YHWH knows the Future

November 7, 2009, 1:20 pm by dc-agape.

Genesis Chapter 40

While a prisoner in the house of Potiphar, Joseph meets the Cupbearer and the Baker for the Pharaoh of Egypt.  This prison must be similar to the jail that Martha Stewart, Camp Cupcake, was imprisoned in.  We can see this first of all by who is imprisoned there: the Pharaoh’s private servants, one of which he restores.  The Pharaoh would never take someone back that had been thrown in with common thieves and murders.  Second:

^{Gen 40:4} The captain of the guard assigned them to Joseph, and he attended them.

The warden did not assign Joseph to the Pharaoh’s men.  The captain of the guard did.  We know that Potiphar was the captain of the guard from Gen 39:1.  So even though Joseph was a prisoner of Potiphar he still worked directly for Potiphar.  If this was the “true” prisons of the Pharaoh, Joseph would not be directed by Potiphar, the hierarchy of the prison system would be too complex.  The warden of that set of cells would be in charge.  But the clincher is here:

^{Gen 40:7} So he asked Pharaoh’s officials who were in custody with him in his master’s house, “Why are your faces so sad today?”

All three men were prisoners in the house of Potiphar!  This was house arrest; Potiphar’s compound was probably rather large.  But this was without a doubt, Camp Cupcake!  How else would Joseph know that the men’s faces looked “sad today”?  In a “true” prison they would never look happy enough to see the sadness in their faces. 

Both men have had dreams, on the same night, and cannot find someone to interpret these dreams.  Joseph tells them that he can through YHWH interpret the dreams.  The Cupbearer goes first.  He has seen three branches of grapes.  He takes the ripe grapes and squeezes them to make grape juice for the Pharaoh.  Personally, I would interpret this as the Pharaoh will kill him in three days for giving him grape juice instead of wine.  But Joseph tells the Cupbearer that in three days time the Pharaoh will restore him to his old position.  Then Joseph asks the Cupbearer to remember him and to tell the Pharaoh about Joseph’s troubles.

The Baker also had a dream.  But instead of three branches it was three baskets of bread.  In this dream the birds ate all the bread in the baskets.  Joseph tells the Baker that the baskets represent three days.  But it is bad news for the Baker.  The Pharaoh will kill the Baker by hanging him and let the birds eat his flesh.

On the third day after the dreams was the Pharaoh’s birthday.  On that day the Pharaoh restored the Cupbearer but had the Baker executed.  YHWH had known the future; these men did not have freewill.  Unfortunately, the Cupbearer did not remember Joseph.

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