Just so you all know, I decided to work on his story on Saturday afternoons, to make sure that I would actually work on it in a timely fashion, so the rest of the week, I'll post other stuff.
Okay, to recap, Joseph was sold as a slave by his brothers and was bought by Potiphar in Egypt, who was captain of the Pharoh's guard.
Potiphar's wife had her eye on Joseph and kept trying to get him to be with her, and he kept saying no. Eventually, she got him alone and grabbed his cloak. He ran off, leaving his cloak with her, giving her enough 'evidence' to get him thrown in prison, where the Guard really liked Joseph and set him in charge of the affairs within the prison.
So, Joseph is in prison when the Pharoh has his Butler and Baker thrown into prison as well. It doesn't really say what they did, but perhaps the roles they played in the Pharoh's house had something to do with it.
The Butler was the one who brought the Pharoh his drinks. The cup-bearer, or Butler, would taste the wine to make sure that it was not poisoned.
The Baker was obviously the Pharoh's baker, the guy who made the bread and stuff.
Both of these men would have had to be very trustworthy so that they wouldn't be bought out by the Pharoh's enemies and poison him.
So, these two men were in prison with Joseph. It says they were in custody for a while, so I imagine the men would have become friends or at least comfortable with each other.
So one day, after they had been there for a while, the Butler and the Baker both had a dream, both in the same night.
I would just like to point something out here. In today's society, most people have dreams, almost every night, about things they have done, places they have been, people they know, television shows they watch, books they read. I think that sometimes people still have dreams like what they had in the Bible times, dreams that mean something, and I think that in the Bible times, people may have had dreams about things they did too, people they knew. But I think that there is a difference between dreams that mean something and dreams that are just your mind drifting through your memories in your sleep. I think that when you have a dream that means something, you know it. It just feels different. Okay, I just wanted to mention what I think about dreams.
Anyway, Joseph noticed that the Butler and the Baker were both sad the next morning. When he asked them why, they told him that they had both dreamed strange dreams, but there was nobody to tell them what the dreams meant.
Joseph responds, "Don't the interpretations of things belong to God? Tell them to me please."
So the Butler decides to tell Joseph his dream.
In his dream, he saw a grape vine with three branches. He was able to watch the branches blossom and bear fruit. So he took the Pharoh's cup and squeezed the juice of the grapes into the cup and gave the cup to Pharoh.
So Joseph told him what the dream meant. He said that the three branches on the vine represented three days, and that in three day, the Pharoh would restore the Butler to his former position.
But Joseph also asked that the Butler remember that Joseph was in prison. He told him that he was a Hebrew who had been sold into slavery, and he had done nothing wrong and had been thrown in prison on a false accusation.
When the Baker heard how good the Butler's dream had turned out, it gave him hope, so he told Joseph his dream as well.
In the Baker's dream, he had three white baskets on his head. In the highest basket was all kinds of delicious and beautiful baked goods (I always imagine cupcakes, although I'm sure it was something more appropriate to the times, I just love cupcakes). But then birds came down and ate all the baked goods in the baskets.
So Joseph told him that the three baskets also meant three days, and in three days, the Pharoh would also bring the Baker out of prison, but for him it would result in the hangman's noose, and the birds would eat his corpse after he had died.
Three days after this was the Pharoh's birthday (which would have been a great time for cupcakes, just sayin').
The Pharoh decided to throw a party for all his servants. This kind of strikes me as odd. This must of been a kind man, like Esther's husband. He still cared for those under him. I mean, come on, he threw a part on his birthday for his *servants*.
Anyway, on this day, the Pharoh decided to restore the Butler to his former position, so he brought him out of prison.
He also decided to bring the Baker out of prison, but he had him hung, and left his body for the birds to eat, just as Joseph had said.
And the Butler, who had spent so long with Joseph, forgot to mention him to the Pharoh, so Joseph stayed in prison for the time being.
I want to point out that Joseph did not say "Tell me your dreams, I can interpret them."
He said, "Doesn't God give interpretations?"
He gave God the credit for interpreting the dreams. The men with him were Egyptians, they would never have thought one way or the other about it, they may even have thought Joseph was a god or something like that. They were pagan, but Joseph *still* gave God the credit.
It's no wonder that God blessed him.
Cheers!
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