Book Review: Joseph Makes Me Think of Jesus

Joseph Makes Me Think of Jesus
MacDonald, William
GOSPEL FOLIO PRESS/ Grand Rapids 2000
Paperback
143 pp

             As I write this, the New Year has just begun, my yearly Bible reading has cycled again to Genesis, I’ve just read the story of Joseph, and, as the book title says, Joseph Makes Me Think of Jesus. The detail we have about him from 3800 years ago is incomparable with any other character of that era. We know a little about his childhood and family life, and we know the tragedy that took him to Egypt. In fact, the blurb on the cover claims more than one hundred details that we know well enough to compare with our Lord’s own life.

        Bill MacDonald has basically made a chart comparing the life of Joseph with the life of Jesus, then converted it to prose. His work is gently and simply done—it’s just as unsophisticated as the title itself.
        The book is divided into an Introduction and fourteen chapters, covering Joseph’s life and some retrospections from the Psalms, Acts and Hebrews.
        Some of the parallels MacDonald points out are: Joseph was a shepherd, Jesus is the Good Shepherd (p.10); Joseph was highly exalted as also Christ has been (p.38); Joseph was numbered with the transgressors, one was saved, one was executed ((p.44); Joseph said to the butler, “Remember me”, referring especially to bread and wine (p.46); Joseph was the only way of salvation from the famine (p.71); Joseph asked his brothers to tell of all his glory (p.88).
        In the closing scenes of the story, MacDonald shows how Joseph forgave his brothers and had no thought of vengeance for their treatment of him (p.109-111). Joseph promised his brothers that he would care for them—we also have One who saves, keeps and satisfies and who will never leave or forsake us (p.112).
        Chapter 13 is a list of 36 lessons learned from Joseph’s life. We already know the lessons, and even if they sound like platitudes, they are still true: “Bad things happen to good people”; “The way of the transgressor is hard”; “Be sure your sin will find you out”; “We reap what we sow.” But, “if our lives were all sunshine, they would be a desert.”
        MacDonald’s finish is good: “We will see Joseph again. When the trumpet sounds and we are taken to our Promised Land, he will be there.”
        William MacDonald was born in Leominster, MA, in 1917. The family left for Stornoway, Scotland in 1922 but later returned to Massachusetts. After studying at Harvard Business School, he worked briefly as an investment analyst, then served four years in the US Navy. After the war he entered the Lord’s service full time, with terms at Emmaus Bible School and many years at the Discipleship Intern Training Program in San Leandro, CA, then another decade in Bible teaching and writing. He passed away on December 25, 2007.
        MacDonald never married and for the last thirty-four years of his life he maintained only a small one-bedroom apartment next to a fire hall. I’m a new-comer to MacDonald’s writings, but when he lists seven principles of Christian living in another book, True Discipleship, I gladly admit that he is a prime example of the first two: (1) A supreme love for Jesus Christ and (2) A denial of self.
        Finally, a word about the cover:  It’s more than just a pretty picture— J.B.Nicholson, Jr., has ingeniously captured the essence of the book—an empty cistern, a pyramid in Egypt, then Calvary and an empty tomb.

 Reviewed by Glenn Wilson Ì