Key Characters
Joseph: Jacob’s son.
Joseph: Jesus’s father.
Jesus: Father of all, and mankind’s fellow sufferer.
Introduction
Joseph, in many respect, shared certain similarities with Jesus. They were very similar in suffering, experienced hatred from their kindred; they were victims of rejection by their very own. Joseph was cast into a prison1, likweise descended Jesus2, but of own volition; Joseph was sold for 20 pieces of silver3, Jesus for 304; they both started their God-given ministries at age 305 6. Each of them married only one bride; Jesus - the church7, Joseph Asenath8.
Not in their sufferings alone but also in their glorification. Jesus was elevated to the right hand of God9, and God eulogized Him, calling Him God10. Joseph was advanced to the second-in-command in Egypt11, and he was a father to Pharaoh12. When Benjamin, a brother of Joseph recognized him, he wept13! Oh, how we shall behold Jesus and mourn Him whom we pierced14! Joseph donated two sons to the tribe of Israel, Jesus added the Jews and Gentiles to the tribe of the living. Jesus and Joseph are in heaven. We may do well as Christians to observe his profile for enduring furtherance in our pilgrimage, if every step on this race is aimed at becoming like Jesus.
The birth of Joseph
Genesis 30:23-24 She became pregnant and gave birth to a son. “God has removed my disgrace,” she said. 24] And she named him Joseph, for she said, “May the Lord add yet another son to my family.”
Genesis 30:23-24 And she conceived and bore a son, and said, “God has taken away my reproach.” 24] So she called his name Joseph, and said, “The Lord shall add to me another son.”
Genesis 30:23-24 So she conceived and gave birth to a son; and she said, “God has taken away my disgrace and humiliation.” 24] She named him Joseph (may He add) and said, “May the Lord add to me another son.”
Joseph was born in an environment of great anticipation. He was a cup of water in the draught to Rachel. Birthed by God’s interference, the mother used him as a medium to solicit for another by naming him, Joseph. Joseph is similar to a Hebrew word that translates to “may he add,” and in this case, another son as desired by Rachel. Thus, as far as Joseph lived, he was a prayer to heaven for yet another son each time anyone mentioned His name. He was born out of God’s remembrance, and smart Racheal made him a heaven-reminder for yet another son.
No wonder vision of the preservation of the Abrahamic covenant was given to him. As long as Joseph was alive, he was a worthy reminder to heaven that, God too can, fulfil his promise on earth. Thus as a son, Joseph was made to conceive a heavenly vision. He had a burden. When the vision had been born to bear, and Israel had lost Levi to God and Ruben to his self-inflicted misery, Joseph’s sons - Ephraim and Manasseh - replaced both of them to complete 12 tribes.
Thus, we can conclude that Joseph was a reminder for another. Is God proud or confident enough to bank on us as an offshoot for another stock of what and who you are? Granted, the brand Joseph through teenage was not as yet a reproductive branch. But through the years, he was pruned, well catered and then became a brand God could multiply. Do you want to be useable in God’s hand, contemplated the refining process Joseph went through? Happy are you if you humble yourself under the mighty hand of God to take you through the necessary pit, Potiphar’s palace, prison to becoming a palace-owing primate.
It was not a coincidence that Christ had another Joseph as his earthly father. Partly because Joseph, like Patriarch-Joseph, had a God-approved lifestyle. For we read Joseph was a “righteous man15.” And he was a reminder to God to give mankind another Son - the Firstborn of all sons - Jesus.
Just as Joseph’s dreams was conceived of the Holy Ghost, Mary got a child of the Holy Ghost, and it became a top-secret to be kept by Joseph. And when this child, about whom the angel appeared to Joseph in the dream, could have been killed like the dream of Joseph, they had to go down to Egypt alike - one through the merchant another sponsored by the gift of the wise men from Magi. Similarly, they both made it back to the promised land: one to the land of Canaan and the other to Nazareth.
Are you ransomed, and the storms of life make you feel like you are an accident? Come off that in the name of Jesus! Everything about you is prophetic and instructive. To those in the world, an accident this may, should an would be. But for those in Christ, it is the “how” of everything will work together, which if you skip any now, you may either delay God or miss out on something like that of bitter gulp ending in sweet taste - that rewarding rest that succeeds hard labour.
Joseph the dreamer
Jacob, raising Mr Joseph under a spiritually radiant environment, where the light which was quenched at Bethel has now been kindled in Peniel16, hints at why Joseph had a better and early relationship with the God of his ancestors than any of his brothers before him. This is no doubt a deliberate effort invested by Jacob into training Joseph to forestall all the ills and the headaches he had from other children of his. And to get him better behavioural comportment than them all.
Great was Joseph’s response to the teachings of Jacob. His soul would have leapt in imagining the greatness of His great-grandfather, Abraham. This imagination fascinated God, and He decided to use his imaginative cognizance not in thoughts alone; but also in the subconscious. That is, his dreams.
To catch a dream for God or of God, in any case, demands living a towering life of holiness. A man that must catch the vision of the living God must himself be a live set on a hill, or at least, on his way there. Then and only then, can such see God, and the countenance of God lightens such to carry a vision that makes him/her the light of the world when the world in its dark state. Fast forward to when the world plunged into famine, Joseph, a man of vision, lit the world and stopped it from perishing by enduring with the sight of God he had caught at a very young age. Thus getting a dream, if specifically from God, places one on a mountain top.
Furthermore, while being on a mountain make seeing a vision clearer, chances are that the future to be seen or conceived is placed on a mountain top. This is so that it can be clearly seen. And to also inform the seer that the condition of reaching such goal is being on a mountain top. This connotes that if the seer must see the fulfilment of the seen, he must maintain a similar lifestyle befitting the mountain top that attracted God to commit such vision to him in the first place. He must live on the mountain of holiness. He must live in the northmost heights, a peak which wearies out sin should it attempt to glide.
Therefore, Joseph from a mountain top saw the future God had for the world on another zenith. Surely, in such relations, and because dreams are summary of realities, the magnification of the distant future minifies the valley and the throughs in between the current point and destination! Were Joseph acquainted with the understanding that his brothers living a valley lifestyle of sin were veritable hollows connecting these two peaks, He would not have told them!
Thus, we see that Joseph was lifted up in countenance and lifted up in personality. And did not see the slope of temptation whose gateway led to the dungeon in the connecting valley. Neither did he know that shinning apparels do land one in the wells of life. Nor could he fathom that a man living a trailblazing life within his opposition, fraught with jealousy, is fitter for the pit than a plain.
Dear brother, are you buffeted on some sides because of the heights in which you wish to soar and glitter in holiness for God? Know you not that such dreams, when conceived, elevates you far beyond Satan, who has sworn that even God should not be higher than him in position?
Therefore, he sets you up for persecution! Has God not anointed persecution as a reward and blessing to the sanctification of the saints?
He tempts you! Has the setting up, marking and grading of the examinations warranting our promotion in glory not been contracted to Satan? Should not a willy fellow like him be rubbished by how much we cruise through, acing his tests?
Should God not gain glory and be able to point to us like Christ and ask Satan like Job, “Have you seen my servant <your name goes here>17?” How God has left him an examiner that we may continually project him a failure as far as anyone belonging to Christ is concerned!
No man shall dare a glorious future in Christ which, automatically trips the devil, that shall not be tortured. Hence Christ words not spoken in parables: "…In the world you will have tribulation…18" But greater is He who began a good work in us by giving us visions with eternal dimensions, who is also greater than he who is in the world, and through all wind and waves can wade us into winning.
What a joy to divide the lot with the Rich and the Mighty - to have similar circumstances that befall Christ occur to us! Victory obtained from it while here on earth delivers to one the fore sweet taste of heaven. Such a supper is not for all. But for those who can dare to sacrifice their earthly meals if they constitute a hindrance on their journey up the hill of God’s glory.
