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.
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