JOSEPH #57 | JOSEPH IN EGYPT#39 | LAST WORDS OF JACOB #28

Pastor Christopher Choo

Lesson 3653

JOSEPH #57

JOSEPH IN EGYPT#39
LAST WORDS OF JACOB #28

11. JOSEPH #4

JOSEPH: A TYPE OF CHRIST.

Joseph among the ancestors of the Jews is arguably the most Christ-like.

Joseph is a favored son, rejected by his brothers, and yet through faithfulness and suffering ascends to the highest throne in the land.

Joseph’s life anticipates the Messiah because God uses him to fulfill covenant promises and undo the effects of the curse.

Yet there is a glaring difference: Joseph was the titular head of his sons Ephraim and Manasseh who were accepted into the 12 tribes of Israel as two separate tribes while Jesus is descended from the tribe of Judah.

But in God's divine alchemy, these two tribes of Ephraim and Judah were once united under King David and prophetically again when they submit to Jesus, the Son of David, as their long-awaited Messiah.

Let us study Judah's prophecy for more insight. In Jacob’s blessing of Judah: “Judah, your brothers shall praise you; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father’s sons shall bow down before you” (Gen. 49:8).

Jacob depicts the coming king from Judah with imagery that closely resembles Joseph’s narrative. Judah’s brothers will praise and even “bow down” before him—the same word used three times when the brothers bowed to Joseph in the dreams (Gen. 37:7, 9, 10) and another three times when they bowed before him in the Egyptian court (Gen. 42:4; 43:26, 28). Indeed, the image of 11 brothers “bowing” to their royal sibling in Genesis 49:8 reads like a summary of the preceding Joseph story. 

This similarity is deliberate. When we ask what the coming Messiah will look like, we have an answer provided in Jacob’s words—he will look like Joseph.

Joseph and Judah’s stories are interwoven. Jacob’s prophecy shows that both foreshadow the coming king of Israel.

What is the spiritual lesson today?

God reconciles the impossible. Judah and Joseph birthed forth two separate kingdoms. And yet under Jesus their Messiah they will be united once again. Thus Joseph who united his brothers becomes a prefigurement of Jesus who will unite all men as brothers-in-Christ by His Blood.

Jesus said in

Matthew 23:39:

'For I tell you, you

 will not see Me again, until you say, “Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord”' (ESV). In other words, He will not return until they acknowledge He is Anointed One sent by God as their Messiah.

To whom is Jesus speaking?

Matt 23:37 begins with ‘O Jerusalem, Jerusalem’, so it seems obvious he is addressing the Jews.

Will the descendants of the 12 tribes acknowledge that Jesus is the One who comes in the Name of the Lord?

Will they confess that He is their King of kings?