Genesis 45:1-12
by Mike Swihart
God began revealing His plan of salvation and the coming Savior, Jesus, The Messiah, soon after Adam and Eve sinned and were separated from the love of God. The LORD begins revealing the coming Savior through whispers and foreshadows in the lives of His chosen sinners. The Bible is His revealing Love Story to us and for us. God’s revelation through Joseph’s life and family, provides numerous and unique aspects of the coming Christ and and application in three dimensions of the execution of His Plan, Process and Passion of His “Great Salvation”.
I. THE 3 DIMENSIONS FORESHADOWING JESUS THROUGH JOSEPH
BEFORE, Jesus: Joseph: Revealing God’s plan, process and passion for His Chosen children to reveal His Chosen special SON, JESUS!
WHEN, Jesus: God’s Special Son, became the Father’s Suffering Servant and Sacrifice in order to provide redemption, restoration and reconciliation for God’s chosen family.
AFTER, Jesus Through our personal faith and trust in Jesus as our only source of salvation from our sinful self, The Heavenly Father Adopts us as His special son’s and daughter’s in Christ. As members of God’s family in this world, we are to be followers and imitators of His Son, Jesus Christ in or to reveal the life, love and light of God’s Great Gospel!
II. JOSEPH’S FORESHADOWING OF JESUS
SPECIAL SON: (Chosen by his father. Chosen by God. Jacob, Issac, Abraham)
SUFFERING SERVANT ( Chosen as a Servant who choose to serve through suffering)
SELECTED SAVIOR (God choose Joseph to Save God’s eternal family)
III. GOD’S PLAN, PROCESS & PASSION FOR SALVATION.
THE SPECIAL SON: (Chosen by his father’s, Father) DIGNITY
The LORD’S plan to start His family begins with a highly dysfunctional family!
JOSEPH: The Special Son: He was REAL: (DIGNITY)
Personal Dignity can never be earned through performance but is received by faith as a gift from God for His glory and our good.
Gen. 45:1 Then Joseph could not control himself before all those who stood by him. He cried, “Make everyone go out from me.” So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. 2 And he wept aloud, so that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it. 3 And Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Is my father still alive?” But his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed at his presence.
He could not control himself • He Cried • He wailed: Wailing: Unrestrained anguish
Brothers: dismayed at his presence.
Through this unexpected overwhelming encounter with his brothers, Joseph was able to remain vulnerably present, honest and genuine, because of his personal dignity in knowing who his God was and he was His Special Son. Joseph, held his father in his heart.
JESUS: The Special Son
Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments.
Heb. 12:2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
As the Father’s Special Son, Jesus took on the sin, guilt and pain of the world. He was rejected and despised by his own, BUT HE KNEW NO SHAME. DIGNITY Both Jesus and Joseph knew that their dignity was not earned but gifted.
John 8:18 I am the one who bears witness about myself, and zthe Father who sent me bears witness about me.”
God’s Family: Special Son’s and Daughters.
1Pet. 2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
THE SUFFERING SERVANT: (IDENTITY)
JOSEPH: The Suffering Servant
Sufferings of Joseph: God used Joseph’s sufferings to soften, shape and strengthen his IDENTIY. As a committed servant to God’s will, his suffering strengthened his identity to be formed into a dependent & devoted Servant of God.
21 But the LORD was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor Joseph sought Restoration, not Revenge. Instead of persecuting his brothers, he pursued their hearts.
God’s Process for Restoration: Forgiveness is GIVEN • Love is CHOSEN • Trust is always EARNED
JESUS: The Suffering Servant
Sufferings Of Jesus: PHIL 2:5-9 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
God’s Family: The Suffering Servant
1Pet. 4:16 Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.
Rom. 8:17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
THE SELECTED SAVIOR: (DESTINY)
JOSEPH: The Selected Savior
for God sent me before you to preserve life.
And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors.
So it was not you who sent me here, but God.
Gen. 45:4 So Joseph said to his brothers, “Come near to me, please.” And they came near. And he said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. 5 And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. 6 For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. 7 And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. 8 So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt
JESUS: The Selected Savior (DESTINY)
Heb. 5:7 In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. 8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. 9 And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him.
GOD’S FAMILY: The Selected Savior
Eph. 3:14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
2Cor. 4:1 Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. 2 But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice2 cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. 3`And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Destiny: Be Imitators Of Christ
1Cor. 11:1 Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.
1Th. 2:14 For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews,6
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