THE WORLD GENESIS 41 55. Joseph has a wife given to him. "And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphnath-paaneah (the Egyptian meaning of which is 'Saviour of the world'); and he gave him to wife Asenath, the daughter of Potipharah priest of On" (40:45). It is with some hesitation and much reluctance that at this point the writer finds himself differing from other students and commentators. Many whom we respect highly have regarded Asenath as here prefiguring the Church. Their principal reason for doing this is because Joseph's wife was a Gentile. But while allowing the force of this, we feel that it is more than counterbalanced by another point which makes against it. Believing that everything in this inspired narrative has a definite meaning and typical value, and that each verse has been put into its present place by the Holy Spirit, we are confronted with what is, to us, an insuperable difficulty if Asenath prefigures the Church, namely, the fact that in the very next verse which follows the mention of Pharaoh giving a wife to Joseph, we are told, "And Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt" (41:46). Had this statement followed immediately after 41: 14, which records Joseph being brought out of prison to appear before Pharaoh, and after this we had been told Joseph received his wife, we should be obliged to regard Asenath as a type of the Church; but as it is, we believe the typical application must be sought elsewhere, as we shall now proceed to point out. The Holy Spirit has here (we are assured, with definite design) made mention of Joseph having a wife before his "age" is referred to, and before his life's work began. That the age of Joseph at the time his real work started, pointed to the age of the Lord Jesus when His public ministry commenced, is too obvious to admit of dispute. The fact, then, that the Holy Spirit speaks of Joseph's wife before the mention of him being thirty years of age, suggests to the writer that the typical significance of Asenath must be sought at some point of time before the Lord Jesus entered upon His life's mission. And that, of course, takes us back to Old Testament times. And there, we do learn of Jehovah (the Lord Jesus) possessing a "wife," even Israel. From the various Scriptures which bring this out we select two verses from Jeremiah 3. There, God's prophet, when expostulating with His wayward people, said, "Turn, O backsliding children, said the Lord; for I am married unto you" (verse 14); "Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with Me, O house of Israel, saith the Lord" (verse 20). But against this it will be objected, How could Asenath, the Egyptian, wife of Joseph, typify Israel, the wife of Jehovah? Formidable as this objection appears at first sight, it is, nevertheless, capable of easy solution. The difficulty disappears if we go back to the time when Israel first became Jehovah's wife. Upon this point the Scriptures are very explicit. In Ezekiel 16, where the prophet is outlining the sad history of Israel, and where he says, "How weak is thine heart, saith the Lord God, seeing thou doest all these things, the work of an imperious whorish woman; in that thou buildest thine eminent place in the head of every way, and makest thine high place in every street; and hast not been as a harlot, in that thou scornest hire. But as a wife that committeth adultery, which taketh strangers instead of her husband;" here, at the outset, the prophet declares, "Thus saith the Lord God unto Jerusalem, Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother a Hittite" (Ezek. 16:3). Here, then, we learn the origin (the moral origin, no doubt) of Israel, and how fittingly did Asenath, the Gentile, prefigure Jehovah's wife at that time! It was not until after Israel was redeemed from Egypt's bondage and corruption that they became separated from all other nations. If further confirmation be necessary it is found in Jeremiah 2: 2, "Go cry in the ears of Jerusalem, thus saith the Lord; I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after Me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown." Israel, then, became Jehovah's in Egypt, when redeemed by blood, and after by power. The issue from Joseph's marriage appears to us to fit in with the interpretation suggested above much better than with the common application of the type of Asenath to the Church. "Unto Joseph were born two sons" (41:50), and does not this correspond with the history of Israel after she became Jehovah's wife? Was not the issue of that union the two kingdoms in the days of Rehoboam, and does not the meaning of the names of Joseph's two sons well describe the two kingdoms which, ultimately, issued from Israel? "Joseph called the name of the first born Manasseh" (41:51), which signifies "Forgetting," and was it not that which, peculiarly, characterized the ten-tribed kingdom! "The name of the second called he Ephraim" (41:52), which means "Fruitful," and such was Judah, from whom the Lord Jesus came! 56. Joseph's marriage was arranged by Pharaoh. How perfectly this agrees with what we read of in Matthew 22:2! "The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for His Son." The fact that Asenath is mentioned before we are told that Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh and began his life's work (type of Christ as He began His public ministry), and that the birth and naming of his sons occurred afterward, suggests (as is so often the case, both in types and prophecies) that there is here a double foreshadowment. This Gentile wife of Joseph points backward, first, to Israel's condition before Jehovah separated her from all other peoples and took her unto Himself; and, second, the type seems to point forward to the time when the Lord shall resume His dealings with her, see Jeremiah 31:31-34; Ezekiel 16: 62, 63; Hosea 2:19-23; Isaiah 54:5-8*). Then, too, shall the names of Joseph's two sons be found to possess a double significance, for God's will "forget" Israel's past, and Israel shall then, as never before, be found "fruitful." 57. Joseph was thirty years old when he began his life's work. "And Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt" (41:46). Every line in this wondrous picture has its own beauty and value. There is nothing here without profound significance. The Holy Spirit has a definite design in telling us what was Joseph's age when his public service began. He was thirty years old. How perfectly does type and antitype correspond! In Luke 3:23 we read, "And Jesus Himself began to be about thirty *The spiritual and dispensational condition of Israel at the moment when God shall resume His dealings with His ancient people, is, again, aptly figured by a Gentile, for they are termed by Him now, and until then "Lo-ammi" (Hosea 1: 9), which means "Not My people." years of age." This was the age of the Lord Jesus when He commenced His public ministry, as it was Joseph's when he began his life's work. 58. Joseph went forth on his mission from Pharaoh's presence. "And Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh" (41: 46). In this chapter Pharaoh -as the one who ruled Egypt, who delighted in the excellences of Joseph, who set Joseph over all his house, but who retained the position of supremacy as to the throne-prefigured God the Father. Viewed in this light, how blessed is the typical force of the last-made quotation. It was from Pharaoh's "presence" Joseph began his life's work! How marvellously this corresponds, again, with what we read in Luke 3! The words which immediately precede the mention of the Lord being thirty years old when His public service began, are the well-known utterance of the Father at the time of His baptism, "Thou art My beloved Son; in Thee I am well pleased" (Lu. 3:22). So little is told us about the Saviour before His active ministry began. The years spent at Nazareth, save for that one brief statement which covered the period of His boyhood, are passed over in silence. But as He came up out of the waters of baptism, the Father bore public testimony to the perfect life which His Son had lived here on earth, for, without doubt, the words, "In Thee I am well pleased," not only affirmed the excellency of Christ's person, but witnessed to the Father's approval of the thirty years which His incarnate Son had spent in obscurity. That which we desire to call attention to here is, just as Joseph went forth to his work from Pharaoh's "presence," so the Lord Jesus started out on His public service from the Father's presence, there manifested at the Jordan! 59. Joseph's service was an active and itinerent one. "And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh, and went throughout all the land of Egypt" (41:46). Joseph was no idler. He did not betray Pharaoh's confidence in him, but faithfully discharged his duty. He did not remain in the place of ease and comfort, but "went throughout all the land of Egypt." How well these words remind us of what we read in the Gospels concerning that One whom Joseph foreshadowed. Of Him we read, "And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness" (Mat. 4:23). (Mat. 4:23). And again, "And Jesus went about all the cities and villages" (Mat. 9:35). 60. Joseph's exaltation was followed by a season of plenty. "And in the seven plenteous years the earth brought forth by handfuls. And he gathered up all the food of the seven years, which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up the food in the cities: the food of the field, which was round about every city, laid he up in the same. And Joseph gathered corn as the sand of the sea, very much, until he left numbering; for it was without number" (41: 47-49). Concerning the typical meaning of these verses we quote from Mr. Knapp: "These seven years of great abundance picture, if they do not typify, the present dispensation of grace in which it is our happy lot to live. 'Now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation' (2 Cor. 6:2). There were seven years, not of plenty merely, but of 'great plenty.' And during those years, we read 'the earth brought forth by handfuls.' It was a time of extraordinary abundance. And there was never a day like the one in which we live. Never before the present dispensation did God send His messengers out into all the world to proclaim to every sinner a free and a full salvation through faith in the name of His own exalted Son. There never was a time of such 'abundance,' such 'great plenty,' at any former period of God's dealings with the earth. And it is a remarkable fact, which I have not seen previously noted, that of all the distinct dispensations of time referred to in Scripture, the present is by far the longest. And oh, what a tale of grace this tells! God is indeed 'long suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish.' We doubt not that the saved of this dispensation are far in excess of any previous one. How few were saved during the centuries which passed from the days of Abel up to the Flood! How few appear to have been saved during the times of the patriarchs! How few among Israel, from the days of Joshua onwards, gave evidence of being born again! How few seem to have been saved during the public ministry of Christ-but a hundred and twenty were found in the upper room waiting for the Holy Spirit. How evident it is, then, that in contrast from all that has preceded, the |