Wisdom for Fools

The Foolishness of Dreams: God’s Revelation to “Wise” Pharaoh

When we last saw Joseph, he’d been forgotten in a dark cell for two years. Now, finally, he has been remembered by the baker.

Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, has been having some bad dreams. And after consulting all of the wise men in Egypt, the magicians and diviners who are supposed to be “experts” in this sort of thing, Pharaoh began to lose hope that he would ever understand his dreams. That is when, unexpectedly, his baker offers a solution. The baker, who no one would consider wise, suggests hearing out a Hebrew prisoner and former slave, who no one would think could have a connection to the gods. Nevertheless, Pharaoh is now desperate. So he sends for Joseph.

Nevertheless, Pharaoh is now desperate. So he sends for Joseph.

This story gives us a constant back and forth between Pharaoh’s perspective and Joseph’s perspective. We see Pharaoh dream his dreams and fail to understand, despite his high status, his Egyptian education, and his court of wise men. Then we see Joseph, an insignificant Hebrew prisoner, brought before Pharaoh’s court. A prisoner, nonetheless, who was closer to God than any of Pharaoh’s wise men.

We see Pharaoh, still struggling to comprehend and understand this vision of God, and then the story turns to Joseph, who is able to understand all things by God’s grace. All of this must have been confusing, perhaps even frustrating and infuriating, to Pharaoh. Pharaoh, after all, is a god in Egyptian religion. How could it be that someone like him could fail to understand?

And when Joseph reveals the meaning of his dreams, this must have confused and frustrated him all the more. Pharaoh is the one who is supposed to control the Nile, Pharaoh is supposed to have control and dominion over the land, to have power to bring forth food for his people. God’s dream, however, reveals the futility of Pharaoh’s own power. It is not Pharaoh who brings about life and death, but God, the God of Joseph.

And Joseph goes one step further than interpreting the dream, but also give Pharaoh a way to respond to the dream. He tells Pharaoh that the one to rule during these times must be “wise and discerning”. The ruler needs to be someone who is wise not in the ways of Pharaoh, but in the ways of God.

How odd, it must have seemed, that God would choose a fool like Joseph in order to explain the mysteries of God to a wise man like Pharaoh.

The Foolishness of the Cross

Yet, this seems to be how God always operates. God’s dreams, God’s plans, seem foolish to human wisdom! In fact, Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians:

The New Revised Standard Version Christ the Power and Wisdom of God

18 For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written,

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,

and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, 23 but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

What does Paul mean by this? And why does God operate in this way? It certainly does not mean that God is foolish, or that the gospel is foolish. Nor does it mean that we should not seek to be wise! No, Paul is not declaring we should do away with wisdom, but that we should do away with wisdom of this world! For there is a great divide between the things God deems wise, and the things humans deem wise.

This is, after all, the question of the garden. Will humans trust in God’s wisdom, or will they side with the serpent and attempt to be wise in their own eyes? Joseph’s story is a testament to the folly of human wisdom. Pharaoh may rule Egypt for a time, but God is ultimately the one who has control over life and death. Pharaoh’s wisdom may last for the day, but God’s wisdom is an eternal wisdom.

Likewise, the wisdom of the Greek philosophers and the Roman Caesars brought them great glory and riches. But where is Rome today? With all of their wisdom and insight, their kingdom fell, the Caesars went to the grave, but God’s Kingdom still stands, and Christ has conquered the grave.

Why? What sets God’s wisdom apart from human wisdom? The primary difference seems to be this: that humans, in their wisdom, seek to claim the world for their own, to gather riches and glory to themselves, whereas God created the world so that he could share it with others, and on the cross gave up his only son so that the glory and riches of his kingdom might be made available to all. Human wisdom, at it’s core, is self-centered and selfish. God, however, is all-wise in that he is loving and selfless.

Human wisdom would seek to place their throne above a grand army and take the world by force. Christ, however, enthroned himself on a cross, and is claiming the world by sending out the weak and powerless. The human wisdom of Pharaoh would tax the people and gather wealth to himself, but the Godly wisdom of Joseph gathered grain so that he might share it with everyone in their time of need.

Prepare the Way: Joseph and Storing Grain

It is not enough, however, to simply understand God’s dreams. It is not enough to understand God’s wisdom, if we do not seek to live according to that wisdom. After all, how foolish would it be to know the right thing, and do the wrong thing anyway? How foolish would it be for us to know the stove is hot and hurts when touched, but to place our hand there nonetheless? To be wise according to God is not to have a head knowledge, but to know with both head and heart.

That is why, when God grants Joseph understanding of the dream, Joseph leaps into action. He suggests a way for Pharaoh to respond, and does all in his power to prepare for the future God has declared he would bring about. Imagine if Joseph had seen clearly God’s dream, and had chosen to do nothing! Imagine if Joseph had known about the famine coming, but had gone on with life as usual. That is not wise by any measure, either Godly or human!

Instead, Joseph remained vigilant and watchful. He knew the future God would bring about, and he knew he must be prepared for it.

Prepare the Way: Parable of the Watchful Virgins

So it is with us! God has revealed to us his dream of the future as well. God has revealed the wisdom of the cross to the Church, the most unlikely group of people. God revealed his plan of salvation not to a society of philosophers, or scientists, or kings and politicians, but to the Church, a group of Jews and Gentiles, Slaves and Freemen, Women and Men, Rich and Poor, the most unlikely group of people to have understanding. Yet, here we are!

But how foolish would it be for us, having understood God’s wisdom, not to live accordingly? To go on with life as usual? God’s dream, the gospel of Jesus Christ, demands that we respond. Joseph stood between flourishing and famine, between two eras in Egypt. The Church also stands at the intersection of two ages of the world, between this age, ruled by human kings and evil spirits, and the age to come, where Christ will stand in final victory, when every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord.

That day is coming! It is as inevitable for us as the famine was for Joseph and Pharaoh! And if we are not prepared for it, we will not be able to stand when that day comes. Jesus urges his disciples to be vigilant and watchful for that day, as he gives us this parable:

“Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. 3 When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; 4 but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. 5 As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept. 6 But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ 7 Then all those bridesmaids got up and trimmed their lamps. 8 The foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ 9 But the wise replied, ‘No! there will not be enough for you and for us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’ 10 And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet; and the door was shut. 11 Later the other bridesmaids came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ 12 But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I do not know you.’ 13 Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.

“The foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ 9 But the wise replied, ‘No! there will not be enough for you and for us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’”

When the bridegroom comes, we will not be able to rely on another’s preparedness. We must be prepared ourselves. We must have done our due diligence in not only understanding God’s wisdom, but living it out.

[Likewise]

B- The Foolishness of the Cross

[Therefore]

C- Prepare the Way: Joseph and Storing Grain

[Likewise]

D- Prepare the Way: Parable of the Watchful Virgins