And Joseph made ready his chariot, and went up to meet Israel his father, to Goshen, and presented himself unto him; and he fell on his neck, and wept on his neck a good while.
Ver. 29. Presented himself unto him.] Joseph, a prince, was no whit ashamed of the poor old shepherd his father, before so many his peers, and other courtiers, that accompanied him and loathed such kind of persons. Colonel Edmonds is much commended for his ingenuous reply to a countryman of his, recently come to him, into the Low Countries, out of Scotland. This fellow desiring entertaimnent of him, told him, my lord his father, and such knights and gentlemen his cousins and kinsmen, were in good health. Quoth Colonel Edmonds, Gentlemen (to his friends by), believe not one word he says; my father is but a poor baker; whom this knave would make a lord, to curry favour with me, and make you believe I am a great man born. a See Trapp on " Gen 22:10 "
And he fell on his neck, and wept, &c.] For exceeding joy. What then shall be the meeting of saints in heaven! Christ shall say, "Come, ye blessed of my Father." As if he should say, Where have ye been all this while, my dear brethren? It was a part of his joy, when he was on earth, "that we should be with him where he is, to behold his glory." Joh 17:24 And this he now prays not, but, "Father I will that they be with me"; as that which he had merited for them. And now, what joy will there be, to see them and suaviate them, for whose sake he shed his most precious blood; through which they may safely sail into the bosom of the Father! Surely, if Plotinus the philosopher could say, Let us make haste to our heavenly country; there is our Father, there are all our friends; b how much more triumphantly may Christians say so! If Cicero could say, O praeclarum diem, cure ad illum animorum concilium caetumque proficiscar! &c.; Oh, what a brave day will that be, when I shall go to that council and company of happy souls! to my Cato, and other Roman worthies, dead before me; - how c much more may Christians exult, to think of that glorious "nightless day" (ανεσπερον ημεραν), as Nazianzen calls it, when they shall be admitted into the congregation house (πανηγυριν) of the firstborn, Heb 12:23 as the apostle calls heaven; and joyfully welcomed by Abraham, David, Paul, &c., who shall be no less glad of their, than of their own happiness! Who can conceive the comfort of Jacob and Joseph, - or of those two cousins, Mary and Elizabeth, - at their first meeting? But for the joys of heaven, it is as impossible to comprehend them, as to compass heaven itself with a span, or contain the ocean in a nut shell. They are such, saith Augustine, ut quicquid homo dixerit, quasi gutta de mari, quasi scintilla de foco. d If the presence of Christ, though but in the womb, made John to spring, and dance a galliard, as the word imports (εσκιρτησεν εν αγαλλιασει, Luk 1:44); what shall it do when we come to heaven! Sermo non valet exprimere experimento opus est, saith Chrysostom. It is more fit to be believed, than possible to be discoursed, saith Prosper. Nec Christus nec caelum patitur hyperbolen, saith another. The apostle, after he had spoken of glorification, breaks forth by way of admiration, into these words; "What shall we say to these things?," Rom 8:31 these "wordless words!" as he phraseth it (αρρηστα ρηματα, 2Co 12:4); and ever uttereth himself, in a transcendent expression, as 2 Corinthians 4:17, where he calleth it "a weight of glory"; such as, if the body were not by the power of God upheld, it were not able to bear. Jacob could hardly hear the news of Joseph, and live: but when once he saw him; "Now let me die," saith he.
a Peacham's Complete Gentleman, p. 5.
b Fugiendum ad clarissimam patriam: ibi pater, ibi omnia. - Aug., De Civit. Dei., lib. ix. cap. 16.
c O praeclarum diem, cum ad illud animorum concilium caetumque proficiscar, ad Catonem meum, &c. - Cic., De Sen.
d Aug., De Triplici Habitu., cap. 4.