The Dreams That Woke a King

Deep under the king's city there was a prison, and in that prison Joseph kept doing what he always did. He worked. He helped. He kept his word. Before long the jailer trusted him with everything, because God was with Joseph, even there.

One morning two prisoners woke up troubled. One had been Pharaoh's cupbearer, the other his baker, and both had dreamed strange dreams in the night.

"Dreams belong to God," Joseph said. "Tell me."

So they told him, and God showed Joseph what each dream meant. In three days the cupbearer would stand beside Pharaoh and carry his cup again. Joseph asked him for one small favor. "When you are back at the king's side, remember me."

The cupbearer went back to the palace. And he forgot.

Two whole years went by. Joseph waited in prison, and waited, and heaven seemed to say nothing at all.

Then Pharaoh dreamed. Seven fat cows swallowed by seven starving ones. Seven full heads of grain gobbled up by seven withered ones. He woke with his heart pounding, and not one of his wise men could tell him what it meant. And at last, standing beside the throne with the cup in his hand, the cupbearer remembered. "There was a man in the prison who understands dreams."

So they hurried Joseph up out of the dungeon, washed him, gave him fresh clothes, and set him in front of the most powerful man in the world.

"I hear you can explain dreams," Pharaoh said.

"I can't," said Joseph. "But God can."

And God did. The dreams meant seven years of plenty, then seven years of terrible hunger. "Store up bread now," Joseph said, "and set a wise man over the work, so the hunger does not swallow the land."

Pharaoh looked around the room. "Where would we ever find a man like this, with the spirit of God in him?" Then he pulled the ring off his own finger and put it on Joseph's. The prisoner became the prince of Egypt, second only to the king, with every storehouse in the land under his care.

God had let his dreamer wait in a dungeon so that, at exactly the right moment, he could stand in front of a king and save a world full of hungry people. Not one of those forgotten days had been wasted.

Long after, God would do it again, in a far bigger way. Another beloved Son would be brought low, counted as a criminal though he had done nothing wrong, and then raised to the highest place of all, with every storehouse of heaven in his hands. When we come hungry to God, we find Jesus in charge of the bread.

And the hungry were coming. Far away in Canaan, ten worried brothers were about to take a long walk to Egypt.