God's plans are His own.
Bible Study Ideas and Commentary for Genesis 41
The purpose of this week's passage is quite simply to explain how Joseph went from imprisoned slave to second-in-command of all of Egypt. But as we read, we discover incredible things about how God works through humans, how God's plans are on a grander scale than ours, and how Joseph is a model of humility for us today.
“It is God who will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.” (41:16)
When We Studied This Passage Last
We covered this passage in 2018:
There I cover
Heroes
A big-picture look at Egyptian history
A lot of Pharaoh's dreams
What's a cupbearer?
The importance of the Nile
Getting Started: Things to Think About
Happy Mother's Day!
For those of you stumbling across this post sometime in the future, we are studying this passage on Mother's Day :). I have no idea how to connect our passage with Mother's Day. More power to you if you can come up with one, but make sure you're being in good taste.
Last Night's Dream?
What did you dream about last night? It one part of my dream, we had driven a long way to some sort of mall with a huge parking garage and a lot of people. After walking a long way, I realized I didn't have my keys or my phone, and I was very concerned. And nobody brought an emergency spare set of car keys, so I don't know what kind of amateur hour trip this was. I eventually made my way back to the car and found the keys sitting on the car, although it didn't look like the car key was on the ring. But before I could check, I woke up. I'm still not sure what I'm more upset about -- that I left the car keys sitting out in a parking garage, or that I never found out where I left the phone.
How about you?
According to the "Sleep Foundation" (I don't know anything about them, and again, it doesn't really matter if they're right about this or not), people commonly dream about (1) teeth falling out, (2) snakes, and (3) being pregnant. No one tell me how strange my dreams are.
And I would be remiss if I didn't include one of the most amazing video clips ever posted on the internet (this poor kid eventually came to terms with his accidental memedom):
Dreams as Premonitions?
A variation of that discussion is if you think you've had a dream that predicted the future. According to our new friends at the "Sleep Foundation", as many as 38% of people believe they have had precognitive dream (a dream that predicts the future). How about you?
Their take: "At this time there is little scientific evidence suggesting that dreams can predict the future." Maybe I like these people! Here's how they explain such dreams: (1) selective recall (what I call "confirmation bias"), (2) tolerance for ambiguity (what I call the "Nostradamus effect"), (3) paranormal beliefs (what I call the "X-Files I-want-to-believe factor"), and (4) coincidence.
Of course, in this week's passage we are going to talk about multiple dreams that predicted the future. The focus is on Pharaoh's, but we also have to bring up Joseph's previous dreams. You can probably tell that I am skeptical about dreams that predict the future, so what do I do with the dreams in our passage?
This Week's Big Idea #1: Dreams
Just because God gave prophetic dreams to a few people in the Bible doesn't mean that is His normal way of communicating with people! In fact, I would call them "the exception that proves the rule". Of the millions of people who intersected the Bible narrative, I found very few who mentioned a dream that predicted the future: the four people we will talk about today, a Midianite who dreamed about Gideon (Judg 7), Nebuchadnezzar (Dan 2 and 4), Daniel himself (Dan 7-10), and Joseph (Matt 1 and 2). Some of the visions seen by the prophets (i.e., Amos, Obadiah, Zechariah, Peter, Paul, and Agabus) could have been in dreams, but I think there is a difference between a prophetic vision and a random-dream-that-turned-out-to-predict-the-future. Admittedly, that was a quick search through the Bible, but that's not a long list of people. And most importantly about that list, all of the situations surrounding the prophetic dreams were critical events in the future of God's people.
And that's why I tend to be skeptical about claims of prophetic dreams today. Most of them seem to be about personal and largely insignificant matters (in the grand scheme of human history), particularly things that cannot be refuted.
This is what God says about dreams. In the law:
1 If a prophet or someone who has dreams arises among you and proclaims a sign or wonder to you, 2 and that sign or wonder he has promised you comes about, but he says, ‘Let’s follow other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let’s worship them,’ 3 do not listen to that prophet’s words or to that dreamer. For the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul. (Deut 13)
In the prophets:
25 I have heard what the prophets who prophesy a lie in my name have said: ‘I had a dream! I had a dream!’ 26 How long will this continue in the minds of the prophets prophesying lies, prophets of the deceit of their own minds? 27 Through their dreams that they tell one another, they plan to cause my people to forget my name as their ancestors forgot my name through Baal worship. 28 The prophet who has only a dream should recount the dream, but the one who has my word should speak my word truthfully, for what is straw compared to grain?”—this is the Lord’s declaration. (Jer 23)
My takeaway: people who advertise that they have had a dream about the future (a prophetic dream) are calling attention to that particular thing/event, and also to themselves. God wants us to call attention to Him and to His Word. He has told us everything we need to know about the future in His Word. We don't need to rely on a dream to help us process the day to come -- we have God's Word and God's Spirit.
[Note: if biblical history is a pattern, then I would expect people to start reporting dreams when we get into the Last Battle as a way of giving comfort and warning to God's people.]
If you are a person who reads a lot into your dreams, I just want to make sure you are not doing so at the expense of your reliance on God's Word and Spirit -- Bible study and prayer.
Back to Things to Think About
From the Outhouse to the Penthouse
That's just a folksy way of describing the "rags to riches" story. There are countless variations of it. Joseph went from being a slave to being second in command in all of Egypt. What stories can you think of that even approximate that kind of a climb?
Prison Ministry
Last week, we read that Joseph was thrown in prison. So, this might be the right time to talk about prison ministries. According to Prison Fellowship, there are more than 2 million people behind bars in the US right now. Without getting into their calls for prison reform and sentencing reform (which are very much beyond the scope of this week's passage), here are the people they believe need ministry:
the prisoners themselves,
the employees at prisons (often overworked and understaffed),
the children and family of prisoners.
It's hard to argue with that.
That particular group ("Prison Fellowship") seems to be more focused on fundraising and advocacy. There are a lot of prison ministry groups in Georgia (most of them in the Atlanta metro), and I don't know much about them. In Texas, Shelly volunteered with "Behind the Walls", an amazing organization founded by Bill Glass. In Georgia, you have to become certified if you want to enter prisons as a volunteer. If you have any interest in learning more about ministering to people incarcerated in or working for prisons, let me know and we can figure this out.
This Week's Big Idea #2: Christians in Prison
I subscribe to the Voice of the Martyrs newsletter, and here are excerpts from the two most recent emails:
On Feb. 6, 2022, as Pastor Rajiv’s congregation in India prepared for Communion, three members of a right-wing paramilitary organization entered the service. They began making a video accusing the church of converting Hindus to Christianity. When police arrived, they took Rajiv and another Christian to the police station. The police questioned Rajiv repeatedly about his work, even though the church was officially registered with the government and had permission to meet. Eventually, based on the Hindus’ claims, Rajiv was charged under the state’s anti-conversion law and put in jail.
We encourage you to lift up the following three Christians, who are representative of countless other imprisoned believers. Please pray that they will experience God’s presence, remain steadfast and full of Christ’s hope, and be released from prison soon. (1) Pastor Li Juncai, in Henan province, China, is serving a five-and-a-half-year prison sentence after protesting government attempts to remove a cross from atop his church building in 2019. (2) Zhang Wen Shi was kidnapped in November 2014 and locked in a North Korean prison. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison for his ministry to the North Korean people. (3) The Rev. Gebremedhin Gebregergis, in Eritrea, has been in prison since November 2004 for his faith in Christ. His wife, the mother of his six children, passed away in 2022.
If you want to read stories from people working in the trenches in some of the most dangerous places in the world, their website will suck you in:
Or perhaps it would be more manageable to choose a country and then read the prayer requests from Christians in that country:
Most of the world is inhospitable to Christians. We tend to forget that in our safe bubble.
As you remember, Joseph was unjustly thrown in prison. Yes, it wasn't for "religious persecution", but it was for doing the right thing. The VOTM website reminds us that Christians are in prison all over the world for doing the right thing, and they have little to no chance at real justice (in this life).
To me, all of this ties back to one of the last things Jesus said:
Matt 25:33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 “‘For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink; I was a stranger and you took me in; 36 I was naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you took care of me; I was in prison and you visited me.’ 37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and take you in, or without clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick, or in prison, and visit you?’ 40 “And the King will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
What will we do to help take care of His children?
Where We Are in Genesis
Most of us know this story, but we have to understand what happened in Genesis 40 to appreciate how God's plan unfolds in this week's passage.
Remember that Potiphar had put Joseph in the royal prison attached to his own house where Joseph was trusted by the prison warden and treated kindly. These details are included so the readers know that God had not abandoned Joseph.
Eventually (we do not know how long), two officials joined Joseph in prison. And after an indefinite period, they both had prophetic dreams, and Joseph interpreted them (the cupbearer was restored to his office and the baker was executed). Joseph said this amazing thing to the cupbearer:
Gen 40:14 "But when all goes well for you, remember that I was with you. Please show kindness to me by mentioning me to Pharaoh, and get me out of this prison. 15 For I was kidnapped from the land of the Hebrews, and even here I have done nothing that they should put me in the dungeon.”
Joseph was incredibly patient about his incarceration, but he was not "at peace" with it. He was unjustly imprisoned, and he wanted out. But -- he wasn't going to do anything reckless or against his conscience to get out.
Unfortunately, the cupbearer forgot all about Joseph. Until ... two years later, Pharaoh had a dream that troubled him greatly, and the cupbearer finally remembered Joseph. (This was a risk on his part -- if Joseph succeeded, it would reflect well on the cupbearer; but if not, Pharaoh had already put him in prison once ...)
Two important things from what we skipped:
We do not know how long Joseph was in prison. It was at least two years but likely much longer.
There are three pairs of prophetic dreams in Joseph's story. His own (Gen 37), the cupbearer's and baker's (Gen 40), and Pharaoh's (Gen 41).
Remember that I above said that prophetic dreams are the exception in the way God communicates to people. But here, we have three pairs of them in the same timeline. What gives?
It's a great question to think about -- why would God concentrate so many prophetic dreams in this situation?
At the very least, Moses wants us to see that God has been at work in the background of all of Joseph's circumstances. Joseph's own dreams are actually more about connecting him with God than they are the content of the dream. And the cupbearer and baker are more about revealing Joseph's connection to God with a member of Pharaoh's court than they are the content of the dreams. All of that primarily sets up this encounter with Pharaoh.
You might think, "Boy, God picked a complicated way to save the world!" Think about and discuss these two questions when this topic comes up:
How might Joseph have been different if God had not chosen to work through dreams over a long period of time? (Pick some alternative methods and brainstorm how Joseph's life and character might have changed if God had used them)
How might Pharaoh's court have reacted if God had told Pharaoh in a dream that he needed to release Joseph from prison and put him in charge of the empire? (Or pick any other way God might have influenced Pharaoh and brainstorm outcomes.)
God can do anything. But to me, the method He chose seems not just reasonable but superior to any sort of divine fiat. He is working through free human agents -- particularly non God-fearers! (like the cupbearer and Pharaoh), and He is drawing Joseph closer to Himself. Seeing how it all worked out, I am in awe of God's careful superintendence of Joseph's story.
Part 1: Oh Right, Joseph (Genesis 41:14-16)
14 Then Pharaoh sent for Joseph, and they quickly brought him from the dungeon. He shaved, changed his clothes, and went to Pharaoh. 15 Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I have had a dream, and no one can interpret it. But I have heard it said about you that you can hear a dream and interpret it.” 16 “I am not able to,” Joseph answered Pharaoh. “It is God who will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.”
Poor Joseph. I mean, seriously. What else can he do?
Well, God determined that Joseph had been in prison for the right amount of time, and He sent Pharaoh some dreams. Some very disturbing dreams (more about this in the next section).
[Aside: The Bible says that no one else in Egypt could interpret his dreams (41:8). Nobody? Nobody could even take a guess at this? The dreams don't seem that confusing.]
By sending the dreams to Pharaoh, God legitimized (1) the dire situation to come, (2) the support of the highest levels of government, and (3) Joseph -- a very unique individual.
In 41:13, right before our passage, the cupbearer himself submits Joseph for the king's consideration. It is my guess that God allowed such time to pass so as to make it obvious to everyone in the court that there was no scheme between Joseph and the cupbearer.
Pharaoh is so disturbed by his dream that he immediately sends for Joseph. I love the detail that Joseph had to shave and change clothes.
And we immediately see Joseph's "no filter" mouth at work. Immediately contradicting the king is never a smart thing for a prisoner to do! But Joseph has learned how to speak the truth in love -- he was not contradicting or correcting the king, he was simply clarifying.
And what an amazing, humble, necessary clarification!
When people ask me hard questions and I give a good answer, I do try to explain that I learned the answer from the Bible -- don't give the credit to me! But am I humble enough to deflect all possible credit immediately to God? I'm supposed to be. We are all supposed to be.
Aside: Humility
John the Baptist was the greatest prophet who had lived before Jesus. Indeed, he was the greatest man of the "old testament" era. And all he did was point people to Jesus, explaining how much greater Jesus was than he (see John 1). When John's disciples remarked that Jesus had "taken over" his ministry of baptism, John said,
27 No one can receive anything unless it has been given to him from heaven. 28 You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah, but I’ve been sent ahead of him.’ 29 He who has the bride is the groom. But the groom’s friend, who stands by and listens for him, rejoices greatly at the groom’s voice. So this joy of mine is complete. 30 He must increase, but I must decrease. (John 3)
The way John spoke, and the way Joseph spoke, those should be characteristic of every follower of Jesus Christ.
Aside: When Did This Happen?
The Lifeway material included a note that Egyptians applied the title of "pharaoh" to their king between 1550 and 550 BC -- and I realized that I have not yet put a timeline on any of this. My bad! See my 2018 post for more details.
Lifeway is correct, of course. The word "pharaoh" was used to describe the royal palace around 2500 BC, and it was later applied to the king himself. There is evidence that this first happened with Thutmose III (~1500 BC), but that's debated.
What's really at issue here is when you believe the exodus happened.
We studied the Book of Exodus back in 2017, and I'm sad to say that I haven't put those lessons online yet. I will try to do that in the next few weeks. Here's what I said in my introduction to Exodus (yes, this is me quoting myself):
There are two primary dates for the Exodus: an “early date” around 1450 BC and a “late date” around 1275 BC. 1 Kings 6:1 puts the Exodus 480 years before Solomon built the Temple, lining up with the “early date”. The problem historians have with the early date is three-fold: (1) the name “Rameses” doesn’t really appear in Egyptian records until 1300 BC; (2) the Pharaoh of the early date, Amenhotep II, was about the most powerful of all pharaohs; (3) there’s not much evidence for a major military campaign in Canaan before 1300 BC. As for the rest, there’s not enough to make me doubt a literal interpretation of 1 Kings 6:1 and hold an “early date” of the Exodus, although the circumstantial evidence certainly points toward the “late date”. Realize that the debate over the year of the Exodus doesn’t affect what happened during the Exodus. The debate has become a “thing” by virtue of the “early date” having become associated with conservative Christianity and the “late date” with liberal Christianity. But the date doesn’t really have anything to do with that—just how you interpret certain passages.
And then here's what I said the next week about Pharaoh:
Last week, I gave you two common dates [for the exodus]. The “early date” is rooted in 1 Kings 6:1, in which the Exodus is said to have happened 480 years before the building of the Temple. Many biblical scholars put the reign of Solomon between 970-930 BC, putting the Exodus around 1446. The biblical evidence drips for this early date. The name “Moses” could easily be a double-meaning tribute to any of those Thutmose rulers. Thutmose III, in particular, led Egypt to its greatest size (in terms of land mass) and conducted more military campaigns than most pharaohs, and would be a perfect candidate for our infamous Pharaoh. (Incidentally, historians all recognize that his firstborn son, Amenemhat, died while young.) His successor is also a possibility, ruling over a vast empire, but was known to be more peaceful (his firstborn son also died under unknown circumstances). I said last week that the historical evidence favors a later date. Archeological evidence in Canaan is slim for significant military activity before 1300 BC. (But you might remember when we went through Joshua that I said there was indeed evidence for the destruction of Jericho around 1400.) Most importantly is the reference in Exodus 1:11 to a storehouse built at “Rameses”, a name not used before 1292 BC. Rameses II is known as “The Great” among all the pharaohs, leading scholars to make him the pharaoh of the Exodus. (Note that “Rameses” is almost always the name used in Exodus-related movies.) I favor 1446 as the date for the Exodus. It lines up with the traditional date for Solomon’s reign and puts a very likely Thutmose III on the throne. Some scholars have argued that the name “Rameses” was added by a later editor of the Torah. That makes sense in that Rameses II ran campaigns in Canaan during the time of the Judges, so people would have been familiar with him. I’m okay with that—Rameses’s name was also added to Genesis 47:11, hundreds of years before the Exodus. And as I said last week, the archeological evidence is not conclusive; it just favors the late date. So I’ll stick with the traditional early date.
Partial List of Pharaohs
Disarray: 1802-1550 BC
Ahmose I: ~1550-1525
Amenhotep I: 1541-1520
Thutmose I: 1520-1492
Thutmose II: 1492-1479
Hatsheput: 1479-1458
Thutmose III: 1458-1425
Amenhotep II: 1425-1400
Thutmose IV: 1400-1390
Amenhotep III: 1390-1352
Ahkenaten: 1352-1334
Tutankhamun: 1333-1324
Rameses II: 1279-1213
So, now let's back things up. If I believe that the exodus happened in 1446 BC, and if the Hebrews had been in Egypt for 430 years (Ex 12:40), that puts Joseph around 1900 BC. This is well before the title "Pharaoh" was applied to the king, so what gives?
This deals with the same thing that we talked about with respect to place names that had changed between an event and the recording of the event. Skeptics say that the Bible authors are obviously nincompoops. I say the author is doing the same thing I do when I tell people stories about my past -- I update the names to what my audience will understand. Moses did the same thing. Notice in Genesis 40:1 that Pharaoh is introduced as "the king of Egypt", his correct title of the time. But Moses' audience would have known his title as "Pharaoh" (right?), and so that's what he is called in the story. This is similar to the town name "Bethel" -- Moses mentions its original name ("Luz") a couple of times and then refers to it as Bethel.
Genesis is not a "history book" in the modern Western sense of the term. It is a book of origins and identity written to a specific group of people. If it seems to contradict modern archeological knowledge, then either our archeological knowledge is incomplete, or we are mis-understanding the biblical information.
Part 2: Pharaoh's Dream (Genesis 41:17-21)
17 So Pharaoh said to Joseph, “In my dream I was standing on the bank of the Nile, 18 when seven well-fed, healthy-looking cows came up from the Nile and grazed among the reeds. 19 After them, seven other cows—weak, very sickly, and thin—came up. I’ve never seen such sickly ones as these in all the land of Egypt. 20 Then the thin, sickly cows ate the first seven well-fed cows. 21 When they had devoured them, you could not tell that they had devoured them; their appearance was as bad as it had been before. Then I woke up.
Let me include the next few verses:
22 In my dream I also saw seven heads of grain, full and good, coming up on one stalk. 23 After them, seven heads of grain—withered, thin, and scorched by the east wind—sprouted up. 24 The thin heads of grain swallowed the seven good ones. I told this to the magicians, but no one can tell me what it means.
These dreams are nightmares to a T, and the internet illustrators love to sketch them.
But truly, I don't think any of the illustrators come close to capturing just how nightmarish these dreams must have been. [Case in point -- I asked AI to draw the dreams as described in this chapter, and this is just about the scariest thing I got:
So many artists are going to have to find another way to make a living.]
The reference to the magicians would have been meaningful to Moses' audience. Read Exodus 7 to be reminded about the role that magicians and sorcerers played in Pharaoh's court.
The subsequent verses explain what's going on much better than I could:
25 Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, “Pharaoh’s dreams mean the same thing. God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do. 26 The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good heads are seven years. The dreams mean the same thing. 27 The seven thin, sickly cows that came up after them are seven years, and the seven worthless heads of grain scorched by the east wind are seven years of famine. 28 “It is just as I told Pharaoh: God has shown Pharaoh what he is about to do. 29 Seven years of great abundance are coming throughout the land of Egypt. 30 After them, seven years of famine will take place, and all the abundance in the land of Egypt will be forgotten. The famine will devastate the land. 31 The abundance in the land will not be remembered because of the famine that follows it, for the famine will be very severe. 32 Since the dream was given twice to Pharaoh, it means that the matter has been determined by God, and he will carry it out soon.
There's really not much more to say. God had sent a warning to the people about a coming disaster, and He did it in such a way as to put His man Joseph into the mix.
Through his humility and his years of languish, Joseph had strangely earned credibility with Pharaoh. And my guess is that God also enabled Pharaoh to see the wisdom in Joseph's answer such that he immediately agreed with Joseph. But the way that Joseph spoke was so truth-driven and matter-of-fact -- the very qualities that got him in trouble with his family -- that Pharaoh understood that Joseph was not trying to manipulate him or one-up him.
Joseph may have been the only person in Pharaoh's life who was not playing politics.
In the narrative, this part of the story simply drives us to the place where Joseph is made second-in-charge for all of Egypt. That's the point.
But I see a side lesson in preparing for hard times. We aren't going to get a dramatic dream like this one (probably) (unless we're living in the Final Battle), but God gives us all warnings about problems ahead. He does so through weather forecasts, doctor's diagnoses, and all manner of other mundane means that people in Joseph's day could only dream about. (See what I did there?) Do you heed those warnings? Do you use them to prepare for the days to come?
Part 3: A Humble Preparation (Genesis 41:33-37)
33 “So now, let Pharaoh look for a discerning and wise man and set him over the land of Egypt. 34 Let Pharaoh do this: Let him appoint overseers over the land and take a fifth of the harvest of the land of Egypt during the seven years of abundance. 35 Let them gather all the excess food during these good years that are coming. Under Pharaoh’s authority, store the grain in the cities, so they may preserve it as food. 36 The food will be a reserve for the land during the seven years of famine that will take place in the land of Egypt. Then the country will not be wiped out by the famine.” 37 The proposal pleased Pharaoh and all his servants.
Now we learn that Joseph doesn't just have the gift of interpreting dreams -- he has the wisdom of God in understanding what to do about it.
It is important to see what Pharaoh says next:
38 and he said to them, “Can we find anyone like this, a man who has God’s spirit in him?” 39 So Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has made all this known to you, there is no one as discerning and wise as you are. 40 You will be over my house, and all my people will obey your commands. Only I, as king, will be greater than you.
Pharaoh gets it in a way that very few others will. He recognizes that God's Spirit (yes, I put a capital 'S' there) is at work in Joseph. This is the first time in the Bible we are told about the Spirit indwelling a human. [Aside: to be fair, some scholars believe that Pharaoh could have been making a vague, generic comment. I don't disagree. I just believe that the God who gave Pharaoh this important dream also gave him an important insight.]
Moses believed that God's Spirit had come upon him, and he desired for all of his people to experience that (Num 11:29), which I believe is why he made such a clear deal about this in Joseph's story.
[Aside: Do we appreciate the blessing of having God's Spirit dwell in us as Christians?]
This is how we get from Joseph the imprisoned slave to Joseph the leader of Egypt.
It seems quick, and we read it quickly, but remember how many years Joseph lived as a slave and as a prisoner.
The Lifeway material talks about the importance of being able to present a solution. I like that! It is much easier to gripe about a problem than it is to enact a solution. Set a challenge to your group that the next time somebody gripes about a problem, they have to work on coming up with a reasonable solution.
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