Sunday Night 20200105 PM

Joseph's Dreams and the Cupbearer's Memory

And they said, no, we will never bow down to you. That's not going to happen. And we're going to sell you. They thought about killing him. And then they just decided to sell him to disprove all those dreams.

And then Joseph interprets two dreams while in prison. And these dreams immediately came true. He said to the chief cupbearer and the chief baker, to the cupbearer, you will be restored in three days.

To the baker, you will be killed in three days, executed on Pharaoh's birthday. And so it came to pass. And so he asked the chief cupbearer to remember him because he was in prison unjustly. The cupbearer was restored to his position and forgot about Joseph instantly until this occasion in chapter 41, where once again, there will be two dreams.

And Joseph's going to be involved in interpreting them. So Pharaoh's dream, chapter 41, Genesis. Now it happened at the end of two full years that Pharaoh had a dream. And behold, he was standing by the Nile.

And lo, from the Nile, there came up seven cows, sleek and fat, and they grazed in the marsh grass. Then behold, seven other cows came up after them from the Nile, ugly and gaunt. And they stood by the other cows on the bank of the Nile.

The ugly and gaunt cows ate up the seven sleek.

And fat cows.

Then Pharaoh awoke. He fell asleep and dreamed a second time. And behold, seven ears of grain came up on a single stalk, plump and good. And behold, seven ears, thin and scorched by the east wind, sprouted up after them.

The thin ears swallowed up the seven plump and full ears. And Pharaoh awoke, and behold, it was a dream. Now in the morning, his spirit was troubled. So he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt and all its wise men.

And Pharaoh told them his dream. But there was no one who could interpret. Pharaoh has these two vivid dreams, and he's very troubled by them. And he waits until the morning and begins to consult. Now this was perhaps a little bit risky for Pharaoh to do.

After all, he is a god. And certainly a god know his own mind and what goes on. Yet he still does find the need to consult with the magicians and the wise men, whom of course we will encounter again in the book of Exodus.

But nobody could interpret the dream for Pharaoh. Nobody could explain it to his satisfaction. Now, again, we know the interpretation of the dream because we've read the story. We know what it means. And so when we're looking at it, it's like, well, that's kind of obvious.

There are agricultural symbols, seven good agricultural symbols, seven bad. We could probably derive and give something, but these magicians and wise men were so stupefied by it they could give nothing satisfactory to Pharaoh.

And so he was greatly troubled. I believe this was a providence of God so that the chief cupbearer would finally remember that Hebrew lad who so easily, seemingly, interpreted his dream and it came to pass.

Joseph Interprets Pharaoh's Dreams

So verse nine, the chief cupbearer spoke to Pharaoh saying, I would make mention today of my own offenses. Pharaoh was furious with his servants and he put me in confinement in the house of the captain of the bodyguard, both me and the chief baker.

We had a dream on the same night. He and I, each of us dreamed according to the interpretation of his own dream. Now a Hebrew youth was with us there, a servant of the captain of the bodyguard. And we related them to him and he interpreted our dreams for us.

To each one he interpreted according to his own dream. And just as he interpreted for us, so it happened. He restored me in my office, but he hanged him. So the chief cupbearer is selling Pharaoh on the idea, you know, the best that you have, the best magicians you have, the best wise men that you have can't interpret your dream.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here, but I think you're gonna be satisfied with the results. This guy interpreted two different dreams and it came exactly true. It's, you know, nobody else has figured it out.

Why don't you try this young man in the prison? And so Pharaoh sent and called for Joseph, verse four. He hurriedly brought him himself and changed his clothes. He came to Pharaoh. Pharaoh said to Joseph, I have had a dream, but no one can interpret it.

And I have heard it said about you that when you hear a dream, you can interpret it. Now, is that what Joseph told the chief cupbearer? That's not what he told the chief cupbearer. He say to the chief cupbearer, he said, verse eight of chapter 40, he says, do not interpretations belong to God?

All right, so he said, he told the baker and the butler who would reveal the truth of their dream. He didn't say that he could figure it out. He said that the interpretation belonged to God. Now, the cupbearer, that was fuzzy in his recollection.

And Pharaoh has it in mind that Joseph is just another one of his magician, like one of his magicians. He's just like one of the other wise men. Maybe he'll be able to decode the dream and figure it out.

So Joseph then answered Pharaoh saying, it is not in me. It is not in me, has nothing to do with me. Basically is even a better translation of the Hebrew, has nothing to do with me. God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.

So this society that believed in many different gods, they were systematically decimated in the plagues of Egypt, but Pharaoh himself is a God. He so thinks of himself that way. And what Joseph does here at this moment is give witness to the one true God.

There is one God and he's the one who's going to tell you the meaning of your dream. So this is a very important moment. This is an apologetic for the one true God, a defense for there being only one God.

So Pharaoh spoke to Joseph. In my dream, behold, I was standing on the bank of the Nile and behold, seven cows, fat and sleek, came up out of the Nile and they grazed in the marsh grass. Low seven of the cows came up after them, poor and ugly, poor and very ugly, very ugly and gone, such as I had never seen for ugliness in all the land of Egypt.

And the lean and ugly cows, Pharaoh is very stuck on this, isn't he? Ugly cows ate up the first seven fat cows, yet when they had devoured them, it could not be detected that they had devoured them for they were just as ugly as before.

And then I awoke.

I saw also in my dream and behold, seven ears full and good came up on a single stalk and low seven ears withered thin and scorched by the east wind sprouted up after them. And the thin ear swallowed the seven good ears.

Then I told it to the magicians, but there was no one who could explain it to me. These dreams sit vividly in Pharaoh's mind. He has lost none of the pictures that he had had in the middle of the night.

It has stuck with him. He can remember all the details. It is pressing upon him. He desperately wants an explanation. Again, what I get from God to give this troubling set of dreams to Pharaoh to bring along this next event.

Verse 25, now Joseph said to Pharaoh, Pharaoh's dreams are one and the same. God has told Pharaoh what he is about to do. The seven good cows are seven ears and the seven good ears are seven years. The dreams are one and the same.

The seven lean and ugly cows that come up after them are seven years. And the seven thin ears scorched by the east wind will be seven years of famine. It is as I have spoken to Pharaoh. God has shown Pharaoh what he is about to do.

Behold, seven years of great abundance are coming in all the land of Egypt. And after them, seven years of famine will come. And all the abundance will be forgotten in the land of Egypt and the famine will ravage the land.

So the abundance will be unknown in the land because of that subsequent famine, for it will be very severe. Now as for the repeating of the dream to Pharaoh twice, it means the matter is determined by God and God will quickly bring it about.

So Joseph very satisfactorily explains what this is. It's very simple. And Pharaoh is especially bothered by the fact that the thin, ugly cows after eating the really good cows showed no difference at all.

That really bugged him. And then the fact about that the withered corn had no benefit after consuming the good corn. And everything in this is just focused on food, isn't it? About food supply. And Joseph confirms that that's the point.

Seven years of great abundance is gonna be absolutely erased and forgotten by the severity of seven years of famine. And he says, this is just about to happen. You don't have, it's not gonna happen sometime off, you know, in the next generation.

This is just about to come to pass and that's why God gave you the dream twice. Now Pharaoh had asked for what? Pharaoh asked for the interpretation of the dream. He asked for Joseph to tell him the meaning of his dreams.

Joseph's gonna step beyond that now. If Pharaoh's listening, okay, Pharaoh's listening, everyone's very intent on this. And so Joseph now steps beyond the request to not simply interpret the meaning of the dream but to begin to give counsel and instruction.

This is what you ought to now do, okay? All right, so verse 33. Now, let Mae, Pharaoh, let Pharaoh look for a man discerning and wise and set him over the land of Egypt. Let Pharaoh take action to appoint overseers in charge of the land and let him exact a fifth of the produce of the land of Egypt in the seven years of abundance.

And let them gather all the food of these good years that are coming and store up the grain for food in the cities under Pharaoh's authority and let them guard it. Let the food become as a reserve for the land for the seven years of famine, which will occur in the land of Egypt so that the land will not perish during the famine.

Now, the proposal seemed good to Pharaoh and to all his servants. So drastic measures have to be taken in order to avoid starvation. I mean, there's gonna be mass starvation, massive death throughout the land of Egypt, unless for these next seven years of abundance, when normally everybody would be just celebrating and rejoicing in the overflow and just living it up.

Rather than that, these next seven years of abundance, Joseph is saying, you all need to hunker down and focus, and there's gonna be a 20 tax on everything. And all of that's gotta be stored up for the bad years that are coming.

Joseph Exalted to Pharaoh's Right Hand

Well, then Pharaoh said to his servants, verse 38, can we find a man like this in whom is a divine spirit? So Pharaoh doesn't know what exactly to make of Joseph. Joseph has basically said, look, it's God who's gonna interpret the dream.

Pharaoh marks this up and say, well, okay, so Joseph has a divine spirit. So Pharaoh says to Joseph, since God has informed you of all of this, there is no one so discerning and wise as you are. You shall be over my house.

And according to your command, all my people shall do homage. Only in the throne, I will be greater than you. Now, this is an amazingly odd echo of what Potiphar had said to Joseph after seeing the wisdom of God and the knowledge that Joseph had to handle things.

But Pharaoh now says it to Joseph. He says, see, I have set you over all the land of Egypt. Now notice, Pharaoh took off his signet ring from his hand and put it on Joseph's hand and clothed him in garments of fine linen and put the gold necklace around his neck.

He had him ride in a second chariot and they proclaimed before him, bow the knee. And he set him over all the land of Egypt. So what Pharaoh appointed Joseph to do, which was a very great task, he gave him all the resources he needed to do it.

To be able to take 20 of these harvests over the next seven years, Joseph had to have the authority of Pharaoh himself to do that. No one less than Pharaoh could do that, except in Joseph's case, he carried the signet ring.

He had the right garments. He had the gold necklace. He was in the chariot. Everyone was doing homage to him. And so he was given the authority to carry out this task that Pharaoh approved of. And so Joseph, as we remember, he was at the right hand of his father.

He was his father's favorite as signified by the coat of many colors. Joseph was Jacob's favorite in that Joseph went out and checked on how his brothers were managing the flocks and noticing when they did things poorly and saying, here's how we need to do things rightly.

He had that wisdom. He had that skill and that ability in his father's home. And he was at the right hand of his father. He was at the right hand of Potiphar, handling all of Potiphar's estate with his, again, manifesting his knowledge and his wisdom.

He was at the right hand of the jailer because he was handling all the affairs of the jail as best that he could, again, manifesting his knowledge and wisdom. And now again, he's at the right hand of Potiphar.

Why?

Because nobody else could interpret the dream, but God had blessed Joseph and gifted Joseph with this understanding of the dream. So Joseph had the knowledge of what the dream meant. And then not only did he have the knowledge of what the dream meant and what was going to happen for the next 14 years, not only did Joseph have that knowledge, but he also had the wisdom to know how Pharaoh and all of Egypt should get ready for that and make their way through this very sharp contrast of the next 14 years.

Knowledge and wisdom and at the right hand. You just jump in if this sounds familiar at all.

No.

So Pharaoh named Joseph Zophonoth-Penea, which was probably a compliment.

I don't know.

It probably means, it says, my side note says, probably Egyptian for God speaks, he lives. Pretty good name. And he gave him Asenoth, the daughter of Potiphar, a priest of On as his wife. And Joseph went forth over the land of Egypt.

Now, Joseph was 30 years old when he stood before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh and went through all the land of Egypt. During the seven years of plenty, the land brought forth abundantly.

So he gathered all the food of the seven years which occurred in the land of Egypt and placed the food in the cities. He placed in every city the food from its surrounding fields. Thus Joseph stored up grain in great abundance like the sand of the sea until he stopped measuring it where it was beyond measure.

At a certain point, there's no point in counting. Now, before the year of famine came, two sons were born to Joseph whom Asenoth, the daughter of Potiphar, the priest of On, bore to him. We come back to the theme of these are the generations of Jacob.

How is it that Jacob ended up with two sons named Manasseh and Ephraim, but weren't born from any of his four wives? Because they were born of Joseph and Jacob adopted these two grandsons as his own, and thus, according to Joseph, a double portion.

So we're learning about how the tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim came about. So verse 51, Joseph named the firstborn Manasseh for he said, God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father's household.

In the second, Ephraim, for he said, God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction. When the seven years of plenty which had been in the land of Egypt came to an end and the seven years of famine began to come, just as Joseph had said, then there was famine in all the lands, but in all the land of Egypt, there was bread.

So when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried out to Pharaoh for bread and Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, go to Joseph. Whatever he says to you, you shall do. When the famine was spread over all the face of the earth, then Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold to the Egyptians.

And the famine was severe in the land of Egypt and people of all the earth came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph because the famine was severe in all the earth. So you say, why is Joseph at the right hand?

Four times now, he's been placed at the right hand. Why is he at the right hand? He's God's man. And what are the chief evidences that he has been blessed by God? What do people see in Joseph time and again?

They see his wisdom, don't they? They see his wisdom and they see his knowledge. Not only does Joseph have the knowledge to understand what these dreams mean or what the situation is, but he also has the wisdom to say, here's now what we ought to do.

Here's now what should occur, okay? This happens time and again. I want us to think a little bit about the plan that Joseph placed on Pharaoh. He said, this is what's gonna happen. We're gonna have seven years of abundance and then seven years of famine.

The famine is gonna be so bad that we're gonna even forget that we ever had abundance. That's how bad the famine is gonna be. Thus, God has accorded us an opportunity to survive the famine. Here's what we have plenty.

We have to set aside 20 of all of the grain that's harvested and we have to be firm about that so that we can survive the coming famine. So for the next 14 years, the entire life of the nation of Egypt and include in the last seven years, especially the nations, everything was centered around this idea.

Well, what does Joseph say about it? All right, for seven years of abundance, all the Egyptians, okay, when I harvest my field, 20 of this has to go to prepare. And everything about life had to be about getting ready for those coming seven years.

Everything you did is about, there's a coming famine, there's a coming famine, there's a coming famine. For seven years, you lived under that shadow, that harbinger of doom. This famine is coming. And Joseph has been placed in charge by Pharaoh.

And so we've got to do things Joseph's way. And then the famine comes. And people say, I don't have any food, we don't have any bread. And what does Pharaoh say? Go to Joseph. So life's still about Joseph.

Joseph made sure all the grain was stored up and now we're hungry. I gotta go back to Joseph after living his way for this long and then, okay, now here comes the grain. Later on, we're gonna hear about how the Egyptians go and buy the grain from Joseph and buy the grain from Joseph.

Even people from all these other nations came when they ran out of food because the famine was so severe to get grain from Joseph. And this is one of the ways in which the families of the earth were blessed by the seed of Abraham.

So they come to Joseph to get into the point that even the people of Egypt ran out of money. And so they sold all their land to Joseph in exchange for the grain. And then they sold themselves to Joseph for exchange for the grain.

So that Pharaoh, through Joseph, owned all of the land and all of the people of Egypt. And all the world for 14 years, and especially in Egypt, was all focused around living Joseph's way and going to Joseph.

Now, and this was all because Joseph was at the right hand because of his knowledge and because of his wisdom. Thus, it is unsurprising, I think, it is unsurprising that when we're reading in Colossians in chapter two, Paul is writing along and he says this about Christ.

He says, for I want you to know, verse one, for I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf and for those who are at Laodicea and for all those who have not personally seen my face, that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God's mystery, that is Christ himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Okay, in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge and where is Christ? He's at the right hand because that's where God's anointed, who is full of the wisdom and God's wisdom and God's knowledge, ends up.

God's anointed, full of wisdom and knowledge, ends up at the right hand, which is, of course, what Paul is pointing out about how we shall now live in chapter three, verse one. Therefore, if you've been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

Set your mind on things above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, is revealed, then you also be revealed with him in glory.

And so on and so forth about how now shall we live. So I think about the way in which Joseph was exalted to the right hand of Pharaoh, and in his God-given knowledge, in his God-given wisdom, he said, look, guys, this is the way we're going to survive the next 14 years.

Here's now how we must live. This is the way that it's going to work, and that everybody has to live accordingly. I find this to be a very small example, a microcosm of what God's about in the bigger picture.

His son, his favored one, is Jesus Christ, and he is full of wisdom and knowledge, and Christ is at the right hand of God. And honestly, you think about if Joseph were to say to a farmer, here's what you need to do, the farmer better listen, right?

Because of all that is at stake and entailed in this, well, where is Christ? Christ is the right hand. He has all wisdom and knowledge. So shouldn't our lives be all about Christ? The answer of Pharaoh to the people who come to him is that, well, go to Joseph.

Well, what's our answer here? It's go to Christ. If we want to know what life is about, what we ought to be doing, or what do we need, where do we go? We go to Christ. He's the anointed, he's at the right hand, he has all the wisdom, he has all the knowledge.

And so that's what comes to my mind as I read this story about Joseph. God is in a very, it's just a little picture, a little picture of the way that God works through his anointed for the good of his people.

Questions on Pharaoh, Providence, and the Seed of Abraham

Any questions or thoughts as we close?

What do you think about?

Well, I'll say it this way. Their form of government was a different form of government.

So, yeah, it was.

Well, it was a promise. What was it fair for them to have to give up? Well, if the king says so, it must be so. And I think the generations of weariness about having bad kings saying bad things is what led to the Magna Carta, which led to the attempt at the Republican experiment.

Yeah, so all the world had to come to Egypt to buy grain. So Egypt becomes wealthy and mighty. The Pharaoh who arose who did not know Joseph later on was the benefit of all the wealth accumulated by Joseph.

And in his haughtiness and in his arrogance, thought he would wrestle with God and defeat God, but he himself was defeated and his nation plundered. And all the wealth came to the nation of Israel. And you can tell that he suffered because the way he named his children, you know, and the way he named his children showed that he had suffered, he had sorrowed, it had affected him.

Well, I think that this Pharaoh, of course, is different. Each one of us is different. And God had a special purpose for the other Pharaoh. So he hardened his heart. But this Pharaoh, obviously having these dreams, you can tell he's disturbed by them by the way he relates them again, and that none of his magicians or wise men could help him in the least bit.

So this Pharaoh comes to the end of his resources and seems to be very ready to hear something else. I mean, there's, you know, this isn't him coming to the end of himself and saying, I will say no for the sake of saying no.

Yeah, he comes to the end of himself pretty fast in the story and then says, okay, let's, this, and in the grace of God, Pharaoh receives this word and says, all right. And this reminds us in the Proverbs, it says that the heart of the king is in the Lord's hand and he turns it every which way he wishes.

And so this Pharaoh was turned toward the Lord and accepted the word and thus many were saved, including Judah, including thus the lineage of the Messiah as we're tracing the promise of the seed from Genesis 3 .15.

Right, so Lord's hand turned this way, right. Yeah, because the Messiah would come from, right. All right, let's close by singing the doxology together.