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Preacher: Ross Macdonald Scripture: Genesis 40:1-23
Well, it's certainly a joy to be back. Michigan went well, but there's no place like home, and it's nice to see so many familiar faces as well as some new faces here this morning. I was able to listen to Brian's message on the website, and I very much appreciated the comfort and the encouragement he was able to bring in his sermon.
And I was also pleased to see that he went well over 45 minutes, and so I think we've even corrupted our brother Brian and his timeliness, so we'll see what we can do. Maybe I'll even beat him here this morning.
We're returning now to the narrative of Joseph. We're getting back to chapter 40 and back into the life as it's unfolding in the history of God's work, beginning in Genesis 3, 15, with this great promise of a seed that will come and crush the head of the serpent, overturn this cosmic rebellion against the Creator God.
And we've been tracking this seed through the great ebbs and flows of the first 11 chapters, the convulsion of God's work among fallen men, but at the same time, the call of Abraham beginning in chapter 12, and through the line of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, we come to Joseph now, Joseph being the one whom God had told he would indeed be the heir of this covenantal mantle.
His whole family would come and bow before him. But two weeks ago, we left him in the roundhouse. Two weeks ago, we left him in the prison cell. Two weeks ago, we left Joseph in fetters and irons, suffering, though an innocent man from the charges held against him.
We read in Genesis 39, verse 20, Joseph's master took him, put him into the prison, that's the roundhouse in Hebrew literally, a place where the king's prisoners were confined. And he was there in the prison.
And we read from Psalm 105, they hurt his feet with fetters, he was laid in irons, until the time that the word came to pass, the word of the Lord tested him. So Joseph is in this time of trial, he's in this time of testing in the midst of the Egyptian federal penitentiary in these depressing circumstances.
He's walking by faith and not by sight. We saw that he began to be diligent, though he had been diligent over every respect as the one that was essentially ruling the household of Potiphar, now even at the lowest point in his life, as he's brought into the chains of Egypt, far removed from the promised land, we find him diligent again and being given influence and authority even in the prison.
We read in Genesis 39, verse 23, the Lord was with him. That's the thematic refrain throughout chapter 39. The Lord was with him. The Lord is with Joseph. Whatever Joseph does, the Lord makes it to prosper.
Now we come to Genesis 40 and the plot begins to take up again. We're introduced to two new inmates, the butler and the baker. The whole chapter, we're doing it all here this morning, the whole chapter causes us to reflect upon not only the butler and the baker, but the contrast between them made by Joseph.
They're brought in, as it were, as guilty men, potentially, but one seems to be exonerated. They're brought in as men who perhaps have their hands in the soil. Joseph is the innocent one. And yet, while one of them is vindicated and one of them is judged, Joseph is left to be patiently dependent upon God by faith.
We have the butler and the baker in contrast to Joseph, who entrusts himself to the one whom predestines all things, the butler, the baker, and the destiny maker. Beginning in verse one, it came to pass after these things that the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt offended their lord, the king of Egypt.
And Pharaoh was angry with his two officers, the chief butler and the chief baker. Now, I don't know what comes into your mind when I say butler. I assume it's an English gentleman in a refined tuxedo with a little cloth over his arm.
And that's not how the ancient Egyptians would have done it. So this is not a Victorian butler. This is, in fact, the same word for cup bearer. Remember, some years ago, we were studying the book of Nehemiah, and Nehemiah was a cup bearer to Artaxerxes, the king over Persia.
And that was a very important position. If the king entrusted this official to supply his own wine, that which could be easily poisoned, then this man was seen as a man of integrity.
He was trustworthy.
He had power in political influence. Significantly, he also had unique access to the ear of the king, something Joseph seems to recognize in this passage. So we have the cup bearer, the butler, a very significant role in the court of Pharaoh.
We also have the baker. Now, again, that doesn't seem very impressive to us, but likewise, when you have access to the king's table, you have some political influence. You have the ear of the king. So we have the chief butler and the chief baker, both men of significant influence in the court of Pharaoh.
But they offended Pharaoh. We read Pharaoh was angry. We have no information about the manner of the offense. It could have been most likely was due to some uncovered plot, some whisper, some suspicion that there was going to be perhaps an attempt to poison or otherwise overthrow the reign of this ruler.
And these two men are thrown into prison, it seems, during an investigation because we have one that's brought to execution, one that's brought to exoneration. This is in contrast narratively with Joseph.
Joseph was shown no trial, no investigation. It was simply the word of Potiphar's wife and he's cast into the prison. But it seems that these men are going through the wheels of justice. I was reading John Gill's commentary.
He likes digging through the rabbis, and he points out that Targum of Jonathan says they attempted to put poison in his drink and his food. Rabbi Yarki suggests, no, no, actually what happened was the cupbearer allowed a fly into the king's wine and the baker allowed sand or pebbles into his bread.
Could be either way, we're not told. I could see Pharaoh being of the type that if he crunched on his bread, you were going to be in a prison cell. All that mattered here was he was angry. It's an arbitrary form of justice, but for most of human civilization, it's the will of the king that defines justice.
If a human authority is upset, then there's going to be judgment, there's going to be execution. To displease the mighty ruler is to be guilty of a punishable offense. Think of Stalinist Russia. Think of Kim Jong-un in North Korea.
To offend them or upset them or displease them in any way is to be guilty of a punishable offense. It's a personal offense against their authority and their dignity. Look at the way Pharaoh is presented in verses 1 and 2.
It's in the text showing you the significance. The king of Egypt offended the Lord, the king of Egypt, doubled. Pharaoh, you see, even in these verses, you get a sense of his power. The king, the king, the Lord, the master, Pharaoh.
To the Israelite readers, they would be familiar with this sense of awe and dread. You get a sense of his heightened power, the fearfulness of offending him. How much more so, brothers and sisters, we're meant to have an awe and a dread at the rightful king who takes personal offense when we sin against him?
Not the puppet ruler, Pharaoh, but indeed our creator, king, the Lord God. All offenses are invariably personal against the Lord who made us. And so if men would tremble before a ruler like Pharaoh, how much more ought they to tremble before the God who made them?
Let the peoples tremble, as we recited from Psalm 99. Notice also, rulers and authorities are made subject to God, but instead they set themselves.
Up as God.
Pharaoh has no right, and yet he sets himself up as though personal offense were a matter of justice. This is why Christians have often throughout history come against the God of the state.
As their persecutor.
Because when the state is offended by the activity or the refusal of Christians, Christians find an arbitrary justice. And it's Christians who then cry out, you must give an account to the God who reigns.
You must give an account to the one who is the true ruler. To the Israelites reading this account again, they'd be reminded that God is king, however prevalent Pharaoh's power may seem. Verse 3, Pharaoh put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard.
Who's that? Well, as far as we know, it's still Potiphar. He was the captain of the guard back in chapter 39. And this is where Joseph is confined. We're sensing the plot is now building, God's providence glowing behind these lines.
We may not recognize it yet, but God is at work in these day-to-day details, whether a fly in the cup or a pebble in the bread, a coup d 'etat, whatever it may be, God is at work. Verse 4, the captain of the guard charged Joseph with them, and he served them.
And so they were in custody for a while. Now if this is Potiphar, as we said, there's some intimation that he knows for Joseph to go assault my wife is completely out of his character. Maybe he knows it wasn't the whole story, but like Pilate, he wasn't willing to risk his own reputation with the ruler, right?
We have no king but Caesar. You're not Caesar's friend if you don't try him in this way. Maybe Potiphar was the same way. And maybe it's Potiphar who says there's someone in this prison that I can trust.
I want these officials, these men who have Pharaoh's ear, when they're brought into the prison, I want Joseph to take personal care for them. And so as they're in custody, Joseph serves them. We read in verse 4, he served them.
He took responsibility for them. He cared for them. He met their day to day needs. He tried to encourage them and guide them. Notice that Joseph is trusting in the Lord, trusting in this path that now has led him into prison.
And he's still working diligently with integrity before the Lord. Now he's physically bound in prison, but his conscience is free. He acted out of integrity, he acted in righteousness and that led him to the chains.
Now he's physically in chains, but his conscience is free. And I would submit to you, it is better to be physically in chains and have a free conscience than to be physically free and have a conscience that is in bondage.
To be tormented by conscience. Men who are free are unable to act as they ought, unable to labor and to serve the Lord or their fellow man because their conscience is in bondage. But a man in bondage who has a free conscience is able to diligently work before the Lord.
Throughout last week, every day I was listening to 1 Peter as a one-off. Just an audio recording of 1 Peter. And it was amazing to me to think of the way that 1 Peter could have been a letter written to Joseph in chapter 40.
The power of a clean conscience. The power of working as unto the Lord, of not having any fear of man. The blessing that attends to those who suffer as righteous. 1 Peter 2 .19, this is commendable if because of conscience toward God, one endures grief and suffers wrongfully.
Peter says this is commendable to God. Joseph, because of his conscience, is now enduring grief and suffering wrongfully. But he is commended before God. What does Peter presuppose about Christians when he's writing this letter?
He presupposes that the persecution that's coming, the fiery trial that is to try them, is going to bring a lot of them into these circumstances where though they're innocent, because of their conscience, they're brought to a place of affliction.
And he says it's better, brothers and sisters, to suffer in this way. However the world looks at it, no, you are commended before God. Verse 20 in chapter 2, when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God.
It's an inclusio with verse 19. Chapter 3, verse 14, even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, you are blessed. Does Joseph think he's blessed? He's suffering for righteousness sake. And he does good.
He serves them. He works diligently. He's still a trustworthy man. He doesn't descend into the ways of the prison cell. He doesn't become corrupt and self-serving. It's not about survivability. If you've ever read the famous work of Alexander Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago, I have not read it.
I've read half of the third volume. But from what I gather, Solzhenitsyn recounts that the first people to die in the camps were Christians, were believers, Russian believers. And they all died at the beginning because they, out of everyone else, refused to descend into corruption and self-service.
They'd rather starve than steal. They'd allow themselves, as it were, to suffer that they might be righteous. And this is commendable before God. Verse 17, it is better if it is the will of God to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.
You have the same language again at the end of chapter 4. And then importantly, Peter develops this theological ethic out of the idea of suffering righteously in the midst of this pain and this torment and this confusion, knowing that you are blessed and you are commended before God.
And look at this ethic, chapter 4, verse 19, Let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good, as unto a faithful Creator.
That's Joseph.
He recognizes the hand of God upon his life. He knows that even this suffering is somehow according to the will of God. And he has committed his soul to doing good, as unto a faithful Creator. The Lord has made me.
The Lord is in control of my life and my days and whatever He sees fit to bring to pass, I commit my soul to Him. I will serve Him in whatever way He sees fit. Joseph has been diligent from the greatest to the least.
Verse 5, the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt who were confined in the prison had a dream. Both of them, each man's dream in one night and each man's dream with its own interpretation. And Joseph came into them in the morning and looked at them and saw that they were sad.
So he asked Pharaoh's officers who were with him in the custody of his lord's house, saying,.
Why do you look so sad today?
Is that anyone's memory verse? That's a good one for the refrigerator. Why do you look so sad today? The butler and the baker each have a dream in the same night and they know there's something significant about this dream and the fact that they're not able to have access to the court interpreters is troubling to them.
Egyptian society, as in general all of ancient society, viewed dreams as laid in with revelatory capacity. They understood that in dreams there was a touch point between human history and the divine will.
And so they had many books in court magicians and sorcerers that had all sorts of symbolic interpretations of dreams. Now I say that was true of antiquity in general. I think as Christianity began to influence the world that sort of had a chilling effect on the obsessive nature of dream interpretation until we really get to the 20th century and the rise of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy until the influence of Freud in the university systems.
And that has filtered down into popular culture even today. It's amazing to me to see so many ads now even for Zoom psychotherapy sessions. And this is where dreams are again laid in with significance.
They have a revelatory ability to reveal one's inner thoughts, inner dynamics, inner potential. We're a lot more like the ancient Egyptians than we think we are. We see how this is important next week.
In Genesis 41, verse 8, Pharaoh has a dream and he's troubled and then he calls for all of the magicians of Egypt, all of the wise men. He wants that interpretation. So the same thing is happening here in this prison cell.
We see the same thing in Daniel chapter 2 with Nebuchadnezzar, troubled, looking for an interpretation of a dream. So you have court officials, you have wise men, sages, they write writings, they write charts, their whole career is built on the task of interpreting dreams.
Kingdoms hang upon the interpretation of dreams. Battles hang on the interpretation of dreams. And these dreams seem utterly unique to these men. Now up to this point in Genesis, we've seen God reveal through a dream His will to Abimelech, His will to Jacob twice, chapter 28, 31.
He spoke to Laban in a dream, chapter 31. So we've seen that God is using this mode of revelation. Though rare, He has used it up to this point in the Genesis narrative. Of course, as I said, the practice of divination has changed in our own day, but the mechanics, the desire, are still the same.
We can say from Genesis, this is not normative as revelation, but I believe we've had opportunity over the past months to acknowledge it seems that for those who are unreachable, especially in parts of the Middle East and Muslim societies, that God has often used compelling and powerful dreams to break His Word or His presence into the minds of those people.
So we don't make it normative, but we say this is still a mode that it seems God has been pleased to use to reach the unreachable. And I think the proof is in the pudding when they don't then rely upon dreams as a continuing mode of understanding the Lord's will, but they are brought from that prompt to His Word and seek to grow thereby.
I think that is what establishes God's normative revelation. God, of course, moves in these dreams because He is the One that has sovereignly ordained whatever comes to pass, and therefore He knows the destiny of every individual being, of everything that happens in this life.
He has written it. It remains in His book. Since He has determined the future, it is within His power to reveal that destiny. And He's revealing the destiny of the butler and the baker in the same way that He had revealed the destiny to Joseph.
You don't just have two men in the prison, but three men in this prison cell who each have a revelation from God about their future destiny. Notice that Joseph's character is shining through. He's a prisoner, as we said, but he takes responsibility for these men.
He doesn't say, hey, outside on the streets, you might have been high and mighty officials, but in the roundhouse things run a little bit differently. He doesn't say, you're going to be on the top bunk.
He doesn't wind a little shank. He doesn't take their Doritos at lunchtime.
He serves them. He takes care of them.
Please notice, in verses 5 and 6, He's actually genuinely concerned about them. He's not this hardened prisoner.
He says, why are you sad today?
He notices them. Not as prisoners, not as people to be shunned. He notices. They look troubled. He asks them. He takes the initiative.
Why are you sad today?
He's concerned to see them sad. We can see in this righteous man the presentation of our Lord Jesus so clearly. The righteous One who suffers among us, who comes to serve us, who is sympathetic to what troubles us.
The Son of Man did not come to be served, but rather to serve. Joseph shows that same understanding of authority. I've been given authority, but it's an authority to serve, not to be served. This is unlike Potiphar's wife.
How does she use her power, her authority, to get what she wants out of people, to turn and twist and brutalize people? That's not how Joseph understands authority. Matthew 9 .36, the sympathy. When Jesus saw the crowds, He was moved with compassion for them because they were troubled.
The word there has so many possible glosses. He was weary, distressed, dejected. Jesus sees their countenance. He's moved to sympathetic compassion for them because He sees that they're troubled. That's what Joseph is doing here.
He sees that these men are troubled. He's sympathetic toward them. Tell me why you are sad. How can I address this trouble? Joseph never turned bitter or indifferent to the pain of others, though he himself is suffering in the prison.
Brothers and sisters,.
As we walk with the Lord,.
And we encounter suffering, that suffering, those trials, that testing, ought not to make us hardened or indifferent. We ought not to look, I've got enough to deal with. I can't be concerned about others.
That's not how Joseph looks at the situation. And you'll find Christians that have a close walk with the Lord, even in the midst of their suffering, they are more concerned for the people that are caring for them.
This is what the presence of the Lord does in the lives of His people. We have a growing concern for others even as we suffer, even as we're humiliated, even as we're tried. We have a sympathy that is the Lord's sympathy.
And that sympathy opens doors. That sympathy providentially changes lives. Brothers and sisters, we ought to have an eye for the countenance of those around us. Joseph could not have known that just by noticing that these men were troubled and taking the initiative, everything would change, not only for these men, but for the rest of his life.
And we ought to also recognize that in the mere passing in the grocery aisle at Walmart, in the passing of the street, if you notice someone, you say,.
You look troubled. What's troubling you?
You don't know how God's providence is going to work in encounters like these. Do you have an eye for it? Joseph had an eye for it. Joseph takes the initiative.
What's troubling you?
V. 8, they said to him, we've each had a dream and there's no interpreter of it. And Joseph said to them, do not interpretations belong to God? Tell them to me. Please. This response from Joseph is to me the most important part of this whole chapter.
This response to me tells us everything that we've only been able to guess at about the character of Joseph's faith in God. Do not interpretations belong to God? That in a nutshell tells us everything we need to know about the nature of Joseph's trust and dependence upon God at this point in his life.
Over a decade removed from his brothers throwing him down into the pit. Over perhaps seven to three years removed from being at the very height of power in Potiphar's household to being brought down by these charges.
Two years in the prison cell. We don't know at what point these men come along, but we know when he is restored. And yet in the midst of this decade-long rejection at almost every turn, he's able to say, do not interpretations belong to God?
Notice he does not say, oh, that's what's troubling you. You had a dream. And you want me to explain it to you? Yeah, well, I once had a dream too. I once had a dream that my whole family was going to come and bow before me.
My father had shown me a token of his love. He put this robe around me. Well, that was stripped off a long time ago. I had this dream that I was going to be the heir and the leader of the family. I was going to inherit the promises of my forefathers, but here I am in a prison cell.
So much for dreams. My God has abandoned me. That dream never came true. You may have had a dream, but look, you're in a prison cell. There's no point in interpreting any of this.
That's not what Joseph says.
Joseph says the interpretation belongs to God. You've had this dream, and if God has given you this dream, then this dream will become true because the interpretation belongs to God. It does not matter what roads or turns or disappointments take place.
If God has given you this revelation, God is true to His Word, the interpretation belongs to God. The living God will bring it to pass. Joseph shows a complete trust in God at this point. There's no self-reliance.
It's an act of faith that God is still in control, that God had made Joseph's destiny and the butler's destiny and the baker's destiny. And now he has a faith that not only will God speak to him again, but will speak through him into the lives of these men.
Joseph takes himself to be a prophet of the Lord. I did not think it would go this way. But I know that God is with me, and I know that God will speak to me. Tell me your dream, and God will tell me the meaning of it.
That is faith. That is trust.
This is not a guess. This is not, well, it seems to me like I don't really know you, but if I had to guess, there's none of this. It's a forthright declaration. This is not some general thing that the undiscerning could take as true.
Yeah, I guess I could see that, like horoscopes for most people today. Oh, this was true. And it's all generic. It's meaningless. Joseph, as we'll see, is going to give them a tide table within three days.
Well, there's an easy way to see if the interpretation is true. Joseph has faith that God will speak to him. Joseph trusts God. As we've said in his life, he has many reasons perhaps to doubt God. But he's not walking by sight.
While he's in fetters in the prison, he's walking by faith. Notice also that he's seeking to testify to the Lord God. Here come these Egyptian court officials, these pagan worshipers, with their panoply of gods.
The polytheism that was so renowned among the ancient Egyptians. And what does Joseph say? The interpretation belongs to God. I'm a Hebrew. The interpretation belongs to the God of the Hebrews who is God over all.
Joseph is here able to testify to the Lord God. Do not interpretations belong to God? He's a witness in His chains. V. 9,. And the chief butler told his dream to Joseph, and said to him, Behold, in my dream a vine was before me, and in the vine were three branches.
It was as though it budded, it blossoms, shot forth, and its clusters brought forth ripe grapes. And then Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup, and placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand.
Joseph is able to distinguish elements that are significant for chronology, elements that are significant for status. And the key here is that he notices the cup bearer again is able to place the cup in Pharaoh's hand.
The cup bearer is active now in returning to his service to Pharaoh. He's able to continue the tasks he had once performed. And so Joseph says to him,.
V. 12,.
This is the interpretation of it. The three branches are three days. Within three days, Pharaoh will lift up your head, restore you to your place. You will put Pharaoh's cup in his hand according to the former manner when you were his butler.
Joseph has now bound himself to this. If three days pass and nothing happens, he can't do what was called the so-called Great Disappointment among the Millerites in the 19th century. Jesus is coming, you know, 1844.
I believe that was the date. And then they're all out in the fields, getting closer to midnight. And then they go, Well, something significant did happen. Jesus entered into the Holy of Holies in the heavenly places.
That must be it, yeah.
We weren't wrong that this was a date of significance. We were just standing out in the fields for nothing, apparently. Joseph doesn't do that. He binds himself. Three days. This will happen in three days.
And you will know that the God of the Hebrews is God over all. Joseph says Pharaoh will lift up the head. It's an idiom in Hebrew to be restored. To have your head lifted up means you're forgiven, you're freed, you're released, you're restored.
It's used of King Jehoiachin in 2 Kings 25. This would be a great encouragement.
To the butler.
If this man is true in three days, I'm going to be vindicated, I'm going to be restored. Joseph then uses the opportunity to make a plea.
Verse 14.
Remember me when it is well with you. Notice already. He takes it for granted. He doesn't go,. Well, that's what I think's going on. We'll see if it happens.
He doesn't.
He says this is going to happen because God told it to me. And because this is going to happen when it happens, when it is well with you, please show kindness to me. Please make mention of me to Pharaoh.
Get me out of this house. If the interpretation holds, this would be the least that the butler could do out of gratitude. But as we know, as we'll see, the butler does not do this. The interpretation is true.
The Word of the Lord is shown to be right and the butler has what many people suffer from, the amnesia of ingratitude. You forget what the Lord had done and so you have thanklessness. In fact, in its place, you have complaining.
The amnesia of ingratitude. To be thankful requires remembrance. To have a life filled with gratitude is to have a life with a keen memory. With Ebenezers at every turn in your life. To look back and see God's presence and God's faithfulness.
That's what a life of gratitude requires. This butler, when he gets out, he doesn't answer any of these pleas. But we see how desperate these pleas are. We've noticed that Joseph has humbled himself. He's submitted to this unrighteous suffering.
But he hasn't become passive. He doesn't sit there and go, well, if God doesn't want me to be here, then God's going to take me out. I'm just going to sit here and wait upon Him. Sit on my hands. And wait for those doors to fling open.
Wait for the divine Navy SEAL team to come rescue me.
He doesn't do that. He's desperate.
Look at this four-fold plea. Remember me. That's an adjustment. It's an entreaty. Remember me. Show kindness to me. Make mention of me. Get me out of this house. He's desperate to be freed. So though he's passively, as it were, dealing with the injustice and the indignity of the way he's been treated, he's actively seeking to be restored.
He knows that God is in control, and yet he's not fatalistic. He doesn't have this view that whatever is going to be is going to be, so there's really nothing I can do, I should do, or I ought to do. No, he's looking for, well, maybe this is the one that can help me, and he makes his plea.
Joseph is hoping that the butler will be the very means of his release. So he has this godly character. He's willing to endure suffering, but he does not endure suffering utterly passive. He doesn't become despondent.
He uses wisdom to press for a way out of the bondage. This is a very important point. I had some time while I was away to begin reading a monograph I had wanted to get around to, an Australian scholar named Lindsay Wilson, and he wrote this incredible book called Joseph, Wise and Otherwise, and it's all about the way wisdom literature as a genre is embedded within the narrative of Joseph's life, how you have the very themes and even examples that fill out wisdom literature in the Bible exemplified in the conduct and behavior of Joseph, and he uses this as a point of wisdom.
This is exemplary. He sees God's hand, and yet he doesn't necessarily say God wants me to be in this prison forever. So he uses wisdom to seek a way out. We see the same thing, by the way, in 1 Corinthians 7.
Paul says there in verse 21, he's speaking to slaves, were you called while a slave? Do not be concerned about it. But if you can be made free, make use of it. Notoriously difficult translation for that last phrase, but you get something like make use of it, avail yourself, take it up.
So notice what Paul is saying.
Hey, God is in control, and you might be a slave.
Are you a slave?
Don't be concerned about it.
But if there's any way you can become free,.
Make use of it.
Take it up. It's a debated passage, but it seems to be the same point that Joseph is operating under. I know that God has brought me here, but while I'm here, if there's any means by which I can seek my freedom, my justice,.
I'll make use of it.
And he's making use of the butler's ear. Notice that his plea becomes almost biographical. We said he's already been testifying.
To the Lord.
The interpretation belongs to God. And now he continues to testify using some of his own life and experience.
Verse 15,.
Indeed, I was stolen away from the land of the Hebrews. And also, I've done nothing here that they should put me into the dungeon. Every prisoner says they got the wrong guy. Every prisoner says,.
I'm innocent.
Joseph is one of the few, and I'm sure there are some, who genuinely was innocent. And what he's saying is true. I was stolen away, he says. I was kidnapped. Notice he doesn't go into the detail of his brothers.
Maybe that was too painful to him. He can't open up that aspect. It's just too deep a wound to casually share with this official. And so he simply encapsulates the persecution and the hatred, the cruel hatred of his brothers simply in this phrase, I was stolen away, I was cast away, I was kidnapped from the land.
He uses this word dungeon. I've done nothing here that they should put me in this dungeon. It's the same word in the Hebrew for pit in chapter 37. We come full circle. I was in that pit, now I'm in this pit.
The narrative here is almost shifting this providential turn from exaltation and honor to humiliation. Once more to exaltation and honor, back to humiliation, right? Pit, you know, from authority and influence to pit, from authority and influence to pit.
And then of course we're going to have the greatest exaltation to follow. And also notice this testimony. This to me is so striking. I was stolen away from the land of the Hebrews. The land of the Hebrews.
To the Egyptian,.
As to anyone who is living around or even in that land, that land was not the land of the Hebrews. It was the land of all the nations that dwelt within it, but if anyone did not have a claim to that land, it was the tent dwellers who barely owned a graveyard.
And yet Joseph, while he's in this prison, has such a faith in God, has such an awareness of this covenantal promise that has flowed from Abraham through Isaac down through Jacob to himself that even in this prison cell he can say this really is the land of the Hebrews.
God said this would be our land. And God promised our descendants would occupy it. This is the land of the Hebrews. So even here we see his faith in God. He knows that God has promised the land. He knows that God's promise will hold true.
He knows that God has promised to exalt Him. Though he's in chains, he knows that God's promise will hold true. This is Joseph's faith in God.
Verse 16.
The Hebrew here, I think it's meant to be almost comedic, the irony. If you were making a play out of this or as you're sort of portraying it in your mind, you would think the chief baker would be sort of a seedy kind of man and just always looking for that next angle.
And he's thinking, well, if this guy's got a good dream, I can't wait to hear mine. It's sort of the plot de-escalation where it's like, some of the details are the same, but it doesn't end well for you.
When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was good, he said to Joseph, me too, I had a dream too. I also was in my dream and there were three white baskets on my head. In the top uppermost basket, all kinds of baked goods for Pharaoh and the birds ate them out of the basket on my head.
You can picture him like smiling, like when am I going to be restored? He had been so encouraged to hear the good news of his fellow man. And if he was guilty, as it seems to be the case, I think the narrative indicates that, that the cup bearer was shown to be innocent, the baker was shown to be guilty of whatever the offense was,.
You would think,.
Well, if God knows that, God knows me. I'm a guilty. He shouldn't have been so excited to have his dream interpreted. He dreams of a basket with all kinds of baked goods for Pharaoh. He must have been like a contestant on the great British baking shows, having a table full of pastries.
If you've ever been to Falmouth,.
As I go every year,.
As my brothers can attest, the greatest bakery in the country, Maison Fayette,.
And it's just this glass case.
That's full of every pastry imaginable. And this is what the baker was responsible for. There's a very famous lexicon for Egyptian, it's called the Urman-Grapow lexicon, and commentators note, they have within that lexicon 38 different terms for varieties of cakes in Egypt, over 50 terms for varieties of bread.
So when he says all manner of baked meats, as it says in the original, he really means it. This is the basket full of every delicacy he could possibly think of. Oh, if I get restored, I'm going to bake my hands off.
Every single thing to the best that I can do, Pharaoh's going to have this great spread before him. Why is it that the birds eat that? Joseph answered and said, this is the interpretation of it. The three baskets are three days.
Within three days, Pharaoh will lift off your head from you and hang you on a tree. The birds will eat your flesh from you. That smile immediately becomes the shudder of horror. Joseph understands the difference, the similarity in the time frame, but notice the difference.
The cup bearer in his dream once again was active in bringing his cup to Pharaoh, but in this dream, Pharaoh doesn't appear. In this dream, you're trying to make your way to Pharaoh and you never get there.
Birds eat everything you've labored to bring. So whereas the cup bearer has his head lifted up as a sign of restoration, the baker has his head lifted all the way up, in fact, lifted off as he's hung.
And for the Egyptian mind to be eaten by birds, to be left out to decay, would have been the most unimaginable horror. We know the process of mummification. This was imbued in their view of the afterlife that you had to find ways to preserve the physical in order to have an entrance into the afterlife.
So it's a cursed death to be consumed in this way. Again, we see something of Joseph's character shining through. As we said, he was sympathetic to both men. He had an eye for their countenance. I see that you're troubled.
It's as though he's moved with compassion for them, seeing that they're troubled. But then when they share why they're troubled, the basis of it as he gets to understand more about where they're coming from and what God's will is for them, notice at the same time, Joseph is faithful to deliver not only the dream of mercy, but also the dream of judgment.
He doesn't hold back. That says something about his character, doesn't it? The interpretation belongs to God. And if God sees fit to reveal it to me, I will simply pass on to you what the Lord has passed on to me.
I won't say this is going to be great. In three days, you're going to be restored. And you, well, I don't know. But, you know, maybe in three days something else will happen to you.
He doesn't do that.
He's willing to say as a man of integrity, as a man who has faith in God, you will be saved. You will be damned. It takes integrity for a man or a woman to have faith not only to reveal, as it were, the butler's dream, but also to reveal the baker's dream.
We live in a day when men and women of faith refuse to pronounce what God has given us. It frustrates me to see so many evangelicals today, broadly conservative, who now speak of hell as though, oh, well, we all know that's really not literal.
Oh, hell, oh, we really know, that's just really speaking of separation.
That's not how Jesus describes it.
That's not how the Bible depicts it. They want to make things metaphorical that are uncomfortable for them. They don't have the integrity that Joseph has. Do we have the kind of compassion that we're concerned to see that people are troubled, but do we have the kind of integrity that when we understand what's troubling them, we're able to say, God is a God of mercy to those who repent and draw near to Him.
But He is a God of wrath, a consuming fire for those who stubbornly resist His will. Do we have Joseph's integrity? Well, this fulfillment comes to pass. It comes to pass on the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, reading Calvin's commentary.
He has this whole great application on the wantonness and luxury of unbelieving birthday parties. I actually copied and pasted it. I was going to put it in birthday cards for a few people this year. Don't have a wanton and luxurious birthday, but happy birthday.
It seems that for pagan rulers especially, birthdays are not good days for at least some people in the kingdom. And even in our own day, I think Calvin's right to say, all manner of debauchery is celebrated and indulged on people's birthdays, so Christians ought to take that to heart.
On Pharaoh's birthday, he makes a feast for all of his servants, and as Joseph interpreted, he lifted up the head of the chief butler and also of the chief baker among his servants. In other words, they were taken out of the prison to come to this feast.
Then he restored the chief butler to his butlership again, and he placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand. And the one thing we're waiting for, finally Joseph's going to get out, and of course he does,.
And he goes,.
Wow, that guy was right.
Great.
He never brings up Joseph for all the months that follow. But notice, he hanged the chief baker as Joseph had interpreted to them.
For the butler,.
This was the best birthday ever. Hashtag best birthday ever. For the baker, not so much. He had baked his last cake. The butler was free, but he did not look back. And so we end chapter 40 with this resonant note of disappointment.
The chief butler did not remember Joseph, but forgot him. Joseph once again feels forgotten. Joseph once again has to learn the hard lesson of not depending upon men, but depending upon God. Not putting his trust in his fellow man, but having his trust exclusively upon the Lord.
And of course, he could take some comfort from recognizing the dream that I had, though over a decade ago,.
God is faithful to it,.
Even as He was faithful to the dream these men had and the fulfillment of it three days later. Both dreams were fulfilled exactly as Joseph had predicted, down to the detail. And Joseph came away from this experience though disappointed that he had to remain patient.
He knew that God was still speaking to him and still speaking through him. And as the days and the weeks and the months began to roll by, we see Joseph's faith not only tested, but maybe for this reason strengthened.
Joseph would eventually realize the butler had forgotten him. He would have heard by now if the butler was going to speak for him. He would have understood that Pharaoh was not interested in his deliverance at this point.
But he also knew that the living God who rules over all had given him the promise of the inheritance. And the same revelation that was true for the butler, the same revelation that was true for the baker, the same revelation would be true for himself because the interpretation belongs to God.
We sang it in the second hymn. God is His own interpreter. He will make it plain. He will write it in the unfolding of history according to His providence. Whatever God ordains is right. What Joseph could not know as he's being tested is that this very act of delaying his hope, this very act of muffling his pleas is in fact the way that God will exalt him.
If the butler were to go to Pharaoh on his birthday and say, I knew that this was going to happen because this man Joseph, who I was in prison with, he told me God gave him this interpretation. You must restore him and bring him into your court.
If that had happened, then Joseph would have been freed. Perhaps he would have been dismissed. Perhaps he would have gone back to Potiphar's service. Perhaps he would have been exonerated to go back home and have that awkward sense of should I go back to the brothers who hate me?
Or should I just go and be a sojourner and a wanderer? But it's because Joseph has to wait until Pharaoh is troubled and in need of an interpreter that all of Israel will be saved and his brothers who persecuted him will be reconciled.
Do you see the control of the providence of God? The butler and the baker only point us to the destiny maker, the one who controls all things. The key application for us, brothers and sisters, as we close is simply this.
Do we trust in the God who rules all things?
Do we trust him?
It's amazing to me.
How scripture is replete with calls for God's people to trust him.
Listen to his voice.
I've been listening on repeat the whole week to a rendition of Psalm 78 from a husband and wife duo. They make music and they've gone through the psalms. Every week they render a psalm musically together.
They live in Kansas City, a few children, wonderful. And Psalm 78 starts out, gather children, incline your ear, listen to me. And the psalmist is going to recount the whole history of Israel, not only the glories that attend Israel as a nation called by God, but all of their failures.
And you get the sense that the father, as it were, as he gathers his children in, or as it were, the priest gathering the people, is saying, incline your ears, listen, we're not going to hold back. This next generation is going to hear who we are and what we've done so they can understand who God is and what he has done.
Listen.
And the way this couple compose this psalm is beautiful because they take certain elements and make them into refrains. And so they recount God's gracious calling upon Israel and all that he did, and then how they rebelled against him, how he split the sea and brought them out from Pharaoh's clutch, and yet they sinned.
They sinned.
They rebelled again.
And then it goes again to his mercy attending them, and even his judgments upon them and how that brought them back into the fold,.
And then they sinned. They sinned.
And again, his mighty actions of installing a kingdom and giving them conquest in the land,.
And yet they sinned. They sinned.
And all of this is geared toward the last refrain where they change the key and the whole psalm, 78, shifts toward the hope they have in David, the one who will skillfully guide them. And this is written from the experience post-David.
In other words, David's greater son is coming. It's messianic by the conclusion. But ahead of that, instead of the constant refrain, they sinned, they sinned, they rebelled again, it's but the Lord, full of compassion, restrained his anger and remembered them again.
Trust him.
Obey him, whatever it costs. That's what's glowing through Psalm 78. That's what the next generation must hear. That's what Joseph's life encapsulates before us. Do we trust the God who rules all things?
Are we inclining our ears to hear his voice? Are we doing all that he has called us to do? Are we walking with integrity, by faith before him, whatever that may cost us, however that may make us look in the eyes of others?
Are you trusting in God as your destiny maker, who is in control over the turnings to the right and to the left, who is in control over the blessings that daily attend you, as well as the trials that oppress you?
Do you trust the one who predestines all things according to the counsel of his own will? The Bible has so many ways to describe this manner of trust, trust and faith being used interchangeably, and perhaps trust is something better to have in our mind.
Faith has become a word so used that it's become almost hollow in its meaning. Faith, for a lot of Christians, I think they honestly define it as positive thinking. I just have faith that things are going to turn out okay.
I have faith that it will be all right. It's just kind of like the power of positive thinking.
That's not faith.
That's not faith in Genesis 40. It's trusting in God because God controls the dream. God controls history. He is the interpreter. So you have the obedience of faith,.
The deposit of faith,.
Faith counted as righteousness, faith once for all delivered. Any of those could be trust. The obedience that attends trusting God. The deposit of trust. We've been entrusted with this message. Trust which is counted as righteousness.
Abraham trusted God. Noah trusted God. A trust that's been given to us. A trust once for all delivered. This is essentially what we're saying synonymously. And as we trust Jesus, we recognize this is not a single act.
It's not the initial step of trust, of faith. In 2007, I gave my life over to the Lord and since that day, I have trusted in the Lord. Some people take that to mean, you know, that was when I had faith and I've just been sort of riding the wave ever since.
That's not how the Bible depicts trusting God. Every day, Joseph had to renew his trust in God. When he felt despondent, when he felt dejected, when he had reasons not to try hard to serve, not to care about others,.
He had to trust God.
This is God's will for me. This is what God wants for me. This is what God has for me. I'm going to trust Him. I'm going to obey Him. I'm going to serve Him. It's an abiding trust. People in every age seek peace,.
Seek stability.
They put their trust in something to find meaning, to find courage, to find hope, to find provision. What are we putting our trust in? I see in Joseph no detection of a man who's trusting in himself. If he was trusting in himself, he would have had all sorts of maneuvers and things to do in the prison, but he entrusts himself to God.
Using wisdom, he looks for opportunities, but he's entrusting himself to God. People in our day are consumed by insecurity and despair. They rely on coping mechanisms. They try to find ways of escape.
If they can't have security, if they can't depend on themselves, then they look to be rid of even having to think about it or address it. They look for an escape hatch out of all of life's problems and insecurities.
This is not how a Christian views the world. We get sucked into the cycles of monotonously despairing news, monotonously despairing headlines. We see the decline, the depravity, the hostility all around us.
What do we put our trust in?
What are we trusting in?
Do we believe when we read his word the interpretation belongs to God? Though we do not understand how he is building and advancing his kingdom against the gates of hell, it's just like here's Pharaoh, and there's a dread, and there's an awe about him.
How could it be that we're advancing against his might, his kingdom, his domain? How could it be that a Hebrew slave is actually bringing forth the dominion that knows no end when Pharaoh is overshadowing the land, when Pharaoh has all the might and the renown, when Pharaoh can do what he wills almost arbitrarily?
How could that be?
The interpretation belongs to God. So we work as unto the Lord. We're diligent. We're obedient. We're willing to suffer for righteousness' sake. What are we putting our trust in? Joseph speaks to us, I think, as an example.
He's held out as sort of the embodiment of wisdom literature in chapter 40. It's the sovereign power, the unfailing compassion of God that bids us to trust him. He is the one who's common. He's turned by compassion when he sees that we are troubled.
He shows in that compassion that he's sympathetic toward us, that he's trustworthy. And that's why his Word will constantly beckon to us. Listen to my voice. Listen to my voice. Trust in the Lord with all your heart.
Lean not on your own understanding. In all of your ways, acknowledge him. Whatever you're facing in life, entrust yourself to him.
Let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to him in doing good as to a faithful, a trustworthy Creator.
Do you trust him?
Is your trust being shown forth in what you're willing to endure? In the way you're willing to endure it? Are we showing that we trust the Lord because of our diligence, our integrity, our rectitude that we speak forth rightly?
Not only of blessings and mercies, but also warnings and judgments? This is all part of what it means for Joseph to trust the Lord, to serve him only and exclusively. Not being cowed or pushed around by anything else that he's seeing or experiencing.
Other people tremble before dignitaries, not Joseph. He humbles himself to serve them, but he only trembles before the Lord. Is that how we're trusting him, brothers and sisters? And if you're outside of the faith, if you're the baker here this morning, meaning you're hopeful that things will go well for you, but if you're outside of Christ and you have not turned to him in faith,.
It won't go well for you.
The end of the baker is your end outside of Christ.
It's why Christ came.
So that our heads can be lifted up, so that we can be restored to God. That's why Christ came. Like Joseph to be a slave among us. The one who had been exalted, the son of glory, humbling himself, not taking that glory as something to be grasped, but willingly emptied himself of it, descended to the form of a slave, and being a slave, died a horrific death, even the death of the cross.
And so there's really, ultimately speaking, a world full of bakers and butlers. Every person in this room, if you understand my metaphor here, is either a butler or a baker. Do you trust the destiny maker?
Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for your pleas of mercy. We thank you for your pleas of warning. We thank you that you lift up our heads when we come to faith in Christ, and we are restored with you and with our fellow man,.
That we're given a new hope, a living hope.
We're reconciled with the God we had rebelled against, the ruler who we offended, the God who was angry with us due to our sins. We thank you that you restore us so richly, so freely and abundantly. We see in you a greater Joseph and a greater David, a ruler who's moved by compassion when he sees sheep scattered, distressed, weary, and troubled, knowing that the same Lord today looks into the hearts of men and women, even in this room, is moved with compassion for their troubles and bids them turn, turn.
Why will you perish?
Might that same Spirit conquer them with irresistible grace, bring them to faith in the living God. May they have the destiny of restoration like the butler and not the destiny of endless torment like the baker.
May we entrust ourselves to you, walking with you by trust and not by sight, heeding your voice day by day in whatever you see fit to put before us. Help us to understand the trust of obedience. Help us to entrust ourselves to your care, casting all of our cares upon you, knowing your care for us.
Help us to commit ourselves to doing good as to our trustworthy creator who made us, who rules all things according to the pleasure of his own will. It's in the name of our Savior we pray.
Amen.