GO TO JOSEPH !
MERRY MONDAY BY PARRIS BAILEY
“And when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread: and Pharaoh said unto all the Egyptians, Go unto Joseph; what he saith to you, do. And the famine was over all the face of the earth: And Joseph opened all the storehouses, and sold unto the Egyptians; and the famine waxed sore in the land of Egypt. And all countries came into Egypt to Joseph for to buy corn; because that the famine was so sore in the land.” Gen. 41:55
What is that saying, “you can’t see the forest because of the trees”? Sometimes we just can’t see the big picture or see that the answer is right in front of us. Joseph was such a beautiful type of Christ in the Old Testament or a shadow so to speak. The famished Egyptians passed by Joseph; they did not recognize the prime minister; they did not see that Joseph had all the granaries, all the corn of Egypt under his power and in his hands. They went directly to Pharaoh, and met with no response. Even his own brothers were so desperate for bread that they didn’t recognize it was Joseph. Octavius Winslow from his book “Patriarchal Shadows of Christ and His Church.” says this; “Study what age of the world you may, travel into what climate you may, look into the face of what human being you may, and there confronts you a moral famine, a spiritual destitution of the soul—every man exhibiting in his life, the existence of a raging, gnawing destitution, which no created object can supply. The whole scheme of our salvation, the redemption of man by the Lord Jesus Christ, the revelation of the “glorious gospel of the blessed God,” all the provisions that God has made in the Son of His love, are based on the one momentous fact—that our nature, spiritual and intellectual, is a famished, starving, destitute nature, there being nothing in the vast storehouse, the universal granary of the world’s goods, that can meet and satisfy a single need or craving of the human soul. The soul of man needs the gospel and nothing but the gospel of Christ will meet its spiritual and deep necessities-nothing but the gospel will uplift, ennoble, sanctify, and save our fallen, famishing and crushed race. The world is asking for bread, and giving it education, and science and moral reform, while withholding Christ; but we are offering it. Nothing short of the glorious gospel will regenerate, sanctify and save the soul of man.”
Oh let us see Christ! He still has granaries full of His wisdom, His abundant life, His healing all just for us! Let us walk within His Divine enclosure, this sacred garden
“where the north wind and the south wind blow”, the law humbles and condemns, the world looks for a Pharaoh, but the gospel is comforting and saving. Let’s eat the pleasant fruits, and inhale the perfume of Sharon’s Rose!