17. He sent a man before them, even Joseph. He was
the advance guard and pioneer for the whole clan. His brethren sold him, but
God sent him. Where the hand of the wicked is visible God’s hand may be
invisibly at work, overruling their malice. No one was more of a man, or
more fit to lead the clan than Joseph: an interpreter of dreams was wanted, and
his brethren had said of him, “Behold,
this dreamer cometh.” Who was sold for aservant, or rather for a slave. Joseph’s journey into Egypt was not so
costly as Jonah’s voyage when he paid his own fare: his free passage was
provided by the Midianites, who also secured his introduction to a great
officer of state by handing him over as a slave. His way to a position in which
he could feed his family lay through the pit, the slaver’s caravan, the slave
market and the prison, and who will deny but what it was the right way, the
surest way, the wisest way, and perhaps the shortest way. Yet assuredly it
seemed not so. Were we to send a man on such an errand we would furnish him
with money—Joseph goes as a pauper; we would clothe him with authority—Joseph
goes as a slave; we would leave him at full liberty—Joseph is a bondman; yet
money would have been of little use when corn was so dear, authority would have
been irritating rather than influential with Pharaoh, and freedom might not
have thrown Joseph into connection with Pharaoh’s captain and his other
servants, and so the knowledge of his skill in interpretation might not have
reached the monarch’s ear. God’s way is the way. Our Lord’s path to his
mediatorial throne ran by the cross of Calvary; our road to glory runs by the
rivers of grief.
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