Chapter IV.
Joseph is led into Egypt, and is bought by the overseer of the cooks, in which he is a figure of Christ liberating us by his own service. In the same, it is shown that freedom can be retained within captivity, and also that captivity can be found within freedom. Finally, Joseph is set forth as an example for all.
Therefore Joseph was sold, being led into Egypt, bought by the chief of the cooks. He was not a useless person who would cook raw foods, so that the spirits may feast on the sweetness of faith. For no food is sweeter than knowledge and doctrine. There was before in Egypt raw deceit, before the ardor of divine knowledge, and the desire for true science had softened nothing, the fiery words of the Lord had not boiled. But Joseph was sold into Egypt, because Christ was going to come to those to whom it was said: For your sins you have been sold (Isaiah 50:1). And therefore, He redeemed them with His own blood, who had sold themselves by their own sins. But Christ, who was sold, is held by the assumption of the condition, not by the price of guilt, because He Himself did not commit sin. Therefore, He contracted our debt, not His own money; He took away the handwriting, removed the lender, stripped off the debtor: He alone paid what was owed by all. It was not lawful for us to escape from servitude. He undertook this for us, to repel the servitude of the world, restore the freedom of paradise, and bestow a new grace of His fellowship in honor. Hoc de mysterio.
20. Moreover, with regard to the moral aspect, because our Lord God wants everyone to be saved, He gave through Joseph even to those who are in servitude solace: He attributed mastery; so that they might learn that even in the most desperate condition it is possible for morals to be superior, and that no state is immune to virtue, if the mind recognizes itself as belonging to everyone; that the flesh is subjected to servitude, not the mind; and that many slaves are freer than their masters, if, placed in servitude, they believe that they should abstain from slave-like works. Every sin is servile, but innocence is free. Hence the Lord says: Whoever commits sin is the slave of sin (Rom. VI, 16). For how can every greedy person not be a slave, who auctions himself off for a tiny gain of money? He fears losing everything he hoards, who hoards things that he does not use, and he will be preserved in greater danger as he seeks greater things. How can a beggar not be poor, since he possesses only small things? For even if he seems wealthy to me, he is poverty-stricken himself: he does not console himself with his own desires, as he does not know how to believe what he wishes. But how can that servant, who is subject to desire, not also himself burn with his own fires and be consumed by the torches of his own heart? Of them the prophet rightly says: \"Walk in the light of your own fire, and in the flame you have kindled.\" (Isaiah 50:11) He fears all things, plots against the sleep of others, so that he may satisfy the desire of one person and become the servant of all. Therefore, he who makes himself his own master and desires to have those he fears, serves this wretched servitude. For there is nothing so peculiar to slavery as always living in fear. But he is truly free in whatever condition of slavery, who is not captivated by the love of the world, is not bound by the chains of greed, is not tied down by the fear of crime, who looks at the present without worry and is not afraid of the future. Doesn't it seem to you that the former is ruling in servitude: but the latter is serving in freedom? Joseph was a servant, Pharaoh was a ruler: the servitude of the former is happier than the kingdom of the latter. Finally, the whole of Egypt would have collapsed from famine if its ruler hadn't subjected his kingdom to the advice of his slaves.
So, slaves have something to boast about in their origin, Joseph also served. They have something to console themselves with, those who have come from freedom into servitude by some necessity. They have something to imitate, so that they may learn that they can change their condition, not their character: to have both freedom in their native language and constancy in servitude. Even masters have something to hope for through good slaves. Abraham found a wife for his son among his own people. The Lord blessed the house of the Egyptian because of Joseph, and the blessing of the Lord was in all his possessions, both in the house and the fields. And he, said he, converteth into his hands all things whatsoever they had (Gen. XXXIX, 4). We observe that those things which the masters could not govern, the servants governed.