Genesis 41:1-36

March 12, 2017

Lord’s Day Worship

Sean Higgins

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The sermon starts at 19:25 in the audio file.

Or, Joseph’s Rise from Prisoner to Prime Minister

Joseph is not in a pickle, he’s in a pit. This is not how it was supposed to be. He dreamed that his brothers would bow down before him. He dreamed that even his mother and father would bow down before him. But those dreams seemed to vanish as his brothers sold him as a slave and told their dad that Joseph was dead. Joseph then worked himself up as an assistant slave for Potiphar until Potiphar’s wife falsely accused him of attempted rape and he was thrown into prison. While in prison he ministered to the Pharaoh’s chief baker and chief cupbearer. He even interpreted dreams for both of them, and the interpretations came true. But when the cupbearer was restored to Pharaoh’s side, just as Joseph had prophesied, “the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him” (Genesis 40:23). Would he ever get out? Would his dreams come true?

[H]istory can grace events with an inevitability by no means self-evident to the protagonists. (Bruce Gordon, Calvin, Kindle Locations 3374-3375).

The earth orbited the sun twice between the end of chapter 40 and the start of chapter 41. Joseph went to bed over 700 nights and got up to do his work some 700 mornings with no indication of an end in sight. And then, in what took probably less than an hour, he went from being a forgotten foreign prisoner to being the prime minister in Egypt. God fixed Joseph’s situation, not because He finally saw the problem, but because it was part of the future fixed by God.

This is the longest chapter left in Genesis and we’re going to take two Sunday’s to study it. Verses 1-36 take place on one day, while verses 37-57 take place on the rest of that one day plus another 14 years. This morning we’ll see Pharaoh’s Dream (verses 1-8), the Cupbearer’s Referral (verses 9-13), and then the Prisoner’s Interpretation (verses 14-36)

The Pharaoh’s Dream (verses 1-8)

This first paragraph is all narration of the story by Moses. He explains Pharaoh’s two problems.

After two whole years, Pharaoh dreamed that he was standing by the Nile…. The amount of time doesn’t matter as much for Pharaoh even though his situation is the set up for the scene. The two whole years relates to Joseph’s situation. He was stuck indefinitely. We read that Pharaoh dreamed but it seemed real to Pharaoh, so the summary after the dream in verse 7, Pharaoh awoke, and behold, it was a dream. The Nile River was the source of life in Egypt and as such it symbolized the fertility of the country.

Then Moses describes Pharaoh’s two dreams.

[B]ehold, 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. And he fell asleep and dreamed a second time. And behold, seven ears of grain, plump and good, were growing on one stalk. And behold, after them sprouted seven ears, thin and blighted by the east wind. And the thin ears swallowed up the seven plump, full ears. (Genesis 41:2–7a)

Six times we’re told to Behold, though the ESV leaves it out of verse 1. It’s as if someone said, “Look at this,” but said it every other sentence.

The first dream was bovine. There are seven good-looking, fat cows eating in the grass beside the river. They came up out of the Nile, not itself an unexpected image, since cows would go into the river to drink or maybe dip themselves to get relief from insects. Then there are seven more cows, but these are unattractive, scrawny, carnivorous cows. The ugly, thin cows ate up the seven attractive, plump cows. This is not normal, and actually sort of disturbing.

Pharaoh awoke, for intermission, then he fe[...]