Joseph and Pharaoh and the Interpretation of Dreams (Part 1 of 3)

Genesis Chapter 41: 1-57 (The Providence of God)

It’s not unusual to have something that we think of at the time is relatively unimportant have it turn out later to be something rather important. A simple illustration that happens all the time is some a boy meets a girl, they just happened to cross paths. Neither one of them thought much about the encounter at the time, but overtime they ended up getting married. We’ve all heard stories like that, so it’s a just an ordinary event in their lives when it first happens but it ended up in retrospect being a major event.

The same kind of thing happens to me as a 17-year-old teenager growing up in N Ireland in the 70’s. In the evenings and at weekends I was working in a petrol forecourt in N Ireland when due to the troubles and  what was called the UUAC strike, a Unionist and Paramilitary led strike there was petrol rationing on forecourts. I met a man who was regional director of one of the UK leading Insurance companies, offered me a job on the spot.

The illustrations are endless but what is surprising to know is that God uses that very kind of thing to accomplish his will in the world, and that’s the concept I want to talk about tonight. In fact, that kind of thing is so common that theologians have a word for this. We don’t hear it very much these days, but if you study theology, Bible experts will talk about the providence of God. The idea being that God works behind the scenes, the opposite of God working “providentially” is that God works “supernaturally”. It’s unexpected, it’s dramatic, and it’s miraculous when he works supernaturally. But what is often missed is that God also uses natural means, he uses events that at the time you might think, are important or just part of the everyday goings on, but things that at the time that seem relatively minor can end up being major. There’s a whole book in the Bible written about such things and that’s the book of Esther. The subject of that book is the Providence of God. 

Another illustration of it isn’t Genesis Chapter 41, and that’s what I would like for us to look at tonight. Remember last time when we last saw Joseph, he was in jail. So as we open Chapter 41 Joseph still is is still in jail and he has been there for some time now.It is important, in fact, it is imperative that you know that he’s in jail as you begin to read this chapter because in this one chapter Joseph will go from prisoner to Prime Minister and that transformation will happen overnight. How that gets accomplished is the issue of the providence of God and is the whole the point of this passage of scripture. 

It is what this whole chapter 41 illustrates. This is an illustration of how God uses some relatively minor things in order to accomplish some great things. So, with that in mind, let’s look at the story in Genesis chapter 41. This is a fascinating story, and it one that illustrates the singular spiritual point that God is working in the everyday, and it is in these everyday things if we look hard enough, we can see the Providence of God.

So, let’s start with verse one. 

When two full years had passed, Pharaoh had a dream: he was standing by the Nile, when out of the river there came up seven cows, sleek and fat, and they grazed among the reeds. After them, seven other cows, ugly and gaunt, came up out of the Nile and stood beside those on the riverbank. And the cows that were ugly and gaunt ate up the seven sleek, fat cows. Then Pharaoh woke up.He fell asleep again and had a second dream: seven ears of corn, healthy and good, were growing on a single stalk. After them, seven other ears of corn sprouted – thin and scorched by the east wind. The thin ears of corn swallowed up the seven healthy, full ears. Then Pharaoh woke up; it had been a dream.

(Genesis 41: 1-7)

Let’s pause here for a second. What’s going on here is relatively simple, it’s self-evident reading the passage but the significant thing is that it says, “it came to pass, at the end of two full years”. Now the significance of that is that in Chapter 40, Joseph was left in jail so when it says and it came to pass two full years had gone by. Joseph has now been in jail for two years, two full years. You’re probably thinking that’s not mentioned at this point, but it will come up later in the passage, but the passage here is making a little notation, by saying at this point Pharaoh had a dream. 

In the dream he stood by the river, the river is not identified, but no doubt this is in Egypt, so it’s probably the Nile. What he sees are 7 cows and he describes them as good looking and fat meaning well nourished, We know from sources outside the Bible that cattle then as today would go into water so as to cool off and to keep the flies off,

In his dream Pharaoh’s cows come out of the river and go up and start grazing in the Meadow. Then in his dream he sees seven more cows. They are described as ugly and gaunt; the Hebrew word means they were not well nourished. What we have here is 7 thin cows down by the river and seven fat cows over in the Meadow. So far so good. What’s interesting about this dream is the thin cows eat the fat cows, now in the first place, cows don’t eat other cows, of course, they eat grass. This is obviously an odd, unusual dream and it startled Pharoah and the text says in verse four it startled him to such an extent that it woke him up. Apparently, he eventually went back to sleep again, so let’s pick up the story in verse 5. 

He fell asleep again and had a second dream: Seven heads of grain, healthy and good, were growing on a single stalk. After them, seven other heads of grain sprouted—thin and scorched by the east wind. The thin heads of grain swallowed up the seven healthy, full heads. Then Pharaoh woke up; it had been a dream.

(Genesis 41: 5-7)

So, he dreams a second time and again suddenly he awakes rather disturbed again by the dream. Now the second dream is similar to the first dream, only this time instead of cows, he sees grain, one lot where the yield is plump and another where the grain head is thin and has been battered by the east wind, and the seven thin heads are seen to devour the seven thick grain heads. So, it’s basically it the same dream only this time with grain replacing the cows of the first dream. In both cases it’s seven, and in both cases the thin eat the fat. He wakes up in the morning and thinks what in the world does that all mean? Being pharaoh, he had resources to call upon, so he thinks he can get help with any problem or almost any problem…. Verse 8 

In the morning his mind was troubled, so he sent for all the magicians and wise men of Egypt. Pharaoh told them his dreams, but no one could interpret them for him.

(Genesis 41: 8)

So it say he was troubled by the dream but the word actually means disturbed. He was more than just curious to find out what it meant he was really troubled by his dream, and he calls for all the magicians of Egypt and all the wise men, yet no one could interpret the dreams for him. He calls the “supposed” wise men of Egypt, these men were probably a mixture of astrologers, occultists and charlatans and he gives them the dream but none of them can interpret the dream. He’s now disturbed and on top of that, frustrated because no one can tell him the interpretation of the dreams. 

I think before we go any further in this story, I would just like to suggest that God probably gave him this dream. That becomes evident as we progress further into the story. What I think is interesting is that all these supposed wise men couldn’t understand it. The Bible teaches that unbelievers don’t understand God, word, God’s will, or the way God works. They just don’t understand it, they just can’t imagine how God works and what is going on here. I’m not surprising really because the Bible teaches that people can appear wise in this world but are dumb when it comes to the things of God. So, the chief cup bearer speaks up at this point.

Now let’s pause here for a second, remember the story of the cup bearer and the baker. Earlier in the Book of Genesis, we were told that Joseph was falsely accused of trying to molest Potiphar’s wife and he gets thrown in jail. In jail He meets the Pharaohs Cup Bearer and Baker and they had dreams, and Joseph, who was a fellow prisoner, was able to interpret their dreams and his interpretation proved to be true, just exactly like he said. What he said was that the Cup Bearer was going to be freed and the Baker was going to be hung, and that’s what happened. So, when the Cup Bearer got out of prison, Joseph said to the cup bearer, when you’re back in Pharaohs court, remember Me and tell him my story. I am here unjustly, I didn’t do anything to get here. But the text tells us that the Butler, the cup bearer, got back to Pharaohs court and he forgot all about Joseph.

For two years, he forgot about Joseph. Then one day, Pharaoh has this dream, and the butler says “dreams”, Oh yeah. I met a guy once, two years ago in jail, and he interpreted my dream in what he said was exactly right. 

Then the chief cupbearer said to Pharaoh, “Today I am reminded of my shortcomings. Pharaoh was once angry with his servants, and he imprisoned me and the chief baker in the house of the captain of the guard. Each of us had a dream the same night, and each dream had a meaning of its own. Now a young Hebrew was there with us, a servant of the captain of the guard. We told him our dreams, and he interpreted them for us, giving each man the interpretation of his dream. And things turned out exactly as he interpreted them to us: I was restored to my position, and the other man was impaled.”

(Genesis 41: 9-13)

If you recall that story, the Butler, and the Baker apparently did something wrong to get thrown in jail, so I suspect that the Butler wasn’t too eager to go talk to Pharaoh and remind him of the time he had to have him throw him into prison. Anyway, he speaks up and we shall find out what he says, next time.