The preparation of a deliverer. It is customary for the life of Joseph, the deliverer, to be applied as a type of Jesus Christ. Certainly Joseph is a type of the Lord Jesus. But the life of Joseph is also, as we understand it, a type of the preparation and ministry of strong saints to whom Jesus assigns the responsibility of sharing His riches with His people whom He loves dearly.

It always is the Lord's will for us to bless and feed His lambs and His sheep. By so doing we prove our love for the Lord (Romans 15:1). Perhaps the story of Joseph can help us understand some of the ways in which the Lord Jesus deals with us as He prepares us for our responsibilities in the Kingdom of God.

Notice that the Lord began Joseph's preparation with a dream (Genesis 37:5). It often is true that someone whom God has chosen for an area of responsibility will receive a supernatural visitation well in advance of his or her time of employment in the Lord's vineyard.

Also, it often is true that the believer on being called by the Lord will blurt out what he has been told, bringing about his own rejection and his own preparation by various sufferings. How often we create our own teachers!

The more we mature in the Lord the less we are given to nonessential speech. We pray carefully about everything we say. We pray without ceasing.

Joseph, God's deliverer, was tested in the same manner in which the Lord Jesus was tested and in which each of the saints is tested.

The first preparatory examination is that of physical survival. Joseph was thrown into a pit in which there was no water (Genesis 37:24). Lack of water in a hot country can be fatal.

We must learn to serve the Lord whether or not we can understand where our necessities will come from. Man cannot live by bread alone. We have been commanded to seek first the Kingdom of God. When we do our needs are met. The individual who will not do God's will until he knows how he will survive physically shall not be able to pass this first examination. He cannot be a deliverer in the hour of need. He surely shall fail.

The second preparatory examination is that of resisting sin. Joseph was tempted by Potiphar's wife. She may have been glamorous but the flames of Hell were burning intensely in her filthy heart (Genesis 39:12; Proverbs 7:27).

The strong saint, the deliverer, flees from temptation as did Joseph. If we succumb to the carnal delights of the world we will fail the second examination. The morally weak believer cannot serve as a deliverer from the bondages of Hell.

The third preparatory examination is that of imprisonment on the pinnacle of restriction and futility. Joseph was confined in prison because of his righteous behavior (Genesis 39:20).

Our third preparation is that of enduring patiently and cheerfully the years of waiting as we are left seemingly deserted in a "prison" of suffering and restriction.

To be continued.