Gen 41 · Read 10 min · think and write 15 min
Last time, Joseph interpreted the cup bearer’s dream and asked only one thing: “Make mention of me to Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house” (Gen 40:14). But the passage says, “Yet the chief cup bearer didn’t remember Joseph, but forgot him” (Gen 40:23).
This lesson begins: “At the end of two full years, Pharaoh dreamed” (v. 1).
Pharaoh dreamed that seven fat cows were eaten up by seven thin cows, and then that seven good heads of grain were swallowed up by seven thin heads. (vv. 1–7)
8In the morning, his spirit was troubled, and he sent and called for all of Egypt’s magicians and wise men. Pharaoh told them his dreams, but there was no one who could interpret them to Pharaoh.
9Then the chief cup bearer spoke to Pharaoh, saying, “I remember my faults today.
10Pharaoh was angry with his servants, and put me in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, with the chief baker.
11We dreamed a dream in one night, he and I. Each man dreamed according to the interpretation of his dream.
12There was with us there a young man, a Hebrew, servant to the captain of the guard, and we told him, and he interpreted to us our dreams. He interpreted to each man according to his dream.
13As he interpreted to us, so it was. He restored me to my office, and he hanged him.”
14Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him hastily out of the dungeon. He shaved himself, changed his clothing, and came in to Pharaoh.
15Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I have dreamed a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it. I have heard it said of you, that when you hear a dream you can interpret it.”
16Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, “It isn’t in me. God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace.”
Pharaoh told Joseph both dreams. (vv. 17–24)
25Joseph said to Pharaoh, “The dream of Pharaoh is one. What God is about to do he has declared to Pharaoh.
The seven good cows and the seven good heads of grain are seven years of plenty; the seven bad cows and the seven bad heads of grain are seven years of famine. (vv. 26–27)
28That is the thing which I have spoken to Pharaoh. God has shown Pharaoh what he is about to do.
29Behold, seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt are coming.
30Seven years of famine will arise after them, and all the plenty will be forgotten in the land of Egypt. The famine will consume the land,
31and the plenty will not be known in the land by reason of that famine which follows; for it will be very grievous.
32The dream was doubled to Pharaoh, because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass.
Joseph advised Pharaoh to choose a wise man to oversee Egypt and to store up grain in the good years against the years of famine. (vv. 33–36)
37The thing was good in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of all his servants.
38Pharaoh said to his servants, “Can we find such a one as this, a man in whom is the Spirit of God?”
39Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Because God has shown you all of this, there is no one so discreet and wise as you.
40You shall be over my house. All my people will be ruled according to your word. Only in the throne I will be greater than you.”
41Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Behold, I have set you over all the land of Egypt.”
Pharaoh put his signet ring on Joseph’s hand, dressed him in fine linen, and gave him a wife. In the seven good years Joseph stored up grain like the sand of the sea. Before the years of famine came, two sons were born to him. (vv. 42–50)
51Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh, “For”, he said, “God has made me forget all my toil, and all my father’s house.”
52The name of the second, he called Ephraim: “For God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.”
The seven years of famine came, just as Joseph had said, and people from every country came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph. (vv. 53–57)
To read the whole chapter: Genesis 41, 57 verses.
Two full years. The last line of the previous lesson is that the cup bearer “didn’t remember Joseph, but forgot him” (Gen 40:23). The first line of this one is “At the end of two full years, Pharaoh dreamed” (v. 1). The passage says nothing at all about those two years. We do not know how Joseph lived through them. We only know that when Pharaoh sent for him two years later, he was still in the dungeon: “they brought him hastily out of the dungeon” (v. 14).
No one could interpret. Pharaoh called in “all of Egypt’s magicians and wise men,” but “there was no one who could interpret them to Pharaoh” (v. 8). All of Egypt’s learning was in the room, and none of it could open the dreams. Only then does the cup bearer say, “I remember my faults today” (v. 9).
In a hurry. “Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him hastily out of the dungeon” (v. 14). For two years no one thought of him; now they cannot wait a moment. He “shaved himself, changed his clothing, and came in to Pharaoh” (v. 14) — from the look of a prisoner to the look of someone fit to stand before a king.
‘It isn’t in me.’ Pharaoh says, “I have heard it said of you, that when you hear a dream you can interpret it” (v. 15). This is the biggest opportunity of Joseph’s life. And his first words are: “It isn’t in me. God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace” (v. 16). Standing before the most powerful man in Egypt, he gives the credit to God first.
Established by God. As Joseph explains the dreams, he speaks of God again and again: “What God is about to do he has declared to Pharaoh” (v. 25), “God has shown Pharaoh what he is about to do” (v. 28), “the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass” (v. 32). In his words, the years of plenty and the years of famine are not chance.
Overnight. Pharaoh says, “Behold, I have set you over all the land of Egypt” (v. 41). In the morning he was in the dungeon; that same day he stood beside Pharaoh. The passage also records his age: “Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brothers” (Gen 37:2), and “Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt” (v. 46). The years in between get very few words. The day everything turned gets a great many.
Two names. Joseph named his firstborn Manasseh, saying, “God has made me forget all my toil, and all my father’s house” (v. 51). He named his second son Ephraim: “For God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction” (v. 52). Even as ruler over Egypt, he still calls it ‘the land of my affliction.’ He was made fruitful not by leaving that place, but in it.
Pharaoh saw the future in his dreams, and no one could open them. God used a Hebrew slave locked in a dungeon to tell the king of Egypt what was coming.
When the famine came, “All countries came into Egypt, to Joseph, to buy grain” (v. 57). God had promised Abraham, “All the families of the earth will be blessed through you” (Gen 12:3). In this chapter, one of Abraham’s descendants is feeding people from every land.
Maybe you are still waiting for your own ‘two full years’ to end, or maybe your days have already turned around. Either way, Joseph’s first words to Pharaoh are worth borrowing: “It isn’t in me” (v. 16).
Maybe you are still in a ‘land of affliction.’ Joseph’s second son is a reminder that God may make a person fruitful without first taking them out of that place.
This week: If someone praises something you did this week, try doing what Joseph did: let your first words be a word of thanks to God.
Stephen, preaching, told this part of Joseph’s story. God “delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. He made him governor over Egypt and all his house” (Acts 7:10).
Stephen tells the events of this chapter as things God did: God delivered him, God gave him favor, God gave him wisdom. He does not say Joseph is a picture of anyone. Readers can set this verse beside Genesis 41 and see for themselves.
Scripture: World English Bible.