When Joseph finally opened the womb of Rachel, Genesis 30:24 tells us that Rachel “…called his name Joseph, saying, ‘May the Lord add to me another son!’” Guzik says, “The eleventh son born to Jacob through Rachel was named Joseph, meaning May He Add. Rachel felt she had been vindicated by the birth of one son, but longed for more children to continue the competition with her sister Leah.”1 She thought that now that Joseph was born, he would open the door for more sons to be born to her. The birth of Joseph signaled the removal of her shame and you just about feel the joy leap from the page as we read about Rachel’s excitement at Joseph’s birth. It makes me think of all the excitement that was surrounding Jesus’ birth that we celebrate every year. Remember Mary’s exclamation at Jesus’ birth? It’s recorded in Luke 1:46-48, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed.”
After Joseph interpreted Pharaoh’s dream, he was given a new name. Genesis 41:45 says, “And Pharaoh called Joseph’s name Zaphenath-paneah.” Most modern Biblical scholars say that Joseph’s new name means “The revealer of secrets.” That’s attractive because it does describe what Joseph did with regard to many dreams in Egypt. However, let me call your attention to a rather obscure commentator who says Joseph’s new name should not be interpreted according to the Hebrew words. He argues that Joseph’s new name is an “Egyptian word in Hebrew letters.” When you put it back into its Egyptian form, according to Canon Cooke, “…whose dissertation in the ‘Speaker’s Commentary’ on the Egyptian words in the Pentateuch is of very great value.” He suggests that the Egyptian meaning might be, “the food of life,” or “the food of the living.”2
I’ve often said that the Old Testament is about Jesus. This is too. Pink said, “Christ is the One who ‘adds’ to Heaven’s inhabitants. It was to this end that He came to this earth, tabernacled among men for more than thirty years, and then died on the Cross: ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.’”3 In the earliest days of the Church we see that new believers were considered to have been “added” to the Lord not necessarily to any particular church. Notice Acts 5:14. As a result of the apostles preaching and working of miracles, “…more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women.” I need not remind you that Joseph’s saving the lives of his own family by providing food during the famine is a clear picture of Jesus who said, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”
1 David Guzik, Genesis, David Guzik’s Commentaries on the Bible (Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik, 2013), Ge 30:23–24.
2 Joseph S. Exell, The Biblical Illustrator: Genesis, vol. 2, The Biblical Illustrator (London: James Nisbet & Co., n.d.), 430.
3 Arthur Walkington Pink, Gleanings in Genesis (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2005), 344.