Did you ever stop and think that many people’s ancient relatives survived this famine and then some eventually had to survive the bubonic plague? Amazing! Well this week we’re going to see Jospeh’s transformation from arrogant to humble. Jospeh was highly intelligent and blessed, but nowhere near ready for what God had planned for him.
Joseph didn’t have access to 1 Peter 5:6-7, but God is the same yesterday, today, and forever; so this verse still applies to the story.
6Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, 7casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.
Humbling yourself under God’s Hand isn’t a bad thing. It just means that you willingly submit to humble yourself with His help and direction. Why do it this way? Because there’s safety under the mighty Hand of God. If we don’t work on our Attitude City by reading the Word, praise and worship, and spending time with Him; we could be in the process of paving the path to receive a bad harvest. Humbling ourselves under the Mighty Hand of God can hold off that harvest until it’s eliminated, and we never receive it. Amen!
Let’s look at Joseph’s transformation! I’m cutting words out for time and space’s sake, please read this story when you have time. Ask the Holy Spirit to accompany you and teach you. He’ll reveal even more information!
Genesis 40 NKJV
1It came to pass after these things that the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt offended … the king of Egypt. 2And Pharaoh was angry with … the chief butler and the chief baker. 3So he put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, in the prison, the place where Joseph was confined. 4And the captain of the guard charged Joseph with them, and he served them; … for a while.
We read the “prison” being called custody, house, prison, and place. As I mentioned in the last study, this was just a room not far from the king’s court area. I would assume, the prison being close to the pharaoh’s court, it wasn’t a disgusting place. Egyptians were very clean people. What I’m suggesting is that there probably weren’t any more roaches, rats, and other bugs in that prison than anywhere else.
Again, we went over in this in the last study, that the captain of the guard was Potiphar or another captain of the guard that worked with Potiphar. There probably was some familiarity with Joseph.
5Then the butler and the baker … had a dream, …. 6And Joseph came in to them in the morning and looked at them, and saw that they were sad. 7So he asked Pharaoh’s officers … “Why do you look so sad today?” 8And they said to him, “We each have had a dream, and there is no interpreter of it.” So Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell them to me, please.”
This is a good change! Joseph didn’t say anything about himself at first.
The butler goes on to tell Joseph his dream, and then Joseph interprets the dream by the power of The Holy Spirit, of course…
14But remember me when it is well with you, and please show kindness to me; make mention of me to Pharaoh, and get me out of this house. 15For indeed I was stolen away from the land of the Hebrews; and also I have done nothing here that they should put me into the dungeon.”
Joseph is calling the prison a house, which lines up with archeology and Egyptian history. Then, as he feels sorry for himself, telling his sob story, it turns into a dungeon. The meaning of dungeon in Hebrew is pit or hole. This is drama, because it was a house or room as Joseph said before.
This is a good point to stop and discuss ancient Egyptian court. The Pharoah would take people out of prison and hear their cases when he felt like it and when he had time. According to ancient Egyptian historians, the prison room wasn’t very large because people were often placed in there, soon judged, and sentencing was carried out immediately. Most common punishments were scourging, slavery, exile, or death. In Joseph’s case, the captain of the guard did not tell the pharaoh about his case and obviously had no intention of ever telling pharaoh about his case. This way Joseph could be kept in prison for the rest of his life. That’s why Joseph’s request was to mention him to pharaoh.
Another interesting thing to note here, Joseph is asking the butler to mention him to Pharaoh. What in the world is he thinking? He could be charged with rape and sentenced to exile with mutilated genitals. Joseph is still confident in what he thinks are his own abilities to find favor with Pharaoh. But here’s the thing, favor was never his ability. This conversation shows us that it’s likely Joseph isn’t giving all the glory to God quite yet. The Bible is subtle with clues, but it makes reading it 100 times more fun!
16When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was good, he said to Joseph, ….
The baker jumps in on the deal, but because he was going to die Joseph doesn’t make a request of him. Maybe he should have!
20Now it came to pass on the third day… he lifted up the head of the chief butler and of the chief baker…. 21Then he restored the chief butler … 22But he hanged the chief baker, as Joseph had interpreted to them. 23Yet the chief butler did not remember Joseph, but forgot him.
It doesn’t say God caused him to forget, as commentaries sometimes like to add. We can’t lay blame on God for this. Just because God didn’t cause him to remember, doesn’t mean this was His grand-divine will. If Joseph, or anyone else for that matter, wants God to move on their behalf, we have to do things His way. Sure there’s grace, but at some point the Lord expects that we leave Attitude City, or at least gather our things to start the process.
Genesis 41 NKJV
1 Then it came to pass, at the end of two full years,…
That’s how long it took Joseph to change. It wasn’t just humbling himself and giving God all the glory that needed to change, but his heart towards his brothers had to change. We can’t hold on to unforgiveness and expect our prayers to be answered, no matter how desperate the situation. Jospeh wasn’t permitted to behave this way, and neither are we. Yes!! God has grace available, but it’s best to always make it a habit to never live near that fine line of grace.
(1) Pharaoh had a dream; and behold, he stood by the river. … 4So Pharaoh awoke.
Basically the dream was that 7 skinny cows ate the 7 fat cows.
5He slept and dreamed a second time; …. 7So Pharaoh awoke, and indeed, it was a dream.
Same dream, but with grains. Ancient Egypt is well known for using the grain called einkorn (pronounced ˈīn-ˌkȯrn), and it’s highly likely what pharaoh dreamed as the grain.
8Now it came to pass in the morning that his spirit was troubled, and he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt and all its wise men. And Pharaoh told them his dreams, but there was no one who could interpret them for Pharaoh.
Uh oh… God shut up the demons in the magicians.
9Then the chief butler spoke to Pharaoh, saying: “I remember my faults this day. 10When Pharaoh was angry with his servants, and put me in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, both me and the chief baker, 11we each had a dream in one night, … 12Now there was a young Hebrew man with us there, a servant of the captain of the guard. And we told him, and he interpreted our dreams for us; …
The butler called Joseph a “servant of the captain of the guard,” not another prisoner. We see from this that no one there believed the rape story either, his case was never going to be heard, and he was labeled a servant, like the captain of the guard bought him or something.
13And it came to pass, just as he interpreted … 14Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him quickly out of the dungeon; and he shaved, changed his clothing, and came to Pharaoh.
Interesting note: Egyptians kept their faces shaved, and even their heads. They often wore wigs instead of growing their own hair, because that’s how they dealt with lice. In the ten plages of Egypt, we see God sent them lice. It was one more way for God to let them know, He can’t be overcome.
15And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I have had a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it. But I have heard it said of you that you can understand a dream, to interpret it.” 16So Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, “It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace.”
So the last time Joseph interpreted dreams, we read Joseph’s motive was “get me out of here.” This time we see Joseph acknowledging God’s work differently. We can’t really blame Joseph for feeling like he wants to be sprung from the joint, but we must realize the greater the responsibility that the Lord has planned for us, the more we must be ready with showing God’s love and humility.
17Then Pharaoh said to Joseph: … So I told this to the magicians, but there was no one who could explain it to me.” 25Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, “The dreams of Pharaoh are one; … 28… God has shown Pharaoh what He is about to do.
God did not need Joseph’s brothers to sell him in Egypt to get the job done. I’ve heard it taught many times through the years. God never requires a disaster in Joseph’s life or our lives for something to work out His according to His plan. He had Moses walk up to the Pharaoh, “Let my people go!” There is no reason why Joseph couldn’t finish his training with his father, Jacob, and then journey over to Egypt to interpret the dream or possibly send an official to Joseph as a request to stand before the pharaoh in Egypt. God could have done this thing a different way or sprung him from prison at any time!!
Our lesson to learn from Joseph’s mistake, either for our life or to minister to others in love, is that if we feel trapped, like we’re spinning out wheels, God isn’t the one doing it. We missed something somewhere, and we are the ones who must go back and see where we left Him.
29Indeed seven years of great plenty will come throughout all the land of Egypt; 30but after them seven years of famine will arise, and all the plenty will be forgotten in the land of Egypt; and the famine will deplete the land. 31So the plenty will not be known in the land because of the famine following, for it will be very severe. 32And the dream was repeated to Pharaoh twice because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass.
You might be wondering as to why all this hoopla with the Egyptians. For many years I couldn’t understand why, then the Lord revealed it to me, God was gathering the wealth of the middle east in one place so He could later turn it over to the seed of Abraham. That was God’s master plan, and no one was going to stop Him.
33“Now therefore, let Pharaoh select a discerning and wise man, and set him over the land of Egypt. … 36Then that food shall be as a reserve for the land for the seven years of famine … that the land may not perish during the famine.”
This time Joseph didn’t mention how he was in prison for no reason, stolen away from the Hebrews, or mention how great he was. He finally had the heart of a servant, and that’s what God is looking for in all of us.
Matthew 23:11-12 NKJV
11But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. 12And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.
Mark 10:44-45 NKJV
44And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. 45For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
We don’t hear what happened in those prison years, but we can see some type of change had taken place in Joseph’s life. The best way to think of this situation is if you have an educated arrogant wealthy teenager fresh out of college, how do you think they would behave if you let them run a large company? For God, that company was the entire middle east. Uh… oh! Yeah! We have to remember that it’s easier to fall on your face in failure when the situation is small, than later down the road when things are more difficult. It’s like parents who carry their child in life and when their “child” is 30 years old they decide he has to learn his own lessons. The fall and failure of a job, apartment, car, and credit at 30 years-old is a whole different story than a lazy irresponsible 18-year-old young adult. That’s the same situation here with the Lord. It was far better for Joseph to fail and reap his rewards of pride and arrogance at a young age, then the Lord allow him to walk into running a country and dealing with multiple nations when God could no longer protect him from reaping a bad harvest. Did you ever stop and think, if arrogant 19-year-old Joseph ran Egypt, how long until his attitude problem started a war? Think about it. There was ancient world-wide famine, and NO WAR for him to handle.
James 4:6 NKJV
… “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.”
If someone wants to get out of Dodge City and stop spinning their wheels, the way out we learned from Joseph’s story is to give God the Glory for His works in your life, forgive those that wronged you, and humble yourself under the mighty Hand of God. As we read on, we’ll see that Joseph wasn’t perfect and still put his brothers in distress; but his heart was still right before the Lord.
Next week might be the last week in this series, we’ll see where the Holy Spirit leads us. Thank you for continuing this study with me. I hope you’re just as blessed by the work of the Holy Spirit as I am.
Lord, please give us revelational knowledge of true Biblical humility. Teach us to properly humble ourselves under Your mighty Hand so that we can receive more and more grace. Thank you for teaching us and bringing us from glory to glory. In Jesus name, Amen.
Christi
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