Before we begin, let's ask the
Lord to be with us. Gracious Heavenly Father, thank
you for your word. Help us to understand the solemnity
of it, the certainty of it, and the glory of your work and your
person when we read it. We pray, dear Lord, that you
would help us in our heart and our soul to really lay hold,
to understand and lay hold on Jesus Christ, our Savior. In
his name we pray. Genesis chapter 41, verse 1. It came to pass at the end of
two full years, Joseph had been in the prison, if you remember,
in the prison where the king's prisoners were kept. And he was
there after the butler and the baker were released from prison.
Remember the butler was restored to his butlership. The baker
was hanged. According to the interpretation
that Joseph gave of those two men's dreams. And even though
the butler, Joseph asked the butler to remember him, the butler
forgot him. And so two years later, it says,
Pharaoh dreamed. And behold, he stood by the river.
And behold, there came up out of the river seven well-favored
kind, that means cows, and fat-fleshed, and they fed in a meadow. So
all seemed very well there. Seven cows came up out of the
river. It's a dream. It has a significance,
a meaning that's not apparent. Cows don't usually come up out
of the river, but these did. And behold, seven other kine
came up after them out of the river, ill-favored and lean-fleshed,
and stood by the other kine upon the brink of the river. And the
ill-favored and lean-fleshed kind did eat up the seven well-favored
and fat kind. So Pharaoh awoke." That would
be a strange dream. It would leave a significant
memory in your mind when you woke up in the morning. So strange
a thing would happen that these seven skinny cows would eat up
the seven fat cows. So he went back to sleep. In
verse 5, he slept and dreamed a second time, and behold, seven
ears of corn came up upon one stalk, rank and good. The word
rank means fat, full. And behold, seven thin ears,
and blasted with the east wind, sprung up after them. And the
seven thin ears devoured the seven rank and full ears. And
Pharaoh awoke, and behold, it was a dream." So you can see that these two
dreams are very similar. Seven cows, seven fat cows, seven
skinny cows, seven fat ears of corn, and seven skinny ears of
corn. Excuse me, I've got a tickle
in my throat. And verse 8, And it came to pass in the morning
that his spirit, Pharaoh's spirit, was troubled. And he sent and
called for all the magicians of Egypt, and all the wise men
thereof in Egypt, the whole country. And Pharaoh told them his dream,
but there was none that could interpret them to Pharaoh. Now
that's significant. Pharaoh is the king of Egypt.
He's a wise man, otherwise he wouldn't be king. And he had
wise men and he had all these counselors, these magicians they're
called here, who could see things and understand things that other
people didn't have the skill to see or understand. At least
they claimed to be able to, but none of them could understand
Pharaoh's dream. And that's significant, isn't
it? Why is that? Why was it that God gave Pharaoh
a dream that he couldn't understand, nor could his wise men understand? Why would God do that? Well,
because he wanted Pharaoh to find someone else to explain
the dream, an interpreter. So let's read on. This is exactly
what God is going to arrange. Notice in here how God is going
to take all of these circumstances Joseph was in prison, had been
there for a long time. Two years after the butler had
come out, he was still there. Pharaoh dreams this dream. No
one can understand it. And now Pharaoh is searching
for someone to explain the dream to him. And the butler goes,
Oh! Verse 9, Then spake the chief
butler unto Pharaoh, saying, I do remember my faults this
day. And here's what he said, Pharaoh was wroth or angry with
his servants, and he put me in ward in the captain of the guard's
house, both me and the chief baker. And we dreamed a dream
in one night, I and he. We dreamed each man according
to the interpretation of his dream. In other words, according
to the message God had for them in the dream, but which they
couldn't understand. And there was there with us a
young man, a Hebrew, servant to the captain of the guard,
and we told him. And he interpreted to us our
dreams, to each man according to his dream he did interpret.
And it came to pass, as he interpreted to us, so it was, me he restored
unto mine office, and him, the baker, he hanged. Now that's
significant. Here's a man who can understand
dreams. His name was Joseph. God had brought him to this prison. Remember, he was falsely accused.
He was put there by Potiphar, his master. Joseph was a servant
to Potiphar. The Lord was with Joseph. Potiphar
committed everything to Joseph's hand. But his wife accused Joseph
of wrong, and so Potiphar put him in prison with the king's
prisoners. And God blessed him there also. The prison keeper
put every man that was in the prison under Joseph's care and
keeping. And it was then when the butler
and the baker, who were also the king's prisoners, dreamed
their dreams, and Joseph explained those dreams to them. So they
knew that Joseph was given this gift by God to be able to explain
and understand God's message, which was given to men in dreams.
He was the interpreter of dreams. So in verse 14, when Pharaoh
learned of this, Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they
brought him hastily out of the dungeon. Now, we think of the
prison as a nice place with a TV, you know, and meals, and a couch,
because these are the king's prisoners. They must be well
taken care of. But it wasn't like that. It was a dungeon.
It says in Psalm 105 that Joseph's feet were put in fetters, and
they hurt his feet in iron. So it wasn't a pleasant place.
It was a dungeon. But he's about to be called by
Pharaoh, the king. And when Pharaoh's done talking
with him, he's going to be sitting in the place of power and honor
over all of Egypt. From the dungeon to the throne.
From shame to honor and glory. From a servant to a ruler. This
is what God had for Joseph. You can imagine how long this
had been. Joseph was 17 when we began in Genesis 37. Now,
he's about 30 years old. That's 13 years. And he had gone
through one trouble after another. His brothers fought to kill him.
They conspired against him. Then they ended up selling him
as a slave. He was sold as a slave. He was a servant in another man's
house. He was mistreated by that man's
wife. Accused falsely. Cast into prison and left there
just to stay. And God was with him and brought
him out. The verse I gave you today is
from Lamentations. I want you to look at this verse
with me. Because a lot of time, things happen to us. We don't
know why they're happening. But we know that God is good.
We know that He does all His will. And all His work is good
too. And even though we're sinners
and deserving of His wrath, God has told us to trust in the Lord.
To trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so in Lamentations, it says
this in chapter 3. Lamentations is after the book
of Jeremiah. Chapter 3, verse 26. Listen to these words. Let
me read from verse 22. It is of the Lord's mercies that
we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. Why are we not consumed because
of our sin? Why are the Lord's people not
consumed because of trouble? I mean utterly consumed because
of their sin. Because of the Lord's mercies.
His compassions do not fail. Verse 23. They are new every
morning. Great is thy faithfulness. Isn't that what it says in 1
John 1, 9? If we confess our sins, He is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins. Great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith
my soul, and therefore will I hope in Him. The Lord is good unto
them that wait for Him. To wait for the Lord is like
a child. Have you ever waited for your
mom or your dad to do something they promised to do? The Lord
is good to them that wait for Him, who trust His word and wait
for Him to do what He said. He's good to them that wait for
Him, to the soul that seeketh Him. looking, waiting, anticipating,
expectant, hopeful, always looking to what God has said, knowing
that's the way things are. And verse 26, listen, this is
Joseph, this is us, who believe on the Lord Jesus. It is good
that a man should both hope And quietly wait for the salvation
of the Lord. Isn't that what Joseph did all
those years? He waited quietly, hoping for
the salvation of the Lord. That is what he did. And so back in Genesis 41, Pharaoh
called for Joseph. They brought him out of the dungeon.
It was a dungeon. And he's coming to this place
of the king. So what does he do in verse 14?
He shaved himself and changed his raiment, his clothing, and
he came in to Pharaoh. Joseph is taken from prison by
the word of the king. And when he's taken from prison,
he cleans up. He shaves himself and he changes
his clothes. There's significance in that,
and we'll talk about it in a minute. Why? Why did God mention the
fact that he shaved himself and changed his clothes to come into
the King? Well, think about the Lord Jesus.
Remember, Joseph is a lesson, a picture, a historical lesson
of the Lord Jesus Christ. What happened when the Lord Jesus
hung on the cross? There he was in shame. He was
falsely accused. He suffered for crimes he didn't
commit. And he was buried in the grave.
And then, God called him out. God raised him from the dead.
And when he did, he came out, not with the sins that he had
on him when he went into the grave, but without those sins. clothed then in the garments
of resurrection and life. He was changed. Verse 15, And
Pharaoh said to Joseph, Now he's going to explain his dream. I
have dreamed a dream, and there is none that can interpret it,
and I have heard say of thee that thou canst understand a
dream to interpret it. Listen to the humility of Joseph.
And Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, It is not in me. God
shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace. Joseph had learned
humility, hadn't he? He attributed to God all knowledge
about dreams, about the interpretation. So here we see the message God
gave to Pharaoh couldn't be understood by Pharaoh or any man, but Joseph
could understand it because God gave him the understanding. God
has to give us understanding. And there's only one who can
explain it to us. It's our heavenly Joseph. Let's
keep reading. He said in verse 17, And Pharaoh
said to Joseph, In my dream, behold, I stood upon the bank
of the river, and, behold, there came up out of the river seven
kind, fat-fleshed and well-favored, and they fed in a meadow. And,
behold, seven other kind came up after them, poor and very
ill-favored and lean-fleshed, such as I never saw in all the
land of Egypt for badness. And the lean and the ill-favored
kind did eat up the first seven fat kind. And when they had eaten
them, this is amazing, it could not be known that they had eaten
them. They were just as skinny as before. Just as ragged looking
as they were before they ate them. That's significant and
Joseph explains why in a little bit. But they were still ill-favored,
as at the beginning, so I awoke. And I saw in my dream, and behold,
seven ears came up in one stalk, full and good. And behold, seven
ears withered thin and blasted with the east wind sprung up
after them. And the thin ears devoured the
seven good ears. And I told this unto the magicians,
but there was none that could declare it to me. That's the
predicament Pharaoh's in. God has given him this message
in a dream and no one could explain it. That had to be frustrating. That had to be humbling, wasn't
it? Here the king is going around to everyone asking them, can
you interpret this? No, I can't. I don't know what
it means. It makes that man look foolish. It makes the king look
ignorant too. He's supposed to be the king.
And no one can explain this dream. Here's a man in the dungeon who
explains the dream. Verse 25, it had to be a great
stoop for the king to go to the dungeon to find a man to interpret
his dream. Isn't that a great stoop? It's
a great stoop, we think, when we're so proud as sinners to
go to Christ crucified for all things to explain to us God's
Word. Have you ever picked up God's
Word and read it and wondered, what does it mean? I do it all
the time. Go to the interpreter, the one
who can explain the scriptures, and ask him, what does it mean?
God has given us this message, but I can't understand it. And
so we wait on the Lord to explain it, and he sends his interpreter.
I want to take you to the book of Job. There's a place there
where Job is taught a lesson. You know Job. You remember Job?
He was a wealthy man. He was a fairly old man and he
had seven sons and three daughters, I think. I can't remember exactly,
I may have that number wrong, but he had a large family. He
had servants, he had houses, land, all this stuff. And he
got sick. By God's will, God allowed Satan
to afflict Job. Job was a man who believed God. So much so that when he got sick,
he said this, "...though he slay me, Though he kill me, the Lord
kill me, yet will I trust him." Now that's a man who's wise.
But in the book of Job, in chapter 33, we see this man Job. Job
has three men who call themselves his friends. At least he thought
they were his friends. And when they come to him they say, you
must be sick because of what you did, your sin. And so Job
is saying, no, I didn't. I didn't do anything wrong. It's
not because of my sin. He's defending himself. And the
whole argument through the book of Job is very intricate and
long. And you see the wisdom of these
men, all of them, the wisdom of Job's friends, Because of
what they say and the wisdom of Job. But the problem was that
the friends of Job didn't apply the truth they knew correctly
to Job's situation. They really didn't know why God
had afflicted Job. And they assumed it must be because
of your sin. And they were wrong. But in Job 33, God sent a man
to explain to Job why he was sick. And his name was Elihu.
And I just want to read through this with you in Job 33, because
this is what Pharaoh finds himself in. He has these dreams, he doesn't
understand them, and so he has to seek out a man to explain
them to him. A man of God to explain God's
message. In Job 33, The man, Elihu, is
speaking in verse 4. He says, "...the Spirit of God
hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me
life." He's answering Job. He says, "...if thou canst answer
me, Job..." I put the word Job in there because that's who he's
talking to. "...set thy words in order before me. Stand up!
Behold, I am, according to thy wish, in God's stead. I also
am formed out of the clay." I'm just like you, Job. I'm a man.
Here I am. Come on, bring your argument
now. And verse 7, the man continues. He says, "...Behold, my terror
shall not make thee afraid, neither shall my hand be heavy upon thee.
Surely thou hast spoken in my hearing, and I have heard the
voice of thy word saying..." This is what Job said in his
defense. He said, "...I am clean without transgression, I am innocent,
neither is there iniquity in me." Verse 10. Is it true there was no iniquity
in Job? Well, not strictly speaking. He was a sinner like us. But
it was true that he wasn't afflicted because of his sin. But in the
process of his affliction, God is teaching him also about his
pride. So verse 10, the man continues,
Elihu, he says, He findeth occasions against me. This is what Job
had said, and Elihu is repeating it back. He said, He findeth
occasions against me. He counteth me for his enemy.
He put my feet in the stalks. He marks all my paths. Behold, Elihu says to Job. He says, Behold, in this thou
art not just. Why was Job not just? Because
he found fault with God's judgments. It's always wrong when we think
ourselves able to criticize God's ways and judgments. That's always
wrong. We might not understand them,
but the one that Lord has taught will trust him. And Job had been
critical of God's judgments against him because he didn't think that
they were deserved. Verse 13. Elihu asked Job this,
he says, Why dost thou strive against him? For he giveth not
account of any of his matters. God doesn't give an account of
his ways or his words or his works to anyone. He's God. He's
sovereign. He does what he will in the armies
of heaven and no one can say to him, what are you doing? He's
God. And so, this man answers this
way. He says, verse 14, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, it says
in verse 12, I skipped this important verse. Behold, in this thou art
not just, I will answer thee, this is what Elihu said, that
God is greater than man. Some of the simplest, most simplest
lessons are the most profound, aren't they? God is greater than
man. You would think that we would
all know that. And here's Job, this wise man. And here's Elihu
teaching him the lesson of a child. Never think yourself to be too
learned or educated or knowledgeable not to need the basic lessons.
And Elihu says, God is greater than man. Profound, isn't it?
And so he says, why dost thou strive against him, for he giveth
not account of any of his matters? Verse 14. Listen carefully. For God speaketh once, yea, twice,
yet man perceiveth it not. This is the way God does it.
God speaks, not just once, but twice, and men don't perceive
that is God's message. They don't understand it. In
a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon
men and slumbering upon the bed, then God openeth the ears of
men and sealeth their instruction that he may withdraw man from
his purpose and hide pride from man. God knows man's heart, that
it's full of pride, and so when He wants to give him a message,
He gives it to him in a way that man can't claim that he came
up with this on his own. He puts it in him, He tells him
the message, but then he's still lacking something. He doesn't
understand the message. He needs something else, an interpreter.
Verse 18. God keepeth back his soul from
the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword. He is chastened
also with pain upon his bed, and the multitude of his bones
with strong pain. That describes Job. A man chastened
of God with strong pain. So that his life of whoreth bread,
and his soul dainty meat, his flesh is consumed away that it
cannot be seen, and his bones that were not seen stick out.
This is what happened to Job. His health went from him. His
bones stuck out. It boils all over his body. He
lost his children, his servants, his houses. He lost everything.
His wife even told him to blaspheme God and just die. Verse 22. Yea, his soul draweth near unto
the grave, and his life to the destroyers. Now listen very carefully
in verse 23. If there be a messenger with
him, An interpreter, one among a thousand to show unto man his
uprightness. Who is this messenger? Who is
this one among a thousand that shows to man God's uprightness?
Because that's the one he's speaking about. Because man doesn't have
any uprightness. It's the Lord Jesus Christ, the
messenger of the covenant. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
one who interprets God's word to us. Isn't he called the Word
of God in John 1? He is. He's called the Word of
God. In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word was God. The same was
in the beginning with God. That's what it says. And then
later he says, and the Word, the eternal, divine Word of God,
the Son of God, was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld
His glory. And that glory of this One called
the Word was the glory of the Only Begotten, of the Father,
full of grace and truth. full of grace and truth. And
he goes on and he says in John 1.17, For the law was given by
Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man has seen
God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is
in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him. When we look
at Christ in the Gospel, when God teaches us about Him in the
Gospel, what are we seeing? We're seeing the very essence
of the character of God Himself. We're seeing His mind, His will,
His work, His glory. That's in the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is the Word. He makes God known. He reveals
the Father. When we see Him, Jesus said,
you've seen the Father. This is the Word of God. This
is our Lord Jesus Christ. He's the messenger of the covenant,
as He's called in Malachi 3, verse 1. He's the Word of God. He's not only the Word of God,
He's the source of all truth. He Himself is the embodiment
of truth. Jesus said in John 14, verse
6, I am the truth. I am the truth. When you've seen
Him, you've seen the truth. He's the source of truth. He's
the author of truth. He's the one that is spoken of
in the scriptures. He reveals himself in revealing
the truth to us. Look at Revelation chapter 1,
just to give you a couple of examples of this. In Revelation
chapter 1, these things are both seen together. In Revelation
1 verse 1, the very first verse of the book of Revelation. It
says here, the revelation of Jesus Christ. This is the revelation
of Jesus Christ, meaning it's about Him. Which God gave to
Him. God gave it to Him as Christ.
to show to his servants things which must shortly come to pass,
and he sent and signified it by his angel to his servant John."
The whole book of Revelation is a revelation from God about
His Son, which God gave to His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to
reveal to us. Isn't that what we're saying?
That God makes himself known in the messenger, the interpreter,
in his person, and in his work, in his words. Because when a
prophet spoke in the Old Testament, not only his words, but all the
events of his life were part of that message. And so when
Christ hung on the cross and bore the sins of his people,
died, was buried and rose and took his place on the right hand
of the Father. That's God's message to sinners. This is who God is. This is his
heart and this is his will and this is his message to us. Back
in Job though, he says, if there be a messenger with him, this
man who is under the affliction of the chastisement of God, according
to God's will, who doesn't give an account of his matters, This
messenger who is one of a thousand to show unto man God's uprightness. That God is just. He can only
do right. He never does wrong. His own
righteousness in his own character to show God's righteousness. And to show that God's righteousness
which he has provided in Christ. This is the job of the messenger.
God is just. And guess what? The justifier
of the ungodly. This is what the messenger does,
the interpreter. He makes known God's way of salvation
to sinners. And so this is what Elihu is
telling Job here. He says, If there be a messenger
with him, this man under affliction, an interpreter, one among a thousand,
to show unto man his uprightness, God's righteousness, and to show
that man he has none, and needs the righteousness of another.
Verse 24 in Job 33, He is gracious to him. God the
Father is gracious to the sinner for his son's sake. And he says
to his justice and to his law, deliver him from going down to
the pit under the curse. I have found a ransom. And what
is that ransom? The Lord Jesus said, I did not
come to be served, but to serve and to give my life a ransom. He himself is the propitiation
for our sins. The ransom paid to God. A price
had to be paid to keep this sinner from going down to the pit. And
God in justice found a ransom in his son. He found him in eternity
and Christ pledged himself to give himself a ransom for his
people. He himself is the ransom, his
life laid down. And so in verse 25, Elihu goes
on, he says, "...his flesh shall be fresher than a child's. He
shall return to the days of his youth, because now he is restored
to health, because he sees in Christ there. His stripes, by
his stripes I have been healed." God has found a righteousness
in him. And then he shall pray to God,
and he will be favorable to him. God will be favorable to that
sinner. And he shall see his face with joy. God will see the
sinner. And seeing Christ, he sees that
sinner with joy. And the sinner will see his Savior.
And seeing God in his Savior, he will see his face with joy.
For he will render unto man his righteousness. He will give to
man the reward of the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
looked upon men. He looketh upon men, and if any
say, I have sinned and perverted what was right, and it profited
me not. Don't you feel that every time
when God's hand of conviction comes upon you for your sinfulness? You say, Lord, I've sinned. I've
done what was wrong. I haven't done what was right,
and it didn't profit me one thing. Then God will deliver his soul
from going down to the pit, and his life shall see the light.
Lo, all these things worketh God oftentimes with man, to bring
his soul from the pit, to enlighten with the light of the living."
And so, that was the lesson Job needed to learn. And that's the
lesson we need to learn. Back in Genesis 41, Pharaoh dreamed. God gave him the dream. God was going to show Pharaoh
what he was about to do. But Pharaoh couldn't understand
it. None of Pharaoh's wisest men, no one could understand
this message until God moved Pharaoh through this butler to
go to Joseph and ask Joseph to interpret the dream. And Joseph
said, God is going to have to give you the message of your
dream. He says, and He did. He gave it to him. But He didn't
give it to him directly. He gave it to him through Joseph,
the mediator, the intercessor, the interpreter of the dream.
This is our Lord Jesus Christ. And it's a wonderful thing, he's
the source and author of truth, the revealer of truth, and he
himself is the truth revealed, the fulfillment of all of God's
will and word. And so he's revealing this to,
he's revealing this dream to Pharaoh in this light, as a picture
of our Savior. Now, when Pharaoh, when God gave
this dream to Pharaoh, it was about something that was going
to happen. And this is the way God works. He calls those things
which be not as though they were. God says, this is the way things
are going to turn out. This is the way it's going to
unfold. This is what's going to come to pass. And we don't
think much about that. But realize that there's no one
else who can tell you future as if it were history like God
can. When God says, this is what's
going to happen, There's no possibility that it won't happen. Because
he's speaking, you know, you can't change history looking
back when you see the way things have turned out. No one can go
back and change history, can you? Lots of movies are made
about going back in time, but you can't. You cannot change
history. God's word is eternal. What he describes from eternity,
he describes everything in time as if it were already done. And
so God's word speaks here as if it were done. He gives the
message to Pharaoh. And when God gives a message
to men speaking about future history before it comes to pass,
when it does come to pass, what does it mean? God's going to
get glory for knowing what would be because He determined before
what would be. He brought it to pass. God does
all His will. God alone can say what will happen. God can say what will happen
because all things are of God. 2 Corinthians 5.18 says all things
are of God. And His will is always done.
Ephesians 1.11 says He works all things according to the counsel
of His own will. This is our God. Therefore God
is sovereign. No one can prevent Him from doing
His will. Even when the events of our lives
seem like they're against us. Remember Romans 8.37? Look at
this with me. Romans 8. This is what the people of God
says. We're like sheep delivered to the slaughter. We are. How can God be with us? He says
in Romans 8, verse 36, as it is written, For thy sake we are
killed all the day long. We are counted as sheep for the
slaughter. And you would think, man, that's a terrible thing. But no, no, it's not. It's not
terrible at all. Verse 37. Nay, in all these things,
these things that seemed terrible to us at the time, in all these
things we are more than conquerors to him that loved us. More than
conquerors. That's an amazing thing. How
can we be more than conquerors? If I have an enemy and I defeat
him, it seems like that's all you can do. But not with God. He always brings greater good
out of the assault of evil men than would ever have been had
they not attacked him. You can, you know, it's like
those self-healing things. Denise has this mat she cuts
on, and when she's done cutting on it, there's no mark. There
was never a cut there. It just sort of self-mends itself. That's an amazing thing. when
things are like that. You push in this soft rubber
gooey stuff and you take your finger off of it and it bounces
back. But we're more than conquerors. We don't just restore back to
what... God doesn't just restore back to what He was before. He
overcomes His enemies in such an overwhelming way that their
assault actually turned to His greater glory and the greater
good of His people. And think of our sin, and Satan,
and the world, and the law, and everything that was against us,
death and hell. And we see that we were something in Adam. We hadn't sinned, but we were
looking only at the prospect of being condemned if Adam fell
into sin. We had a life that conditioned
upon his obedience. But now we have everlasting life
in Christ and all blessings with him. We're more than conquerors.
And so back to Genesis 41. God reveals this to Pharaoh.
He can't understand it. Joseph reveals it to him by God's
will. And we see that God tells history
before it will happen because God is sovereign and does all
His will. God is greater than man. And it is God's great condescension. Condescension is a big word.
But it means that God has to stoop very low in order to speak
to men. God has to lower Himself in order
to speak to men. But when He does, He doesn't
just speak directly to them. He always speaks through an interpreter. He gave Pharaoh the dream, and
now He has to give him the interpretation of that dream. When God shows us what He's about
to do, isn't that a great blessing? When God speaks to sinful man
in this blessing, it must be with respect to a reconciliation
that He's going to accomplish. Because God can't speak to a
sinful man unless it be in judgment. But when He speaks to man of
blessings to come, then He's speaking to us in the light of
a reconciliation that He would make. And that's the way God
did here. He speaks of these two things.
What were the two things? Well, Joseph is going to explain
it. He says in chapter 41. We're going to continue this
next week. I just want to get started on this. He says in verse 28,
Joseph says to Pharaoh, This is the thing which I have spoken
to Pharaoh. What God is about to do he showeth to Pharaoh.
Behold, there come seven years of great plenty through all the
land of Egypt. And there shall arise after them
seven years of famine. And all the plenty shall be forgotten
in the land of Egypt, and the famine shall consume the land."
So the cows that came up out of the river, the skinny cows
that ate the big fat cows, and the skinny cows look just like
they did before, and same way with the seven ears of corn,
that means that God is going to bring first seven years of
plenty, and after it, seven years of famine, so bad that you'll
forget all of the plenty. You can't even tell that there
were seven years of plenty because it was so bad. He says in verse
31, "...and the plenty shall not be known in the land by reason
of that famine, following for it shall be very grievous. And
for that the dream was doubled to Pharaoh, because there was
the cows and the corn, Doubled twice, it is because the thing
is established by God and God will shortly bring it to pass.
Alright, this is the dream. What was it? Plenty followed
by famine. Famine so bad, the plenty would
be forgotten. Two times it was repeated. I
mean, with the cows and with the corn so that God would say,
it's going to happen shortly and it's established, it can't
be changed. Now, think about this. How many times in scripture
In so many ways, and at different times, has God spoken to us about
His Son, about His redeeming work. How many times? Isn't that
the whole message of Scripture? Are there thousands of times?
Are there hundreds of thousands of times? There's a lot of times
in here. You could begin at Genesis and
just start walking through every page of Scripture and see on
those pages of Scripture God repeating that message over and
over again. That's what the book of Revelation
is about. A repetition of God's redemptive history in Christ
and His exaltation to glory over all His enemies, over all time
and eternity. This is what God is revealing.
If God gave a dream to Pharaoh twice and it was established,
how much more established is it then when God gives us the
entire Word of God about His Son, that it will shortly come
to pass? God's Word is certain. We have
to appreciate the fact that God has stooped to show us His will
in Christ and has made it so that we'll know that it cannot
fail, so that we would put our trust in Him. If Pharaoh didn't
listen to Joseph's explanation of his dreams, if he would have
just said, well, I don't believe you, what would have happened?
God's will would have unfolded. The famine would have come after
the years of plenty and everyone would have died. That's what
would have happened. If they didn't listen to Joseph,
everyone would have died. What would have happened if a
person is born into this world but doesn't listen to Jesus Christ?
He will die in His sins. It's that simple. That's a big
message from this account, isn't it? Christ explains the Scripture. He's the one He explains in Scripture. We must hear Him. Isn't that
what God the Father said? Hear Him. And Jesus Himself said
in His own message, He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. We're going to finish that here
this week and pick up the rest of this chapter next week. Let's
pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word that
you've given to us, but we can't explain it. We can't understand
it. We can't know it unless you explain it to us by the Lord
Jesus Christ. We're like Pharaoh. We're like
the Ethiopian. We need an interpreter. Thank
you that you've sent your son, not only to fulfill your will,
but to explain it to us also. So that like those two on the
road to Emmaus, we might say, did not our hearts burn within
us when he spoke to us and explained and opened the scriptures to
us? Lord, we pray that you would not leave us in a dream state,
but you would explain your word to us, and show us that your
word comes before the fulfillment of it, and comes after to reinforce
and explain and show us that you did what you said, and that
your will will come to pass in all times and all places. And
help us, like Joseph, to learn to trust you, and put our hope
in you, and wait for your salvation, because you've said it's good
that a man should do that. And Lord, we pray that you would
show us that you exalted your son, just as you have given honor
and glory to Joseph by this man, Pharaoh. We pray that we would
understand your word, Lord, and we would trust him and listen
to him. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.