913 Biblical Characters - Joseph Becomes Governor of All Egypt
Exploring Biblical Characters • Sermon • Submitted
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- We can go to sleep at night & have pleasant dreams but we can go to sleep & be troubled all night long by bad dreams – what we call nightmares
- I don’t know about you, but it seems to me that bad dreams or nightmares are the dreams that seem to come from our fears
- Dreams can be powerful in the way that it impacts the individual
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- Your dream can control your bladder – no kidding
Q. Ever had a dream where you were wanting to find a loo & you couldn’t?
- If you do happen to find one, do you notice that it has no walls or that it has no privacy
- After wrestling with this for a while you wake up & realise that you indeed need to use the bathroom
- In some strange way, our dreams reflect what’s going on in our life
- I’m sure you laugh at this, but its remarkable how many people testify to the fact that it was the dream that got them out of bed
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- But God has given dreams which do not relate to our personal fears or joys
- They are dreams that have a message & that message is related to a work of the Lord
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- Throughout history dreams have often been understood as omens or premonitions of something about to happen either great or terrible
- In the Bible they fall into 2 categories
- One is that of an audible voice – e.g.
3 But God came to Abimelech in a dream of the night, and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is married.”
- With this dream, the message of the dream is very clear
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- The 2nd kind of dream is an enigma & often causes the recipient of the dream to be confused & troubled
- These are unexplainable dreams where the vision or pictorial are signs & symbols which are not clearly understood & need to be interpreted
- These dreams are of the type we see in this passage of Scripture
- These need to be interpreted
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- As an aside, I’m not convinced that God uses dreams to communicate to us as He had done in the past
- God is God & He does what He likes, but Heb. 1 seems to suggest a change in the way God communicates
- In response to those in the church who obsessed over angels, visions of angels & messages of angels, we read...
1 God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, 2 in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.
- So it’s important to consider the different times we live in with regards to God’s providence in history lest you get carried away & start making choices on the basis of your visions or dreams
1. Joseph Interprets the Prisoners Dreams
1. Joseph Interprets the Prisoners Dreams
- We read in the 1st reading that the chief cupbearer & baker had upset Pharaoh – offended him in some way & were thrown into prison
Q. Did you notice, in the reading, where the prison was located?
3 So he put them in confinement in the house of the captain of the bodyguard, in the jail, the same place where Joseph was imprisoned.
Q. Who was over the prison? Captain of the bodyguard – Potiphar
Q. Guess who put Joseph in charge of the prisoners?
- The chief jailer - but whose boss was Potiphar
- We know that God caused this grace on Joseph, but on the human level it seems to me, that Potiphar may have thought that Joseph was innocent
4 The captain of the bodyguard put Joseph in charge of them, and he took care of them; and they were in confinement for some time.
12 “Now a Hebrew youth was with us there, a servant of the captain of the bodyguard, and we related them to him, and he interpreted our dreams for us. To each one he interpreted according to his own dream.
- Joseph was under the chief jailer, but still regarded as a servant of the captain of the bodyguard whom we know as Potiphar – interesting!
- So, it seems to me that Potiphar believed Joseph’s account but probably for socio-political reasons he had to side with his wife & put Joseph in prison
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Q. Why was his title used here, rather than his name Potiphar?
- In last’s weeks sermon, he was mentioned as Potiphar, but now he is referred to as the captain of the bodyguard
- My thoughts are that the narrator did not want to cloud what’s happening here with Pharaoh, with what happened before with Potiphar’s wife - Potiphar is not a person of interest here in today’s Scripture
- Joseph is being elevated by God & here we see the next step in the progress of Joseph’s elevation
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- Well, moving on then, both the cupbearer & baker have dreams – dreams that they understand are premonitions or “oracles” of what is going to happen to them
- Yet, they don’t understand them & are depressed not because of the dreams but because no one can give them their meaning – but along comes Joseph
- Interestingly, when Joseph had his dream with his brother’s sheaves bowing down to his sheave that they needed no interpreter – it was pretty plain & they took offence
- Also, the dream he had where 11 stars & the sun & moon were bowing down to him was also crystal clear & his father took offence
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- In attending the chief cupbearer & baker, Joseph notices how downcast they are & interprets their dreams for them
- The wine server has a favourable dream, but the bakers dream predicts his death
- In interpreting their dreams, Joseph didn’t have to go away & think about it; he didn’t have to pray for guidance; he just knew what it meant when he heard it – that’s a gift! It is a God-given ability
- When we visited Josh in China, if someone was talking in Mandarin, Josh could tell us what they said
- Joseph’s ability was like that – he just translated the dream
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- What this is showing is that Joseph has a God-given ability to interpret dreams – even of foreign people – because God is with him
- In last week’s message, the emphasis lay in the presence & blessing of God on Joseph – He gave him success in all that he did
- In this week’s passage with Joseph in prison, God is still with Joseph giving him success & prominence in all that he does
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- Notice again, the life of Joseph in how he was slapped down, but now look what is happening
- It goes to show that you can’t judge the end of how things will go, either by the beginning nor even by the journey itself - God can turn things around
- Joseph’s interpretation of their dreams was correct & it happened as he predicted
- However, he must wait another 2 yrs before God is ready to use him in a big way
2. Joseph Interprets Pharaoh’s Dreams
2. Joseph Interprets Pharaoh’s Dreams
14 There was a small city with few men in it and a great king came to it, surrounded it and constructed large siegeworks against it. 15 But there was found in it a poor wise man and he delivered the city by his wisdom. Yet no one remembered that poor man.
- Here it speaks of the wisdom of a poor man who was able to stop the siege on his city by a great king
- In the future, no one remembered him – all is vanity
Q. How often we can forget the kindness people show & they help they gave
- So too, the chief cup-bearer – got what he wanted & then forgot all about Joseph
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- Two years pass & Joseph is still in prison
- Pharaoh, regarded as a living god, is having dreams that haunt him
- His dreams are pictorial like those of the cupbearer & baker
- Yet, it is not so much the dreams that haunt him, but that there is no one able to interpret his dreams for him
- He desperately wants to know what they mean
Q. What a let down for this so-called god!
- Not only can he not interpret them, neither can all his magicians or soothsayers
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- His dreams are of 7 fat cows & 7 lean cows & 7 plump ears of barley or wheat & 7 ears of withered & scorched barley or wheat
- The lean cows ate up the fat cows & the withered wheat or barley ate up the plump wheat or barley
- How lean cows could eat up the fat ones is hard to imagine, but Hollywood would probably know how to show that
- But those technicalities are not the point of these pictorial dreams
Q. What do they mean?
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- As we see here, the cupbearer finally remembers Joseph to Pharaoh & Joseph is sent for
- Pharaoh asks him to interpret his dreams
- Joseph says, sure I can do that for you – not a problem! – NOT!
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- You know, in life – especially, in our secular life – we are hesitant to mention the name of the Lord
- Any credit we generate we either take to ourselves, or humbly attribute it to the help of others
Q. How often, do we mention the name of Jesus or in anyway give credit to God?
- This is what I mentioned last week by using the word, theocentric
- Joseph is once again theocentric (he puts God in the centre)
– “I can’t he says, but God will give Pharaoh the answer he seeks”
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- The vertical always comes before the horizontal, although, they are not mutually exclusive of each other.
37 And He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 “This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 “The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
- So, there is one way that is more important than the other
- They do not contradict one another, but one has more value than the other
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- Of course, the ultimate source for love is God – for God is love
- To leave God out of the love scenario would be the same as trying to put a cart before the horse & hoping you would get to your destination
- Or to put it in contemporary way – in trying to drive to Qld pushing your caravan with a towbar on the front of the vehicle – now a pushbar not a towbar
- That would be so silly, ridiculous & counter-productive
- So too in life – let’s make sure the vertical comes before the horizontal
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- Joseph discerns the significance of Pharaoh’s dreams as swiftly as he discerned those of the cupbearer and the baker
- Not only does he interpret the dream, but he shamelessly says that God has shown Pharaoh what He is about to do – even though Pharaoh himself is supposed to be seen as somewhat of a “god”
- What he says makes perfect sense to Pharaoh & he sees the hand of God in what Joseph interprets
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- Not only does Joseph interpret Pharaoh’s dreams, but he also proceeds to give this god-man advise on how to deal with the coming famine
- Joseph is quite the diplomat – Pharaoh is going to prosper big time out of what is going to happen
- Funny that - how the rich & powerful manage to prosper from the small folk’s misfortune
- But this truly wins Pharaoh over & Joseph is now made ruler or governor of all Egypt
3. God Elevates Joseph Over All of Egypt
3. God Elevates Joseph Over All of Egypt
- The dreams Joseph had that he told to his brothers, father & mother are now coming to pass
- He is now ruler over all Egypt with everyone subject to him except Pharaoh
- Notice how the Lord gave Joseph success & had him placed in a position of responsibility over everything
- One of the hallmarks of this sort of responsibility is trustworthiness
- Joseph must have been fully trusted to be put in charge of so much
- Let’s look at some defining points of his trustworthiness
Genesis 39:2–6 (NASB95)
2 The Lord was with Joseph, so he became a successful man. And he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian. 3 Now his master saw that the Lord was with him and how the Lord caused all that he did to prosper in his hand. 4 So Joseph found favor in his sight and became his personal servant; and he made him overseer over his house, and all that he owned he put in his charge. 5 It came about that from the time he made him overseer in his house and over all that he owned, the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house on account of Joseph; thus the Lord’s blessing was upon all that he owned, in the house and in the field. 6 So he left everything he owned in Joseph’s charge; and with him there he did not concern himself with anything except the food which he ate.
- If he didn’t concern himself with anything, it means that he trusted Joseph
22 The chief jailer committed to Joseph’s charge all the prisoners who were in the jail; so that whatever was done there, he was responsible for it. 23 The chief jailer did not supervise anything under Joseph’s charge because the Lord was with him; and whatever he did, the Lord made to prosper.
- That a jailer would trust a prisoner, can only mean that Joseph demonstrated that he was a trustworthy person
40 “You shall be over my house, and according to your command all my people shall do homage; only in the throne I will be greater than you.” 41 Pharaoh said to Joseph, “See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt.”
- I would like us to know the nature of the influence Joseph had on those around him
- Potiphar’s house; Potiphar’s jail including the jailer & Pharaoh himself – the common denominator is that Joseph is entrusted with everything
- The source of this trustworthiness was his God which begs the question whether this is a mark of a godly man & woman?
Q. Is trustworthiness a marker of godliness?
- God is showing His blessing in Joseph’s life in his fruitfulness – which stems, in part, from making him a responsible & trustworthy man
Q. If this is so, then you could take that as a marker for what a faithful servant looks like before God
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- But all of us don’t occupy the lofty position Joseph has just received
- Although, it could be said that he had to work his way up the ladder
- However, God may not plan for you to be moving up the ladder to the position of leader of a nation
- He may have you doing something on a much smaller scale
- However, to the Lord, this does not matter
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- He is interested only in your trustworthiness, the responsibility you take & your faithfulness
- You may not achieve high social standing or prominence in society in this life, but by your faithfulness now, you reserve a progress to greater responsibility in God’s future kingdom
- Look what Jesus taught His disciples concerning their faithfulness to Him as their master
44 “For this reason you also must be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will. 45 “Who then is the faithful and sensible slave whom his master put in charge of his household to give them their food at the proper time? 46 “Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes. 47 “Truly I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 48 “But if that evil slave says in his heart, ‘My master is not coming for a long time,’ 49 and begins to beat his fellow slaves and eat and drink with drunkards; 50 the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour which he does not know, 51 and will cut him in pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
- The faithful slave is the slave who is a trustworthy slave – he does not go behind his master’s back & disregards his master’s instruction while he is not looking or when he is away
- This is why Jesus encourages his disciples to be faithful & trustworthy at all times – because you never know when He will return
- Of course, the fruit of the Spirit includes faithfulness which is akin to discharging a trust given
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39 So Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has informed you of all this, there is no one so discerning and wise as you are.
- You have the job Joseph – he gets a title, a new name & a wife
Q. What a day for Joseph – his dreams that God gave him those many years ago with his brothers & parents bowing down to him are about to come to pass
43 He had him ride in his second chariot; and they proclaimed before him, “Bow the knee!” And he set him over all the land of Egypt.
- Once Potiphar was Joseph’s master, now, Joseph is Potiphar’s master
- God can reverse the fortunes of His people at the drop of a hat but it may take years
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- This is very true
- He is going to reverse the fortunes of His people
- We long for the redemption of the world – the eradication of sin & death
- Through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, that last nail was driven into the coffin of sin & death
- God will reverse the troubles of His people & we also have this hope as an anchor for the soul
- When Christ comes, the dead in Christ will be raised to immortality & then those who are alive at His coming will be changed – in that order
- Dying before Christ comes will never put you at a disadvantage
- Those who have died in Christ are the first to be raised
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- Egypt’s time that they are about to enter will be challenging
- One sentence is devoted to the years of plenty but five sentences to the years of famine – this is how severe the famine will be
- Egyptian texts have described some of the severity of their famines & how hunger was so severe that they would eat the dead – even their own children – we talk about distress & heartache
- Joseph is once again dressed in fine linen, by which we recall his multicoloured robe which his brothers removed from him & his shirt which Potiphar’s wife ripped from him
- For a second time, Joseph goes for a ride – first, when he travels to Egypt abandoned & as a slave; second, as he goes throughout Egypt having a wife & being governor – 2IC to Pharaoh himself
- As Victor Hamilton puts it, “first was as kidnapped victim; the second is as exalted hero”.
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- In the birth if his children, we are given some insight into the pain that Joseph had suffered
- His first child he named Manasseh meaning “God had made me forget all my trouble & all my household”
- I guess, he must have been grieving for the loss of his father & also over the evil of his brothers
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- In the birth of his 2nd son, he names him Ephraim, “God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.”
- Here is a message that is powerful
- God can turn affliction into blessing, He can turn a person’s frustrations into fruitfulness
- God is using Joseph to keep true to His promise to Abraham to make the nation of Israel great & to, ultimately, bless the whole world through coming of our Lord Jesus into the world
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- What a surprise they will receive - Joseph’s brothers - who kidnapped him & sold him into slavery to Egypt, when they themselves travel to Egypt to buy food during the famine
- That will be the subject of our next message on the character of Joseph
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- Song - Indescribable
Questions for the 10 min Zoom breakout groups
God’s presence and blessing was on all Joseph did and Joseph was trusted with all or everything by the people he served.
Q. What would you look for in a person that would cause you to put your entire trust in that person?
Suggested thoughts to comment on:
Complete tasks when they say that will
Do what you ask of them
Consistent in their diligence
Not fickle - hit or miss (unreliable)
* For reflection: Would people see you as someone they could completely trust with everything?