Genesis 40--Joseph Interprets Two Prisoners' Dreams

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Joseph Interprets Two Prisoners' Dreams

40 Some time after this, the cupbearer of the king of Egypt and his baker committed an offense against their lord the king of Egypt. 2 And Pharaoh was angry with his two officers, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker, 3 and he put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, in the prison where Joseph was confined. 4 The captain of the guard appointed Joseph to be with them, and he attended them. They continued for some time in custody.

5 And 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. 6 When Joseph came to them in the morning, he saw that they were troubled. 7 So he asked Pharaoh's officers who were with him in custody in his master's house, “Why are your faces downcast today?” 8 They said to him, “We have had dreams, and there is no one to interpret them.” And Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Please tell them to me.”

9 So the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph and said to him, “In my dream there was a vine before me, 10 and on the vine there were three branches. As soon as it budded, its blossoms shot forth, and the clusters ripened into grapes. 11 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.” 12 Then Joseph said to him, “This is its interpretation: the three branches are three days. 13 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. 14 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. 15 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.”

16 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, 17 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.” 18 And Joseph answered and said, “This is its interpretation: the three baskets are three days. 19 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.”

​20 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. 21 He restored the chief cupbearer to his position, and he placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand. 22 But he hanged the chief baker, as Joseph had interpreted to them. 23 Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him.

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I told you a little about this passage at the end of the blog from Chapter 39 of Genesis.  Joseph, through no fault of his own in that chapter, got arrested because the wife of his owner accused him of trying to rape or at least sexually assault her when in reality it was Potiphar's wife who was trying to force Joseph to have sexual relations with her while Potiphar was away.

Joseph gets thrown into prison--but not just any prison, as it seems like this prison is reserved for those who are political enemies of the state, as these other two prisoners we are going to see today are there because one or both of them were involved in an attempt to poison the Pharaoh's food in an assassination attempt.   The two obvious culprits were Pharaoh's cook and cupbearer.

We don't usually have cupbearers in today's society, and some translations will say "butler" (which isn't really right).  This person served by the side of the king and was part of his "security detail."  Specifically, it was his job to taste-test everything that the king was going to eat or drink to make sure that it would not make the king sick and that it did not contain any lethal poison (and that it actually tasted good and was fit for the king).  Poisoned food shouldn't be able to get through to the king unless he let it happen, or unless the cook sent different (non-poisoned) food to the cupbearer than he sent to the king.  Both of these men where in prison awaiting execution unless the investigation showed that one of them was innocent.

Both men had dreams sent from God, but the dreams were symbolic and while these men probably would have turned to the magicians in the king's palace for interpretation of such dreams if they were in their royal posts, they were in prison and had no one to turn to.  Joseph, being the man of integrity that he was had gained the respect of the jailer (think warden of the prison) and had been given care over the inmates--much like he had been given care over everything in Potiphar's house, save Potiphar's wife.

He sees these two prisoners are troubled by something and asks them what's wrong.  They tell him they've had a disturbing dream and they don't know the interpretation.  Notice Joseph's response--he doesn't claim that he's an interpreter of dreams.  He says that interpretation of dreams belongs to God and that they should tell Joseph the dreams so that he can pray to the Lord for the interpretation.

I'll let you read the dreams and the interpretations on your own, but God uses these dreams to reveal to the two parties that He knows which is guilty and which is innocent, and which one would be set free and restored to his position and which one would be executed.  In this situation, it was the cook who was guilty and the cupbearer--one of the closest people to the Pharaoh, was set free.  Joseph's only request was that the cupbearer remember how Joseph had helped him and plead to Pharaoh on his behalf once he was released, but the cupbearer did not remember Joseph or his request (at least, not at this time).

God uses this situation though to prepare the way for another divine appointment when God will send dreams to Pharaoh that his wise men (the "magicians") could not interpret and the cupbearer will remember that there was a man in prison with him who could interpret dreams, or at least served a God who could interpret dreams, and Joseph will be called forth from prison to assist Pharaoh with some truly miraculous results.  We'll study that passage next time, Lord willing.