Sound The Trumpet : Looking Into the Word

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“Looking Into the Word”
by Art Sadlier
December 14th, 2010

The Exaltation of the Man who had been in the Pit

“Moreover he called for a famine upon the land: he brake the whole staff of bread.
He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant:
Whose feet they hurt with fetters: he was laid in iron:
Until the time that his word came: the word of the LORD tried him.
The king sent and loosed him; even the ruler of the people, and let him go free.
He made him lord of his house, and ruler of all his substance:
To bind his princes at his pleasure; and teach his senators wisdom.” Psalm 105:16-22

In Genesis 39-45 we have a foreshadowing of God’s future working with both Israel and the Church. In this consideration we will think on way God sovereignly works to carry out His purposes. We see an amazing series of providential acts, through which the Lord exalts the man who had been in the pit and in jail. The purpose of God was to make him the ruler over all of Egypt.

We see the purpose of God is to exalt the one whom men had rejected, and then to bring those same men to the realization of their sin in rejecting Him. This is a foreshadowing of God’s dealing with Israel and in His dealing with those who would later comprise the Church.

We catch a glimpse of how God uses the most trivial things to work out His purposes. In chapter 39, Satan uses Potiphar’s wife to put Joseph in jail and in chapter 40, he uses Pharaoh’s butler to keep him there. All this activity of Satan was in vain, God was behind the scene working out His purposes. The hand of God was upon all of the intricacies of Joseph’s life, that in His time he would bring forth the man of His purpose. This is God’s way, He is above all and He can use all to bring about His purposes. It is sweet to know that angels, and men and devils are all under His control to bring about His purpose in our lives.

In this text we see God visiting the home of the heathen captain Potiphar. We also see Him visiting the household of a heathen king to work out His purpose. We see Him working out His purpose on the bed of this king, as He visits him with a vision. The picture expands as we see the Lord working in all of Egypt and in all the surrounding countries through a famine, which was sent to further the purposes of God concerning Joseph.

The whole earth was prepared by the hand of God to be a stage on which to display the one, who was separate from his brethren. When we begin to comprehend the ways of God and realize how He works in a sovereign way to exalt His Son and ultimately bring us to the place of exaltation, it thrills our hearts.

Look into the dungeon of Egypt and see Joseph bound in irons. See him charged with the most despicable of crimes, an outcast the refuse of society. See him almost in a moment raised up to the highest place in the land, who can deny that God is the sovereign Lord of all.

We have here a striking picture of the sufferings and glory of Christ. Joseph, a type of Christ, was taken from the pit and the dungeon, into which he had been brought by the envy of his brothers. He had endured the false judgments of the gentiles and yet he was exalted to be ruler over all of Egypt. He was also to become the channel of blessing to Israel and to the whole earth. He was a type of Christ and the type could not be more perfect.

We see a man virtually in the place of death, placed there by the hand of man, and then raised up to the place of dignity and glory. Believer take comfort in the fact of God`s sovereignty and in the fact that God has a sovereign purpose in your life. He will work in all of the circumstances of your life to bring about His purpose

Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13