God the Spirit Working in All Things
for the Good of His Lovers, Transforming Man,
and Making Man Mature in the Divine Life
So That Man May Be Able to Bless All the People,
to Rule over All the Earth, and to Satisfy All the People
with God the Son as the Life Supply,
in the Section of Jacob with Joseph
In the section of the life of Jacob with Joseph, we see God the Spirit who works in all things for the good of His lovers. This is based upon Romans 8:28, which says, “All things work together for good to those who love God.” According to the context of this verse, the good here is not related to physical persons, matters, or things. It refers to our gaining more of Christ, to our having Him wrought into our being so that we may be transformed metabolically and may eventually be conformed to His image, the image of the firstborn Son of God (v. 29), that is, that we may be brought into the full sonship.
Romans 8:28 says that all things work together for our good, but we need to see that it is actually the Spirit who works in all things. In the church in Shanghai many years ago, I gave an illustration of how the Spirit works in all things for our good. This illustration was concerning a sister who loved her long gowns much more than she loved God. One day she dressed herself with the best long gown, but right after she went out the door, a dog came by, splattered mud on her gown, and the gown was spoiled. The dog surely did not know the time that she was coming out with the best long gown, but the Spirit knew. The Spirit can direct anything in our environment and work in all persons, all matters, and all things to cause them to work together for good to us so that we may be transformed and conformed to the image of the firstborn Son of God.
Brother Watchman Nee called this the discipline of the Spirit (see chapter 15 of Watchman Nee—a Seer of the Divine Revelation in the Present Age). We are daily passing through the discipline of the Spirit. All persons and situations related to us are being arranged by the Spirit of God to match His work within us so that we may be conformed to the image of the firstborn Son of God. The Spirit as the third of the Divine Trinity works in all things for the good of His lovers. The sister with the long gown loved God, but she loved her long gowns more than God. Thus, the Spirit worked in her environment to discipline her so that she might be transformed and matured.
In the life of Jacob with Joseph, we see that the Spirit transforms man and makes man mature in the divine life so that man may be able to bless all the people, to rule over all the earth, and to satisfy all the people with God the Son as the life supply (Gen. 27:41; 28:1—35:10; chs. 37, 39—49; Rom. 8:28-29). Without Joseph the life of Jacob could have never been completed. The life of Joseph was the completion of the life of his father. It was in his old age that Jacob blessed all the people, and his old age was at the time when his son Joseph was ruling in power. Jacob lived in such a way in his old age because of his son Joseph. Whatever Jacob did and whatever Jacob was in his old age were fully due to his son Joseph. Jacob with Joseph blessed all the people, ruled over all the earth, and supplied the whole earth with food. This is in typology. In actuality this refers to God in Christ. God in Christ is the food supply to all the earth. Joseph distributed this food supply, but Joseph was the reality of his father. Thus, Jacob did this with Joseph. The end of Jacob’s life with Joseph shows us the maturity in the divine life through the working of God the Spirit.