Joseph and Pharaoh and the Interpretation of Dreams.

Genesis Chapter 41: 45-57 (Part 3 of 3)

So, here’s a young man Joseph has gone from prisoner to vice president just because one day he met somebody in jail. Something that was probably a minor incident to Joseph when considered alongside the catastrophic personal events he had experienced at the amazing things that will happen to him later, Like Prime minister to our Queen overnight. He has spent two plus years waiting in that jail, and then bam, all of a sudden, he is promoted to second in command in all of the land of Egypt. Now we’re going to have to hurry along if we are going to get chapter 41 covered in three studies.

Pharaoh gave Joseph the name Zaphenath-Paneah and gave him Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, to be his wife. And Joseph went throughout the land of Egypt. Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from Pharaoh’s presence and travelled throughout Egypt. (Genesis 41: 45-46)

Verse 45 tells us Joseph was given a wife and what is significant about that is that she was the daughter of the priest in a city called On. That shows he has now only been given political authority, but he was given social standing as well. His wife was the daughter of the priest of the city of On, which was a well-known center of the worship of the Sun. On was about 10 miles northeast of what is modern-day Cairo. The high priest at on was given the title of “The Greatest of the Sears and prophets”. Joseph thus married into the elite of Egyptian nobility. So, he now not only had political standing, he is married and holds a high social position as well. It seems that God permitted this marriage.

I can’t read this chapter and not help but remember that God commanded the Children of Israel not to marry the Canaanites yet here we have Joseph marrying an Egyptian woman. What do you make of that, well apparently, and God permitted it. I’m not saying God agreed with it up it appears he permitted it on this occasion. It’s worth noting that in the cases of the Canaanites, when they married a Canaanite, the Canaanites were seen to lead them off into idolatry. But here, Joseph marries an Egyptian wife, and as a matter of fact, he had two sons, and the passage goes on to tell us he named them Manasseh and Ephraim, but note it says that he also trained them to serve the true and living God, and we will discover that he did that to such a degree they are seen later to became part of the tribes of Israel.  

Somebody once said only a man like Joseph schooled in adversity and sorrow can meet a sudden elevation like this, without pride or self-exaltation. His rigorous approach to maintaining his faith in all situations enabled him to encounter success without succumbing to its temptations, and he would have likely passed that faith onto his two children. He had these sons, but they did not serve idols. 

Meanwhile we are told that the famine was extensive, it covered the entire land of Egypt, but when the people asked for food, they sent them to Joseph and said you do whatever he tells you to do that is completely comply with whatever plan he has put into operation. Let’s continue the text reading all the way down to verse 52,

During the seven years of abundance the land produced plentifully. Joseph collected all the food produced in those seven years of abundance in Egypt and stored it in the cities. In each city he put the food grown in the fields surrounding it. Joseph stored up huge quantities of grain, like the sand of the sea; it was so much that he stopped keeping records because it was beyond measure. (Genesis 41: 47-49)

Before the years of famine came, two sons were born to Joseph by Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On. Joseph named his firstborn Manasseh and said, “It is because God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father’s household.” The second son he named Ephraim and said, “It is because God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering.” (Genesis 41: 50-52)

Joseph predicting exactly what would happen and because of that he was able to save not only Egypt but as it turns out other people as well from adjacent lands from the famine that engulfed the whole region. That is the story which will be continued in the next chapter. Just how significant this will turn out to be in the life of Joseph but also in the nation of Israel we will find out later. Before we get there, let’s just talk about what happens in this chapter. This chapter is telling us the Lord “providentially” used the interpretation of a dream to put Joseph in the period of a single day second in command in Egypt and to make him the successful administrator of an international food program, and then in the longer term give him two sons and it all started when Joseph met a butler in jail. 

That an amazing example of the way God providentially works. The doctrine of providence says that God works behind the scenes hiding himself from view from those with no faith but working things out to take care of his own in the long term in a way that they can see in the fullness of time.  It is God, using natural means to accomplish his will. 

In the Providence of God, he trains his children and places them in situations that we only later come to recognize as his providential hand in our lives. Sometimes he even places us in positions of influence and service so that we can be used to bring about his purposes in wider situations, maybe even using us to bless the wider society that we live in. One commentator I read said the message of this passage is that God may even controls the fortunes of nations in order to protect and provide for his covenant people. Clearly God is working in this situation for Joseph, but he is not really working supernaturally here, except in the intensely personal experience of dreams but providentially through other people and societal circumstances around him, and that is acknowledged in the text. Which is why Joseph says, God gave you the dream and God will give the interpretation also. God worked through the dream, only because people responded to the interpretation and it all came about because one day he met a butler in jail.

Now I want to put this into practical daily perspective. I think that there are some preachers today, believers who get all caught up in the idea that God works supernaturally. So, let me deal first with the question, does God work supernaturally? Of course, he does, yes, he does miracles in the Bible and there’s no getting around that. I don’t doubt what God works in that way also today, I’m not doubting that, but I want to put this in perspective. I sometimes get frustrated by preachers who promised miracles, and they don’t happen people get disheartened. I saw it so often that it provoked me to go study what the Bible has to say about miracles. And one of the things I did was a layout of all the miracles in the Bible and one of the things I discovered was they don’t happen every day, not in the Bible anyway. If you listen to some preachers and evangelists, and it just sounds like that’s the only way God works and he works that way all the time. But read the Bible, that is not the way God works, not all the time, anyway. As a matter of fact, if you take the whole Bible and the time periods that cover miracles, then they really are relatively few. They’re there, but they’re relatively few.
 
God usually brings his purpose to pass by such normal and natural means that only the eye of faith sees that he’s been at work at all. It was in this way God prepared for the coming of Joseph. Now I think that puts it in perspective.

In the Bible, there are only three periods of miracles scattered over 1600 years. Moses and Joshua, Elijah and Elijah, Jesus and the apostles. That’s it. 1600 years, and you’ve got three brief periods and as I recall. these periods lasted no more than 100 years each at most.

My point is God uses miracles, but it’s not the way he always works by any means. He works through natural means, and it’s called “providence”. He works behind the scenes, and our job is to be faithful, to exercise our spiritual gifts and trust the Lord for the results. That’s exactly what Joseph did. He did what he could do, and he trusted the Lord. For the rest, there is no telling what God will do. Joseph exercises his spiritual gift in prison and ended up Prime Minister of a whole nation. So, God used a needs to elevate Joseph and as we will see in the coming chapters, he is able to save the whole nation of Israel and thereby God’s covenant salvation plan for the whole world.  Using a little thing that started by him interpreting the dreams of his cell mates. That is the way God works, he works providentially, and that’s the way he works most of the time.

This tells me you should never be discouraged; you may be discouraged if you always waiting for a miracle and don’t see that God is in fact working through some minor thing that you don’t think is significant at all. It might just mean that something very ordinary today might just turns out to be one of the most significant things to ever happen in your life.  William Keller was a frail man. He was a bundle of nerves. He constantly suffered with swollen eyes due to chronic inflammation. He attempted suicide He spent time in a mental health hospital and this was in the day when such places where places where patients were often treated with contempt and cruelty.  Yet through this long ordeal, he became one of England literary geniuses and hymn writers. It was William Couple who wrote.

God moves in mysterious ways his wonders to perform.

He plants his footprints in the sea and rides upon the storm deep in the unfathomable minds of never-failing skill.

He treasures up his brightest design and works his sovereign will. 

God moves in mysterious ways his wonders to perform.

Father, we thank you for this assurance that you are at work and sometimes we don’t see it. But we know you’re there and we see the fruit and the result of those seemingly random occurrences and chance meetings. Thank you, Father, for this reminder that you are working in our lives in normal, natural ways, but we thank you that with the eyes of faith they are just as significant as if it was supernatural.