Turn with me to Genesis chapter
40 if you would. Genesis chapter 40. Tonight we have the story of
the butler and the baker. The butler and the baker rightly
represent and illustrate all sinners in the world. There's only one kind of person
And that's a sinner. And there are only two kinds
of sinners. Lost sinners and saved sinners. There are sinners
who are the elect of God and there are sinners whom God passes
over. There are sinners who are given
grace and there are sinners who are denied grace. There are sinners
who desire God's grace. They're made to desire it. And
there are sinners who have no interest in the grace of God. God intervened in the life of
some sinners, divinely intruded. I'm so glad he intruded in my
life, intervened in my life. And there are some sinners whom
God has left to themselves, two kinds of sinners. The butler
represents the saved sinner, God's chosen. And the baker represents
the lost and passed over one. Now look at verse one. And it
came to pass after these things that the butler of the king of
Egypt and his baker had offended their Lord, the king of Egypt. And Pharaoh was wroth against
two of his officers, against the chief of the butlers and
against the chief of the bakers. And he, being Pharaoh, put them
in ward in the house of the captain of the guard into the prison,
the place where Joseph was bound. Same prison Joseph was in. And
the captain of the guard charged Joseph with them, and he served
them and they continued a season in ward. Now in the story here
before us, we have four persons of interest. They're discovered
in these first four verses. We have Pharaoh, we have Joseph,
we have the butler, and we have the baker. Now did you notice
that both the butler and the baker had offended Pharaoh, the
king of Egypt. We're told that right off the
bat in verse one. Neither the butler or the baker
here are given a name. That tells us something that
in and of themselves they're insignificant. The sinner is
insignificant. They both represent the worst
of sinners. They were both the chief. One
was the chief of the butlers. The other was the chief of the
bakers. And you remember Sunday, we talked
about who the chief of sinners is. These two men represent the
foremost, the most well-known, the most notable of both the
saved and the lost. Now verse one tells us that both
of them had offended their Lord, the king of Egypt. Pharaoh was
their Lord. I want you to notice that. Pharaoh
was their Lord and he was also their king. And we have all,
by nature, offended the King of Heaven. All have sinned and
come short of the glory of God. How many? All. There's none that
doeth good, no, not one. There's none righteous, no, not
one. There's none that understandeth. They've all gone out of the way,
the scripture says. They've all become unprofitable. All our sin is against Him and
Him alone. You see, with God, it's all or
nothing. And in a nutshell, by nature,
all the world has become guilty before God. All the world has
offended the king of heaven, and there's none that have it. Both the butler and the baker
had offended God. And verse two tells us that Pharaoh
was wroth, wroth, against the two. That's a strong word. The Hebrew word for wrath here
means to burst out in a rage, furious. The same word is often
interpreted wrath, which is the same Hebrew word used to describe
the fury and the anger of the Lord against Israel's rebellion
in the wilderness. Same word. So what was it that
caused this wrath of Pharaoh against his subjects? Well, we're
not told. The text doesn't tell us. Whatever
Pharaoh was angry over seems to be thought to be a collective
collaboration in which the head, the chiefs of these two particular
parties, are held responsible. Adam, the federal head of all
men and women, threw all of us into sin. God is now angry with
the wicked every day, the scriptures say, because of their sin. That's
why God's angry with the wicked. And both the butler and the baker,
picture Adam here, Pharaoh seems to hold them both responsible
for this thing that greatly offended him. Now stay with me, I think
this will be a blessing to you. So what did Pharaoh do? Well,
we see in verse three that Pharaoh cast the butler and the baker
into prison, far away from their former positions of serving him. And how well that illustrates
our alienation and absence from God's presence because of our
sin. Sinners cannot stand in the presence
of a holy God. Remember when Moses asked the
Lord if he could see his glory and he said, no man can see my
glory and live. Sinner can't stand in the presence
of a thrice holy God. God's holy, therefore that which
is sinful cannot stand before him. And just as Adam was cast
from his position from serving God as the caretaker of the Garden
of Eden, God threw him out. And the butler and the baker
are cast away out of the presence and from the service of Pharaoh.
Now let's talk a minute about this Pharaoh in our story. Pharaoh
is the emperor of Egypt. As emperor, he's a sovereign
ruler. He has unquestionable power. He has absolute supremacy. In Egypt, whatever Pharaoh says
goes. Top dog. He did with his subjects,
he did with his servants as he pleased. He had complete authority
over his kingdom. He answered to no one. He was
in charge and in control. And just as God is Lord of creation,
and he is, Pharaoh was Lord over Egypt. Just as Christ is the
King of Glory, Pharaoh was King of Egypt. And I found it very
interesting that the same Hebrew word for Lord is used both for
God and human rulers, kings, judges, magistrates in the scriptures. One is spelt with a capital L,
of course, and the other with a small l, but it's the same
word. And it's that word, that title
that we talked about just a couple weeks ago when we looked at Psalm
130, and that's the word Adonai. Adonai means sovereign. It means
controller. It means master. It means owner. It even gives a reference to
being a father. Also, another thing, and I know
you've noticed this in the scriptures, many rulers, kings, monarchs,
judges, and magistrates in the scriptures are referred to as
gods with little g. Occasions of that are found in
Exodus 22, Psalm 82, and even John chapter 10. So Pharaoh,
in an earthly sense, pictures the sovereign Lord, our God,
who reigns on high. And Pharaoh, in an earthly sense,
is Lord, though little l, and God, little g, over Egypt. And here in our story, our allegory,
without stretching the type, I believe at all, Pharaoh pictures
God. So there's Pharaoh, he's the
first of the four that we see in these verses. Then we have
the butler and the baker. They represent humanity, fallen
humanity. They represent all mankind who
have fallen into sin. Now, Pharaoh's anger at them,
for an unstated reason, pictures God's anger at humanity over
our original sin. Pharaoh cast them into prison,
showing us as sons and daughters of Adam that we have been alienated
from a holy, just, and righteous God. And in Genesis chapter 40,
we have, I'm telling you, this is a beautiful illustration of
the doctrine of election, God choosing. Just as with God, Pharaoh
is well within his rights by the privileges and the power
and the authority contained by his position as king to either
spare the butler and the baker or to kill them. He has the right
to do so. We'll talk a great deal more
about that shortly. And let's consider the butler
and the baker individually for just a moment. First, the butler.
Actually, the word butler here is a mistranslation, really. The Hebrew word is shaka, and
it means a cupbearer. A cupbearer is a wine taster.
A cupbearer was an officer of high rank in the royal court.
You can find that on Wikipedia. Assassinations attempts were
often constant among rulers like Pharaoh, and a cupbearer was
considered by the king to be thoroughly trustworthy to hold
that position. He had to guard against poison
that may have been slipped into the king's cup, and he was oftentimes,
if not every time, required to taste the beverage before serving
it to the king. And if the cup bearer wasn't
negatively affected by the drink, the king knew it was okay to
drink it. And in that sense, it was an
important position, but it was also a dangerous one. Here, David,
you drink this. If you live, then I'll have some
of it. Secondly, let's consider the
baker. The baker was just that, he's
one who bakes. I'm sure that he baked a lot
of things for the king, especially bread. The baker was a baker
of bread. So we have Pharaoh. Pharaoh,
he's the king of Egypt. He's the supreme ruler. He's the one whom the whole kingdom
served. We have the chief butler. He's
a cupbearer. He's a wine taster. He's a trusted
servant. The cupbearer didn't make the
wine. He tasted the wine. He served the wine. But the wine
was not made by his labor. Then we have the chief baker.
He's the one who bakes. He's the one who baked the bread.
The bread was a result of his labor. If the bread had leaven,
it had to have the correct amount to rise as bread does. It was because the baker mixed
the right amount of leaven with it so that it rised correctly.
If the bread was of the right consistency, he did it. If the bread was dry and brittle,
it was the baker's fault. His position with the king depended
upon his work, the quality of his work. Then we have Joseph. Well, we know who Joseph pictures,
don't we? Joseph pictures the Lord Jesus
Christ. And in verse four, again, we
read, and the captain of the guard charged Joseph with them. Speaking of the butler and the
baker. And he served them. And they
continued a season in war. Now these two offenders of Pharaoh
are thrown into prison where Joseph was. and they're charged
to Joseph's care. You might find it interesting
to know that that word charged here means to be appointed. These
two men were appointed unto Joseph, the keeper of the prison, the
captain of the guard. He charged and he appointed these
two men to Joseph. That word charged also means
to be an overseer of. It means also, it means to be
delivered to. It means to be kept by. You see
the picture here. That's a picture of Christ, isn't
it? Did you also notice that Joseph served them? The last
time we saw that the keeper of the prison had committed everything
into Joseph's hands, everything. Everything concerning the prison,
everything concerning the prisoners. was to the keeping of Joseph's
hand. Chapter 39, verse 22. Joseph
was in charge. Yet, verse four says, the captain
of the guard charged Joseph with them and he served them. What a picture of Christ. For
even the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and
to give his life a ransom for many. Now, do you see how much
Joseph pictures the Lord Jesus Christ here? He was numbered
with the transgressors our Lord was, wasn't he? Christ came to
serve his people. He came to do for them what they
could not do for themselves. He was numbered with them. He
became one of them. He served them by fulfilling
the law. He served them by satisfying
the holy justice of God for them. He served them by working out
a perfect righteousness for them. And though he was in charge of
the whole world, he made himself of no reputation and took upon
himself the form of what? A servant, he served. he served. And it's not a coincidence,
nor is it happenstance, that Joseph is found with these two
offenders. You know, I got to thinking today,
too, about the fact that our Lord hung upon the heights of
Calvary's cross between two male factors. And Christ was the means
of blessing to one, whom he said, today thou shalt be with me in
paradise, and to the other he said nothing. Christ blessed
one with redemption and the other was left in their sin. Oh, that's
a picture of the butler and the baker. What a picture of God's
sovereign election we have in our story of the butler and the
baker. Let's read the story together.
Look at verse five. Let's read a few verses here.
In verse 5, we're told that the butler and the baker dreamed
a dream, both of them. Each man his dream in one night. each man according to the interpretation
of his dream, the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt,
which were bound in the prison. And Joseph came in unto them
in the morning, and he looked upon them, and behold, they were
sad. And he asked Pharaoh's officers that were with him in the ward
of his lord's house, saying, wherefore look ye so sadly today? And they said unto him, we've
dreamed a dream, and there's no interpreter of it. And Joseph
said unto them, do not interpretations belong to God? Doesn't the revelation
of God belong to him? Isn't he the one that reveals
the things of God to us? God, the Holy Spirit. They said,
we've dreamed a dream. There's no interpreter of it.
And Joseph said unto them, do not interpretations belong to
God. Tell me them, I pray you. And the chief butler told his
dream to Joseph and said to him, in my dream, behold, a vine was
before me. And in the vine were three branches,
and it was as though it budded, and her blossoms shot forth,
and the clusters thereof brought forth ripe grapes. And Pharaoh's cup was in my hand,
and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup, and
I gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand. And Joseph said unto him,
this is the interpretation of it. The three branches are three
days. And yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thine head
and restore thee unto thy place. And thou shalt deliver Pharaoh's
cup into his hand. He's a cupbearer. He's a wine
taster. He serves Pharaoh his drink. And the former manner when thou
was his butler. but think on me when it shall
be well with thee. Now Joseph here is telling this
butler to think on him when Pharaoh does this. And he says, show
kindness I pray thee unto me and make mention of me unto Pharaoh
and bring me out of this house. For indeed I was stolen away
out of the land of the Hebrews and here also have I done nothing
that they should put me into the dungeon. And when the chief
baker, saw that the interpretation was good. He said unto Joseph,
I also was in my dream, and behold, I had three white baskets on
my head. And in the uppermost basket,
there was all manner of baked meats for Pharaoh, and the birds
did eat them out of the basket upon my head. And Joseph answered
and he said, this is the interpretation thereof, the three baskets are
three days. Yet within three days shall Pharaoh
lift up thy head from off thee and shall hang thee on a tree
and the birds shall eat thy flesh from off thee. And it came to
pass the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, that he made
a feast unto all the servants. And he lifted up the head of
the chief butler and of the chief baker among his servants. And
he restored the chief butler unto his butlership again. And he gave the cup into Pharaoh's
hand, but he hanged the chief baker as Joseph had interpreted
to them. It's pretty obvious from reading
these verses that Joseph's interpretations of the dreams came true. And I couldn't help but to think
that Christ, the word of God, is God's truth. Thy word is true. Now, you could ask anyone in
Egypt this question. Does Pharaoh, the Lord and King
of Egypt, have the right to do what he will with his own? And
every single one of them would tell you he most certainly does,
because he's the Lord and the King of Egypt. And because of
the butler and the baker's offensiveness to the king, both of them deserved
death. of the Lord and King of Egypt,
Pharaoh, had the right. He had the right to spare the
life of the cupbearer, just as he had the right to execute the
baker. Do you see the picture here? Though Pharaoh had the
right to kill both for his own pleasure and for his own namesake,
Pharaoh graciously spared one of them. Did you notice that
in verse 20? The butler, the cupbearer was
spared for Pharaoh's own pleasure and for his own purpose. In verse
20, we read, and it came to pass the third day, which was Pharaoh's
birthday. This was Pharaoh's birthday,
that he made a feast unto all his servants. And then in verse
21, we're told that Pharaoh restored the chief butler unto his butlership
again. It was his prerogative to do
so. Pharaoh did this for his own good. He's like, I've got
a part, I want my server back. I'm gonna show him mercy. He
did it for no reason outside of himself, for his own pleasure,
for his own name's sake. And did you know, I didn't know
this, that the Hebrew word for butlership here means to be made
to drink, made to drink. Pharaoh restored the chief butler,
the chief cup bearer, and he made him to drink the wine. Pharaoh
graciously restores this man to the high honor of being cupbearer,
and as the cupbearer serves the cup of wine to Pharaoh, Pharaoh
says to him, you drink that for me. You drink that for me. You're gonna have to drink that
for me in order for me to be satisfied with you as a cupbearer. You're gonna have to drink that
in order to be restored unto me as my cupbearer. I give to
you the high honor of drinking my wine. And when the cupbearer
did, we see that it was then that he, the cupbearer, gave
the cup into Pharaoh's hand. Now, I think we know what this
wine pictures. It pictures the shed blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the only thing, the only
thing that will satisfy our God. It's the only thing that will
restore us to the God whom we have offended. We drink of Christ's
blood and then we hand it to the Lord of Lords and the King
of Kings as the only grounds of acceptance with Him. That's
the only thing that God will accept from us, is the blood
of his precious son. And isn't that what the dream
of the cupbearer was all about? It was about the redemptive work
of Christ. Let's look at it again briefly.
Verse nine, and the chief butler told his dream to Joseph. And
he said to him, in my dream, behold, a vine was before me. And in the vine were three branches,
and it was as though it budded, and her blossoms shot forth,
and the clusters therefore brought forth ripe grapes. And Pharaoh's
cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes and pressed them into
Pharaoh's cup, and I gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand." Now,
in this dream, the cupbearer saw a grape vine. That's the symbol of Christ.
The Lord Jesus said, I am the vine. You are the branches, and
without me, you can do nothing. John 15, 5. The butler, in his
dream, saw Christ. The vine produced grapes, and
in his dream, the chief butler, the chief cupbearer, took the
grapes and he squeezed them into Pharaoh's cup. That's a picture
of Christ's suffering and the shedding of his blood for our
sins. He was bruised, that word means
crushed. He was crushed for our iniquities,
Isaiah 53, 5. And he willingly went to the
cross for us. He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep. No man takes it, I lay it down.
He willingly went to the cross for it. And then on the other
hand, The chief baker's dream concerns his efforts to be justified
by his own works. Look at verse 16. When the chief
baker saw that the interpretation was good, it was good for the
butler, he thought, well, okay, let me try my hand at this. And
he said unto Joseph, I also was in my dream, and behold, I had
three white baskets. Now, I don't know if you have
a reference Bible. My reference Bible here says
baskets full of holes. I had white baskets full of holes
on my head. And then verse 17, in the uppermost
basket, there was all manner of baked meats. And again, my
Bible there refers this baked meat to a work of a baker. to a work of a baker. There was
all manner of baked meats for pharaohs and the birds did eat
them out of the basket upon my head. And I believe that refers
to all kinds of baked goods. They symbolize all the types
of dead works done by the arm of the flesh to earn salvation.
So you see the parallel here? The butler's dream was all about
redemption by the blood. The baker's dream was all about
the works of his own hands. These baked goods of works also
show the absence of a blood sacrifice. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission of sins, Hebrews 9.22. Now to make matters
worse, these baked goods were probably leavened. And as you
know, leaven in the Bible speaks of sin and the erroneous teaching
that salvation is by works. The baker's works were polluted
with sin. Because of that, he had a faulty
understanding of redemption. And finally, the baskets that
were on his head, I think, very well illustrates the baker's
reliance on his own intelligence, another indication that he was
trusting in the wisdom of his own mind and of his own heart
and his own strength. So, the Chief Butler lived because
he was justified by the blood and the work of Christ. Friends,
if we're ever to be justified before a thrice holy God, that's
the only way we're gonna be. And the Chief Baker died because
no man can be justified by his own works. Now what a picture
this is of redemption. And seeing how this all turned
out, Couldn't we easily say that Pharaoh loved the butler and
hated the baker? Just as the Lord loved and chose
Jacob over Esau, the butler and the baker had no say in the matter.
Did they? Did they have any say in the
matter? Jacob nor the butler were chosen because of any good
quality within them. While we studied the life of
Jacob, he was rotten. We spent a lot of weeks looking
at his life. The baker, he didn't reject the
grace of Pharaoh. He was given no opportunity to
accept or reject it. Will you dare accuse Pharaoh
of being unfair? The baker couldn't accept the
grace of Pharaoh because no such free will choice to do so was
given to him. Did the butler have an opportunity
to call Pharaoh unfair for imprisoning him in the first place? Absolutely
not. God forbid, the scripture said.
Is there unrighteousness with God? Is he not able to save one
and pass by another? Is there unrighteousness with
him? God forbid. It's the king's prerogative to
do what he wills with his own. For the butler, the grace of
Pharaoh, was irresistible. So it is with the grace of God
towards his sheep, his people. He said, I am the good shepherd.
The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. He said,
my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and what? They follow me. You see, the call of the shepherd
is effectual. When he calls, you're gonna come.
We'd better believe that his call of mercy and the call of
his grace is effectual, it's irresistible. Now I would stop
right there because my, that's enough for us to chew on for
several days, but I must quickly give you one more thing here.
And that would be that Joseph desired to be remembered. Joseph
said to the butler in verse 14, he said, but think on me. And
again, the reference in my Bible is remember me. Joseph said,
remember me and it shall be well with thee. And in our story,
we have Joseph who pictures the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the one
mediator between God and man. And he's standing between a baker
of bread and a taster of wine. Boy, I saw a real connection
there with the Lord's table. When Christ broke bread that
night in the upper room with his disciples, and when he poured
the wine, he said, for as often as you eat this bread and drink
this cup, this do in remembrance of me. Joseph said, remember
me. The Lord Jesus said, do this
in remembrance of me. And then I'd have you notice
also that in the last verse of the chapter, verse 23, we're
given a great warning. This is a great warning. It says, yet did not the chief
butler remember Joseph, but forgot him. That's so alarming. That's such a solemn and sobering
thought. ever forget the one who loved
you and gave himself for you. Don't ever forget your Joseph.
Don't ever forget him. So let me ask you, in closing,
which one of these two men do you see yourself as? Are you
the wine taster? who's tasted the good word of
God and the powers of the world to come, Hebrews 6, 5? Are you
the cupbearer who has been made to taste that the Lord is gracious,
1 Peter 2, 3? Or are you the baker who is endeavoring
to appease God by a work of righteousness that you've done? I believe Genesis
chapter 40 shows us very plainly who it is the Lord to save. He's
gonna save those who trust in the blood of Christ, those who
have tasted of Him, those who trust in Him for their salvation. Oh, may God enable us to do just
that, trust in Christ and Him alone.