p. 15Ladies and Gentlemen,—
Last time I submitted some thoughts about Abraham. I invite you now to consider the history of Joseph. Like Abraham’s, the story will not hold together if you take God out of it. Joseph was the beloved of his father Jacob, and the hated of his own brothers. There may not be much in this by itself. Consider, however, the fact of its being written that Joseph’s brethren hated him. What motive could inspire this record except its truth? Would not historians, writing for the credit of their nation, have suppressed this at least, even if they had not gone so far as to represent that they loved him? If true that they hated him, we have to consider the reason. Jacob’s special love of him doubtless contributes something of a reason; but it is not the whole recorded reason, nor a sufficient explanation by itself, of what they did to him. Joseph had dreams of coming supremacy, which he told in his simplicity. Not p. 16 only his brothers, but Jacob himself, was hurt by these dreams. “His father rebuked him, . . . . Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?” (Gen. xxxvii. 10). We may be sure it would never have been written that “his father rebuked him” if it was not so, and the fact being so, we have to consider the fact of the dreams in the light of the sequel. What that sequel was all the world knows. Joseph was promoted to the highest position in the mightiest country then upon the earth—Egypt; and his father and brothers did indeed come and bow themselves to him. This would be strong as a fulfilment of prophetic dreams, which would require God’s interposition to account for them. But this is only a comparatively weak corollary to what I am driving at.
Please, Ladies and Gentlemen, fix your minds on Joseph’s exaltation in Egypt. The fact is of world-wide notoriety. Even the recent decipherment of the hieroglyphs of Egyptian antiquities has confirmed it. You have to account for that fact, for it is an extraordinary one. A Hebrew lad is sold a slave in Egypt; is imprisoned under the foulest of false charges, and after languishing in a hopeless dungeon, suddenly flames out in public life as the lord of Egypt, to whom the entire population is commanded by Pharaoh to “Bow the knee.” What is the explanation of such an unnatural somersault of fortune? The Bible gives it to us. Consider the account. God is in it, and so long as you leave Him there, the story coheres in majestic strength and reason. But take Him out, and it evaporates to nothing, and you are unable to give a rational account of one of the most undoubted events of history.
What is the story? That two of Pharaoh’s officials p. 17 offending, are confined in the prison where Joseph was; that each has a dream, which troubles him; that Joseph interprets for them their dreams, and that they experience the truth of the interpretation immediately, for one is restored to favour and the other hanged. If this had been all, there might not have been much to press on your attention; it is the climax that shines with brilliant light. After two years or so of neglect, Joseph is hurriedly sent for, on the suggestion of the restored official, to interpret a dream of Pharaoh’s, which the wise men of Egypt can make nothing of. The interpretation relates to instantly-coming public events out of human control, and must, from the nature of things, involve him in disgrace if it is otherwise than true. He tells Pharaoh there are coming seven years of plenty, to be followed by seven years of famine, and he recommends provision to be made during the years of plenty for the years of famine. He disowns the credit of the prophecy. He says it is no faculty of his, but the revelation of God to Pharaoh. And the prophecy is of that character as to offer a crucial test of its truthfulness, unlike the vague and incoherent utterances of the famed Delphic oracles of the Greeks, which were purposely made elastic to suit any issue of events. The years of plenty came, and then the years of famine, which established Joseph in paramount authority, and brought Jacob and his sons to Egypt, in the obeisant attitude that Joseph’s own dreams had foreshadowed.
Ladies and Gentlemen—All this has the solid and symmetrical strength of pure reason. If God was in it, every step and link in the development is accounted for. But if you exclude Him, you cannot account for Joseph’s promotion from a dungeon to a p. 18 throne. Joseph could not of himself know that years of plenty and years of famine were coming, and had he not made known their approach, the reason of his elevation is wanting. And had not his words been fulfilled, the famine that brought Jacob and his other sons into Egypt to buy bread would not have been operative.
Consider the matter well. The story is there. As a story it is perfect. In its surroundings it is impregnable. It is supported by the solid, unique, grave, wise, extraordinary character of the Bible throughout, of which it is a part; and by a long line of subsequent attestations, culminating in the appearance of Christ in the earth about 1,600 years afterwards. Can you take God out of it? You cannot, without destroying it; and destroy, or not destroy, you cannot take God out without wrenching many unwrenchable things from their place. You cannot do it without having also to impute a lying character to a Book which carries the evidence of its truthfulness on its face; and you would have to deny a history that cannot be contradicted, and that fulfilled a prophecy which cannot be blotted out, however much it may be ignored.