Joseph's Story
In Genesis, Joseph (son of Jacob) helped his family escape famine in Egypt. This story provides background to the birth of God’s child in Revelation 12.
The move to Egypt also foreshadows the birth of Jesus and His escape from King Herod which took him to Egypt.
Joseph’s famine is also parallel to Noah’s flood, being a world wide calamity from which God’s family escape. In this regard it is also a form of birth or baptism.
The story has three parts, according to the pattern of prophecy:
Joseph understood that a famine was coming. Like Noah, he prepared for the calamity and God saved the family of Israel along with many others in Egypt
Israel remained in Egypt which was like world government
until the Exodus (where Jesus was revealed as the passover lamb).
The Exodus takes place so that an entry can be made into the Promised Land. In the end we must leave this world to enter the new creation.
This pattern of events resembles the life of Jesus.
Prophecy continues in God’s people today. The move to Egypt represents the fall. The curse of sin had Adam and Eve removed from the Garden of Eden, making birth difficult and the ground cursed, just as Egypt became a place of slavery for Israel.
The Joseph / Egypt story ultimately presents the apocalyptic birth with a journey to come in the last days. The famine is expected to be caused by war, which will give rise to the final Egypt-like world government of history.
The final event is the Exodus, a symbolic death and resurrection which reveals Jesus. In Revelation 15 the exodus relates to the second coming of Jesus when God’s people will escape the final world Government of history, the beast of the last days.
