This is Spoken Gospel.

We’re dedicated to
seeing Jesus in all of scripture.

In each episode, we see
what’s happening in a Biblical text

and how it sheds light
on Jesus and his Gospel.

Let’s jump in.

God brings good out of evil, and
he proves this in the story of Joseph.

After being sold into slavery,
Joseph also becomes wrongly

imprisoned for resisting the
sexual advances of his master’s wife.

While in jail, God makes sure Joseph’s
endeavors succeed

so that he becomes a prison
warden. And while serving in that position,

Joseph interprets two dreams that both become true.
So, when Pharaoh himself needs a dream interpreted,

Joseph is called upon and
accurately interprets his dream as well.

The dream is a warning
that God is about to bring

seven years of plenty followed
by seven years of famine in Egypt.

For Joseph’s insight, Pharaoh
appoints him to be second in command.

And the famine comes,
just as Joseph said it would.

But since they were prepared,
Joseph was able to provide

stored up grain to all the
nations that came to them for help.

This story allows us to both compare and
contrast what God does through Joseph

with the rest of Israel’s story.

Joseph’s brothers tried to make
him a slave, but God made him a king.

Judah gave into sexual temptation
with Tamar, but Joseph resisted it.

So, whereas so much of the sin
surrounding this story points to

God’s grace in the midst of evil,
Joseph’s goodness points to the fact that

God can raise up a righteous person
out of the worst situations.

Under Joseph’s care, the food
in Egypt was fruitful and multiplied,

as God promised
Abraham his children would be.

The text even says that the “world”
came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph.

So here we get a foretaste of all the
nations of the earth being blessed through

one of Abraham’s descendants.

But the people aren’t
fruitful, just the food is.

And the nations aren’t being blessed
with God’s presence, just with grain.

So, this is an
incomplete fulfillment.

This is why we must see
Jesus in this story as well.

Joseph may have been
righteous by comparison,

but Jesus is the only one who is
perfectly righteous.

Jesus is the one who not only resisted
sexual temptation from one woman

but was tempted in every
way and yet never sinned.

Unlike Joseph, Jesus willingly came to earth to
make himself a slave to all, even to the point of death.

He did not just descend into a prison, but into
the jail that imprisons all humanity - the grave itself.

Yet, God used Jesus’ death to bring
him to a throne above every throne.

The story of Joseph shows us a partial,
incomplete fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham.

Jesus, however, brings complete fulfillment.

Jesus multiplies his spiritual
blessings to us.

He is the bread of life that feeds us
in the direst seasons of life’s famines.

I pray that the Holy Spirit would open your
eyes to see the God who brings good out of

the worst evil, and that you would see that
Jesus underwent the worst of our evil to bring

the whole world
the greatest possible good.