So we are reading from Genesis
chapter 41, and we're going to read from verse 1. And it came to pass at the end
of two full years that Pharaoh dreamed, and behold, he stood
by the river. And behold, there came up out
of the river seven well-favoured kine and fat-fleshed, and they
fed in a meadow. And behold, seven other kine
came up after them out of the river, ill-favoured and lean-fleshed,
and stood by the other kine upon the brink of the river. Kine
are cattle. And the ill-favoured and lean-fleshed
kine did eat up the seven well-favoured and fat kine. So Pharaoh awoke. And he slept and dreamed the
second time. And behold, seven ears of corn
came up upon one stalk, rank and good. 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. And it came to pass in the morning
that his spirit was troubled, and he sent and called for all
the magicians of Egypt and all the wise men thereof, and Pharaoh
told them his dream. But there was none that could
interpret them unto Pharaoh. Then spake the chief butler unto
Pharaoh, saying, I do remember my faults this day. Pharaoh was
wroth with his servants, and 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. And there was there with
us a young man in 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 he hanged. Then Pharaoh sent and called
Joseph, and they brought him hastily out of the dungeon, and
he shaved himself and changed in his raiment, and came in unto
Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph,
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. And Joseph answered Pharaoh,
saying, It is not in me. God shall give Pharaoh an answer
of peace. And Pharaoh said unto 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-favoured, and they fed in a meadow. And behold, seven
other kind came up after them, poor and very ill-favoured and
lean-fleshed, such as I never saw in all the land of Egypt
for badness. And the lean and the ill-favoured
kind did eat up the first seven fat kind. And when they had eaten
them up, it could not be known that they had eaten them, but
they were still ill-favoured 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. And Joseph
said unto Pharaoh, The dream of Pharaoh is one. God hath showed
Pharaoh what he is about to do. The seven good kine are seven
years, and the seven good ears are seven years. The dream is
one. and the seven thin and ill-favoured kind that came up after them
are seven years, and the seven empty ears blasted with the east
wind shall be seven years of famine. This is the thing which
I have spoken unto Pharaoh. What God is about to do, he showeth
unto Pharaoh. Behold, there come seven years
of great plenty throughout 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, and the plenty shall not be known in
the land by reason of that famine following, for it shall be very
grievous. Grievous. And for that the dream
was doubled unto Pharaoh twice. It is because the thing is established
by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass. Now therefore
let Pharaoh look out a man, discreet and wise, and set him over the
land of Egypt. Let Pharaoh do this, and let
him appoint officers over the land, and take up the fifth part
of the land of Egypt in the seven plenteous years. and let them
gather all the food of those good years that come, and lay
up corn under the hand of Pharaoh, and let them keep food in the
cities. And that food shall be for store
to the land against the seven years of famine, which shall
be in the land of Egypt, that the land perish not through the
famine. and the thing was good in the
eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of all his servants. Amen. May the Lord bless to us this
reading from his word. Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, had
a dream. Two dreams, actually. And as
I was thinking about these dreams, I wondered if perhaps we might
call them nightmares, because it must have been a pretty horrendous
thing to watch cattle eating cattle and lean cattle eating
fat cattle in your dream. In one of these dreams, they
dream of the cattle, the kind of the cattle. And another, there
was the fat and the thin corn. The seven fat cattle came up
out of the river. That was probably the river Nile. That's the main river, the main
river which flows in Egypt. And when it flows well, it gives
great fertility to Egypt and great wealth to the country.
And then the seven fat cattle were followed by seven lean cattle
who ate up the fat cattle. but they didn't get any fatter
themselves. And then in the second dream,
we saw there that there were full ears of corn growing on
a single stalk, and then seven thin ears followed, and again,
the lean consumed the fat, and these dreams, or these nightmares,
they perplexed and they troubled Pharaoh. It was as though he
knew that they carried a deeper meaning But when he called all
his magicians, when he called all his wise men, they could
cast no light of interpretation on his dreams. And it was only
then when Pharaoh and his courtiers didn't know what to do, when
they pondered about who could interpret the dreams, that the
butler that had been in prison with Joseph remembered Joseph
and told Pharaoh about him. And we read how Joseph was called
out of prison and the dreams were retold to him and Joseph
was told by Pharaoh that he had heard that Joseph could interpret
dreams. Joseph's answer was a good answer.
He said, oh no, he said it's not in me. But God shall give
Pharaoh an answer of peace. You see, the Lord has to have
the glory. We will never take any glory
to ourselves, and nor should we, because all that we have
has been given to us. We've no right, no reason, no
grounds for glorying before the Lord. Everything that we have
is God's good gift to us. And that's what Joseph knew.
And that's what he told Pharaoh. He gave all the credit to God
and he told Pharaoh that the answer would come from God and
it would be a blessing to him. It would be an answer of peace
which would ease the king's troubled spirit. And Joseph proceeded
to interpret both dreams. He said, in reality, it's just
one dream. but it's repeated in two different
ways. First of all, to confirm that
it's from God, and second, to let Pharaoh know that this is
a matter of urgency, because what God has revealed, he is
about to fulfil. There would be seven years of
plenty, then seven years of famine, and Pharaoh and the land of Egypt
needed to prepare and prepare now. And that's the story that
we have before us. But I think there are two lovely
spiritual lessons here for us as well that we can take notice
of. And the first one is this. Did
you notice that Joseph was still in prison for two years after
the butler had gone back to work for Pharaoh? He didn't remember
Joseph and Joseph just languished there in prison. until Pharaoh
sent and called him. Pharaoh called Joseph out of
prison. At Pharaoh's word, Joseph was
at once released and we know that Joseph had lain in prison
for many years. He was unable to free himself
And I am sure that he often willed that he could be free. But then
at the word of the king, he was immediately let loose. And that's
a fine picture of the power of the Lord Jesus Christ to free
those who are captive to sin and to Satan by his redeeming
work. It is the Holy Spirit's power
to release those who are bound up in darkness when He brings
us to conversion, when He brings us to the light and liberty of
trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus tells us in John
8, verse 36, If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall
be free indeed. And of course, Pharaoh was the
means, he was the voice, as it were, that called Joseph out
of prison. But we know that behind that
was the providence of God, preparing and securing the well-being of
his people, and Pharaoh was used in order to call Joseph out of
prison and begin that process of lifting him up in Egypt. The second lesson that I want
to mention to you briefly is just this, that when Joseph was
called out of prison, we are told he shaved himself, he had
a beard, and he changed his raiment, and then he came into the king. Men and women, and boys and girls,
have to be properly dressed to come before even an earthly king
or an earthly queen or an earthly president or prime minister or
whoever it might be. When we go before those who are
powerful, we present ourselves appropriately. How much more
important Is it that we should stand before the King of Kings
appropriately dressed? And I'm not talking about wearing
a good suit or a shirt and tie or any outward apparel. I'm talking about having a covering
of righteousness. That covering of righteousness
that we could not have from our own works and our own self, but
we must receive as a gift from God. the righteousness that comes
by the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to be properly dressed
to stand before the Holy God. For God is of purer eyes than
to behold evil and canst not look on iniquity. So our sin
must be cut away like Joseph's beard and our old dirty rags
have to be replaced. There has to be a righteous garment
given to replace the old prison clothes. We need a perfect righteousness. We need to be made holy to stand
in the presence of God. Joseph had been in prison for
what, 12 years, 10, 12 years maybe. Someone must have given Joseph
the razor and someone must have given Joseph the clothes. Someone
has to make us clean and holy. And that's what the Lord Jesus
Christ has done. When he died on the cross, That's
what he did for us. He made us clean and he made
us holy. There he took away the sin of
his people. There he washed them clean and
gained for them a perfect righteousness to make them holy in the sight
of God. How blessed we are if the Lord
Jesus Christ has washed away our sin and given us holiness
fit for the presence of God in heaven. May the Lord Jesus Christ
give us faith to trust in him today. Amen.