No one else in the Old Testament is such a perfect type of Christ in the things he went through and in his perfectness and reigning.
Just like Joseph, Christ came to His brothers to shepherd them, but He was rejected, hated, and sold (betrayed) to be put into prison (death). Just like Joseph, Christ spoke of the mysteries of God (Joseph interpreted the dreams) and He was perfect and upright in all His living.
Just like Joseph, Christ was raised from the dead (Joseph was released from prison) and was enthroned by God (Joseph was enthroned by Pharaoh) to be ruler of everything and everyone. Just like Joseph, Christ was given a wife from among the Gentiles (Joseph married an Egyptian).
Today we want to see two specific aspects of Joseph typifying Christ: in his receiving gifts in his enthronement and in his taking a wife from the Gentiles.
After Joseph interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams, under God’s sovereign hand Pharaoh released Joseph from prison and raised him to the throne, giving him gifts and glory (see Gen. 41:42). More specifically, Pharaoh gave Joseph a gold ring signet, clothed him with garments of fine linen, and put a gold chain around his neck.
When Christ was raised from the dead, He ascended to the throne to be Lord over all, and the Father gave Him gifts and glory, and Christ gave these gifts to the church (see Psa. 68:18; Acts 2:33).
- The “golden signet ring” Joseph received as a gift signifies the Holy Spirit as a seal within and upon the believers in Christ; God gave the Spirit to Christ, and Christ sealed His believers with the Spirit.
- The “fine linen garments” Joseph received signify Christ as our objective and subjective righteousness to be justified before God and qualified to enter into the marriage of the Lamb.
- The “gold chain” Joseph received signifies the beauty of the Holy Spirit given for obedience expressed in submission.
All these things God gave to Christ, and He gave them to the church. Even more, Christ married the church, a people from the Gentiles that He gained while He was rejected by His brothers (the Jews).
Christ marries the church and is satisfied, and He forgets His afflictions in His land; here He enjoys being among His spiritual people (as typified by Manasseh) and there is fruit for God (typified by Ephraim).
Just like Joseph, Christ Received Gifts and Glory in His Ascension
Everything written in the Bible is important, and the process that Joseph went through is full of significance, his life being a perfect type of the life of Christ and an indication of what our Christian life would be as we experience Christ.
After being sold in Egypt, put in prison without having done anything wrong, interpreting the dreams of the baker and the cupbearer, and later interpreting Pharaoh’s dream, Joseph was raised to the throne to rule over Egypt.
Pharaoh took off his signet ring and put it on Joseph’s hand, clothed him in garments of fine linen, and put a gold chain around his neck. Pharaoh gave Joseph gifts and glory in his enthronement. All these are very significant, and they are a type of what God the Father gave Christ in His ascension.
In his receiving glory and gifts in his enthronement (Gen. 41:42), Joseph typifies Christ – who received glory (Heb. 2:9) and gifts (see Psa. 68:18; Acts 2:33) in His ascension. The ring, the garments, and the gold chain portray the gifts that Christ received from the Father in His ascension to the heavens, which gifts Christ passed on to the church.
God gave these gifts to Christ, and Christ gave them to the church; now Christ with all He has, has attained to, has accomplished, and has obtained is to the church, which is His Body (Eph. 1:22-23).
The signet ring that Joseph received from Pharaoh signifies the Holy Spirit as a seal within and upon Christ’s believers (Acts 2:33; Eph. 1:13; 4:30).
In Luke 15:22 we see how the father receives the returned prodigal son and gives him a gold ring. When we repent and believe into Christ, the Holy Spirit is put upon us as a seal that we belong to God, and He comes into us to be our life within as a pledge of our coming inheritance – the full enjoyment of Christ.
Hallelujah, we now have the seal of the Spirit on us – we belong to God – and we have the Holy Spirit within as a pledge of our inheritance, guaranteeing that we will one day have the full taste, the full enjoyment of God in Christ as the Spirit!
The fine linen garments Joseph received from Pharaoh signify Christ as our objective and subjective righteousness.
These garments (plural) signify first Christ as our objective righteousness given to us by God for our justification before God (see 1 Cor. 1:30; cf. Psa. 45:9, 13; Luke 15:22), and secondly, Christ as our subjective righteousness wrought into us and lived out of us that we may be qualified to participate in the marriage of the Lamb (see Phil. 3:9; Psa. 45:14; Rev. 19:7-9).
On the one hand Christ covers us as our garment of righteousness before God – we are justified before God in Christ; on the other hand, He is working Himself into us to be lived out of us as the subjective righteousness, the second garment that qualifies us to enter into the marriage feast of the Lamb.
The gold chain put around Joseph’s neck by Pharaoh signifies the beauty of the Holy Spirit given for obedience expressed in submission (see Acts 5:32). Why a golden chain and why on the neck? A chained neck signifies a will that has been conquered and subdued to obey God’s commandment (Gen. 41:42 and see Song of Songs 1:10, Prov. 1:8-9).
The most beautiful thing in God’s people is obedience expressed in submission. It is not the powerful works or the spiritual strength that make us beautiful to God, but it is being a person conquered and subdued by the Lord, one having the Spirit as a gold chain around the neck and obeying God’s commandment.
In our spiritual experience, we first receive the sealing of the Spirit for salvation, then we receive the garment of righteousness and begin to live Christ (Gal. 2:20; Phil. 1:20-21). As we live Christ and open to Him in love, we allow Him to “chain our neck”, that is, to subdue and conquer our will by the Holy Spirit.
Today in our Christian life we learn to be subdued under the discipline of the Spirit, and we realize that ambition and rebellion is ugly in God’s sight but submission is beautiful! Before we can reign we need to be subdued by the Spirit, and without the golden chain we cannot be on the throne.
The most beautiful thing in God’s people is their obedience to God expressed in submission to His word.
As young adults, we are learning to pick up the responsibility and bear the burdens in the church life, and we need to receive the golden chain, allowing the Spirit to subdue our will so that we may obey God’s word.
All these – the ring, the garments, and the golden chain – were given to Christ by God, and Christ gave them to us, the church, so that we may live an overcoming life, a normal Christian life that will bring us into the reigning for Christ.
Thank You, Lord Jesus, for giving us the Holy Spirit as a seal within us and upon us at our regeneration. Now we belong to God to be God’s inheritance and God is ours to be our inheritance. Thank You Father for making Christ our righteousness, our garment covering us before You to be justified before God and have peace with God. Lord Jesus, work Yourself into us more and more each day so that we may have the second garment sown stitch-by-stitch so that we may be qualified to enter the wedding feast of the Lamb. Lord, we receive the golden chain – we let You as the Spirit subdue us. Gain the Joseph’s of today, those who have the ring, the garments, and the golden chain on the neck to rule and reign with You! Thank You Lord for giving us everything we need to live an overcoming life, a normal Christian life to reign for God!
Just like Joseph, Christ Marries a Wife from Among the Gentiles and He is Satisfied
Genesis 41:51-52 And Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh, for, he said, God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father’s house. And he called the name of the second Ephraim, for, he said, God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.
While he was being rejected by his brothers, Joseph took a wife for himself from among the Gentiles (he married Asenath, an Egyptian). While Christ was being rejected by the Jews, His brothers, He turned to the Gentiles and took a wife from among the Gentiles – the church, composed mainly of Gentiles.
The church is not composed mainly of Jews but of Gentiles – the people out of every tribe and nation in the world who repent and receive the Lord Jesus as their Savior and life.
- Eve typifies the church being a part of Christ, coming out of Christ, returning to Christ, and being one with Christ (as Eve was one with Adam).
- Rebekah portrays the church as the called and selected one, the one from the same source as Christ (as Rebekah was from the same family as Isaac).
- Asenath, a Gentile woman, portrays the church taken out of the Gentile world by Christ during His rejection by the children of Israel.
When Joseph had the first son, he called him Manasseh, meaning “making to forget”. Joseph was comforted to have a son, thanking God that He has caused him to forget his afflictions in his father’s house.
In a similar way, when Christ marries the church and the church is productive (increasing in life and in numbers in a normal way by abiding in Christ as the vine), Christ is comforted, forgetting His afflictions among the Jews, and He is happy.
When Joseph had a second son, he named him Ephraim, “twice fruitful”, saying, God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction (Gen. 41:51-52). When we preach the gospel and produce fruit, Christ is happy and He declares: There is no more affliction! Look at all the fruit! Praise God!
Toward the end of this age, before the kingdom and the millennium age, when Christ will come again openly on the clouds, all Israel will see Him, and they will weep and repent for their ignorance for the Messiah (just as Joseph’s brothers saw him and repented with tears), and Christ will receive them to Himself.
Until then, we as Gentiles have the privilege of being chosen and loved by Christ, and we can be fruitful by abiding in Him (John 15:5).
Lord Jesus, thank You for choosing us out of every tribe and people and nation to be Your “Gentile wife” in the church age. Thank You for giving us the privilege of enjoying You, knowing You, and experiencing You as the real Joseph today. Keep us abiding in You, enjoying all Your riches, taking You as our source, and bearing fruit as an overflow of the life we receive from You. Increase in us by giving us the growth in life day-by-day, and spread through us by saving many others for the kingdom of God, the church!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Minor Chen’s sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Genesis (msg. 113) and footnote 1 on Genesis 41:42 (Recovery Version), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Genesis (3), week 8 / msg 8, Joseph – The Reigning Aspect of the Mature Life.
- Photo credit for Genesis 41:51-52 and more spiritual quotes on this topic via, Christian Pictures Blog.
- Hymns on this topic:
# The Holy Spirit is the seal, / The foretaste, earnest, and the pledge. / He designates us as God’s own / And guarantees our heritage. / ’Twas after we believed in Christ, / The word of truth, the gospel, heard, / The Holy Spirit us did seal / To show that we belong to God. (Hymns #1120)
# The daughter’s glorious garments / Are made of inwrought gold— / Within the inner palace, / How wondrous to behold! / The glory of God’s nature / Is given her to wear, / That all His holy being / She may in life declare. (Hymns #1199)
# Jesus Lord, my best love Thou art, / Rid all rocks that hide in my heart; / Gladly I Thy bondslave of love would be, / One heart, one will ever with Thee / Though my heart is oft not subdued, / Still Thy way alone it would choose; / All I yearn for is what Thy heart desires, / In Thy love alone peace I find. (Song on being Subdued by Christ)
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