9. Joseph’s Faith

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Hymns: RHC 324 Trusting Jesus, 347 Under the Care of My God, The Almighty, 544 When the Roll Is Called Up Yonder

 Hebrews 11:22 (KJV)

22  By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones.

 

Joseph’s Faith

OUTLINE
(1) Faith’s Identity

(2) Faith’s Identification

 

INTRODUCTION

Life brings to us its surprises. We do not know what unfolds with every new day. We realize our limitation in discerning the future. Yet as Christians, we know that we serve a God who holds the future. As we entrust our lives into His hands we experience His good hand keeping us. Whenever we have difficulties, we can call out to God for help. He is but a prayer away. Even during those times when our affliction is so great that we cannot bring the strength to utter a prayer. When silence fills our soul, the Holy Spirit within us prays and strengthens and comforts us on life’s paths. This is the reality of life with God.

Genesis 37–50 recorded the life of Joseph from which our text of faith’s commendation find’s its focus – in Joseph’s last words. He instructed the Israelites to bringing his bones out of Egypt when the people of Israel will leave Egypt.

We must not lightly gloss over Joseph’s final words.

As David Searle observed well, “Joseph summoned the heads of the twelve tribes of Israel and had them swear that they would wait upon God’s time, and when at length that hour came, they would then take his remains with them back to Canaan and bury them beside the remains of Jacob, and Leah, Isaac and Rebekah, Abraham and Sarah.

And so, we find that when ultimately the hour did arrive, and those Hebrew slaves were safely brought out of Egypt and across the Red Sea, as the pillar of cloud and fire went before them, Joseph’s remains were also taken with them according to the oath sworn on his deathbed…When he tells his brothers that he is about to die and therefore leave behind his worldly wealth, authority and dignity, they know he cannot bequeath any of that to them, even though through his influence they themselves have settled in a fertile area and had become exceedingly prosperous.

In effect, he is informing them they may not rely any longer on his power as lord of Egypt, for they are about to lose their earthly provider and protector. It does not take much imagination to guess that for many of them the prospect of Joseph’s death would give them much concern. What would happen to them when he was no longer there? They were only too well aware they were immigrants, a peasant people, despised by their Egyptian neighbours. So, on his deathbed what hope was Joseph able to offer them? What consolation? Just think of the years of slavery that were to come. Reflect on the taskmasters’ lashes that would fall on Israelite backs. Remember too the baby boys who would be thrown into the Nile. Consider the slaves’ suffering throughout those awful years. What sustained them? During the first few years of his life when Moses’ mother was entrusted by Pharaoh’s daughter with the task of nursing and feeding him, what teaching did she give her young son? Whatever it was, it most certainly included the promise transmitted through Joseph that God would visit His people, for we read that Moses when he grew to manhood refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, but chose ‘choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.”[1]

Joseph identity clarified his identity as God’s people, a true-blue Israelite, son of Jacob. He will want to be identified with God’s people in life and in death with his forefathers. Joseph made his choice, a choice of faith.

Two thoughts:

  • Faith’s Identity
  • Faith’s Identification

 

(1) Faith’s Identity

22  By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel;

 The Genesis record gives us precise details about Joseph’s life age.

God has a sovereign plan to fulfill His purpose to bringing forth Israel as a nation. And Joseph will be playing a role in this plan. And God revealed it in a dream to him and he told his family about it. He dreamed that the sun and the moon and eleven stars would bow down and make obeisance to him. This cause his brothers to hate him even more.

He was thirty years old when he began to serve Pharaoh. At the time of the first year of famine he would have been thirty-seven years old. We are then told that when Jacob and his family migrated to Egypt there were still five years of famine to come, therefore Joseph must have been thirty-nine years old when he was reunited with his father. Next, we learn that Jacob lived in Egypt for seventeen years and since he died at the age of one hundred and forty-seven, he will have been a hundred and thirty when he left Canaan, and at his father’s death Joseph will have been fifty-six years old. He lived a further fifty-four years and saw not only his grandchildren but also his great grandchildren – Ephraim’s children to the third generation.

He was the first born of Jacob’s beloved wife Rachel. He was a favoured son in the sight of his father. Events will unfold out of the envy of his brothers who will scheme and see him to be a slave in Egypt. What a turn of events. Yet we see Joseph throughout his life maintaining his ways before God. He leads a consistent and stable Christian life worthy of our study and emulation. Although there were many ups and downs in his life, he maintains that consistency whether in poverty or in wealth, in prison or in the palace, in his relationship with others always ready to forgive. He exhibits faith in all the varied circumstances in life to do what is right in God’s sight. He was willing to submit himself to the sovereign hand of God molding his life.

 Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

William MacDonald said well that Hebrews 11:1, “is not really a formal definition of faith; rather it is a description of what faith does for us. It makes things hoped for as real as if we already had them, and it provides unshakable evidence that the unseen, spiritual blessings of Christianity are absolutely certain and real.

In other words, it brings the future within the present and makes the invisible seen. Faith is confidence in the trustworthiness of God. It is the conviction that what God says is true and that what He promises will come to pass.

Faith must have some revelation from God, some promise of God as its foundation. It is not a leap in the dark. It demands the surest evidence in the universe, and finds it in the word of God. It is not limited to possibilities but invades the realm of the impossible.

Someone has said, “Faith begins where possibilities end. If it’s possible, then there’s no glory for God in it.”

Faith, mighty faith the promise sees,

And looks to God alone;

Laughs at impossibilities

And cries, “It shall be done.”

— Author unknown.

There are difficulties and problems in the life of faith. God tests our faith in the crucible to see if it is genuine (1 Pet. 1:7). But, as George Müller said, “Difficulties are food for faith to feed on”.”

I believe Jacob imparts to Joseph faith in God being a son of his old age. We see the opening scene where Joseph comes to the father to inform him concerning the misdoings of his brothers. Is Joseph out to get at his brothers? I believe not, he has their interest at heart when he tells his father concerning his brothers’ naughtiness.

 Genesis 37:3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours. 4 And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him.

 There was not a word that tells us Joseph was murmuring and complaining. He is a man who follows the leading of God in a time when he has no Scriptures to guide him. He does the right thing. Perhaps because he is the son of Jacob’s old age, his wisdom of life with God is imparted to Joseph.

 

(2) Faith’s Identification

22  By faith Joseph, … gave commandment concerning his bones.

 He did identify himself as God’s very own child even to his last breath.

David Searle said well, “These details are not unimportant. After Jacob’s death, for fifty-four years Joseph continued to ensure that his entire family were provided for. However, this deathbed scene makes it very clear that in his old age Joseph identified himself fully with his family. He continued to be unashamed to call them his brothers. We can only guess how he reconciled that with his personal wealth but ensured his own sons and their families fully identified with their peasant uncles, aunts and cousins; they too must have been taught not to be ashamed to call them brothers.

Knowing that he only had hours or possibly days left to live, Joseph summoned the heads of his brothers’ families. Remember he had been given the birth right which Reuben had forfeited, and so he himself was rightly the head of all Israel. He was resolved to give a clear lead and to impress upon the promises of the covenant. His wealth and worldly possessions were of no account. His hope of a true inheritance that he now shared with his family was in the word of God alone.”[2]

Joseph understood the age-old prophecy given to Abraham and passed down to Isaac and to his father Jacob. Jacob must have informed Joseph of the prophecy. Joseph by faith believed God and exercised that faith.

Genesis 15:12-16 (KJV) 12 And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him. 13 And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; 14 And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance. 15 And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. 16 But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.

He will want to be identified in death with God’s people. He understood the promises of God to the nation of Israel. These were more than the physical promises in this life but the eternal promises of God as God’s child.

Hebrews 11:13 (KJV) 13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

Hebrews 11:14-16 (KJV) 14 For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. 15 And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. 16 But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.

Joseph imbibed the faith of his father in his death-bed as did Jacob, in the steps of his father.

Israel, a prince with God, that had power over the angel and prevailed, yet must yield to death. There is no remedy, he must die: it is appointed for all men, therefore for him; and there is no discharge in that war. Joseph supplied him with bread, that he might not die by famine; but this did not secure him from dying by age or sickness. He died by degrees; his candle was not blown out, but gradually burnt down to the socket, so that he saw, at some distance, the time drawing nigh. Note, it is an improvable advantage to see the approach of death before we feel its arrests, that we may be quickened to do what our hand finds to do with all our might: however, it is not far from any of us. Now Jacob’s care, as he saw the day approaching, was about his burial, not the pomp of it (he was no way solicitous about that), but the place of it.”

He was concerned where he will be buried. Notice the saints of old are buried in a burying place. The body is laid to rest in the ground waiting the day of resurrection. It is a testimony to the living of the reality of the resurrection by the departed.

One day, we shall rise again as the Bible tells us.

1 Corinthians 15:51-57 “Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,  52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.  53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.  54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.  55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?  56 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.  57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.  14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.  15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.  16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:  17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.  18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”

Genesis 47:29 And the time drew nigh that Israel must die: and he called his son Joseph, and said unto him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly with me; bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt: 30 But I will lie with my fathers, and thou shalt carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their buryingplace. And he said, I will do as thou hast said. 31 And he said, Swear unto me. And he sware unto him. And Israel bowed himself upon the bed’s head.

Jacob would be buried in Canaan and not in Egypt. This is the land that he has inherited by promise from his father Isaac therefore he desired that in death, he will be buried there. We observed that he requited Joseph to take an oath before God to fulfil his last desire.

In a sense, it was easier for Joseph as he performed the last rites that it was accordance to his father’s wishes. The covenant blessing that began with Abraham was passed from father to son, Abraham to Isaac to Jacob to Joseph.

Hebrews 11:8-21 “By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.  9 By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:  10 For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.  11 Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised.  12 Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable.  13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.  14 For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.  15 And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.  16 But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.  17 By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, 18 Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called:  19 Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.  20 By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come.  21 By faith Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph; and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff. 22 By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones.”

It was a blessing that began when God called Abram to leave his home in Ur of the Chaldees, modern day Iraq to go to Canaan. We observe the passing on of the faith from one generation to another generation. It is the solemn duty of the inheritor of the covenant blessing to pass it on. God is faithful to fulfil His promises made to His people.

What was God’s promise to Abram?

Genesis 12:1-3 “Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:  2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:  3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”

At the death of Jacob, Abraham’s grandson, the family has become a multitude as God has promised. The greatness of Abraham is seen in how he magnified his Lord in his life, the Giver of his blessings while he saw them afar off, by faith!

This is the same for us, we take hold of the promises of God’s Word, the promise of the resurrection and eternal life in heaven, even as we take our last breath. Indeed, the consolation of the gospel will change the face of death.[3]

 

CONCLUSION

Praise the Lord for giving to us the promise of the resurrection in the last day so that death has lost its sting in Christ Jesus our Lord and Saviour. Amen.

 

[1] David C. Searle, Joseph – His Arms Were Made Strong, The Banner of Truth Trust, 2012, 262.

[2] Ibid., 259.

[3] Ibid., 257.