Genesis 45:28

But because occasionally the divine fire can be extinguished even in the saints and faithful, hear the apostle Paul warning these who were worthy to receive gifts of the Spirit and grace, and saying, "Do not extinguish the Spirit."

"So let us hasten now so that I may savor something of our meeting before I die. I mean, already the news has dumbfounded me, has banished an old man's weakness and invigorated my resolve; so once I have the good fortune to meet him and enjoy the consummation of joy, I shall then bring my life to a close." Without delay the good man took to the road, showing all haste and anxiety to see the object of his desire and gaze upon him, dead for so many years and become the prey of wild beasts, as he thought, and now made king of Egypt.

), for he begins to recover his wonted vigour. (1.) It pleases him to think that Joseph is alive. He says nothing of Joseph's glory, of which they told him; it was enough to him that Joseph was alive.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens

And Israel said, it is enough, Joseph my son is yet alive,....

I THINK that the Patriarch Jacob may well serve as the type and emblem of a doubting soul, one who has been told the good news of salvation, the Gospel of God's Grace, but who cannot bring his mind to believe it. Let us think for a few minutes of old Jacob. First of all, he was a man who was very ready to believe evil tidings. When his sons held up before him a coat dipped in the blood of a kid and asked him if it was not the coat he had given to Joseph, the Patriarch answered, "It is my son's coat; an evil beast has devoured him. Joseph is, without doubt, torn in pieces." He had no doubt about it, yet it was not true. And we have many hearers who will believe anything that is terrible, even though it may not be true. If there is something in the sermon which seems to condemn them, even though it may not be meant to condemn them, they are sure to take home that part of the discourse. If they see any passage of Scripture that appears to frown upon them, they retain that in their memory and they keep on stinging themselves with it, often making themselves unhappy with that which was never intended to apply to them! I wish that readiness to believe the dark sayings could be turned to an equal readiness to receive the consolations of the Word of God. Surely, we ought not to be so prejudiced against ourselves as to accept every evil thing and to reject every good thing. No, let us weigh fairly the evidence for either form of teaching and believe, or reject either according as the evidence, for it may be strong or weak. Jacob would, all the while, have willingly believed that which was good, if he could have believed it.