Genesis 41:1-40 From Prison to Ruler

 

Dreams, dreams, and more dreams. There is no one’s life more impacted by dreams in the Bible than Joseph’s. It began with Joseph’s dreams about ruling over his brothers, then the next two dreams that impact Joseph’s life come while he’s in prison and the Pharaoh’s cupbearer and baker each have a dream that Joseph interprets with God’s help. Now we hear about more dreams that end up impacting Joseph and these are given to Pharaoh, the most powerful person in Egypt, the man whose prison Joseph is running.

Two years after Pharaoh’s cupbearer is reinstated to his position and forgets about Joseph, Pharaoh goes to bed one night and has two dreams. These two dreams are both really similar to each other: they’re dreams of opposites, dreams of change, dreams that start off wonderful and quickly turn into nightmares. The first dream is of seven wonderful fat sleek cows. These are the kinds of cows every farmer dreams about. Then comes a horrifying change, the seven fat sleek cows are swallowed up by seven ugly, gaunt cows, but they stay ugly and skinny. In the second dream, Pharaoh sees seven healthy full heads of grain, the kind of grain every farmer is praying to grow every spring. Then comes the horrifying change, these seven beautiful heads of grain are swallowed up by seven thin, scorched heads of grain, but they stay ugly and thin.  Pharaoh doesn’t understand these dreams, and it bothers him because he senses there’s a message in them.

Pharaoh calls his magicians and wisemen to the throne room and tells them his dreams, but not a single one of them has any clue what they mean. Now a light goes off in the cupbearer’s head and he remembers his own dream and who interpreted the meaning of it for him. He turns to Pharaoh and tells him, “I know someone who can interpret your dream for you. He’s a Hebrew prisoner, but he’s good at this kind of thing. He helped me understand my dream when I was in prison and things turned out exactly as he said they would.” So, Pharaoh sends for Joseph, and Joseph’s quickly brought up out of the prison, cleaned and washed, because you don’t go in front of the Pharaoh smelling of prison. Joseph is now in the presence of the most powerful person in Egypt; what is God’s plan here; we sense that this has to be a God moment.

Pharaoh says to Joseph, “I had a dream, and no one can interpret it. But I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream you can interpret it.” Once again, Joseph points straight to God, giving God the credit for being able to interpret dreams. Joseph tells Pharaoh, “I cannot do it, but God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires.” Joseph is confident that God has placed him here to interpret Pharaoh’s dreams, he hasn’t lost his faith and trust in God and keeps turning to him, no matter what’s going on. Joseph remains humble, telling Pharaoh that God is the source of his wisdom.

Pharaoh describes his dreams to Joseph and tells Joseph that none of the magicians could interpret them. Joseph tells Pharaoh that the two dreams point to the same thing and that God has given him two dreams to show him what God is about to do. Seven years of prosperity and great abundance are coming, it’s going to be an amazing seven years, but they’re going to be followed right away by seven really hard years of famine that’s going to wipe all the prosperity away. The famine will be so severe that no one’s even going to remember the seven wonderful years. Sounds a bit like Alberta’s economy. Joseph tells Pharaoh that God gave him two similar dreams to show Pharaoh that there’s no changing God’s plan and it’s going to happen soon. This is not a good interpretation, especially since there’s no changing God’s mind on it. Hard times are coming.

Joseph then takes a really bold step of faith, he tells Pharaoh, “Now let Pharaoh look for a discerning and wise man and put him in charge of the land of Egypt. Let Pharaoh appoint commissioners over the land to take a fifth of the harvest of Egypt during the seven years of abundance. They should collect all the food of these good years that are coming and store up the grain under the authority of the Pharaoh, to be kept in the cities for food. This food should be held in reserve for the country, to be used during the seven years of famine that will come upon Egypt, so that the country may not be ruined by the famine.” Remember, Joseph is an administrator, someone trained to organize people and systems so that the organization or business runs efficiently and their goals are met. He sees that if Pharaoh’s not proactive in responding to the upcoming famine, then Egypt and the countries and people around Egypt are going to suffer greatly.

Think about this for a moment. Joseph’s a Hebrew slave offering the most powerful person in Egypt advice on how to do his job and run his country. Why should Pharaoh listen to a slave? He has plenty of capable administrators in his own country, people that understand the culture and values of Egypt and able to figure out a way forward. There’s no need to listen to a foreigner. Just because Joseph can run a prison and a household, that doesn’t mean he knows anything about running a country.

Now we see God’s hand directly at work in raising Joseph up out of prison and into a place of influence. Pharaoh turns to his advisors and asks, “Can we find anyone like this man, one in whom is the spirit of God?” Now Pharaoh’s not expecting anyone to disagree with him, that just doesn’t happen, and now comes one of the greatest life changing moments in history, “Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has made all this known to you, there is no one so discerning and wise as you. You shall be in charge of my palace, and all my people are to submit to your orders. Only with respect to the throne will I be greater than you.” In Acts 7, as Steven, the first martyr, testifies about God’s faithfulness and plans, he remembers Joseph, “Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. But God was with him and rescued him from all his troubles. He gave Joseph wisdom and enabled him to gain the goodwill of Pharaoh king of Egypt. So, Pharaoh made him ruler over Egypt and all his palace.”

This is more amazing than we first realize. Pharaoh has just acknowledged the power of Joseph’s God here in Egypt; raising up Joseph, God’s man, to a place of extraordinary power, a foreigner who answers only to Pharaoh. Pharaoh has also raised Joseph’s God to a prominent place in the pantheon of Egypt’s gods. Pharaoh sees that Joseph’s God, unlike other gods, is not limited by geography. The most powerful person in the land acknowledges God’s power and that what’s coming cannot be stopped by Egypt’s gods. We hear an echo here to 400 years into the future when God once again will show his power over Egypt’s gods when he leads his people back to the Promised Land. That fills us with hope still today as we know that God is God of gods. We see God’s power when Jesus comes to earth, fully human and fully God to raise us up out of our prisons and slavery to sin to set us free to love and serve him by defeating sin, Satan and death on the cross.

While God’s working in the background of Joseph’s life, Joseph remains faithful in all the lesser roles God places him in to prepare him for this moment. Joseph’s life reminds us that our gifts and talents are given to us in order to serve the Lord by serving others. Over and over again, Moses reminds us that no matter where Joseph is serving, God’s with him, giving him success. Pete Wilcox writes, “the proper response to the revelation of God’s good will and purpose, for Joseph as well as Pharaoh, is not resignation and the abrogation of responsibility, but faithful action.” Joseph is put in Egypt for just such a time as this, just as Esther was in Babylon for such a time as she was in, just as Bethel has been placed here in Lacombe for just such a time as this to reveal the Gospel news, to make new disciples, to use our gifts to reveal a glimpse of God’s already and not yet kingdom that the Holy Spirit is building right here.

Faithful action that flows out of following Jesus, loving each other, serving our community and sharing our faith because our hearts are filled with the desire for all our neighbours, friends, co-workers, fellow students and others to know Jesus’ amazing love and grace and power. May we always be asking God, “What now, where do you want me to serve you and others; help us see where you are already at work so we can join you.” May the Lord give us the eyes to see, the ears to hear, and the hearts to respond to his kingdom call on our lives.