Genesis 40
The dreams of the
cupbearer and baker
I.
Review
A. Joseph
in prison
1. Potiphar’s
wife wanted him. He refused.
2. He
did not want to break the trust with Potiphar
3. He
did not want to sin against God.
4. He
was unjustly accused and sent to prison
5. But
the Lord was with Joseph.
a. Joseph
had been given the dream by God
b. The
dream his brothers and father did accept
c. The
dream that one day they would bow down to him
d. This
dream was not just a private matter in the life of Joseph – a source of inner
strength. No, he understood it, and his
brothers did too, that if God gave him this dream that God was going to work
this dream out in the history of the world.
Their young brother/son would one day rule over them. They would bow to him. Unthinkable.
They would not allow it to happen, so they thought (and acted).
II.
Now in prison
A. “Some
time later” – The Lord is with Joseph, but things do not move at a rapid
rate. He calls Egypt
“the land of my suffering” 41:52.
1. Moses
is a great story teller. Jo sold…Judah
and Tamar…heightens the tension. Left
wondering about Joseph.
2. Then
we are told he is in Potiphar’s house. In charge. Looks like the dream is on
its way. Then accused.
3. In
prison. Expectation builds. Ok, now, from this low position progress will
be made. It is expected.
4. We
will see…(end of the story)
B. The
cupbearer and baker offend the king of Egypt
(the Pharaoh).
1. The
cupbearer was a powerful person in the kingdom.
He ate the same food as the king – not simply to make sure he was not
poisoned, but also to keep him from increasing his popularity so that he would
plot against the king and allow him to be poisoned. You became king by hereditary or by
murder/takeover.
2. The
baker – prepared food
3. Maybe
why both there – king got sick after a meal…
4. At
any rate – you could fall pretty far, quickly if you did something to displease
the king. (And you could rise quickly if
you pleased him.) Justice depended upon
the whim of the king.
a) Nelson
DeMille – The Quest – a dictator arbitrarily decides people’s fate. People feared the dictator because under him
justice was whimsical. If he liked
you…if he did not.
b) God
– fear God – not because he is whimsical.
But because his judgments and justice are holy and righteous. Part of us being a Christian means that we
know this. Fearing God for us means that
we understood what Christ endured in the garden when he prayed, “if possible
let this cup pass from me”. He knew the
justice that God’s wrath would bring upon him for our sins. And he met it for us. For us not to have some understanding of this
is cavalier, arrogant, thoughtless. The
fear of God in our life is shown through our praise,, thanksgiving to him that
he sent his son to stand in our place and to be judged for our sin. We know where we stand with God in Christ.
5. These
guys in prison waiting the decision of the king. They did not know which way it would go.
C. Both
the cupbearer and baker were under Joseph’s care in prison. He was charged with
serving them, as a slave.
1. Joseph’s
empathy for the baker and cupbearer. He
notices that they are troubled and asks what was troubling them.
a) Look
at the trouble Joseph is in.
1) Away
from home, sold by his brothers
2) Falsely
imprisoned
3) Some
time has passed in jail
4) A
slave to other prisoners
b) And
the text displays an empathy that Joseph has for these two men who are placed
over him.
1) How
in the world can that be?
2) Joseph
knew that the Lord was with him and that he carried within him a promise – in
the form of a dream – from the Lord. He
trusted God.
3) He
did not make lemonade out of lemons. Have a positive attitude. Find the silver lining. (Illusionary.
You have to make up stuff) (You just have to do… hold on…) That would have been his “works”, his doing.
4) Christians
accused of this sometimes. Someone dies
quickly…he did not have to suffer.
Someone suffers long and then dies…he had time to say goodbye to his
family. Lemonade. But hollow comfort.
5) When we are in the situation that Joseph was
in, down that low you can’t make up stuff you know is not true, and act like it
is. Can’t placate ourselves with lemonade. Our life has to be based on
reality. And God’s promise, God’s
working is the reality.
6) Our
lives go the way they do out of the sovereign mysterious plan of God, who
through Christ loves us and is bringing his will to bear in our life. We may not understand now…mirror dimly.
7) I
know the plans I have for you… hard to see, seem unbelievable… not achievable…
beyond your circumstance, but it is the only thing we have that is real.
2. Joseph
had empathy for the two because he had hope in God’s promise to him. And that empathy is what God would use to
bring about his promise. (Self absorbed
pity is not the result of the hope of God in our life.)
III.
The dreams
A. The
baker and cupbearer are troubled. They
both had a dream.
1. And
here is the problem: They are in jail and the professionals who interpret
dreams are on the outside. They have no
way to get their dream interpreted.
a) Joseph’s
answer: Do not interpretations belong to God?
Tell me your dreams.
B. View
of the world
1. Reading
a book by an atheist from Duke: He poses the question at the front of the book
(among others): Is there free will? Not
a chance. He is a determinist. He calls himself a nice nihilist. He believes
(along with other scientists) that everything in the world – every particle is
either a boson or a fermion. And every
process in the universe is nothing more than these particles interacting with
each other. Our lives – every aspect of
them – is determined by essentially chemistry.
Like baking soda in vinegar coming into contact – a reaction
occurs. No free will in the soda or the
vinegar. Just a reaction.
2. Determinism
varies from fatalism. In fatalism you
have a god who is running things, but nothing you do matters. Whatever the god has determined to be the
case will be the case. Whatever will be
will be. The god does not incorporate
our actions into his plan or what he does.
Puppet master/puppet.
3. And
then you have the crowd that thinks that our life is determined by our choices
and our effort and comes from the present.
I decide right now to do something; I get up and do it. Or I don’t.
At any rate – what will be comes from my will and my power. My choices. And maybe God is up there
adjusting to my decisions, or he knew in advance what I would decide and then
he decided what he would do based on what I might do. Puppets are now operating
the puppetmaster.
4. Which
of these would you like to live under?
5. Here
is what Joseph knew – because God gave him a dream and he knew how that
worked. He knew that God was the one who
was sovereignly directing and guiding the events in his life and even in the
lives of the cupbearer and the baker; even in the life of the Pharoah. And so he says – Interpretation belongs to
God. Only God knows the future. Only God directs the future.
a) the
baker and cupbearer lives were not determined by bosons or fermions; nor were
they by the free will of Pharoah; nor by some god determined fate.
b) God
has a design and a plan to redeem sinful mankind. The plan involves us. The plan incorporates our participation. But it is God’s plan all the way through that
is being executed.
a) God’s
plan of salvation: involves us –(he is acting to save us); incorporates our
participation (gives us the gift of faith).
And in his plan he calls those he has predestined – to be his.
c) predestination
is not a bad word. Look at the
alternatives.
C. The
interpretation is something new.
1. Christianity
is not intuitive. You can’t look at the
world or even look at yourself and figure out what God is going to do. God’s plan does not come naturally to
us. It does not naturally derive itself from
anything in the world. Nor does it come
from anything in our mind. It must be revealed to us.
a) What
Joseph told these two guys was something new.
He told them what God was going to do.
b) The
dream interpreters in Egypt
could have come up with an interpretation, but it would not have been any thing
new. They would have used their
science. Their experience. Their analysis. And given an answer. But they can not reveal the plan and will of
God. They could not say what God was
going to do.
c) I
am teaching a class in Eccl this fall.
There is nothing new under the sun.
That is true. Apart from God
there is nothing new. There is the same
old thing. Everyday.
d) The
only new things in this world come to us from God.
e) Under
the sun (deterministic universe – closed system) we can re-arrange what is
here; discover what is here; put things here together in different ways, nothing
new.
f)
With God, he brings new things to bear in our life and
in the world. The power of the gospel in
my life made me new again…a new creation.
As we read his word and study it, it renews us. A power from outside of this world is at work
in our heart, soul. That is new.
g) God
at work in the world – an old story – but he is doing the only new things.
IV.
End of the story
A. Joseph
is forgotten by the cupbearer. We
expected something different.
B. God
is doing something new. He is taking a
guy who is at the lowest point…and will exalt him. This is nothing less than the intervention of
God into this world doing something new.
1. God can and will do new things
in our life in Christ. When it looks
like all hope is gone….
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