READ: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+41%3A1-36&version=ESV LISTEN: https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/mclean/esv/Gen.41.1-Gen.41.36 Joseph Interprets Pharaoh's Dreams 41 After two whole years, Pharaoh dreamed that he was standing by the Nile, 2 and behold, there came up out of the Nile seven cows, attractive and plump, and they fed in the reed grass. 3 And behold, seven other cows, ugly and thin, came up out of the Nile after them, and stood by the other cows on the bank of the Nile. 4 And the ugly, thin cows ate up the seven attractive, plump cows. And Pharaoh awoke. 5 And he fell asleep and dreamed a second time. And behold, seven ears of grain, plump and good, were growing on one stalk. 6 And behold, after them sprouted seven ears, thin and blighted by the east wind. 7 And the thin ears swallowed up the seven plump, full ears. And Pharaoh awoke, and behold, it was a dream. 8 So in the morning his spirit was troubled, and he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt and all its wise men. Pharaoh told them his dreams, but there was none who could interpret them to Pharaoh. 9 Then the chief cupbearer said to Pharaoh, “I remember my offenses today. 10 When Pharaoh was angry with his servants and put me and the chief baker in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, 11 we dreamed on the same night, he and I, each having a dream with its own interpretation. 12 A young Hebrew was there with us, a servant of the captain of the guard. When we told him, he interpreted our dreams to us, giving an interpretation to each man according to his dream. 13 And as he interpreted to us, so it came about. I was restored to my office, and the baker was hanged.” 14 Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they quickly brought him out of the pit. And when he had shaved himself and changed his clothes, he came in before Pharaoh. 15 And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I have had a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it. I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream you can interpret it.” 16 Joseph answered Pharaoh, “It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.” 17 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Behold, in my dream I was standing on the banks of the Nile. 18 Seven cows, plump and attractive, came up out of the Nile and fed in the reed grass. 19 Seven other cows came up after them, poor and very ugly and thin, such as I had never seen in all the land of Egypt. 20 And the thin, ugly cows ate up the first seven plump cows, 21 but when they had eaten them no one would have known that they had eaten them, for they were still as ugly as at the beginning. Then I awoke. 22 I also saw in my dream seven ears growing on one stalk, full and good. 23 Seven ears, withered, thin, and blighted by the east wind, sprouted after them, 24 and the thin ears swallowed up the seven good ears. And I told it to the magicians, but there was no one who could explain it to me.” 25 Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, “The dreams of Pharaoh are one; God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do. 26 The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good ears are seven years; the dreams are one. 27 The seven lean and ugly cows that came up after them are seven years, and the seven empty ears blighted by the east wind are also seven years of famine. 28 It is as I told Pharaoh; God has shown to Pharaoh what he is about to do. 29 There will come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt, 30 but after them there will arise seven years of famine, and all the plenty will be forgotten in the land of Egypt. The famine will consume the land, 31 and the plenty will be unknown in the land by reason of the famine that will follow, for it will be very severe. 32 And the doubling of Pharaoh's dream means that the thing is fixed by God, and God will shortly bring it about. 33 Now therefore let Pharaoh select a discerning and wise man, and set him over the land of Egypt. 34 Let Pharaoh proceed to appoint overseers over the land and take one-fifth of the produce of the land of Egypt during the seven plentiful years. 35 And let them gather all the food of these good years that are coming and store up grain under the authority of Pharaoh for food in the cities, and let them keep it. 36 That food shall be a reserve for the land against the seven years of famine that are to occur in the land of Egypt, so that the land may not perish through the famine.” After many years that have passed quickly in just a couple of chapters, Joseph has gone from being the heir-apparent of his father, to a slave in the house of Potiphar, to a prisoner and an enemy of the state, to God's prophet inside the prison, to a time and place where he is now about to stand in front of Pharaoh to speak to the king and the nation on behalf of God.
Two years after Joseph prayed for the Lord to give him the interpretation of the dreams for the cook and the cupbearer, which revealed that the cook would be hanged for trying to poison Pharaoh while the chief cupbearer would be returned to his post with honor, Pharaoh has a couple of disturbing dreams given to him by God, but neither Pharaoh nor any of his "magicians" (the ones with the books of the symbols on how to interpret dreams) could give the interpretation. The cupbearer being close to the king (that is Pharaoh), heard his predicament and finally remembered Joseph and remembered that he was supposed to bring Joseph to Pharaoh's attention and had failed to do so. He tells the story of Joseph interpreting the dreams of both the cook and the cupbearer. Pharaoh calls for Joseph and Joseph is cleaned up so that he may be presentable to the king. Once again, Joseph answered wisely to give God the glory for the interpretation of the dreams, just as he had with the cook and the cupbearer. Pharaoh relays the dreams to Joseph about seven fat cows and seven skinny cows by the river and how the seven skinny cows ate the seven fat cows, but the seven skinny cows stayed skinny. And again there was a stalk of corn with seven good and full ears of corn and seven ears of withered, dried-up, blighted corn And the seven withered ears ate up the seven good ears and remained withered, dried-up and blighted so that there was no difference from before. Pharaoh reiterates that he had told these dreams to all of the magicians of Egypt and none of them could give an interpretation. Joseph then spoke to Pharaoh say the two dreams were two versions of the same dream--there were going to be seven years of plenty followed by seven years of severe famine that would be so severe that they would seem to swallow up the seven years of plenty and no one would remember them--they would only remember the famine. And this famine would be so severe that it would take place the entire kingdom of Egypt and this thing that God is going to do is certain, but that God was giving Pharaoh this dream so that he could be ready and prepare for it. Joseph then goes beyond just interpreting the dream and lays out a plan for Pharoah to institute a 20% tax on all produce and to store up this tax from the years of plenty so that they may have enough to give rations to all the people of Egypt during the time of famine. We'll see in tomorrow's passage how Pharaoh sees that Joseph is not only blessed with the gifts of prophecy and the interpretation of dreams, but also with the gift of administration and Pharaoh sees no one better to execute Joseph's plan than Joseph himself (and probably it's to his political advantage to make Joseph the "fall guy" if something goes wrong), so God will once again change Joseph's address and give him a different mission which will lead to one of the greatest statements in the entire Bible when Joseph will be reunited with his brothers and say to them, "You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good." However, I don't want to get too far ahead of myself and look forward to sharing more with you about the story of Joseph--an Old Testament type of Christ--next time.
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Daniel WestfallI will mostly use this space for recording my "journal" from my daily devotions as I hope to encourage others to read the Bible along with me and to leave a legacy for others. Archives
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