Genesis 40
Often, when I am reading or studying the Bible, I want to
know the rest of the story, and that is so true when it comes to the cupbearer
of the king of Egypt and his baker. Why did they get put into prison, did one
of them try to poison the king, or did they set a bad table? We do not know the answer, but we do know that the king was
angry with them.
You might ask, was the hand of God all over this? Was it God’s plan to arrange some jail
time for these two officers, so that Joseph could be over them and minister to
them, and later interpret their dreams?
This is what we know, both men had a dream and it troubled them because they
did not understand the meaning. They
told Joseph about the dreams, and that they had no one who could interpret and
Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong
to God? Please tell them to me.” (Genesis
40:8b)
It look’s like Joseph the dreamer has become Joseph the
interpreter of dreams, and yet he is clear, it is not him doing the interpretation,
but God. So the cupbearer goes
first and tells his dream and Joseph tells him, “This
is its interpretation: the three branches are three days. In three days Pharaoh will lift up your
head and restore you to your office, and you shall place Pharaoh’s cup in his
hand as formerly, when you were his cupbearer.” (Genesis 40:12-13) The chief baker
saw the interpretation was favorable, now this should have been a hint that he
might be guilty, and he was. The
interpretation of his dream was in three days the king would also lift his
head, not to restore him but to cut it off and hang him from a tree, so others
in the kingdom could learn from his mistakes.
These two men were in very high offices, and it is clear
that Joseph was put in charge of them to make sure they were treated well while
in prison, and this is all that Joseph ask of the cupbearer; “Only remember me, when it is well with you, and please
do me the kindness to mention me to Pharaoh, and so get me out of this house. For I was indeed stolen out of the land
of the Hebrews, and here also I have done nothing that they should put me into
the pit.” I can just
imagine the exchange, the cupbearer is so excited, in just three days he will
be back on top, and I can hear him saying, “Joe, my dear friend, you just ask
and I will do it for you.” But
words are cheap, and this is the account of what did happen in verse
twenty-three, “Yet the chief cupbearer did not
remember Joseph, but forgot him.”
From the Back Porch,
Bob Rice
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