HealingStrong's Around the Word

Episode 6 - The Joseph Series: Finding Hope in Frustration (Genesis 40:1-22 NIV)

• HealingStrong • Episode 6

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We explore Genesis 40:1-22, where Joseph interprets the dreams of Pharaoh's imprisoned cupbearer and baker, revealing how God's precise timing works through human circumstances to accomplish His greater purposes.

This quick episode covers:

• Joseph interprets two dreams that reveal different destinies—restoration for the cupbearer and death for the baker
• God's strategic timing becomes evident as the dreams occur exactly three days before Pharaoh's birthday
• The parallel between the two prisoners mirrors the two criminals at the cross—one restored, one condemned
• Joseph shows a rare glimpse of human frustration when asking the cupbearer to remember him
• The cupbearer's and baker's divergent fates represent the fundamental spiritual choice all humans face
• Joseph's request to be remembered connects to the biblical theme of asking God to remember us in our difficulties

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Suggested Resources:

BIBLE PLAN - Trusting God's Plan in the Waiting: Lessons from the Life of Joseph

PODCAST - Genesis to Revelation Bible Reading

TOOLS - Refresh Your Spirit through God's Word




Speaker 1:

I can identify with that guy too. He's frustrated. He knows what it's like to wait and how hard it can be sometimes when you're in a prison, when your weight is a prison. Well, hello, good listener. My name is Cheryl and you are listening to Healing Strong's Around the Word. We're friends sitting around the table who love the Lord and love digging deep into His Word. Each day you'll hear me reading a Bible passage and then we'll chat about what we're learning from it. Today I'll be reading Genesis 40, verses 1-22 from the NIV version of the Bible. So go ahead and join us around the Word. Genesis 40, 1-22.

Speaker 1:

Sometime later, the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt offended their master, the king of Egypt. Pharaoh was angry with his two officials, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker, and put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard in the same prison where Joseph was confined. The captain of the guard assigned them to Joseph and he attended them. After they had been in custody for some time, each of the two men, the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were being held in prison, had a dream the same night, and each dream had a meaning of its own. When Joseph came to them the next morning, he saw that they were dejected. So he asked Pharaoh's officials who were in custody with him in his master's house why do you look so sad today? We both had dreams. They answered, but there is no one to interpret them. Then Joseph said to them Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams. So the chief cupbearer told Joseph his dream. He said to him In my dream I saw a vine in front of me and on the vine were three branches. As soon as it budded, it blossomed and its clusters ripened into grapes. Pharaoh's cup was in my hand and I took. This is what it means. Joseph said to him the three branches are three days. Within three days, pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your position and you will put Pharaoh's cup in his hand, just as you used to do when you were his cupbearer. When all goes well with you, remember me and show me kindness, mention me to Pharaoh and get me out of this prison. I was forcibly carried off from the land of the Hebrews and even here I have done nothing to deserve being put in a dungeon.

Speaker 1:

When the chief baker saw that Joseph had given a favorable interpretation. He said to Joseph I too had a dream. On my head were three baskets of bread. In the top basket were all kinds of baked goods for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating them out of the basket on my head. This is what it means. Joseph said the three baskets are three days. Within three days, pharaoh will lift off your head and impale your body on a pole and the birds will eat away your flesh. Now the third day was Pharaoh's birthday and he gave a feast for all his officials. He lifted up the heads of the chief cupbearer and the chief baker in the presence of his officials. He restored the chief cupbearer to his position so that he once again put the cup into Pharaoh's hand, but he impaled the chief baker, just as Joseph had said to them in his interpretation.

Speaker 1:

That was our Bible reading today. So now let's listen in on the discussion that Susie, angie Maren and yours truly are having around the word. So we get to meet some people today the cupbearer and the baker. I just love the fact that it says, dropping down to verse 20,. Now the third day was Pharaoh's birthday. So again, god's divine hand in all of this. We don't know how long these guys have been in the prison. And then suddenly Pharaoh has a big birthday party and he needs his baker and his cupbearer again, even though they're in prison. So but they happen to have the dreams a couple of days before that. So just the strategicness of God's timing, just in this story here, with that, with the timing of the dreams, and notice it was both of them had a dream the same night too.

Speaker 2:

God always has a reason for numbers too, and I'm sure the three days you know, one was released, just like he was, you know, back to his duties and then the other one.

Speaker 3:

It's just like at the cross One was rejected and one believed, and one was with paradise, with Jesus. So there's, it's a significance, I think, of the cross. A decision has to be made and you either reject or you accept, and then that determines your destiny. So here we see that one of them's dream meant that he was going to be impaled in three days, and the other so that's death and destruction, the enemy. And the other was so that's death and destruction, the enemy. And the other was restoration and redemption, and he was restored to his place back in the kingdom. What a beautiful picture of the cross.

Speaker 2:

What's really neat, though, in this I was reminded of the verse you know we have not, because we ask not. Joseph didn't just interpret the dreams. He interpreted the dreams and then said when you get out, remember me. You know, so he spoke on his own behalf to encourage the cupbearer to remember him and speak with favor upon him. He didn't have to do that, he could have just interpreted the dream, but he went one step further. I love that.

Speaker 1:

And we have a whole Bible study too, kind of based on this verse remember me, remember me, lord, which is part of Healing Strong's Bible studies that we've created. It's a Bible study of when people have prayed in the Bible asking God to remember them, and this is one time where Joseph did. And can't you just identify with him here? This is the one time where we really see a little frustration coming out of him, when he's saying I did not deserve this. Just the tiniest glimpse. I mean, can you imagine how many times he probably was frustrated or just vented in prison? But we see just a little bit of glimpse. He's human. He's not perfect. He was frustrated and that makes him so more believable as a person.

Speaker 1:

I can identify with that guy too. He's frustrated. He knows what it's like to wait and how hard it can be sometimes when you're in a prison, when your weight is a prison. And that is it for our discussion today. Isn't that very interesting to see that someone who lived all those years ago still had the same kind of emotions and frustrations that we do today? We can learn so much from Joseph's story and we are so glad that you have been joining us on Healing Strong's Around the Word podcast. We hope you are encouraged to dig deeper into God's Word with us. Please visit us at healingstrongorg, where you can find out more about our mission and community groups. Until next time, remember faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.