While the story of Joseph carries us
through to the close of the book of Genesis, there are one or two items of
dispensational importance that may be profitably gathered together before leaving
this book of the beginning.
Judah, who made such a sorry figure in the
parenthesis of chapter xxxviii., becomes a noble type of Israel’s Redeemer
in chapters xliii. & xliv. There
the great feature is Suretyship:--
“I will be surety for him; of my hand shalt thou require him: if I bring him not unto thee, and set him
before thee, then let me bear the blame for ever” (xliii. 9).
“Now therefore, I pray thee, let thy
servant abide instead of the lad a bondman to my lord; and let the lad go up with his brethren. For how shall I go up to my father and the
lad be not with me?” (xliv. 33, 34).
The language of these verses is so clear,
so beautiful that any words of ours would seem to spoil their teaching. All that we will do will be to indicate the
usage and meaning of the word translated Surety.
SURETY (Hebrew Arab). — The root
idea of the word appears to be “To mix”, as in
Psa. cvi. 35, “mingle”; Prov.
xiv. 10, “intermediate”. In the
Chaldee section of Daniel the equivalent occurs in Dan. ii. 41,
“Iron mixed with miry clay”.
In weaving, the ereb is the “woof”,
that which is woven into or mixed in the texture (Lev. xiii. 48). The word is translated many times “evening”,
the time when darkness begins to “mix” with the light. Now all this bears upon the truth of
Surety-ship. The Surety so “mixes” with
the one for whom he acts as to take his place and be treated in his stead. Judah clearly perceived this when he said:--
“Let thy servant abide INSTEAD of the lad
A BONDMAN, and let the lad GO UP with his brethren” (Gen. xliv. 33).
Benjamin was the one who really should
have been bound and Judah the one who should have gone up to his father, but
Judah as the Surety was so intermingled with the case of his brother that he
could be treated “instead of” Benjamin with perfect justice.
The attitude of Reuben with regard to
Joseph must not be passed over without a word.
Reuben, being the first-born, might well have been jealous of Joseph but
we find him doing his best to save Joseph from the hands of his brethren. It was during Reuben’s absence that Joseph
was sold, and his grief is expressed upon his return in the words:--
“The child is not, and I, whither shall I
go?” (xxxvii. 30).
The student of the Scripture must have
noticed the important place given to the firstborn. Christ Himself bears the title, and so do the
elect. A careful weighing of the
statements of Scripture would make one feel that believers to-day constitute a
kind of firstborn, saved early and during this present time that they in their
turn may deliver those who have not been so favoured, when the time comes for
the knowledge of the Lord to cover the earth as the waters cover the seas.
Before Jacob died he gathered his sons
together, to tell them what should befall them “in the last days” (xlix.). The prophecy, though it finds partial
fulfillment in Israel’s past, looks to the period of the second coming of the
Lord and the time of Jacob’s trouble and restoration. By far the largest space is devoted to the
future of Judah and Joseph. In both come
prophecies of Christ. Verse 10 speaks of
“Shiloh” and the “Sceptre” in connection with the royal tribe of Judah, and in
Joseph’s line Christ again figures as the “Shepherd” and “Stone” of Israel of
whom Joseph was such a type.
A brief outline may help to set out the
chief points.
When Jacob had finished this prophecy, he
spoke of his approaching death and commanded that he should be buried together
with Abraham and Isaac. Joseph lived to
nourish and care for his brethren, and when he was about to die, he too gave
command that his bones be carried up to the land of promise, saying “God will
surely visit you”. The book, which
commences with the creation of heaven and earth, concludes with the history of
one obscure man and his twelve sons, and stresses the fulfillment of God’s
promise concerning the “land” and the close connection that resurrection would
hold to that fulfillment. The Scriptures
focus upon a small space and a limited number, not because the wider circle is
forgotten, but because in the smaller sphere we may the better see the purpose
of the ages which indeed transcends the promised land and embraces the heavens
and the earth, and goes beyond the pale of the chosen people to embrace every
nation, tongue, people and language, and behind the promises made to Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob, to that promise made before the age times.
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