Genesis 41

CHAPTER 41THEME: The dreams of Pharaoh; Joseph is made overseer of Egypt; Joseph’s two sonsManasseh and EphraimWhat a difference this chapter is from the previous one where we left Joseph down in jail, forgotten, forlorn, and forsaken. Yet all of this was happening to him for God’s purpose in his life. If we could recognize God’s hand in our lives today, it would give us a different outlook on life! In the chapter before us we will see that Joseph is released from prison when he interprets the dreams of Pharaoh. He is made overseer over the entire land of Egypt, and he marries Asenath, the daughter of the Priest of On, who bears him Manasseh and Ephraim. This is a story of rags to riches. I know of no fictitious story more thrilling than this episode in the life of Joseph. In this chapter we can certainly see the hand of God in his life. And Joseph was conscious of God’s care even during the days of adversity. This developed in him many virtues which are the fruit of the Spirit. One of them was patience. The truth expressed in Rom_5:3 that tribulation (or trouble) worketh patience is definitely illustrated in the life of Joseph. We find here that this boy is brought into the presence of Pharaoh, the gentile king, just as later on Daniel will be brought in before Nebuchadnezzar. Both of them are to interpret dreams. Then we will consider the famine at the end of the chapter. What purpose of God is to be accomplished by this? God will use it to get the family of Jacob out of Canaan, away from the sins of the Canaanites and to bring them to Egypt to settle in the secluded spot of Goshen. That is one of His objectives. God had, I am sure, many other reasons, but this one is obvious. As we go along, I hope you are still taking note of the ways in which Joseph is like the Lord Jesus Christ. We will make more of these comparisons later on. It is something important for us to be noting.

Genesis 41:1

THE DREAMS OF PHARAOHRemember that in the previous chapter Pharaoh’s butler and baker were put in the same prison where Joseph was incarcerated. Joseph interpreted their dreams correctlythe baker was hanged, and the butler was restored to his position. Joseph had begged the butler to remember his plight and speak of it to Pharaoh, but he had not done so. Now God gives Pharaoh a dream Notice that it has been two full years since the close of the previous chapter. Joseph has spent two more years in jail, waiting for something to happen. Here is Pharaoh’s dream

Genesis 41:2

“Kine” are cows. We are talking about cattle here. He saw seven cows that were well-fed, fine-looking, fat cattle. Then he saw seven really skinny cows.

Genesis 41:4

Pharaoh woke up and wondered what the dream meant. He didn’t have the interpretation, but there was nobody to help him that day.

Genesis 41:5

While all of these magicians and wise men were called in and Pharaoh was telling them his dream, the chief butler was there listening. After all, his position was to stand before Pharaoh and get him anything that he wanted. When none of the wise men could give Pharaoh an interpretation, the butler spoke up

Genesis 41:9

I would call it a little more than a “fault!” It was a sin, in my opinion. But, you see, all of this was in the providence of God. We would call them the fortuitous concurrence of circumstances. The difficult experiences of Joseph could not be understood at the time, but God was letting them happen for a purpose. Now the chief butler says, “Oh, I just remembered that I promised a young fellow down there in prison that I would speak to you about him. And, by the way, Pharaoh, he can interpret dreams.” Now he tells Pharaoh his own experience

Genesis 41:10

Pharaoh said, “Well, we’ve tried everybody else around here, and since that young man interpreted your dream and that of the baker, let’s have him come because I have the feeling that my dreams are very significant.”

Genesis 41:14

Note that Joseph shaved himself. You must remember that the Hebrews were not shaving in that day. But have you noticed that the statues and paintings of the Egyptians show a cleanshaven people? Many of the rulers sported a little goatee to add dignity to their positionif they couldn’t grow their own, they wore a false onebut generally the Egyptians were without hair on their faces. There is a tremendous message in this. This man is lifted up out of the prison now. He shaves, and changes his prison garb for proper court clothing. This is a new life that is before him. It is like a resurrection; he is raised up. Now he goes to the Gentiles. What a tremendous picture of Christ this gives to us here.

Genesis 41:15

Notice how Joseph gives God the glory

Genesis 41:16

From Joseph’s viewpoint, God must receive the glory. Again let me say that the child of God should be very careful that God gets the glory for all of His accomplishments. If what we do is a blessing, it is because God is doing it through us. Joseph is aware of this, and he says, “It is not in meI can’t interpret itbut God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace.” Pharaoh repeats the dreams to Joseph. Actually, it is one dream of two parts, and it is treated as a single dream.

Genesis 41:25

Joseph says that the dream is oneboth speak of the same thing. And the fact that it was repeated, given to Pharaoh twice, adds to its importance. The reason for the dream is that God is letting Pharaoh know what He is about to do. Here is the interpretation

Genesis 41:26

This, you see, is a prediction. There are to be seven years of plenty and then seven years of famine.

Genesis 41:32

The famine had been determined by God, and He wants Pharaoh to know about it. Now here is the advice of Joseph to Pharaoh

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Joseph advises Pharaoh to collect all the surplus during the seven years of plenty and keep it in store for the lean years.

Genesis 41:38

JOSEPH IS MADE OVERSEER OF EGYPTNotice the significance of this. At the beginning this boy had been in the back of the prison, forgotten, forsaken, and forlorn. Now he is brought out at the right psychological moment because nobody else can interpret the dream of Pharaoh. Not only does he interpret it, but in his enthusiasm and because he is a man of ability, he suggests what Pharaoh should do. God is leading him in all of this, of course. There is to be a worldwide famine, a famine so severe that even Egypt will be affected. Because Egypt is an irrigated land, it is not dependent upon rainfall. The Upper Nile, the Blue Nile, comes down from Central Africa and furnishes the water upon which Egypt depends. Egypt gets about an inch of rainfall in a good year; so it is famine all the time as far as rainfall is concerned. But the Nile overflows the land every year, bringing not only water, but sediment which fertilizes the soil. However, God has warned that there will be seven years of famine which will affect Egypt, also. As Pharaoh listens to Joseph, what he says makes sense. It is too bad that in my own nation there have not been men in our government who have had some sense of the future. Our foreign policy since the years before World War II, even from the days of Hitler’s rise to power, has been more or less a first-aid program, something rushed in as an emergency measure. Someone once asked Gladstone what is the measure of a great statesman. He said it is the man who knows the direction God is going for the next fifty years. Well, here in Genesis, Pharaoh is told what is going to happen for the next fourteen years. Our nation could use a man like this, also. Now, who could take over better than Joseph? Pharaoh recognized that he was a man of ability. Now don’t you see how God had been training him in the home of Potiphar? We may wonder why in the world God ever let him go into that home in the first place. Now we realize that he had received quite a bit of training in the home of Potiphar where he had charge of everything the man owned. Now he is going to have charge of everything in the land of Egypt. This is a tremendous transition in his life. He went all the way from the back of the jail to the throne next to that of Pharaoh.

Genesis 41:42

By the way, that ring had a signet on it. When that was put down in wax, it was just the same as Pharaoh’s signature. Pharaoh is making Joseph his agent. He has the right to use the king’s signature.

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I like the name Joe better than I like Zaphnath-paaneah, but that was the name that Pharaoh gave to him. It is a Coptic name, and it means “the revealer of secret things.”

Genesis 41:46

We are told Joseph’s age here, and we see that he has been in the land of Egypt for thirteen years. We know that two of those years were spent in prison after the episode with the butler and the baker. He probably had been in the prison a year or so before that. So he may have been in the house of Potiphar close to ten years. This gives us some idea of how his life was divided into time periods while he was in the land of Egypt. After these thirteen years in Egypt, Joseph finds himself in a position which would correspond, I believe, to prime minister. He was second only to Pharaoh in the land of Egypt. Have you ever wondered why Pharaoh was so willing to accept him? Primarily, of course, the answer is that God was with him. All the way along we have been seeing that. The hand of God, by His providence, was leading this man. Joseph says himself that the brothers meant it for evil but that God meant it for good. It is wonderful to know that. There may be another very practical reason for Pharaoh’s accepting Joseph so readily. Many scholars hold that the Pharaoh at this particular time in history was one of the Hyksos kings. The Hyksos were not native Egyptians but were Bedouins from the Arabian Desert. They were a nomadic group, and for a period they came in and took over the throne of Egypt. If this is true (and I think it is), Pharaoh was actually closer in nationality to Joseph than to the Egyptians, and this gave him confidence in Joseph. Actually, these Hyksos kings found it a little difficult to find someone in Egypt who would be loyal and faithful to them.

Faithfulness was certainly characteristic of Joseph. His confidence that God was moving in his life produced in him a faithfulness to whomever he was attached. He was faithful to his task because he knew that God was in it. A racial bond with Pharaoh may well be a reason that Joseph found such a ready reception with him at this time, and he certainly proved to be faithful to him, as we shall see. By the way, the Hyksos kings were later expelled from Egypt, which I believe to be the reason that in Exo_1:8 we read: “Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.” The Pharaoh of the oppression certainly had no fellow-feeling with the Hebrews! Note that Pharaoh placed a chain about Joseph’s neck, which gave him the same authority that Pharaoh had. Also, Pharaoh gave him for a bride the daughter of the priest of On. Her name, Asenath, means “dedicated to Neith (the Egyptian Minerva).” Evidently she came right out of heathenism. This event in Joseph’s life furnishes another parallel in the life of the Lord Jesus. Joseph had a gentile bride, and the Lord Jesus Christ is presently calling out of this world a gentile bride, which we call the church. And in this same verse there is still another parallel; Joseph stood before Pharaoh when he was thirty years old, and the Lord Jesus began His ministry when He was thirty years of age. So at thirty, Joseph takes up his work in Egypt. During these seven years of plenty, he is gathering into storehouses the abundant produce of the land.

Genesis 41:47

Notice that he “laid up the food in the cities.” He was planning ahead for easy distribution. I remember that during the depression of the 1930s men stood in the lines of the soup kitchens of Chicago and New York, and the lines were blocks long. Although at that time there was an abundance of food, there was a problem of distribution. But Joseph is doing a very practical thing. He is laying up the food in the cities. He is gathering up the surplus, and he is putting it in the cities, ready for distribution.

Genesis 41:49

Egypt was the breadbasket of the world. Under Joseph’s management, I tell you, it seemed like two or three breadbaskets!

Genesis 41:50

JOSEPH’S TWO SONSMANASSEH AND EPHRAIMNow we pause for a little family note These boys were born before the famine. He called his first son Manasseh. I’d say a good name for him would be “Amnesia” because it means that God had made Joseph “forget.” He was so much involved that he forgot about his father’s house. He’d been a homesick boy at first, but he’s not anymore. In the first part of this chapter we saw that Joseph, when he was released from prison, changed his clothes and shaved himself before appearing before Pharaoh. It may seem to you that shaving may not be very important, that only the Gillette Company would be interested in that fact. But to us it has a symbolic interest. The Hebrews wore beards, and when Joseph shaved himself and changed his clothing, it speaks to me of resurrection because he laid aside the old life and began the new life. From that point on, he dresses like an Egyptian; he talks like an Egyptian; he lives like an Egyptian. He says “God made me forget.” So he names his son Manassehand you may call him Amnesia if you want to! The next boy he names Ephraim because that means “fruitful.” So you can call this next boy “Ambrosia” if you like. Someone may object that this is free translating. Maybe it is, but if you put those two boys’ names into their English counterparts, that is exactly what they are. His boys were Amnesia and Ambrosia. Joseph gave them these names because God had made him forget his father’s house and had made him fruitful in the land of Egypt.

Genesis 41:53

The seven years of bountiful crops are over now, and the famine will begin. At this time Joseph is thirty-seven years old. Keep that in mind for the next chapter.

Genesis 41:54

May I call your attention to the fact that Joseph is the one who had the bread. There is another parallel here. Jesus Christ said, “I am the Bread of life.”

Genesis 41:56

Notice that the famine is worldwide.