Joseph and His Brothers
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world; but the crime of His murderers was just as heinous as though
God’s providential hand had not controlled events.
Joseph was falsely accused and thrust into prison because of his
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virtue; so Christ was despised and rejected because His righteous, self-
denying life was a rebuke to sin; and though guilty of no wrong, He
was condemned upon the testimony of false witnesses. And Joseph’s
patience under injustice, his ready forgiveness and noble benevolence
toward his unnatural brothers represent the Saviour’s uncomplaining
endurance of the malice and abuse of wicked men and His forgiveness
of all who come to Him confessing their sins and seeking pardon.
Joseph witnessed the increase and prosperity of his people, and
through all the years his faith in God’s restoration of Israel to the Land
of Promise was unshaken.
When he saw that his end was near, his last act was to signify that
his lot was cast with Israel. His last words were, “God will surely visit
you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which He sware to
Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” And he took a solemn oath of the
children of Israel that they would carry up his bones with them to the
land of Canaan. “So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old;
and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.”
Through the centuries of toil which followed, that coffin testified
to Israel that they were only sojourners in Egypt, and bade them keep
their hopes fixed upon the Land of Promise, for the time of deliverance
would surely come.
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