Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

Looking into the Word
Dec 15th, 2010
CommentaryArt Sadlier
Categories: The Church;Exhortation

Joseph’s Wife Asenath, is a Type of the Church

In Genesis chapter 41, Joseph, as a type of Christ, is given a bride who is a type of the Bride of Christ, her name is Asenath. Asenath was outside the chosen family of Israel, she was a stranger to the chosen seed, a pagan. Asenath had no right or inheritance among the seed of Abraham; as such she was a type of the gentiles who have no right or inheritance with Israel, a perfect type of the gentiles in the church.

Christ presented Himself to Israel and they rejected Him. Our Lord proceeded to sit down on the right hand of God. From that vantage point He sent down the Holy Spirit to gather the Church from among the gentiles and the Jews. We gentiles had no part in the chosen seed of Israel, we are strangers to the covenant of promise to Israel. Yet, God in mercy and grace drew us to Himself and united us to His Son to share in His heavenly glory.

Notice that Joseph’s Egyptian bride was intimately associated with him in his glory. She being a part of him shared in all that he was and all that he had. She occupied a place of intimacy known only to her. In bearing two sons to Joseph, Maneseh and Ephraim, she became a part of the people of God who made up the nation of Israel. She was numbered among the seventy who comprised the seed of Jacob in the land of Egypt.

We have a parallel with the Church, the bride of the Lamb. She is gathered to Christ to be a sharer, both of His rejection and of His glory. It is Christ’s position which describes the position of the Church. Consequently her position should describe her walk or life. Our gathering to Christ is to share in His glory, which He now has in heaven. The Church’s gathering point is Christ in glory.  2 Corinthians 5:16, “Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more;” I repeat, that it is Christ in glory that that unifies believers. John 12:32, “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.”

It is the blood of the Lamb that makes provision for the washing away of our sins, we will rejoice in the blood of the lamb for all of eternity. We will rejoice in the Lamb who shed His blood for our redemption. The blood forms the basis of our fellowship with God. But when we think of our unity as a Church we need to understand that our unity is centered in our glorified head in heaven.

If Christ were on earth, we would be gathered to Him on earth in His humility; but, in as much as He is hidden in heaven; the Church is to be as He is in heaven. “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world,” John 17:16. If we are gathered to Christ, we must be gathered to Him as He is and where He is; and the more the Spirit of God leads us into the understanding of this, the more clearly we will see how we ought to live.

Joseph’s bride was united to him, not in the pit nor in the dungeon, but in the glory of his position in Egypt. We need to live in the light of our position in Christ, which includes being dead with Christ and risen with Him in glory.