Would you turn with me to Genesis
Chapter 40. Genesis Chapter 40. Joseph. Has been thrown into
prison. For a crime that he did not commit. We read in verse 20 of Chapter
39. And Joseph's master took him
and put him into the prison, the place where the king's prisoners
were bound. And he was there in the prison.
What a horrible place that must have been. But the Lord was with
Joseph and showed him mercy and gave him favor in the sight of
the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison
committed to Joseph's hand all the prisoners that were in the
prison. And whatsoever they did there, he was the doer of it.
The keeper of the prison looked not to anything that was under
his hand, because the Lord was with him, and that which he did,
the Lord made it to prosper. While Joseph was actually acting
as the head of the prisoner, we can see how the Lord had blessed
him, and he was actually controlling everything that took place in
this prison. There were two men who were thrown into the prison,
the butler and the baker. That's what I've entitled this
message, the butler and the baker. Look in verse one, and it came
to pass after these things, remember Joseph is the head of the prison
at this time, that the butler or the cupbearer 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. He told Joseph to take
care of them, and he served them, and they continued for a season
in the ward, and they dreamed, these two men, the butler and
the baker, they dreamed a dream, both of them, each man his dream
in one night. Each man, according to the interpretation
of his dreams, 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. They were very troubled. 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 dream
the dream. And there's no interpreter of
it. And Joseph said unto them, Do not interpretations belong
to God? Tell me, I pray you, the dream. Now, these men were troubled. It came out in their expressions
and in their demeanors. They were very troubled over
this dream they had. And Joseph, kind and sensitive
man that he was, saw their trouble. And he said, What's wrong with
you? And they said, We've had this dream. We don't understand what
it means. And Joseph replied, interpretations
belong to God. Verse nine, and the chief butler
told his dream to Joseph and said to him in my dream, behold,
a vine was before me. And the vine 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. Remember, he was the cup bearer.
And I took the grapes and pressed them or crushed them into Pharaoh's
cup. And I gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand. And that was
his dream. And he had no idea what it meant. Now, here's the
interpretation. 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. Now, my margin says that
word is reckon. Pharaoh will reckon you. That's very important. You probably
have that in your marginal reading. Pharaoh will reckon up thine
head. And after he reckons you, he
will restore thee unto thy place, and thou shalt deliver Pharaoh's
cuppy to his hand after the former manner when thou wast his butler.
That's a good interpretation. But think on me when it shall
be 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. And when the Chief Baker saw that the interpretation
was good, he said to Joseph, he wanted to get in on some of
this. So he said, I also in my dream and behold, I had three
white baskets on my head and my margin and probably your marginal
reading also says baskets full of holes. These were wicker baskets
that were painted white, a basket full of holes. He said, I had
a basket full of holes upon my head. And in the uppermost basket,
verse 17, there was all manner of baked meats. Now, this word
baked meat is a very interesting word. I want to give you the
dictionary, the definition that Strong gives in Strong's Concordance. He says this word baked meat.
Listen, this is very important. This word baked meat means an
action. a transaction, an activity, a product, a property, a deed,
a business, a doing, making a thing, a labor, a thing made, a wear,
a workmanship, a rot, a baked meat. It has something to do
with works, mighty works. Now these baked meats were these
elaborate pastries Pastries, excuse me, diligently prepared
to please the Pharaoh. Kind of reminds me of Cain's
offering. So let's go on reading, verse 17. And in the uppermost
basket there were all manner of baked meats, pastries 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. Now here the marginal reading
says once again that word lift up and he was reckoned. Pharaoh
will reckon thee and take your head off of thee and shall hang
thee on a pole or a tree. He'll impale you on a tree and
the bird shall eat your flesh from off of you. Now can you
imagine giving that kind of interpretation to that dream? I'm sure this
man was taken back with this. He was disturbed by it. That's
all. That's a rough interpretation. You have the one interpretation
of good and the other interpretation of bad. And Joseph obviously
didn't mince words, did he? He didn't water it down a bit.
He told this man exactly what was going to take place with
him. And it came to pass the third day, which was Pharaoh's
birthday, that he made a feast unto all of his servants. And
he lifted up the head of the chief baker and of the chief,
the chief butler and the chief baker among his servants. He
reckoned them And in reckoning, he restored the chief butler
under his butlership again. And he gave the cup into Pharaoh's
hand, just as Joseph said would take place. But he hanged the
chief baker as Joseph had interpreted the dream. Yet did not the chief
butler remember Joseph, but forgot him. That's amazing, isn't it?
He forgot him once he got out of this predicament. Now, there are four characters
in this story. Pharaoh, Joseph, the butler, and the baker. Pharaoh represents God the Father. Joseph represents the Lord Jesus
Christ. The butler is the believer. The
baker is the unbeliever. And we'll see this story unfold. Now, keep those things in mind
as we look at this chapter once again. Verse one, and it came
to pass after these things that the butler of the king of Egypt,
that's the cup bearer. He was actually the taster. He
tasted the wine that the Pharaoh would drink in order to make
sure it wasn't poison. He had a very high and lofty
position, but he got in trouble. The butler of the king of Egypt
and his baker had offended their lord, the king of Egypt. Now, the butler and baker were
guilty of the same thing, offending Pharaoh. And here we learn why
sin is so bad. Because it is an offense to God. It is against God. That's what makes it so bad. It's such an offense to God.
It's so against God. It's so intrinsically evil that
God has made a place called hell to send people for an eternity
who sin against him. Sin is an infinite evil. My sin
is an infinite evil. Your sin is an infinite evil
because it's against an infinite God. And when we think God is
overly severe in punishing sin, and which of us have not thought
that even got a little bit overly severe in sending people to hell,
which of us have not thought that. But when we think that
all we've proved by that is how Little we think of God. And how
little we think of sin and how much we think of ourselves. Sin is so bad that an eternity
in hell will not satisfy God. And remember, with God, the punishment
always fits the crime. He never punishes too severely.
That's why hell is eternal. Sin is so evil that the punishment
against the sinner is never enough to satisfy God. Sin is so evil
that the only thing that could put it away and pacify an offended
God is the blood of His Son. There are no little sins. Now, that's an overwhelming thing
to think about. Every sin I commit is worthy
of an eternal hell. I wonder how much we really believe
that. Well, they're thrown into prison
because they offended Pharaoh. Now, let's pick up reading in
verse four, 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, these men, each man
his dream, and 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 prison, and Joseph came in unto them in the
morning. and looked upon them. And behold, they were sad. Now
here we see something of the character of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He looked upon these people, these two men that were so sad,
and it affected him. He said, why are you so sad?
What's wrong with you? I see something of the compassion,
the mercy, and the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's so merciful. He delights in mercy. He looked
at these two men, and they were so sad. And he asked Phalo'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 dream to dream, and there's no interpreter of it. Now, we
see here how dependent we are upon the Lord teaching us. These
men dreamed this dream, and they knew all the facts of the dream.
They knew everything that took place. They could put it back
exactly what happened for David. They had all the data. They had
all the information. They had all the facts, but they
didn't know the meaning. How dependent are we upon the
Lord God, upon the Lord Jesus Christ, to give the meaning of
His Word to us? We can't figure it out. We're
totally dependent upon revelation. We can have all the facts, all
the right information, but they really don't mean anything unless
he gives us the meaning. Now, this book we're looking
at, the Bible, divine truth, is a closed book. The gospel
is not understood unless he teaches us the meaning. Don't you know
that's the truth? Truth is not really learned by
education. It's learned by revelation. I
must have him to reveal the truth to me, or I will not understand.
Now, they had the facts of this dream, but they said there's
nobody to interpret it for us, to tell us what it means. And
Joseph said unto them, Do not interpretations belong to God?
Tell me then, I pray you. So we begin with the butler. He tells Joseph his dream. 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. Now, the first thing that I see
about this dream is there was life in this dream. These branches budded. They showed
forth life, they brought forth clusters of grapes. And it was as though they budded,
verse 10, 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. Now, what do you reckon
is meant by these crushed grapes? I dare say, you know what that
refers to? That refers to the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ, him suffering the wrath of God in the sinner's
place. Verse 12, And Joseph said unto
him, This is the interpretation of it. The three branches are
three days. Now, remember, this is a saving
interpretation, and these three days Tell us something about
the three days in which our salvation was accomplished. Now, think
about this. Our Lord lived 33 years upon
this earth. He never sinned. He obeyed God's
holy law perfectly for those 33 years. Now, what would have
happened if after those 33 years, he just went back to heaven?
What good would it have done us? Not at all. But you see, during
those three days between His crucifixion and His resurrection,
in those three days, He accomplished the salvation of everybody He
died for. That's what was going on in those
three days. Now, what was going on? I don't know. We're in the
dark. I can't understand what our Lord experienced during those
three days, and neither can anybody else. We're totally in the dark
about that. I don't know the particulars of what took place,
but I do know this. When he was raised from the dead,
when he walked out of that tomb, the salvation of everybody he
died for was accomplished. Those three days, that's when
I was saved. That's when God did something
for me that I could never do for myself. And let's go on reading. Verse 13, yet within three days
shall Pharaoh lift up thine head and restore unto thee thy place. Now, during those three days,
the grapes were crushed, the blood of Christ on the cross,
he was crushed and that's how sinners paid for. And then there
was some reckoning going on. The word lift is reckon and there's
no understanding of the gospel. There is no internal peace that
I'm ever going to experience if I don't understand what this
thing of reckoning is all about. He says to the buffer, Pharaoh
is going to reckon you. He's going to impute you is what
the word means. Now, on the cross, the sins of
the elect were reckoned to Christ. They became his. Now, When Christ was made sin, that
sin actually became his. We just read in Psalm 40. You
remember who was speaking? That's the Lord. And he said,
My iniquities have gone over my head as a heavy burden, they're
too heavy for me. My sin became his. My sin was reckoned to him And
it became his. And just as truly. And this is
this is where my peace comes from. This is where the peace
of every believer comes from. Just as truly as my sin really
became his. And he really suffered under
the wrath of God for that sin. Just as truly as my sin became
his. His righteousness, his perfect
obedience becomes mine. Do you get any confidence and
assurance out of that? You know, that's the only place I found
peace and assurance and safety. There's a true reckoning that
took place. It wasn't just role playing going
on. The father was not looking at
him and saying, well, I know you're not guilty, but I'm going
to punish you even though you're not guilty. And then I'm going
to take your righteousness and give it to your people, even
though I know they're sinful. No, he actually became sin and
I actually deserve the righteousness of God in him. That's where peace
comes from. That's where joy comes from.
This divine reckoning that took place. Verse 13, yet within three
days shall Pharaoh reckon thee, he'll lift up your head and restore
thee unto thy place. Because of this reckoning, you're
going to be restored to your place and thou shalt deliver
Pharaoh's cup into his hand after the former manner when thou was
his butler. Think on me. When it shall be
well with thee and show kindness, I pray thee unto me and make
mention unto me of 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
this dungeon." Now there is the testimony of the believer. There's
the believer's hope. The butler represents the believer. His hope, his only hope, his
only peace is that Pharaoh, the father, the God of all, will
reckon him. That he'll view him and make
him righteous. He reckoned sin to a substitute.
He reckoned The righteousness of his son to him, and there's
his peace. That's the confession of the believer, the butler.
Now, let's look at what the unbeliever has to say. Verse 16. When the chief baker saw that
the interpretation was good, he liked what he heard. He thought,
surely I'm going to have a good interpretation also. He said
unto Joseph, I also was in my dream, just like the butler was. I had a dream about myself, and
behold, I had three white baskets on my head. Baskets full of holes. You see, the unbeliever's hope
is full of holes, isn't it? Anything that is not exactly
what the hope of the butler is. is full of holes. Can you see
that? Verse 17, and in the uppermost
basket was there all manner of baked meats, works, good works,
good intentions, doctoral understanding, joyous experiences, all kinds,
all manner of baked meats, things I feel really good about. works, all my works. And what happened? And the birds
did eat them out of the basket upon my head. So much for all of my works.
Now, Joseph gives him the interpretation. And Joseph answered and said,
this is the interpretation thereof, the three baskets, three days,
Yet within three days shall Pharaoh reckon thee. You bring your works
to him and he's going to reckon you in your works. He's going
to say, all right, you come into me in that way and I'll deal
with you in that way. Your works will be reckoned to
you. Yet within three days shall Pharaoh reckon thee. And here's
what he's going to do when he reckons thee and when he judges
you according to your works. And remember this, you can come
to God any way you want. And this is something to think
about. You can come to God the way the butler did. What did
the butler bring? Nothing but that crushed grapes,
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He didn't have any other hope.
That's the way he came in. He came in heathen. What he brought
those grapes in was the king's cup. It wasn't even his cup.
It was the king's cup. That's faith. That's the gift
of God. And even the faith I offer up doesn't belong to me. I'm
the one that believes, but I know it's his gift. And all that's
in that cup is the crushed grapes. It's the blood. Nothing else.
He wouldn't bring anything else. But the baker, he brings the
baked meats, the works, the great works. Now, the Lord will let
you come any way you want. If you want to come pleading
nothing but the blood, God will let you come that way.
And you're going to have the same end that that butler had.
But if you want to come with your baked meats, you can come
that way. You'll have the same end as the
baker. God will meet you on the ground you want to come. He'll
meet me on the ground I want to come. That's a mercy. I know
which way I want to come. I want to come the way that butler
did. Verse 20. Things happened exactly as Joseph
said they would happen. 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. He reckoned them both. He didn't
reckon them the same way, but he reckoned them both. He let
them come the way they wanted to come. And he restored the
chief butler under his butlership again. And he gave the cup unto
Pharaoh's hand. But he ain't no chief baker.
Just as Joseph had interpreted to them. Joseph was the faithful
interpreter, and it happened exactly as he said it would. Now, I think it's interesting
when you look at this chapter. Joseph didn't have any personal
word for the baker, did he? He gave the interpretation, but
there was no personal word. There was no application. He
didn't really speak to him. He told him what was going to happen
to him. But there was no personal word, but there was a personal
word to the butler, to the believer. No personal word to the unbeliever,
but there was a personal word to the butler. And here's what
it is in verse 14. He says, Think on me when it shall be well with thee. Now here's the word of the Lord
Jesus Christ to me. Think on me. Who I am. What I did. Where I am. Think on me when it shall be
well with thee. Not if you end up, not if this
ends up working, but when it shall as well be. Think on me. And show kindness, I pray thee,
unto me. We are obligated to serve him
because of what he has done for us. Show kindness to him. You'll
see the so unkind. Unbelief. is so unkind. He says, show kindness to me. But he says next. He says in verse 14, make mention
of me. When you pray, who do you make
mention of? Oh, Lord, hear me for Christ's
sake. He only is who I believe. His
blood, His merits, may I be found in Him. Make mention of me to the Father. And you know,
as far as our making mention, our preaching, what are we supposed
to preach? Him. Make mention of me. That's our message. And then
he says in verse 14, and bring me out of this house, exalt me. You see, our Lord didn't stay
in this place of humiliation in the prison. No, he said, bring
me out of this house, exalt and glorify me. Now that's his counsel
to us. That's a lot, isn't it? Think on me. Show me kindness. Make mention of me and bring
me out of this house. And you know, verse 23 is an
amazing verse, isn't it? Yet did not the chief butler
remember Joseph, but forgot it. Ain't that amazing? But is it
any less amazing or should I say any more amazing than the way
you and I forget the Lord Jesus Christ? Look in chapter 41, verse 9.
We'll be looking at this next week. Then spake the chief butler unto
Pharaoh, saying, I do remember my faults this day. Notice, he doesn't just talk
about having a bad memory. He said, this is my fault. Not
remembering the Lord Jesus Christ. May the Lord enable us continually
to remember him. Now that's where joy is. That's
where peace is. That's where assurance is. Remembering that
He is my salvation. Let's pray together.