For today, read through Genesis chapter 37.

DEVOTIONAL:

"They took him and cast him into a pit." - Genesis 37:24

It is impossible to read this inimitable story without detecting in the water-mark of the paper on which it is written the name JESUS. Indeed, we lose much of the beauty and force of these early Scriptures if we fail to observe the references to the life, character, and work of the blessed Redeemer. Notice some of these precious analogies:—

Out Savior's shepherd-heart (Gen 37:2).

The love of the Father before the worlds were made (Gen 37:3).

The dreams of empire, which are so certainly to be realized, when we shall see Him acknowledged as King of kings and Lord of lords (Gen 37:7).

Envied by his brethren, to whom he came, though they received Him not (Gen 37:11).

His alacrity to do his Father's will, and to finish his work, in which will we too have been sanctified (Gen 37:13).

Cast into the pit of the grave, as a seed-corn into the ground to die, that He might not abide alone, but bear much fruit (Gen 37:24).

The thirty pieces of silver for which He was betrayed (Gen 37:28).

The indifference of the Jewish people to their great Brother's fate (Gen 37:25).

Rejected of the Jew, and turning to the Gentile (Gen 37:28).

The bitter grief which his rejection has brought on the Jewish people (Gen 37:35).

It is as though the Holy Ghost, eager to glorify the Lord, could not wait for the slow unfolding of history, but must anticipate the story of that precious life and death which were to make the world new again.

 –FB Meyer