Joseph out of the prison
Gen. 41: 1-56
When we last left Joseph, he was serving out a sentence for a crime he didn't commit in a place where the sun never shines - the dungeon for the king's prisoners. Chapter 41:1 tells us that Joseph has marked two entire years doing hard time. Two years earlier, Joseph had told the royal cupbearer who spent some time in jail as well to “remember me when it is well with you” (40:14). Only three days after Joseph made this request, the cupbearer was released and restored to his former position serving Pharaoh directly. But he forgot about his former cell mate, who had been so helpful.
Here was the climactic ending of a long series of malice and injustice. Joseph had already felt the unjust hatred of his brothers, the shock of being torn away from home forever, the humiliation of slavery, and the bite of slander. Now, he faces what looks like a non-ending trip to death in a foreign dungeon.
Each day was nothing more than a monotonous, slow-moving grind, to be repeated tomorrow and the next day and the next day. For Joseph it must have looked like nothing was ever going to change. He must have felt like his whole life was stuck in a permanent holding pattern.
It is here, in the place of continued suffering, that our faith is attacked with doubts, anger, confusion, loneliness, and sorrow. Suffering always changes us, and not necessarily for the better. Joseph was there in prison going nowhere. But he clung to a single truth that kept him going . It is inferred in every word he speaks, every action he undertakes – “there is a design in my distress.”
Affliction is always pure gold in the making for the child of God. This is a truth that is repeated throughout pages of Scripture. Even though it looks like nothing is happening, like nothing will ever change, circumstances are being aligned and in the process of “waiting on the Lord” you are being refined by sufferings.
Listen to Job's own words: “He knows the way that I take; when He has tried me, I shall come out as gold. My foot has held fast to His steps; I have kept His way and have not turned aside. I have not departed from the commandment of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my portion of food.” (Job 23:10-12) Job trusted God when it didn't make sense to trust Him and it put steel in his soul.
And then for two long years after the cupbearer left the prison Joseph was waiting for the release that he never got. But God was not silent. He was working – working in the life of Pharaoh. For there was a little matter Joseph knew nothing about: Pharaoh also had a bad dream!
The opening verses of Gen. 41 tell us that after two whole years, Pharaoh dreamed that he was standing by the Nile, and behold, there came up out of the Nile seven cows attractive and plump, and they fed in the reed grass. 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. And the ugly, thin cows ate up the seven attractive, plump cows. And Pharaoh awoke.
Verses 5-7 tell us that when Pharaoh fell back asleep, he dreamed the same dream again, only this time it involved ears of grain instead of cows. Verse 8 says that in the morning his spirit was troubled, and he sent and called for all the magicians (the word refers to the wise men of his court) of Egypt and all its wise men. Pharaoh told them his dreams, but there was none who could interpret them to Pharaoh.
Right then, the light clicks on for the royal cupbearer. Verse 9-13 describe the cupbearer's testimony about a Hebrew slave he met while in prison a couple years before who accurately interpreted his dream and that of the former royal baker. Verse 14 reports that this was all Pharaoh needed to hear.
In a very short time Joseph is transported from the stinking hole where he had whiled away many years of his life to the resplendent courts of the ruler of Egypt. Imagine the scene as Joseph hurriedly shaves off his scraggly beard, bathes, and puts on clean clothes for the first time after a long time . Think of that moment as he strides into the place of power.
In v. 15, Pharaoh addresses the prisoner by explaining that he's had a baffling dream and that he heard reports of Joseph's ability to explain it.
Stand there with the broken man - Joseph. Pharaoh has rolled out the red carpet for him. This is the golden moment for our mistreated, maligned friend to strut his stuff. This is when the desire to get out of the prison can make you desperate: "I've got to convince Pharaoh that he needs me here in the palace. I can't go back to that dungeon again!"
There is a saying that Satan rushes men, but God leads them. I don’t think there is a single instance in Scripture where Jesus is ever described as “hurried” or “rushed”. Notice how Pharaoh’s men hurriedly came to get Joseph to take him to Pharaoh.
When Pharaoh says, “I hear you can interpret dreams,” it would have been easy for Joseph to say, “Aw, it’s nothing really. Just a little hobby I’ve developed over the years.” But instead Joseph boldly says to this pagan king, “It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer” (41:16). Joseph was clear on the source of his success. He didn’t let the splendor of Pharaoh and his palace make him forget - “Without God, I’m nothing. He is the source of any ability I have to interpret dreams.”
Pharaoh’s magicians were probably astrologers, trained in incantations and magic formulas to discern the future. I believe the only reason that they couldn’t come up with some explanation of Pharaoh’s dreams was that God darkened their minds on this occasion. Probably they had come in before Pharaoh and chanted their magic words and performed all their impressive rituals, but nothing worked.
But Joseph was different: No hocus-pocus ! He just says, “God will reveal the meaning of your dream.” He listens to it, and then gives Pharaoh the straight stuff. In the process, he mentions God four more times (41:25, 28, 32). And Pharaoh gets the point! Even though he was probably filtering all these things through his polytheistic mind, he acknowledges that there is a divine spirit in Joseph and that God has informed him of all these things (41:38 39).
There is a danger that as a Christian in a pagan culture, people will think of you as a good person and attribute your goodness to you, not to God
Even when he gives the meaning of the strange dreams of this pagan king, Joseph constantly gives God the credit. He determined to point this pagan king to the King of all kings.
Then in v. 33, he offers this counsel to Pharaoh: Now therefore let Pharaoh select a discerning and wise man, and set him over the land of Egypt. Notice that even here, he doesn't try to hedge his position before Pharaoh. He doesn't offer his resume. He doesn't drop hints. He isn't grasping to get out of prison or selfishly ambitious.
Joseph exudes a Godly character that lets the Lord have His way, in His time, for His purposes! He believed that if God wanted this to happen, it would happen. James 4:10 gives us the principle behind this belief, “Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up.”
What happens now? Look at v. 39-45: Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, "Since God has shown you all this, there is none so discerning and wise as you are. You shall be over my house, and all my people shall order themselves as you command. Only as regards the throne will I be greater than you." And Pharaoh said to Joseph, "See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt."
Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his hand and put it on Joseph's hand (this is the ancient equivalent to the company's corporate seal), and clothed him in garments of fine linen and put a gold chain about his neck. And he made him ride in his second chariot. And they called out before him, "Bow the knee!" Thus he set him over all the land of Egypt. Moreover, Pharaoh said to Joseph, "I am Pharaoh, and without your consent no one shall lift up hand or foot in all the land of Egypt." And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphenath-paneah. And he gave him in marriage Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera priest of On. So Joseph went out over the land of Egypt.
God uses broken things. Broken soil to produce a crop, broken clouds to give rain, broken grain to give bread, broken bread to give strength. It is the broken alabaster box that gives forth perfume. It is Peter, weeping bitterly Luke 22:60-62 and returns to greater power than ever.
Only God can bring you through and out of the dungeon. Only God can reward your faithfulness. So when it comes, don't pat yourself on the back. Be grateful, not proud.
Joseph went through the fire faithful to God and he came out with a character purer, stronger, ready for the assignment God had in store. His promises are just as real today as they were for Joseph. His grace is still at work. You can trust Him.
As a Christian, one of the most common questions we have goes something like this: Why does God allow such terrible things in the world like war, poverty, famine, epidemics, terrorism, earthquakes, flooding and the like. This question when asked on a personal level would be, “why do bad things happen to good people?”
The question about why God causes bad things to happen is really two questions.
1. Is God truly good?
2. Is God really in total control of everything?
The implication is that if God is truly good and if He’s in complete control, then only “good” things happen!
In this study we’re going to examine this hypothesis as we see how God elevated Joseph from the prisoner in the dungeon to the prime minister of Egypt but in the process he had to go to jail for a crime he never committed.
This is one of the important themes of the Bible. Man’s inability, foolishness, and errors are contrasted with God’s power, wisdom and perfection.
Arithmetic based on what we’re given in the text tells us that Joseph has lived 20 years in Egypt by the end of Genesis 41.
God is silently working in Joseph’s when his situation seems to be "getting worse" Joseph's life clearly got worse and worse for 13 years from Genesis 37-40. Yet, our God--the God of mystery and sovereignty--displays His perfect providence in the evolving story of Joseph's life.
God always does what pleases God Himself (Ps 115:3; 135:6; Jn 3:8). God is fulfilling His preordained purpose to save not only Joseph, but also Joseph's family, as well as all of Egypt and the surrounding nations including Canaan, where Joseph's family resided. The key verse of Joseph's story is best expressed in Gen 50:20. "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives." God would save Joseph and his family not only from the immediate famine, but also save them in far more profound ways that reveals the glory of God, and that delivers them from their own evil.
Notice that Joseph stresses the years of famine. Joseph devotes but one statement to the years of plenty (Gen 41:29), but five statements to the years of famine (Gen 41:30-31). Joseph makes his case and loudly sounds the alarm by using dramatic sentences. Seven years of famine was almost unheard of in Egypt, with the Nile normally flooding the fields every year with moisture and fertile silt. Thus Joseph warns, "The reason the dream was given to Pharaoh in two forms is that the matter has been firmly decided by God, and God will do it soon" (Gen 41:32). This plan is set and fixed by the sovereign God. God's providence calls for seven years of plenty and seven years of famine. The ESV says, "And the doubling of Pharaoh's dream means that the thing is fixed by God" (Gen 41:32). "God has shown Pharaoh what he is about to do."
Joseph goes on to propose what Pharaoh can do to ease the dreadful effects of the coming famine in Gen 41:33-36. The gist of Joseph's proposal is to "look for a discerning and wise man and put him in charge of the land of Egypt" (Gen 41:33). "The plan seemed good to Pharaoh and to all his officials" (Gen 41:37). The news about the coming famine is horrible, but Joseph's proposal sounded good and sound to Pharaoh and his court. The prudent proposal of Joseph caused the troubled Pharaoh to be at peace. Joseph's proposal and practical call to action so pleased and moved Pharaoh that he asked a rhetorical question, “Can we find anyone like this man, one in whom is the spirit of God?” (Gen 41:38) Even a proud pagan king was able to recognize the spirit of God in a lowly slave and prisoner.
Joseph would have been happy just to be set free from prison. But he is in for a surprise. Pharaoh said, “Since God has made all this known to you, there is no one so discerning and wise as you. You shall be in charge of my palace, and all my people are to submit to your orders. Only with respect to the throne will I be greater than you” (Gen 41:39-40). Joseph was likely shocked. He could not believe what he just heard. Will Pharaoh actually do what he just said: Make him, a foreigner, a slave and a criminal, the prime minister of Egypt and the second in command only to the great Pharaoh?
Pharaoh repeats, confirms and finalizes what he had just said, “'I hereby put you in charge of the whole land of Egypt.' Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his finger and put it on Joseph’s finger. He dressed him in robes of fine linen and put a gold chain around his neck" (Gen 41:41-42). The signet ring gives Joseph the authority to validate documents in the king's name. Placing a gold chain around Joseph's neck is a well-known Egyptian symbol of investiture (conferring honor), one of the highest distinctions the king could bestow. "He had him ride in a chariot as his second-in-command, and people shouted before him, 'Make way!' Thus he put him in charge of the whole land of Egypt" (Gen 41:43). "Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, 'I am Pharaoh, but without your word no one will lift hand or foot in all Egypt'” (Gen 41:44). Pharaoh also gives Joseph a new Egyptian name, Zaphenath-paneah and gives him a wife of nobility, Asenath, daughter of an Egyptian priest (Gen 41:45). Overnight Joseph is transformed from an imprisoned Hebrew slave to an Egyptian nobleman; even more, he becomes prime minister of Egypt without having to climb up the ranks.
.After this miraculous promotion from prisoner to prime minister at age 30, Joseph does not retreat to recover from his recent travails. Instead, as he was entrusted with stewardship by Pharaoh, he travels throughout the land of Egypt and gathers up 20% of each harvest during the years of plenty and stores it in granaries in the cities (Gen 41:46-48). "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" (Gen 41:49). At first careful records were kept of the amount of grain put into storage. But as the volume increased, keeping careful records became impossible and finally was abandoned.
After the seven years of abundance ended, the seven evil years of famine come. There was famine in all the other lands, but in the whole land of Egypt there was food. As the famine was increasingly felt throughout Egypt, Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold grain to the hungry Egyptians as well as to those from all the surrounding countries (Gen 41:53-57).
From this dramatic story, we learn numerous things. We shall comment on several things
Joseph was not fatalistic. He did not give in to despair. He honored God by always being responsible. Knowing that God is sovereign did not cause him to surrender to blind resignation, but spurred him toward decisive action.
Joseph's life changed drastically for the worse. The clothing motif spells a change in Joseph's status. Jacob's gift of the robe to Joseph elevated him among his brothers. When his brothers stripped him, he descended from a favored son to a slave (Gen 37:23). When Potiphar's wife disrobed him, it sealed his transition from trusted slave to prisoner (Gen 39:12). His change of clothing in order to come before Pharaoh (Gen 41:14) and being dressed in robes of fine linen (Gen 41:42) suggests that the clothing motif has now come full circle. Despite all these changes, Joseph was not changed by his situation.
Joseph's concern was primarily for others: his father, his brothers, his master Potiphar, the prison warden, the king's cupbearer, and now even the great Pharaoh. Because Joseph truly cared for others, his heart was free to give his best when he advised Pharaoh the best course to take in view of the upcoming famine.
Joseph's life has been at the mercy of his brothers, of his master Pothiphar and his wife, the chief cupbearer, and now Pharaoh. Yet, Joseph entrusted his life and future to the hand of God.
Ps 115:3 says, "Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him." Ps 135:6 says, "The Lord does whatever pleases him." Jn 3:8 says, "The wind blows wherever it pleases." The wind represents the Spirit of God. The story of Joseph clearly reveals the God who does whatever pleases God Himself.
• God allowed Joseph to be sold into slavery by his own jealous brothers.
• God allowed Joseph to be falsely accused of rape and thrown into a foreign prison with no human hope of ever being released.
• God also gave specific dreams to the chief cupbearer and to Pharaoh at exactly the right time, and provided Joseph as the only one in all the land who is able to interpret those dreams.
• Despite Joseph's life getting from bad to worse, God was doing whatever pleased Himself in order to elevate Joseph to prime minister of Egypt, so that through him, God would fulfill his own purpose of fulfilling Joseph's dreams and saving his family and Egypt from a famine. More than that, God would save all parties involved in profound ways that they could never ever have saved themselves.
The entire life of Joseph is summarized in Genesis 50:20: “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.” The teenager we met at the beginning of the story is now over 30 years old. His life has come full circle, and he is addressing his duplicitous brothers. Their actions, in selling him into slavery, had nothing but evil intent written all over it. Their malevolence can in no way be lessened by the knowledge that things did not turn out as they might have done. Truth is, God overruled their evil actions to accomplish a purpose that neither they nor Joseph could have fathomed. God brought good out of evil. God in His providence upholds, directs, disposes and governs all creatures, actions and things” to bring about a sovereignly pre-determined plan (5.1).
This, God had accomplished through a variety of actions. Joseph’s descent into slavery, followed by a false accusation of rape resulting in a lengthy imprisonment, spelled his downward spiral to the bottom. His life could hardly have been much worse. Only now, from the vantage point of what God had, in fact, accomplished — ensuring that an heir of the covenant promises was in the most powerful position in Egypt at a time when famine engulfed Canaan to ensure the survival of the covenant family — could Joseph look back and see the hand of God. No matter how dark things get, His hand is always in control.
Providence has wider issues in mind than merely our personal comfort or gain. In answer to the oft-cited question in times of difficulty, “Why me?” the forthcoming answer is always, “Them!” He allows us to suffer so that others may be blessed. Joseph suffered in order that his undeserving brothers might receive blessing. In their case, this meant being kept alive during a time of famine and having the covenant promises of their father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, reaffirmed before their eyes.
And what were the purposes behind Joseph’s suffering? At least two are forthcoming in the closing chapters of Genesis: the first on a microcosmic level and the second on a larger, macrocosmic level.
(a) Joseph learned first of all that whatever happened to him personally, he was part of a larger purpose in which God’s plan was being revealed. In that case, he could not hold grudges against his brothers, no matter how badly they had behaved. True, they must learn of their sin and confess it, and this explains the lengthy way in which Joseph finally reveals himself to them as his brother after first of all making them think that they had stolen a cup from a prince of Egypt ( Gen. chapter 44) God had used him as an instrument in the spiritual growth of his brothers
And secondly, Joseph begins to learn the answer to the question, “ how will the promises made to Abraham be fulfilled?” At one level, the final scene of Jacob’s burial in Canaan attended by a huge entourage of Egyptians seems a curious way to end the story of Joseph. But it is part and parcel of it. In the end, the Egyptians are paying homage to Joseph’s family! When Jacob says to his son, “Make sure that I am buried in the land of promise” (see Gen. 50:5), he is thinking of the promise that God had given to Abraham of a land — a land that at this time they did not possess apart from a burial plot! At the end of Genesis the people of God are nowhere near possessing Canaan. They are going to spend four hundred years in captivity in Egypt. But in Jacob’s burial there is a glimpse of things to come. God has not forgotten His promise. He never does.
And they are first of all, the providence of God. The multitude of minute seemingly insignificant events, all evidently necessarily contribute to the accomplishment of the will of God. From the beginning of Joseph’s life, the providence of God is manifested. From the jealousy that his brothers expressed, from his sale as a slave into Egypt, from his faithfulness under temptation, for his sympathy with the sadness of the men who had the dreams and could not interpret them, for his endurance of the harsh treatment in the prison. His loyalty to God; then the dreams of Pharaoh himself. All of these things were the threads that linked the pit in Canaan with the power that Joseph is now going to exercise in the land of Egypt.
Not one of these little links so seemingly insignificant is unnecessary. Each is essential and by form part of the all things that work together for good to them that love God, to them that are the called that according to his purpose. So a multitude of small events but they contribute to the overall plan of God. It seems to me that one way we should look at our own lives as in the light of this as well for all of the things that happen to us. Even those little the tiny things just form part of the one overall program by which God deals with each one of us individually. He does not deal with any other in the same way. He deals with us each individually and all of the little things in our lives contribute to the ultimate overall plan and program that he has in mind.
Now the second truth that one notices here in this chapter is the necessity of trust in God and not in man. We think of the passage in the Book of Proverbs, the 3rd chapter, those very familiar verses. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your path straight.” Pro. 3:5-6. Joseph was a man who illustrates very beautifully the acknowledging of the Lord God in all of his ways.
