The Christian Worker's Spiritual Food: Patently Waiting the Trial Continues.

Patently Waiting the Trial Continues. Genesis 40:1-23.

It came to pass after these things that the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt offended their lord, the king of Egypt. And Pharaoh was angry with his two officers, the chief butler and the chief baker. So he put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, in the prison, the place where Joseph was confined. And the captain of the guard charged Joseph with them, and he served them; so they were in custody for a while. Genesis 40:1-4(NKJV)

Though Joseph was in prison, Joseph made the best of a bad situation and submitted to his confinement knowing that God could and would deliver. Such an excellent inmate was he, Joseph became the chief overseer of all the inmates. Two of those inmates were directly put there by the Pharaoh.

Joseph talked with most all the prisoners; every man had his own story and Joseph passed the time listening to why they landed in the jail. The Pharaoh's butler and baker were two of these who wronged the Pharaoh and were placed in prison and spared their life. Could it have been a conspiracy between the butler and the baker or did the actions of one bring the Pharaoh's suspicion down on both?

Then the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were confined in the prison, had a dream, both of them, each man's dream in one night and each man's dream with its own interpretation. And Joseph came in to them in the morning and looked at them, and saw that they were sad. So he asked Pharaoh's officers who were with him in the custody of his lord's house, saying, "Why do you look so sad today?" And they said to him, "We each have had a dream, and there is no interpreter of it." So Joseph said to them, "Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell them to me, please." Genesis 40:5-8(NKJV)

Everyone has dreams and never should a dream be neglected. Those we meet are often disturbed by the midnight dream police and as we see here, the two men were deeply threatened by not knowing the interpretation of their dreams.

Here we also see that Joseph was a man who had much faith in God and believed that God could and would bring an interpretation of those dreams. Perhaps Joseph had dreams also and moved by the spirit of God, understood their dreams.

Dreams were nothing new to Joseph. As a child he had many dreams and when he told his family of the dreams it caused his brothers to hate him. Therefore, Joseph was acquainted in the work of God through dreams.

Then the chief butler told his dream to Joseph, and said to him, "Behold, in my dream a vine was before me, and in the vine were three branches; it was as though it budded, its blossoms shot forth, and its clusters brought forth ripe grapes. Then Pharaoh's cup was in my hand; and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup, and placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand." And Joseph said to him, "This is the interpretation of it: The three branches are three days. Now within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your place, and you will put Pharaoh's cup in his hand according to the former manner, when you were his butler. But remember me when it is well with you, and please show kindness to me; make mention of me to Pharaoh, and get me out of this house. For indeed I was stolen away from the land of the Hebrews; and also I have done nothing here that they should put me into the dungeon." Genesis 40:9-15(NKJV)

Evidently it was not the butler that committed the crime in the Pharaoh's court and God was going to allow him to be acquitted, released, and restored to his position. All Joseph asked was for the butler to remember who interpreted the dream, the goodness of God, and pay it forward.

When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was good, he said to Joseph, "I also was in my dream, and there were three white baskets on my head. In the uppermost basket were all kinds of baked goods for Pharaoh, and the birds ate them out of the basket on my head." So Joseph answered and said, "This is the interpretation of it: The three baskets are three days. Within three days Pharaoh will lift off your head from you and hang you on a tree; and the birds will eat your flesh from you." Genesis 40:16-19(NKJV)

What could have the baker done to incite corporal punishment? Did he try to kill the Pharaoh by spiking the food he fed to him? This we will never know; however, as dreams sometimes go, Joseph had to tell the baker of his terrible demise.

Some people that we meet need to have the awful truth told to them. If a person does not repent of their sins, they will one day awake in a place that Jesus told us there would be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Their eternity will be in total darkness and the place is called hell. We need no interpretation of a dream to share this with those we meet. Yet we must have the boldness of Joseph to do so.

Now it came to pass on the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, that he made a feast for all his servants; and he lifted up the head of the chief butler and of the chief baker among his servants. Then he restored the chief butler to his butlership again, and he placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand. But he hanged the chief baker, as Joseph had interpreted to them. Yet the chief butler did not remember Joseph, but forgot him. Genesis 40:20-23(NKJV)