Part of series on life of Joseph
Genesis 41
I want to ask you a question, this evening. Does God speak to us? Does God want to talk to us? Did you know that God is thinking about us all the time?[i] But you may say to yourself, “who am I, I’m nothing special, I’m no Moses, I’m no Paul, why should God be so interested in me?” Well the message of scripture is this: “He is”, He loves each and every one of us. Like a caring father He has concerns about how His children are living their lives; and we are His children. Each and every one of us is like a son or a daughter to God.
Now what loving father doesn’t constantly think about his children? What loving father doesn’t think this “If my daughter or my son would only listen to my advice, then …” If you are parents you will understand that children, being children, have a desire to be independent, to follow their own ways. And we are no different; we often would rather go our own way, live our own lives.
God, our wise and loving Father, has given us freedom to live our lives how we will. I can choose to follow my own plans, to live my own way or I can listen to God and go with what He considers best. Listen to prophet Jeremiah
For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future[ii].
But sometimes it quite difficult to understand God’s plans.
Joseph had to learn this truth. Through life’s up and downs, our father God knows better than us. You see “He knows better than I, He knows the way”.
The younger Joseph, the boy, was given a great gift of prophetic dreams by God. He was able to hear messages from God, through these dreams. The prophetic dreams where for himself, his family and the people God. In having this gift he was just like his father Jacob. We could say he was born into a family of dreamers. But he was also born into a family with a history; and this history of was one of conflict and deception. It was a family that was far from perfect.
Just like his father Joseph was not mature enough to understand how to use that gifts wisely. It was not entirely his fault. Jacob loved Joseph more than the other sons; for two reasons. Firstly Joseph was much younger than the other half-brothers; he was a son of the older Jacob. Joseph was almost like a grand-child and it is very easy to spoil grand-children. The second and more important reason why Jacob especially loved Joseph was this; at that time he was the only son of Jacob’s beloved wife Rachel. Joseph reminded Jacob of his true love Rachel so he favoured him more that he should have.
It is true that Joseph was not wise or let us say tactful in the way he revealed his prophetic dreams. But the ground had already been sown by his father. His brothers felt undervalued and even unloved. Nevertheless this is no excuse for what they did to their young half-brother.
I don’t know whether you have noticed but there are times when emotions can run very high in families. And this family had a history of some pretty major bust ups. If you read the earlier chapters of Genesis, you will see the feud between Jacob and his brother Esau was caused again by the favouritism of their father Isaac.
So Joseph he went from hero to zero, and all in the space of a couple of hours. Thrown into that pit he probably thought that his brothers would relent and come back for him. Only to find out that they really did hate his guts; they actually sold him into slavery! Wow, going from the freedom and comfort of a loving home into slavery.
What was God doing? I do not believe that God was punishing Joseph, but God had a great plan to save the entire people of God. Joseph was going to be the means by which this salvation was going to come about. This would come to pass some twenty years in the future. Joseph’s life is an Old Testament picture of our Lord and saviour Jesus. Like Jesus, Joseph was one who was brought very low in suffering before being raised up; in order that many people could be saved. Joseph’s whole life was a prophetic account of what God was going to do through His own son Jesus.
In
But as we all know this good interlude didn’t last long. He was thrown in jail because of the scheming of sex-mad wife of Potipher. God brought him even lower; he was now a slave and a prisoner. Could things get any worse? Yes, they could. We may remember the passage from last week. Joseph helps Pharaoh’s cupbearer by correctly interpreting his dreams. Joseph hopes that the cupbearer will put in a good word for him with Pharaoh. He hopes that this good word will get him out of that dungeon. However as the days passed by, days turned into months, and months into years, Joseph probable gave up any hope of this route out of prison.
God brought Joseph down to the very lowest place in life; to the very depths of despair. Joseph was still a young man, but he had nothing left, he had no plans, he nothing to do, he had nowhere to go. Would he ever get a girl and marry? No. Would he ever achieve anything, amount to anything? No. His own plans for his life were in tatters. What hope was left? He would die in this dungeon. However, God’s spiritual gifts are never taken back[iv]. God remained close to him, in his inner life, in his dreams.
Joseph began to learn, deep down in depth of his being, that “You Lord, know better than I, You know the way, I’ve let go the need to know why, For You know better than I”. Joseph didn’t have all the answers, in fact at this point in his life he had very few answers, but he never let go of trust in God. I would say that it was these years in the dungeons of Pharaoh that gave Joseph an unshakeable reliance on God. From a worldly perspective these years were lost years, but from God’s perspective these years of darkness and isolation taught Joseph that God is all you need, with God you lack no good thing. It was these years where God fanned into flame all the spiritual gifts, all the prophetic incite. And this came through time spent in prayer, time spent with God alone.
This is a sobering and challenging teaching from scripture that sometimes God has to strip away all our supports structures, so that we rely only on Him. Sometimes God has to bring all our hopes and plans to naught so that we may begin to see that His plans are better than ours, His ways are better than our ways.
Then out of the blue, the humbled Joseph was brought before Pharaoh. He was shaved and cleaned up, dressed in new cloths and presented before the great ruler of the most powerful nation in the world. I don’t think that Joseph was expecting that.
15"I dreamed a dream," Pharaoh told Joseph. "Nobody can interpret it. But I've heard that just by hearing a dream you can interpret it."
16 Joseph answered, "Not I, but God. God will set Pharaoh's mind at ease."[v]
Joseph takes no credit for the interpretation, he makes no boast that it is because of any attribute that he has. Joseph gives glory to God alone. As the protestant reforms said “Soli Deo Gloria - Glory to God alone”. Those years in jail had strengthened his resolve to be a humble servant of his Lord God; to give everything over to God.
17-21 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, "In my dream I was standing on the bank of the
22-24 "In my second dream I saw seven ears of grain, full-bodied and lush, growing out of a single stalk, and right behind them, seven other ears, shriveled, thin, and dried out by the east wind. And the thin ears swallowed up the full ears. I've told all this to the magicians but they can't figure it out."
I can imagine Joseph pauses, and silence settles over Pharaoh’s court. What was this slave/prisoner about to say? What ritual of magic was he going to perform to figure out the meaning of Pharaoh’s dream?
Joseph, simply and humbly responds; he has drawn close to God through his years of trial and suffering and is so open to the prompting of God’s Holy Spirit he immediately knows what to say. He knows with a divine knowledge, a revelation knowledge, he knows what Pharaoh’s dream is all about.
25-27 Joseph said to Pharaoh, "Pharaoh's two dreams both mean the same thing. God is telling Pharaoh what he is going to do. The seven healthy cows are seven years and the seven healthy ears of grain are seven years—they're the same dream. The seven sick and ugly cows that followed them up are seven years and the seven scrawny ears of grain dried out by the east wind are the same—seven years of famine.
28-32 "The meaning is what I said earlier: God is letting Pharaoh in on what he is going to do. Seven years of plenty are on their way throughout
The truth, God’s truth resonates in the mind of Pharaoh. Dreams, especially lucid and vivid dreams, prophetic dreams, are figurative and symbolic pictures. But they are not just a TV channel in our sleep. While our dreams play out in our minds they come with a rich sense of emotional and even spiritual meaning. We intuitively know this. Often the emotions that go along with them are more powerful and troubling than words can convey. This is why Pharaoh was so troubled by his dreams. He was unable to ignore them. He couldn’t believe that they were due to something he had eaten the night before. The emotions within his dream troubled Pharaoh, literally frightened and terrified him.
So he sought counsel from his magicians. The term “magicians” comes from an Egyptian word. It is a title given to those who were experts is handing ritual books of priesthood and magic. They would have consulted their extensive literature on interpretation of dreams. They were the expert psychoanalysts of their day. In the ancient world people believed that dreams were very important.
However, they could not provide an interpretation that satisfied Pharaoh. This is an important principle of dream interpretation. The dreamer of the dream should believe that the interpretation is correct. Pharaoh felt, in his spirit, that Joseph had hit the nail on the head. He knew that what Joseph had said was right because it felt right. For Pharaoh, the first conformation that Joseph interpretation was right was that it rang true within.
Joseph went on to add some prophetic and wise advice,
33-36 "So, Pharaoh needs to look for a wise and experienced man and put him in charge of the country. Then Pharaoh needs to appoint managers throughout the country of
37 This seemed like a good idea to Pharaoh and his officials.
So the second conformation, to Pharaoh, was that Joseph’s proposal was eminently sensible. Pharaoh was no fool, he knew his kingdom. He knew that his kingdom was vulnerable to the treats of the east wind, the withering desert wind that was known to devastate a crop. The Egyptian fertile plain was a thin strip of land along the
Pharaoh believed in many gods. He also believed that the “gods” spoke to us in our dreams. Joseph’s God was clearly a powerful one that had provided a warning to
Joseph had spoken what God has placed on his heart. I do not believe that he was expecting what came next.
38 Then Pharaoh said to his officials, "Isn't this the man we need? Are we going to find anyone else who has God's spirit in him like this?"
39-40 So Pharaoh said to Joseph, "You're the man for us. God has given you the inside story—no one is as qualified as you in experience and wisdom. From now on, you're in charge of my affairs; all my people will report to you. Only as king will I be over you."
In the dungeon, Joseph’s life was over. He had lost is family, he was rotting away, wasting away, alone in a foreign jail, with no future. Then suddenly, unexpectedly God raises him up, God blesses him double what he has lost. God takes him from zero to hero, all in the space of a couple minutes. You see God knows better than us “You know better than I, You know the way, I’ve let go the need to know why, For You know better than I”.
41-43 So Pharaoh commissioned Joseph: "I'm putting you in charge of the entire country of
Joseph receives the royal signet ring, the royal seal form Pharaoh own hand. God has so worked in Pharaoh’s heart that he shows great affection to his new overseer. It is almost as if Pharaoh is taking a new son. Joseph is outfitted in the finest linen robe; and there is an interesting twist here. Archaeological evidence that suggests this robe may have had a multicoloured trim. Our God raises up, our God restores, our God has a way return things that we though we lost.
God plans, have a way of surprising us, for God can bless us far more abundantly than we think or even imagine.
Finishing off
In finishing I would like to say a few more words; to apply this text we have considered today to our lives.
I believe that God has a plan and purpose for all our lives. I believe that this is a good plan. We should seek to follow it. But we do have some choice. When life got hard, in the depths of Joseph’s suffering, he could have chosen to give up on God. If he had done this, he would have not used his spiritual gifts, he would have probably died in that dark dungeon without ever seeing the light. But Joseph didn’t leave God and God didn’t leave him.
There are times in life when things get so difficult that we wonder what God is doing. But we must remain with him, listen to voice, understand, as far as we are able, his plans.
God can speak to us in many ways, through the beauty and wonder of His creation, through the actions and words other people, and most importantly through His revealed word, the Bible. But never forget that, through all these ways, it is God’s Holy Spirit that makes our understanding alive and real. It is a spiritual process. Spiritual things can only be discerned and understood spiritually. Listening and drawing close to God means that we rely on this spiritual communication between our spirit and the Holy Spirit.
And God can and does speak to us through our dreams[vi]. Scripture has a lot to say about dreams. In the bible there are over 130 references to dreams and over almost 100 references to visions the bulk of which come from the Old Testament[vii]. A sizeable chuck of scripture deals with God talking to his people and I believe He still wants to talk to us now. His ways never change; God does not change.
Sometimes vivid and lucid dreams can be a means by which God is trying to communicate with us. Dreams, the interpretation of dreams and Prophetic gifts are closely linked in scripture. You may think that I can leave that, … that’s not for me, but listen to the apostle Paul.
1Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy.[viii]
We are to eagerly desire a deep spiritual union with God. The Holy Spirit of God communicates with our spirits, in a mysterious way. And this is to impress upon us a part of God’s purposes and plans. This is the some of what the prophetic gift is about. The prophet Joel prophesied this
17" 'In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams.[ix]
And the Apostle Peter said on the day of Pentecost that this was to be fulfilled in the Church. We are to be a prophetic people, dreamers, interpreters and visionaries.
Let us listen to God, will all our heart, mind, soul and strength. Whatever may come, let us follow His plans for our lives. Let us listen to the Holy Spirit in all the ways He tries to speak to us; for I believe God has a lot to say to us. And God will surprise us with the blessing He has in store for us.
Amen
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