Lesson 12 - Joseph with the Pharaoh
For Yahweh gives wisdom; from Yahweh's mouth comes knowledge and understanding.
The romance of Joseph in Egypt continues in chapter 39, preceded by an important story of Jacob's son Judah and his daughter-in-law Tamar in chapter 38. That story enables us to see how dependent women were on their men, but it also shows us that, even so, women sometimes took the initiative and became examples of faithfulness to God's promise when the men failed to be. We shall meet a number of women like Tamar as our journey through the Bible continues.
Joseph's adventures in Egypt begin with severe testing of this young man who had been the darling of his father and had been denied nothing that he wanted. The Midianites (according to Genesis 37:36) or the Ishmaelites (according to Genesis 39:1) sell Joseph to an Egyptian official of Pharaoh, Potipher, the captain of the guard apparently an officer in charge of forces that offered special service and protection to Pharaoh. In the house of Potipher, Joseph prospers, demonstrating the talents that will prove so valuable in later times, when he is in the service of Pharaoh. Potipher trusts him completely and leaves all affairs in Joseph's hands. But Joseph is pursued by Potipher's wife, has to resist her advances all the time, and finally is falsely accused by her of trying to seduce her. Potipher is furious and orders Joseph to be thrown into prison. Once again, Joseph prospers, for he is entrusted with the operations of the prison even while he remains a prisoner!
The next event in Joseph's adventures in Egypt moves our story along significantly. Into the prison come two officials of the Pharaoh, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker-- probably the two managers of the entire household of Pharaoh. These two had offended Pharaoh and had been ordered to prison. There, they are placed in Joseph's charge, and Joseph later interprets their dreams, enabling the chief cupbearer to have hope that he would soon be restored to his office and preparing the chief baker for a coming sentence of death. Later, both predictions come true.
Interpretation of dreams was of immense importance in biblical times. While there may have been then, as there are now, persons who made a living by pretending to be able to tell fortunes by seeing into the future, there surely were others who were turned to for advice about what to do, how to understand such signs as appeared in one's life, and how to prepare for what the future seemed to hold. Joseph was one such wise person, blessed by God with special insight and powers, and ready to risk his reputation and indeed his very life in interpreting dreams and other events that happened to people.
As our story opens, the chief cupbearer has been reinstated and now serves in Pharaoh's court once more, but he has forgotten his promise, made in prison, to do something for Joseph, who is still in prison because of the false accusation by Potipher's wife. Then comes a day when Pharaoh has two dreams, dreams of seven sleek cows eaten up by seven lean and scrawny ones, and of seven good ears of grain on a single stalk destroyed by seven blighted and worthless ears of grain. None of the specialists in dream interpretation can give Pharaoh the meaning of these dreams. At this point, the chief cupbearer finally remembers Joseph. Joseph is quickly brought before Pharaoh, hears the dreams, and explains that it is God alone who interprets dreams -- just as he had told the chief cupbearer and the chief baker in prison. Joseph's insight is a gift from God, not just a human endowment. As soon as Pharaoh tells the dreams, Joseph interprets them--without any kind of prayers or sacrifices. (See Genesis 44:2-5.) Indeed, Joseph makes the point that God was directly giving Pharaoh the message by means of the two dreams; all that Joseph is doing is identifying the meaning of God's message for Pharaoh. The meaning is that Egypt faces seven years of unusual prosperity and bounty, followed by seven years of famine and bitterness.
But Joseph goes farther than telling the meaning of the dreams. He advises Pharaoh on how to meet the coming calamity. A wise administrator should be appointed to use the seven years of plenty to prepare for the seven years of famine. And Pharaoh immediately sees that Joseph is the wise person to whom this task should be entrusted. So Joseph is given Pharaoh's signet ring and other trappings of office. Joseph's authority is second only to that of Pharaoh.
The good years come, during which time grain is stored up in abundance all over Egypt. Then, when the lean years come, Joseph is able to meet the needs of the people. But the famine's effects are known outside Egypt as well, and Joseph's measures to save the Egyptians also prove to be the salvation of many others-including Jacob and his family, back in Canaan and suffering terribly from the same famine. Soon the brothers who sold Joseph into slavery will come begging for food in Egypt, and they will have to deal with this once-despised brother, favorite of their father, whom they never expected to see again.
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After two whole years, Pharaoh dreamed that he was standing by the Nile, and there came up out of the Nile seven sleek and fat cows, and they grazed in the reed grass.
Then seven other cows, ugly and thin, came up out of the Nile after them, and stood by the other cows on the bank of the Nile. The ugly and thin cows ate up the seven sleek and fat cows. And Pharaoh awoke. Then he fell asleep and dreamed a second time; seven ears of grain, plump and good, were growing on one stalk. Then seven ears, thin and blighted by the east wind, sprouted after them. The thin ears swallowed up the seven plump and full ears.
Pharaoh awoke, and it was a dream. In the morning his spirit was troubled; so he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt and all its wise men. Pharaoh told them his dreams, but there was no one who could interpret them to Pharaoh.
Then the chief cupbearer said to Pharaoh, "I remember my faults today. Once Pharaoh was angry with his servants, and put me and the chief baker in custody in the house of the captain of the guard. We dreamed on the same night, he and I, each having a dream with its own meaning. A young Hebrew was there with us, a servant of the captain of the guard. When we told him, he interpreted our dreams to us, giving an interpretation to each according to his dream. As he interpreted to us, so it turned out; I was restored to my office, and the baker was hanged."
Then Pharaoh sent for Joseph, and he was hurriedly brought out of the dungeon. When he had shaved himself and changed his clothes, he came in before Pharaoh.
And Pharaoh said to Joseph, "I have had a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it. I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream you can interpret it."
Joseph answered Pharaoh, "It is not I; God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer."
Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, "In my dream I was standing on the banks of the Nile; and seven cows, fat and sleek, came up out of the Nile and fed in the reed grass. Then seven other cows came up after them, poor, very ugly, and thin. Never had I seen such ugly ones in all the land of Egypt. The thin and ugly cows ate up the first seven fat cows, but when they had eaten them no one would have known that they had done so, for they were still as ugly as before. Then I awoke. I fell asleep a second time and I saw in my dream seven ears of grain, full and good, growing on one stalk, and seven ears, withered, thin, and blighted by the east wind, sprouting after them; and the thin ears swallowed up the seven good ears. But when I told it to the magicians, there was no one who could explain it to me."
Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, "Pharaoh's dreams are one and the same; God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do. The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good ears are seven years; the dreams are one. The seven lean and ugly cows that came up after them are seven years, as are the seven empty ears blighted by the east wind. They are seven years of famine. It is as I told Pharaoh; God has shown to Pharaoh what he is about to do. There will come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt. After them there will arise seven years of famine, and all the plenty will be forgotten in the land of Egypt; the famine will consume the land. The plenty will no longer be known in the land because of the famine that will follow, for it will be very grievous. And the doubling of Pharaoh's dream means that the thing is fixed by God, and God will shortly bring it about.
Now therefore let Pharaoh select a man who is discerning and wise, and set him over the land of Egypt. Let Pharaoh proceed to appoint overseers over the land, and take one-fifth of the produce of the land of Egypt during the seven plenteous years. Let them gather all the food of these good years that are coming, and lay up grain under the authority of Pharaoh for food in the cities, and let them keep it. That food shall be a reserve for the land against the seven years of famine that are to befall the land of Egypt, so that the land may not perish through the famine."
The proposal pleased Pharaoh and all his servants.
Pharaoh said to his servants, "Can we find anyone else like this--one in whom is the spirit of God?"
So Pharaoh said to Joseph, "Since God has shown you all this, there is no one so discerning and wise as you. You shall be over my house, and all my people shall order themselves as you command; only with regard to the throne will I be greater than you." And Pharaoh said to Joseph, "See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt." Removing his signet ring from his hand, Pharaoh put it on Joseph's hand; he arrayed him in garments of fine linen, and put a gold chain around his neck. He had him ride in the chariot of his second-in-command; and they cried out in front of him, "Bow the knee!" Thus he set him over all the land of Egypt. Moreover Pharaoh said to Joseph, "I am Pharaoh, and without your consent no one shall lift up hand or foot in all the land of Egypt." Pharaoh gave Joseph the name Zaphenath-paneah; and he gave him Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, as his wife. Thus Joseph gained authority over the land of Egypt.
Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh, and went through all the land of Egypt.
During the seven plenteous years the earth produced abundantly. He gathered up all the food of the seven years when there was plenty in the land of Egypt, and stored up food in the cities; he stored up in every city the food from the fields around it. So Joseph stored up grain in such abundance--like the sand of the sea--that he stopped measuring it; it was beyond measure.
Before the years of famine came, Joseph had two sons, whom Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, bore to him. Joseph named the firstborn Manasseh, "For," he said, "God has made me forget all my hardship and all my father's house." The second he named Ephraim, "For God has made me fruitful in the land of my misfortunes."
The seven years of plenty that prevailed in the land of Egypt came to an end; and the seven years of famine began to come, just as Joseph had said. There was famine in every country, but throughout the land of Egypt there was bread. When all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread. Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, "Go to Joseph; what he says to you, do." And since the famine had spread over all the land, Joseph opened all the storehouses, and sold to the Egyptians, for the famine was severe in the land of Egypt. Moreover, all the world came to Joseph in Egypt to buy grain, because the famine became severe throughout the world.
DREAMS. During sleep the mind often seems to contain a stage on which unfolds a story or sequence of events. These episodes are what are most commonly called dreams. They are illusions or hallucinations of real experiences. What type of reality they express is difficult to decipher.
Meaning.
What dreams signify has puzzled mankind for thousands of years. In the ancient world dreams were often considered prophetic. Homer's 'Iliad' contains a passage in which King Agamemnon is visited in a dream by a messenger of Zeus to prescribe the king's future actions. The Old Testament is filled with accounts of prophetic dreams, the most famous of which is the account of Joseph in the book of Genesis (see Folklore). In some cultures dreams are considered a reflection of reality, a means to convey the truth about one's life that cannot be seen in day-to-day living.Dreams have also been viewed as nothing more than extensions of the waking state, a carryover into sleep of what a person has thought about or experienced while awake. One of the best-known modern theories of dreams was set forth by Sigmund Freud in his book 'The Interpretation of Dreams', which was published in 1899. He asserted that the feelings and wishes that are repressed in wakeful thought, particularly those associated with sex and hostility, are released in dreams.
All the conflicting notions about the nature of dreams lead to no definite conclusions. It is perhaps best to agree with the French writer Michel de Montaigne that "Dreams are the true interpreters of our inclinations, but art is required to sort them out."
Physiology of dreaming.
The state of the body during sleep continues to be carefully studied. In 1953 it was discovered that while dreaming an individual experiences a burst of rapid eye movements (REM), active brain waves, and an increased rate of breathing. In newborn infants this dream state takes up about 50 percent of the sleep period. This declines until about age 10 and stabilizes at 25 percent through young adulthood to age 60. After that there is a slight decline among the elderly.Dream states have been observed in many mammals, including dogs, monkeys, elephants, rats, and opossums. Surgical studies of mammal brains indicate that the dream state involves an area within the brain stem known as the pontine tegmentum. Dreaming itself seems to be associated with a hormone called norepinephrine, or noradrenaline (see Hormones). The order and length of dreaming and nondreaming periods during sleep appear to be regular, and there seem to be associations between these patterns and the emotional state of the individual before going to sleep.
Compton's 1998