JOSEPH #10 | JOSEPH SOLD TO THE EGYPTIAN POTIPHAR #3

Pastor Christopher Choo

LESSON 3606

JOSEPH #10

JOSEPH SOLD TO THE EGYPTIAN POTIPHAR #3

Imprisoned with Joseph were Pharaoh’s butler and baker. Each had a dream on the same night, and neither could understand them, leaving them anxious and depressed. 

Joseph asked why they were sad and was told about the dreams. He told the butler and baker that God could give him the interpretations of the dreams. The butler related his dream, and Joseph told him that his dream meant that in three days he would be released from prison and restored to his former position in Pharaoh’s household. Joseph also interpreted the baker’s dream, telling him that in three days he would be hanged.

Both interpretations came to pass as Joseph said they would.

Joseph asked but one favor of the butler when he was released from prison. He asked that he mention his name to Pharaoh so that he too might be freed. But the butler forgot Joseph, and he languished in prison for another two years.

Then one night Pharaoh had two dreams that deeply troubled him. In the first dream, he saw seven well-fed cattle, followed by seven very thin cows. The thin cows then ate the well-fed ones. In his second dream, Pharaoh saw seven full ears of corn, followed by seven thin ones. Again, the seven thin ears devoured the seven good ears. Pharaoh was disturbed and sent for the magicians on whom he usually depended on interpretations of his dreams, but they couldn’t help.

The butler finally remembered the ability God had given Joseph to interpret his dream while in prison and told Pharaoh, who then sent for Joseph. Joseph told Pharaoh that he could not interpret the dreams, but that the Lord could give him the ability to do so. He then told Pharaoh that his dreams concerned seven years of plenty to be followed by seven years of famine. He suggested that Pharaoh appoint someone to oversee the situation immediately.

Pharaoh, impressed by Joseph’s ability to interpret his dreams, appointed him to oversee this situation, and made him the second ruler over the whole land of Egypt. 

The worst of his trials were over. He led the nation safely through its time of trouble with the blessing of the Lord upon him.

The lesson is perhaps hard to accept - God was with Joseph in prison where he waited for God's perfect timing to be vindicated of a crime he never committed. It took two years of patient waiting on the Lord.

In this age of instant gratification, we expect God to take us out of our  "prison" immediately.

Today's lesson is a singular reminder that God is sovereign and all-wise. He moves according to His perfect timing.

As the author of the book of Hebrews advises us in 

Hebrews 6:12, NASB: 

"so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises."