Dream Interpreter

Genesis 40:1-23
¹Some time after this, the cupbearer of the king of Egypt and his baker committed an offense against their lord the king of Egypt.

²And Pharaoh was angry with his two officers, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker,

³and he put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, in the prison where Joseph was confined.

⁴The captain of the guard appointed Joseph to be with them, and he attended them. They continued for some time in custody.

⁵And one night they both dreamed—the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were confined in the prison—each his own dream, and each dream with its own interpretation.

⁶When Joseph came to them in the morning, he saw that they were troubled.

⁷So he asked Pharaoh’s officers who were with him in custody in his master’s house, “Why are your faces downcast today?”

⁸They said to him, “We have had dreams, and there is no one to interpret them.” And Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Please tell them to me.”

⁹So the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph and said to him, “In my dream there was a vine before me,

¹⁰and on the vine there were three branches. As soon as it budded, its blossoms shot forth, and the clusters ripened into grapes.

¹¹Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh’s cup and placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand.”

¹²Then Joseph said to him, “This is its interpretation: the three branches are three days.

¹³In three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your office, and you shall place Pharaoh’s cup in his hand as formerly, when you were his cupbearer.

¹⁴Only remember me, when it is well with you, and please do me the kindness to mention me to Pharaoh, and so get me out of this house.

¹⁵For I was indeed stolen out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also I have done nothing that they should put me into the pit.”

¹⁶When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was favorable, he said to Joseph, “I also had a dream: there were three cake baskets on my head,

¹⁷and in the uppermost basket there were all sorts of baked food for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating it out of the basket on my head.”

¹⁸And Joseph answered and said, “This is its interpretation: the three baskets are three days.

¹⁹In three days Pharaoh will lift up your head—from you!—and hang you on a tree. And the birds will eat the flesh from you.”

²⁰On the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday, he made a feast for all his servants and lifted up the head of the chief cupbearer and the head of the chief baker among his servants.

²¹He restored the chief cupbearer to his position, and he placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand.

²²But he hanged the chief baker, as Joseph had interpreted to them.

²³Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him.

After reading today’s story, just out of idle curiosity, I Googled “interpreting dreams” and came up with 4,820,000 results in less than a second. Apparently we’re rather interested in this topic. As a person who doesn’t really remember many dreams, I’ve never given it much thought or really even cared. In the Scripture, there is precedent for the idea that dreams may indeed sometimes be important – in the hands of a person who has been enabled by the Spirit to discern their messages and meanings. I only looked at a couple of the sites that popped up on this long list of results from my Google search and copied out a portion of what a dream might mean. Here’s a small sample of what I was offered about birds and baskets in a dream.

Birds

“To see birds in your dream symbolize your goals, aspirations and hopes. To dream of chirping and/or flying birds, represent joy, harmony, ecstasy, balance, and love. It denotes a sunny outlook in life. You are experiencing spiritual freedom and psychological liberation. It is almost as if a weight has been lifted off your shoulders. To dream of birds on the attack means that you are being pulled into too many directions. You are experiencing conflict with your spirituality. To see a bird nest in your dream symbolizes independence, refuge and security. You need something to fall back on. Alternatively, it may signify a prosperous endeavor, new opportunities, and fortune.”

Baskets

“To see a basket in your dream symbolizes the womb and physical body. It also represents the things that you are holding onto. If the basket is full, then it denotes abundance and fertility.”

The baker could only have wished for this interpretation rather than the one that Joseph gave him. The difference between the sample interpretations I pulled off of the internet and the one that Joseph gives the baker and the wine steward is that Joseph’s interpretations are powered by the Holy Spirit. Joseph isn’t just making it up as he goes along as is proven by the fact that the predictions he makes on the basis of the dreams are 100% correct. Once more we have proof that Joseph is walking closely with God and is still in constant communication with Him. As Joseph interpreted his own dreams prior to being sold into slavery, so now he exhibits the same skill as a prisoner. We will see this same gift used again in the next chapter with the Pharaoh himself.

God continues to position Joseph for the good plan that come from His hands. While to Joseph it may seem that God is silent and not hearing his pleas for help, God is not still. He moving and acting for the good of His people. For Joseph it must have seemed bitterly unfair that he is not only a slave, but a slave in prison and seemingly forgotten entirely by God. This is not the case and the next few chapters will prove that God is with Joseph every step of the way, working His good and perfect will. The cup bearer forgets Joseph because God’s time has not yet come. But stick around for the rest of the story, for it get better and better.

When it seems like God has abandoned you He has not – ever. This story teaches us that God is often working in ways that we perhaps cannot see. But trust and faith teach us that He is not still and He has not forgotten. God always means you well – even when you cannot see Him moving.