Interpreting the Dreams of Pharaoh
Sermon on Genesis 41
Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ,
What an appropriate passage to be preaching on during the Thanksgiving weekend. Just the way it worked into the preaching schedule we are talking about the success and failure of Egypt’s harvest in Joseph’s day on the same weekend that we celebrate how God has blessed us again this year with food and many other blessings as well.
Harvest really is a blessing. Even the lean year that we might have had in the immediate area isn’t enough to keep most of us from thanking God for putting food in our mouths each and every day.
In Joseph’s time, the harvest was so important. Unlike today where a lean year in an area can be over come by shipping in food from places where it was a better crop, a bad harvest year could devastate an entire nation. When people are not eating, it doesn’t matter how wealthy the nation is, it is going to crumble.
Egypt is a mighty nation. It is the most powerful empire during the time of Joseph. Many nations depend on the economy of Egypt. If Egypt crumbles thousands of people will starve. Is that God’s idea of blessing the nations? We have a problem here.
At the beginning of the story, Joseph is still in prison. Stuck in the prison of one of the most important people in the world, the pharaoh. In fact, I almost get a sinking feeling myself when I read the last verse of the chapter before this. 23 The chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Joseph; he forgot him.[1]
A pair of dreams about him becoming more powerful than his brothers and family got him into this mess when he was only 17 years old and started this pattern of rising and falling in power by Joseph. By the time he is 28 years old, he’s been left to die in a cistern, sold as a slave, given great power in Potiphar’s house, been seduced by his master’s wife, been wrongly accused and sent to prison.
While in prison he rises to power again and seems like he is going to find his ticket out of prison and his way off of this roller coaster called life for Joseph. It comes through a pair of dreams by his fellow prisoners. The baker and the cupbearer. God gives him the interpretation of those dreams, the baker dies, the cupbearer goes back to serve the pharaoh. Now he will get out…. But no. The chief cupbearer, did not remember Joseph; he forgot him.”
The first verse of the passage says, When two full years had passed, Pharaoh had a dream.[2] Two full more years with no word from the cupbearer. I am sure Joseph has given up hope that the cupbearer was able to do anything to rescue him.
Now he is 30 years old, it tells us in verse 46. Now, I am not sure if there is any direct significance between the two. Joseph is beginning his service for the king at 30 years old, Jesus also began his ministry when he was 30 years old according to Luke 3. Perhaps 30 was seen as the prime of a persons life. Whatever reason, its interesting to note that similarity between Jesus and Joseph.
In Joseph’s case, you can tell that God has used the 30 years for molding and testing and preparing Joseph to be the person that he planned for him to be.
You remember we said the over riding idea that we should be thinking about through the entire Joseph story is, “How is God going to bless all nations through the descendants of Abraham?” Well Joseph has gone from a 17 old boy who was full of pride at being the chosen son of his father, to be humbled, understanding how others try and use you, understanding the temptations in the world, and understanding what it means to be a good leader. Those thirteen years can be seen as a time of preparation and change getting Joseph ready to be the one that would bless all of God’s people.
That’s the way God works in our lives too. Everything has to happen in God’s time. You might be a youth or young adult trying to figure out what God is going to do in your life. You might want the answer today, or at least by the time you are done with university. But God gives the answer in his time. Today careers are not as easy to come by, and just because you go to university doesn’t mean you are going to find a job in that field. God brings his people through a process of testing and trials in order for them to be the people he created them to be, in his time.
That is true no matter what age you are. You might be feeling like you have waited long enough for God to do something with you. Perhaps he already has. Or perhaps he has brought you through whatever trials and temptations so that you could still be a blessing to others in your senior years. God works his plan in his time.
This was what God was up to the whole time.
That brings us to the familiar part of the story. The dreams. They are such vivid dreams we could probably recite them from the numerous other times we have heard sermons on them. They are about fat cows followed by skinny cows. They skinny cows eat the fat ones. Then the good heads of wheat eaten by the bad heads that follow.
The Pharaoh can’t get any one to interpret the dream, so finally the cupbearer goes…. Ah ha. He suddenly, after two years remembers the good kid in prison who interpreted his dream and it came true.
What would you say to a person that you forgot to rescue to prison for two years. Oh… ah…. Yeah, I kinda forgot. Sorry.
Some of you know I teach the chess club over at Trenton Christian School during the winter months. Well, this passage just confirms one theory I have about chess. Never play against God. He knows how he’s going to put you in checkmate even before your opening move.
A great chess player is able to see moves way down the line and anticipate what is going to happen next. God is the master of it, of course. And he lines everything up to bless the entire world, to prove his faithfulness to everyone.
Finally, the promise to Abraham is beginning to be fulfilled. If it weren’t for the work of God, the nation of Egypt would starve. And not just Egypt, God preserved the whole family of Abraham. Its amazing that by bring Joseph through all this it actually lead up to us having a savior Jesus Christ. If Joseph was not in that prison with that cupbearer, he could never be in the position to save his family and continue the line where Jesus Christ would eventually be born.
As Christians we never take our eyes off Christ when we read the Old Testament. This passage also tells us a lot about God the Father and the way he fulfills his promises. But it must also make us think about Jesus Christ. The story of Joseph all the way up to this point foreshadows and points ahead to Christ. Already the story of Joseph was God’s way of telling Old Testament believers that in God’s time he would fulfill all his promises.
What we see in Joseph is this pattern of going from Greatness, down into the depths and then rising again to the top. That is a picture of Christ. The passage that we looked at last Sunday morning must still be on my brain because I can’t stop thinking about it in relationship to this passage. Philippians 2 says, “6 Who, being in very naturea God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
7 but made himself nothing,
taking the very natureb of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
[3]
Specifically, what happens in verse 43. Pharaoh and Joseph are riding together in the chariot and the people are commanded to make way. Or like the footnote says, bow down. As every knee in the kingdom of Egypt was bowing down, we are reminded that our King, who suffered so many things. Who broke bread and fed thousands of hungry people. Who will have ever knee of the entire universe bow to him. Our king is Jesus Christ. He is Lord of the harvest, and Lord of all blessings.
This is God’s will from his word. And all God’s people say, AMEN.
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[1] The Holy Bible : New International Version. Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 1996, c1984, S. Ge 40:23
[2] The Holy Bible : New International Version. Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 1996, c1984, S. Ge 41:1
a Or in the form of
b Or the form
[3] The Holy Bible : New International Version. Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 1996, c1984, S. Php 2:6-11