Genesis
40:39,40 “And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Forasmuch as God hath shewed
thee all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou art: Thou shalt
be over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled:
only in the throne will I be greater than thou.”
Pharaoh,
the king of Egypt, has had a dream and through Joseph, God has given Pharaoh
the interpretation of this dream. There
will be seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine.
Joseph instructed Pharaoh to look
out a man discreet and wise, and set him over the land of Egypt that this
wise man might rule the land during the time of plenty so that the land perish not through the famine. So then we see in our text the great praise
Pharaoh gives unto Joseph.
On one hand Pharaoh and Joseph may be viewed as a type
of the relationship between God the Father and God the Son. And a good picture this is for Pharaoh bestows
all power to Joseph and is well pleased with all his work. But if the reader will bear with me I intend
by this writing to show Pharaoh and Joseph as a relationship between Christ
and the believer.
First, Pharaoh says Forasmuch as God hath shewed thee all this, there is none so discreet
and wise as thou art. Pharaoh
knew that God was with Joseph and indeed He was.
When Joseph was a servant to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, scriptures
says And the Lord was with Joseph, and
he was a prosperous man. Whenever Joseph was in prison we read The Lord was with Joseph, and shewed him mercy,
and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison…The keeper
of the prison looked not to any thing that was under his hand; because the
Lord was with him, and that which he did, the Lord made it to prosper. Concerning the matter of being sold into
Egypt in the first place Joseph told his brothers Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold
me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life…And God sent
me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives
by a great deliverance. So now it
was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to
Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of
Egypt…ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good to bring
to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.
So we see that Pharaoh had ever opportunity to hear and see of
the goodness of Joseph and of God’s great love toward His servant just
as we can hear of Christ through the word of God and the true messengers God
has sent our way. And, in fact, Pharaoh praised Joseph for much
of what he heard.
condly, Pharaoh says Thou shalt
be over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled. Knowing the great wisdom of Joseph and
that God was with him, Pharaoh makes Joseph the governor of his entire house
and people. When the people came to
Pharaoh looking for food during the time of famine he directed them to Joseph
for he was the keeper of the storehouses. So is the case with many today that
claim God to be over their house and His word to be their rule.
But lastly, Pharaoh tells Joseph
only in the throne will I be greater
than thou. Do you see the picture
in all this? There is Joseph, the type of Christ and Pharaoh who claimed to
leave all his work in the hands of Joseph. Still there is one thing Pharaoh refused. Pharaoh knew all that Joseph had done during
his time in Egypt. He called out to
Joseph and gave Joseph charge over his house and his people. Pharaoh even did many wonderful works for Joseph’s
sake yet Joseph still rode in the second chariot and Pharaoh in the first.
While others bowed to Joseph, Pharaoh would not.
If Christ is not the believer’s King of kings and Lord of lords then the believer does not know Christ at all. He rules and reigns and there is none as wise and discreet in all his ways. It is Christ that is prosperous in all that He does. He is the one God has sent to preserve life, to preserve God’s posterity in the earth. He is the keeper of the storehouse to whom the famished must flee. He gives us our bread and saves the righteousness-starved sinner from perishing. All hail the King!
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