O, for Faith to Behold Christ!

"And they sent the coat of many colours, and they brought it to their father; and said, This have we found; know now, whether it be thy son's coat, or no. And he knew it, and said, It is my son's coat." -Genesis 37:32, 33 [KJV]

The life of the patriarch Joseph is very beautiful and interesting, as a history only; and the several incidents arising out of it are such as cannot but more or less affect every heart. But when we have gone through the whole relation, in the mere letter of the word, we are constrained to believe, that in the spiritual sense and meaning of it, almost every thing in the life of Joseph was typical of Jesus! I would not strain scripture upon any account. Neither would I to myself any thing fanciful of Jesus and His frame blessed offices; so as to see Him where He is not.  

Yet I cannot but think, that since in so many instances, as is universally allowed, Joseph is a lively type of Christ, the Holy Ghost, in His glorifying the Lord Jesus, was, in many cases, pleased to shadow forth, somewhat of the Redeemer, where He is not at first so immediately discovered. Whether in the passage I have just read, for the present evening's meditation, there be any thing typical of Jesus, I know not; but to those who, like Philip, have "found Him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth;" the coat of the patriarch, dipped in the blood of the kid, may minister in leading the heart to the contemplation of Jesus, who appeareth unceasingly in His priestly garments, in the presence of God our Father, for us.  

And may not a believer humbly take up the language of faith, when drawing nigh to our God and Father in Christ Jesus; and when we enter, as it were, into His retirings, with earnest prayer, and earnest pleadings, seeking favour in and through Jesus; may we not, in the arms of our faith, bring the vesture of Jesus dipped in blood, and say, This have we found; know now, whether it be Jesus's, Thy dear and ever beloved Son's vesture, or no? 

Oh! For faith to behold Christ, as the Father beheld Him, when He set Him forth to the church, and to love Him as God our Father loved Him. And how surely will God confirm His own gracious testimony concerning Him, and say with the patriarch, or in words to the same effect; "This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased!" 

-Robert Hawker (1753-1827 A.D.) 

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