January 28, 2024
Read Genesis 40-42, Psalm 28
Dreams are interesting to say the least. Sometimes they can be enjoyable, frightening, or just plain weird. Do you remember some of the dreams I had as a child? Were they traumatic or caused you to call into question something? Here in these chapters of Genesis we find that Joseph the dreamer is at it again. Except this time, it’s not his dreams, he is the interpreter of them.
In Genesis 40 we find a rather inconsequential story of two of the king’s officials, the cupbearer, and the chief baker. A cupbearer was someone who tasted or sampled a person’s food to make sure that it was not poisoned. The king decides to send these two men to the jail for a time out and while they are there, they both have a dream that troubles them. Joseph is there and offers to interpret the dreams for them. Joseph pleads with the chief cupbearer to please remember him when he is restored, but the last verse of the chapter leaves us hanging on. “The chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Joseph; he forgot him” v.23. While the chief cupbearer may have forgotten Jospeh, God did not. Eventually the cupbearer remembers the error of his ways and in a time of need from the Pharoah Jospeh is called out the prison two years later. Do we understand that the small and seemingly inconsequential meetings, conversations, and little things done may lead to something big and important. Jospeh could have said, forget it, I’m not helping you guys, but he chooses to help them, and it turned back on himself into something good. I’m reminded of the saying’ “It’s always the right time to do the right thing.” If we sow good seeds into the lives of others it just might produce a harvest of good things for us later in life.
What else do you see in these chapters as you read? What words, phrases, or themes stick out to you?
Add your thoughts below.
DId God Really Say... 