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Jacob
Evaluations of Jacob and his character go from one extreme to the other. Some see him as a misjudged man who was not a schemer but the victim of the schemes of others. See I Have Loved Jacob by Joseph Hoffman Cohn (Orangeburg, NY: American Board of Missions to the Jews, 1948). Others do not see one good thing in him at all. Whatever we may think about Jacob, let’s remember that God loved him (Mal. 1:2; Rom. 9:13) and deigned to be called “the God of Jacob,” and that Jacob was the father of the twelve tribes of Israel.
There is no record that the Lord personally condemned Jacob for what he did and said, although he did chasten Jacob and allow his sins to find him out. Jacob’s life is certainly shrouded in conflict—with Esau in the womb (Gen. 25:22) and afterward, with his wives, with Laban, and with the Lord; but the Lord never deserted him (Gen. 28:15). Some students see in Abraham the image of the Father who gives his Son, in Isaac the Son who gives his life, and in Jacob the conflict between the flesh and the Spirit. The period from Jacob’s birth to his flight from home covers seventy-five years. From Bethel to Peniel is a period of twenty years. From Peniel to his death, fifty-two years. W. Graham Scroggie saw in the first period Jacob the natural man, in the second period Jacob the carnal man, and in the third period Jacob the spiritual man (A Treasury of W. Graham Scroggie, ed. Ralph G. Turnbull [Grand Rapids: Baker, 1974], 139–43).
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How like our own is Jacob’s history! Until God begins to deal with us, we are inclined to take a superior attitude to Jacob’s intrigues, but as we begin to encounter the deviousness of our own thinking, we soon recognize the man’s essential character in ourselves. And remember, what changed Jacob’s life from vanity to profit was nothing less than the power of divine grace.
Watchman Nee, A Table in the Wilderness, June 27
We must take note that Jacob always gave God the credit for anything good that happened to him. See Genesis 31:1–16, 42; 32:9–12; 35:3; 48:11, 15–16. People think of Jacob as a troublemaker. In his disobedience, he brought trouble to himself; but God used him to bless others. He blessed Laban (Gen. 30:27–30), Pharaoh (Gen. 47:7, 10), his twelve sons (Gen. 49), and Joseph’s sons (Gen. 48). God had blessed Jacob (Gen. 32:29; 35:9) and he blessed others (see Gen. 12:1–3).
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“The elder shall serve the younger” (Gen. 25:23; Rom. 9:10–13). God often bypassed the firstborn and chose the second-born: Abel, not Cain; Isaac, not Ishmael; Jacob, not Esau; Ephraim, not Manasseh. David was the eighth son in Jesse’s family, but God made David His firstborn (Ps. 89:3, 27). God rejects our first birth and accepts only the second birth. “You must be born again” (John 3:7).
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Jacob was “a plain man” (Gen. 25:27 KJV), “peaceful” (NASB), “quiet” (NIV).
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Let us keep this in mind, that although Jacob had all these failings, God was with him, and blessed him, and condescended to call himself the God of Jacob, the God of Israel; and this all magnifies grace…. Oh, may God help us to learn a lesson from Jacob; and may we know what it is to put ourselves wholly in God’s hands, and let God plan for us.
D. L. Moody, The Gospel Awakening, p. 626
Primarily, this man’s life story is a revelation of the patience of God…. The central lesson is the revelation of the value of faith, however fearful it is.
GCM, 26 Sermons, 3:96
Jacob … has so many points of contact with ourselves…. His failings speak to us…. His aspirations speak to us…. His sorrows speak to us.
Meyer, Israel, pp. 12–13
Genesis 28–31
God revealed Jacob to himself. He might have gone on for years in dreary self-content, ignorant of the evils that lurked within his heart.
Meyer, Israel, p. 56
Jesus identified Himself with Jacob’s ladder (John 1:43–51).
Isaac believed Jacob was Esau, and Jacob believed Leah was Rachel.
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O what a tangled web we weave
When first we practice to deceive.
Sir Walter Scott
He works for seven years for his wife, and then gets another woman in her place. He had started out wrong with a lie on his lips (Gen. 27:18–24), and now he gets paid back in his own coin.
Moody, Words, Work, and Workers, p. 162
No marriage is heaven-made, heaven-sent or heaven-sanctioned, which does not spring from a supreme love. Alas, how many marry from some less worthy motive!
Meyer, Israel, p. 67
Speaking generally, I should say that Leah had the keys of Jacob’s house, Rachel the keys of Jacob’s heart. Leah seems to have influenced his judgment; Rachel never ceased to hold his love.
GM-RWB, p. 115
Peniel (Genesis 32)
At Bethel, God met Jacob in tenderness and encouragement, even though he had sinned against his father and his brother. God assured him and promised to care for him. It was not at Bethel but at Peniel that God wrestled with Jacob. First he blesses us, then he breaks us. It is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance (Rom. 2:4).
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Is not this the key to God’s dealing with us all? He brings us into sore straits; He shuts us up in a corner…. At such moments there is only one resource left. It is Himself! We must fly to God to escape from God.
Meyer, Israel, p. 96
It is a strange thing how often in the Bible you find that, far from healing people, God crippled them. He crippled Jacob, so that even though he was renamed Israel, “a prince with God,” he “halted upon his thigh” from the day he met and wrestled with God.
Redpath, Making of a Man, p. 190
“What is your name?” (Gen. 32:27). The last time Jacob answered that question, he lied and claimed to be Esau (Gen. 27:18–19). Now he told the truth and God blessed him because he did.
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He who limps is still walking.
He had abandoned the posture of defense and resistance and had fastened himself on to the Angel—as a terrified child clasps its arms tightly around its father’s neck. That is a glad moment in the history of the human spirit when it throws both arms around the risen Savior, and hangs on Him, and will not let Him go. It is the attitude of blessing. It is the position of power.
Meyer, Israel, p. 102
As the years go on, we begin to cling where once we struggled.
Meyer, Israel, p. 104
This passage [Jacob’s wresthng] is often quoted as an instance of Jacob’s earnestness in prayer. It is nothing of the sort. It is an instance of God’s earnestness to take from us all that hinders our truest life, while we resist Him with all our might and main. [Earnest prayer is sometimes pictured by the metaphor of wresthng. See Col. 4:12 NIV.]
Meyer, Israel, pp. 99–100
Genesis 33–50
I think the trouble with a great many people is that they have gone down to Shechem instead of going to Bethel.
Moody, Words, Work, and Workers, p. 164
Jacob pitched his tent before the city. Are not many Christians doing so still? They live on the edge of the world, just on the borderland; far enough away to justify a religious profession, yet near enough to run into it for sweets.
Meyer, Israel, p. 110
And Lot pitched his tent toward Sodom.
Genesis 13:12
The birth of Benjamin was a very special blessing, but Jacob’s latter years brought him many trials. His favorite wife Rachel died and also her nurse Deborah (Gen. 35). His son Reuben defiled his father’s bed (35:22; see 49:4), and Judah committed sin with his daughter-in-law, Tamar (Gen. 38). His father Isaac died (35:27–29). All of this preceded the long struggle Joseph had with his brothers and the sorrow Jacob felt for twenty-two years because he thought Joseph was dead.
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When it came to Joseph’s years in Egypt, Jacob and Joseph had two different viewpoints. Not knowing that Joseph was alive, Jacob said, “All these things are against me!” (Gen. 42:36), when actually everything was working for him (Rom. 8:28). Looking back on his own experiences, Joseph said to his brothers, “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good” (Gen. 50:20).
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Abraham went down to Egypt against the will of God and brought trouble (Gen. 12), but Jacob went to Egypt in the will of God and brought blessing (Gen. 46:1–4).
[Genesis 48:1–7] Two places and two persons crowd out everything else from his vision—Bethel, where God appeared to him, and Ephrath, where Rachel was taken from him. Faith and love—a great religious blessing and a tender earthly happiness—have made him the man he is and sum up his life.
Strahan, Hebrew Ideals, p. 337
Note how often the name Israel is used instead of Jacob (Gen. 48:8, 10, 11, 14).
Genesis 49 is both a prophecy (v. 1) and a blessing (v. 28). The old father let some skeletons out of the closet and revealed the consequences of family sins. The three eldest sons—Reuben, Simeon, and Levi—are written down as failures (vv. 3–7). Reuben was guilty of a sin of the flesh and lost the blessing of the firstborn. He was replaced by Joseph, who was Jacob’s firstborn by Rachel. Simeon and Levi were guilty of anger and violence and were replaced by Joseph’s two sons Ephraim and Manasseh.
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Hebrews 11:21 says two things about Jacob’s death: he blessed his sons and he leaned on his staff. He was a pilgrim to the very end! See Genesis 32:10 and 47:9. Death is the last test of our faith, and if we have walked as pilgrims with the Lord, we will be triumphant.
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Jacob’s funeral (Gen. 50:10–11) must have been a strong witness to the people of the pagan nations in the area. How believers die and are buried is indeed their last witness.
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He had touched me in the seat of my natural strength and now, broken and shattered through solitary confinement with everything gone, my work, my liberty, my Bible, and now it seemed life itself, I could only cling to him for his blessing. I would no doubt never be the same again. Then like a shaft of light in the mind, the relevance of Jacob’s act of faith in Hebrews, where he is seen leaning on his staff in worship…. What does it matter if I come up from the waters limping? What does it matter if I am never the same again, provided my name is Israel? Then as a prince with God, having no confidence in the flesh, will I lean on my staff for my lameness and worship ’til the day dawn and the shadows flee away…. I remembered that God’s Word said that, as Jacob passed over Penuel, the sun rose upon him. So after this, I viewed everything as walking into the dawning, going on into the golden daybreak and the morning without a cloud.
Geoffrey T. Bull, When Iron Gates Yield (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1976), p. 188
Jeremiah
Babylon is mentioned over two hundred times in Jeremiah’s prophecy. The word sword is used seventy-one times. But the key word is heart, used seventy-five times. Jeremiah is preeminently “the prophet of the heart.” His messages reveal his own heart as well as the heart of God. “Though the story of his life is fragmentary,” wrote Hugh Black, “we can read the story of his heart…. We see a timid, shrinking man in process of hardening to be made the prophet required for his generation” (Listening to God, 277). Judah was a backslidden nation (Jer. 2:19; 3:6, 8, 11, 12, 22; 5:6; 8:5; 14:7; Lam. 1:14; 3:27), and Jeremiah called the rulers, priests, and people to return to the Lord. The prophet uses the word travail to describe the coming judgment (4:31; 6:24; 13:21; 22:23; 30:6; 49:34; 50:43), a word of pain but also a word of hope; for the woman in travail joyfully brings forth new life into the world (John 16:20–22). It was not Judah’s exile in Babylon that broke Jeremiah’s heart but Judah’s sins that demanded the exile. God can bring his people back to their land, but God can’t force them to return to him. Jeremiah was a quiet and retiring man who was pushed into the trenches, and he depended much on prayer (Jer. 7:16; 11:14, 18–20; 12:1–4, 11; 15:10, 15–18; 17:14–18; 18:19–23; 20:7–11, 14–18).
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You made much of your own weakness, now what are you going to make of God’s strength? … Get into the irreligious habit of measuring everything by your own resources; of asking whether you are personally equal to this or that task; and in all probability you will cower in abject fear before the burden and servitude of life; but get into the contrary habit—the habit of setting God always at your right hand, and of being sure that Right must prevail, that the helping angels never tire, that though God’s mill grinds slow, it grinds exceeding small; fix these great things in your heart, and then up the steepest road you will walk with a firm step, and the coldest night-wind will neither shorten nor trouble your song.
Joseph Parker, The Ark of God, pp. 173–74
The task of the prophet is not to smooth things over but to make things right.
Eugene Peterson, Run with the Horses, p. 89
Are you going to live cautiously or courageously?
Peterson, Run with the Horses, p. 18
Life is a continuous exploration of ever more reality. Life is a constant battle against everyone and everything that corrupts or diminishes its reality…. Some people as they grow up become less…. Other people as they grow up become more…. Always [Jeremiah] was pushing out the borders of reality, exploring new territory. And always he was vigorous in battle, challenging and contesting the shoddy, the false, the vile.
Peterson, Run with the Horses, p. 24
I am tired of hearing the words “I can’t.” Jeremiah said, “I am a child”; but the Lord didn’t pat him on the back and say, “Jeremiah, that is very good. I like that in you; your humility is beautiful.” Oh, no! God didn’t want any such mock humility. He reproved and rebuked it. I do not like the humility that is too humble to do what it is bid. When my children are too humble to do as they are bid, I pretty soon find some way to make them; I say, “Go and do it!” The Lord wants us to “go and do it.”
Catherine Booth, They Said It, p. 56
[Jeremiah 12:5] There is no attempt at explanation. God never explains Himself in a ready-made fashion. God explains Himself through life. God explains Himself by deeds…. The answer to the complaint against the hardness of his lot is simply the assertion that it shall be harder still.
Hugh Black, Listening to God, p. 231
It was the answer Jeremiah needed. He needed to be braced, not pampered. He is taught the need of endurance…. God appeals to the strength in Jeremiah, not to the weakness.
Black, Listening to God, p. 282
The prophet Jeremiah is perhaps the most misunderstood of all the Bible characters. His very name has been made a word in English, jeremiad, which means to us a tirade, and a long and tedious complaint.
Hugh Black, According to My Gospel, p. 95
How unjust is the common idea of the weeping prophet. It is not private sorrow, but the grief of a true patriot. Other prophets had often to speak words of hope, but his message was one of doom.
Black, According to My Gospel, p. 103
We are all tempted to turn to the easy ways of escaping the burden [Jer. 9:2]. We can learn from Jeremiah the paramount claims of duty. Learn to give up all the undisciplined desires and unchastened dreams after self-satisfaction. Learn to submit personal inclinations to the great call to be true to God and the right.
Black, According to My Gospel, p. 103
Life demands from you the strength you possess. Only one feat is possible—not to have run away.
Hammarskjöld, Markings, p. 8
Ah, if you knew what peace there is in an accepted sorrow!
Madame Guyon
Jeremiah was not allowed to have a wife (Jer. 16:1–4), for he was a sign that there was no future for that generation, for they rejected God. Hosea’s wife proved unfaithful to him and he had to buy her back out of the shameful slave market, a sign that God would not abandon his people. Ezekiel’s wife was taken from him in death (Ezek. 24:15–27) and he was forbidden to show public sorrow. God would destroy Jerusalem and the temple because Judah deserved to be punished, and the people should not mourn.
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Job
The theme of Job is not “Why do the righteous suffer?” The theme of Job is “Do the righteous believe that God is worth suffering for?” Satan’s challenge to the Lord was that Job was a godly man only because God had blessed him. It was part of the bargain: “You bless me and I will obey you.” But Job’s faith in God was much deeper than Satan imagined. Although Job uttered some impetuous words, he did not sin as did his three friends and Elihu, and the Lord told Job to pray for them! The Lord affirmed that Job was a godly man, and so did Ezekiel (14:14, 20). It was Satan who slandered his character and God who defended it.
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They [Job’s three friends] plead a poor cause well, while Job pleads a good cause poorly.
John Calvin
It is faith’s work to claim and challenge lovingkindness out of all the rough strokes of God.
Samuel Rutherford
I had a million questions to ask God: but when I met Him, they all fled my mind, and it didn’t seem to matter. [See Job 23:3–4; 31:35.]
Christopher Morley
Be silent about great things; let them grow inside you.
Baron Friedrich von Hugel
As one grows older and gains a little wisdom one increasingly hesitates to give advice. Probably the hidden reason for that hesitancy is that advice implies seniority. Nobody really wants to be impertinent, and, unless there is real love and understanding, advice is apt to savor of impertinence. When Job was prosperous and wealthy, we do not hear of his friends offering advice. They kept that for the days when he was wretched, and the glory of his prosperity had vanished. The most irritating thing about these men is not the bland assumption of their arguments, it is their assumption of superiority. One could tell that the disciples were young men by their great readiness to give advice. They did not hesitate to advise the Lord Himself.
GHM, The Gateways of the Stars, p. 244
The Book of Job is not strictly a pessimistic book. It does not despair of the universe—spite of all its sorrows! What it does despair of is the adequacy of any one of man’s existing theories, or all of these theories united, to furnish a solution of its sorrows.
GM-RMB, 1:351
Now, observe carefully why the Book of Job rejects old theories of the origins of pain. It has because it has found a new theory. All the former ones had explained suffering as the result of defect in the creature. Here, the bold view is advanced that it had its origin in a need felt by the Creator—the Divine need for love…. “Oh!” cries Satan, “nobody loves you for yourself, not even Job! You have made it worthwhile to serve you.” … Satan has put his hand upon a real weakness—[man’s] association of Divine love with temporal rewards.
GM-RMB, 1:352–53
His friends wanted to rob him of his patience—to take away his power to wait without a reason.
GM-RMB, 1:360
In fact Job has not received any logical answers to the precise questions which he asked…. For God’s answer is not an idea, a proposition, like the conclusion of a theorem; it is Himself. He revealed Himself to Job; Job found personal contact with Him (Job 42:1).
Paul Tournier, Guilt and Grace, p. 86
John the Baptist
Like Jeremiah and Ezekiel, he was a priest called to be a prophet. Jeremiah announced the new covenant (Jer. 31:31ff), Ezekiel described the new temple (Ezek. 40–48), and John pointed to the new sacrifice, the Lamb of God (John 1:29). John had the special privilege of introducing the Messiah to the nation. John was a voice, but Jesus is the Word (John 1:1–4, 23); John was the best man, but Jesus is the Bridegroom (John 3:27–30); John was a lamp but Jesus is the Light of the World (John 5:35; 8:12). Before he was born, John rejoiced in Jesus (Luke 1:39–45); in life, he pointed to Jesus (John 1:29); and after death he brought people to Jesus (John 10:40–42). And all this without performing a single miracle!
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John was also a road-builder, a trail-blazer (Isa. 40:3; Matt. 3:1–3). He prepared and announced the way for God and sinners to come together. That is the purpose of our witness, to clear the way so sinners can come home to God.
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John was not a reed blowing in the wind (Luke 7:25). The “winds of doctrine” did not sway him (Eph. 4:14).
John sought no honor among men. It was his delight to say concerning our Lord Jesus, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30)…. A man is not to be estimated according to his rank but according to his character.
CHS, 26:401
The very spirit of the Christian ministry consists in those blessed words, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” I fulfill my course, it will soon be done, I point to Christ.
F. W. Robertson, Sermons, 5:150
Think of this! Thirty years’ preparation for one year’s work.
F. W. Robertson, Sermons, 5:258
What he had learned in the desert was contained in a few words—Reality lies at the root of religious life…. Personal reformation, personal reality, that was John’s message to the world.
F. W. Robertson, Sermons on Biblical Subjects, p. 149
John laid the axe to the root of the trees (Matt. 3:10). He was a radical. The English word radical comes from the Latin word radix, meaning “root.” He belonged to no religious party, he accepted no entertainment in people’s homes, he catered to no politicians. He was a “loner” in the service of the Lord.
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John Mark. See Mark
Jonah
There is no worse enemy, nor one more troublesome to the soul, than you are to yourself, if you are not in harmony with the Spirit.
Thomas à Kempis
We may never plead providential arrangement as an excuse for doing wrong…. [Jonah] walks on the quay, and the first thing he sees is a ship going to Tarshish! … I pray you never blaspheme God by laying your sins on the back of His providence.
CHS, 36:597
Jonah saw God’s will as punishment. Jesus saw God’s will as nourishment (John 4:34).
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It is what Jonah does that is important, not so much what he says. In chapter 1, he is a “prodigal son” who wanted to flee to the far country and avoid obeying God’s will. In chapter 2, he prays for forgiveness and restoration, and God graciously grants his requests. In chapters 3 and 4, he is an “elder brother” who grudgingly obeys and then sits outside the city hoping for judgment to fall! Yet in all this, he is a “sign” of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the one greater than Jonah (Matt. 12:39–41).
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According to Jonah chapter 1, everything cooperated with the Lord except Jonah—the wind and the sea, the great fish, and even the heathen sailors. Jonah would not try to rescue the pagan city of Nineveh from destruction, but the unconverted sailors tried to rescue Jonah. Yet Jonah was the cause of their peril!
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God is in our comforts, for He prepared a plant to shade Jonah (4:5–6). God is in our bereavements and losses, for He prepared a worm to destroy the plant (4:7). God is in our severest trials, for He prepared a vehement wind to make Jonah miserable (4:8).
Adapted from CHS, 43:75
Read Father Mapple’s sermon on Jonah in chapter 8 of Moby Dick by Herman Melville.
Joseph
Why did Jacob have a special love for Joseph? Joseph was born to Jacob in his old age (Gen. 37:3), the son of his favorite wife Rachel, and no doubt Joseph inherited her beauty (Gen. 29:17; 39:6). When Jacob looked at Joseph, he saw Rachel. But certainly Jacob detected a mature spiritual quality in Joseph that was lacking in the older sons, and Jacob suspected that God had something special in store for the boy. When Joseph shared his dreams with the family, Jacob did not understand them but he did ponder them (Gen. 37:11). Joseph’s special garment elevated him above the other sons as though he were the firstborn in charge of the estate, but this only motivated the brothers to envy him (Gen. 37:3–4, 11; Acts 7:9) and hate him (Gen. 37:5, 8). “Will you be firstborn and rule over us?” They sold him, and what God had planned came to pass. They meant it for evil, but God meant it for good (Gen. 50:20). The dreams that God gave to Joseph were the assurance that one day he would reign. But dreams without disciplines become nightmares, so God sent Joseph to Egypt to serve and to suffer for thirteen years (Matt. 25:23).
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[Genesis 37:2] He [Joseph] was jealous for the family name, which they had already “made to stink among the inhabitants of the land” (Gen. 34:30).
F. B. Meyer, Joseph, p. 14
Reuben saved Joseph’s life (Gen. 37:21), but because of his sin Reuben still lost the birthright (Gen. 49:3–4), which went to Joseph through his sons Ephraim and Manasseh (1 Chron. 5:1–2). Reuben was Leah’s firstborn and Joseph was Rachel’s firstborn. Laban’s scheme to give Leah first place was overruled by the Lord.
Scripture frequently sums up a man’s life in a single sentence. Here is the biography of Joseph sketched by inspiration…. “The Lord was with Joseph.” [See Gen. 39:2–3, 21, 23; 41:38; Acts 7:9.]
CHS, 27:413
Reputation is what others suppose we are; character is what God knows we really are. Reputation is what is chiseled on your tombstone. Character is what the angels say about you before the throne of God. Joseph’s character is summed up in Romans 12:11–12. Joseph fled (Gen. 39:12; 2 Tim. 2:22). He lost his coat but he kept his character.
In Bondage (Genesis 39–40; see also Psalm 105:18)
Joseph’s temptation came when all was going well, and it came from an unexpected source. It was repeated (Gen. 39:10) and, because nobody was present, to give in seemed “safe.” To yield would have given Joseph a strong ally in Potiphar’s wife, but it would have ruled out the blessing of God.
Summarized from Theodore Epp, Joseph, pp. 38–41
Evil may have temporary victories, but remember that they are only temporary. We must wait quietly; we must go forward humbly.
Epp, Joseph, p. 56
If you are now going through testing, there are three things you should especially remember. First, God’s way is the wisest way…. God trains us through chastening. Second, God’s time is the best time. God was working out His purpose through Joseph. Third, God’s grace is sufficient. The secret of waiting for God is waiting on God.
Summarized from Epp, Joseph, pp. 65–66
When he told his story, Joseph did not implicate his brothers. He told the prisoners that he had been “stolen” (Gen. 40:15 KJV).
God wants iron saints, and since there is no way of imparting iron to the moral nature than by letting His people suffer, He lets us suffer.
Meyer, Joseph, p. 55
It is in the prison that Joseph is fitted for the unknown life of Pharaoh’s palace, and if he could have foreseen the future, he would not have wondered at the severe discipline.
Meyer, Joseph, p. 56
Whenever you get into a prison of circumstances, be on the watch. Prisons are rare places for seeing things…. The night is the time to see the stars.
Meyer, Joseph, p. 58
How to act in prison: Don’t be surprised at your suffering; don’t be weary in well-doing; don’t avenge yourself but let God vindicate you.
Summarized from Meyer, Joseph, pp. 60-61
In all the discipline of life it is of the utmost importance to see but one ordaining overruling will. If we view our imprisonments and misfortunes as the result of human malevolence, our lives will be filled with fret and unrest. It is hard to suffer wrong at the hands of man, and to think that perhaps it might never have been. But there is a truer and more restful view, to consider all things as being under the law and rule of God; so that though they may originate in and come to us through the spite and malice of our fellows, yet, since before they reach us they have had to pass through the environing [encircling] atmosphere of the Divine Presence, they have been transformed into his own sweet will for us.
Meyer, Joseph, p. 62
Slavery itself was a small calamity compared with that which would have happened to young Joseph had he been enslaved by wicked passions.
CHS, 27:416
Exalted (Genesis 41)
God can accomplish his divine purposes even through pagans like Pharaoh (see Isa. 44:28; 45:5; Jer. 25:9; 27:6; 43:10). God can communicate with them even in their dreams (Gen. 20:1–6; 28:12; 31:10–11, 14; 37:1–11; 40:5, 9, 16). Joseph had humbled himself under God’s hand and now God would exalt him (1 Peter 5:5–7). The difficult training period was ended and now he would enter into his life ministry: saving and protecting his family so that they might become a mighty nation. His first challenge would be to store up the food, and his second would be to restore his brothers to God, himself, and their father.
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In his new position of prosperity, Joseph resisted and repelled the natural temptation to pride and arrogance with the same thoroughness as he had the temptation of passion—he was never drawn away from his utter loyalty to God.
Epp, Joseph, p. 82
[Genesis 41:50–52] Joseph was a testimony to God’s faithfulness. But we must also commend Joseph for his forgetfulness in forgiving his brothers for their sins, and for the fruitfulness of his life in Egypt to God’s glory (see Gen. 49:22). Was Joseph too hard on his brothers? No, for thirteen years of deception had to be dealt with, and God could not bless the nation unless the founders were right with him. Their mouths needed to be stopped (Gen. 45:3; Rom. 3:19) before God could restore them.
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God sometimes allows us to be treated as we have treated Him, so that we may see our offense in its true character, and may be obliged to turn to Him with words of genuine contrition. [See Ps. 18:24–27.]
Meyer, Joseph, p. 97
We little realize how much pain He is suffering as He causes us pain; or how the tender heart of our Brother is filled with grief, welling up within Him as He makes Himself strange and deals so roughly with us.
Meyer, Joseph, p. 91
Without the work of the Holy Spirit, they might have felt remorse but not guilt. It is not enough to feel that sin is a blunder and a mistake, but not guilt. This sense of sin, however, is the prerogative of the Holy Spirit of God. He alone can convict of sin.
Meyer, Joseph, pp. 88–89
Keep in mind that the longer Joseph dealt with his brothers, the longer he was kept from seeing his father whom he dearly loved and missed. But the “heart surgery” on his brothers was important for them personally and for the future of the nation.
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[Genesis 42:24] God deliver me from the man who has no tears! One Man stands supreme in all history, and in all the writing that gives us the record of His life, there is no more beautiful thing than this: “Jesus wept.” The capacity for tears is the last demonstration of greatness.
GCM, 26 Sermons, 3:133
Joseph wept when he was put into the pit (Gen. 42:21–22); when he heard his brothers admit their wrongs (42:24); when he saw his brother Benjamin (43:30); when he was reconciled to them (45:2, 14–15); when he met his father Jacob (46:29); when his father died (50:1); and when his brothers asked for forgiveness (50:15–21).
Jacob’s outlook and actions changed when he heard that Joseph was alive, and he wanted to see him. It reminds us of the change that occurred in the first followers of Jesus when they heard that he was alive.
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[Genesis 47:7] Joseph was not ashamed of his aged father, 130 years old. Jacob walked with a limp and leaned on his staff, but he was a prince with God and the source of the salvation of all Egypt. Jacob was not impressed with Pharaoh but showed his faith by blessing him (Heb. 7:7).
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[Genesis 49:22–26] In the images he used of Joseph in his dying prophecy, Jacob revealed the secret of Joseph’s life. Joseph was a fruitful bough, a branch in the vine (John 15:1–8), and he drew strength from a hidden spring (Ps. 1:3). During his prison days, Joseph experienced the pruning of the Lord that prepared him for the throne. He also experienced persecution and opposition from family and acquaintances, but he triumphed over it all. God was his strength, his shepherd, and his rock of refuge, and it was the blessing of God that caused him to prosper. Joseph’s faithfulness took him “over the wall” and brought life to Egypt and blessing to the whole world, for “salvation is of the Jews” (John 4:22).
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Joseph was natural and beautiful, high and noble, devoted to duty, full of sagacity; a youth dreaming dreams that indicated the future, because his life was strong and pure, and the secret of all was that he lived by the fountain, his roots taking hold of the hidden resources of power.
GCM, 26 Sermons, 3:116
Genesis 50:15–21
The petition was suggested by their own anticipations of vengeance (v. 15). Now where came these anticipations? I reply, from their own hearts. Under similar circumstances they would have acted so, and they took for granted that Joseph would. We suspect according to our nature; we look on others as we feel.
F. W. Robertson, Sermons on Biblical Subjects, p. 33
The only revenge which is essentially Christian is that of retaliating by forgiveness.
F. W. Robertson, Sermons on Biblical Subjects, p. 37
But Joseph has no thought of humiliating his brothers. He thinks only of making them better and happier men. He hastens to speak gracious words to them, lifting up their thoughts to God, on whom his own mind is habitually fixed. Remorse has done its work. Let them now look away from themselves and their sin to the God who is behind all events, and who guides and controls all human affairs, who has been overruling all his and their actions for their common good.
Strahan, Hebrew Ideals, pp. 324–25
It is very sweet as life passes by to be able to look back on dark and mysterious events and to trace the hand of God where once we saw only the malice and cruelty of men.
Meyer, Joseph, p. 28
Death (Gen. 50:24–26)
What is the glory of the eventide? It is that vision of the past that discovers God’s ways, and is enabled to rejoice over our victories. It is that vision of the future which is absolutely assured of the fulfillment of God’s purpose and of the completion of our work.
GCM, 26 Sermons, 3:148
“I die, but God will surely …” (Gen. 50:24 KJV). God buries his workers but continues his work.
The death of a man of God is not the end of his service even in this world. The coffin in Egypt was there … for at least two hundred years.
GCM, 26 Sermons, 3:158
Joseph knew what he believed and where he belonged. At the exodus, the Jewish people took Joseph’s coffin with them and it was eventually buried in Canaan (Exod. 13:19; Josh. 24:32; Heb. 11:22). Both in their sufferings in Egypt and in their wilderness wanderings, the Jews received encouragement from this witness, for Joseph reminded them of God’s promises to Abraham (Gen. 15:13–16). The believer’s source of hope today is not a coffin with a corpse but an empty tomb!
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Lasting Lessons
Summarized from Epp, Joseph, pp. 83–84
Joseph’s life illustrates our divine heirship, that we are heirs of God. The Bible teaches clearly what the prerequisites of heirship are. In particular, spiritual heirship is preceded by suffering. Suffering always precedes glory (Rom. 8:16–17).
Epp, Joseph, p. 8
The doctrine of the Gospel is not simply that after dark the light comes, but that the garment which at night we call dark is that which in the morning we pronounce luminous. “Your sorrow shall be turned into joy” (John 16:21). It is the transformation of sorrow rather than the abolition of sorrow that is contemplated…. It has become a simple matter of history that Christ has triumphed by the very steps which were taken to defeat Him.
GM-RMB, 1:177
Pure optimism is not the belief that all will come right; it is the belief that all is right now, that nothing has ever been wrong.
GM-RMB, 1:179
In Joseph we see one who is “more than conqueror” (Rom. 8:37). He overcame the pampering of a doting father, the hatred and envy of his older brothers, the shame and pain of slavery, the temptations of the flesh, the injustice of false accusation, the humiliation of prison, the dangers of honor and power, and the human desires to get even with those who hurt him.
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Joseph illustrates the truth of Romans 8:28–29. God did make all things work together for good for Joseph, and this fulfilled his purpose in making Joseph like Jesus Christ, “conformed to the image of his Son.” Though nowhere in Scripture is Joseph called a type of Christ, the comparisons are too many to be accidental. Both were especially loved by their fathers, both were hated by their brethren, both were promised thrones, and both were plotted against by their enemies. Joseph and Jesus were each sold for the price of a slave and both were servants. Both were lied about and falsely accused and both were made to suffer unjustly. Both were tempted and were victorious. Joseph was with two offenders, one of whom died and the other lived, and Jesus was crucified between two offenders, one of whom trusted him and the other did not. Both were humiliated but eventually exalted. Joseph received a wife during his time of separation from his brethren, and Jesus today is taking to himself a bride. Joseph sold material bread to the world, while Jesus gives spiritual bread to the world. Neither Joseph nor Jesus was recognized by their brethren the first time. Joseph was recognized the second time (Acts 7:13), and so will the Lord Jesus be made known to his brethren when he returns again. As Joseph’s brethren and all Egypt bowed before him, so every knee will bow at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
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Joseph of Arimathea (John 19:38–42)
It appears that Joseph and Nicodemus were together in their faith in Jesus Christ. We think of a “secret disciple” as a coward, but perhaps they were “secreted disciples,” hidden by the Lord so that they might perform an important task—the proper burial of the body of Jesus. It was important that Jesus’ body have a legitimate burial so that the miracle of the resurrection might be evident. To have a tomb prepared near Calvary indicates that they knew Jesus would die by crucifixion. To have a hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes ready in the tomb proves that they expected it to happen on Passover. Their study of the Old Testament Scriptures (see John 7:50–53) would tell them that Jesus was the Lamb of God (Exod. 12; Isa. 53) who would die on a cross (Ps. 22). When they touched the dead body of Jesus, they were defiled and could not partake of the Passover feast; but this did not upset them. They knew the true Lamb of God! They lost their unbelieving friends who served with them on the Jewish council, but they entered into the fellowship of the children of God. Both men were wealthy, but their wealth meant nothing compared to the privilege of knowing their Messiah (Phil. 3:7–10).
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Joshua
He was born into slavery in Egypt, where he also may have learned how to be a military man. Moses chose him to be the leader of the army of Israel, thus preparing him for his task of conquering the Promised Land. Joshua was Moses’ servant and then became his successor. He ruled over the Jewish people until his death and was succeeded by a series of judges who ruled in various parts of the land. He is a type of Jesus Christ, who has conquered the enemy for us and will lead us into our spiritual inheritance if we will trust him and obey him (Heb. 1–4). The three geographic locations in Joshua’s life—Egypt, the wilderness, and Canaan—speak to us today of three spiritual conditions: Egypt—the world with its bondage; the wilderness—the life of unbelief and disobedience; Canaan—the rest and riches of our spiritual inheritance. Only Caleb and Joshua survived the wilderness journey and entered the Promised Land, because they believed God and did not rebel against him.
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Joshua was the successor of Moses in certain senses. There are ways in which Joshua could not succeed Moses, as there are always ways in which no one man can succeed another. That is an important principle. I wish we always remembered that in the work of the Christian Church. There are things which only the one man can do, and no man can carry on exactly upon the lines of his predecessor. There were things Joshua could not do, but they were mainly things which Moses had done. It is equally true that Moses could not do what Joshua was appointed to do. Again, Moses’ work was incomplete without Joshua; and Joshua’s work would have been impossible but for that of Moses.
G. Campbell Morgan, from a sermon preached at Tabernacle
Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, PA, 1931
None of us can tell for what God is educating us. We fret and murmur at the narrow round and daily task of ordinary life, not realizing that it is only thus that we can be prepared for the high and holy office which awaits us. We must descend before we can ascend.
F. B. Meyer, Joshua and the Land of Promise, p. 19
The supreme enquiry for each of us, when summoned to a new work, is—not whether we possess sufficient strength or qualification for it, but—if we have been called to it of God; and when that is so, there is no further cause for anxiety.
Meyer, Joshua, pp. 20–21
Courage is necessary to succeed in Christian work. I have yet to find a man who is easily discouraged that amounts to anything anywhere…. God hasn’t any use for a man who is all the time looking on the dark side.
Moody, Words, Work, and Workers, p. 167
Joshua was very highly favored in the matter of promises. The promises given to him by God were broadly comprehensive and exceedingly encouraging. But Joshua was not therefore to say within himself, “These covenant arrangements will surely be fulfilled, and I may therefore sit still and do nothing.” On the contrary, because God had decreed that the land should be conquered, Joshua was to be diligent to lead the people onward to battle. He was not to use the promise as a couch upon which his indolence might luxuriate, but as a girdle wherewith to gird up his loins for future activity. As a spur to energy, let us always regard the gracious promises of our God.
CHS, 14:97
Obedience is the highest practical courage.
CHS, 14:98
New dangers will bring new protections; new difficulties, new helps; new discouragements, new comforts; so that we may rejoice in tribulations also, because there are so many newly-opened doors of God’s mercy to us.
CHS, 21:49
No Scripture is of private interpretation; no text has spent itself upon the person who first received it. God’s comforts are like wells, which no one man or set of men can drain dry, however mighty may be their thirst…. The fountain of our text first gushed forth to refresh Joshua, but if we are in Joshua’s position, and are of his character, we may bring our water-pots and fill them to the brim.
CHS, 21:52
We cannot live upon tradition; we cannot be courageous because of something which happened to other people: there must be personal contact with divine realities, an individual touch, a present and indestructible consciousness of God’s nearness and of the reality of things; then there will be courage and testimony and service and sacrifice.
Parker, The People’s Bible, 5:326
God’s promise was, “I will drive out the enemy!” (See Josh. 3:10; 13:13; 14:12; 17:13; 23:5.) But God gave the same promises through Moses. (See Exod. 6:1; 11:1; 23:28–31; 33:2; 34:11, 24; Lev. 18:24; 20:23; Num. 22:6, 11; 33:52; Deut. 4:27, 38; 7:17, 22; 9:3–5; 11:23; 18:12; 33:27.)
[Joshua 5:12] You are the successor to Moses, the great miracle-worker, and one of the first things that happens is that the manna ceases—the end of a daily miracle! How did the people respond to this? As they marched through Canaan, they were to eat what the land produced. Was God’s provision of seasonal food any less a miracle than the daily manna?
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[Joshua 5:13–15] Not until we take the place of a servant can He take His place as Lord.
Watchman Nee
Joshua learned that he was second in command!
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The vessels which are meet for the Master’s use are pure ones. Cleanness, rather than cleverness, is the prime condition of successful service.
Meyer, Joshua, p. 66
Note the name “the Lord of Hosts.” The Lord of the armies! (See Gen. 32:1–2; 2 Kings 6:15–17; 1 Sam. 17:45; Ps. 34:7; 46:7, 11; Isa. 40:26.)
[Joshua 3:5] The wonders of tomorrow depend on the sanctification of today.
GHM, Highways of the Heart, p. 2
[Joshua 6] We are apt to fight the world with weapons borrowed from its arsenals, and adopt methods which savor rather of the flesh than of the Spirit. It is a great mistake. Our only hope is to act on strictly spiritual lines, because we wrestle not with flesh and blood.
Meyer, Joshua, p. 74
[Joshua 7–8] Twice Joshua ran ahead of the Lord and did not wait for orders—when he attacked Ai and when he made a covenant with the Gibeonites (Josh. 9). Both led to shameful and discouraging defeat. But God enabled Joshua to use the defeat at Ai to conquer the enemy, and he made his mistake with the Gibeonites “work for him” and assigned the Gibeonites to be servants in the camp. If you make a mistake, make it work for you!
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There is nothing small in the Christian life—nothing so small that we can combat in our own strength. Apart from God the smallest temptation will be more than a match for us.
Meyer, Joshua, p. 79
Ah, if Joshua had only prostrated himself amid the shoutings of victory over Jericho, there would have been no need for him to prostrate himself amid the outcry of a panic-stricken host.
Meyer, Joshua, p. 81
God uses different strategies, not only to confuse the enemy but also to strengthen our faith, lest we depend on methods and experience instead of depending on the Lord. At Jericho, the army was in the open, but at Ai, the soldiers were hidden in ambush. The victory at Jericho was a miracle of God; the victory at Ai was a victory of strategy from God. The army was forbidden to take spoil at Jericho but encouraged to do so at Ai. If Achan had waited just a few days, he could have taken what he wanted and saved his life.
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Life, like war, is a series of mistakes, and he is not the best Christian nor the best general, who makes the fewest false steps. He is the best who wins the most splendid victories by the retrieval of mistakes. Forget mistakes; organize victories out of mistakes.
F. W. Robertson, Sermons, 1:66
Judas Iscariot
His name comes from “Judah” and means “praise” (Gen. 29:35). He ruined a good name; nobody today would call a son Judas. Iscariot means “man of Kerioth,” a city in Judah (Josh. 15:25), seventeen miles south of Hebron. His father’s name was Simon (John 6:71). Judas was the only apostle who did not come from Galilee. He is called the betrayer (Matt. 10:4; Mark 3:19; John 13:21; 18:2), the traitor (Luke 6:16), a devil (John 6:70), a thief (John 12:6), the son of perdition (John 17:2–12), and the guide (Acts 1:16). Jesus knew from the beginning that Judas was not a believer and would betray him (John 2:24–25; 6:64–71). Judas was not clean (John 13:10–11) and had not been “chosen” (John 13:18). The indication seems to be that Judas was a counterfeit rather than an apostate (Matt. 7:21–23). Note that there was another Judas in the apostolic band (Luke 6:16; John 14:22) and that Jesus had a half-brother named Judas (Matt.13:55) who wrote the Epistle of Jude. Judas ministered in preaching and healing just as the other apostles did (Matt. 10:1ff; Mark 6:7–13), and they had no idea he would be a traitor. The Old Testament background is Psalms 41:9; 55:12–14; and 69:25; and see Acts 1:15–20. Note also Ahithophel in 2 Samuel 15 and 17.
Judas was not the victim of “prophetic determinism”—somebody had to betray Jesus, so Judas was chosen, and what he did benefited all mankind. Judas was not an innocent hero. He could have been a true disciple had he made the right choices. He heard Jesus preach, he saw him perform miracles, and he knew the truth, yet he rejected it. At the same time, Judas was not called as a witness at the trial of Jesus! His last confession was that he had “betrayed innocent blood” (Matt. 27:4). It is difficult to untangle the motives that drove him. Did he want Jesus to overthrow Rome and establish the Jewish kingdom? Was he disappointed in Jesus’ approach to ministry, caring for the poor and needy and condemning the Jewish leaders? At the Last Supper, Jesus made every attempt to rescue Judas, but Judas would not submit. Jesus protected Judas from the other disciples and did not openly expose his wickedness. He welcomed Judas with a kiss and gave him the place of honor next to himself. Jesus even washed Judas’s feet! Had Peter known the truth about Judas, he might have used his sword!
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More is told of Judas in the Gospels than of any other disciple except Peter. Yet he is little known; indeed, he is wrapped in mystery.
S. Pearce Carey, Jesus and Judas, p. 7
That He chose Judas as one of them [the disciples] was the highest tribute He could pay him; and if he was, as is so widely believed, the only Judaean, the tribute was even more striking still.
Carey, Jesus and Judas, p. 28
They [the disciples] never dreamed that they were to be preachers…. They supposed themselves destined to be the servants, helpers, officers of a King, of a literal, visible, victorious, long-reigning glorious King. That Jesus was moving to Kingship was their clearest conviction…. Moreover, they felt assured that this Kingship was immanent.
Carey, Jesus and Judas, p. 33
Among the apostles, the one absolutely stunning success was Judas, and the one thoroughly groveling failure was Peter. Judas was a success in the ways that most impress us: he was successful both financially and politically. He cleverly arranged to control the money of the apostolic band; he skillfully manipulated the political forces of the day to accomplish his goal. And Peter was a failure in ways that we most dread: he was impotent in a crisis and socially inept…. Time, of course, has reversed our judgments on these two men. Judas is now a byword for betrayal, and Peter is one of the most honored names in church and world.
Eugene Peterson, Traveling Light, p. 95
The raw material of a devil is an angel bereft of holiness. You cannot make a Judas except out of an apostle.
CHS, 35:302
If I had any sympathetic feelings towards any character in the Old Testament, it was towards such people as Cain, Jezebel, Haman, Agag, Sisera; in the New Testament my friends, if any, were Ananias, Caiaphas, Judas and Pontius Pilate.
George Orwell
[Orwell was writing about his early school days. In later years, these may not have been his choices.]
When a man loses fellowship with God he loses power to possess anything that God gives him. Suppose the most flaming illustration of the thing in all the Bible is the story of Judas in those last and awful hours. He turned from the highest, and he sold the Highest for thirty pieces of silver.
GCM, 8:213
Of course Judas fell gradually. That’s the way any man falls. Neither the heights of sainthood nor the depths of infamy are reached other than by a step at a time.
William E. Biederwolf, The Kiss of Judas and Other Sermons, p. 14
In the list of Disciples the name of Peter is mentioned first, and the name of Judas is mentioned last. They are alike in this that they both sinned grievously against their Master…. But there is this difference—“Peter went out and wept bitterly,” and turned again to the One he had so greatly wronged…. But with Judas the case was different. There was remorse, but no repentance.
Biederwolf, Kiss of Judas, p. 19 [Note 2 Cor. 7:9–10]
Of course the question will arise, “Why did our Lord choose a man whom He knew to be a devil” (John 6:70)? A hard question, but there is a harder still—“Why did Jesus choose you?” … In your heart of hearts are you saying, “If this man were a prophet, he would know what manner of man this Judas is, for he is a sinner”? O thou self-contented Simon, presently the Lord will have somewhat to say unto thee, and His parable will smite thee like a sword.
Parker, The Ark of God, p. 43
[Parker is referring to Luke 7:36–50.]
Shall I startle you if I say that there is a still more terrible state than that of such anguish as Iscariot’s? To have worn out the moral sense, to have become incapable of pain, to have the conscience seared as with a hot iron, to be “past feeling”—that is the consummation of wickedness.
Parker, The Ark of God, pp. 45–46
[It] must be forever true that non-existence is better than sinfulness. [Matt. 26:24; Mark 14:21.]
Parker, The Ark of God, p. 48
Different names affect us differently. One could not well think of John without being impressed with the power of love, nor could one consider Paul without being impressed first of all with his zeal and then with his learning. Certainly one could not study Peter without saying that his strongest characteristic was his enthusiasm…. But to think of Judas is to shudder.
J. Wilbur Chapman, And Judas Iscariot, pp. 12–13
Not only did Judas sell Jesus for thirty pieces of silver; he also sold himself.
And it is strange that on the night of the betrayal, perhaps the two loneliest figures in the world were the sinful disciple and his sinless Lord. But oh! the world of difference between the two! Christ lonely because He was the Son of God, bearing His cross alone and going out into the glory. And Judas lonely because he was the son of perdition, with every harmony destroyed by sin, and going out into the night.
GHM, Flood-tide, p. 202
[John 12:1–8] He [Judas] evidently judged that on the money side of things in Christ’s circle, the business side, which he regarded as his own particular sphere, a trespass had been committed. So he took the lead, and made the protest…. He raised his voice against a sensitive woman, esteemed and loved of Christ.
Carey, Jesus and Judas, p. 67
[John 13:2] The Greek verb translated “put” in the KJV (“prompted” in NIV) simply means “to throw” and suggests violence. See John 8:7, 59; 15:6; 21:6. Judas had prepared the soil; now the Devil quickly and effectively planted the seed.
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The religious leaders wanted to postpone the arrest of Jesus until after Passover, but God had decreed that his Son die as the Lamb of God on Passover. Unwittingly, Judas made this possible by enabling the officers to arrest Jesus privately in the garden.
“He [Judas] went immediately out, and it was night” (John 13:30 KJV). And for Judas it is still night and always will be night!
Judas kissed Jesus “effusively.” (See Prov. 27:6.)