| Subject: Genesis 39 vss 21-23 Post 187 |
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Hillbilly
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Date Posted: 19:51:45 03/09/12 Fri
Genesis 39:21-23 But the LORD was with Joseph, and shewed him mercy, and gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison. 22 And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph's hand all the prisoners that were in the prison; and whatsoever they did there, he was the doer of it. 23 The keeper of the prison looked not to any thing that was under his hand; because the LORD was with him, and that which he did, the LORD made it to prosper.
Joseph for all the good he had done unto his master is cast into prison for a wrong he did not commit. "BUT"! Whenever you come to the word "but" in scripture it would pay to go back and look at the previous scriptures and the context and keep them in mind as you go forward. Joseph is being being punished for doing what was right and good. "But the LORD was with Joseph". No matter how dark the day nor hard the way we travel the Lord will be with us if we are His. Joseph was special to the Lord. He was morally upright and sought to please God in the way he lived and worshiped. When he was cornered by Potiphar's wife he told her "There is none greater in this house than I; neither hath he (Potiphar) kept back any thing from me but thee, because thou art his wife: how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God" (verse 9). He considered the greater sin to be against God although it would be a great evil against his master who had entrusted him with everything. Joseph in his young life has already found the world can be a very inhospitable place.
Just as God was with Joseph throughout his slavery he was also now with Joseph in the prison. Joseph was living proof of the scripture which says: "Let your conversation (lifestyle or way of living) be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." (Hebrews 13:5) Joseph fit into this verse neatly. As we have seen he did not try for personal gain with his master and has not done anything for selfish reasons in the prison. He is content in the sense that he is not loudly proclaiming his innocence nor causing a ruckus. Joseph like Paul has learned to accept the cards that life has dealt him and trust God for each day.. Philippians 4:11-12 Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. 12 I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. The man who authored these words was Paul the prisoner as he transcribed them from his prison house in Rome.
Joseph soon earned the jail keeper's respect and he, as Potiphar before him, committed everything into his hands and care. God gave favor to Joseph in the eyes of the keeper of the prison. When a man's ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him. (Proverbs 16:7) Everything that Joseph did the Lord caused to proper so that it might be said that it was Joseph who was actually running the prison instead of the prison keeper. Psalm 1:1-3 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. 2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. 3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
Joseph is that man and more. Even in these things as a prisoner there are similarities to the events in the life of Christ. To pick up now on these similarities we go back to the last verse we studied in the last lesson which is verse 20.. "And Joseph's master took him, and put him into the prison, a place where the king's prisoners were bound: and he was there in the prison." The prisoners Joseph was with were not ordinary prisoners. They were special prisoners who had served the king. Many times in scriptures the "abode of the dead" is called a prison. Notice this passage in the book of Job: Job 3:11-19 Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly? 12 Why did the knees prevent me? or why the breasts that I should suck? 13 For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest, 14 With kings and counsellors of the earth, which built desolate places for themselves; 15 Or with princes that had gold, who filled their houses with silver: 16 Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw light. 17 There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest. 18 There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor. 19 The small and great are there; and the servant is free from his master.
In the journey that so hinted of events in Jesus' life we see Jesus and Joseph were both in prison. Most think of Jesus as being a prisoner just before his death but it is after his death we get a truer picture of the prisoners that Jesus was with. 1 Peter 3:18-20 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but (there's that word "but" again) quickened by the Spirit: 19 By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; 20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.
You read it right. Jesus at His death went to this prison Job talked about and preached to some prisoners that had died in or before the flood! They were in the abode of the dead in a soul state while there bodies had long since been dissolved. The place where Lazarus and Abraham were in Luke 16 was this same prison. It is called the pit as well as prison: Isaiah 24:22 And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited. (Jesus visited them after His death) This prison, or holding place if you will, was emptied in Matt. 27:52 -53 and they with Christ are "become the firstfruits of them that slept". (1 Cor. 15:20-21) As Joseph was over all the "kings" prisoners in his prison so was Jesus over the KINGS prisoners in Abraham's bosom (Luke 16:22) for three days and three nights until His resurrection. These prisoners belonged to God. Ephesians 4:9-10 (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.) Psalm 68:18 Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the LORD God might dwell among them.
Typology is one of the greatest "tools" to studying and understanding the events of the New Testament. This is because God in reality prophesied through the lives and events in the Old Testament. He revealed things that were going to happen thousands of years before the events took place. Many are yet to take place but we can get a a fairly clear glimpse of these events through people such as Joseph.
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