The history of Joseph is one of the most interesting and instructive to be found in the Bible. In it all the virtues and graces are set forth, yet in so natural a manner as not to make the possessor seem lifted out of the range of ordinary mortals.
Joseph is one of the few Bible characters of whom no evil is recorded, yet he is very human in his goodness. His life shows how a young man may cleanse his way, and keep his life pure under the most unfavorable conditions, by taking heed to it according to the word of God. (Psalm 119:9--Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to your word.)
Both Moses and Samuel were early thrown into the midst of evil, but their earliest life was spent in surroundings the most favorable to piety. Joseph, on the other hand, was born into a family where envy and strife, and consequently "confusion and every evil work" (James 3:16) prevailed. The two wives of Jacob were naturally jealous of each other, and the two concubines did not by any mean contribute to the happiness of the family. The sons of these unequal and unnatural unions, were selfish, envious, quarrelsome, cruel, revengeful, and vicious in their lives.
The little lad Joseph, early deprived of his loving mother's care, might naturally have been expected to grow up like his brothers: but he did not. On the contrary, his life from first to last presents a direct contrast to theirs in almost every particular.
It seems as though Joseph was specially exposed to temptation, for when only seventeen years of age he was set to caring for the flock, with the sons of the two maid-servant concubines, (Genesis 37:2) where there was opportunity for him to learn all sorts of wickedness; but their vicious practices made no impression on his pure mind, except that in innocence, and with a desire for their reformation, he "brought unto his father their evil report." (Genesis 37:2)
"The wicked plots against the just, and gnashes upon him with his teeth," (Psalm 37:12) and, "all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." (2 Timothy 3:12)
In being envied and hated by his brethren, as well as in his early knowledge of the fact that God designed great things for him, Joseph was a type of Christ; and the figure is carried to completion in Joseph's kindness to his brethren, in return for their abuse, and in his being the means of their salvation.
In the illustration on the next page the contrast between Joseph and his brethren is strikingly presented by the artist. He was frank, free, open, joyous, and kind-hearted; they were deceitful, morose, sour, and vindictive; and these characteristics are shown in their respective attitudes.
Joseph knew that the others hated him, and he had doubtless been made to feel their spite in many petty ways, even when at home with their father; nevertheless he gladly and patiently accepted the task of finding them and inquiring after their welfare. Joyfully he came to greet them after his, weary wandering, but he encountered only cross, hateful looks, bitter words, and rough usage.
Saved from immediate death, he was sold into slavery so that to him and to his father the suffering was far worse than death. But his mind was soon absorbed in the duties of his new life. What a change for the shepherd lad, from feeding sheep on the plain to a place in the palace of the highest officer of the king of Egypt!
But his head was not turned, nor his mind corrupted, by the display of wealth, and by the contact with vice in more seductive forms than he had ever seen in his country home. Why not? Because "God was with him." (Acts 7:9)
Yet in reality God was no more with him than with every other young man; for: "He is not far from every one of us," (Acts 17:27) and, "In Him we live and move, and have our being." (Acts 17:28)
But Joseph recognized the Divine presence, and loved it. His members were yielded as instruments of righteousness to God, and he was fully under the Spirit's control.
It was no ordinary temptation that came to Joseph, for to seductive beauty was added high position. Surely Potiphar's wife must have great influence, and there was no knowing what preferment might come to Joseph if he but listened to her desires. Many servants would have thought it a high honor to be thus singled out as Joseph was; but none of those things moved him. When tempted in the most open and pressing manner, he rehearsed the entire situation, and said: "How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?" (Genesis 39:9)
Faithfulness to God made him faithful to his earthly master. And what was the immediate reward of his loyalty and virtue? "His feet they hurt with fetters; he was laid in irons." (Psalm 105:18)
Surely he might be excused for becoming downcast and morose, and for murmuring at his fate, if such things are ever excusable. But they are not, and Joseph wasted no time in self-pity. The road to power lay through the dungeon, and if his life were to end there, he would make it fruitful. Even in captivity he was "a fruitful bough." (Genesis 49:22)
He could not see any farther into the future than anybody else can, who is in sore distress from the seeming destruction of all earthly hope, and whose outlook is dark and gloomy. It was necessary to serve in prison, in order to be brought to Pharaoh's notice, and to become even his lord; but Joseph could not know that. Nevertheless he did not worry about the future, nor murmur over the present. Whatever his hand found to do he did it with his might, and for such hands there is always plenty to do. The man with whom God abides will be a ruler even though he be a slave in prison.
With Joseph's final vindication, and his elevation to a place far above that of his former master, Potiphar, and of his success as a deliverer, we have not now to do. That which concerns us most at the present time is the fact of the possibility for a youth to receive such an impulse to virtue that no evil associations can cause him to swerve from the right way.
In the case of Samuel, and especially of Moses, who was for a longer time with his godly mother in a quiet home, we can see clearly the laying of the foundation of such a character; but, so far as the record is concerned, we must go farther back for it in the case of Joseph. What can account for the marvelous difference between the character of Joseph and that of the other sons of the same father, but the fact that Joseph was the child of love, while the others were the fruit of marriages of convenience?
All know the deception that was practiced upon Jacob, by which he got a wife whom he did not love, and how he got the two secondary wives, for whom he never could have had any affection. There could never have been any real happiness in Jacob's household; but between him and Rachel, the beautiful mother of Joseph, there was a bond of love that never was broken. Certainly Joseph had a far nobler birth than his elder brothers, and a much better start in life,--just such a start as every child ought to have.
But although we may not have had the advantage of such a free birth as this, by our earthly parents, we may even now secure all the advantages of it, and far more, through the eternal Father, "who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love." (Colossians 1:13, RV)
Christ is the Son of pure, perfect, everlasting love, and so is free, and of nobler birth than the kings of the earth; and we in Him may be heirs of the same true nobility, partakers of the Divine nature, and free indeed.--Present Truth, February 14, 1901--Genesis 37 to 39.
E.J. Waggoner