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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
Sometime later, the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt offended their master, the king of Egypt.
Pharaoh was angry with his two officials, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker, and put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, in the same prison where Joseph was confined. The captain of the guard assigned them to Joseph, and he attended them.
After they had been in custody for some time, each of the two men—the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were being held in prison—had a dream the same night, and each dream had a meaning of its own. When Joseph came to them the next morning, he saw that they were dejected. So he asked Pharaoh's officials who were in custody with him in his master's house, "Why are your faces so sad today?"
"We both had dreams," they answered, "but there is no one to interpret them."
Then Joseph said to them, "Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams."
So the chief cupbearer told Joseph his dream. He said to him, "In my dream I saw a vine in front of me, and on the vine were three branches. As soon as it budded, it blossomed, and its clusters ripened into grapes. Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes, squeezed them into Pharaoh's cup and put the cup in his hand."
"This is what it means," Joseph said to him. "The three branches are three days. Within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your position, and you will put Pharaoh's cup in his hand, just as you used to do when you were his cupbearer. But when all goes well with you, remember me and show me kindness; mention me to Pharaoh and get me out of this prison. For 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."
When the chief baker saw that Joseph had given a favorable interpretation, he said to Joseph, "I too had a dream: On my head were three baskets of bread. In the top basket were all kinds of baked goods for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating them out of the basket on my head."
"This is what it means," Joseph said. "The three baskets are three days. Within three days Pharaoh will lift off your head and hang you on a tree. And the birds will eat away your flesh."
Now the third day was Pharaoh's birthday, and he gave a feast for all his officials. He lifted up the heads of the chief cupbearer and the chief baker in the presence of his officials: He restored the chief cupbearer to his position, so that he once again put the cup into Pharaoh's hand, but he hanged the chief baker, just as Joseph had said to them in his interpretation.
The chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Joseph; he forgot him.
Genesis 40:1-23
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
When we left off with Joseph at the end of Genesis, chapter 39, we found him relegated to an Egyptian prison after the wife of his master Potiphar falsely accused him of sexually assaulting her. And while this seemed to be a curse, it actually ended up working for Joseph’s good because the Lord was with him in the midst of his difficult circumstances. We read where the warden “put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there”.
As we turn the page to chapter 40, we are introduced to two of Pharaoh’s servants, the cupbearer and baker, who had fallen out of his favor. The baker’s responsibilities are pretty self-explanatory but let me explain the responsibility of the cupbearer because they played an important role for the ruler.
It’s important to remember that the ruler of any nation was always in constant danger of assassination, especially through poisoning. Given this, the cupbearer was responsible for drinking from the ruler’s cup first and if the cupbearer was not harmed by the drink, then the ruler would know it was safe to drink himself. Of course if the cupbearer died, then the ruler would consider himself saved and need to look for another cupbearer.
Now, we don’t know what the baker and cupbearer did to anger Pharaoh but we do know it merited punishment by their imprisonment, possibly while an investigation was made to see if any punishment was merited. Both were "assigned” to Joseph who "attended them." As we’ll see, this was all part of God’s plan because Joseph had a special gift that was about to be revealed: the interpretation of dreams.
Well, while in prison, the baker and cupbearer each had dreams which were very different but left the two men commonly haunted. You see, the Egyptians saw dreams as coming from the gods and the lack of understanding about their respective dreams left the men "dejected" because they were in prison and away from any of the Egyptian mystics who claimed the ability to interpret dreams. It was into this saddened mindset that we find Joseph intervene as he asks the two:
"Why are your faces so sad today?"
His question must have caught the two Egyptian servants off guard for they weren’t accustomed to a leader showing that much concern for them but as they were soon to see, Joseph wasn’t any ordinary man and his God wasn’t any ordinary god.
And so the baker and cupbearer share about the dreams being the reason for their despair, unsure of what they meant. In response, we find Joseph speaking powerful words that we all need to keep in mind, especially as we go forth to minister to others. For he said:
"Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams."
You know, as we go forth to boldly to carry out the command of Jesus to make disciples of all nations, we are going to be asked about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit as well as all matters of faith connected to them. We need to know that this might involve someone trying to make sense of events going on in their lives. When this happens and before we can hope to advise properly, it’s of critical importance to first make sure we are consulting the Lord first and then sharing what He leads us to share. This is the only way we can ensure that what we say is truth because it comes from the source of perfect truth.
Going back to Joseph, we find him first giving credit to God for the interpretations he was about to deliver. We need to give Him the glory as well in response to anything He helps us do for another.
As a side note, this won’t be the last time that a servant of the Most High God interprets dreams and gives credit to God. For later in the Old Testament, we will find Daniel do the same when he is confronted by King Nebuchadnezzar during the Babylonian captivity but that’s another message for a future day.
Back to Joseph, for after he gives credit to God for what he is about to say, he proceeds to interpret the dreams of the cupbearer and the baker, interpretations that ended up being a case of good and bad news.
For the cupbearer, the interpretation bore good news for he would be reinstated to his position by Pharaoh and no harm would come to him.
Unfortunately, things weren’t going to work out as well for the baker for Joseph tells him that Pharaoh would "lift off” his “head and hang” him “on a tree” where “the birds” would “eat away” his flesh.
Now, we can only assume that the baker was found guilty of whatever Pharaoh suspected him of for the scriptures tell us that after three days, the Egyptian ruler took action and things happened just as Joseph had said they would. The cupbearer was restored to his position while the baker was hung and all seemed to go well in accordance with God’s plan with the exception of one thing. The cupbearer failed to show gratitude in the midst of his blessing.
You see, there was one additional found within our scripture passage for today. For after giving the cupbearer his good news interpretation, Joseph requested a favor from him saying:
"When all goes well with you, remember me and show me kindness; mention me to Pharaoh and get me out of this prison. For 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."
Joseph’s request was simple and fair enough. He had dispelled the cupbearer’s worry and fear with his interpretation, one he knew would come true, and all he asked for in return was for the cupbearer to report to Pharaoh concerning what had happened so he might be released from his wrongful imprisonment.
Unfortunately, we see at the end of our passage where the cupbearer didn’t “remember Joseph” but rather “forgot him." In the end translation, all ended up well for him and he got what he wanted. Apparently, that was all that mattered to him because Joseph didn’t even become an afterthought to him. The cupbearer had forgotten about him altogether but thankfully we’ll see that Joseph hadn’t been forgotten by God and that’s what ended up being most important.
In closing, some questions for us to ponder.
First, have you ever done something wonderful for someone only to have them fail to show gratitude toward you?
I’ve always held to a mantra that goes like this:
The most powerful words in the English language after "I love you" are "thank you."
Indeed, it only takes a moment to say those two special words of gratefulness but the rewards and blessings it brings to those who hear them sustain.
And that leads to questions number two and three:
Have you told someone how much they’re appreciated today?
Or further, how about being just being thankful for what others have done for you?
We all have people who do things to serve us whether at home or when we go out to shop or eat. We can’t afford to just let people know we take them for granted for what they do. Rather, we should be hypersensitive to letting people know we value them and what they do. That mindset will take root when we are genuinely thankful for what we receive when we are served
Finally, one last question:
Do you say "thank you" enough to God, the giver of every good and perfect thing from above?
Friends, woe be it to us if God can say this:
“They did not remember Me; they forgot Me."
For if this is true, then we have become no better than the cupbearer in our story, one who lacks an attitude of gratitude unto God or others.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
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