Mikkes - A Glimpse at the Messiah

Mikkes - Genesis 41:1-44:17

A Glimpse of the Messiah

This week’s portion of scripture marks “the end” (mikkes) of Joseph's hardship that marked last week’s section. We saw in his sufferings a number of reflections of Jesus’ experience: promise of future rule, betrayal by ‘his own’ (Jn 1:11), resisted temptation, and an unjust imprisonment go name a few. This week, we will expand on this and consider how Joseph is a kind of messianic figure.

By this point in the biblical narrative, it had been quite a long time since God made His promise to Eve that one of her descendants would deliver the world from the effects of sin and ‘crush the serpent’s’ head. And I wonder if Jacob and his family were wondering ‘when would the saviour come?’ We find out in Genesis 12 that this descendant would come through Abraham’s descendants, and so it is possible that at every generation the parents were wondering, ‘will the promised one be one of mine?’ And when we arrive at the story of Joseph, we come across someone with potential. If we knew nothing of the rest of the Bible's narrative we would wonder, is this it? But as we know, Joseph wasn’t the messiah. Nonetheless, his story lays down a pattern for the true messiah.

Firstly, through the interpretation of Pharaoh’s dreams we see that Joseph was one who made God’s will and purposes known.A famine was coming and God wanted to use Pharaoh, through Joseph, to prepare for this event and preserve His chosen line. In the process of interpreting the dreams, Joseph demonstrated dependency on God to do so, claiming that only God could interpret the dream. Scripture would further develop this prophetic role through the likes of Samuel, Isaiah, and Micah, culminating in the arrival of Jesus. As John said, “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known”

(John 1:18).

Secondly, we see that Joseph was able to interpret the dream because He was filled by the spirit of God (Gen 41:38). Although this was claimed by Pharaoh, the remainder of the Tanakh contains a number of people indwelt by the Holy Spirit. However, most translations say something to the effect of ‘the spirit came upon/clothed...’ But when we look at instances like Gideon, we actually find that the Hebrew says ‘the spirit put on (labesh: to put on, wear) Gideon.’ So instead of the picture of Gideon wearing the Spirit like a coat, the reality is the Holy Spirit was wearing Gideon, moving him and empowering him. So we don’t have to wait until Acts 2 to see Spirit filled believers. So it is more than likely Pharaoh’s evaluation was accurate. And this is what 'Messiah' means, one anointed with the Holy Spirit. Jesus would reveal this in his reading of Isaiah 61 at the synagogue in Luke 4, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor...” All of Jesus’ ministry was empowered by the Holy Spirit.

And thirdly, we see in Joseph a ruling figure who sits 'at the right hand' of the highest sovereign that saves the nations from starvation. This provision of food is a partial fulfilment of the promise made to Abraham: "in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed" (Gen 22:18). Now, Joseph’s feeding of the people from the surrounding nations with grain was far from “all the nations of the earth” but many nations were blessed nonetheless. I see in this a foreshadowing of Jesus’ feeding of the 5000, who used bread as a symbol of eternal life that He could give them. And although we don’t have a famine of food; sin has brought a famine of Spiritual life, and the saviour who sits at the right hand of the father is the one who can ‘feed our souls’.

No doubt, more parallels could be found; these are just the ones that stand out the most. We no longer await the arrival of the Messiah, but we do await his return when He will complete all He began to do by restoring creation to complete shalom, and reigning over it all as King.