Forgotten by Men But Not Forsaken by God
Genesis 40:1-23
In Genesis 40 we continue the story of Joseph. Remember that Joseph was the favored son of Jacob (Gen. 37:3). At the age of seventeen, his brothers plotted to kill him out of hatred and envy. They hated him for being the favorite (Gen. 37:4), for bringing a bad report to his father about them (Gen. 37:2), and because of his dreams (Gen. 37:5, 11). Those dreams seemed to indicate that Joseph would be exalted above his brothers and rule over them (Gen. 37:8, 10). When Jacob sent Joseph to check on his brothers who were keeping the sheep, they seized the opportunity to kill him, throwing him into a pit and leaving him for dead. Finally, they sold him to Ishmaelite traders who took him captive to Egypt and sold him to Potiphar, a high-ranking official, the captain of the guard.
While a slave to Potiphar Joseph was blessed by the LORD. In time he rose to a position of power within Potiphar’s house. In Genesis 39:4 we read, “So Joseph found favor in his sight, and served him. Then he made him overseer of his house, and all that he had he put under his authority” (Gen. 39:4). Trouble arose when Potiphar’s wife took notice of Joseph—he was a successful and skilled man, handsome in form and appearance. When Joseph refused to sin by lying with her out of his love for God and man, she grew envious and falsely accused him of assault. Potiphar was enraged, and Joseph was sent to prison, “a place where the king’s prisoners were confined …” (Gen. 39:20). At the end of Genesis 39 we read,
21 But the LORD was with Joseph and showed him mercy, and He gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. 22 And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph’s hand all the prisoners who were in the prison; whatever they did there, it was his doing. 23 The keeper of the prison did not look into anything that was under Joseph’s authority, because the LORD was with him; and whatever he did, the LORD made it prosper.” (Gen. 39:21–23).
Joseph is the main human character throughout these passages but God Himself is the central actor, and in His providence, the LORD is steering the course of Joseph’s life to God’s good end, according to His own purpose and sovereign will for the glory of His name. Everything is according to God’s plan and in His timing. But Joseph doesn’t know how or when all these things are going to turn out. Yes, God had given him dreams of being elevated over his brothers—but that was years ago and his circumstances had gone from bad to worse.
So Genesis 40 opens up with Joseph still in prison, but he had been blessed by the LORD there. Considered from a merely human perspective, the trajectory of Joseph’s life to this point was downward. Not only was he removed from his father’s house, enslaved in Egypt, but also wrongly imprisoned. But notice the pattern of Joseph’s life—he remained faithful in every circumstance. And notice the quality of Joseph’s life—although the circumstances were very trying and difficult, Genesis 39 reminds us four times, “The LORD was with Joseph” (Gen. 39:2, 3, 21, 23). Warren Wiersbe writes,
God permitted Joseph to be treated unjustly and put in prison to help build his character and prepare him for the tasks that lay ahead. The prison would be a school where Joseph would learn to wait on the Lord until it was His time to vindicate him and fulfill his dreams. … He would learn that God’s delays are not God’s denials.[1]
Our text falls into three sections. In Genesis 40:1-4 we see Joseph’s Prison Duties—Pharaoh imprisoned two of his officials who offended him and Joseph served them. Then in Genesis 40:5-19, we see the Prison Dreams—both the cupbearer and the baker had dreams which Joseph interpreted. Finally, in Genesis 40:20-23 we see the Prison Disappointment—Joseph’s interpretations come true, but Joseph is forgotten and left in prison.[2] Let’s read Genesis 40:
1 It came to pass after these things that the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt offended their lord, the king of Egypt. 2 And Pharaoh was angry with his two officers, the chief butler and the chief baker. 3 So he put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, in the prison, the place where Joseph was confined. 4 And the captain of the guard charged Joseph with them, and he served them; so they were in custody for a while.
5 Then the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were confined in the prison, had a dream, both of them, each man’s dream in one night and each man’s dream with its own interpretation. 6 And Joseph came in to them in the morning and looked at them, and saw that they were sad. 7 So he asked Pharaoh’s officers who were with him in the custody of his lord’s house, saying, “Why do you look so sad today?” 8 And they said to him, “We each have had a dream, and there is no interpreter of it.” So Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell them to me, please.” 9 Then the chief butler told his dream to Joseph, and said to him, “Behold, in my dream a vine was before me, 10 and in the vine were three branches; it was as though it budded, its blossoms shot forth, and its clusters brought forth ripe grapes. 11 Then 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.” 12 And Joseph said to him, “This is the interpretation of it: The three branches are three days. 13 Now within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your place, and you will put Pharaoh’s cup in his hand according to the former manner, when you were his butler. 14 But remember me when it is well with you, and please show kindness to me; make mention of me to Pharaoh, and get me out of this house. 15 For indeed I was stolen away from the land of the Hebrews; and also I have done nothing here that they should put me into the dungeon.” 16 When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was good, he said to Joseph, “I also was in my dream, and there were three white baskets on my head. 17 In the uppermost basket were all kinds of baked goods for Pharaoh, and the birds ate them out of the basket on my head.” 18 So Joseph answered and said, “This is the interpretation of it: The three baskets are three days. 19 Within three days Pharaoh will lift off your head from you and hang you on a tree; and the birds will eat your flesh from you.”
20 Now it came to pass on the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday, that he made a feast for all his servants; and he lifted up the head of the chief butler and of the chief baker among his servants. 21 Then he restored the chief butler to his butlership again, and he placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand. 22 But he hanged the chief baker, as Joseph had interpreted to them. 23 Yet the chief butler did not remember Joseph, but forgot him.
1. Prison Duties (Gen. 40:1-4)
Genesis 40 begins with two of Pharoah’s officials, the butler and the baker. The butler and the baker were high-ranking and valued officials in ancient courts. The butler, or cupbearer, was in charge of Pharaoh’s wine and the chief baker was in charge of Pharaoh’s food. They were imprisoned because they “offended their lord, the king of Egypt” (Gen. 40:1). It wasn’t that Pharoah was just arbitrarily displeased with them—there was an offense committed. Moses doesn’t tell us the specific offense because it doesn’t matter for the purpose of his narrative. Whatever they had done was serious enough to land them both in prison. And naturally, they were put in the royal prison, “the place where Joseph was confined” (Gen. 40:3).
There “the captain of the guard charged Joseph with them, and he served them” (Gen. 40:4). The “captain of the guard” has already been identified at Potiphar, Joseph’s Egyptian master who had put him in prison. Joseph had proved himself trustworthy in the prison and was given greater and greater responsibilities there (Gen. 39:22-23). On the surface, this might appear to be just another assignment given to a slave in the prison. In reality, this was the providence of the sovereign LORD. God will eventually use one of these men to secure Joseph’s release from prison.
The text says “they were in custody for a while,” (Gen. 40:4), literally “for days.” How long? Long enough for Joseph to perform his duties in serving these men and caring for them. What we see and a “chance” encounter may just be a divine appointment for you. There is no such thing as a real “coincidence.” God’s wise providence is working all things according to His good purpose. Psalm 37:23 says, “The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD, And He delights in his way.” Proverbs says, “A man’s heart plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps,” (Pro. 16:9). And Jeremiah prays “O LORD, I know the way of man is not in himself; It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps,” (Jer. 10:23).
In this waiting room of Joseph’s life he is not idle, grumbling, or insubordinate. He is faithful to discharge his duties. God is training him for greatness in the school of servitude. This is the way that our Lord Jesus Christ lived. He “did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). Jesus, “who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.” (Philippians 2:5–8). Faithful, humble service is always the path to greatness in the sight of God.
Will we be faithful where we are even when life seems to make no sense?
2. Prison Dreams (Gen. 40:5-19)
Both the butler and the baker had dreams on the same night—different dreams with different meanings (Gen. 40:5). There are dreams all through Joseph’s story. First, he has them (Gen. 37), then these two men have them (Gen. 40), then finally Pharaoh will have a two-part dream (Gen. 41).
What are we to think of these dreams? Does God regularly speak through dreams? God was certainly in these dreams both in giving them and in giving their interpretation to Joseph. We must admit that God is involved in all the dreams of this story since each dream actually did forecast what was to happen.
You might get the impression from this that God normally speaks through dreams—but I don’t think that is a valid conclusion. The Bible is a big book covering many thousands of years of history but there are only three places in the Bible where dreams figure prominently. In the Old Testament, they are restricted to Genesis and Daniel. In the New Testament people sometimes had visions, like Peter in Acts or John in Revelation. But strictly speaking, there are only six dreams, and all these occur in Matthew.[3]
Did God speak through these dreams? Yes, but at a time when the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament had not been completed. We are not instructed to study dreams, but to study scripture, the word of God. Paul writes to Timothy, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Tim. 2:15). For true and trustworthy revelation we are to turn to Scripture alone.
Derek Kidner points out that it was a common belief in Egypt that dreams were predictive of the future.[4] A professional class of dream interpreters arose for this purpose. But being in prison, the butler and baker had no access to the diviners of the court to interpret their dreams. They believed their futures had been revealed to them in their dreams, but they could not be interpreted, and the realization of this brought great distress to them. They were dejected.
Joseph was quick to observe that something was wrong. And what does Joseph do? He points them to God, “Do not interpretations belong to God?” (Gen. 40:8). Joseph takes this opportunity to testify to the greatness and glory of God—the one true God. Interpretations don’t come from diviners, they come from God. In the next chapter, Joseph will give the same testimony to Pharoah, saying, “It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh an answer,” (Gen. 41:16). Centuries later the prophet Daniel, like Joseph, will tell the powerful pagan king, “there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days,” (Dan. 2:28). Joseph takes the opportunity of these dreams to show that it’s the one true God who holds the future and thus reveals it.
So in Genesis 40:9-15, the butler tells his dream and Joseph interprets it as God enables him. His dream corresponded closely with his previous position under Pharaoh—it was about a vine that produced wine that he gave to Pharoah to drink. Joseph tells him, “The three branches are three days. Now within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your place, and you will put Pharaoh’s cup in his hand according to the former manner, when you were his butler,” (Gen. 40:12-13).
Joseph tells the butler that the king “will lift up your head,” a phrase that can mean to elevate, lift up from his humble position to be restored. This was good news for the butler.
So confident was Joseph that God had given him the interpretation that he made a request of the cupbearer, saying, “But remember me when it is well with you, and please show kindness to me; make mention of me to Pharaoh, and get me out of this house. For indeed I was stolen away from the land of the Hebrews; and also I have done nothing here that they should put me into the dungeon.” (Gen. 40:14–15). Joseph was convinced that God had spoken through him. While content to remain in the dungeon so long as God willed, Joseph also made every effort to be removed from that place through the channels legitimately available to him.
The butler shared his dream with Joseph on the basis of God’s ability to interpret dreams and his confidence in Joseph’s relationship with his God. The baker, however, was motivated only by the fact that Joseph’s interpretation was good news to the butler. He, too, was now eager to report his dream to Joseph and thus to have an optimistic prediction of his future. But the forecast is not favorable for the baker. He tells him, “This is the interpretation of it: The three baskets are three days. Within three days Pharaoh will lift off your head from you and hang you on a tree; and the birds will eat your flesh from you.” (Gen. 40:18-19). It was a horrible prophecy, but Joseph gives the bad news as faithfully as the good news.
These two dreams and their interpretations contain a striking parallel to the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Both the butler and the baker had “sinned” against their king and had rightfully incurred his wrath. Both awaited the condemnation they deserved. One was pardoned and granted a restoration of fellowship and function at the hand of his master. The other received the punishment that he was due and paid the penalty of death.
The Bible declares to us that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). As guilty sinners, we deserve the penalty of our sins, which is eternal death and separation from God, but there is for us the offer of forgiveness through the provision of Jesus Christ: “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:23). When Christ comes again and the dead are raised, some will spend eternity with Him, while others will live in eternal separation from His love and power in hell.
The gospel is good news for those who are being saved. Faithful preachers of the gospel “are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life.” (2 Cor. 2:15-16). We must tell people the good news of John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” But we must also tell people John 3:18, “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” Robert Deffinbaugh comments, “The gospel is not our message to men; it is God’s. We can no more alter it than Joseph could change the interpretation of these men’s dreams. We must tell it like it is.”[5]
3. Prison Disappointment (Gen. 40:20-23)
Joseph’s hopes must have soared when the three days passed and both the butler and baker experienced the exact fulfillment of his prophecies. The butler was restored just as Joseph said and the baker was hanged, just as Joseph said. Surely the butler would not fail to show his gratitude by speaking a word to Pharaoh, and hopefully, this would be soon. However, this was not to be the case. Joseph is forgotten. Joseph’s rising hopes were dashed upon the rocks of reality as days turned into weeks, months, and years.
What is God doing? Ligon Duncan points out that in God’s providence He is doing at least three things simultaneously.[6] First, God is strengthening Joseph’s faith, patience, and endurance in the waiting. James writes to suffering Christians,
2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. (James 1:2-4)
Paul writes in Romans,
3 And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; 4 and perseverance, character; and character, hope. (Rom. 5:3-4)
Second, God is furthering His own glory by delaying the answer to Joseph’s desires to get out of this prison. If God had gotten Joseph out of prison quickly through the cupbearer, this man might be seen as his rescuer. By delaying the answer to Joseph’s prayers, God made it clear that He and He alone would come to Joseph’s rescue.
Finally, in delaying the answer to Joseph’s desires, God is establishing His plan for the salvation of Israel. God’s plan to save Jacob’s family from famine depends upon Joseph’s exaltation to the right hand of Pharaoh. If Joseph is freed from prison through the mere appeal of the cupbearer at this point, he never gets the appointment in the house of Pharaoh. If he doesn’t get the appointment in the house of Pharaoh, he cannot save his family. God had a better plan and a better purpose and that plan meant waiting, and it meant being forgotten by men. But Joseph was not forsaken by God. God was bringing all these strands together so that all was working according to His schedule. Nothing is outside of God’s sovereignty, even though it may seem like it those who have to sit in a dungeon for two more years.
In a greater way than Joseph, Jesus our Savior also suffered for us. He met us in the prison of our sin. He was forsaken so that we could be set free. Isaiah 53 says,
4 Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:4-6).
As we come to the Lord’s Table today, have you repented of your sin and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ to save you? Or are you still condemned because you have not believed on the only begotten Son of God who died for your sins and was raised for your justification? Turn from your sin and your selfish ways. Look to Jesus. He is the only Savior.
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[1] Warren Wiersbe. BE Bible Study Series, https://www.biblegateway.com/resources/wiersbe-be-bible-study/learning-wait-39-21-23
[2] Alan Carr. Forgotten But Not Forsaken, http://www.sermonnotebook.org/joseph/Joseph%2006%20-%20Genesis%2040_1-41_1.htm. I borrowed the alliterative outline from Carr.
[3] James Montgomery Boice, Genesis: An Expositional Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1998), 949–954.
[4] Derek Kidner. Genesis, Inter-Varsity Press, 1967, 2008. P. 205
[5] Robert Deffinbaugh, How to Get Out of the Pits (Genesis 40:1-23), https://bible.org/seriespage/40-how-get-out-pits-genesis-401-23#P4006_1165593
[6] Duncan, Ligon. Genesis: The Foundations of the Faith: Joseph Imprisoned. https://fpcjackson.org/resource-library/sermons/joseph-imprisoned/
