ALL SCRIPTURES POINT TO JESUS (PART V)

“The Two Josephs”

By Akin Ojumu

It’s another Sunday, the Day of the Lord, as it’s popularly known. All roads, packed with bumper-to-bumper traffic, lead to the various places where God is supposedly worshipped by people who are purportedly God followers.

On this holy day, the masses of souls who flock to the houses of worship are an odd mixture. On the one hand are spiritually hungry souls looking to be fed with healthy spiritual food. Then there are the spiritual tourists looking to have their itching ears tickled with ponderous platitudes. 

Due to the sad reality that the spiritual tourists in attendance in these places often outnumber the spiritually hungry by a factor of 9 to 1, the presiding preachers feel compelled by the laws of demand and supply to serve the audience meticulously garnished ear-scratching sermons which are of highest demand.

There’s hardly any Church you go to today where the sermon wouldn’t be everything but the true Gospel. You are going to hear the preachers tell fantastical tales about them and their spouse drinking tea with God. Others are going to regale their thrill-seeking audience about the story of the barren woman who, upon mistakenly stumbling on their leg, got pregnant right on the spot. Then there are preachers today whose emphasis will be to teach the carnally minded crowd the secrets of becoming instantaneous billionaires. 

Preaching also from various pulpits today will be trendily dressed Gospel hucksters with gift of gab and skill of the used-car salesman who will promote their Shift Conference where attendees will be taught the six steps to transform their mindset and elevate their leadership skills that will enable them to recognize the impending paradigm disruption and be able to take advantage of the disruption.

Another category of preachers who will pretend to speak as oracles of God today will be the self-appointed apostles of portals and dimensions whose message is entirely predicated on experiential esotericism and supernatural encounters. These are folks who take great pride in their deep knowledge of the spiritual realms. Their sermons are often recitations of their various encounters with Christ and the angels, the numerous trips they’ve made to Heaven and hell, and the number of times they’ve fought and defeated Satan himself. 

Service is not complete in these types of places without what apostles call the power hour when they demonstrate their power. It’s at this time the apostles of realms and dimensions direct the highly suggestible crowd to start speaking gibberish or grunt like someone trying to pass a hard stool. As soon as the powerful apostles wave their hand or fling their leg, like programmed robots, the hyped-up crowd rocks back and forth, jerks uncontrollably and falls to the ground like someone having seizures. Then they start to writhe in pain on the floor as though demon possessed. 

This sorry mess the Body of Christ has become is, in part, what inspired this commentary series. The purpose is to remind the readers that Scriptures are about Christ and Christ alone. Because all of the Bible is about Christ, every sermon preached must point to Him and Him alone.

The sermon you ought to have heard in Church today should have been one that points towards the love of God in Christ Jesus and the perfect Law that would have condemned us all had it not been for the cleansing action of Christ’s redeeming work on behalf of sinners like you and me. In the Bible text preached today, the duty of the preacher ought to have been to show how that passage points to Christ Jesus even if Jesus is not the main character of the text.

Ephesians 4:4-6

“There is one body and one Spirit – just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call – one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”

1 Timothy 2:5-7

“For there is one God, and there is one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.”

It's this pattern of Christ-centered Gospel that ought to be repeated Sunday after Sunday in all places where God is professed to be worshiped. And because one week is long enough to forget what we heard preached at last week’s service, this ONE Gospel must be preached again and again every week to Christians as well as unbelievers as a constant reminder.

And it’s for this reason that we’ll continue this study of the story of Joseph in order to discover the various ways in which the life of this ancient patriarch of the Christian faith foreshadows Christ. Specifically, we’ll look at the two Josephs.

Connection 8

It’s fascinating that Joseph shares the same name with Joseph, the man to whom Mary, the mother of Jesus, was betrothed.

Luke 1:26-27

“In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary.”

Connection 9

Just as Joseph had dreams, Joseph, the Father of the Lord Jesus, also had dreams.

Genesis 37:5-10

““…Hear this dream that I have dreamed: Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field...“Behold, I have dreamed another dream. Behold, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me...””

Matthew 1:19-20

“And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.”

Connection 10

Joseph was taken to Egypt in order to effectuate the salvation of his family. Similarly, Joseph escaped to Egypt with Mary and baby Jesus in order to effectuate the redemptive purpose of God.

Genesis 37:28

“Then Midianite traders passed by. And they drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. They took Joseph to Egypt.”

Matthew 2:13-15

“Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.””

Next time, we’ll consider additional parallels between Joseph and the Lord Jesus.