ALL SCRIPTURES POINT TO JESUS (PART XVI)

“Mosaic of the King of kings”

By Akin Ojumu

Fire drills at schools and in the workplaces are pivotal for safety and preparation. These exercises help students and employees understand and practice established emergency evacuation procedures. The objective is to reduce panic and ensure swift evacuation in the event of a real fire. One of the main features of a fire drill exercise is the fire alarm. It’s the loud, high-pitched, and continuous ringing of the fire alarm that alerts students and employees to commence on the evacuation protocol.

What fire alarm is to people in modern times is what the trumpet was to the ancient people of biblical times. The trumpet was a powerful instrument used in the Old Testament as a means of warning and summoning the people. It was used to alert people to danger, call them to gather for assembly, or to announce a solemn occasion. 

Joel 2:1-2

“Blow a trumpet in Zion; sound an alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming; it is near, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness! Like blackness there is spread upon the mountains a great and powerful people; their like has never been before, nor will be again after them through the years of all generations.”

Just like the trumpets and the fire drills of ancient times and contemporary times respectively, these write-ups are my own little way of sounding the alarm to people in our generation. I write these commentaries to sound a note of warning to the self-aggrandizing pulpiteers who lord it over hordes of undiscerning church folks that a day of reckoning is beckoning. These essays, which sound polemic at times, are meant to warn the narcissistic Gospel hucksters exploiting the ignorance of their followers for selfish gain.

If you are a wolf in sheep’s clothing who has perfected the cunning art of devouring the flock of God, the recompense of God is coming to you. To all the self-appointed apostles who haven’t found a Bible text they wouldn’t pervert to placate their egoistical sense of self-importance, you must be drunk on your Kool Aid of deception to think you are going to get away with the evil deeds you commit in the name of God.

Let all the self-anointed prophets who habitually distort the Holy Scriptures and presumptuously purport to speak words from God that God has not spoken know that, because of their hard and impenitent heart, they are storing up wrath for themselves on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

So now, as we conclude this commentary series, we’ll be examining how the graciousness and love of Joseph towards his brothers represent a type and shadow of the grace and love that God bestowed upon us while we were yet sinners and enemies of God.

Connection 35: Joseph forgave his brothers of their transgressions just as Christ forgives us of our sins.

When Joseph eventually revealed his true identity to his brothers, it was such an emotional moment. Instead of being filled with bitterness and vindictiveness against his brothers who spitefully sold him into slavery, Joseph was moved with compassion and forgiveness. The waters of the deep love he had for his brothers washed away any hate he might have harbored against them for the wickedness they did against him. 

Profusely and unashamedly, Joseph wept as he wrapped his undeserving brothers in a warm embrace of grace and love. Instead of paying back the brothers with evil, Joseph saw in the misery he had suffered the divine purpose of God. Even though his brothers acted in envy and malice, Joseph understood it was the hand of God orchestrating the events for His own sovereign will all along. 

Consequently, Joseph showered favor and mercy on people who do not merit it. He forgave his brothers their transgressions against him because he knew everything that happened to him was for the glory of God and the benefit of man.

Genesis 45:4-8

“So Joseph said to his brothers, “Come near to me, please.” And they came near. And he said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God.”

Genesis 50:15-21

“When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him.” So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father gave this command before he died: ‘Say to Joseph, “Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.”’ And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when they spoke to him. His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your servants.” But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.”

Joseph’s attitude towards his brothers who had done great injustice against him is reminiscent of God’s attitude towards us sinners who have rebelled against Him. While we were yet enemies, God sent His only begotten Son to die on our behalf. In Joseph graciously forgiving his brothers, we see Christ’s forgiveness in our redemption. The story of Joseph is an unmistaken foreshadowing of the Cross of our salvation.

Romans 5:6-11

“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person – though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die – but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”

2 Corinthians 5:19

“In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them…”

Ephesians 2:1-9

“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience – among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

Scriptures are a composite of the image of Christ. Most unfortunately, though, the Body of Christ is vastly made up of folks who do not understand that the texts of Scriptures are like stones that are meticulously arranged to form the mosaic of the King of kings. When we take Bible texts and make them about our physical health, temporal wealth, and carnal desires, what we are essentially doing is taking the mosaic of the Lord Jesus and then rearranging the stones to form a picture of a fox or a jackal. Whenever we distort the texts of Scriptures, we distort the mosaic of Christ that they represent.

You’d do well to learn to see the face of Jesus in every Bible text you read. It’s only in the revealing of the Lord Jesus in every Bible story that your study of Scriptures would bring about a deeper awe, greater wonder, and higher love for this wonderful God that you get to see and know through the texts.

No other Bible story more vividly reveals Christ than in the story of Joseph. Christ Jesus is the beloved Son of a loving Father who came down from glory, took on the form of man, endured hate and persecution, suffered shame, humiliation, and death, rose again from the dead, ascended to Heaven, and was restored back to glory to sit at the right hand of the Father. This is essentially a summary of the life of Joseph.

My prayer for anyone who will read this commentary is that God will open your eyes of understanding so that next time you pick up your Bible to read, the face of Jesus will be revealed to you in every verse, in every chapter, and in every Book. May you reach a point of understanding where you can see the intricate portrait of Jesus as revealed throughout the pages of the Scriptures.