I.　According to spiritual experience, Jacob and Joseph are one person; Joseph represents the reigning aspect of the mature Israel, the constitution of Christ in Jacob's mature nature; as a mature saint constituted of Christ, the perfect One, Jacob reigned through Joseph—Gen. 41:39-44; Heb. 6:1a; Gal.6:8; 5:22:

A.　Joseph, a "master of dreams" (Gen. 37:19), dreamed that according to God's view, His people are sheaves of wheat full of life and heavenly bodies full of light; the reigning aspect of the mature life never condemns God's people but shepherds and appreciates them (vv. 5-11).

B.　The reigning aspect of the mature life is a life that always enjoys the presence of the Lord; wherever His presence is, there is authority, the ruling power—39:2-5,21-23.

C.　Although his own dreams were not yet fulfilled, Joseph had the faith and the boldness to interpret the dreams of his two companions in prison (40:8); eventually, Joseph was released from prison indirectly through his speaking by faith in interpreting the cupbearer's dream (41:9-13), and he was ushered to the throne directly through his speaking boldly in interpreting Pharaoh's dreams (vv. 14-46); both release and authority came to him through his speaking.

D.　We should not speak according to our feelings but according to the heavenly vision; we are visionaries, seers, of God's eternal economy, so we should speak according to the absoluteness of the truth of His economy—Acts 26:16-19.

II.　The record of Joseph's life is a revelation of the rulership of the Spirit, for the rulership of the Spirit is the reigning aspect of a mature saint; the rulership of the Spirit (a life of reigning in life, being under the restriction, limitation, and ruling of the divine life in the reality of God's kingdom) is higher than any other aspect of the Spirit—Rom. 5:17, 21; 14:17-18; cf. 2 Cor. 3:17-18; 2 Tim. 4:22; Rev. 4:1-3:

A.　Although he was full of human feelings and sentiments toward his brothers, Joseph kept himself with all his feelings under the rulership of the Spirit; he dealt with his brothers soberly, wisely, and with discernment, disciplining them according to their need in order to perfect them and build them up that they might be a collective people living together as God's testimony on earth—Gen. 42:9, 24; 43:30-31; 45:1-2, 24.

B.　Joseph denied himself and placed himself absolutely under God's sovereign leading, conducting himself wholly for the interest of God and His people.

C.　Joseph's living under God's restriction, a portrait of the human living of Christ, manifested the maturity and perfection of the divine life and brought in God's kingdom—John 5:19, 30b; 7:16, 18; 14:10; Matt. 8:9-10.

D.　In Joseph's dealings with his brothers, we see that he lived a calm life, a sober life, and a discerning life—a self-denying life as the practice of the kingdom life— 2 Chron. 1:10; Isa. 30:15a; Phil. 1:9; 1 Tim. 5:1-2.

E.　Joseph's sentiments, feelings, considerations, and preferences were absolutely under the rulership and control of the Spirit—Prov. 16:32.

F.　The golden chain around Joseph's neck signifies the beauty of the Holy Spirit given for obedience expressed in submission; Joseph's reigning life shows that in order for us to live Christ, our neck must be chained, our will must be conquered and subdued, by the Holy Spirit—Gen. 41:42; S. S. 1:10.

G.　Joseph's realization that it was God who sent him to Egypt (even though his brothers intended evil against him—Gen. 45:5, 7; 50:19-21; cf. 41:51-52) is the reality of Paul's word in Romans 8:28-29.

III.　Because Joseph suffered and denied himself, he gained the riches of the life supply; in order to receive food from him, the people had to pay four kinds of prices: their money (convenience), their livestock (means of living), their land (resources), and themselves—Gen. 47:14-23; Rev. 3:18:

A.　If we would receive the life supply from the Lord as the Dispenser, we must give Him our convenience, our means of livelihood, and our resources; the more we give Him, the more life supply we will receive from Him.

B.　Ultimately, in order to receive the best portion from the Lord, including food for satisfaction and seed for reproduction (Gen. 47:23), we must hand ourselves, every part of our being, over to Him (Lev. 1:4).

IV.　Joseph as a fruitful bough (Gen. 49:22) typifies Christ as the branch (Isa. 11:1-2) for the branching out of God through His believers as His branches (John 15:1, 5); the fountain signifies God, the source of fruitfulness (Psa. 36:9; Jer. 2:13), and the branches' running over the wall signifies that Christ's believers as His branches spread Christ over every restriction, magnifying Him in all circumstances (Phil. 1:20; 4:22; Philem. 10).

V.　The universal blessing on Joseph consummates in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth, in which everything will be new as a blessing to Christ and His believers—Gen. 49:25-26; Deut. 33:13-16; Rev. 21:5:

A.　Transformation is to be metabolically changed with the newness of the divine life, maturity is to be filled with the newness of the divine life that changes us, and blessing is the overflow of life; the ending of Jacob's life with Joseph was a life of blessing as the zenith of his shining—Prov. 4:18; Heb. 11:21; Gen. 47:7; 48:15-16.

B.　Only God is new; anything that is kept away from God is old, but anything that comes back to God is new—2 Cor. 5:17.

C.　To be renewed means to come back to God and have something of God put into us so that we are mingled with God and one with God for the Body life—4:16; Rom. 12:1-2.

D.　The secret of receiving God as our blessing of newness is to bring everything to God and let Him get into everything.

E.　The "universal" blessing on Joseph means that blessing is everywhere; our praises turn everything of the curse of the fall into a blessing—Eph. 5:20; 1 Thes. 5:16-18.