Genesis 39

Genesis 39:1-41

Section 3. (Genesis 39:1-23; Genesis 40:1-23; Genesis 41:1-52.)Zaphnath-paaneah, “the Revealer of Secrets.” With the next section we return to Joseph, to see Christ in connection with the Gentiles. It is plain that, thus viewed, there is no continuity with the thirty-seventh chapter, but in some sort, a new beginning. Even the position of Joseph, under an Egyptian master, may remind us of Zechariah’s words, which I, with others, believe to be intended of Christ, “Man acquired Me as a slave from My youth.” (Zechariah 13:5, Heb.) Here, notice, it is not said, Israel: the lowly service to which He has stooped has the widest scope. But what response did this service receive from man? “What are those wounds in Thy hands? Those with which I was wounded in the house of My friends.” With Joseph in it, the house of the Egyptian is blessed of God; but with Christ ministering in it, how unspeakably was the world blest! All the power was there, and manifesting itself, which could have turned, and will yet turn, the need of man, however great and varied, into occasion for the display of the wealth of divine loving-mercy. But it availed not to turn man’s heart to God: false witness casts Joseph into Pharaoh’s prison, where, however, again all things come under his hand; while under false accusation, the Lord descends into a darker prison-house, in result to manifest Himself as Master of all there. A higher power than man’s was working beneath all this in Joseph’s case. The path of humiliation was to end for him in glory; the sorrow of the way was to issue in joy -love’s own joy of service in a higher sphere. “God did send me before you to preserve life,” he says to his brethren afterward; and he who in prison reveals himself as the interpreter of the mind of God, is, as such, qualified to administer the resources of the throne of Egypt, for the relief of the distress which is at hand for the world. All this is easily read as typical of the Lord, only that the shadows of the picture are immeasurably darker here, as the lights are inexpressibly brighter. From the humiliation and agony of the cross, in which He is the interpreter of man’s just doom on the one hand, and of the mercy for him on the other, the lowly Minister to human need comes forth to serve as the Wisdom and Power of God upon a throne of grace. Seven years of plenty to be succeeded by seven years of famine, which shall devour them up, -such is the prophecy of Pharaoh’s dream. Even yet is the world enjoying its plenteous years, and little it believes in its plainly predicted future. The time of famine is nevertheless not far off, which is to manifest the resources of Him who will then be seen alone competent to meet its terrible exigencies. In that time of sore trial, both Israel is to be brought back to Him whom they have rejected, and the world subjected to the throne whose provision of grace He ministers. But first, and as soon as ever he is exalted, we hear of new relationships for Joseph: “And Pharaoh called Joseph’s name Zaphnath-paaneah; and he gave him to wife Asenath, the daughter of Potipherah, priest of On; and Joseph went out over all the land of Egypt.” The name given we may take as Hebrew, and in the meaning anciently given to it, “Revealer of Secrets.” How precious a title for Him who has revealed to us the secrets of the heart of God! And especially appropriate is it in connection (as the text suggests) with Joseph’s Gentile marriage. To Christianity belongs above all the revelation of the divine “mysteries.” The “mysteries of the kingdom,” the “great mystery” of Christ and the Church," “the mystery of His will . . . for the administration of the fullness of times to head up all things in heaven and earth in Christ” (Matthew 13:11; Ephesians 5:32; Ephesians 1:9-10) are given to us for the first time in these Christian days, while He is Himself, in His own person and work, the “mystery of godliness.” Even the false church appropriates (though but to pervert) this idea of mystery (Revelation 17:5); while the apostle desires no better estimation for himself and others than “as ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.” (1 Corinthians 4:1.) For us even the stored treasures of the past dispensation are revealing themselves, and things which happened unto Israel happened unto them for types, and are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages are come. (1 Corinthians 10:11.) All these things are pledges of new relationship, confidences, unspeakably precious, of the heart of Christ. (John 15:15.) Revealer of secrets indeed is He; no truer or sweeter name for Him who has been pleased to take, in these plenteous days before the time of the world’s famine, a Gentile bride. At the same time, if our Joseph’s title can be shown to have in Egyptian the meaning, “Saviour of the world,” we need not reject it. This is indeed the outward aspect in which Christ is now revealed. As to Asenath, if the meaning of her name is conjectural only, those of her two sons are very significant. Born before the famine, and while Joseph’s brethren are yet strangers to his exaltation, “he called the name of the firstborn Manasseh, -for God has made me forget all my toil and all my father’s house;” while “the name of the second called he Ephraim, -for God hath made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.” For His Church, His heavenly bride, He has been content to be as if He remembered not His relationship with His people of old. The thread of prophecy lies unwoven in the shuttle of time, as if its wheel had stopped forever. Why this apparent forgetfulness on the part of Him who never slumbereth nor sleepeth? Surely, no change; but the pursuance of eternal purposes, which accomplished, Israel shall look upon the face of Him whom they have pierced, and a fountain be open to them also for sin and for uncleanness. In the individual application we are again unable to go into much detail. We may easily, indeed, see how the wisdom of God, and His power in measure too, abide with such an one as our type represents. He is master of the circumstances by which at times he may appear mastered. All things necessarily serve the One who is ever with him, content Himself to find, through seeming defeat, His sure, eternal victory. Through all, he is preparing for the place where at last both his brethren shall be restored to him, and also the world shall be his own; for when Christ reigns (of which we have been tracing the figures here), His saints shall reign with Him.