Page:The Story of Joseph and His Brethren.djvu/105

102 Amos speaks—"Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land; not a famine of bread, nor of thirst for water, but of hearing of the words of the Lord." (viii. 11.) Such a famine as this prevailed in the world in general, and in the Jewish church in particular, when our Lord came into the world; and it was to supply the heavenly bread for which the souls of men were famishing that the Lord came, or as the Psalmist expresses it, it was to deliver their souls from death, and to keep them alive in famine (xxxiii. 19.) This was the great and universal famine, which the long and terrible natural famine that occurred in Egypt represented; and the Lord who came to supply the heavenly bread, to satisfy the hunger of the perishing souls of men, was the everlasting Saviour, of whom Joseph, the temporary saviour, was the honoured and appropriate type. In order that the unlimited extent of the Lord's redemption might be symbolized by that of His representative, Joseph, the inspired historian writes that "the famine was over all the face of the earth, and all countries came into Egypt to