VIDEO Joseph’s Robe of Sonship, a Type of Christ

Also [Jacob] made [Joseph] a tunic of many colors. Genesis 37:3

 

Along with Noah’s ark, the tower of Babel, the parting of the Red Sea, and other famous stories, Joseph’s “coat of many colors” has attained iconic status. In fact, in the late 1960s, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat—the story of Joseph—was produced and remains one of the most performed musicals on stage.

But the word technicolor betrays what may be an erroneous understanding of Joseph’s famous coat. “Coat of many colours” comes from the King James Version which is based on a hard-to-decipher Hebrew text (Genesis 37:3). In short, no one is quite sure what Joseph’s coat looked like. Rather than “many colours” it may have been an “ornate robe” like that worn by one of David’s daughters (2 Samuel 13:18, NIV). Regardless of its appearance, this much is clear: Joseph’s garment was a sign of generosity and blessing from a father to his son. In the same way, we have been blessed “with every spiritual blessing … in Christ” by God our Father (Ephesians 1:3).

All of God’s children are “heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17), destined to be clothed with His righteousness for eternity. No earthly garment can compare with the heavenly one.

A true Christian is both a beggar and an heir. Anonymous

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The Life of Joseph 01 Genesis 37:1-11 Family Problems

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Comparison List of Joseph and Jesus
Joseph	Jesus
Joseph was Loved by His Father – Genesis 37:3	God said about Jesus “this is my beloved son” – Matthew 3:17
Joseph’s brothers did not believe him and hated him – Genesis 37:4-5	The Jews Did Not Believe in Christ – John 7:5 and they hated him – John 15:24
Joseph’s brothers rejected his right to rule – Genesis 37:8	The Jewish leaders said “we will not have this man to rule over us” Luke 19:14
Joseph’s brothers conspired against him – Genesis 37:23	They took counsel against Jesus Matthew 27:1
They stripped Joseph of his garments –  Genesis 37:23	They stripped Jesus –  Matthew 27:28
Joseph was sold for silver – Genesis 37:28	Jesus was sold for silver –  Matthew 26:15
Everything Joseph put his hand to prospered –  Genesis 39:3	“… And the pleasure of the Lord prospered in his hand” – Isaiah 53:10
All things were laid into Joseph’s trust –  Genesis 39:4-8	God hath given all things into his hand – John 3:35
Joseph’s own brothers did not recognize him.	The Jews did not recognize their Messiah
Joseph was tempted and did not sin –  Genesis 39:9	Jesus was tempted in all things yet was without sin – Hebrews 4:15
Joseph was bound – Genesis 39:30	Jesus was bound – Matthew 27:2
Joseph was condemned with two criminals – Genesis 40:2, 3	Jesus was crucified with two criminals – Luke 23:32
One criminal was given life and the other was condemned – Genesis 40:21-22)	Jesus told one of the criminals “Today you shall be with me in paradise” – Luke 23:43
Joseph was trustworthy and wise –  Genesis 41:39	God said about Jesus “this is my beloved son in whom I well pleased” – Mark 1:11
Joseph’s brothers bowed their knee to him – Genesis 41:43	“At the name of Jesus every knee will bow” – Philippians 2:10
Joseph was 30 years old – Genesis 41:46	Jesus was “about 30 years old” – Luke 3:25
God planned the suffering of Joseph in advance to save many – Genesis 50:21	Jesus said “God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him shall be saved” – John 3:16
Joseph was made ruler over all of Egypt – Genesis 41:42-44	Jesus said “all power has been given unto me” – 8:18
Joseph married a foreign bride who shared his glory – Genesis 41:45	Believers in Christ are “joint heirs” with him in his glory – Romans 8:17
Joseph was cast into a pit and then later delivered out of it – Genesis 37:24, 28	When Jesus died he descended into the lower parts of the earth, and later ascended into heaven – Ephesians 4:9
Joseph was imprisoned based on false charges – Genesis 39:19, 20	During the trial of Jesus false witnesses were brought in testifying against him – Mark 14:56
Joseph’s brothers later repented for what they did to him – Genesis 42:7	“and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn” – Zechariah 12:10

John 18:14 – Now Caiaphas was he, which gave counsel to the Jews, that it was expedient that one man should die for the people.

https://www.bible-history.com/old-testament/types-joseph.html

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For Love or Money

Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.  Luke 12:15

Irish poet Oscar Wilde said, “When I was young I thought that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old I know that it is.” His comment was made tongue-in-cheek; he lived only to age forty-six, so he never truly was “old.” Wilde fully understood that life is not about money.

Money is temporary; it comes and it goes. So life must be about more than money and what it can buy. Jesus challenged the people of His generation—rich and poor alike—to a recalibrated value system. In Luke 12:15, Jesus said, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” In our culture, where there’s an abiding focus on more and newer and better, there’s something to be said both for contentment and for perspective about how we view money and possessions.

Upon meeting Jesus, a rich young ruler went away sad because he had many possessions he didn’t want to give up (see Luke 18:18–25), but Zacchaeus the tax collector gave away much of what he’d spent his life acquiring (Luke 19:8). The difference is embracing the heart of Christ. In His grace, we can find a healthy perspective on the things we possess—so they don’t become the things that have us.

By:  Bill Crowder

Reflect & Pray

What can’t you live without? Why? Is it something that lasts forever, or just for a moment?

Father, give me Your wisdom that I might keep the things of life in the right perspective—and have a value system that reflects eternity.

Listen to “God and Money” at discovertheword.org/series/god-and-money/.

The Challenge to End Well

2 Timothy 4

In a race, how you begin is not as important as how you finish. And this same principle is also true to a large degree in the spiritual realm. That’s why the writer of Hebrews reminds us to “lay aside every encumbrance” that hinders us in the race set before us (12:1). A believer’s lifetime is not a sprint but a marathon walk with Christ, and our goal should be the same as Paul’s—to fight the good fight, finish the course, and keep the faith (2 Tim. 4:7).

Today’s passage contrasts two runners. After a great start as a fellow worker with Paul (Philem. 1:24), Demas later deserted the cause because of his love for the world (2 Tim. 4:10). Instead of enduring to the end, he gave up and didn’t finish the course.

Mark, on the other hand, started poorly. When Paul and Barnabas went on their first missionary journey, they took the young man with them, but after the first leg of the trip, he returned to Jerusalem (Acts 13:5, Acts 13:13). Because Mark had deserted them on that first trip, Paul refused to take him on the second (15:36-40). However, when Paul was nearing death, he wanted Mark, whom he now considered “useful for service” (2 Tim. 4:11). Mark had proven himself faithful by persevering in obedience and service to the Lord, and eventually he wrote the one of the four gospels.

It’s easy to get caught up in the pursuits and pleasures of this life and forget that we have a higher goal. Once we cross the finish line and see Christ face-to-face, everything else will fade in comparison. So let’s run with endurance the race set before us.

Yes, The Heart Is Deceitful

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9)

Just as in modern languages, ancient Hebrew used the term “heart” to mean the inward motivations that control a person’s words and deeds. According to the prophet Jeremiah, the spiritual heart is so innately wicked and deceptive that one cannot even understand his own heart—but God does!

One urgently needs a new heart, and God promises just that. “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26). “This is the covenant that I will make with them . . . saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts” (Hebrews 10:16).

The problem, of course, is heart attitude. In the third chapter of Hebrews, this is illustrated in terms of the attitudes of the children of Israel in the wilderness. First, their hearts had become hard hearts through their lack of gratitude, and three times the author warns us to “harden not your hearts” (Hebrews 3:8, 15; 4:7). As a result, they soon acquired erring hearts. “They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways” (Hebrews 3:10). Finally, their hearts were evil hearts, and God would warn us through them. “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God” (Hebrews 3:12).

An evil heart is defined here, in effect, as an unbelieving heart. A heart that refuses to receive and believe the Word of God is a wicked heart, inevitably generating wicked ways and evil doings. But Christ will create a new heart for all who will believe on Him and confess Him as God and Savior. “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness” (Romans 10:9-10). HMM

Adopt The Early Church Methods

And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that aught of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common. And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all.

—Acts 4:32-33

A friend of mine went to see a man who was the head of a local communist cell in a local communist headquarters where they send out literature. The communist said, “Come in, Reverend, and sit down.” He went in and sat. “Now, we’re communists,” he said, “you know that, and you’re a minister. Of course, we’re miles apart. But,” he said, “I want to tell you something. We learned our technique from your book of Acts.” And he said, “You who believe the Bible have thrown overboard the methods of the early church and we who don’t believe it have adopted them and they’re working.”

What was the method? It’s a very simple method of the early church. It was to go witness, give everything to the Lord and give up all to God and bear your cross, take the consequences. The result was in the first hundred years of the Christian church the whole known world was evangelized.   SAT010-011

Lord, we’re too selfish, busy doing our own thing. Give us a spirit of love, of unselfishness, of willingness to pay any price for the sake of the gospel. Do it for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

 

Oh, that you had hearkened to My commandments

Oh, that thou hadst hearkened to My commandments! Then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea.—Isaiah 48:18.

 

It is so easy to become more thick-skinned in conscience, more tolerant of evil, more hopeless of good, more careful of one’s own comfort and one’s own property, more self-satisfied in leaving high aims and great deeds to enthusiasts, and then to believe that one is growing older and wiser. And yet those high examples, those good works, those great triumphs over evil, which single hands effect sometimes, we are all grateful for, when they are done, whatever we may have said of the doing. But we speak of saints and enthusiasts for good, as if some special gifts were made to them in middle age which are withheld from other men. Is it not rather that some few souls keep alive the lamp of zeal and high desire which God lights for most of us while life is young?

Julana Horatia Ewing.

 

To live with a high ideal is a successful life. It is not what one does, but what one tries to do, that makes the soul strong and fit for a noble career.

E. P. Tenney.

 

Who Has The Right to Holy Things?

“But if the priest buy any soul with his money, he shall eat of it, and he that is born in his house: they shall eat of his meat.” Lev. 22:11

Strangers, sojourners, and servants upon hire were not to eat of holy things. It is so in spiritual matters still. But two classes were free at the sacred table, those who were bought with the priest’s money, and those who were born into the priest’s house. Bought and born, these were the two indisputable proofs of a right to holy things.

Bought. Our great High Priest has bought with a price all those who put their trust in Him. They are His absolute property — altogether the Lord’s. Not for what they are in themselves, but for their owner’s sake they are admitted into the same privileges which He Himself enjoys, and “they shall eat of his meat.” He has meat to eat which worldlings know not of. “Because ye belong to Christ,” therefore shall ye share with your Lord.

Born. This an equally sure way to privilege; if born in the Priest’s house we take our place with the rest of the family. Regeneration makes us fellow-heirs, and of the same body; and, therefore, the peace, the joy, the glory, which the Father has given to Christ, Christ has given to us. Redemption and regeneration have given us a double claim to the divine permit of this promise.