Read Ebook: Joseph and His Brethren by Tweedie W K William King

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Prior to this stage of these proceedings, indeed, Joseph had given some manifestations of his affection to Benjamin. He showed that his elevation to the right hand of a throne had neither alienated nor chilled his love; and the fivefold mess which he sent to Benjamin , according to the Eastern mode of showing affection, made it plain that the external change in Joseph's position had not altered his heart. When he first set eyes on Benjamin, he could not refrain his tears, but "sought where to weep; and he entered into his chamber, and wept there" . According to the calmer temperament of Western nations, where self-command in such cases is more studied, such affection may appear excessive in a high and mighty ruler; it may seem weak or womanish thus to dissolve into tears, even in the retirement of one's chamber. But in less phlegmatic temperaments, and especially among Orientals, nature takes its own mode of expression--at once the most pathetic and the most powerful; and the gushings of natural affection, its tenderness, its beauty, and its force, rank among the finest portions of the Word of God. Jesus wept because Jerusalem would none of him: it would rather rush upon ruin. The deep yearnings of his loving heart were outraged, and he wept in anguish there, as in Gethsemane his sweat was as it were great drops of blood. Again, Paul could tell, even weeping, of some who were the enemies of the cross of Christ, who gloried in their shame, and drew forth pity for men who had no pity on themselves. In short, wherever man is not hardened into callousness by the power of the world, or chilled by conventional usage, he will be as prompt to weep with them that weep as to rejoice with them that rejoice. It is true, whether poetry record it or not, that--

"Not the bright stars which night's blue arch adorn, Nor rising sun which gilds the vernal morn, Shines with such lustre as the tears that break, For other's woes, down Virtue's manly cheek."

But the scene at which Joseph made himself known to his brethren deserves our closer attention. He wept sore, and so loudly that the Egyptians heard him. A strange thing that day had happened in their land; and it is not easy to conceive of the feelings of those brethren when the ruler, so royal-like, beside them, exclaimed, "I am Joseph!" Surely no lightning flash ever startled more. The words of Nathan to David, "Thou art the man!" could produce no profounder emotion. In that one clause the memory of years long past was awakened; and surely the consciences of those men were busier now than they had ever been before: surely the blush of confusion might well crimson their cheeks, and the recollection of all their baseness--their cruelty to their father, their brother, and their own souls--would rush upon their minds with the vividness of a yesterday's event. "They were troubled at his presence"--the margin says "terrified." And well they might; it was as if one had risen from the dead, or as if a miracle had been wrought to confront them with their sin. When he said, "I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt!" would not the words sound like the first portion of a sentence of death and execution? But he hastened to relieve their fears. "Be not grieved," he said, "nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither; for God did send me before you to preserve life." And when he "kissed all his brethren, and wept over them," they no doubt felt a mountain-load lifted from their minds. Joseph had forgiven them; nay, more, he had found an excuse or palliation for their sin. But could they forgive themselves? If they were not utterly abandoned to guilt--and we know that they were not--could they find rest anywhere but in the dust at that solemn, searching moment? Oh, how would many, now undone and beyond hope for ever, rejoice could such an hour of contrition be granted to them here!

Here, then, we may contemplate the state of these detected men, when their sin was pressed upon their notice by their brother, all kind and forgiving as were his words. The chief sin of all--the sale into slavery--had been committed many years before: it seemed over and forgotten, like a thing buried and out of sight. But no; sin has a vitality in it which defies alike oblivion and death; it is enduring, as the nature of God is unchanging; and the guilty brothers are thus confronted with their sin, fresh and vigorous, as if yesterday had seen it perpetrated. And is not this but a rehearsal or a foreshadowing of the great and final day, when the Judge of the quick and the dead is to set our sins in array against us, or when it will seem a relief if the mountains would fall on us and cover us from the wrath of the Lamb? Happy the man who has his soul washed in the Lamb's blood preparatory to that day! We should never forget that there is to be a resurrection of our deeds as well as of our bodies, and should live so as to be ready to render our account with joy.

THE MEETING OF JACOB AND JOSEPH.

If we have witnessed one scene of affection when Joseph embraced his brother Benjamin, we are now to behold another, when the patriarch Jacob meets with his long lost son. We are often permitted, even in this life, to see joy and gladness according to the days in which we have seen grief; and an example of that is at hand.

After the interview between Joseph and his brethren, matters were soon arranged for transferring them and all their retinue to Egypt,--another important stage in the development of God's plans with our world. Pharaoh confirmed the request of his viceroy to that effect, so that the patriarchs and their father with them were invited to settle in one of the richest portions of Egypt. Among these migratory tribes of herdsmen--who literally had no continuing city--such a removal was not so remarkable as a similar thing would be in our country of more fixed habits; and the whole house of Jacob was accordingly soon in motion toward Egypt. "It is enough," he exclaimed, when the invitation reached him; "Joseph my son is yet alive: I will go and see him before I die;" and the threescore and six souls, who composed his household, of course followed in his train.

Now, had we been there to witness that migration, it would never have occurred to us to think that the future history of the sons of men would be largely affected by the movement; yet it was so. That was no ordinary change of abode: God was in it of a truth; and, blind or dark as man might be, God was there in the act of "calling things that are not as though they were."

As he journeyed toward Egypt, Jacob met with much to gladden him by the way. In a vision of the night, he was encouraged from on high to go fearlessly forward, for blessings great and manifold awaited him and his descendants in the future. But our present topic leads us past the different stages of the journey, to the meeting of the father and the son. When Joseph learned that his parent was approaching, he hastened forth to meet him, and, with the ardent affection, as well as the profound respect, of the East, welcomed the aged man to Egypt. He did not think it beneath his dignity, as vice-king of that country, to offer lowly reverence to his father, shepherd or husbandman as he was, and following a profession which made him "an abomination unto the Egyptians." Nay, when Joseph met his father in the land of Goshen, we read that "he fell on his neck, and wept on his neck a good while" ; while the father exclaimed, "Now, let me die, since I have seen thy face, because thou art still alive."--It was an interview and an hour which compensated, in a great measure, for the sorrows and separation of years; it was one of the scenes by which God, in his holy providence, foreshows how intense will be the joy when the great family are all gathered home, from every country, and tribe, and tongue, to their Father's house on high. The exile returning to the home of his fathers, or the soldier revisiting the scenes of his boyhood after many a bloody field, may understand such emotions in some degree. They are green spots in the desert of life--a Tadmor in the wilderness--a lily among thorns.

Yet there, also, the feelings would be of a mixed nature, like all things human. Scarcely any of the parties present--Jacob, Joseph, or his brethren--could fail to glance in thought at the strange proceedings which had separated them so long. There might be neither envy nor hatred now--neither spite upon the one side, nor a desire of retaliation on the other. The dealings of Providence had been too remarkable to admit of such feelings; and we rather suppose that they were all suppressed, as much as possible, amid the general joy. But be that as it may, we see the patriarch happy for a season. His children, who were really the hope of the world , were now gathered around him; and as it then appeared that he had little to do but to die, he might at length put a different construction on his own words: "All these things are against me." He had providence now interpreted to him by its God, and saw with his bodily eyes, as all the ransomed will yet see in glory, that "all things work together for good to them that love God, and that are the called according to his purpose." Flesh and blood may fear and quake under trial, but faith rises to a higher level, and walks with a firmer step,--it can endure as seeing him who is invisible.

JACOB IN THE PRESENCE OF PHARAOH.

We have seen that the son stood before kings, and the father is now to do the same. If we have beheld not a little in former scenes to commend Joseph to our love, we are here to see yet more. As soon as he met his father, he communicated his purpose to apply to Pharaoh to sanction the sojourn of the patriarch and his tribe in Egypt. This was easily arranged; and at the close of the proceedings, Joseph "brought in Jacob his father, and set him before Pharaoh: and Jacob blessed Pharaoh" . When this was accomplished, we can suppose that the highest wishes of one so affectionate as Joseph were gratified. For about seventeen years his parent lived to bless him with his company and his counsel; and though we have not many details of their intercourse during that period, we may easily imagine that the tenderness of those seventeen years largely compensated for the long and violent separation which had kept the father and the son so far apart, and even made them the citizens of different kingdoms.

But we may notice here, in passing, the question of Pharaoh, and the answer of Jacob, at their interview. "How old art thou?" was the monarch's inquiry; and Jacob's reply was a picture in words of the weary life of man: "The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers, in the days of their pilgrimage" . Few and evil! Behold the history of a life whose days were protracted even beyond the ordinary span! Few and evil, because man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward. Few and evil, because it is written, "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." Few and evil, because, in this special case, there had been more than common grief endured, where those who should have been a solace or a stay were transformed by sin into causes of anguish, first to their aged parent, and at last also to themselves.

And how sad must the reply of Jacob have sounded in the ears of the king! It rarely happens that monarchs are permitted to hear unpleasant truths. Everything around them seems to proclaim or to whisper that to-morrow will be as to-day; or if different, only more joyous and more thoughtless still! For once, however, the hoary-headed patriarch tells the monarch the truth, and indirectly reminds him, Thou, too, must die. There was another king, the King of Terrors, mightier than Pharaoh, and slowly approaching to lay him in the dust.

And perhaps there is nothing in all the history or the life of man which shows more clearly the effects of sin, or the ruin of the fall, than his wilful ignorance, or at least his want of feeling, on the great subject of his mortality. Of no truth is it possible for man to be more convinced than this--I must die. It is not so absolutely certain that the sun will rise on any given day, as that man may die any moment or any breath. Yet who is moved by that conviction to prepare for dying? Who is stirred up by all the funerals which he sees, or all the open graves which he visits, to prepare for meeting God? Not one. It is not that kind of influence: it is the grace and the Spirit of God that make man wise to consider his latter end. For example, the plaintive sentiment, "Few and evil," uttered by the patriarch, most probably passed through the monarch's mind like water through a sieve. A sigh, or a wish, or a hope, perhaps, and all was over! The thought was dashed aside as an unwelcome intruder amid the gorgeous scenes of a palace. And if that was the case, Pharaoh was only a specimen of the universal race of man. The fleeting nature of life is forgotten amid its cares, its engrossments, and trifles. But happy they whom the Spirit of God makes wise in this and other respects! Happy they who cling, as Jacob did, to Him who is the life, and over whom death has no power for ever!

THE DEATH OF JACOB.

We have now reached the closing stage of all. For about seventeen years Jacob sojourned in Egypt, and about one hundred and forty-seven here below; but the "evil" of which he complained to Pharaoh is drawing to an end. The patriarch is about to die. Joseph was summoned into his father's presence, along with his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, who were adopted as his own by the dying patriarch; they received his blessing along with their father ; and after the aged man had prophetically sketched the history or character of each of the future patriarchs, "he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people."

And in concluding these sketches, we may glance again at the mode in which the mighty God brought good to all nations and all times out of the misdeeds of the sons of Jacob. In our world there is much to perplex and bewilder us in studying the ways of Providence, and it is not always easy--for us, at least--to "justify the ways of God to man;" but he will sooner or later justify them himself, and make it plain to all that his ways, like his Word, are pure.

For example, we have already seen what benefits accrued to Joseph himself from the cruelty of his brethren, and how fully he recognized the hand of God in all that had befallen him. Just as Jehovah will make it plain at last, before the assembled world, that the very wrath of man has praised him, in the present instance he made the evil passions of those brothers remarkably advance the eternal purposes of the God of heaven. The promises made to Adam and to Abraham are here helped a stage forward to their fulfilment in spite of all that seems to oppose. Somehow or other, though we cannot see it, or explain it at all, even sin--the abominable thing which God hates--will be made to promote his glory; and of that result we have a specimen in the events of this remarkable family.

To Jacob, also, as well as to the land of Egypt, we see what benefits resulted from the sin of his sons. All the guilt of that sin lay upon them, and was not in the least jot mitigated by the manner in which God overruled it for good; but it is full of encouragement to a child of God, to see it working out the purposes of his Father. Jacob was saved from death by starvation; his family, and myriads besides, were the same: and thus he who sought only to do evil by stirring up the envy of Joseph's brethren, was compelled to do good thereby again and again.

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