Great Moments in Bible History
Number 44
Sudden Change
Life is certainly not a smooth journey from birth to death. It may go smoothly for long stretches, but then a major bump in the road will show up to remind us that we are not the ones in control. After some of those bumps life is never the same again. It often takes us months—even years—to adjust to that fact, but there is nothing we can do about it. Joseph faced just such a shock when his brothers sold him into slavery at the age of 17. I would imagine that he spent the first few days (or maybe even weeks) wondering when his father would come and rescue him. As time went on he must have gradually accepted that slavery was the new reality for him. When we studied Genesis 39 we saw how Joseph did his job as a slave just as well as he possibly could. As a result he got promoted to top slave. Then Potiphar’s wife threw a fit when she couldn’t have her way with him and he ended up in prison—in a worse situation even than when he was first sold as a slave. As we begin Genesis 41 it has been 13 years since Joseph’s brothers sold him. It has been two years since he interpreted the cupbearer’s dream and made him promise to help get him out of prison. But nothing happened as a result. Every day was pretty much the same as the one before. At the age of 30 the only future he could reasonably expect was to spend the rest of his life in prison.
There was one exception to what he could expect. Back when he was 17 and still the favorite son in his father’s house, God had given him two dreams that gave him a promise that had yet to be fulfilled. One day his brothers and even his parents were going to bow down to him. Those dreams would certainly never be fulfilled if he spent the rest of his life in prison, but he had no idea how God was going to fulfill them.
When Joseph woke up the morning of our story in Genesis 41, he had no idea he had just spent the last night he would ever spend in prison. He did not know that during the night God had given Pharaoh two dreams that would end up changing Joseph’s life so fast that his head must have been spinning by the end of that day.
Pharoah’s dreams each started pleasantly, but they ended as more of a nightmare than a dream. He was quite upset by them. He was certain they had a message for him, so he called in the magicians of Egypt and all the wise men. Those men were experts at dream interpretation. None of them was able to interpret the dreams for him. Finally his cupbearer spoke up and suggested that there was a man in Pharaoh’s prison who could interpret dreams.
“Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they quickly brought him out of the pit. And when he had shaved himself and changed his clothes, he came in before Pharaoh” (Genesis 41:14).
For thirteen years God had been training and testing Joseph in some of the worst situations imaginable. Through it all he had maintained his faith in God and had unashamedly confessed that he obeyed God. Now he was going to face a different test. He was going to appear before the richest, most powerful man in the world. Instead of being tested by the threats of the petulant wife of Potiphar, he would be tested by the flattery of the rich and powerful. There are many who have handled the first temptation only to cave in to the second. We are watching eagerly to see how Joseph will handle this test.
“I Have Heard that You Are Amazing”
“And Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘I have had a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it. I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream you can interpret it’” (Genesis 41:15). I doubt that any of us has ever been flattered by the most powerful person in the world, which was what Pharaoh was in Joseph’s day, but all of us know how nice it feels to be complimented. I hope we also know the great danger in compliments.
In Jesus’ day there were people who hid their faith in Jesus because of this very temptation. “Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God” (John 12:42-43). It really is a huge danger.
Joseph, though, had his heart in the right place and was able to resist that temptation even when it came from someone he really wanted to please. “Joseph answered Pharaoh, ‘It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer’” (Genesis 41:16). He passed the test! He refused to take credit himself for what he knew belonged to God. Pharaoh believed in many gods, but he knew nothing about the true God. Joseph’s refusal to accept Pharaoh’s flattery gave him the opportunity to teach Pharaoh about the God he had never known. Four times in his conversation with Pharaoh he mentioned God. By the end, Pharaoh himself started mentioning God too. None of that would have happened if Joseph had given in to his pride when Pharaoh started the conversation with a compliment.
Wisdom at Last
In Pharaoh’s first dream he watched as seven fat and beautiful cows came up from the Nile River and began grazing on the grass next to the water. Then seven cows uglier and skinnier than Pharaoh had ever seen came up after them and ate up the first seven cows! I’ve never heard of cow cannibalism, but that was not the end of the strangeness. Pharaoh said, “But when they had eaten them no one would have known that they had eaten them, for they were still as ugly as at the beginning” (Genesis 41:21). Pharaoh’s second dream was similar but involved seven ears of wheat instead of seven cows.
Joseph explained, “God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do. The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good ears are seven years; the dreams are one. The seven lean and ugly cows that came up after them are seven years, and the seven empty ears blighted by the east wind are also seven years of famine” (verses 25-27). Joseph continued, “There will come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt, but after them there will arise seven years of famine, and all the plenty will be forgotten in the land of Egypt. The famine will consume the land, and the plenty will be unknown in the land by reason of the famine that will follow, for it will be very severe.”
Egypt was a thin strip of land along the Nile River with desert on both sides. The country received hardly any rain. All of Egypt’s food came from the river. They channeled the river via canals to water their farmland. If the rains upstream that fed the river failed to fall one year, then Egypt was in big trouble. They would probably be able to weather one year of such drought, but Pharaoh’s dreams predicted seven years of drought in a row. That would be a huge disaster with thousands of Egyptians likely starving to death. Mercifully, God warned Pharaoh ahead of time. As Joseph explained, “God has shown to Pharaoh what he is about to do” (verse 28).
Joseph did not stop after interpreting Pharaoh’s dreams. He added some wise advice. “Now therefore let Pharaoh select a discerning and wise man, and set him over the land of Egypt. Let Pharaoh proceed to appoint overseers over the land and take one-fifth of the produce of the land of Egypt during the seven plentiful years” (verses 33-34). He went on to explain that they should store up that grain in various cities throughout Egypt so that the people would not starve to death during the seven-year famine.
It is interesting that Pharaoh had initially called in the wise men of Egypt to interpret his dream (verse 8), but they couldn’t. Now Joseph urged him to appoint a wise man over all Egypt to prepare for the famine. Where was Pharaoh going to find such a man? None of his wise men could even figure out that there was a famine coming. “And Pharaoh said to his servants, ‘Can we find a man like this, in whom is the Spirit of God?’ Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘Since God has shown you all this, there is none so discerning and wise as you are’” (verses 38-39). So Pharaoh chose Joseph to be the wise man over all Egypt!
Where did Joseph get such wisdom? He certainly did not show much wisdom back when he was the favorite son of his father. We need to understand that wisdom is not the same as being smart and able to score well on an IQ test. There are many people who can score well on such a test who show very little wisdom in their lives. On the other hand, I have known people whom the world considered “dumb,” but who were in fact very wise. Wisdom begins with a proper understanding of how things are. That requires faith in God and a humble attitude. A lot of “smart” people are very proud of how smart they are. They are not humble. As a result, they are unable to understand how things really are. Proud people think the world revolves around them, so they have a very warped view of reality. No one can be wise who does not see things as they are.
Joseph’s thirteen years of suffering had purified his faith in God and had removed the pride that being the favorite son of his father had encouraged him to have. At the age of thirty Joseph could see things as they really were. He could offer advice based not on the idea that the world revolved around him, but based on his faith in God.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible.