Genesis chapter 40 and reading
from verse 1. 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 put them in ward
in the house of the captain of the guard into the prison, the
place where Joseph was bound. And the captain of the guard
charged Joseph with them, and he served them, and they continued
a season in ward. And they 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 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 have
dreamed a dream, and there is 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 buddied, and her blossoms shot forth, and the
clusters thereof brought forth ripe grapes. 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. 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, after the former manner
when thou wast his butler. But think on me when it is well
with thee, and 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.' 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 of all manner of baked meats for Pharaoh, and
the birds did eat them out of the basket upon my head. And
Joseph answered and 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 his 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. And he hanged the chief
baker, as Joseph had interpreted to them. Yet did not the chief
butler remember Joseph, but forgot him. Amen. May the Lord bless
to us this reading from his word. So here we discover in this chapter
that Joseph continued in the prison. but during that time,
he gained the trust and the respect of the keeper of the prison,
so that when two very high-ranking officials were put into prison,
perhaps awaiting trial, Joseph was tasked with looking after
their needs and serving them. So this really does speak to
us of some truth because here we find these men, although they
were put in prison, nevertheless had someone to look after them
because they were such high ranking people. And I think that Joseph
here in being given this task is a fine example to every believer
and a fine example to you and to me. Our faith and trust in
the Lord Jesus Christ makes us followers of him. And we often
speak about being a follower of Jesus. But the point of being
a follower is that we do as he does. And we literally follow
in his footsteps. We follow the pattern of our
Lord in our lives according to the qualities demonstrated in
the Saviour's character. The Lord was honest and we are
to be honest because we are followers of the Lord Jesus. The Lord was
kind and gentle and meek and long-suffering and we are to
be kind and gentle because we are followers of the Lord Jesus
Christ. The Lord was generous and loving
and we are to emulate and pattern our lives after the Lord Jesus
Christ. To take care of one another as
the Lord cared for his people and we are to imitate the love
that the Lord God showed. And it doesn't matter if we're
in a palace or in a prison. We are to be followers of the
Lord Jesus Christ. It doesn't matter if we are at
home or in school, if we are working or we are playing. It
doesn't matter how and where we are. We are to be followers
of the Lord. And Joseph was a believer and
a follower of the Lord. And Joseph's character earned
him respect from the keeper of the prison and even from the
butler and the baker. And he received a degree of recognition
for his character. These two men dreamed dreams
and the dreams had such power, had such clarity that they troubled
the baker and the butler. A butler was someone who was
a wine presser and a cup bearer. He would bring wine to the table
for Pharaoh. And because these men were troubled
by their dreams, When Joseph came into their company, he noticed
that they were sad. Their attitude had a demeanour
of sadness, and Joseph wanted to help. And so began a long
road for Joseph, in which he would ultimately be released
from prison, and he would be elevated to a prominent position
where he might ultimately deliver his people. This incident here
in the prison was the beginning of that process by which Joseph
would be recognised as a leader in the land of Egypt. Because
the hand of God had begun to organise and ordain and arrange
the circumstances of Joseph's release. You'll remember perhaps last
week that we read together that the Lord visited Joseph in prison. And it may well be as a result
of that visit that Joseph had some sense of destiny and what
he would be called to. Later he would be able to tell
his brothers, we'll read about this in a few weeks time, but
in Genesis chapter 45 verse 7, Joseph knew that God had sent
him before his brothers into Egypt in order to preserve the
people, preserve a posterity in the earth, and to save your
lives by a great deliverance. Now I don't know how Joseph knew
that he would be able to interpret these dreams. I do know that
he was a dreamer of dreams, but now he also had this God-given
ability to tell what dreams meant. Some people like to imagine that
they can interpret dreams, but Joseph tells us that interpretations
belong to the Lord. They belong to God. And many
people would like to be able to tell the future. And some
try to tell the future. And someone will try to tell
your future someday, you can be sure about that. But don't
be fooled with their pretense, because it's only nonsense that
they are speaking. Only God knows the future. And we can know the future only
to the extent that God reveals it to us. And God has revealed
certain things about the future in his word, in the Bible. And we have prophecy in the Bible. But the prophecy that we have
in the Bible is about the Lord Jesus Christ and what he is going
to do and it is given to provide a warning to the guilty and a
comfort to the justified. And so we can read the prophecies
of Scripture and we can find what is going to happen. but
let them be a warning to us that God is going to judge this world
and let them be a blessing to us that the Lord has provided
a saviour who will save his people and bring them to glory and to
heaven. And there's one more thing that
I want to mention just about these dreams that were interpreted. Joseph's interpretations came
true. They were detailed, they were
particular, they were precise and they were perfectly fulfilled. Thus we see the nature of a true
prophet and the difference between a true prophet and a false prophet. A true prophet can be identified
and distinguished from a false prophet by the things that they
say. And a preacher is, in a sense,
a prophet. And a preacher is a true prophet
when he declares the truth to us about the Lord Jesus Christ. When he preaches the gospel faithfully. So we look for a true preacher,
we look for a true prophet who will preach to us the truth of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Three days later, on Pharaoh's
birthday, the things that Joseph interpreted concerning these
dreams came true. The butler or the cup bearer
was reinstated to his old job and before he knew what was happening
he was giving Pharaoh his cup of wine at his table once again. Just as Joseph foretold. The baker, he was taken out and
he was hanged and Joseph's interpretation was fulfilled exactly. Before Joseph had finished his
interpretation of the butler's dream, you'll remember we read
it together, he asked the butler to remember him. He said, you're
going to get out and reinstated in three days time, and when
you do, remember me. Joseph's words were, think on
me when it shall be well with thee. Think on me, remember me. when it's well with you. But the butler forgot Joseph
as soon as he was back in his old job, as soon as he was back
doing the job that he had been taken from and that Joseph had
spoken about. Despite the help that he'd received
from Joseph, he forgot all about him. And Joseph would spend the
next two years in that prison, completely forgotten about. And
I think there's a lesson here for us too. People will often
disappoint us, even those that we think should know better.
People are often thoughtless and insensitive and more interested
in themselves than they are in somebody else. So that a true
caring friend is a blessing. And a blessing that we should
be thankful for. We, in our turn, should try to
be thoughtful and sensitive and friendly to those who would benefit
from our help, especially to those who are in need, and not
to forget them when it is well with us. The Lord Jesus Christ
will never disappoint us. The Lord Jesus Christ is a true
friend. He is a friend of sinners, a
friend when we are in need. We were talking about the psalmist
asking for mercy. Well, the Lord gives mercy, and
we should always go to him when we need help. he will never forget
us, for he carries us in his heart and he will do us good. How do we find God to be a true
friend? By trusting in him and by believing
in his word. The Apostle James tells us about
Abraham, we've been reading about Abraham a little while ago, so
we had What have we got here? This is interesting. We had Abraham,
and then we had his son, who was Isaac, and then we had his
grandson, who was Jacob, and now we have his great-grandson,
who is Joseph. So, Abraham was Joseph's great-grandfather. And here is Joseph now down in
Egypt. But James tells us of Abraham
that Abraham believed God and it was imputed to him for righteousness. And he was called the friend
of God. In this life, Let us choose our
friends wisely. Let us choose our friends carefully. But let us not miss this opportunity
to know God as a friend by trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ and
by believing on the things that he has done. James goes on to
say, whoever therefore will be a friend of God whoever therefore
will be a friend of the world, I'm sorry, is the enemy of God. And so here we see that we are
to be the friends of God and we are to leave the world behind. The book of Proverbs tells us
there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. May the Lord enable us to trust
in the Saviour for that righteousness that was given to Abraham and
that we may thereby prove him to be our friend in need. Amen. May the Lord bless you.