Genesis 45

The sight of Christ will strike terror into sinners. As when Joseph said to his brethren, I am Joseph whom you sold into Egypt; they were troubled at his presence (Genesis 45:6). Now, how did their hearts smite them for their sin!

If a child has any jewel, he will in time of danger put it into his father's hands, where he thinks it will be kept most safe: Our soul is our richest jewel; we may at death resign our souls into God's hands, where they will be safer than in our own keeping; Father into your han…

This ordinance of the Supper is an earnest of heaven; it is the glass in which we see him whom our souls love: it is the chariot by which we are carried up to Christ. When Jacob saw the wagons and chariots which were to carry him to his son Joseph, his spirit revived (Genesis 45…

Q. What may be some instance of God's disposing and ordering of sin for good ends? A. The sin of Joseph's brethren when they sold him into Egypt, which God disposed and ordered for the preserving of Jacob and his house in time of famine (Genesis 45:5, 7 & 50:20). Q. What else?

Things unexpected, great and glorious are apt to surprise, amaze and overwhelm our spirits, until they are uncontrollably testified to. So when Jacob's sons told their father that Joseph was alive, and made governor over all the land of Egypt (Genesis 45:26), the tidings were to…

David says, The Lord is at my right hand, therefore I shall not slide (Psalm 16:8). And when Joseph's brothers were afraid because they had sold him into Egypt, he comforts them, saying, that it was God that sent him before them, for their preservation (Genesis 45:7). So king Da…

1. It is certain, God has a hand about all the sinful actions in the world. The selling Joseph to the Ishmaelites was the act of his brethren; the sending him into Egypt was the act of God (Genesis 45:8): "It was not you that sent me here, but God" — where Joseph ascribes it mor…

Towards others is, that they so order themselves towards all, as they are taught out of the commandments, and towards guests and strangers: rich and poor, high and low, as they are taught out of the fifth commandment: and thus of the common duties of all inferiors of the family,…

We see in Joseph when advanced, how as his relations continued, so his affections remained the same to his poor brethren, (who yet had injured him,) and also to his father. So (Genesis 45), where in the same speech he mentions both his own greatest dignities, and advancement, [G…

And, oh what endeared reciprocal affections did work in all their breasts towards each other! Just thus, is it between our Joseph and his brethren, Jesus Christ and his members; there stands none with him while Jesus makes himself known to his brethren: And though at first they…

Christ is said to give Apostles, Prophets, Pastors, teachers (Ephesians 4:11). God sent Joseph to Egypt to be the governor thereof, and a reliever of Jacob's family (Genesis 45). In this regard the Medes and Persians are said to be the sanctified ones of God (Isaiah 13:3), and t…

This is the foundation of our patience, and a means of true comfort. Joseph thus comforts himself and his brothers, that God ordered and disposed their bad enterprise, to his and their good (Genesis 45:6-7). Here again Paul sets down two properties of the Testament of works, or…

This is [[original in non-Latin script]] that Spirit of the Sons of Men that goes upwards, when the Spirit of a Beast goes downwards to the Earth, or turnes to Corruption, Eccles. 3. 21. see Chap. 8. 8. and Chap. 12. 7. Hence, fourthly, by a Metonymy also, it is taken for the Af…

(3.) What a transporting pleasure is it, to behold great blessings and advantages to us wrought by Providence, out of those very things that seemed to threaten our ruine or misery? and yet by due observing the ways of Providence, you may to your singular comfort find it so. Litt…

So Job here, The Lord has taken away, is as if he had said, I could not have borne this at the hands of any creature, but at the hands of my sovereign Lord that may dispose of me and mine, and do what he pleases, at his hands I not only bear it, but take it well. Joseph had not…

While she says, I will give you my loves, it is not to be understood, as if then she would begin to love him (for, the thing that made her put up this suit was her love to him) but that then she would with more freedom do it, and with ease and delight get it done, which now woul…

Fourthly; a superior in wisdom and counsel is likewise called a father. So in Joseph's speech, (Genesis 45:8) God has made me a father to Pharaoh. Fifthly; the ministers of the gospel have likewise the honorable titles of fathers conferred upon them.

For these things were the end of all that mediatory glory which was given to him. So Joseph charged his brethren, when he had revealed himself to them, that they should tell his father of all his glory in Egypt (Genesis 45:13). This he did, not for an ostentation of his own glor…

As Saint Paul said, I am ready not to be bound only, but also to dye for the name of the Lord Jesus; his life was not dear to him, he accounted it not worth the least degree of glory to God: A gracious heart, as it accounts nothing low in any duty that tends to this glorious rew…

When he was moved to destroy the earth and all living things thereon, he had care of his Church, and provided an ark to keep her out of the waters, and stored up in the ark all things needful for her (Genesis 6:14-21). When he purposed to bring a famine on the world, he sent a m…

Christ gives grace and glory (Psalm 84:11) — the one to cleanse us, the other to crown us. As Jacob said: it is enough, Joseph is yet alive (Genesis 45:28). So he who has Christ may say: it is enough, Jesus is yet alive.

For these things were the end of all that mediatory glory which was given unto him. So Joseph charged his brothers, when he had revealed himself unto them, that they should tell his father of all his glory in Egypt (Genesis 45:13). This he did, not for an ostentation of his own…

I now come to give you three or four practical deductions. First, is Christs body now in heaven? then I infer; O you that canst lay a well-grounded clayme for an interest in Jesus Christ: O be not you afraid to dye, because your Christ is in heaven, and when you diest, death is…

Things which come from heaven to us, while we are on the earth, will go to heaven with us, when we leave the earth. Graces are like the wagons which Joseph sent to carry Jacob his father (Genesis 45:21). They are the Vehicula, like Elijah's chariot of fire, to transport the soul…

Besides, believing is an act of the heart (Romans 10:10), not of the head, or of the understanding only, but of the heart also: and if a man believe with his heart, then there will be a firm resting and relying on the thing promised, and on him that promises; as it is said (Isai…

Be it to you as you will — Christ cannot long dissemble (to speak so) and keep up his love; he tried this woman hard; now he praises her to her face: Great is your faith, and grants her desire to the full. If there was such a brotherly and natural compassion in Joseph (Genesis 4…

His love does engage Him, the love of Christ is like fire, that cannot conceal itself long, and no fire so strong, and has such a vehement flame as the love of Christ to His people. Joseph had a great love to his brothers notwithstanding all their unkindness, and although he con…

Why, though you did it foolishly and rashly, yet a wiser than you did it by counsel; God had a wise and good end in it, and he will have you to make a good use of it, if you belong to him, and therefore though you must grieve, yet be not overmuch grieved. It was the counsel of w…

Thus Paul exhorts, that prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving, be made for Kings, and all that be in authority (1 Timothy 2:1). The reason is, because being over us in authority, we have the benefit of their gifts and authority (Genesis 45:9). Sect. 2.

Secondly, by the effects, for when any thing comes to pass, we may cast the event on the will of God as its cause, and look upon it as a revelation of his purpose. Jacob's sons little imagined that it was the will of God, by them to send their brother into Egypt: yet afterward,…

Joseph, that had the most glorious apparel, the coat of many colors, who was separated from his brethren, and was exalted to such glory out of a dark dungeon, and fed and saved the world, when ready to perish with famine, and was as a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches ran…

And when God restored the Jews out of captivity, they could think no otherwise of it than as a dream. And Peter when he was by the Angel delivered out of prison, took it for a vision only, and an apparition, and not for a truth (Genesis 45:26; Psalm 126:1; Acts 12:9; Luke 24:41)…

The like may be said of other things, which come to pass in time (see Psalm 33:11; Psalm 115:3; Isaiah 46:10; Proverbs 19:21). That the liberty and freedom of the will, and contingency of events, is consistent with the decree; is clear from Acts 2:23; Acts 3:17-18; Acts 4:27, 28…