Joseph is the son of Jacob who is in a line of patriarchs that have received God’s covenant promises that began with Abraham in Genesis 12. Despite their repeated failures, God has remained faithful. We have noted how Joseph is the clearest figure in Genesis to point forward to the Messiah. In fact, A.W. Pink numbers 101 parallels between Joseph and Jesus.
At this point, Joseph is thirty years old, sitting in prison having been forgotten by the chief cupbearer who had been released and restored to his office two years prior. Joseph hasn’t grown bitter, but he patiently awaits his eventual release.
It has been thirteen years since he has last seen his family. Worse than being forgotten, his brothers had betrayed him and sold him into slavery.
Before we read this passage let us look to the Lord in prayer for his help in understanding it.
Genesis 41:14-40
14 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. 15 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.” 16 Joseph answered Pharaoh, “It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.” 17 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Behold, in my dream I was standing on the banks of the Nile. 18 Seven cows, plump and attractive, came up out of the Nile and fed in the reed grass. 19 Seven other cows came up after them, poor and very ugly and thin, such as I had never seen in all the land of Egypt. 20 And the thin, ugly cows ate up the first seven plump cows, 21 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. Then I awoke. 22 I also saw in my dream seven ears growing on one stalk, full and good. 23 Seven ears, withered, thin, and blighted by the east wind, sprouted after them, 24 and the thin ears swallowed up the seven good ears. And I told it to the magicians, but there was no one who could explain it to me.”
25 Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, “The dreams of Pharaoh are one; God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do. 26 The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good ears are seven years; the dreams are one. 27 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. 28 It is as I told Pharaoh; God has shown to Pharaoh what he is about to do. 29 There will come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt, 30 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, 31 and the plenty will be unknown in the land by reason of the famine that will follow, for it will be very severe. 32 And the doubling of Pharaoh’s dream means that the thing is fixed by God, and God will shortly bring it about. 33 Now therefore let Pharaoh select a discerning and wise man, and set him over the land of Egypt. 34 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. 35 And let them gather all the food of these good years that are coming and store up grain under the authority of Pharaoh for food in the cities, and let them keep it. 36 That food shall be a reserve for the land against the seven years of famine that are to occur in the land of Egypt, so that the land may not perish through the famine.”
37 This proposal pleased Pharaoh and all his servants. 38 And Pharaoh said to his servants, “Can we find a man like this, in whom is the Spirit of God?” 39 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has shown you all this, there is none so discerning and wise as you are. 40 You shall be over my house, and all my people shall order themselves as you command. Only as regards the throne will I be greater than you.”
This is the Word of the LORD.
Just as God was with Joseph in Potiphar’s house, and in the prison, God is with him as he stands before Pharaoh. Joseph is confident God will give an interpretation. Joseph acknowledged God’s sovereignty seven times in this chapter:
- He tells Pharaoh it is God who will provide an interpretation (16).
- He says something similar two more times (25, 28).
- God not only knows the future, but he is the one who will bring it about (twice in 32).
- Finally, Joseph’s sons provide another opportunity for him to acknowledge God (51, 52).
Joseph illustrates that great suffering often leads to God’s accomplishment of great things. Joseph acknowledges God even though he has been enslaved and in prison for 13 years.
The psalmists reflect often on the absence of God. How do we respond when it doesn’t seem like God is present? Are you famished, dry, or desperate for life? David says, “O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water” (Psalm 63:1). David is in the wilderness of Judah, but he doesn’t ask for protection or victory. Rather, he asks for God Himself!
If Joseph is a picture of the Savior, we are the ones experiencing the famine and in need of rescue. Just as the people from “every nation” had to come to one man for life, so all people must come to Jesus Christ for eternal life. Our spiritual famine can only be satisfied when we feast upon Christ by faith.
First, we will see that Joseph Is Remembered (1-13). Second, we’ll see that Joseph Is Released (14-36). And third, we will note how Joseph Is Exalted (37-57).
Joseph is Remembered (1-13)
In this opening section we have an account of Pharaoh’s dreams (1-7). Now there is a bit of humor here. Pharaoh is considered a god in Egypt. So you have a god that doesn’t know the future and needs help interpreting his dream. We see, that the one true God has “the king’s heart” in his hand, “he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases” (Prov. 21:1).
It is also evident that the author is familiar with Egyptian culture (as Moses was). It is typical for cows to stay submerged in the Nile to keep away from flies, insects, and the heat. They must come up in order to graze as verse 2 indicates.
We see also, that Egypt’s wise men were unable to interpret Pharaoh’s dreams (8) which leads the chief cupbearer to remember Joseph (9-13).
Two dreams:
- Singled Joseph out as leader.
- Tested Joseph’s faith in prison.
- Led to his exaltation.
This chapter contains two important key words: “plenty” and “famine”. “Plenty” occurs 6x in this chapter, 22x in the Old Testament (roughly a quarter of the occurrences of “famine”). “Famine” occurs 8x in this chapter and 83x in the Old Testament. It has already appeared twice in Genesis (Gen. 12:10; 26:1). Both of those famines led the patriarchs to Egypt for relief. Famines were a harsh reality that we often skim over in the text.
There is a famine that opens the book of Ruth. There, we see an example of how not to respond to famine. We see a family that responds to a famine in Bethlehem by fleeing the Promised Land and settling in Moab. Elimelech and Naomi along with their two sons, Mahlon and Chilion, move to Moab and face difficulty almost immediately. First, Elimelech dies. Then, the boys marry Moabite women and within ten years Mahlon and Chilion are dead. The Lord uses their failure to bring Ruth into the covenant community, but it isn’t until they return to Bethlehem at the end of the physical famine, that Naomi’s spiritual famine ends.
Have you come to the end of the rope? Have you come to realize your impoverished estate? Apart from Christ there is no communion with God. You are under His wrath and curse. And because of that you are “liable to all the miseries of this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell forever” (Westminster Shorter Catechism Q.19).
We learn to be patient by looking at the life of Joseph! When we are patient in trials we can actually help others. Joseph helps Potiphar, the prison keeper, the cupbearer, the baker, and Pharaoh…all in the midst of his own trial of slavery and imprisonment. Lamentations 3:26 teaches, “It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.”
As soon as the cupbearer remembers Joseph he is released.
Joseph is Released (14-36)
Joseph is released, rushed from the pit to the barber and the taylor (14). Egyptians were clean shaven, whereas the Semites typically wore beards. And, no doubt his prison garb would not have been appropriate attire to stand before the king.
Joseph trust’s God will provide him with an interpretation (15-16). Not only does God know the future, he ordains it to happen according to His will. Pharaoh shares his dreams with Joseph (17-24), and Joseph provides the interpretation without any difficulty (25-32). Verse 32 provides the central theme of this chapter, “The thing is fixed by God, and God will shortly bring it about.”
Although Joseph has been released from prison and cleaned up, there is no guarantee that he was stay out of prison. In fact, this could prove only to speed up his execution if he crosses the line here. That is why it is remarkable that Joseph follows up his interpretation with specific instructs for Pharaoh to increase the size of his advisory board (33-36).
Moses, like Joseph, does what the Egyptian magicians cannot do. Daniel does the same thing before Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel not only interprets the dream, but God reveals to him the contents of the dream that Nebuchadnezzar had either forgotten, or stubbornly refused to tell. In each case we see that God’s wisdom is superior to the wisdom of the nations.
Pharaoh’s obstinacy had to be subdued before he would call upon Joseph. John Calvin comments,
“The same kind of preparation is also necessary even for the elect; because they never become docile until the pride of the flesh is laid low. Whenever, therefore, we are cast into grievous troubles, which keep us in perplexity and anxiety, let us know that God, in this manner, is accomplishing his design of rendering us obedient to himself.”
One of the many ways God brings glory to himself is by humbling the proud and exalting the humble. “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (1 Pet. 5:5). When we are humble before others, we can acknowledge the goodness and faithfulness of God. We credit others for any success we experience, especially God.
Not only do we see Joseph deflecting the credit to God, but we also see him speaking boldly before Pharaoh. When we are bold with the truth we are aware of opportunities to speak to others about the most significant things in life. We don’t beat around the bush careful trying to avoid saying anything offensive. We like to make fun of the media which seems to be overly-concerned with political correctness. But how often do we step all over our own conscience to bit our tongue and avoid speaking the truth in love?
At the same time, when we are humble, we are more likely to bite our tongue about secondary matters. We don’t have to pick a fight about everything!
Shortly after Joseph was remembered he was released. And shortly after he was released he was exalted.
Joseph is Exalted (37-57)
Joseph is exalted (37-45). Pharaoh selects Joseph because:
- He is discerning and wise (33, 39)
- He has the spirit of God (38)
Joseph has spent thirteen years in slavery and prison, but at the age of thirty he is the ruler of the nation of Egypt. Joseph’s experience is similar to Mordecai’s in Esther 6.
Joseph is a kind of Adam:
- Vice-regent (40)
- Ring & royal garments (42) cf. Psalm 8:5-6
- Wife (45)
John Sailhamer,
“At many points in the story, Joseph seems to be represented as an ideal of what a truly wise and faithful man is like. He is a model of the ideal man or the ideal king. He accomplishes that which Adam failed to do… The picture of Joseph, then, looks back to Adam; but more, it looks forward to one who is yet to come, the one from the house of Judah ‘to whom the kingdom belongs’ (Gen. 49:10).”
Joseph administers with wisdom (46-49).
Joseph’s sons receive Hebrew names (50-52). Within the first few years of his rise to power, Joseph is forgetting “all my hardship and all my father’s house.” Maybe that is the best he thinks he can do. The best he can hope for is to forget the ache of his father’s house. Ligon Duncan, “Joseph could only cope with that pain through a self-enforced amnesia.”
The famine begins (53-57).
Sidney Greidanus argues that the theme of this chapter is: “The sovereign God exalts his suffering servant to kingship in order to save the world.” Joseph is a type of Christ who suffered underneath the humiliation of the cross before God “highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under he earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:9-11). In Joseph dwelled the spirit of God (38), but in Christ dwells the fullness of the deity bodily (Col. 2:9).
Robert Hawker,
“If from Joseph’s exaltation to the right hand of Pharaoh, our eyes are directed by the Spirit of God to the Lord Jesus at the right hand of power, into whose Almighty hands the sovereignty of grace is committed; here we shall see indeed, a true Zaphnath-paaneah: a wonderful counsellor! before whom all nations shall bow, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and whose dominion endureth throughout all ages.”
This is where we see clearly that our spiritual famine can only be satisfied when we feast upon Christ by faith. Joseph’s example calls us to be grateful! When we are grateful for the outcome of God’s good providence we give God the praise and live with a joyful countenance.
The text calls us to be patient, humble, bold, and grateful through the example of Joseph being remembered, released, and exalted.
Conclusion
Our spiritual famine can only be satisfied when we feast upon Christ by faith. When we experience spiritual famine (dry, drought, hunger) we must find our satisfaction in Christ alone. There isn’t some other way. We try every route we can imagine, but it always leads to greater distance from God. God has established access through one man. In the same way that people must bow the knee to Joseph (Gen. 41:43), so all people will bow the knee to Jesus (Phil. 2:10).
When the people begin crying out to Pharaoh for bread, he tells them, “Go to Joseph. What he says to you, do” (55). In like manner, I want to exhort you to go to Jesus!
- He is the bread of life to the hungry (John 6:35).
- He is the drink to the thirsty (John 7:37).
- He is the fullness of God in bodily form (Col. 1:19).
- He invites you to come to him (Matt. 11:28):
- Are you weary? Go to Jesus!
- Are you burdened? Go to Jesus!
- He will give you the rest you seek.
- He will not drive away any who turn to him (John 6:37).
- He offers Himself freely, without money, without cost! (Isa. 55:1).
Boice, “The last line of Genesis 41 tells us that the ‘famine was severe in all the world (57).’ So also today. If famine has you in its grasp, you must go to Jesus and do what he tells you.” You must confess your sin and receive him as Lord!