The LORD was with
Joseph. – Genesis 39:2
Scripture frequently sums up a man’s life in a single
sentence. Here is the biography of Joseph sketched by inspiration- “God was
with him,” so Stephen testified in his famous speech recorded in Acts 7:9. Here
is the life story of Abraham: “Abraham believed God.” Of Moses we read, “The
man Moses was very meek.” Take a New Testament life, such as that of John the
Baptist, and you have it in a line: “John did no miracle: but all things that
he spoke concerning Jesus were true.” The mere name of John- “that disciple
whom Jesus loved”- would serve for all an epitaph of him: it pictures both the
man and his history. Holy Scripture excels in this kind of full-length
miniature painting. As Michaelangelo is said to have drawn a portrait with a
single stroke of his crayon, so the Spirit of God sketches a man to the life in
a single sentence. “The LORD was with Joseph.”
Observe, however, that the portraits of Scripture give us
not only the outer, but the inner life of the man. Man looks at the outward
appearance, but the Lord looks upon the heart; and so the scriptural
descriptions of men are not of their visible life alone, but of their spiritual
life. Here we have Joseph as God saw him, the real Joseph. Externally it did
not always appear that God was with him, for he did not always seem to be a
prosperous man; but when you come to look into the inmost soul of this servant
of God, you see his true likeness- he lived in communion with the Most High,
and Go blessed him: “The LORD was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man.”
Dear friends, how would you like to have your inner biography sketched? How
would your soul appear if set out in detail before all the world as to its
desires, affections, and thoughts? Many lives have looked well on paper, but
beneath their surface the biographer never dared to live, or, perhaps, could
not have dived had he been anxious to do so. It is often thought wise in
writing man’s life to suppress certain matters: this may be prudent if the
design be to guard a reputation, but it is scarcely truthful. The Spirit of God
does not suppress the faults even of those whom we most admire, but writes them
fully, like the Spirit of truth, as He is. The man who above others was “a man
after God’s own heart” was yet in some points exceedingly faulty, and he
committed one foul deed which will remain through all time as a blemish upon
his character. There was in David so firm and undeviating an attachment to the Lord
God, and so sincere a desire to do right, and so deep a repentance when he had
erred, that the Lord still regarded him as after his own heart, although He
smote him heavily for his transgressions. David was a truly sincere man despite
the faults into which he fell, and it is the heart of David which is sketched.
So here, the Spirit is not looking so much at Joseph as a favorite child or an
Egyptian prime minister, as at the innermost and truest Joseph, and therefore
He thus describes him: “The LORD was with Joseph.
This striking likeness of Joseph strongly reminds us of our
Master and Lord, that greater Joseph, who is Lord over all the world for the
sake of Israel. Peter, in his sermon to the household of Cornelius, said of our
Lord that He “went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the
devil; for God was with Him.” Exactly what had been said of Joseph. It is
wonderful that the same words should describe both Jesus and Joseph, the
perfect Savior and the imperfect patriarch. When you and I are perfected in
grace, we shall wear the image of Christ, and that which will describe Christ
will also describe us. Those who live with Jesus will be transformed by His
fellowship till they become like Him. To my mind, it is very beautiful to see
the resemblance between the firstborn and the rest of the family, between the
great typical man, the Second Adam, and all those men who are quickened into
His life, and are one with Him.
Charles H. Spurgeon
Sermons on Men of the Bible, “Joseph: A Miniature Portrait”,
pp. 54-55
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