Joseph Interpreting dreams Genesis 40-41:36

Introduction

Joseph has beens sold into slavery by his brothers, ended up in Potiphar’s house in Egypt, lied about by Potiphar’s wife and is now in prison. Last week we saw that through all of that the Lord was with Joseph and continued to give Joseph favor. This week we are going to see the dreamer interpreting dreams, a gift given to Joseph by God

God working in prison vs. 1-4

As Joseph is in prison, we see that two very influential people from Pharaoh’s house end up in prison with him.

The butler of the king of Egypt, would also be known as the cupbearer. His job was to ensure the drinks that were brought before the king were safe for him to drink.

Remember Nehemiah was the kings cupbearer and feared that he would be dismissed or killed for having a sad countenance before the king

The baker was also thrown in prison because he offended the King

The baker was in charge of the food that was brought before the king

Both of these men were the chiefs of their position, so they had direct access to the Pharoah.

While Joseph had no idea what was going in God was orchestrating his life to fulfil His plan for His life.

Sometimes we find ourselves in circumstances in our lives that just seem like God is nowhere near us and is no way involved in whats going on. May I remind all of us this morning that no matter what happens in our life, God is in control and has a purpose for every trial, pain, heartache and good thing.

God brought these men into Joseph’s life so that He could ultimately set him free and give him the throne that He had prepared for him.

The captain of the guard gave Joseph charge over the chief butler and chief baker and they were in there together for a season

Joseph interprets the dreams vs. 5-19

After they had been in prison for a season, both the chief butler and baker dreamed a dream on the same night.

Joseph as he likely did with all the prisoners went to check on them and noticed they were sad.

Remember Joseph was in charge of all the prisoners and here we see that he noticed that something was off with them.

Joseph asks why they are sad and they tell him that they dreamed a dream and there is no one to interpret the dream.

Joseph answers by giving God the glory for the interpretation he is about to give of their dream

Joseph had interpreted his own dream back at home and it ended up getting him more hated by his brother, thrown into a pit, sold into slavery and eventually thrown in prison, but Joseph continued to use his gift for the Lord.

J. Vernon McGee said this “Anything you or I do for the Lord should be done to the praise of God. Make sure that God gets the glory for it. I believe that one of the reasons many of us are not blessed as much as the Lord would like to bless us is because when we do receive something wonderful, we take it for granted and we do not give God the glory for it. We need to give God the glory.”

Joseph asks them to share their dream

The butlers dream

read verse 9-11

The interpretation of the dream

Read verses 12-13

Josephs request of the butler

Read verses 14-15

The bakers dream

Read verses 16-17

The interpretation of the dream

Read verses 18-19

The dreams fulfilled vs. 20-22

Three days after the dream the Chief butler and baker are taken out of prison on Pharaoh’s birthday.

Pharaoh lifted up their heads among his servants.

The chief butler was restored to his position in the kings house.

The chief baker was hung from a tree

Joseph’s interpretation of their dreams had been right

Joseph forgotten about in prison vs. 23

When the chief butler got out Joseph just asked for one thing, and that was that he would remember him

vs. 14-15

But the butler forgot about Joseph.

Aren’t you thankful this morning that God never forgets about us, while we often forget about God he never forgets about us

Pharaohs dream 41:1-7

Joseph Remembered 41:8-13

Joseph recalled from prison 41:14

Josephs interpretation of the dream 41:15-36

Conclusion

Joseph was never forgotten about by God and God never has forgotten us either, we are going to see how God used his time in prison and his ability to interpret dreams to save much people from the famine to come.