To Save Your Lives by a Great Deliverance

Certainly Joseph, son of Jacob, was a type of the Savior. One Liahona article describes some of the similarities between Joseph and Jesus. First, Joseph was a shepherd: “Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren” (Genesis 37:2). Jesus, of course, was the Good Shepherd: “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). Joseph was sold as a slave into Egypt for twenty pieces of silver by those who should have loved and protected him (Genesis 37:28). Jesus spent time in Egypt as a foreigner as well when He was a child. Later, Judas who was supposed to be His disciple sold Him for 30 pieces of silver, which was the price of a slave (Matthew 26:15). Also, when Joseph was sold by his brothers they tore up his garment as Moroni taught, “we are a remnant of the seed of Joseph, whose coat was rent by his brethren into many pieces” (Alma 46:23). When the Savior was crucified, “they parted his raiment, and cast lots” (Luke 23:34). Joseph was falsely accused of immorality by Potiphar’s wife, just as Jesus was falsely accused on multiple occasions, such as when the high priest exclaimed, “He hath spoken blasphemy; what further need have we of witnesses? behold, now ye have heard his blasphemy” (Matthew 26:65). Joseph was arrested and sent to prison because of his false accusation, and Jesus also was arrested and bound before He was crucified. And shortly after His death Jesus “went and preached unto the spirits in prison” (1 Peter 3:19). While in prison, Joseph interpreted the dream of the butler and the baker. To the butler he said, “Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thine head, and restore thee unto thy place: and thou shalt deliver Pharaoh’s cup into his hand, after the former manner when thou wast his butler.” But to the baker he said, “Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thy head from off thee, and shall hang thee on a tree; and the birds shall eat thy flesh from off thee” (Genesis 40:13, 19). This reminds us of the judgment that the Savior will offer as described in the parable of the sheep and the goats: “When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:… Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:31-41). One group will be lifted up to be with the Father, and the other group will be cast out, just as the butler was restored to Pharoah and the baker was cast off.  

When Joseph came out of prison, Pharoah made him a ruler among the people more powerful than anyone except for Pharoah: “Thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled: only in the throne will I be greater than thou. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand, and put it upon Joseph’s hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck; And he made him to ride in the second chariot which he had; and they cried before him, Bow the knee: and he made him ruler over all the land of Egypt” (Genesis 41:40-43). Similarly, the Savior is second only to His Father in power and glory among all of the Father’s children, and one day we will all bow before Him as the King of kings. Most importantly, Joseph provided salvation for his family by being sent to a faraway land, suffering, and ultimately rising above his suffering. The Savior likewise was sent from a position of prominence next to His Father to come to earth, suffer, and ultimately provide salvation to the children of God through that suffering. And He rose up in power on the third day, just as Joseph rose out of prison to become a powerful ruler in Egypt. Joseph declared to his brethren, “And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance” (Genesis 45:7). Similarly, Jesus provided a great deliverance for all mankind as Jacob declared, “O how great the goodness of our God, who prepareth a way for our escape from the grasp of this awful monster; yea, that monster, death and hell, which I call the death of the body, and also the death of the spirit. And because of the way of deliverance of our God, the Holy One of Israel, this death, of which I have spoken, which is the temporal, shall deliver up its dead” (2 Nephi 9:10-11). The incredible story of Joseph reminds us of the even greater story of Jesus Christ who was sent to save all mankind.