Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #4 in Genesis 39, and we will read Genesis 39:1-6:

And Joseph was brought down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him of the hands of the Ishmeelites, which had brought him down thither. And JEHOVAH was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian. And his master saw that JEHOVAH was with him, and that JEHOVAH made all that he did to prosper in his hand. And Joseph found grace in his sight, and he served him: and he made him overseer over his house, and all that he had he put into his hand. And it came to pass from the time that he had made him overseer in his house, and over all that he had, that JEHOVAH blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake; and the blessing of JEHOVAH was upon all that he had in the house, and in the field. And he left all that he had in Joseph's hand; and he knew not ought he had, save the bread which he did eat. And Joseph was a goodly person, and well favoured.

We were looking at the word “prosperous” in our last study.  We see it was used regarding Joseph three times in this chapter.  It is very good language.  Whenever God speaks of Joseph, you cannot get any better language than what we read here.  God said he was a prosperous man in verse 2; Joseph’s master saw that JEHOVAH was with him and made all that he did to prosper in his hand, in verse 3; and Joseph was said to be a goodly person and well-favored, in verse 6.  There is superlative after superlative, and that is understandable because Joseph is a type and figure of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Joseph is clearly a picture of Christ throughout his life.

We talked about that back in chapter 37 when Joseph went to seek his brethren, and his brethren saw him from a distance, and they conspired against him.  They threw him into a pit, and then they sold him to the Ishmaelite merchantmen.  We discussed how that was a picture of Christ coming to Israel, the brethren of Christ.  Christ was born into the tribe of Judah.  The Israelites rejected the Lord Jesus, and they turned Him over to Pilot for crucifixion, and so forth.  So we have already seen how Joseph is a type and figure of the Lord Jesus, especially with this reference to being a prosperous man.

We looked at Joshua 1 last time.  We could also go to Isaiah 55:10-11:

For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

The Word of God is likened to the rain and snow that comes down from above and waters the earth.  The Lord does typify the Gospel as water, and the Gospel has everything to do with the Word of God, the Bible.  So God declares, “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void…”  The Hebrew word “void” is also translated as “empty” or “vain.”  And that is what “vanity” means when the Lord moved Solomon to write of the things of this world: “Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.”   It is really saying, “Emptiness of emptiness…all is emptiness.”  And that is the problem with mankind who has set up his own wants and desires and lusts.  Man has set up his own goals which are typically sinful goals because it is all about himself: “I am going to do this for myself.  I am going to do that for myself.”  But we are only creatures made by the Creator, and our desire should be toward Him: “I am going to do this to glorify God.  I am going to do that to glorify God.  I am going to seek God’s will and strive to keep His commandments, and to glorify Him.”  Then our effort and life is no longer vain, as we read in this great verse in 1Corinthians 15:58:

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

That is our work in the Lord is closely connected with what God says about His Word in Isaiah 55:11:

So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void…

It will not be a vain thing. And when God’s people take His Word that is sent to us from God, and we carry that Word as messengers, and God says His Word “shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”  And when the Word prospers, we as bearers of that Word will likewise prosper.  Our lives will become prosperous, and we will have value, purpose, and worth in our living.  We will not need drugs to assist us in getting through the day, nor alcohol to assist us in getting through the day.  We will not need friends, pursuits of pleasure, and all those kinds of things as we try to find meaning through a person or in some material possession, or in some profession.  Seeking after those things result in a “hopeless chase,” and it is never satisfying for the creature made in the image and likeness of his Creator.  The only thing that can satisfy that kind of creature is His Creator.  There is a saying that there is a ”God-shaped hole” within man.  And only God can fit it and provide satisfaction to the emptiness in the man He has made.  So much sin that is in the world is because man is trying to fill this “God-shaped hole” with the things of the world, with money and the things it can buy, or with relationships, or with drugs and alcohol, and so on.  But it will never work.  You can never make enough money.  You can never have enough pleasure, and so forth.

But God’s people have been changed.  When God saved us, He gave us a new heart and spirit, and He gave us His Spirit, so that emptiness within is now filled.  From that point forward, we go about doing the will of God as a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, accomplishing His will with purpose and meaning and value.  It is transformative.  It changes out lives and we live with purpose, and it is a very meaningful purpose.

So this verse in Isaiah 55:11 tells us that God’s Word will prosper, and the Lord Jesus Christ is the Word “made flesh.”  Whenever we are looking at an individual who typifies Christ, we should not be surprised that at times it is also a type and figure of the Word because the Word and Christ are synonymous.

One other place we see this word  “prosper” is in Psalm 1:1-3:

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of JEHOVAH; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

That is what we are seeing with Joseph.  He is a blessed man.  And in Psalm 1, it is referring to the Lord Jesus.  He is the blessed “man” who delights in the Law of JEHOVAH, and He meditates day and night in the Law of JEHOVAH.  And Christ is that tree planted by the rivers of water.  He is the Tree of Life that brings forth His fruit in His season.  You see, the firstfruits were Christ’s fruits.  And the final fruits, the great multitude saved out of Great Tribulation, are also His fruits.  Anyone that is truly saved is the fruit of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In a secondary way, what is said in this Psalm applies to the Lord’s people because we are His body.  But notice that it goes on to say in Psalm 1:4-6:

The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For JEHOVAH knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

This Psalm almost evenly contrasts the lives of the godly and the ungodly. In the first three verses, there is the blessing of the Lord Jesus Christ, the blessing of salvation, and the blessings of God.  Then in the last three verses, it speaks of the ungodly who are not blessed, and they do not delight in the Law of JEHOVAH, and they will not be prosperous.  They will not prosper in their lives as they build things in a world that is soon to burn.  That is not prosperous.  If someone builds his house on an earthquake fault line, and then the earthquake destroys the house, it was not a prosperous pursuit.  It may have been a glorious and grand house, but it certainly was not prosperous for him to build it.  As a matter of fact, his whole activity of building his house in a place where there was no solid rock foundation was foolish and vain because the end of the thing ruined all the hard work, dedication, and time that was put into building that house – it was wiped out in an instant, and it was gone.  And that is how most people live in this world.  They are concentrating their efforts on physical and material things, and they are building in the wrong location.  They are seeking the wrong realm of existence.

This world is cursed.  This world will soon pass away.  The Bible has revealed all the indicators it possibly can to warn us about that.  Just look around.  Look around at the chaotic madness that is everywhere in the world, and all the other signposts like the apostasy of the churches and the abounding iniquity among the nations, and every tell-tale sign the Lord Jesus Christ gave in response to the disciples’ question: “What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?”  It has all come to pass and been fulfilled.  For those who have at least enough understanding of the Bible to recognize these things, why would they want to start building something in this world? 

I can understand that if you are a construction worker, you have to go to work and help build a house, but that is not what I am talking about.  Where is your heart?  What is it set upon?  What is your inward desire?  That will really indicate our soul’s condition.  And for the child of God, our desire is toward Christ and the Word of God, the Bible, and toward doing the will of God.

Let us go back to Genesis 39.  We have talked about Potiphar, the captain of the guard, and about Joseph as his servant, and how Potiphar noticed right away that Joseph was special.  He was different than other slaves, and it stood out.  Of course the difference in Joseph did not have anything to do with Joseph, but it was because of who was with Joseph.  JEHOVAH, God of the Bible, was with Joseph, and God made that “difference” in him.  Joseph was just an ordinary man like anyone else, and just as all of God’s elect were “children of wrath even as others.”  There is nothing special about us at all.  It is only when God enters into us and blesses us that we begin to stand out in the world, wherever we are, whether it be in the lowest dungeon to the highest position of whatever business we are in  .

It says in Genesis 39:3:

And his master saw that JEHOVAH was with him, and that JEHOVAH made all that he did to prosper in his hand.

And Joseph became an overseer in his house.  If you read this chapter, one word that stands out more than any other word is the word “house.”  For example, it says in verse 2: “…and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian.”  It says verse 4: “…and he made him overseer over his house.”  It says in verse 5: “…he had made him overseer in his house, and over all that he had, that JEHOVAH blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake; and the blessing of JEHOVAH was upon all that he had in the house….”  There are also references to a house in verses 8, 9, 11, and 14.  When we go through the chapter, we find that the Hebrew word “house” is translated as “house” ten times.  It is also translated one time as “home” in verse 16 where Potiphar’s wife was said to lay up his garment by her until her lord came “home,” or to the “house.”  It is the same word. 

So that tells us that the Hebrew word translated as “house,” Strong’s #1004, is found eleven times in Genesis 39.  That is not surprising because that is the spiritual picture we are beginning to understand regarding Joseph being “brought down” into Egypt, and Egypt represents the world.  It is said twice in Genesis 39:1: “Joseph was brought down into Egypt…brought him down thither.”  Joseph, a type of Christ, came down into Egypt, and that leads us in the direction of thinking that this is, perhaps, telling us about Christ coming into the world, born of the Virgin Mary.

But Christ was born into the nation of Israel.  He was not born in Egypt, although it is true that when He was a young boy He was taken into Egypt, and then God said He called His Son out of Egypt when He told Joseph to come back into Israel.  But remember that Egypt can be a type and figure of the world.  Where was Israel located?  They were in the world, and they were the outward representation of God’s kingdom to this world, and as part of the world.  It was within the world, obviously. 

So when Joseph was set over Potiphar’s house, and we read of this house eleven times, we realize that it was after 11,000 years of earth’s history in 7 B. C. that Christ came the first time.  Keep in mind that according to the biblical calendar, the earth was created in 11,013 B. C.,  so we find that Jesus Christ was born after 11,006 years of earth’s history, which is “11,013 minus 7.”  So it was after the 11,000-year mark, and the six years may tie into the period of 2,300 evening mornings, which is the six years and about four month period from 1988 to 1994, after reaching the fulness of 13,000 years in 1988, and then there was the 2,300 days that was part of the Great Tribulation.  So it may very well be that the 11,000-year mark came in 13 B. C., and then God started a 2,300-day count down to the birth of Christ, and He entered into the world at the 11,000-year mark.  And now, as it were, He is in Potiphar’s house, and Potiphar has set Him over His house.

I have been hinting at it, but Potiphar himself would be a type and figure of God.  And who was married to God?  Potiphar’s wife was a wicked woman – adulterous, deceitful, a liar, and a false accuser.  Who does the Bible tell us was married to God?  It was national Israel.

But we will have to look further into this when we get together in our next EBible Fellowship Bible study.