was because in Scripture every place has a spiritual meaning. And the meaning of Egypt may be known from its character at the time the Scriptures were written. In Egypt science and knowledge flourished more than in any other country. The wise men of other countries travelled into Egypt, to study the wisdom which there had her chief seat; for there the remains of ancient religion and intelligence, and the science of all sciences, the science of the correspondence between natural and spiritual things, which constituted the wisdom of the ancient church, found its last retreat when the church came to its end. The Israelitish church was then in its commencement, for it, of course, commenced with Israel; and it was to initiate that church into as much of the ancient wisdom as remained there, that Providence led, first Joseph, and then Israel and his family, down into Egypt. But as the Israelitish was not to be a spiritual church, but only the representative of a spiritual church, it was principally for the sake of making their history representative that the children of Israel went down there. And it was to represent that Jesus our Saviour was to be initiated into science and wisdom, such as Egypt represented, that He was carried down there when a child; for the Lord's outward history was representative of His inward life.