Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #15 in Genesis 39, and we will read Genesis 39:20-23:

And Joseph's master took him, and put him into the prison, a place where the king's prisoners were bound: and he was there in the prison. But JEHOVAH was with Joseph, and shewed him mercy, and gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph's hand all the prisoners that were in the prison; and whatsoever they did there, he was the doer of it. The keeper of the prison looked not to any thing that was under his hand; because JEHOVAH was with him, and that which he did, JEHOVAH made it to prosper.

I will stop reading there.  We see that Joseph was put into prison where the king’s prisoners were bound.  The word “prisoners” is Strong’s #615, and it comes from another word, Strong’s #631, and that is the word translated as “bound.”   Joseph was put into the prison were the king’s prisoners were bound.

We have already seen how the prison is a figure of hell or death, or of being in the condition of hell under the wrath of God.  Joseph pictures the Lord Jesus Christ as He was experiencing God’s wrath, and He went to the cross, and He suffered and died.  We understand clearly that spiritual picture, but who are these other prisoners?  Who do they represent?  We would have to say that they represent the rest of mankind as the Bible tells us, “for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”  In our natural sin condition, we are under the wrath of God.  For instance, let us go to John 3:18:

He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

That word  “condemned” is past tense, and it indicates that a judgment has been rendered for the one who believes not, and that means a sinner who is still in his sins.  I want to point something out because there are so many people that misunderstand what it means “to believe.”  The one who believes and is not condemned is a person that God had already saved by giving a new heart – he has been born again.  We see this in Romans 10:9:

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.

And the “free will” preacher will concentrate on most of this verse, but not all of it.  He will definitely tell you to confess the Lord Jesus with your mouth, and he will tell you to believe.  And that is what the Bible says here: “if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe…”  But that is where the free will preacher will stop, but the Bible requires a confession with the mouth as well as belief in the heart.  Let us read it again: “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.”  The sinner must believe in his heart, and that is the reason that salvation is impossible of man.  It is like when the disciples asked Christ, “Who then can be saved?”  He responded, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.”   It is impossible with man, but with God all things are possible.  Salvation is impossible with man because he is dead in trespasses and sins.  His “heart” is dead, and therefore he cannot believe in a right and proper way because he has no life. 

You know, God does not have to continually repeat all the fulness of that truth.  That is, He does not give us every detail of the whole story every time He addresses this point.  So He will often simply refer to “believing,” as He did in John 3:18:

He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already…

But the “whole story,” as it were, is that He that he who believes in the heart is not condemned, and that is because God has already given him a new heart and spirit.  But he that believes not in the heart – even though he has confesses with his mouth, and even though he  believes intellectually in his physical mind, and even though he makes some kind of a decision for Christ – has not experienced the salvation of God.  That is not salvation.  Salvation is not man’s decision.  It is God’s decision: “For I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy,” God says.  Christ said, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.” 

Therefore saving faith and belief is God’s work.  It is His action.  God must have loved us with an everlasting love, and then there will come a point in time within the boundary of the day of salvation when He will apply that eternal love to that person for whom Christ died at the foundation of the world.  Then that person becomes saved, and he has obtained that new heart, and then he can confess with his mouth and believe in that new heart,  and then all is in agreement, and all is well.  But he who believes not in his heart remains dead in his sins, regardless of his doing everything else.  It is impossible without the first work of God in creating in him a new heart and a new soul.

Again, it says in John 3:18:

He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Then at the end of this chapter, it says in John 3:36:

He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

Again, the belief has to be from a new heart.  But for him that believeth not, the wrath of God abideth on him.  It is just like the wrath of Potiphar was kindled against Joseph.  The wrath of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, was kindled upon these others that were in his prison house.  We know that, for example, if we quickly look ahead to the next chapter in Genesis 40:1-3:

And it came to pass after these things, that the butler of the king of Egypt and his baker had offended their lord the king of Egypt. And Pharaoh was wroth against two of his officers, against the chief of the butlers, and against the chief of the bakers. And he put them in ward in the house of the captain of the guard, into the prison, the place where Joseph was bound.

Here we see that Pharaoh was wroth against these two officers, and he placed them in the prison, and there were probably many other prisoners.   That is the idea.  These prisoners were those who had offended the king, and the king had responded in anger and put them in prison, which pictures being under the wrath of God.  In other words, we are following the development of the spiritual understanding that Joseph is a type of Christ, and his being put in prison is a picture of Christ coming under the wrath of God.  In our last study or two, we went over a number of verses that show how the prison identifies with God’s wrath and judgment.

So too these other prisoners are under the wrath of God.  So we can understand that Joseph going into prison as being like when Christ came into the world.  And where were all the people in the world?  They were in prison, spiritually.  They were under the wrath of God and condemned already, so the Lord Jesus was going to where the people were at, just as with the spiritual picture of Jonah.  Remember Jonah, the so-called “rebellious prophet,” as so many preachers like to portray him.   Jonah did flee when God first commanded him to go to Nineveh, and he got on a ship going to Tarshish, “to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of JEHOVAH.”  And that is a very similar statement to that made in Genesis 3 after Adam and Eve had sinned, and it says in Genesis 3:8: “And they heard the voice of JEHOVAH God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the JEHOVAH amongst the trees of the garden.” 

That is where mankind went after his sin.  In his sinful condition, he has been judged already, as God told them, “For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die,” which literally reads, “dying, ye shall die.”  They did die in their soul existence, and the sentence of death came upon them, even in their bodies because it would be just a matter of time for them to also die physically.  They were condemned already, and those who are abiding under the wrath of God are going “from the presence of JEHOVAH.”

Therefore Jonah, a type of Christ, was commanded to go to Nineveh, a picture of the world, and he went with them from the presence of JEHOVAH, although he would finally end up at his destination in Nineveh.

The same thing applies to Joseph.  Mankind is in prison because of his sin, and here Joseph was put into prison, just as Christ entered into the world and took upon Himself a human nature.  He came as a servant in the form of a prisoner.  Just consider the language we find in Isaiah 14 regarding Satan.  It says in Isaiah 14:12-17:

How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?

Satan is in view, just as the king of Babylon typifies Satan.  This is a parable against him, and it is said that he opened not the house of his prisoners.  Who are his prisoners?  Turn to 2Timothy 2:24-26:

And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.

The sinner in his sins is bound to sin and to Satan.  Remember what Christ said in the Gospel accounts regarding how one must first bind the strong man before plundering his house and spoil his goods?  That is, Christ had to win the victory over Satan, and then He ransacked his house and took his “goods,” delivering certain captives that were being held in the dungeon in captivity to sin and to Satan.  Christ had to deliver them from that condition and situation.

And that brings up other questions, as we thought Potiphar was a type of God, and even Pharaoh was a type of God as these other prisoners had offended him.  So it is a little complicated, but we will try to explain this situation.  Just keep in mind the spiritual pictures do not necessarily touch upon every conceivable point, or give an explanation for everything in each individual picture.  We will talk about that in our next Bible study.