Joseph Foreshadowed Jesus

All of the Old Testament gets us ready for Jesus. Here's some ways that Joseph's story gets us ready...

Joseph was betrayed by his own brothers. Jesus was betrayed by one of his own disciples.

Joseph was sentenced to die by his own brothers. Jesus was sentenced to die by his own Jewish “brothers”.

Joseph was used by God to prevent the death of thousands of lives from famine. Jesus was used by God to prevent the spiritual death of thousands of lives.

Joseph said to his brothers, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good - to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives,” In the same way, God used the harm done to Jesus on the cross for the purpose of saving many lives.

God delivered Joseph from death by bringing him out of the well. God delivered Jesus from death by bringing him out of the tomb.

God used Joseph's saving act to reconcile his brothers to him. God used Jesus' saving act to reconcile us to Him.

Didactic Wisdom Leads to Despair

According to Charles Drew in his book “The Ancient Love Song” there are two types of wisdom: Didactic and Reflective.

Didactic wisdom fills the book of Proverbs especially. This type of wisdom promises blessing for righteous living and warns of judgement for disobedience. This type of wisdom teaches that if you do the things written in the bible then you will get a certain reward.

But, you are probably thinking to yourself that life isn't so simple. It may be generally true that those who live rightly live well. But you may know plenty of people (yourself perhaps?) that have done what you are supposed to (followed didactic wisdom) and are not living the good life.

The book of Proverbs and the Song of Solomon illustrate the benefits of following didactic wisdom. But, things start getting really confusing when we read the book of Job and Ecclesiastes. Suddenly, we see a guy named Job who is following didactic wisdom really well but gets all of his blessings for obedience taken away. What the heck?

The fine print of Job and Ecclesiastes reads: “If you follow didactic wisdom you may not receive the blessings promised.” When The Fall happened and sin entered into the world, didactic wisdom was fractured.

The problem with a lot of preaching today is that a lot of sermons leave out the fine print. The sermon becomes a list of things to do so that you can be blessed by God. But what if you do what you are supposed to do and aren't rewarded? What if you love your wife or husband and they verbally or physically abuse you? What will you do then? Most church members have no clue.

That is why God is usually the one who gets blamed. But we are the ones to blame.

We brought sin into the world and fractured God's system of obedience and blessing in the world we live in. However, there was One who did come into the world to redeem this fractured system. Job suffered even though he was perfect from a worldly standard. But Jesus, however, not only suffered but died even though he was perfect from a heavenly standard! Jesus suffered the consequences like one who disobeyed God in every way even though he didn't deserve it.

Jesus suffered to restore the blessings promised from didactic wisdom. In other words, because of the Resurrection, we don't have to live without hope that we will not get what we have been promised. Because of Jesus' work on the cross, if we follow God's wisdom, we will be rewarded. The rewards might not come right away or even in this lifetime. But the rewards will eventually come.

The second type of wisdom, reflective wisdom, is reflecting on Jesus and what he has done for us. Didactic wisdom leads to despair because we often times don't see the benefits when we do the things we are supposed to. But when we reflect on Jesus, it leads to hope because he promises to give us blessings that we deserve AND don't deserve... sometimes right now, but often much later on.

So let's not be quick to blame God when things aren't going well even when we are doing everything right. Instead, let's praise Jesus and thank him for securing eternal blessings that are drawing nearer day by day.