Joseph in Prison - The Dream of Pharaoh's Two Officers - The Dream of Pharaoh - Joseph's Exaltation - His

Government of Egypt

(GENESIS 40, 41; 47:13-26)

ELEVEN years had passed since Joseph was sold into Egypt, and yet the Divine promise, conveyed in his

dreams, seemed farther than ever from fulfillment. The greater part of this weary time had probably been

spent in prison, without other p rospect than that of such indulgence as his services to "the keeper of the

prison" might insure, when an event occurred which, for a brief season, promised a change in Joseph's

condition. Some kind of "offense" - real or imaginary - had, as is so often the case in the East, led to the

sudden disgrace and imprisonment of two of Pharaoh's chief officers. The charge of "the chief of the

butlers" - or chief of the cupbearers - and of "the chief of the bakers" naturally devolved upon "the captain

of the guard," - a successor, as we imagine, of Potiphar, since he appointed Joseph to the responsible post

of their personal attendant. They had not been long in prison when, by the direct leading of Divine

Providence, both dreamed in the same night a dream, calculated deeply to impress them. By the same direct

guidance of Providence, Joseph was led to notice in the morning their anxiety, and to inquire into its cause.

We regard it as directly from God, that he could give them at once and unhesitatingly the true meaning of

their dreams.

We are specially struck in this respect with the manner in which Joseph himself viewed it. When he found

them in distress for want of such "interpreter" as they might have consulted if free, he pointed them straight

to God: "Do not interpretations belong to God?" thus encouraging them to tell, and at the same time

preparing himself for reading their dreams, by casting all in faith upon God. In short, whether or not he were

eventually enabled to understand their dreams, he would at least n ot appear like the Egyptian magicians - he

would not claim power or wisdom; he would own God, and look up to Him.

We say it the more confidently, that Joseph's interpretation came to him directly from God, that it seems so

easy and so rational. For, it is in the supernatural direction of things natural that we ought most to recognize

the direct interposition of the Lord. The dreams were quite natural, and the interpretation was quite natural -

yet both were directly of God. What more natural than for the chief butler and the chief baker, three nights

before Pharaoh's birthday, on which, as they knew, he always "made a feast unto all his servants," to dream

that they were each again at his post? And what more natural than that on such an occasion Pharaoh

should consider, whether for good or for evil, the case of his absent imprisoned officers? Or, lastly, what

more natural than that the chief butler's consciousness of innocence should suggest in his dream that he

once more waited upon his royal master; while the guilty conscience of the chief baker saw only birds of

prey eating out of the basket from which he had hitherto supplied his master's table?

Here, then, it may be said, we have all the elements of Joseph's interpretation to hand, just as we shall see

they were equally obvious in the dreams which afterwards troubled Pharaoh. Yet as then none of the

magicians and wise men of Egypt could read what, when once stated, seems so plainly written, so here all

seems involved in perplexity till God gives light.

As already stated, the two dreams were substantially the same. In each case the number three, whether of

clusters in the vine from which the chief butler pressed the rich juice into Pharaoh's cup, or of baskets in

which the chief baker carried the king's bakemeat, pointed to the three days intervening before Pharaoh's

birthday. In each case also their dreams transported them back to their original position before any charge

had been brought against them, the difference lying in this: that, in the one dream, Pharaoh accepted the

functions of his officer; while, in the other, birds which hover about carcasses ate out of the basket. It is

also quite natural that, if the chief butler had a good conscience towards his master, he should have been