Mark continued his series on Joseph and his dreams today, looking at Genesis 41. The phrase ‘Who’s the daddy now?’ reminds us of someone’s superiority over us and in this chapter, we finally see Joseph’s fortunes turning as God continues to work His will out in his life.
Joseph at the start of this chapter is still in prison, a full two years after he correctly interpreted the dreams of Pharaoh’s baker and cup-bearer. Now, God has given Pharaoh a dream and he is not happy; he does not understand the dream and is troubled by it. His magicians and wise men cannot help him to understand the dream and it is only at this point that the cup-bearer remembers Joseph. Sometimes it is as if God turns on a light bulb in our heads, causing us to remember things we had previously not considered.
Eccl 3:1 reminds us that there is a time for everything. Now the time was right, in God’s strategy and planning, for Joseph to be released from prison and brought before Pharaoh. When God moves, He often does so with stunning speed. Joseph may well have spent thirteen years wondering when the fulfilment of his dream would ever bring him anything but trouble and strife, but now this was his ‘PPI‘ – his ‘pivotal point incident.’ (See Mark’s sermon from August 2013.) God moved on the people involved in this story so that two completely separate worlds – the world of the richest, most powerful man in Egypt and the world of a forgotten Hebrew slave – were interwoven together.
Joseph’s response to Pharaoh’s demand for clarification is telling: he says that he cannot interpret dreams but God will give Pharaoh an answer. This acknowledgment of the true God (refuting any claim Pharaoh may have made to a divine status) was a dangerous stance to take, but Gen 41:25 shows us that Joseph is confident of God’s sovereignty: ‘God has revealed to Pharaoh what He is about to do.’ This matter has been ‘firmly decided by God’ (Gen 41:32) and there is no escape from what God firmly decides! No power or person can thwart God’s plans, for He is working all things together for good for those who are called according to His purpose. (Rom 8:28)
Pharaoh can clearly see God at work in and through Joseph, calling him ‘a man in whom is the spirit of God.’ (Gen 41:38) God gave him such a revelation that he was able to recognise God in Joseph and thus he was given the chance to obey God himself. We need to understand that God is sovereign over all, in control of every incident in our lives and can move to fulfil His plans with alacrity when the time is right. We need to pray that people will recognise God’s Spirit in us and will acknowledge God as Lord (the true ‘Daddy’ of the universe!), even as we seek to honour God in all we do and say, as Joseph did.