The Book of Genesis

Hebrew Study

Explanation

Pharaoh's chief butler and chief baker offend the king and are cast into the same prison where Joseph is held. The captain of the guard puts Joseph in charge of them, and one night both men dream troubling dreams. In the morning Joseph comes in and, though he is a wronged prisoner himself, he notices that they are sad and asks, "Wherefore look ye so sadly to day?" They explain that they have dreamed dreams but there is no one to interpret them. Joseph's reply is the key to his whole life: "Do not interpretations belong to God?" He does not boast of his own gift or claim any special cleverness. He points these Egyptians away from himself and straight to the God of heaven, and then he offers to hear their dreams. Even in prison, Joseph is a man who sees others' pain and gives God the glory.

Gospel Focus

Two things shine here. First, notice Joseph's compassion. He is in prison for a crime he did not commit, with every reason to be absorbed in his own troubles, yet he looks up and sees that others are downcast and asks about their sorrow. Real godliness does not curl inward under suffering; it keeps a heart open to the needs of others. Some of the most Christlike people are those who minister to others out of the middle of their own pain. Second, notice where Joseph sends the credit: "Do not interpretations belong to God?" Wisdom and revelation are gifts from God, not achievements of man. Daniel, another faithful captive, said the same before a pagan king: "there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets" (Daniel 2:28). And the New Testament invites us to that same source: "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally" (James 1:5). Whatever gift or insight we have is on loan from heaven, and the humble heart, like Joseph's, always points people past itself to the God who gives.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

The chief butler tells his dream first: a vine with three branches that bud, blossom, and bring forth ripe grapes, which he presses into Pharaoh's cup and hands to the king. Joseph gives the interpretation plainly: the three branches are three days, and within three days Pharaoh will "lift up thine head, and restore thee unto thy place" as royal cupbearer. It is good news, and it is exact. Then Joseph adds a humble, human request: "think on me when it shall be well with thee ... make mention of me unto Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house." He briefly explains his own case, that he was "stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews" and had done nothing to deserve the dungeon. Joseph, who trusted God fully, still used the ordinary means before him, asking a soon-to-be freed man to speak for him. Faith and sensible action are not enemies.

Gospel Focus

Joseph's request to the butler shows us a healthy balance. On one hand, Joseph trusted God completely; on the other, he did not sit passively but used the door in front of him, asking for help. Trusting God does not mean refusing every ordinary means He provides. We pray and we also act, we rest in God and we also knock on doors, and we leave the results to Him. Notice too Joseph's gentle insistence on his innocence: "here also have I done nothing that they should put me into the dungeon." He was honest about the injustice done to him without bitterness or revenge, simply stating the truth and asking for kindness. There is dignity in that. A believer can name a wrong plainly and still leave the outcome to God. Joseph asked to be remembered, and there was nothing wrong in the asking. As the next verses will show, his hope in man would be disappointed, but that disappointment would only teach him, and us, to lean more fully on the God who never forgets.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

Seeing that the butler received a good interpretation, the chief baker hopefully tells his own dream: three white baskets on his head, the top one full of baked goods for Pharaoh, but the birds are eating them out of the basket. This time the meaning is dark. Joseph does not soften it or refuse to speak; he tells the truth: the three baskets are three days, and within three days Pharaoh will "lift up thy head from off thee, and shall hang thee on a tree." There is a grim echo in the wording. To the butler, Pharaoh would "lift up thine head" in restoration; to the baker, Pharaoh would "lift up thy head from off thee" in execution. The same phrase, two opposite ends. Joseph faithfully delivers both the good news and the bad, because a true messenger of God speaks what God gives, whether it is welcome or not.

Gospel Focus

Joseph's faithfulness in speaking the hard word is a mark of true integrity. It would have been easy to flatter the baker with a false comfort, but Joseph told him the truth, gently but plainly. Those who speak for God must be willing to declare the whole counsel of God, including its warnings, not only the parts people want to hear. There is a striking picture in these two prisoners as well. Here are two condemned men in the same place at the same hour, and their destinies split completely: one is lifted up to life and restored to the king's side, the other lifted up to death. It calls to mind another scene, two condemned men crucified on either side of the Lord Jesus, where one turned to Him and heard, "To day shalt thou be with me in paradise" (Luke 23:43), while the other perished in his sin. The same nearness to salvation, two opposite ends, decided by the response of the heart. It is a solemn reminder that we may sit side by side with others under the same circumstances and yet face very different eternities.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

On the third day, which happened to be Pharaoh's birthday, the king held a feast and dealt with his two officers exactly as Joseph had said. He "restored the chief butler unto his butlership again," and the cup was once more in his hand, "but he hanged the chief baker." Joseph's God-given interpretations were proved true to the letter. Everything hung now on one small thing: would the restored butler remember the young Hebrew who had helped him and speak for him to Pharaoh? The chapter ends with a quiet, painful sentence: "Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgat him." The man walked out into freedom and comfort and simply forgot the one who had given him hope in prison. Joseph, innocent and faithful, is left behind in the dungeon, and, as the next chapter reveals, he will wait there two more full years.

Gospel Focus

"Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgat him." How that must have stung. Joseph had done a kindness and asked one small thing in return, and he was forgotten. People will disappoint us. Those we help do not always help us back, and the hope we place in man often comes up empty. But here is the deep comfort of Scripture: though man forgets, God does not. The Lord says, "Can a woman forget her sucking child ... yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee" (Isaiah 49:15). The butler forgot Joseph, but God had not forgotten him for a single day. In fact, God was using even this delay, for had the butler spoken up at once, Joseph might have been quietly released and returned home, and never risen to save the world from famine. God's timing is not our timing, and His delays are not His denials. "They that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength" (Isaiah 40:31). When people forget us and doors seem to close, we can rest in the God who remembers, whose clock is never late, and who is working through the very waiting we cannot understand.