PHAROAH'S DREAMS

BOOK OF GENESIS

CHAPTER 41

            We hope today’s Daily Bread finds you in good health and spirits and ready for another story from the book of Genesis.  In our last story, we had Joseph in the Pharaoh’s prison, in charge of all the prisoners.  Joseph interpreted some dreams for the Pharaoh’s butler and baker who were in the jail with him.  It was a happy ending for the butler but for the baker, things didn’t turn out so well.  Joseph asked the butler to put in a good word for him with Pharaoh when he got his old job back, but alas ... The butler forgot all about it until ...

            It’s been two whole years since the butler was given back his position, and Joseph is still in the prison.  It came to pass that Pharaoh had two dreams, and he was troubled about what these dreams meant.  He called for all the magicians and wise men of Egypt and told them his dreams, but none of them could interpret them for Pharaoh.

            Finally, the butler remembered Joseph.  He told Pharaoh how Joseph interpreted his and the baker’s dreams and how things turned out exactly as he explained, so Pharaoh had Joseph brought out of the prison to him.  He told Joseph that nobody could interpret his dreams but he had heard that Joseph could.  Joseph said, It isn’t me who can interpret them, but God will give you an answer to ease your mind.

            Pharaoh told Joseph his dreams.  In my dream, I was standing on the bank of the river and seven fat cows came up out of the river and fed in the meadow.  Then seven scrawny cows, such skinny cows I have never seen in Egypt, came up out of the river and ate up the first seven fat cows.  But when they had eaten them, they were still as scrawny as before, so I woke up.  When I fell back to sleep, I saw in my dream seven fat ears of corn sprang up on one stalk.  Then seven withered, and blasted with the east wind sprung up after them.  The seven withered ears devoured the seven fat ears. 

             Joseph said, Both dreams have the same meaning.  God has showed you what He’s about to do.  The seven fat cows are seven years and the seven fat ears are seven years.  They are one and the same.  The seven scrawny cows and the seven withered ears will be seven years of famine.  That’s what I meant when I said God has showed you what He’s about to do. 

            There will be seven years of great plenty throughout Egypt and after that there will be seven years of famine.  All the plenty will be forgotten in Egypt and the famine will be so serious that it will consume the land.  Because of how terrible it will be, is the reason why you had two dreams about it.  God has prepared it to happen and it will come to pass.

            Pharaoh should look for a person who is cautious and wise and put him in charge over the land of Egypt.  Then hire people to store up one fifth of what the land produces during the seven good years.  That food will be for the seven years of famine, so that the land of Egypt can survive.

            Pharaoh and all his servants believed Joseph’s interpretation.  Pharaoh said to Joseph, Since God has shown you all this, there isn’t anyone as cautious and wise as you are.  You will be in charge and by your ideas my people will be ruled.  Only in the throne will I be greater than you. 

            Pharaoh took off his ring and put in on Joseph’s hand, dressed him in royal clothes and put a gold chain around his neck.  Joseph rode in the chariot behind Pharaoh’s and people bowed as he passed.  Pharaoh made Joseph ruler and said nobody will do anything without Joseph’s permission in all the land of Egypt.

            Pharaoh gave Joseph a wife named Asenath and he traveled all over Egypt.  Joseph was thirty years old now.  The seven years of plenty produced abundantly and Joseph gathered up so much food to store that he stopped keeping track of it because there was so much.

            Joseph had two sons before the famine came.  He named the firstborn Manasseh, which means Forgetting, because he said God made him forget all his labor and his father’s family.  He named the second Ephraim, which means, Fruitful, because he said God has made him fruitful in the land of his affliction.

            The seven years of plenty ended, and when the seven years of famine began, but there was food in the land of Egypt.  When people asked Pharaoh for food, he sent them to Joseph and told them to do what he said.  The famine covered the whole earth and people from all other countries came to Egypt to Joseph to buy corn because it was so severe.

            So almost fifteen years has passed since Joseph was sold into the land of Egypt, and has become a very prominent man in the land.  People from countries all over are coming to buy food from him.  Now speaking of dreams, remember Joseph’s dreams about his brothers bowing before him?  Who do you think will show up in Egypt looking for food and end up bowing before him?  Oh, my!  God sure does have a way of balancing things, doesn’t He?  Look for the beginning of that story next time, in Daily Bread.

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