Seeing Christ in the Life of Joseph: Overcoming Death
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Nothing sobers a person’s outlook on life more than coming face to face with death. The writer of Ecclesiastes states, “It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, because that is the end of every man, and the living takes it to heart” (Ecclesiastes 7:2). In this passage, we may liken a “house of mourning” to a 21st century funeral home. As we grieve the loss of loved ones, we inevitably reflect on our own mortality and ask crucial questions: What makes life worth living? What constitutes “time well spent?” Where is life headed? Is there any way to overcome death?
The book of Genesis — the book of beginnings — is rather poetic. It begins with life and ends with death — Joseph’s death. Yet, this ending is hopeful as it looks to the future fulfillment of God’s promise to His people.
As seen when the Lord takes Enoch to heaven, there is life beyond this earth, with God (Genesis 5:21-24). Likewise, the conversation between Moses and the Lord in Exodus 3 expounds on this topic further when the Lord tells Moses, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Exodus 3:6). The use of the present tense “I am” (not I was) shows God’s relationship with the patriarchs has continued even after their physical death. (See also Jesus’ conversation with the Sadducees in Mark 12:24-27.) Here we see God preserves the life of His people after the grave.
The life of those who die believing in the Lord continues after the grave, hidden with God in heaven. Those who call on the name of the Lord have hope! However, the discussion does not end here. These passages also show us a problem; the earth is not a place fit for God’s people to live. After all, wasn’t God’s original design for peoples’ souls to indwell a physical body on the earth (Genesis 2:7)? Wasn’t God’s intent to make His invisible image visible through humanity as they dwelt on the earth as His image-bearers (Genesis 1:26-28)? The answer to these questions is yes!
This is precisely what our resurrection will be. God will give his people new bodies and bring them into a new heavens and new earth untarnished by sin and death (1 Corinthians 15; Revelation 21:1-8). But first someone had to make the way for God’s people through death to life. Someone had to vanquish death and overcome its power so the hope of the resurrection could be true for God’s people. Someone had to face the full brunt of God’s judgment against sin, die, and then resurrect.
In Joseph’s life, we see a depiction of the One who would ultimately overcome death.
Jacob and Joseph: A Father Receives His Beloved Son Back from the Dead
Joseph’s account in Genesis both depicts and anticipates Jesus’ resurrection. The picture of Jesus’ resurrection comes through Jacob’s point of view. As noted earlier in this series, Jacob’s relationship with Joseph alludes to Jesus’ relationship with the Father. Jacob possessed a unique and special kind of love toward Joseph because he was the “son of his old age.” Jacob created a multicolored tunic for Joseph as a token of this special kind of love (Genesis 37:3). Not surprisingly, the favoritism Jacob showed Joseph created a rift between Joseph and his other brothers (Genesis 37:4). God, however, used the family tension to bring us a rich picture of the Messiah-to-come. To be clear, God does not condone parental favoritism within the family, yet God used the strife between Joseph and his brothers to set things in motion which would provide a glorious foreshadow of Christ.
When the opportunity availed itself, Joseph’s brothers betrayed him and sold him into slavery (Genesis 37:18-28). The next problem they had to face was how to explain Joseph’s absence to their father. Still possessing Joseph’s multicolored tunic, the brothers conspired to make it look like Joseph had been attacked by a wild beast, which they did by dipping the tunic in the blood of a goat (Genesis 37:31). In a heart-wrenching scene, the brothers present the tunic to Jacob and allow him to conclude that his beloved son had been torn apart during a tragic encounter with a wild animal. Through the eyes of Jacob, Joseph had been killed. A father had lost his beloved son.
Thankfully, the story does not end in tears of grief. In time, the truth wins out and God orchestrates things in such a way to where Joseph’s brothers must instead tell their father that Joseph is alive. When Jacob’s sons are able to convince him Joseph is alive, “the spirit of their father Jacob revived” and he said, “It is enough; my son Joseph is still alive. I will go and see him before I die” (Genesis 45:27-28).
The beautiful reunion between Jacob and Joseph comes full circle in Genesis chapter 46 when Joseph goes up to Goshen in his chariot to meet his father. When Joseph appeared before his father, he, “fell on his neck and wept on his neck a long time. Then Israel said to Joseph, ‘Now let me die since I have seen your face, that you are still alive’” (Genesis 46:29-30). The picture of the resurrection is now complete. Through Jacob’s eyes, Joseph had died and come back to life. A father who lost his beloved son had now received him back from the dead.
Joseph’s Bones: The Hope of the Resurrection
As mentioned earlier, even though Genesis ends with Joseph’s death, it brings hope in God’s promise and points the reader to the future fulfillment of God’s promise to His people. When Joseph’s time to die comes, he speaks to his kin and reminds them of God’s promise to the patriarch saying, “I am about to die, but God will surely take care of you and bring you up from this land to the land which he promised on oath to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob” (Genesis 50:24).
Here we can see Joseph believes God’s promise to bring Abraham’s descendants into the land of promise (Genesis 15:13-16). Yet after Joseph assures his kin about God’s promise, he then makes a rather peculiar request. Joseph makes his kin promise to take his remains (literally his “bones”) up from Egypt to the Promised Land when God brought them up (Genesis 50:25). This seems strange. Why would Joseph care where his body was buried? The answer is because Joseph believed in the resurrection. He knew that God would resurrect His people and they would live in the land He promised. Those who died believing in the promise would not be put to shame.
Jesus Christ: The Firstborn Among the Dead
The Greek word used for “resurrection” in the New Testament is the word anastasis, which literally means to “stand/rise again.” In the context of Scripture, this word refers to a person who physically rises from the dead. In this context, the word itself implies death. After all, why else would someone need to rise again? Physical death is a result of the curse and is a punishment from God against us because of our sin.
Death also provides a visible testimony of the world’s cursed state and God’s judgment against sin (Romans 5:12; Romans 8:20-21). A person who resurrects is a person who overcomes the curse and death. This is something every person desperately needs because we are all sinners deserving eternal death as God’s righteous punishment for our sin against Him (Romans 6:23).
But how can sinful people who deserve to die ever hope to overcome death in the face of God’s unwavering and holy demand for justice? After all, God must satisfy His holy justice or else He would need to deny His own character (Exodus 34:6-7)! As we stated before, someone has to make a way for us so we can pass from death to life. This brings us to the glorious news of Jesus Christ and His resurrection.
Up until Jesus, nobody had truly resurrected. Enoch and Elijah? They never faced death, so they never overcame it. What about people such as Lazarus, whom God brought back to life? Such people didn’t overcome death because — in the end — they still died. Jesus Christ is the first person to truly resurrect from the dead. There is a reason Paul emphasizes the fact Christ “died” and was “buried” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). Jesus didn’t merely have a “close call” or a brief brush-up against death. He was truly dead and buried in a tomb for three days.
Jesus’ burial carries great significant because it signifies that Christ was kept in the full clutches of death. His body was encompassed by the full power of death for three days. This is what makes His resurrection so glorious. He truly overcame the full power of death! Upon His resurrection, God declared his Son’s atoning sacrifice as sufficient for sin and the way of life had indeed been open as proven by Jesus’ resurrection! Death was defeated and the hope of eternal life given to all who call on the name of Jesus Christ for salvation and wait for His precious promises.
Jesus Christ is the Firstborn among the dead (Colossians 1:18). This is a glorious title which relates to the resurrection. The meaning of being “born” means to receive life. Jesus is the first Person to receive life after death. He is the first person to receive the life of God’s promised resurrection. He alone holds the title “Firstborn among the Dead” because He alone conquered death. In light of this glorious truth, Jesus Christ is the only all-sufficient Savior. He alone can deliver His people from death and grant them eternal life because He Himself is alive and stands before the Father as our Advocate, pointing to the merit of His blood which He spilt on our behalf. Because Jesus resurrected from the dead, all believers can truly rest in His words, “because I live, you will live also” (John 14:19).
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