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CHAPTER 20: Joseph in Prison - The Dream of Pharaoh's Two Officers -
The Dream of Pharaoh - Joseph's Exaltation - His Government of Egypt
(GENESIS 40, 41; 47:13-26)
ELEVEN years had passed since Joseph was sold into Egypt, and yet the Divine
promise, conveyed in his dreams, seemed farther than ever from fulfillment. The
greater part of this weary time had probably been spent in prison, without other
prospect than that of such indulgence as his services to "the keeper of the prison"
might insure, when an event occurred which, for a brief season, promised a change in
Joseph's condition. Some kind of "offense" - real or imaginary - had, as is so often the
case in the East, led to the sudden disgrace and imprisonment of two of Pharaoh's
chief officers. The charge of "the chief of the butlers" - or chief of the cupbearers -
and of "the chief of the bakers" naturally devolved upon "the captain of the guard," -
a successor, as we imagine, of Potiphar, since he appointed Joseph to the responsible
post of their personal attendant. They had not been long in prison when, by the direct
leading of Divine Providence, both dreamed in the same night a dream, calculated
deeply to impress them. By the same direct guidance of Providence, Joseph was led
to notice in the morning their anxiety, and to inquire into its cause. We regard it as
directly from God, that he could give them at once and unhesitatingly the true
meaning of their dreams.
We are specially struck in this respect with the manner in which Joseph himself
viewed it. When he found them in distress for want of such "interpreter" as they
might have consulted if free, he pointed them straight to God: "Do not interpretations
belong to God?" thus encouraging them to tell, and at the same time preparing
himself for reading their dreams, by casting all in faith upon God. In short, whether
or not he were eventually enabled to understand their dreams, he would at least not
appear like the Egyptian magicians - he would not claim power or wisdom; he would
own God, and look up to Him.
We say it the more confidently, that Joseph's interpretation came to him directly from
God, that it seems so easy and so rational. For, it is in the supernatural direction of
things natural that we ought most to recognize the direct interposition of the Lord.
The dreams were quite natural, and the interpretation was quite natural - yet both
were directly of God. What more natural than for the chief butler and the chief baker,
three nights before Pharaoh's birthday, on which, as they knew, he always "made a
feast unto all his servants," to dream that they were each again at his post? And what
more natural than that on such an occasion Pharaoh should consider, whether for
good or for evil, the case of his absent imprisoned officers? Or, lastly, what more
natural than that the chief butler's consciousness of innocence should suggest in his
(^)