Or, A Place Where Dreams Come True
Scripture: Genesis 40:1-23
Date: February 12, 2017
Speaker: Sean Higgins
If we didn’t know the end of this story or know one critical piece of the context we would have a hard time believing that Joseph was going to be alright. So far in Genesis, every step forward he’s taken has been followed by five steps back; his trajectory is mostly down and to the wrong. After dreaming about his brothers bowing before him they sold him as a slave. After bringing abundance to the house of Potiphar the wife of Potiphar falsely accused him of attempted rape and he was thrown in prison. In chapter 40, while showing remarkable kindness and giftedness, he is no better off by the end, at least so it seems. He cared for two officials of the Pharaoh, he told the future to these officials, and he was still forgotten.
Joseph was 17 at the start of chapter 37, he is 30 when he starts working for Pharaoh at the end of chapter 41. At this point it’s probably been over ten years, and “seemed to himself to be buried in perpetual oblivion” (Calvin).
The decisive piece of context is found in chapter 39, namely, that the LORD was with him. The LORD’s presence with Joseph punctuates long sentences of faithful work and troubles, but the punctuation changes the tone of how we read the sentences. Even in prison “the LORD was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison” (Genesis 39:21). It got to the point that “the keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph’s charge, because the LORD was with him” (39:23). So when a unique window opens, Joseph was in position.
In chapter 40 we’ll see Duties Performed (verses 1-4), Dreams Interpreted (verses 5-19), and Deeds Forgotten (verses 20-23).
We already learned that “whatever [Joseph] did the LORD made it succeed” (39:23). Joseph had worked himself up to doing the warden’s work even though he was one of the wards; it’s like the fresh donut on top of a napkin on top of the garbage pile of his situation: the best in a bad situation. Then one day wheels jumped the rut of routine.
Some time after this, the cupbearer of the king of Egypt and his baker committed an offense against their lord the king of Egypt. And Pharaoh was angry with his two officers, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker, and he put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, in the prison where Joseph was confined. The captain of the guard appointed Joseph to be with them, and he attended them. They continued for some time in custody. (Genesis 40:1–4)
The chief cupbearer and chief baker were much more than kitchen help, they were similar to senior cabinet members. Their arrival was hot news in the prison and all throughout Pharaoh’s household; they were household names. The cupbearer had responsibility to secure wine for Pharaoh and to keep the wine secure, meaning that he put his own life on the line by testing the drink for poison. He tested by drinking it, not by using a pH balance kit. This role put him close to the king and cupbearers often became confidants and counselors to the crown, as later seen between Nehemiah and Artaxerxes.
The baker may not have had such an intimate connection, but his responsibilities also brought him into frequent contact with the king.
Both of them committed an offense against their lord . Was it the same offense? Were they separate offenses but committed at the same time? What was the offense? Moses doesn’t say, mainly because that doesn’t matter for the point of the story and probably also because it lets us imagine a more serious conspiracy against the king. Pharaoh was angry .
It just so happened that Pharaoh put them in the prison where Joseph was confined , and it just so happened that the captain of the guard , the title given to Potiphar in the previous chapter, appointed Joseph to be with them, and he attended them . The cupbearer and baker received celebrity accommodations. As Joseph had served Potiphar, now Potiphar assigns this special duty to take care of these prominent prisoners.
They continued for some time in custody. They didn’t have calendars to cross of the days of their sentence. They hadn’t had a trial to know what their sentence was. Neither did Joseph, but they had been there for days so the haze of hopelessness was likely to be heavy.
The central and longest part of the chapter includes the dreams and interpretation of the dreams by Joseph.
The initial wave of hubbub leveled out until one night they both dreamed—the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were confined in the prison—each his own dream, and each dream with its own interpretation. Either they shared a cell or they were close enough to talk to each other. It was ominous. Dreams signaled something, and double-dreams on the same night were unmistakable.
When Joseph came to them in the morning, he saw that they were troubled. So he asked Pharaoh’s officers who were with him in custody in his master’s house, “Why are your faces downcast today?” I don’t remember who it was, but some Sunday School teacher or preacher of my youth observed that Joseph, a prisoner himself with probably more reasons for self-pity and depression than them, took time to notice their countenances and care for them and ask why they were troubled , seeming out of sorts, looking ill. I’ve never forgotten that. It’s highly unlikely that they treated him well, at least not at first. They were important people, he was a Hebrew slave-prisoner. Here is undeserved kindness in an unexpected place, a seed of humanity that (eventually) leads to the saving of humanity.
The dreamers are upset because, while they know their dreams are significant, they don’t have anyone who can tell them the significance. There is no one to interpret them. If they’d not been in the joint, they would’ve had access to the wise men.
And Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Please tell them to me.” Two observations about this. First, his instinctive reflex is to bring God into the discussion. Maybe that makes sense because it is about dreams, but he did the same thing about work before Potiphar. Joseph’s interpretive grid for life started with God and he was always ready to say so. Second, the only way his request fits with his rhetorical question is if they already had some idea about Joseph’s relationship to God. If interpretations belong to God, why tell Joseph? It’s only if Joseph and God are close.
This is remarkable nerve on Joseph’s part, not just before these Egyptians, but before God. Joseph had had dreams before, two in fact, but he wasn’t a itinerant interpreter that we know of, nor had his own dreams come true, not yet. Something motivates Joseph to think he can—by God’s help—tell them what their dreams mean without even knowing what their dreams are.
The cupbearer has been mentioned first every time in the chapter and he tells his dream first.
So the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph and said to him, “In my dream there was a vine before me, and on the vine there were three branches. As soon as it budded, its blossoms shot forth, and the clusters ripened into grapes. Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh’s cup and placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand.” (Genesis 40:9–11)
This is all the cupbearer says; the rest of the paragraph is Joseph’s response in which he interprets the dream and makes a request.
Then Joseph said to 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)
Joseph doesn’t hesitate or vacillate, he doesn’t even need to pray about it. He knows the meaning and asserts it with conviction. How did he know that the three branches meant three days instead of three months, or three years? He knew because interpretations belong to God. He also forecast a good outlook: the cupbearer would be restored. Pharaoh will lift up your head , which means that the downcast will be raised, he will be released from prison and reinstated to his position.
Then without taking a breath Joseph makes an appeal to 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.” (Genesis 40:14–15)
Joseph sees that this could be his own get out of jail card. He has no doubt that the dream will come true and maybe this could get me out of this house . He bases his case on the unjust nature of his imprisonment not on the miraculous nature of his interpretation. Unlike the cupbearer and the baker, he was not guilty. He had been kidnapped against his will and accused of a crime he didn’t commit. He claimed, ”I have done nothing that they should put me into the pit,” undoubtedly a reference to the pit (same word as Genesis 37:20) his brothers threw him into. He didn’t deserve that hole or this dungeon.
The response of the cupbearer isn’t recorded, but why wouldn’t he agree? What did he have to lose? He didn’t even know if the interpretation would come true.
Both men couldn’t talk at the same time, so it isn’t really too problematic that the baker spoke second as much as the fact that he only spoke when…he saw that the interpretation was favorable . Who can’t use some good news? Favorable futures aren’t pieces of a positivity pie; a bigger slice of positive for one doesn’t require a smaller slice of positive for the other. “Positive pie for everyone!”
When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was favorable, he said to Joseph, “I also had a dream: there were three cake baskets on my head, and in the uppermost basket there were all sorts of baked food for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating it out of the basket on my head.” (Genesis 40:16–17)
The dream of the baker has some similarities with that of the cupbearer, and that has to be one of the reasons why they were disturbed. The number three filters through both dreams, and the fact that each dream related to their jobs. The baker dreamed of all sorts of baked food . “The Egyptian dictionary ‘lists 38 kinds of cake and 57 varieties of bread’ (Vergot, Joseph en Egypte, quoted in Wenham) which “give an idea of the professional standards of this department” (Kidner).
Yet the dreams had different interpretations; it was not like Joseph or Pharaoh’s dreams with double-meaning making it certain.
And Joseph answered and said, “This is its interpretation: the three baskets are three days. In three days Pharaoh will lift up your head—from you!—and hang you on a tree. And the birds will eat the flesh from you.” (Genesis 40:18–19)
The three branches and the three baskets represented three days each. So far so good. The baker must have thought, “We’re both finally going to get out of this place.” And even the next phrases doesn’t sink in until the end. Pharaoh will lift up your head—from you!—and hang you on a tree. Note how the ESV separates—“from you!”—a prepositional phrase with it’s own exclamation mark, yet no verb. This is an impressive—and terrifying!—phrase. The NIV contrasts, “lift up your head” with “lift off your head.” It’s not the sort of play on words that brings a chuckle.
He may or may not mean decapitation, but the birds will eat the flesh from you means public exposure of the body as an example for others. The baker’s response is not provided. Was it, “Oh no!” or “Yeah, right”?
Somehow Moses restrained himself from saying, “This is amazing!” probably because, from Joseph’s point of view, this is an anticlimax.
On the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday, he made a feast for all his servants and lifted up the head of the chief cupbearer and the head of the chief baker among his servants. He restored the chief cupbearer to his position, and he placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand. But he hanged the chief baker, as Joseph had interpreted to them. (Genesis 40:20–22)
The third day from the interpretation was Pharaoh’s birthday, party time. But there is always business for politicians, so the king mixed work with fun. He showed clemency to the cupbearer; he got to keep his head and Pharaoh restored him to his previous position. He showed severity to the baker; he lost his head by execution. All of it happened as Joseph had interpreted to them .
Now was the moment. When would a window such as this open again? The cupbearer must have been marveling at the interpretation. Certainly it had occupied his mind for all the previous three days. Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him. The repetition is brutal; this is just the worst. How long did it take before all the air leaked out of Joseph’s hope balloon? Did every sound of steps coming down the hall or jingling of keys suggest his deliverance? Why couldn’t Potiphar’s wife have forgotten him rather than the cupbearer? The dreams he interpreted came true, but what about his own dreams?
This matter of interpretation brings us to the matter of application. When we work through these stories I purposely emphasize how God arranges the details and I emphasize the encouragement to faith that such understanding of God’s providence should supply.
It did take two more years (41:1) before the cupbearer fulfilled his thanks to Joseph, but Joseph’s kindness and giftedness, shown to strangers in prison, were not in vain. The dungeon wasn’t the place where Joseph’s dreams came true, but prison was the place that Joseph’s dreams came through. He could have been released from prison any old way. He would be raised to second-in-command this unlikely-to-us way, this only-God-works-this-way way.
Most of us need the narrative shot of faith in the sovereign Author. Whatever your pit looks like, you are there on purpose for a purpose. Trust that God is with you and do your work well.
It is possible, though, that some need a warning. The cupbearer saw a divine sign, received royal restoration, and lost his soul through forgetfulness, through willful neglect. As far as we know the cupbearer didn’t find Joseph so that he could worship and serve the God of interpretations. Sunnier days may or not make wiser souls.
The baker received bad news and did not live another 72 hours. His offense was punished and then punished by death. He had time to prepare if he’d taken the prophecy seriously, a mercy most men don’t get. But he didn’t seek further counsel from Joseph, so he likely lost his soul, just another way.
If you hear God’s Word, don’t harden your heart. Only one way leads to life, the way of faith in God, even if it seems like you are forgotten for a while.