In the first dream, he was standing by the river, looking over the waters. Suddenly, 7 beautiful, healthy, fat cows came out of the river and began grazing in the meadow.
And then, while the Pharaoh was looking at the healthy cows, 7 ugly, gaunt, starving cows came out of the water, and came to where the healthy cows were grazing.
And they ate the healthy cows.
(No, I don't think this is what the unhealthy cows looked like, it just seemed like a good picture of an unhealthy cow)
The dream startled the Pharaoh, so he woke up (I would have woken up too if I was dreaming about zombie-like cows).
When he went back to sleep, he had another dream. This time he dreamed that there were 7 heads of grain, coming up on one stalk. It was a healthy, hearty stalk, and so it had healthy, hearty grain.
And while he was watching, 7 thin, blighted, unhealthy heads came up and devoured the healthy grain.
So the Pharaoh woke up again and discovered it was only a dream.
In the morning, he sent for his wise men and magicians, so he could ask them what the dreams meant, but none of them could tell him.
When the chief Butler heard about the Pharaoh's dreams, he remembered that he had promised to tell the Pharaoh about Joseph.
So he went to the Pharaoh and told him that there was a man that he had met while he was in prison, and that he had interpreted the dreams of his and the Baker's and that things had happened exactly as he had said they would.
So the Pharaoh sent word to get Joseph and bring him before him.
So Joseph came out of prison, shaved, and changed his clothes.
I just want to comment on that real quick. While it was customary for the Hebrews (they aren't Israelites or Jews yet, they are still just Hebrews right now) to have beards, Joseph is living among the Egyptians, and he has been for quite some time. So, like Esther, he dresses like his masters. He is still just a slave, and on top of that a slave who had been thrown in prison.
Anyway, once Joseph has cleaned himself up, he comes before the Pharaoh.
When the Pharaoh asks Joseph if he does indeed interpret dreams, Joseph responds no, that he does not, but God does.
So the Pharaoh tells Joseph his dreams.
God gives Joseph the wisdom to understand what they mean, so he tells the Pharaoh.
Both dreams have the same meaning. He dreamed them twice because God was showing Pharaoh what He was going to do. Two nightmares in the same night, almost the exact same thing happening in them both, yeah, I can see why the Pharaoh thought they meant something. God did that on purpose (as He does everything).
The 7 healthy grains and cows meant that there would be 7 years of plenty in the land of Egypt, where there would be good harvests and plenty to eat.
The 7 unhealthy grains and cows that ate the seven healthy ones meant that there would be a 7 year long famine in the land. It would be so bad that people would forget about the 7 good years because the food supplies would become so scarce.
Then Joseph suggests that during the 7 good years, the Pharaoh has someone gather one-fifth of the food together during the 7 years of plenty and store it in grain houses. Then, in the years of famine, there would be enough food stored up to last them until the famine was over.
The Pharaoh considers this advice, and it sounds like a good idea. So he asks his servants if they knew of a man who would be suitable for such a big job.
Then, because Pharaoh sees that God has blessed Joseph with wisdom, he tells him that *he* will be the man in charge, and the only person in all the land that will still be above Joseph will be the Pharaoh himself. No man in the land will do anything without Joseph's consent.
So the Pharaoh gives Joseph his signet ring (remember when Ahasuerus gave his signet ring to Haman? This is to show that the bearer of the ring has power over everyone in the land except the king. It's the same here). He dresses him in a garment made of fine linen and puts a gold chain around his neck. Then he has him ride in his second chariot and servants crying before the chariot "Bow the knee!"
Pharaoh also changes Joseph's name to Zaphnath-Paaneah.
I want to point out that quite often in the Bible does someone name or rename something as a sign of their authority over it. In Genesis, when God told Adam to name all the animals, it was because he was showing his authority over them. It's the same when parents name their child. They have the right to call their child whatever they want, because they have the authority over their offspring. This is probably why Pharaoh renamed Joseph, to show his authority over him.
And Pharaoh also gave Joseph a wife. Her name was Asenath, who was the daughter of Poti-Pherah, who was the priest of the Egyptian god, On.
Notice that both Hadassah and Joseph were renamed to a name fitting the pagan culture they lived in, and they were both married to pagans of high rank. They both had to pretend to be part of the culture they lived in, changing how they dressed, what they ate, the way they spoke, almost everything about their outward lives had to change. But even through all the pressures of being a high-ranking citizen of the land they lived in, even through living with and being married to pagans, even through struggles and hardships, they still stayed faithful to God and followed where he led them. And he blessed them and was able to use them.
Joseph was 30 years old when he stood before the Pharaoh, telling him the meaning of his dreams. He had been in prison for two full years already, and who knows how long he had been a servant in Potiphar's house before that? He has obviously been in Egypt for quite a long time by this point.
So Joseph began his job of gathering grain during the time of plenty. At first, he would measure and count what he brought in, but eventually, there was so much that he lost count. Obviously, God was blessing Egypt and their harvests during those years.
Before the famine came, Joseph had two sons. The oldest Joesph named Manasseh, because God had made him forget all his toils, and all his father's house (probably meaning his brothers).
The second son he named Ephraim, because God had made him fruitful in the land of his affliction.
Then the years of plenty ended, and the famine began. And this famine was not confined to Egypt, but the whole world was hungry.
But in Egypt they had grain.
So when the Egyptians began to get hungry and run out of their own food stores, and they went to the Pharaoh to complain, he sent them to Joseph, who sold grain to the Egyptians.
Talk about a hard-core business man! He had gotten all this grain from the Egyptians in the first place, and now that they are hungry and really need it, he is *selling* it back to them.
The famine wasn't *all* the food being gone, but mostly just the grain. The main staple of the diets of the time was bread, so they obviously needed the grain to make the bread. There was other food, as we will soon see, but the fact is, bread is something that we need to keep us healthy.
Soon, everyone was coming to Egypt, because they heard there was grain there. So Joseph sold grain not only to the Egyptians, but to all the lands, because they had not stored up like Egypt had.
Okay, that's the end of this chapter (which was 57 verses long by the way).
Have a good Saturday!
Cheers!
No comments:
Post a Comment