The Dreams That Woke a King

Joseph was still in the king's prison, running the place for the jailer, when trouble arrived from the palace.

Two new prisoners were marched in: Pharaoh's chief baker and his chief cupbearer. (A cupbearer tasted the king's wine first, in case of poison.)

One morning Joseph found them both looking glum. "Why the long faces?"

"We each had a dream," they said, "and nobody can explain it."

"Don't meanings belong to God?" said Joseph. "Tell me."

"I saw a vine with three branches," said the cupbearer. "It grew ripe grapes all at once, and I squeezed them into Pharaoh's cup."

"Three branches are three days," Joseph said. "In three days Pharaoh will give you your job back. When things go well for you, remember me, and get me out of here."

The baker liked the sound of that. "I carried three baskets of bread on my head, and birds kept pecking the pastries out of the top one."

Joseph's answer was hard to say. "Three baskets are three days. In three days Pharaoh will put you to death."

Three days later, at his birthday feast, Pharaoh gave the cupbearer back his cup and had the baker killed. And the cupbearer did not think of Joseph again for two whole years.

Then Pharaoh dreamed. Seven fat cows came up out of the river Nile, and seven bony cows came up after them and ate them up, yet stayed just as skinny. (Later Pharaoh said, "I have never seen such ugly cows in all of Egypt!" and he would know.) Then seven plump heads of grain were swallowed by seven thin, scorched ones.

No magician in Egypt could explain it. Then the cupbearer cleared his throat. "Today I remember my mistakes," he said, and he told the king about the young Hebrew in the prison.

They rushed Joseph out of the dungeon. He shaved, changed, and stood before Pharaoh.

"I hear you can explain dreams," said the king.

"It is not in me," said Joseph. "God will give Pharaoh his answer. Seven years of plenty are coming, then seven years of terrible famine. Find a wise man, and store up grain while there is plenty."

Pharaoh turned to Joseph. "You will rule my palace and all my people." "Only my throne will be greater than yours." He slid his own ring onto Joseph's finger, hung a gold chain around his neck, and gave him the second-best chariot in the land. Men ran ahead of it shouting, "Bow the knee!"

For seven years grain piled up past counting. When the hunger came, Pharaoh told his people, "Go to Joseph."

Joseph's grain kept Egypt alive. But grain only fills a stomach until the next meal, and in time Joseph grew old and died. Hundreds of years went by, and God's people kept waiting for someone who could feed them for good.

And then he came. On the night before he died, he took bread and a cup in his hands and told his friends, "Do this to remember me." The next day he was nailed to a cross between two criminals. One of them begged, "Remember me when you come into your kingdom."

"Today you will be with me in paradise," he answered.

On the third day God raised him out of the grave and gave him the highest place of all, the name every knee will bow to. When Egypt was hungry, Pharaoh said, "Go to Joseph." Everyone who is hungry for God can go to Jesus.