1. Excluding the sinless Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, there are only two men in the Bible, of whom no fault or failure is recorded.
2. One of those two men is Daniel the prophet.
3. The other is Joseph.   The Bible does not say Joseph was a type of Christ, but the resemblance is unmistakable.
4. The Scofield Study Bible says, “While it is nowhere asserted that Joseph was a type of Christ, the analogies are too numerous to be accidental. They are:

1. Both were especial objects of a father’s love (Genesis 37:3; Matthew 3:17; John 3:35; 5:20).
2. Both were hated by their brethren (Genesis 37:4; John 15:25).
3. The superior claims of both were rejected by their brethren (Genesis 37:8; Matthew 21:37-39; John 15:24, 25).
4. The brethren of both conspired against them to slay them (Genesis 37:18; Matthew 26:3, 4).
5. Joseph was, in intent and figure, slain by his brethren, as was Christ (Genesis 37:24; Matthew 27:35-37).
6. Each became a blessing among the Gentiles, and gained a Gentile bride (Genesis 41:1-45; Acts 15:14; Ephesians 5:25-32).
7. As Joseph reconciled his brethren to himself, and afterward exalted them, so will it be with Christ and His Jewish brethren (Genesis 45:1-15; Deuteronomy 30:1-10; Hosea 2:14-18; Romans 11:1,15,25, 26).”

5. What I would like for us to look at this morning are Joseph’s two prophetic dreams, recorded in Genesis 37. 
6. AT Pierson stated seven fundamental laws of prophetic utterances:

1. Prophecy makes divine sovereignty the main lesson: God is always the central figure.
2. All human beings are but instruments of God’s will, whether willing or unwilling.
3. The parabolic form is commonly used in inspired prediction.
4. Remoteness of time and minuteness of detail attest the prophecy as of God.
5. Human antagonism is anticipated in the attempt to defeat the prediction.
6. The very means used to thwart are efficient to fulfill.
7. There is often a double application of prophecy, the literal and the typical.

I. ALL HUMAN BEINGS ARE INSTRUMENTS OF GOD’S WILL.

1. Genesis 37-50 all deal with the life of Joseph.  More is said in the book of Genesis than of any other patriarch. 
2. But these chapters are really about God - His faithfulness, His love, His sovereignty, His providence, etc.
3. This last section of the book of Genesis tells us how God preserved the people of Israel - “These are the generations of Jacob…” (37:2).
4. An important Biblical principle is that all human beings are instruments of God’s will, whether willing or unwilling.
5. In the case of Joseph, he was a willing instrument.  But it is obvious that his brethren were unwilling instruments of God’s will.  Joseph’s brothers were not right with God.
6. Joseph’s brothers envied Joseph, and this envy grew into a murderous hatred (Gen. 37:11, 18).
7. The Psalmist said, “Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain” (Ps. 76:10).
8. Joseph’s brothers hated Joseph and resented him because he was Jacob’s favorite (37:3, 4), and they hated him because of his dreams (Genesis 37:5, 8).
9. Even Joseph’s father Jacob rebuked him after he was told the second dream (37:9-11).
10. One of the great principles of Bible prophecy is that all human beings are instruments of God’s will - whether willing or unwilling.
11. Joseph’s brethren were unwilling instruments.   Joseph’s brothers angrily announced that they would never bow down to their younger brother, whom they despised (37:8).
12. Yet, God used various circumstances to force them to bow down to Joseph three times (cf. Gen. 42:6; 43:28; 44:14).
13. Finally, they bowed down willingly, and said to Joseph, “Behold, we be thy servants” (50:18).
14. Since Joseph typifies Christ, it is easy to make an application.  Philippians 2:10, 11 says, “That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
15. It would be far better to bow down now to the Lord Jesus Christ, then wait until you are dragged out of hell and forced to do it.
16. Joseph’s dreams foretold the future sovereignty of the Lord Jesus Christ. The first dream concerned “the field” (37:7), and this pointed to the earthly dominion of our Lord.  But Joseph’s second dream pictured the sun, the moon and the stars, and tells, in type, of the heavenly dominion of Christ.
17. Our Lord said in Matthew 28:18, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.”
18. All human beings are instruments of God’s will - whether willing or unwilling. We do not have the time to develop this today, but let’s just consider a couple of examples (I Kings 13:1-5; cf. II Kings 23:1-25).
19. King Josiah was a willing instrument of God’s will.
20. Micah 5:2 says, “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.”
21. Seven hundred years beforehand Micah prophesied that the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem.  But Joseph and Mary lived in Nazareth.
22. In this case, God’s instrument was Caesar Augustus - an unwilling instrument, a godless heathen, a wicked Roman emperor.
23. Augustus sent out a decree that all the world should be taxed (Luke 2).  This decree forced Joseph and Mary to travel to Bethlehem, where Christ was born in fulfillment of prophecy.

II. REMOTENESS OF TIME AND MINUTENESS OF DETAIL ATTEST THE PROPHECY AS OF GOD.

1. Joseph’s first dream was accurately fulfilled in the land of Egypt.
2. His second dream was also fulfilled in Egypt, but it goes beyond Joseph’s day (37:9).  It still has not been completely fulfilled, but it will be completely fulfilled during the coming tribulation (cf. Rev. 12:1-6).
3. The woman in Revelation 12:1 represents Israel, and she is pictured being persecuted by Satan - the “great red dragon” (12:3; cf. 12:9).
4. The woman (symbolizing Israel) is described as clothed with the sun, having the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars (12:1; cf. Genesis 37:9-11).
5. The twelve stars represent the twelve tribes of Israel.  Jacob recognized that the sun and the moon and the eleven stars represented him and his wife, and Joseph’s eleven brothers, for he said to Joseph, “Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?” (Gen. 37:10).
6. In Revelation 12:2, the woman (representing Israel) is seen travailing in birth and awaiting for the delivery of her child.
7. In Revelation 12:4 we see that the devil tried to kill her child as soon as he was born.   This refers to Herod’s attempt to kill the baby Jesus.
8. “And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron” (Rev. 12:5). Written 1,000 years before the first coming of Christ, David wrote in Psalm 2:9, “Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”
9. These prophecies refer to the second coming of Christ, when our Lord will rule the world from his throne in Jerusalem.
10. Revelation 19:15 says, “And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.”
11. Only the inspired, inerrant, infallible Word of God can make such remarkable prophecies hundreds (and sometimes thousands) of years before they are fulfilled.  As AT Pierson said, “Remoteness of time and minuteness of detail attest the prophecy as of God.”

III. HUMAN ANTAGONISM IS ANTICIPATED IN THE ATTEMPT TO DEFEAT THE PREDICTION.

1. Joseph’s brothers “conspired against him to slay him” (Gen. 37:18).  They were not interested in seeing his prophetic dreams come true.
2. Oftentimes men try to thwart God’s purposes but that is impossible.   God is sovereign, and in His providence and in His infinite wisdom, He has everything planned out. 
3. “Great things doeth he, which we cannot comprehend” (Job 37:5).
4. “Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite” (Psalm 147:5).
5. Reuben suggested that they should not kill Joseph, but to just leave him in the pit (37:21).  But though Reuben’s plan was not as evil as that of his brothers, all the brothers had the same objective: they did not want to hear any more about Joseph’s dreams (cf. 37:20).
6. Finally, the brothers agreed to sell Joseph to a company of Ishmeelites (Arabs) traveling from Gilead (37:21-28), who in turn sold him into Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh’s, and captain of the guard (37:36).
7. This was all according to God’s plan. Acts 15:18 says, “Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world.”
8. Ephesians 1:11 says God “worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.”
9. Joseph recognized God’s hand in all of this, and later on he said to his brothers, “So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God” (Gen. 45:8).
10. The Psalmist wrote, “He (God) sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant” (Psalm 105:17).
11. After the death of Jacob, Joseph’s brothers thought that Joseph would punish them for what they did to him, but Joseph told them, “But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good” (Gen. 50:20).

CONCLUSION:

1. When Jacob was on his deathbed, he gave his blessing to his sons (cf. Gen. 49:1, 2, 28).
2. Interestingly, though Genesis 49:28 says, Jacob “blessed them; every one according to his blessing he blessed them,” the only time Jacob actually uses the word “blessing” is in reference to Joseph (49:25, 26).
3. The lengthiest part of Jacob’s speech belongs to Joseph.

• “Joseph is a fruitful bough…” (49:22) - Joseph bore the fruit of a blameless life.  He was a blessing to all those with whom he came into contact.
• “Even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall” (49:22b) - Joseph was not only a blessing to his own family, but to Pharaoh and the people of Egypt too.
• Are you a blessing to everyone you meet?
• “Out in the highways and byways of life,
• many are weary and sad; 
• Carry the sunshine where darkness is rife,
• making the sorrowing glad.
• Make me a blessing, make me a blessing,
• Out of my life may Jesus shine;
• Make me a blessing, O Savior, I pray,
• Make me a blessing to someone today.”
• “The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him” (Gen. 49:23).   Joseph’s brothers hated him.  Joseph was falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife.  Jesus said, “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you” (John 15:18).
• First John 3:13 says, “Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.”
• The apostle Paul said, “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (II Tim. 3:12).
• “But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob; (from thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel:)” (Gen. 49:24). God strengthened Joseph. God sustained Joseph. God blessed Joseph.
• The “shepherd, the stone of Israel” (49:24) will bless us and guide us and protect us and strengthen us and sustain us if we are doing what He would have us to do.
• The God of Joseph is our God too.
• “Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee; and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb: The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren” (Gen. 49:25, 26).
• Theses wonderful blessings are available to God’s people today.