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Transcript:

Welcome to the Beyond the Basics Bible Study Podcast. My name is Dan Snyder and I am your host. Thank you so much for joining me for this episode of Beyond the Basics where we are exploring the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, one chapter at a time.

Before we get started, if you enjoy the show and want to help keep it on the air, you can go to my website at Beyondthebasics.blog Click the donate button at the top and that will bring you to the website for Passion for Life Ministries where you can make a tax deductible donation. Passion for Life is a ministry that I’ve partnered with that is dedicated to spreading the gospel and feeding the elderly in Central and South America. Please make sure you designate your gift for Beyond the Basics. You can also click the subscribe button which will bring you to my Patreon page. And for only four dollars a month, you can receive access to the full uncut episode, which will include between 10 and 30 minutes of additional audio. You will also receive access to all past episodes starting with Genesis chapter 24. Now, on to the show.

Have you noticed how God uses things, events, situations in our lives to prepare us for the next thing? And we get to the next thing and we realize we wouldn’t be prepared for it if it weren’t for the previous experiences or circumstances that we went through, what God brought us through. I like to think of it as a symphony written by God, that our lives are like a symphony, each note informing the other, each event like notes informing the rest of our lives. And if we’re surrendered to Him, we’ll be able to follow those notes on the page to create a beautiful sound of worship to our God.

This is what we see in Joseph’s life. He’s surrendered to his God. The events in his life prepare him to meet a king. So let’s get into Genesis chapter 41.

So the first thing it says in Genesis chapter 41 is after two whole years. After two whole years of what? Well, after two whole years of Joseph being in prison, after the cupbearer and the baker were released from prison, the cupbearer was restored to his position, the baker was hanged, and Joseph had asked the cupbearer to remember him when he was restored to his position and mentioned his name to Pharaoh, but he had been forgotten. This likely would have been very discouraging for Joseph. He had finally found a way out of this prison and now he’s been waiting for two years. Nothing’s happened.

If you have been following along, you will see that waiting is a theme in the lives of Abraham’s family. Abraham had to wait for Isaac to be born. Isaac had to wait for Jacob and Esau to be born. Jacob had to wait to return to the land. And now Joseph has to wait to be rescued from slavery and prison. We often find ourselves waiting on God longer than we wanted or planned. It’s not just for these wonderful men of faith in the Bible. It’s for us. This is how God builds our trust and our character.

If you’ve also noticed, as you’ve been following along with the story of Joseph, the theme of two pops up constantly. And we’re told many times that two means it is established by God. So the fact that Joseph is waiting two more years indicates that the events that happen in this chapter are established by God. God clearly knew that Joseph needed two more years in prison, and so God kept Joseph in prison for two more years. How many of us are willing to accept the fact that the reason God hasn’t removed us from difficult circumstances is because God knows that we need to be there?

It’s difficult to accept, but it’s true. That number two tells us it’s an indication that this is ordained by God, meaning if God desired to do it any other way, he would have, but he didn’t. This is the way he wanted to do it.

So after two whole years, Pharaoh dreamed that he was standing by the Nile. And in verse two, behold, there came up out of the Nile seven cows. So the dream goes on, behold, 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 cows on the bank of the Nile. Verse 4, and the ugly thin cows ate up the seven attractive plump cows, and Pharaoh awoke.

Verse 5, and he fell asleep and dreamed a second time. Now we have a third set of two dreams. Remember the first set was Joseph’s dreams about his family bowing down to him. The second set of two dreams were ngiven to the baker and the cup bearer, and now Pharaoh is having the third set of two dreams. And this indicates we have three sets of two. So there’s two important numbers there. Three sets of two. Three is the number of something that was completed by God or a trial or the work of God. And then that number two in the story of Joseph indicates that something was ordained or directed by God. So this indicates that all of Joseph’s life, all these events, this is the culmination, the completion of everything that God has been working in his life. It was all directed and ordained by God. The dreams were the driver of everything. It was the dreams given by God that set all these events into motion.

So the second dream, behold, verse 5, seven years of grain, plump and good were growing on one stock. Verse 6, And behold, after them sprouted seven ears, thin and blighted by the east wind. So moving on verse 7, it says, And the thin ears swallowed up the seven plump full ears, and Pharaoh awoke, and behold, it was a dream.

So in the morning his spirit was troubled. Just like the cupbearer and the baker were troubled after their dreams, Pharaoh woke up troubled after these two dreams. This is, I believe, an indication that a dream is from the Lord. I’ve talked both on the podcast and on social media. If you follow me or the show on social media, I post a lot of these questions that we talk about in the show for discussion. And I’ve talked about how do we know if a dream is from the Lord. And I believe that this is one of the ways we can know that a dream is from the Lord because many times people in the Bible, when they have a dream from God, wake up troubled. Keep that in mind. If you ever wake up from a dream and you’re troubled, could be an indication that it’s from the Lord. Not necessarily. Could just be a nightmare. Let’s hope it’s not that.

So moving on to verse 8, Pharaoh sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt and all its wise men. Pharaoh told them his dreams. So he was seeking an answer to the riddle of his dreams and he didn’t even know that they were from the Lord yet. He was seeking God and he didn’t even know it. This is why God reveals himself to people, especially in the form of dreams so that they will seek him. God will reveal himself in ways that make people ask questions, that will make people seek the answer to the questions that they’re asking, and they will end up finding that the answer is God himself. And that’s what’s going to happen with Pharaoh. But he doesn’t even know it yet.

Pharaoh told them his dreams, but there was none who could interpret them to Pharaoh, because interpretation comes from God. Even though the dreams themselves and the interpretations were quite simple, if you are listening to the Patreon show, you were able to hear a lot of the symbolism in the dreams and what those symbols represent and how easily the dreams can be interpreted. And if you aren’t listening on Patreon, go ahead and subscribe, you’ll be able to hear some of that. That’s the kind of content you’ll be able to get if you go and subscribe on Patreon. But the interpretation of the dreams were simple. But the magicians couldn’t come up with the interpretation.

So in verse 9, then the chief cupbearer said to Pharaoh, “I remember my offenses today.”

So he says offenses in the plural. So he remembered his sin against Pharaoh and he remembers his sin against Joseph. He probably didn’t want to remind Pharaoh of the reason he was in jail in case Pharaoh became angry again. So he calls it his offenses. He says, “I remember my offenses.”

But his offense or his sin against Joseph was that he had forgotten about Joseph immediately after he was reinstated. But now his memory returned at the perfect time, exactly the time that God intended. So he tells a story to Pharaoh. When he was in prison, he and the baker in prison, in verse 11, he says, “We dreamed on the same night.”

Now he’s going to tell the story from the previous chapter, from Genesis 40, for a second time. The fact that this story is being told a second time, again there’s that number two, the things being repeated or things coming in pairs highlight God’s hand in all these events. So once again we realize the cupbearer remembering Joseph now as opposed to two years ago is what God intended. This is the perfect time. This is when God intended this to happen.

So he tells Pharaoh in verse 12, “A young Hebrew was there with us.”

And he says this in contrast to the Egyptian wise men and the magicians. So again, highlighting the foolish compared to the wise, the weak compared to the strong. He says he is a servant of the captain of the guard. The cupbearer tells Pharaoh the story from the previous chapter. And in verse 14, Pharaoh sent and called Joseph and they quickly brought him out of the pit.

So after a long perio