From Prison to the Palace

Genesis 41:1-57

In our journey through this last section of Genesis which tells the story of Joseph, we have observed two predominant themes.[1] First, we have seen the providence of God—that God works in all the circumstances of this world and our lives to accomplish His will for His glory. God’s providence is Him actively sustaining and governing the universe for His purposes. Even when God is not seen or recognized, He is not absent or passive. Secondly, we have seen that God is fulfilling His promises to Abraham and His purpose to make of Jacob’s family a great nation through whom He will bless the whole world. Like all of scripture, this story in Genesis finds its ultimate meaning and fulfillment in the Savior of the world, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Genesis 41 is a long chapter, so we will not read the whole thing at the beginning, but in sections as we walk through the text. We can outline Genesis 41 in four words:[2] dreams, interpretation, plan, promotion. Pharaoh had two disturbing dreams which none of his advisors could interpret. Joseph was brought before Pharoah and God enabled him to interpret the dreams which predicted seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine. Joseph advised Pharoah of a plan of action for the future of Egypt. Pharoah then promoted Joseph to second-highest in Egypt and Joseph implemented his program to save Egypt from the coming famine. In all of this, we will see the hand of God’s sovereign providence directing these events according to His purpose.

1. Pharaoh’s dreams (Gen. 41:1-13)

¹ Then it came to pass, at the end of two full years, that Pharaoh had a dream; and behold, he stood by the river. ² Suddenly there came up out of the river seven cows, fine looking and fat; and they fed in the meadow .³ Then behold, seven other cows came up after them out of the river, ugly and gaunt, and stood by the other cows on the bank of the river .⁴ And the ugly and gaunt cows ate up the seven fine looking and fat cows. So Pharaoh awoke. ⁵ He slept and dreamed a second time; and suddenly seven heads of grain came up on one stalk, plump and good. ⁶ Then behold, seven thin heads, blighted by the east wind, sprang up after them. ⁷ And the seven thin heads devoured the seven plump and full heads. So Pharaoh awoke, and indeed, it was a dream. ⁸ Now it came to pass in the morning that his spirit was troubled, and he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt and all its wise men. And Pharaoh told them his dreams, but there was no one who could interpret them for Pharaoh. (Gen. 41:1-8).

Moses informs us that “two full years” had passed since Joseph had given the chief butler a favorable interpretation of his dream and had implored him to remember him and rescue him from prison. But we know from the last verse of Genesis 40 that, “the chief butler did not remember Joseph, but forgot him,” (Gen. 40:23). God had a perfect time for Joseph’s release and elevation.

The occasion for it was the dreams of Pharoah, king of Egypt. Later in the chapter, we will learn that God gave these dreams to Pharoah (Gen. 41:25, 28, 32). The dreams were dramatic and disturbing. After each, Pharaoh was awakened (Gen. 41:4, 7). The dreams were distressing to Pharaoh because they followed one-on-another, interrupted by him being awakened. Their meaning was puzzling, for the seven lean cows remained lean and gaunt, even after consuming the fat cattle. The same was true with the grain. It was not normal for cows to eat cows or grain to consume grain, but surely the lean things should have been fattened by what they ate. Something had to be wrong, but what was it?

The king’s usual sources of information, “all the magicians of Egypt and all its wise men” (Gen. 41:8), were totally baffled, as was Pharaoh. These were the wisest, best-educated men of Pharaoh’s kingdom, schooled in the art of interpreting dreams but could not fathom the meaning of the dream. Ligon Duncan comments:

Moses is putting before you a picture of the god of Egypt, Pharaoh, stumped. He hasn’t a clue what is going to happen in his own land, the land over which he reigns. And so he’s showing us a picture of the weakness of the gods of this age and of this world, and he’s preparing us to contrast Pharaoh with Himself, the God of Joseph, who knows and reveals the future.[3]

Though Pharaoh was the mightiest man in Egypt and thought to be a god by his subjects, he was helpless to understand his own dream. Money and power and worldly success may gain many things, but it is all worthless in discerning the things of God. The magicians were stumped as well. A thousand years of pagan religion could not reveal the truth. This crisis exposes the futility of the world in the things that matter most. It reveals the true condition of the human mind and heart apart from God. Without divine revelation, human wisdom and power can never discover the truth of God or salvation. That must “come down” from God above.

Paul asks in 1 Corinthians 1:20, “Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?” and then answers, “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2:14).

The king’s frustration at having such impressive dreams and yet being unable to know their meaning reminded the chief butler of his dream and of Joseph. Look at Genesis 41:9-13:

⁹ Then the chief butler spoke to Pharaoh, saying: “I remember my faults this day. ¹⁰ When Pharaoh was angry with his servants, and put me in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, both me and the chief baker, ¹¹ we each had a dream in one night, he and I. Each of us dreamed according to the interpretation of his own dream. ¹² Now there was a young Hebrew man with us there, a servant of the captain of the guard. And we told him, and he interpreted our dreams for us; to each man he interpreted according to his own dream. ¹³ And it came to pass, just as he interpreted for us, so it happened. He restored me to my office, and he hanged him.” (Gen. 41:9-13).

Now we begin to see God’s providence in sending the butler to the prison where Joseph served him and interpreted his dream. We might have wondered why the chief butler forgot Joseph and why God let him languish in prison for two more years. But now we see that God had prepared Joseph for this appointed time. So Joseph was hurriedly brought out of Potiphar’s dungeon to stand before the king.

2. Joseph’s interpretation (Gen. 41:14-32).

¹⁴ Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him quickly out of the dungeon; and he shaved, changed his clothing, and came to Pharaoh. ¹⁵ And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I have had a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it. But I have heard it said of you that you can understand a dream, to interpret it.” ¹⁶ So Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, “It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace.” (Gen. 41:14-16).

Moses gives us the little details of his accurate account that Joseph shaved and changed clothes before bring brought before Pharoah. This was not just “cleaning up,” which surely was needed; it was a cultural necessity. To the Hebrews, a beard was a mark of dignity (cf. II Samuel 10:4-5; Ezra 9:3), but for the Egyptian, it was an offensive thing.[4]

Don’t you love Joseph’s answer to Pharoah about his ability to interpret dreams? “It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace.” (Gen. 41:16). The ability to interpret dreams, which the butler and Pharaoh had credited to Joseph, was not his at all. Only God can interpret dreams, Joseph quickly corrected.

God is the revealer of the future. Joseph is going to reveal the future, not because he has some innate power to know the interpretations of dreams, but because God Himself controls the future and reveals it as He wills. Joseph was clear on that. He didn’t let the splendor of Pharaoh and his palace make him forget, “Without God, I’m nothing. He is the source of any ability I have to interpret dreams.”[5] And Joseph didn’t just think to himself that God was the source of his ability to interpret dreams; he gave that testimony to Pharaoh. H. C. Leupold writes, “After twelve years and more of injustice Joseph’s first consideration is not deliverance but to take care that his relation to his God be entirely upright”.[6]

Is that your first thought when someone asks you about your talents or success? If your daily aim is to do all things to the glory of God, then you’ll be quick to speak bear witness of Him when opportunities arise.

Pharaoh then eagerly repeated his dreams to Joseph, closing by confessing the inability of his most able counselors to give him any word of explanation:

¹⁷ Then Pharaoh said to Joseph: “Behold, in my dream I stood on the bank of the river. ¹⁸ Suddenly seven cows came up out of the river, fine looking and fat; and they fed in the meadow. ¹⁹ Then behold, seven other cows came up after them, poor and very ugly and gaunt, such ugliness as I have never seen in all the land of Egypt. ²⁰ And the gaunt and ugly cows ate up the first seven, the fat cows. ²¹ When they had eaten them up, no one would have known that they had eaten them, for they were just as ugly as at the beginning. So I awoke. ²² Also I saw in my dream, and suddenly seven heads came up on one stalk, full and good. ²³ Then behold, seven heads, withered, thin, and blighted by the east wind, sprang up after them. ²⁴ And the thin heads devoured the seven good heads. So I told this to the magicians, but there was no one who could explain it to me.”

Joseph immediately has the interpretation from God:

²⁵ Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, “The dreams of Pharaoh are one; God has shown Pharaoh what He is about to do: ²⁶ The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good heads are seven years; the dreams are one. ²⁷ And the seven thin and ugly cows which came up after them are seven years, and the seven empty heads blighted by the east wind are seven years of famine. ²⁸ This is the thing which I have spoken to Pharaoh. God has shown Pharaoh what He is about to do. ²⁹ Indeed seven years of great plenty will come throughout all the land of Egypt; ³⁰ but after them seven years of famine will arise, and all the plenty will be forgotten in the land of Egypt; and the famine will deplete the land. ³¹ So the plenty will not be known in the land because of the famine following, for it will be very severe. ³² And the dream was repeated to Pharaoh twice because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass.

Joseph interprets and explains the dreams to Pharaoh. But as he does so, he makes it clear that God is not only the revealer of dreams, He is the one who, in fact, ordains the future. His God not only knows what is going to happen, but He knows what is going to happen because He has ordained what is going to happen.[7] Twice Joseph says, “God has shown Pharaoh what He is about to do” (Gen. 41:25, 28). And again in Genesis 41:32, Joseph testifies, “the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass.” The future of Egypt does not depend on Pharoah—it is God who is sovereign over the events of this world. He directs the events of this world according to His purposes for His glory.

Job came to this realization and said to the LORD, “I know that You can do everything, And that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You” (Job 42:2). Nebuchadnezzar, the powerful King of Babylon, also came to understand this after being humbled by the LORD. He said “And at the end of the time I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my understanding returned to me; and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever: For His dominion is an everlasting dominion, And His kingdom is from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; He does according to His will in the army of heaven And among the inhabitants of the earth. No one can restrain His hand Or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’” (Dan. 4:34-35).

God is able to reveal the future because God ordains the future. So God enabled Joseph to interpret the dreams. How easy it would have been to stop here. There was good news and bad news for Pharaoh—abundance followed by famine. But Joseph gives Pharoah more, a plan for the future.

3. Joseph’s plan (Gen. 14:33-37).

³³ “Now therefore, let Pharaoh select a discerning and wise man, and set him over the land of Egypt. ³⁴ Let Pharaoh do this, and let him appoint officers over the land, to collect one-fifth of the produce of the land of Egypt in the seven plentiful years. ³⁵ And let them gather all the food of those good years that are coming, and store up grain under the authority of Pharaoh, and let them keep food in the cities. ³⁶ Then that food shall be as a reserve for the land for the seven years of famine which shall be in the land of Egypt, that the land may not perish during the famine.” ³⁷ So the advice was good in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of all his servants. (Gen. 41:33-37).

When God used Joseph to reveal to Pharaoh what it was that he was about to do in bringing seven years of famine after seven years of great plenty, Joseph did not throw his hands up in the air and say, oh well, what will be, will be. Instead, he proposed a plan of action. Do you see again the conjunction of God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility? This is what God is going to do. This is what you need to do in response. God’s revelation, everywhere in Scripture, always requires a response. If God reveals that He is bringing judgment, what is our response to be?—repentance. If He is bringing us a revelation of warning like this one, what is our response to be?—responsible activity in accordance with what He has revealed.[8]

Joseph’s plan was in five steps:[9] 1) Put the right man in charge (Gen. 41:33); 2) appoint overseers in the land (Gen. 41:34); 3) collect a heavy tax of grain in the seven plentiful years (Gen. 41:34); 4) strategically store and guard the grain (Gen. 41:35); 5) distribute the reserve grain in the seven lean years (Gen. 41:36). Everyone saw the wisdom in Joseph’s plan. So this was the impetus for,

4. Joseph’s promotion and program (Gen. 41:38-57).

³⁸ And Pharaoh said to his servants, “Can we find such a one as this, a man in whom is the Spirit of God?” ³⁹ Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Inasmuch as God has shown you all this, there is no one as discerning and wise as you. ⁴⁰ You shall be over my house, and all my people shall be ruled according to your word; only in regard to the throne will I be greater than you.” ⁴¹ And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt.” ⁴² Then Pharaoh took his signet ring off his hand and put it on Joseph’s hand; and he clothed him in garments of fine linen and put a gold chain around his neck. ⁴³ And he had him ride in the second chariot which he had; and they cried out before him, “Bow the knee!” So he set him over all the land of Egypt. ⁴⁴ Pharaoh also said to Joseph, “I am Pharaoh, and without your consent no man may lift his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt.” ⁴⁵ And Pharaoh called Joseph’s name Zaphnath-Paaneah. And he gave him as a wife Asenath, the daughter of Poti-Pherah priest of On. So Joseph went out over all the land of Egypt.

Though he was a pagan ruler, Pharaoh recognized the work of God’s Spirit when he saw it. He made Joseph the second-in-command, which really made him the second most powerful man in the world. Then he sealed the deal in regal fashion: he gave Joseph his signet ring (like having the King’s credit card); he gave him linen clothing (a sign of high honor); he gave him a gold chain (a sign of royal authority); he gave him a chariot for transportation (so he could go wherever he wished); he had the soldiers call out “Bow down!” when Joseph passed by (so everyone got the message);[10] he gave him a name that to the Egyptians would mean “Savior of the world,” which is exactly what Joseph was to them, and to the Hebrews would mean “Revealer of secrets,” which he would be to his brothers; and finally Pharoah gave Joseph a wife from a priestly family (making him nobility).

How much of this did Joseph see in advance? Not a bit. How much of it happened by chance? None of it. Who was behind it all? God.

The final section serves several purposes. First, it reveals the accuracy of Joseph’s interpretation. Second, it evidences the administrative astuteness of Joseph in handling the affairs of state in preparation for the famine to come. Finally, it reveals to us Joseph’s continued spiritual commitment to the God of his fathers.[11]

⁴⁶ Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh, and went throughout all the land of Egypt. ⁴⁷ Now in the seven plentiful years the ground brought forth abundantly. ⁴⁸ So he gathered up all the food of the seven years which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up the food in the cities; he laid up in every city the food of the fields which surrounded them. ⁴⁹ Joseph gathered very much grain, as the sand of the sea, until he stopped counting, for it was immeasurable. ⁵⁰ And to Joseph were born two sons before the years of famine came, whom Asenath, the daughter of Poti-Pherah priest of On, bore to him. ⁵¹ Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh: “For God has made me forget all my toil and all my father’s house.” ⁵² And the name of the second he called Ephraim: “For God has caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.”

Joseph displays his faith in God in the naming of his sons. Manasseh and Ephraim are Hebrew names. Even though he was living in Egypt and even though he married an Egyptian woman who was the daughter of a pagan priest, Joseph gave his two sons names that would remind them forever of their true heritage. It tells us that though he appeared to be Egyptian on the outside, on the inside he still worshiped the God of his fathers.

He named his firstborn son Manasseh, which sounds like the Hebrew word “forget.” He even spelled out the meaning so no one could mistake it. “God has made me forget all my hardship and my father’s house.” He didn’t mean he had forgotten his family. As we will see later in the story, they remained always close to his heart. But it means that God had enabled him to forget the pain of the rejection and betrayal by his brothers.

The second child he called Ephraim, which means made fruitful. The Hebrew is a form that means something like “super-fruitful.” The “land of my affliction” refers to all that he suffered in Egypt-the false accusation, the unjust imprisonment, and the years of total abandonment. Yet in that place where he had suffered so much, he now experiences untold blessing. J. Vernon McGee called Joseph’s two sons Amnesia (forgotten) and Ambrosia (fruitful).[12]

The order of these names is important. Manasseh must come before Ephraim. First we are set free from bitterness, then we experience God’s blessing. That too was because of God’s sovereignty. When a man believes in a sovereign God, he can let go and move on.[13]

Let me conclude with three observations:

One, this story demonstrates that the LORD is God Most High and Sovereign over all creation. He not only knows the future, He ordains it for His own good purposes.

Two, this story highlights how God begins to fulfill the promises made to Abraham. God had promised to bless him, to make his name great, to make of him a great nation, and to bless the world through him. In Joseph, these promises were initially and partially fulfilled. They are ultimately fulfilled in the seed of Abraham, Jesus Christ, the Son of God who died for our sins and was raised for our justification.

Three, the story of Joseph demonstrates that the proper response to the knowledge of God’s sovereign will is responsible and wise action. It is the same for us. God has revealed His sovereign will to save a people for Himself from every tribe, nation, and language. But God has also given us the responsibility of preaching the gospel to all the world so that men might be saved.

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[1] Ligon Duncan, Pharoah’s Dream. https://fpcjackson.org/resource-library/sermons/pharaoh-s-dream/

[2] Ray Pritchard, How Big Is Your God. https://www.keepbelieving.com/sermon/how-big-is-your-god/

[3] Ligon Duncan, Pharaoh’s Dream, https://fpcjackson.org/resource-library/sermons/pharaoh-s-dream/

[4] Robert Deffinbaugh, From the Pit to the Palace (Genesis 41:1-57), https://bible.org/seriespage/41-pit-palace-genesis-411-57

[5] Steven Cole, Coping With Success (Genesis 41:1-57). https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-69-coping-success-genesis-411-57

[6] H. C. Leupold. Exposition of Genesis [Baker], https://ccel.org/ccel/leupold/genesis/genesis.xlii.html p. 1026

[7] Duncan. Pharoah’s Dream.

[8] Duncan, Pharoah’s Dream.

[9] Paul Apple, https://www.bibleoutlines.com/blog/genesis-411-57-from-pit-to-pinnacle

[10] Pritchard.

[11] Deffinbaugh.