Comments on: More Parallels Between Joseph and Jesus

By: Jeff

Jeff — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 16:08:22 +0000

Vetta good post sister. All I have to say is Amen!!

By: Steve Scott

Steve Scott — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 09:27:39 +0000

Amen.

By: chas pike

chas pike — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 01:10:59 +0000

i am sorry for my pomposity. i must remember how exciting it is to realize that Christ is speaking to us in ways that we have not yet discovered. in fact that joy is one of the greatest joys there is, and i am sorry if i have diminished or denigrated that feeling in anyone. any new revelation of the Christ is cause for celebration.

By: Hutch

Hutch — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 00:58:24 +0000

I hope not, that what your for! Grin. You’ve been doing a great job and frankly have brought up issues I have never considered. I’m learning a lot.

But one thing I know for certain is that to many people seeing Christ in the Old Covenant is not as familiar a thing as it is to you and me and others on this forum.

By: chas pike

chas pike — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 00:39:36 +0000

what about the grain? the curse of the bread? the grain storage facilities that joseph ordered built, with bricks made by the israelites? what about bricks in general? what does God think about bricks? what about the dwindling straw? there is so much more to talk about. the entire torah is a picture of Christ. Christ is telling the story to Moses. to discover Christ in any tale in the bible should not be too big a surprise. but what about the apparent minutia, and the lesser themes that run through out the entire book? could we be missing the opportunity to explore those, and learn about the personality of the creator, byrushing to the next chapter and simply saying, “yep, there’s Jesus”?
“…and more, he who has will get more…”

By: chas pike

chas pike — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 23:44:20 +0000

lol, sorry my paler but no less sweet brother! my email notification said it was lw. and i only read the email response, and did not scroll up to see your beautiful face. lol!

By: Hutch

Hutch — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 23:39:20 +0000

That’s White Chocolate to you brother!

By: chas pike

chas pike — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 23:32:25 +0000

i certainly appreciate all of what you are saying here, hot chocolate. mind you, this is not what i was writing about. i was not writing about the lens through which we view the actions of any old testament character, rather i was responding to what had been represented as joseph’s intents and actions. not the outcome, not God’s purpose, but joseph’s. you may disagree with me, but please indicate where joseph in the midst of his captivity says to himself, “hey, this could really help my people”. he speaks of God’s purpose after he is reconciled with his brothers, when he is in the palm of egypt, but, i ask, where does he ever indicate during his struggles that this is an act of sacrifice? of course, i could be wrong.

By: Hutch

Hutch — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 22:55:35 +0000

Charles-

I do not think the type teaching in the old covenant requires the participants/players to recognize or be conscious of the picture God was painting for those of us who look backwards to see. Similarly, I do not think the truth of Luke 24, Acts 3:18, Acts 10:43, Acts 26:22, Galatians 4:4, Ephesians 1:10, 1 Peter 1:9-11 required Ezekiel, Moses, Jeremiah, Isaiah and all the other OT prophets during their actual prophetic ministries to know they were speaking of Jesus of Galilee and His finished work on the cross.

Regarding the need for Israel to go to Egypt to be saved from the famine, it is clear from the text that if God had not led Joseph to make advance preparation and provision for the famine that all of the Egyptians would have perished and that God intentionally prepared a provision for Israel through Joseph in Egypt. I think the text is clear that other people groups from Canaan were making the journey to Egypt to buy food as well. So how many starved to death in Canaan and how many survived by buying from Egypt is really impossible to tell. Could Israel have survived without going to Egypt by just buying food from Egypt-maybe, probably, but it’s clear they ended up just where God wanted them to be as He is going to paint some more redemptive type teaching masterpieces for us through the events of the Passover and Exodus. Now we under the new covenant can sing the song of Moses and of the Lamb, slaves to sin and death delivered from our house of bondage and in Christ through His blood the destroying angel cannot touch us!

By: chas pike

chas pike — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 22:03:02 +0000

javetta, i dont think that any of joseph’s actions before he was reunited with his siblings were done with the idea of saving, or even helping his family. he has shed his identity, taken on the physical guise of an egyptian, he has married into the family of royal priests, and is living as an egyptian. he ends his life living like an egyptian. he preserved not a remnant, but all of israel. preserved, but not delivered. he allowed them to foster dependence and enslave themselves in what started as a gilded cage, but became their penitentiary. after the death of jacob, he could have seen their safe transit back to israel, but instead tells them that he saved them, maybe God would raise someone else to deliver them. i have to wonder how the amorites and edomites survived and thrived in the land of canaan, but israel did not. divine retribution for the deception and trickery practiced by the sons of israel upon the shechemites, and upon joseph himself. there are similarities to the Christ in there to be sure, but joseph does not make conscious effort to sacrifice himself in any way. he is brought to a point of prominence by God’s provision, only through revisionism or backward glancing can any of the travails he endured be said to be sacrifice for israel.