Take out your Bible and turn to Genesis chapter 40. Today we're going to read the entirety of chapter 40. So Genesis 40. This is God's holy, inspired, and inerrant word. Sometime after this, the cupbearer of the king of Egypt and his baker committed an offense against their lord, the king of Egypt. And Pharaoh was angry with his two officers, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker. And he put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard in the prison where Joseph was confined. The captain of the guard appointed Joseph to be with them and he attended them. They continued for some time in custody. And one night they both dreamed, the cut bearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were confined in the prison, each his own dream, and each dream with its own interpretation. When Joseph came to them in the morning, he saw that they were troubled. So he asked Pharaoh's officers, who were with him in custody in his master's house, Why are your faces downcast today? They said to him, We have dreams. We've had dreams and there is no one to interpret them. And Joseph said to them, do not interpretations belong to God? Please tell them to me. So the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph and said to him, in my dream there was a vine before me. And on the vine there were three branches. As soon as it budded, its blossoms shot forth, and the clusters ripened into grapes. Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup and placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand. Then Joseph said to him, This is its interpretation. The three branches are three days. In three days, Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your office. And you shall place Pharaoh's cup in his hand as formerly, when you were his cupbearer. Only remember me when it is well with you, and please do me the kindness to mention me to Pharaoh, and so get me out of this house. For I was indeed stolen out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also I have done nothing that they should put me into the pit." When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was favorable, he said to Joseph, I also had a dream. There were three cake baskets on my head, and in the innermost basket there were all sorts of baked food for Pharaoh. But the birds were eating it out of the basket on my head. And Joseph answered and said, this is his interpretation. The three baskets are three days. In three days Pharaoh will lift up your head from you and hang you on a tree. And the birds will eat the flesh from you. On the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, he made a feast for all his servants and lifted up the head of the chief cupbearer and the head of the chief baker among his servants. He restored the chief cupbearer to his position, and he placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand. But he hanged the chief baker, as Joseph had interpreted to them. Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him. The grass withers, the flower falls, but the word of our God remains forever. You may be seated. Let's pray together. Gracious God and Heavenly Father, we thank you for this reading of your word. We ask now, God, that you help us to give careful attention to the preaching of your word. Be with this your servant. May we today understand and apply rightly your truth. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. God's works of providence are his most holy, wise, and powerful, preserving and governing all his creatures and all of their actions. This theme of God's providence has come up actually many times throughout our study of Genesis. Over and over again, in fact, you've probably heard me mention providence. In fact, you probably haven't heard of providence as much as since we've been talking through Genesis. And again, it's apparent here. God is sovereign over all of the events which occur in His creation. And he even uses the wicked deeds of men to bring about his will. This truth is clear in the life of Joseph. Joseph was taken by his own brothers and had been sold into slavery, was later imprisoned on false charges because of the wife of Potiphar, who had accused him of assault. And yet, though men meant evil, God meant it for good. Because through Joseph, God's plan of redemption would come to fruition. So this is just one more step, as it were, in the coming of the Messiah. And so now we come looking at chapter 40, and what we have here really is a continuation of the theological theme of chapter 39. And if you remember from chapter 39, the key phrase there was, the Lord was with him. The Lord was with him. Throughout all of Joseph's trials, throughout all of Joseph's sufferings, the false accusations, his imprisonment, and even now the forgetfulness of men, the Lord was with him. The Lord was with Joseph. Men may forget us. Men forgot Joseph. And we'll see more of this with the actions, or rather the inaction, on the part of the cut bearer. But the Lord did not forget Joseph. God will neither abandon his people, nor will he forget his people. Joseph, though, will continue to be a prisoner. This much is true. In fact, Joseph will spend at least another two years in prison, but the Lord had not left him. And so, like in the household of Potiphar, God was present. God gave to Joseph success in his endeavors, even as he was being held captive in the king's prison. In both places, it is the Lord's favor which causes Joseph to enjoy the favor of men. And in the end, all that happens to Joseph can be attributed to God's providence. God was sovereign over all that occurred for him. And so as we begin in verse 1, it starts this way. It says, sometime after this. Now by this point, Joseph has been away from the covenant family, he's been away from the Hebrew people as either a slave or a prisoner for about ten years. Joseph had suffered and toiled away from home for a long time, for years. So we don't know how long he was a servant in Potiphar's house, but at this point, some time has passed since he was thrown into prison. Now it's also important to consider, because sometimes as we read scripture, it seems like these things are happening very fast. But years have gone by. Decades have gone by in some cases. It may have seemed like radio silence to Joseph at times. Where is God as he suffers and toils? Why must he continue suffering in the manner that he is? Sometimes we don't always appreciate the fact that Joseph doesn't just jump from being a slave to now he's the second in command in Egypt. I mean, he suffered a long time. waiting, waiting on the Lord. This is why the scriptures make the point of, and the Lord was with him. A long time has gone by, and so now we're re-entering the story. And as we do, we re-enter into the story where Joseph is joined by two other men in prison. Now one is the cupbearer of the king, and the other was the king's baker. Now, verse 1 tells us that they had committed an offense against their lord, the king of Egypt. Now, we don't know what their offense was. The scriptures don't tell us that. But whatever it was, was serious enough that they land in prison. And so, unlike Joseph, who was imprisoned unjustly, the cupbearer and the baker, at least one of them at least, was guilty of something. Now the cupbearer and the baker, both of these served important roles in Pharaoh's court. Kings often feared being poisoned and so they would entrust their cupbearer with their lives. Because of this, these officials were often wealthy and influential. They had access to the king and so they wielded some political power. Both would have had access to the king's table, and each of them could play a role, a sinister role, in a conspiracy against the king. And so again, we don't know what the accusations are against them, but you might get an idea, perhaps, what it could be. Perhaps, they were involved in some sort of plot, in which they were both accused, and in the end, one will be found guilty, where the other is found to be innocent. But whatever the case is, they're both being held in custody in the king's prison. And by God's good providence, they were confined to the same prison in which Joseph was confined, and Joseph attended to them. Now the description given explains the circumstances by which Joseph is put together with these two men. And because of the favor which Joseph is enjoying, the favor of men, which is ultimately because of the favor of God, which is being shown to Joseph, in some sense he's functioning as like a prison guard. And he's answerable only to the captain of the guard, which by the way, is the same title which was given to Potiphar. So we might ask, was the captain of the guard, Potiphar, was Joseph now a prisoner, but he's still only answerable to Potiphar. That is not known, it doesn't state that, but they both have the same title. So it's sort of an interesting question. But as the narrative goes on, verse 5 says about these two men, now one night they both dreamed the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt who were confined in the prison. Each his own dream. And each dream with its own interpretation. Now, as it's been stated before, in the Old Testament, that when there were dreams, they would serve a prophetic function, but they would come in pairs. And so here, again, we have a pair of dreams, but, as the Scripture points out, each of them had their own different interpretation. So we have a pair of dreams, but each with their own interpretation. Now, verse 6, in the morning, Joseph, he notices these two men are troubled. They're troubled. They have had these dreams. Each have had their own dreams. And they're troubled by their dreams. And literally, it says that they were sick and dejected. You can sort of imagine what that might look like. You know, this very disturbing thing has happened. They've had this dream. And so they're wondering, like, what is this all about? What has happened? And so they're sick by it. They're dejected. Now Joseph, because of his close proximity to them, as he's attending to them, he probably observed their distress. He saw that they were in distress, and so he asked them, why are your faces downcast today? Why are you sad? Why are you dejected? What is going on here? Well, they tell him they've had dreams. They have these dreams, but there's no one to interpret their dreams. Dreams had played an important role in the ancient world and in Egypt. In Egypt, the interpretation of dreams was a skilled, a specialized skill. In other words, they had experts for this sort of stuff. But these guys are in prison and so they're dejected because they can't get out and talk to one of the experts. There's no one to help them to interpret their dreams. They couldn't go out and find an Egyptian dream specialist. Now, Joseph, for his part, acknowledges the place of dreams, but he denies the place of these experts. He says, do not interpretations belong to God. Isn't it God who's able to interpret these things, and only God? Expertise and manipulation are not the answer, we're not going to bring the answers. The answers to life's hard questions really only come from God. It is God who brings forth the truth. It is God who knows all things. And so all knowledge and all truth is derived from God alone. And so in this case, it is only God who can reveal the meaning of what had come to them. And so what they needed, what they needed was a prophet of the Lord. That's just what they needed. Now, it just so happens that they are living in a prison with a prophet. What a coincidence! No, this is by God's providence. God has provided for them just such a prophet. Here we begin to get a glimpse into the purpose of Joseph's sufferings, don't we? Joseph was a prophet gifted as such from the Lord himself, in much the same way that Daniel will many centuries into the future. God had provided these men exactly what they needed, a prophet, and had provided Joseph what he needed, that is, opportunity. And so Joseph said to the men, please tell me. Tell me about these dreams. God speaks his word through his servants and in this case these dreams are a kind of revelation. In which God required a servant of the Lord to interpret. So God gives the revelation and God must interpret the revelation because ultimately God is his own interpreter. And so here, at this point, God could interpret the dreams if He so chose. And He did choose to do so through His servant, Joseph. Now, it should be understood at this point, that it's not like Joseph was some kind of mystic, right? It's not like he was some sort of mystic who had this special, like, as if he was an expert like the so-called Egyptian experts. No, God had chosen to work through Joseph. He was simply a man that God was going to speak through. And Joseph understood this. Hence, this is why he says this. Do not interpretations belong to God. Notice how he says that. Joseph doesn't say, you know, tell me because I'm just really good at figuring out what dreams mean. This is not what he says. He says interpretations belong to God. And so it's made very clear that whatever Joseph brings, as far as interpretation was concerned, this was not from himself, but from the Lord. The glory doesn't belong to Joseph, in other words. The glory, for the interpretation, belongs only to God. And so the cupbearer then begins to tell his dream. Look at verse 9. It says, In my dream there was a vine before me, and on the vine there were three branches. As soon as it budded, its blossoms shot forth, and the clusters ripened into grapes. Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup and placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand. Now, the dream itself is actually rather straightforward. And really, it makes sense in light of its interpretation. Though, it is sufficiently vague enough that other interpretations could have been possible. The vine had three branches. This corresponded to three days in time. The vine had grape clusters, which then budded, blossomed, and ripened. And this speaks of growth and abundance. Then the cupbearer took from the vine, he pressed it into a cup, and then he placed that cup in Pharaoh's hand. Now each of these verbs in Hebrew corresponds to the activity of producing a drink, which speaks of the cupbearer returning to his previous work. It's fairly straightforward. The royal cupbearer would once again pour and serve his king with the royal wine. Which, wine, by the way, was an important aspect of any feast. And of course the feast which will come was going to be Pharaoh's birthday. So this is where the three days later comes in. And so this is how Joseph interpreted it. In three days, Pharaoh will lift his head and restore him to his former office. Now the lifting of his head, this is actually a Hebrew idiom, which has the meaning of being called into the king's presence and shown divine favor. So he's lifting his head. And so the dream meant that the cupbearer would be brought back into the king's presence, that he would serve the king there. He would be restored to his former work. Now, Joseph is confident in his interpretation. So confident is he, in fact, that he asks the cupbearer to remember him when he is reunited with the king. Verse 14, he says, Only remember me when it is well with you, and please do me the kindness to mention me to Pharaoh, and so get me out of this house. For I was indeed stolen out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also I have done nothing that they should put me into the pit. Now, Joseph's request is strongly worded. He says, remember me. In the Septuagint, it renders it as an imperative. The Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Old Testament. It's an imperative. This is a command. He says, you must remember me. Please, please, cupbearer, show me kindness. For indeed, Joseph had shown him kindness. Joseph had interpreted his dreams. Joseph wanted the cupbearer for him to speak with Pharaoh on his behalf. Because he had been stolen from the Hebrews. It's certainly unjust that Joseph had been imprisoned as he was. And so here's an opportunity to perhaps to get out. He had done this kindness to the cupbearer, interpreting the dreams, and perhaps the cupbearer will remember him and return the favor. He will help him now. But as we will see, it will be two more years before that happens. And yet, it will be in God's perfect timing. Notice that Joseph does not provide a bad report, though, of either his brothers or of Potiphar's wife. Both of which were instrumental in landing him in the spot he was in. He doesn't say, well, you know, my brother sold me out and Potiphar's wife accused me. He doesn't say any of that. He only says that he was unjustly stolen from the land of the Hebrews and that he himself had not done anything wrong. The attention to the narrative then is drawn to what God was doing through the circumstances, not to the evil that had been done to him. Well, after having heard that good report from his companion's dream, though, the baker now wished to have his dream interpreted as well. Now, whereas the cupbearer had willingly shared his dream, And this may show that he was innocent of any crime. He had nothing to hide. The baker seemed only willing to share his dream when his friend had gotten a favorable interpretation. And so then he begins to tell his tale. And you'll notice that the phrase, the basket on his head, serves as something of a bookend to a tale. He starts with the baskets on his head and ends with it. And so there were, on his head, three baskets. There were three baskets on his head. Now, if you were to look at the art of ancient Egypt, bakers often were depicted as carrying the baskets on their head. This is a small detail which points to the historical accuracy of the account, but also alerts us to the kind of death that he will experience. Now, in the uppermost basket that he carried, there was a variety of baked foods, which were for the table of Pharaoh. But, as he's carrying them, the birds were eating them. The birds were eating all of the goods in his basket on his head. He had all these various kinds of cakes and all of these delicacies, but the baker does not do anything to stop the birds from eating everything. One commentator put it this way, the baker had neither the strength nor the presence of mind to drive them away, which is, by the way, an ominous detail. This may provide something of a clue as to what the baker was guilty of. Was it that the baker had failed to protect the pharaoh from some sort of attack, either by weakness or perhaps by neglect? Unlike the cupbearer, whose vision included the pharaoh receiving the cup from his hand, in this vision, there is nothing that the baker is bringing which was received by the king. It's all stolen, before it gets there, by these birds. Now, the interpretation begins, just as we might expect. Remember, the three branches were the three days. Here we have three baskets. Verse 18, In three days Pharaoh will lift up your head, from you, is how it's rendered in the ESV. And hang you on a tree. Now here's a surprising turn of events. At least to the baker. And this is a play on words, because it's the same phraseology, but it's utilized in a different sort of way. This time, instead of the head of the baker being restored to Pharaoh as the cut bearer, his head will literally be lifted off from his shoulders. Now you can't tell me that God doesn't have a sense of humor in relating these things to us. He will have his head removed. The king will lift up the baker's head in execution, and then he will be impaled on a tree for the birds to eat. Whoa, think about that for a second. All the birds had eaten all the cakes in the basket. Now all the birds will eat his dead corpse. Just as the birds had eaten all the things in his dream. Carnivorous birds dining on corpses was a common prophetic image of the Old Testament. Which brings to mind the birds of prey that Abraham had to shoo off in Genesis chapter 15. And so in another surprising twist, the baker himself is the baked goods which are eaten. And the birds were both symbolic and literal. And just as the king was not able to enjoy the baker's goods anymore, they had been stolen by the birds, so too will he no longer eat of the goods of the baker, because he will be stolen away, he himself will be eaten by the birds. Now this seems sort of grotesque in some sense, but this is the picture, right? This is the prophecy that's given to them. And so, just as had been prophesied, on the third day, which verse 20 points out was Pharaoh's birthday, he was to hold a feast for all his servants. And it happened just as Joseph had said. He lifted up the head of the chief cupbearer, but the head of the chief baker he lifted off. And the verb in verse 20, lifted up, serves that double meaning. In respect to the cupbearer, he was reinstated. In respect to the baker, he was decapitated. The interpretation of the dreams and then the fact that they came to fruition vindicated Joseph. The cupbearer was reinstated to his office and placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand. He again did his duty at the king's table as he had performed before. And the baker was executed for his guilt and his body was hung out for the birds to peck away at. by God's holy, wise, and powerful providence, the innocent cupbearer was tried and freed, and the baker was found to be guilty and executed. And the predictions which Joseph had made concerning his two prison mates was fulfilled down even to the smallest detail. Now the text doesn't provide for us the basis for Pharaoh's decisions, but ultimately we know this, it was through God's providence. Now recall, again, that Joseph had made a request of the butler. When the butler was set free, he had asked, remember me. He says, when you get back in the presence of Pharaoh, please remember me. Get me out of this house of confinement. But the cupbearer does not remember. He forgets all about Joseph. This is probably greatly disappointing for Joseph. I would imagine it was. Greatly disappointing for him. Here was a man that he had ministered to by his hand. He had brought the Word of God to bear. He had provided the interpretation. You would think that he would be remembered, but he's not remembered. The cupbearer forgets all about him. Sometimes the very people we pour ourselves into the most, the people that we minister the Gospel to, are the very people who end up slighting us. But you and I should not take such a great offense. For we serve a mighty King. We serve a mighty King. And truth be told, beloved, you and I all do the exact same thing at times, don't we? You and I must recognize the fallen nature of humanity. We should recognize our own fallen nature. All of us fail to consider the needs of our neighbor, we forget them. We forget to consider our neighbor. We forget their needs. We forget maybe even how they've helped us. We forget to love our neighbor as ourselves. All of us, all of us do that at various points, don't we? Nevertheless, though men may forget about us in our time of need, men may slight us, men may fail to consider us, even those whom we've loved, even those whom we've served, beloved congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, hear this, God does not forget about you. God does not forget about you. Our Savior and our God ministers to you and ministers to me in our needs in His perfect timing. That's not our timing. It's in His timing. But God does not forget about you. Joseph would eventually be freed. We know the rest of the story, and of course we will be studying it as we continue on here. But he will be freed, but he will have to wait just a little bit longer. In fact, we know it's two more years. And eventually, eventually this cut bear who forgot all about him, eventually he will remember him in God's providence. He will remember him and he will do what Joseph has requested of him. And this is all in God's most wise and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures and all of their actions. It may be that though Joseph was a prophet, he had put too much hope in the whims of men. He was a man himself after all. He had been hopeful that the cupbearer would remember him, but he was disappointed by that man. But God does not disappoint us. And so in that, beloved congregation, we can take comfort and rest. Our hope is not found in each other. Our hope is found in our Savior, Jesus Christ. You know, throughout our study of Genesis, we've seen numerous divine providences which ultimately lead to the coming of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. The seed of the woman who had come to crush the serpent's head. Joseph is put in place in Egypt so that he may rescue Israel. So that Christ could rescue His bride, the Church. God is faithful to the promises that He made to Abraham, the promises that He made to Isaac and to Jacob. Joseph's vocation as a slave and then as a servant in the prison of the king is all a demonstration, ultimately, of God's faithfulness. God's faithfulness to His covenant promises. The Lord was preserving and governing through His servant. Joseph's arrangement in that place of suffering then allowed him to exercise his calling as a prophet of God, and though Joseph would not be released immediately, it sets the stage for his release, and then ultimately for his exaltation as the second in command in all of the land of Egypt, so that he might rescue the people of Israel, that they may continue, that they may inherit the land, even after a period of their suffering. over centuries. You know, we don't always understand the purposes of the trials we go through. Look, I talked to enough of you, I know. I know that many of you are going through trials even right now. I know of suffering in this congregation, and I know that you know about a lot of this kind of stuff that goes on too. Some of you know about your own suffering. It's very close to you. We don't always understand what the purposes of our trials are. We don't know why we experience brokenheartedness. Perhaps this week we've been wondering this in light of tragic events in Nashville. Why do wicked deeds like this happen? Why must those people suffer? Where is God when tragedy strikes? Aren't these the questions we ask? Even as believers? We are reminded in the Scriptures that the Lord does not leave us, that the Lord has not abandoned us, that the Lord does not abandon His people, that the Lord is with Joseph, and the Lord is with all of His suffering people in Nashville. The Lord is with His suffering people in China. The Lord is with His suffering people in Eritrea. And the Lord is with the suffering people of Covenant Reform Church in West Plains, Missouri. It ought to be a great comfort to us, beloved, that though the world may hate us, though the world may exclude us, revile us, scorn our name as evil on account of our Savior, as it was said by Christ Jesus on that day, leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven. Our hope then is not found in temporal things. Our hope is found in eternal things. Evil happens in this world because we live in a fallen world, but God is using our suffering for our good and for His glory. How is this? How can this be? Well, we can't always understand it all. But we can trust. We can rest in Christ. Because we know that Jesus is making all things new. that our Savior is conforming us more and more into His image. You and I may not be called to such enormous things such as Joseph, but we could ask this, how may God be demonstrating His faithfulness through me? How is my life a book which the world can read of God's love and faithfulness? Has God placed you and me where we are in this time, in this place, to impact somebody? Our children, our neighbors, I don't know. Our lives, though, are not our own. We belong to our faithful Savior, our God, and to our King. because our chief end is to glorify Him, to enjoy Him forever, knowing that we serve a just and righteous and faithful God, the one true God who took on flesh, becoming sin so that we may become the righteousness of God. If your hope is not in Christ, if you're not resting in Him, then quite frankly, how can you endure suffering? Life throws a lot at us. You and I find ourselves in multiple problems, disagreements, heartaches. How could any of us endure loss if our hope is only found in this world? If this is all there is, how could we endure? The reality is that we could not. Not really. Because without Christ, we would be driven ultimately to despair. If all there is is this world, All we're driven to is despair. The beloved congregation of Christ Jesus, with patience and much joy rests in Him. Don't be driven to despair. This doesn't mean we don't grieve. It means that though we have heavy hearts, we weep at those who weep. We cry out to God knowing that in Christ He is renewing all things, including us. The Lord is with Joseph in his trials. Beloved, the Lord is with you. Let's pray. Gracious Father in heaven, we thank you for your faithfulness to us. We thank you that though we may suffer in this life, that you are with us, oh God. We do pray, Father, for those who are suffering today, that you would show yourself clearly to them. that they may rejoice in You. May Your name be glorified throughout the earth. We pray all this in Jesus' name and for His sake. Amen.