Genesis 40: 1 – 23
You can’t handle the truth
40 It came to pass after these things that the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt offended their lord, the king of Egypt. 2 And Pharaoh was angry with his two officers, the chief butler and the chief baker. 3 So he put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, in the prison, the place where Joseph was confined. 4 And the captain of the guard charged Joseph with them, and he served them; so they were in custody for a while. 5 Then the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were confined in the prison, had a dream, both of them, each man’s dream in one night and each man’s dream with its own interpretation. 6 And Joseph came in to them in the morning and looked at them, and saw that they were sad. 7 So he asked Pharaoh’s officers who were with him in the custody of his lord’s house, saying, “Why do you look so sad today?” 8 And they said to him, “We each have had a dream, and there is no interpreter of it.” So Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell them to me, please.” 9 Then the chief butler told his dream to Joseph, and said to him, “Behold, in my dream a vine was before me, 10 and in the vine were three branches; it was as though it budded, its blossoms shot forth, and its clusters brought forth ripe grapes. 11 Then 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 And Joseph said to him, “This is the interpretation of it: The three branches are three days. 13 Now within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your place, and you will put Pharaoh’s cup in his hand according to the former manner, when you were his butler. 14 But remember me when it is well with you, and please show kindness to me; make mention of me to Pharaoh, and get me out of this house. 15 For indeed I was stolen away from the land of the Hebrews; and also I have done nothing here that they should put me into the dungeon.” 16 When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was good, he said to Joseph, “I also was in my dream, and there were three white baskets on my head. 17 In the uppermost basket were all kinds of baked goods for Pharaoh, and the birds ate them out of the basket on my head.” 18 So Joseph answered and said, “This is the interpretation of it: The three baskets are three days. 19 Within three days Pharaoh will lift off your head from you and hang you on a tree; and the birds will eat your flesh from you.” 20 Now it came to pass on the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday that he made a feast for all his servants; and he lifted up the head of the chief butler and of the chief baker among his servants. 21 Then he restored the chief butler to his butlership again, 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 butler did not remember Joseph, but forgot him.
If I said this line from a movie, can you answer what movie was it, and who were the two actors involved? I think most of you would know all three. The line was, ‘you can’t handle the truth.’ The answer for the movie is ‘A Few Good Men.’ The two actors are Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson who was the one who directed the comment at Cruise.
Like it or not, the truth is that all of us are susceptible to falling into a sneaky psychological trap called confirmation bias or my side bias. It is one of the many cognitive biases that afflict humans as determined by the American Psychological Society. They have stated that this type of a thinking pattern refers to our tendency to search for and favor information that confirms our beliefs while simultaneously ignoring or devaluing information that contradicts our beliefs.
Person A is a liberal in his beliefs. Generally liberals believe in governmental action to achieve equal opportunity and equality for all, and this it is the duty of the State to alleviate social ills and to protect civil liberties and individual human rights. In addition a liberal believes the role of the government should be to guarantee that no one is in need. This thinking also believes that everyone is basically good. Liberal policies therefore generally emphasize the need for the government to solve people’s problems. They only search out and read stories about their individual slant with other liberal thinkers. As a result, Person A continues to confirm and support his current beliefs.
Person B is conservative in his thinking. He believes in personal responsibility, limited government, free markets, individual liberty, traditional American values and a strong national defense. He believes that the role of government should be to provide people the freedom necessary to pursue their own goals. Conservative policies generally emphasize empowerment of the individual to solve problems. He like Person A only searches out TV programs and literature that supports his point of view. As a result, Person B continues to confirm and support their current beliefs.
A unique point is that even in cases where people do expose themselves to alternative points of view, it may be a form of confirmation bias; they want to confirm that the opposition is, indeed, wrong. In fact, when our deepest convictions are challenged by contradictory evidence, we may experience the “backfire effect.” The term backfire effect describes how some individuals, when confronted with evidence that conflicts with their beliefs, come to hold their original position even more strongly.
Just as confirmation bias shields you when you actively seek information, the backfire effect defends you when the information seeks you, when it blindsides you. Coming or going, you stick to your beliefs instead of questioning them.
Now aren’t you all happy that you know these types of human thinking? Are you asking yourselves is this information really necessary? Well, in a way –yes. For today we are going to look at two other people A and B’s. These two men have different jobs in Egypt. One is a baker and the other is the wine steward. One had planned to harm the Pharaoh and the other one is innocent. Since the king did not know which one had conspired to kill him he threw both into prison.
As we have learned in our last study that the Lord God Yahweh was looking out for Joseph. Joseph noticed these two men and reached out to them relative to their thoughts and dreams. He wanted to help them understand from God’s point of view what these thoughts and dreams meant. Like our previous examples of Person A and B these two guys also exemplified confirmation bias or my side bias. They did not want to talk about their problems. They had their thoughts welled up in themselves and that was that. Ultimately Joseph encouraged Person A the wine steward to get his thoughts out. Joseph explained to Person A some really good news. This encouraged Person B to open up and share his dream. You will see that his position was not good. Ultimately it would result in his death. So, let’s get into today’s Bible story.
40 It came to pass after these things that the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt offended their lord, the king of Egypt. 2 And Pharaoh was angry with his two officers, the chief butler and the chief baker.
We note here the old title ‘the king of Egypt’ and the new title ‘Pharaoh’, the latter probably an updating by Moses. We do not know how the two ‘officers’ offended but it may be that something made Pharaoh ill and the blame fell equally on the two responsible for his food and drink. Later investigation may then have vindicated the butler and put the blame on the baker.
The king’s cupbearer had an extremely important and high ranking position. It was he who handed the cup to the king after tasting it to check for poison, and he was thus the only one who could slip something into the drink after it had been tested. He was therefore a highly trusted officer.
Bakers are well known in Egypt but there is no exact equivalent to ‘head of the bakers’ as far as we know. However there would clearly be someone who was in charge of the bakers at the various palaces. He too would be responsible to guard against the king being poisoned.
3 So he put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, in the prison, the place where Joseph was confined. 4 And the captain of the guard charged Joseph with them, and he served them; so they were in custody for a while.
Such important prisoners were treated with special dignity, and the captain of the guard (note not the keeper of the prison) put them in Joseph’s special charge. He took a personal interest in the care of these important men for he knew their influence and that they may well be released and be in a position to do him good or harm.
Joseph took his charge seriously and made sure they were well looked after, often attending to their needs himself. The fact that he is entrusted with this task by the captain of the guard may point to the fact that the latter had had second thoughts about his previous guilt. Alternately he may have recognized the special qualities of Joseph and accepted that he had simply forgotten himself for a moment with regard to his wife. After all nothing had actually happened to her and by this time tempers had cooled. Or he may even have forgotten who Joseph was and relied on the recommendation of the keeper of the prison.
5 Then the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were confined in the prison, had a dream, both of them, each man’s dream in one night and each man’s dream with its own interpretation.
The scene is now set. Both officers have dreams on the same night, dreams which, we are informed, were significant for they had their own meaning. It would appear that they both were deeply troubled by them, for they both knew that such dreams could be a portent of something serious and could have an important meaning. The interpretation of dreams was a ‘science’. Men studied and learned the techniques for interpreting them and much had been written on the subject. But because they were in prison they could not consult them.
6 And Joseph came in to them in the morning and looked at them, and saw that they were sad. 7 So he asked Pharaoh’s officers who were with him in the custody of his lord’s house, saying, “Why do you look so sad today?”
When Joseph saw them it was clear to him that something was wrong. And he recognized that it was his responsibility to cheer them up. So he asked them what it was that was wrong.
8 And they said to him, “We each have had a dream, and there is no interpreter of it.” So Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell them to me, please.”
Their reply demonstrates the confidence they had built up in Joseph. They felt he was important enough and friendly enough to discuss the matter with (you do not tell such important things to just anyone). Thus they explained that they had had dreams which appeared to be important but that they had no means of obtaining their interpretation. They were no doubt filled with a sense of foreboding. Such portents were often a warning. Being in prison what did they have to lose in revealing their thoughts to Joseph? Of course there was the possibility that Joseph could tell on them but by his ways they came to trust him. What was keen in their acceptance of talking to Joseph was that he gave all honor and credit to God. Let them tell him the dreams and the implication is that his God will help him to interpret them. The cupbearer spoke up first.
9 Then the chief butler told his dream to Joseph, and said to him, “Behold, in my dream a vine was before me, 10 and in the vine were three branches; it was as though it budded, its blossoms shot forth, and its clusters brought forth ripe grapes. 11 Then 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.”
Thus in his dream the cupbearer saw a vine which magically budded and came to full fruitfulness in a short time from which he was able to fill Pharaoh’s cup and give it to Pharaoh. The cupbearer probably went into more detail when speaking to Joseph but the writer is summarizing the essential parts.
12 And Joseph said to him, “This is the interpretation of it: The three branches are three days. 13 Now within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your place, and you will put Pharaoh’s cup in his hand according to the former manner, when you were his butler. 14 But remember me when it is well with you, and please show kindness to me; make mention of me to Pharaoh, and get me out of this house. 15 For indeed I was stolen away from the land of the Hebrews; and also I have done nothing here that they should put me into the dungeon.”
Joseph gives the king’s cupbearer good news. He is to be restored to favor in three days time. And this gives Joseph himself hope. He knows how influential this great man is and he asks him to act to secure his relief. His suggestion that Pharaoh may be approached on the matter is possibly naive, but he may well have been right that the Chief Cupbearer himself was influential enough to be able to do it.
As I have mentioned people only want to hear positive information relative to their personal lives. If you are good at smoothing and flattery you will go far. Another key point is that when you feed someone good and enjoyable encouragement in truth they are not really interested in how you are doing. In Philly we display this point of view. The way people here great each other is to say, ‘How you doin?’ In fact they really do not care how you are doing so if you start to go into any detail of your life they are shocked that you would respond like that. The answer usually is ‘fine’ or ‘okay’ and then the words would be returned by saying, ‘How You doin?’ [this time with emphasis on the ‘You’]
We see the same thing here in Joseph’s full explanation of matter concerning his own life. It would certainly not help his case to suggest that his brothers had actually chosen to sell him, for that would imply some kind of guilt, and his statement was factually correct. He had not been sold legitimately, but dishonestly. His statement said all that needed to be said, and gave the right indication of innocence and misfortune.
16 When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was good, he said to Joseph, “I also was in my dream, and there were three white baskets on my head. 17 In the uppermost basket were all kinds of baked goods for Pharaoh, and the birds ate them out of the basket on my head.”
Encouraged by the positive meaning of the cupbearer’s dream the head baker recounts his own dream. He wasn’t expecting anything bad to be said to him by Joseph the prisoner in charge of caring for him.
18 So Joseph answered and said, “This is the interpretation of it: The three baskets are three days. 19 Within three days Pharaoh will lift off your head from you and hang you on a tree; and the birds will eat your flesh from you.”
Please notice the play on words here contrasting this lifting off of the head with the lifting up of the head of the cupbearer. ‘And will hang you on a tree and the birds will eat your flesh.’ The death described is probably an indication that the baker is to be seen as guilty of a heinous crime.
20 Now it came to pass on the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday, that he made a feast for all his servants; and he lifted up the head of the chief butler and of the chief baker among his servants. 21 Then he restored the chief butler to his butlership again, 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 butler did not remember Joseph, but forgot him.
The chief cupbearer and the chief baker were taken from the prison and brought before the king. The one was fully restored, suggesting either that his innocence had been proved or that his offence had been a minor one, but the chief baker was hung, possibly meaning that his body was after being decapitated. This was done as a sign to the people on the seriousness of the man’s crime.
Joseph probably lived in hope for some time but eventually his hopes died. He realized that he had been forgotten. He was not to know that God yet had a purpose in it. It would be another two years before anything further happened, and meanwhile he went on with his life in prison
