Dreams in the Dungeon: Genesis 40:1-23

Some time later, the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt offended their master, the king of Egypt.

Two officials. The cupbearer—who tasted Pharaoh's wine, a position of intimate trust. The baker—who prepared Pharaoh's bread. Both had offended the king and landed in prison.

Pharaoh was angry with his two officials, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker, and put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, in the same prison where Joseph was confined.

The same prison. The captain of the guard—Potiphar—housed royal prisoners in the same place where Joseph served. Providence was weaving threads.

The captain of the guard assigned them to Joseph, and he attended them.

Joseph the prisoner, attending Pharaoh's fallen officials. The slave serving the disgraced.

After they had been in custody for some time, each of the two men—the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were being held in prison—had a dream the same night, and each dream had a meaning of its own.

Dreams. In Egypt, dreams demanded interpretation. These men knew their dreams meant something, but they could not read them.

When Joseph came to them the next morning, he saw that they were dejected. So he asked Pharaoh's officials who were in custody with him in his master's house, "Why do you look so sad today?"

Joseph noticed. In his own suffering, he attended to theirs.

"We both had dreams," they answered, "but there is no one to interpret them."

Then Joseph said to them, "Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams."

Interpretations belong to God. Joseph was clear about the source. He could not decode dreams—but God could, through him.

So the chief cupbearer told Joseph his dream. He said to him, "In my dream I saw a vine in front of me, and on the vine were three branches. As soon as it budded, it blossomed, and its clusters ripened into grapes. Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes, squeezed them into Pharaoh's cup and put the cup in his hand."

A dream of restoration—the cupbearer doing his job, wine in Pharaoh's hand.

"This is what it means," Joseph said to him. "The three branches are three days. Within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your position, and you will put Pharaoh's cup in his hand, just as you used to do when you were his cupbearer."

Good news. Three days to freedom, restoration to former position.

"But when all goes well with you, remember me and show me kindness; mention me to Pharaoh and get me out of this prison. I was forcibly carried off from the land of the Hebrews, and even here I have done nothing to deserve being put in a dungeon."

Joseph's one request: remember me. Help me. I don't belong here.

When the chief baker saw that Joseph had given a favorable interpretation, he said to Joseph, "I too had a dream: On my head were three baskets of bread. In the top basket were all kinds of baked goods for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating them out of the basket on my head."

A dream of failure—birds eating the bread that should reach Pharaoh.

"This is what it means," Joseph said. "The three baskets are three days. Within three days Pharaoh will lift off your head and impale you on a pole. And the birds will eat away your flesh."

The same phrase—"lift up your head"—but with horrifying different meaning. Lift up your head in honor. Lift off your head in execution.

The third day was Pharaoh's birthday, and he gave a feast for all his officials. He lifted up the heads of the chief cupbearer and the chief baker in the presence of his officials: He restored the chief cupbearer to his position, so that he once again put the cup into Pharaoh's hand—but he impaled the chief baker, just as Joseph had interpreted to them.

Everything happened exactly as Joseph said. Restoration and execution, precisely predicted.

The chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Joseph; he forgot him.

Forgot. The man who owed Joseph his freedom, who had promised to speak to Pharaoh, who walked out of prison into restoration—forgot the Hebrew who had helped him.

Joseph remained in prison. The dreams he had interpreted had come true. The dream of his own future remained unfulfilled.

Two more years would pass. Two more years of darkness, of waiting, of wondering if God had forgotten.

But God had not forgotten. The cupbearer would remember—when Pharaoh himself needed a dreamer.