Joseph a Type of Christ
Genesis 45:28
And Israel said, It is enough; Joseph my son is yet alive: I will go and see him before I die.


Joseph is a type or figure of the Lord Jesus Christ.

1. Joseph, in his younger days, was distinguished from his brethren by a purity of life which became the more observable in contrast with their dissolute manners, and caused an evil report to be sent to their father. His brethren saw him afar off, and conspired to kill him. In this we have a true picture of the Jews' treatment of Christ.

2. Joseph was carried down into Egypt, even as was Christ in His earliest days. Joseph was cast into prison, emblematic of the casting of Jesus into the grave, the prison of death; Joseph was imprisoned with two accused persons — the chief butler and the chief baker of Pharaoh; Christ was crucified between two malefactors. It was in the third year that Joseph was liberated, and on the third day that our Saviour rose.

3. It is as a liberated man that Joseph is most. signally the type of our Redeemer. Set free from prison, Joseph became the second in the kingdom, even as the Redeemer, rising from the prison of the grave, became possessed in His mediatorial capacity of all power in heaven and earth, and yet so possessed as to be subordinate to the Father. Joseph was raised up of God to be a preserver of life during years of famine. Christ, in His office of Mediator, distributes bread to the hungry. All men shall flock to Jesus, eager for the bread that came down from heaven.

4. Joseph's kinsmen were the last to send into Egypt for corn, just as the Jews have been longest refusing to own Christ as their Deliverer.

(H. Melvill, B. D.)



Parallel Verses
KJV: And Israel said, It is enough; Joseph my son is yet alive: I will go and see him before I die.

WEB: Israel said, "It is enough. Joseph my son is still alive. I will go and see him before I die."




Jacob and Doubting Souls -- a Parallel
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