Whether for Jews, gentiles, or both, the Bible is loaded with messages intended to point to Yeshua as the Christ, our Messiah, Lord, and Savior. One of the most compelling stories that tells of a type of Christ is in the first book of the Bible, Genesis, in which Joseph is presented in a way that points to the Messiah to come to the world.

Many Bible scholars and theologians have talked about this. It’s the type of revelation that hits us hard when we connect the dots and realize the intense similarities between a man through which God saved Israel and the Christ through which the world is saved. It’s also a story that is not, in our opinion, discussed enough in churches. The significance is too important to pass over casually.

The Bible uses types throughout. Sometimes, a person can be a type that refers to someone in the past. Usually, they point to the future, giving us further affirmation of the timeless nature of the Father. Let’s look at a handful of similarities that point to Joseph as a type of Christ.

Men without Condemnation

Only Abraham is discussed more in the long book of Genesis than Joseph. Nearly everyone is presented with great faults, including Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Even Noah, a just man, made a mistake after the flood that allowed Canaan to be cursed for eternity.

Joseph has arguably one fault described in the Bible. He may or may not have bragged to his brothers about his dreams in a way that was not truly humble. He told them as well as his father that they would all bow down to him someday. One can argue that he had to tell them and that he wasn’t doing so to brag but to declare a truth. Whether humbly or not, it was God’s Will for Joseph to tell of the dreams because this put it into his brothers’ hearts to betray him. Had they not, Israel would not have been able to go to Egypt and survive as a nation, at least not in the way that it happened in the Bible.

Genesis lays no condemnation on Jospeh. Yeshua is without sin, a status obviously higher than Joseph. If Joseph had no major faults and maintained faith in God throughout his story, then Yeshua magnified this to the point of righteousness. Joseph was only a man and therefore sinned, but he was without apparent flaw worth noting in the text. Yeshua was flawless.

Sent by His Father to Check on the Flock

This is a neat little note. Joseph was sent by his father to check on his brothers and the flock of sheep that they fed. Yeshua was sent by His Father to gather the brethren to tend to the flock.

While checking on the flocks, both were betrayed.

Betrayed by their Brethren

Joseph was cast into a pit while his brothers contemplated his fate. He was then taken by the Midianites and sold into slavery as his brothers watched helplessly.

Yeshua was betrayed by His people. One could take it further and point to those who knew Him as He grew up in Nazareth. They did not accept Him, even wanting to hurl Him off a cliff and few in His homeland believed that He was anything other than the carpenter’s son. Then, of course, we could look at Judas Iscariot, an original disciple who ultimately betrayed him.

With types, we can often see different degrees expressed. In Joseph’s case, he was betrayed to a life of slavery while Yeshua was betrayed to death. Joseph’s freedom was sold for 20 pieces of silver while Yeshua’s life was sold for 30 pieces of silver. Joseph saved nations. Yeshua saved the world.

Perhaps the most striking aspect of their betrayals is that both Joseph and Yeshua were falsely accused.

Two Criminals, One Saved

When Joseph was imprisoned, he came across two others who were condemned. He interpreted the dreams of the cup bearer and the baker. The cup bearer was to live while the baker was to die.

On the cross, Yeshua was there with two criminals. One mocked Him. The other worshiped Him. One would be saved. The other was condemned.

Not Recognized by the People

Joseph was 17-years-old when he was betrayed by this brothers. He was in his thirties when they would see him again and they did not immediately recognize him, even when they ate with him. They knew he was a powerful man who did wonderful works for the people, but they did not see him as their brother nor the person who would eventually save their nation. In fact, they feared him.

Yeshua was also in His thirties when He went to spread the Word of God throughout the land. He was seen by the Jews as a powerful teacher, a healer, even a prophet, but most did not see Him as the Messiah. His works were revered by most but there were those who did not recognize that these works were done through the Father. They both hated and feared Him.

Others

Bible History put together a pretty comprehensive list of similarities in the form of verses:

As a representation of the coming Messiah, Joseph acts as the right type to be able to point Jews and gentiles to the truth. Joseph had no ministry per se, but he did represent the rise, fall, and complete ascension of a man whom God used to make the tribe of Israel a nation that would rise from Egypt and take the land that was promised to their father Abraham.

This comparison allows everyone today to understand the divinity of Yeshua and the coming reign of our Lord. In the end, Joseph was accepted by his people and set the path for their lives to come. The same will be said of Yeshua in the last days.

Will you help revive the American Conservative Movement?

A few weeks ago, I wrote an article about how faux conservative Trumpists were a direct result of the faux conservative media.

Choosing the wide gate of compromise over the narrow gate of conviction, clickservatives in the faux conservative media have succeeded in spreading the lie that Trumpservatism equals conservatism while using conservative values as a commodity to be bartered for a seat at Trump’s table.

In the piece I mentioned above, I showed how the formerly conservative voices of Mark Levin and Glenn Beck were using their new BlazeTV partnership as a pro-Trump echo chamber and how they were using this fact as a marketing tool to find new subscribers.

Proof of the depths BlazeTV is apparently willing to go with its sycophancy was evident in a recent episode of the Glenn Beck Show when he participated in a discussion with Pat and Stu on the decline of manhood and declared that Donald Trump is the last male role model left in America.

While many so-called conservatives dismissed Beck’s statement as an isolated incident and called me out for “taking him out of context,” a recent interview with Trump’s defacto press secretary, Sean Hannity, showed Beck’s heart in the matter.

“If the Republicans don’t win this next election, I think we are officially at the end of the country as we know it. We may not survive even if we win, but we definitely don’t if the Republicans lose with Donald Trump.”

Fun fact: Beck once criticized Hannity for supporting “unprincipled” Trump.

While #notDemocrat fearmongering is nothing new for the GOP establishment — they play that card every two years — Beck’s fearmongering was solely for the purpose of supporting Trump and the GOP. Using Beck’s rationale, America might cease to exist under Trump, but it definitely ceases to exist under a Democrat — as if there’s a difference between the two.

It looks like Levin’s and Beck’s Trumpism is official company policy at BlazeTV, at least that’s the impression I came away with after yesterday’s episode of the Steve Deace Show.

In the opening portion of his show, Deace and his crew (Aaron and Todd) were making the case that Democrats were the party of abortion and used their position to endorse Trump’s and the GOP’s use of the late-term abortion issue in the upcoming election. But they went further.

They argued that Trump is a “long-term advocate” of ending late-term abortion — Deace gave his personal guarantee that this is true — and said pro-life conservatives should support Trump because #notDemocrat despite his doublemindedness on abortion and his continued funding of Planned Parenthood. And they stated that anyone who refused to “cheer” Trump’s use of the abortion issue in the upcoming election as they were going to do were most likely members of a “Never Trump cult” and/or a hypocrite.

I shared this on my Facebook account:

If BlazeTV chooses to sell its soul to Trump for a seat at his table, that’s up to them. But I’m saying “adios” to their faux conservatism.

Originally posted on StridentConservative.com.

David Leach is the owner of The Strident Conservative. His daily radio commentary is distributed by the Salem Radio Network and is heard on stations across America.

Follow the Strident Conservative on Twitter and Facebook.

Subscribe to receive podcasts of radio commentaries: iTunes | Stitcher | Tune In | RSS

Will you help revive the American Conservative Movement?

Mainstream media will do as mainstream media has always done. The creep to the left that started in the 70s has been inching the narratives to a progressive lean with notable lurches during the Reagan and Bush 43 years. But it was with the last two presidents that any facade of neutrality was wiped away. They loved President Obama and hate President Trump.

Fox News has been the only major network to not embrace leftist tenets, but here’s the thing. They’re not conservative. Sure, they have some conservatives as commentators and a few conservative show hosts, but generally they’ve been moderate for years. We saw this in the early days of the 2016 GOP nomination race when first Jeb Bush, then Marco Rubio were their anointed picks. Sean Hannity was the only one who jumped on the Trump Train early. Eventually, the channel eased itself on board, but not without keeping an anchor firmly attached to neoconservatism and barely right-of-center moderation.

Most viewers don’t realize this. They watch Fox & Friends, The Five, and other shows and they get the feeling that this is what conservative media looks like. But it’s not. This is what pro-Trump moderates look like (again, with a handful of exceptions).

They made an odd move yesterday by bringing on former DNC Chair Donna Brazile. In an effort to stay “fair and balanced,” it’s a good move for the network to want to expand their repertoire of leftists, but picking someone who lied on behalf of the DNC and Hillary Clinton to somehow be appropriate in delivering “truth” is the part that should make conservatives and leftists scratch their heads. Wasn’t she supposed to promote her book and then fade off into obscurity in a lobbyist role or something?

Today brought us another indicator of the left-of-center mentality Fox holds. They brought former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, the person arguably most responsible for holding back the President from demanding the border wall while Republicans held control of the House, Senate, and White House, onto the board of their new Fox News parent company.

If you still think Fox News is #conservative, you're not paying enough attention. They're moderate and neoconservative with a few hosts who spout out conservative talk tracks. https://t.co/KOICNjvt7e

— JD Rucker (@JDRucker) March 19, 2019

But it’s not necessarily the people they hire that reveals their ideology. It’s the absence of topics. One of the biggest reasons we push so hard to raise money for this site is because we know the need for conservatism and Christianity as being necessary driving forces in American life. We do not bow down to party, popularity, or ideological notions that seem conservative or Christian but are not.

Fox News, on the other hand, plays for Republicans rather than conservatives. We can see this in the topics they promote but also in the topics they avoid. Like all the other news channels, they are quick to talk about any types of terrorism or murder as long as the victims aren’t Judeo-Christian. They push the buzzing stories based on what’s trending on Twitter but they don’t dig deeper to the core of the matter. There are occasional moments of lucidity, especially with some of the conservative hosts, but for the most part they’re just a pro-Trump version of the other networks.

What America needs from the media is an inflexible dedication to what works. Some will argue that it’s not media’s job to guide the process, but commentary is specifically designed to do just that. President Trump has been guided in this way. We saw him considering is immigration stance “softening” in 2016 with Sean Hannity right there beside him. But it was the conservatives in his base who were telling him to stop the nonsense, and thankfully it worked. He didn’t soften and as a result he won the election.

Fox News is only conservative in relations to their competitors. They’re unwillingness to be bold in their philosophies prevents them from being the real counter to CNN, MSNBC, and others who have no qualms being hardcore leftists. Fox News isn’t the answer.

Will you help revive the American Conservative Movement?