Sermon Tone Analysis

The sovereign God exalts His suffering servant to kingship in order to save the world.

Therefore we can rest assured that His suffering servant our king will indeed save!

INTRO

If you brought a copy of Gods Word with you today please turn to and if you did not bring a copy you can follow with us on page 33 of our pew Bibles.

We will be covering both chapter 40 as well as 41 today.

Due to the length of these chapters we will not be reading them in their entirety but rather will be looking at some specific verses contained therein.

As you are turning to let me tell read you a story Jesus told found in .

Question for you...

What in the world does that text have to do with what we are talking about today?

Before we answer that let us pray over God’s word today.

PRAYER

SERMON BODY

So remember where we left Joseph off from our last chapter.

He was falsely accused and sent to the kings prison.

Chapter 40 opens with verse one saying:

So verse 1 does not tell us how much time passed exactly just that some time had passed before this event.

Maybe you were like me and always assumed that these events were back to back, but they were not their was time in between all of these events we would do well to remember that.

If for nothing else then our own perseverance and longsuffering under trials.

So here you have Joseph in the prison and at this point running the show and the two servants of Pharao come down there because of some offense, we don’t know what exactly but in light of al that happens it really does not matter.

While they are in jail with Joseph they have dreams, each of them have dreams.

According to verse 5 each with its own interpretation.

So naturally Joseph being the kind of guy he was notices that they are not looking so great, they were troubled by these dreams and he asks them to tell him, [remember he had had some experiences with dreams in his past also].

Joseph is very clear in verse 8 that any interpretations given by him will come from God.

The Cupbearer

The cupbearers dream was one of a super fast growing grape cluster.

From vine to flower to cluster in a matter of moments, in his dream the cupbearer took the grapes pressed them into juice for Pharaoh into his cup and gave the cup into his hand.

This vine in his dream was made up of three branches.

Josephs interpretation for him was that each brach stands for three days and that in three days he will be returned to his post once again!

Yay! thought the cupbearer this is good news right?

Yes so Jacob asks him in verse 14...

The Baker

Since that was good news, and when you are in jail you can always use good news the baker told Joseph his dream also.

In the bakers dream there were three baskets of bread on his head and the birds kept coming and stealing and eating the bread out of the top basket.

What could that mean you ask? Well Joseph tells us, and it is not good news.

The three baskets stand for three days and the birds will not be eating bread they will be eating your flesh after the king hangs you.

After three very long days, I would imagine, everything comes to pass just as Joseph has said and Joseph was released from prison and given a parade for being the best dream interpreter around!

right!? No! Well, yes and no, Joseph was right and it all comes to pass but as verse 23 tells us Joseph was left alone yet again.

Does this man remind you of yourself as much as he reminds me of me?

Do you ever find yourself coming to God for relief from something and then forget to remember Him later?

Chapter 41.1 gives us a reference point again.

After a while Joseph would have come to the conclusion that he had been forgotten about.

He would have just resigned himself to his lot in life.

What would you have done?

Would you have been angry with God? Would you have stopped being righteous in your dealings with others?

Would you have stopped managing the prison well more focused on your own miss-fortune then doing what God has brought you to do?

You know that scripture tells us that those who are faithful with the small things can then be trusted with the larger?

So two years later Pharaoh has a dream, or should I say dreams.

Pharao

As he is standing by the nile in his dream seven good healthy fat cows come out and fed on the grass.

Then seven ugly skinny cows came out after them and ate the big healthy fat cows but after they did you would think that they had not eaten anything.

Naturally just as we have experienced in our lives he awoke from this strange and disturbing dream.

When he fell asleep again he had a second dream.

In this dream there were seven ears of grain were all growing on one stalk, they were all plump and healthy.

Just as before a ugly withered unhealthy stalk with seven ugly withered heads of grain swallowed up the good and again Pharaoh awoke.

Like us Pharaoh wanted answers and like us he wanted a deeper meaning and like us he was looking for it in all the wrong places.

So the cupbearer recaps the experience he had with Joseph for Pharaoh.

Pharaoh sends for Joseph, Joseph gets all cleaned up and comes before Pharaoh.

Pharaoh tells Joseph that he has heard about his ability to intemperate dreams.

Pharaoh recaps his dreams for Joseph and explains that no one can help him so far.

- This is the climax of these two chapters… do you remember Rocky and Bullwinkle?

Will Joseph be able to interpret these dreams?

Will Pharaoh ever be able to sleep again?

Find out next time on Joseph the Dreamer...

Gen 41.25

Joseph makes it clear who is the one who gave the dreams, who it is that gives the interpretation, and who it is who is in control.

God gave the dream, God gives the interpretation, and God is in control!

The thing that is most astounding to me is what he adds in verse 32.

“The doubling means that it is fixed by God” Joseph himself had two dreams that were really one, that God would raise him up to a position where his brothers and even his father would be bowing down to him.

This also was fixed by God and in Gods good time He too would bring this about!

Gen 41.

After all that had happened to Joseph he still believed, he still had faith, he still trusted God!

Joseph had spent his life being faithful in the little things and now God was going to put him over much!

Gen 41.25-

Joseph proposes a great idea to Pharaoh to store up the excess from the seven good years so as to have enough food for the seven bad ones.

The idea was pleasing to Pharaoh and all who heard it.

Pharaoh like all those who spent time with Joseph was forced to recognize that God was with him.

Gen 41.

Pharaoh gave him his signet ring, dressed him in royal clothes, gave him a chariot and informed all of Egypt that Joseph was in charge and that they were to “bow the knee before him and obey him”.

Pharaoh gave him a new name and a wife and put him to work as the overseer of all of Egypt.

Joseph was 17 when he got sold into slavery and for 13 years he toiled, seeking to be faithful in the little things, knowing that God had revealed to him his destiny and that the thing was fixed by God and would happen in Gods time.

Joseph went about his work that he was called to.

He stored up so much grain that they stopped keeping track of it all.

He had two sons before the famine hit.

At the end of the seven years of plenty the famine began just as God had said through Joseph.

The famine was severe and those who had not know as Joseph did were not prepared.

The section closes on 41:57 which says.

If it would not have been for Joseph humanity may not have survived!

The point of this whole narrative is this:

The sovereign God exalts His suffering servant to kingship in order to save the world.

God in His sovereign omniscience exalts Joseph to a position of authority in order to save not only his brothers but anyone and everyone that will come to him to buy grain.

The sovereign God exalts his suffering servant to kingship in order to save the world from starvation through Joseph.

Yet again in Christ the sovereign God exalts his suffering servant to kingship in order to save the world from sin.

Like Joseph, Jesus left His rightful home to come to a land which did not respect or recognize him, rather we accused and afflicted him.

Jesus took on the form of a servant, yet at the proper time God exalted him in order that all who come to him might be saved, not just the jews but all mankind.

Not saved from a famine of food but starvation of the soul!

As a Christian we like Joseph are here in a land that is not our own.

We like Joseph are called as servants to be faithful in the little things that one day we too might be exalted.

We like Joseph when given the opportunity should be diligent to be good stewards of the harvest of which God has made us overseers.

We like Joseph ought to be faithful and wise servants, whom God has set over His household, seeking to give others of His spiritual food at the proper time.

Joseph knew that the famine was fixed by God and that it would happen only in a matter of time.