The robe was taken from Joseph and He was in a pit and sold- as good as dead.  The robe was dipped in blood from a goat  a sacrifice.

Jacob as head of the family wore a robe showing his status.  He was named Israel by God.  What was his response when he saw the robe with the blood dipped?

Yes, he tore His robe.

This was something done by all in authority when they wished to express grief.  I have heard it said but have not been able to confirm that the priests of Israel had sections upon them sewn on loosely especially to be torn.

I was reminded that as Jesus became sin for us and died, the veil of the temple (the ‘robe’ of the holy of holies) was torn from top to bottom- a symbol perhaps of God’s response to the death.

What a poignant and wonderful picture of the death and shed blood of Jesus. 

2. The second Robe

Lets go now to the second robe Gen 41 v42

Gen 41:42

“He dressed him in robes of fine linen and put a gold chain around his neck.”

The restored Joseph, the saviour of Egypt, having been given his position as second only to Pharaoh

Having been given the practical tool of authority in the ring is now given

A second robe

A new robe- this time of finest linen.-

I have discovered that such robes would have been truly amazing not necessarily in appearance but in comfort- linen as finely woven as silk..

The Egyptians perfected the weaving of linen to a very high level indeed

 (and still do)

Along with the gold chain, Joseph is now instantly recognisable by the authority He now carried.

• This time the robe was deserved,
• This time the robe was a symbol respected,
• This time the robe was merely a daily outward sign of what all knew Joseph carried  -God’s word and wisdom for the nation.

God had achieved by his Holy Spirit  a changed life

Again lets be clear here too.  By giving Joseph the ring the robe and the chain and as we will see the Egyptian name, pharaoh was bringing him into his own family, adopting him. 

This also made it legal for Joseph to hold the position He had.

There is no evidence that this new appointment was resented or plotted against.  It was seen as the legitimate use of authority by Pharaoh towards a man who clearly deserved the position.

3. But what does the robe say to us?

We saw that before the fall man was naked and not ashamed, His relationship with God was such that he was not aware of his own status or that of his wife.- His was the perfect relationship without veils without barriers, without status- without robes.

After the fall and with the establishing of Law,  God provides His people with tools to help them relate to each other along with leadership and status, all of which was given the extra visual clues of robes.

Robes for priesthood, kingship and status.  Throughout the History of Israel and indeed our history

We saw with Esther’s approach to the King she robed herself in her royal robe and that her uncle was robed to show his new found status, Daniel was robed in purple an given a chain of office.

When Jesus wanted to bring a by now cultural symbol of status- the Armani suit, in his picture of the prodigals return- go get the best robe.-  the point was clear the heart of a man is what God looks at.  It was the prodigals repentance.

At the crucifixion The image was forever destroyed as the King of Kings was stripped of all status and authority reduced to the wearing of a kings robe and a crown of thorns as a joke.

So the robe is a sign of our status in Christ as priests kings and adopted sons and daughters.

It is also a symbol of how generous God is to us and how concerned to give us the best of everything.

This is stuff for every day of our lives.  I need to let this word seep into my soul soak in and change me. 

Ever since Adam walked in the garden unashamed in his relationship with God- naked exposed before him, God has been looking for a people who’s lives reflected that same openness, that same nakedness before Him.

The world in it’s topsy turvey way will often still acknowledge those qualities by robing those people –giving them status.

God robes His people symbolically as we see in Revelation with white robes.

He calls us in 2 Peter:

"A chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy."

For Joseph, knowing after all the pain and anguish of captivity, that he was now accepted loved honoured, by pharaoh, by the people but most of all by God must have made comparison of the two robes even more stark.

He must have looked back at all the status that he had in his family at its foolishness and pride and thanked God for His grace. 

He looked at what God values and found all the shallow prestige that Jacob tried to give to him as rubbish

Paul puts it so well that I have to go back yet again to that passage in

Phillipians 3:

If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more:  circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.  But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.  What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ  and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.  I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.