Tell Me Your Dreams

We left Joseph falsely accused and imprisoned after having refused the advances of Potipher’s wife. His dignity, however, is firmly intact - and he’s definitely not alone; God is with Joseph, and he finds favor with the warden:

That sounds familiar!

Sometime later, the king’s chief baker and chief cupbearer somehow got in hot water with the king and were also confined in the house of the captain of the guard, who assigned them to Joseph.

One night, they each had a dream that left them disturbed:

The cupbearer dreamed of three branches on a grapevine and of squeezing grapes into Pharoah’s cup, which meant that in three days, Pharaoh would restore him to his position. Unfortunately for the chief baker, who dreamed of three baskets of bread on his head with birds eating from the top one, those same three days were to bring his execution.

Of the cupbearer, Joseph makes one request: 

But when all goes well with you, remember me and show me kindness; mention me to Pharaoh and get me out of this prison.  I was forcibly carried off from the land of the Hebrews, and even here I have done nothing to deserve being put in a dungeon.” Genesis 40:14-15

Surely that’s not asking too much!

Along comes the third day. It was Pharaoh’s birthday, and he gave a feast for all his officials. Just as Joseph had said, he restored the chief cupbearer to his position and executed the chief baker.

As far as that ONE request …

The chief cupbearer forgot all about Joseph.

So much for gratitude. Poor Joseph.

Why is it that he keeps being faithful and those around him keep not being faithful?

TWO FULL YEARS PASS. Then one night, Pharaoh has two unusual dreams.

Troubled, he seeks an interpretation, but nobody - not even Egypt’s magicians and wise men - can give him one. 

Oh, wait a minute! Maybe there is someone!

Now the cupbearer remembers, and he tells Pharaoh about the “young Hebrew” who had successfully interpreted his dream and the dream of the baker.

So Pharaoh tells Joseph about both dreams, which Joseph says are one dream given in two forms. In each case, there’s a representation of seven years of abundance followed by seven years of severe famine.

He advises Pharaoh to put a wise man in charge of Egypt and recommends that a fifth of the country’s harvest be collected and stored in preparation for the famine.

Pharaoh knows just the man for the job! Who better, after all, than the one to whom God revealed all of this?

From Slave to Signet Ring

So at age 30, Joseph is put in charge of all of Egypt. Pharaoh puts his own signet ring on Joseph’s finger, gives him nice clothes, a gold necklace, and a priest’s daughter to be his wife. Joseph travels throughout Egypt as a powerful man - second only to Pharaoh himself.

In addition to everything else, Joseph becomes a father to two sons:

Under Joseph’s leadership, the grain reserves became too great to measure. In each city, he stored the food produced by the surrounding fields.

At last, comes the predicted famine, and when the people cry out to Pharaoh, he has the perfect answer:

“Go to Joseph and do what he tells you.”

Thanks to his wise preparations, Joseph was ready - and Egypt was ready!

From a slave in the dungeon to second in command in Egypt - a hero saving the day for a whole country in crisis - Joseph has come a long way!

He’d sat in that prison, forgotten by the cupbearer for two long years while life went on around him and without him, but there was someone who hadn’t forgotten Joseph at all … not even for a single second.

GOD had a big job in the works, and Joseph’s name was written all over it! How could Joseph have ever guessed what great opportunities lay ahead?

Have you ever found yourself stuck in a place you didn’t want to be and without any idea about where you were going next? I’ve been there more times than I want to admit.

Unlike Joseph, most of us haven’t been through a physical famine, but I imagine almost all of us have experienced times of “lean-ness” from a personal standpoint. We count on reserves accumulated during times of abundance to fortify us when the going gets rough.

Occasionally, though ….

It’s a MEAGER stretch that prepares us for a FULL one. 

Sometimes, a period of “inner drought” acts as a time of seasoning. We may be challenged and changed in ways we don’t even realize as we move through a process of emotional, spiritual, or even physical readying.

Through our darkest of times, when our hearts seek purpose and our souls crave something we may not even be able to identify, God is with us,

working in ways we don’t recognize for tasks we never see coming.

Has this year been for you a time of abundance or a time of leanness? Is there some opportunity or job for which God may have been preparing you? 

Maybe it will be more you can handle; Joseph’s was. Here’s the rest of that conversation with Pharaoh:

Joseph couldn’t interpret dreams and rescue Egypt by himself, but that didn't matter at all; Joseph wasn’t by himself. 

My friend, Sara, taught her daughters to pray, “What do You want me to do that’s ‘impossible?’”

Isn't that the BEST?

So that job God may have prepared you for (or you for it) - let’s hope it IS too big! 

What could be better than being part of something so great only God could accomplish it?! 

Until next time, here's wishing you a Merry Christmas, a year of magnificent opportunity, and more blessings than you can manage, Kim