06.7.0. Joseph, or Suffering and Glory
PART 7 JOSEPH, OR SUFFERING AND GLORY Genesis 37:1-36, Genesis 38:1-30, Genesis 39:1-23, Genesis 40:1-23, Genesis 41:1-57, Chapters 37 - 50 "The afflictions of Joseph." -- Amos 6:6.
"Heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; if so be we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together." -- Romans 8:17.
HERE begins the story of Joseph, in whom the fairest form of human life is seen. Six stages have passed, in which we have traced how Israel, a Prince of God, grows out of old Adam. We have seen human nature, and flesh and spirit, and regeneration, and faith, and sonship, and service. Now comes the last form of life, -- a life which from the first dreams of rule, and which attains it through suffering; a wonderful change from naked Adam; and yet an outcome from him, brought forth by God’s ingrafting. Joseph does not leave his home, to walk in simple faith, he knows not whither; nor can he rest in peace, a son and heir, by wells of water enjoying the sweets of sonship; nor does he serve night and day to win flocks and herds, who may be led up out of the world to Canaan. Joseph is none of these, but a life which surely follows these; never seen but where faith has brought forth sonship, and sonship service; itself the fruit of service, one of its last and fairest fruits; which from the first has dreams, not of service, but rule; which yet, spite of its dreams, is called to suffer many things; which suffers long, and is sorely tried, but at last out of suffering attains to rule all things; the world and brethren bowed at its feet, forced to confess the might of that they once ridiculed.
We have nothing like this before. In Abraham the elect forsakes the world to walk in heavenly places. At this faith stage, Egypt, so far from being ruled, is rather a snare to the believer. Nor can Isaac rule this land: the spirit of sonship is content to rest at peace in heavenly places. In Jacob or service something is done in outward things; some flocks and herds are won there. But Egypt, the ground of sense, is not subdued: service is not sufficient for such an achievement. But in Joseph, the spirit opposed, and fettered, and bound, conquers by passive power, and is at length exalted over all things. Joseph stands where Abraham falls. The ground which is a snare to mere believers, is none to patient sufferers. Suffering conquers that which tries our faith, and by it, and by it alone, the ground of sense is ruled at last.
Such as live and walk in the spirit know that we too are called with this calling, -- to rule, not to be ruled by, sense, that the kingdom may be in the earth even as it is in heaven; for Christ our Head has reached to this, and we as His members are predestined to be conformed to Him. But few get beyond faith or sonship; few reach to service, and fewer still to glory in tribulation, by the cross to rule the world, and to walk among the things of sense, confessedly superior to them all. Some unknown, yet well-known, have done it; and others, who yet are captive to sense, cannot forget the dreams, once divinely given, by which their hearts and hopes were stirred to look and wait for perfect victory. Let such abide their time. They shall shew that if we suffer with Christ we also shall with Him be glorified (Romans 8:17). The whole path is here set forth: how it goes with man in this path, -- how his very brethren mock him, -- how the world deals with him before he rules it, -- how trials increase the more he walks with God, -- how the battle is won at length, -- all this is told, as none but God, whose own work it is, could tell it. Being is proved to be far more than doing. And, like the light, which serves us by simply being light, the spirit which beareth all things, by the virtue that flows forth from it unconsciously, commands a place and power which is felt by all to be of God. And indeed there is no service like this unconscious service, which naturally flows from what we are through the divine indwelling.