BACKGROUND:
The signet ring Pharaoh gave Joseph was a ring with a seal used for signing documents. When the seal was impressed on a soft clay document which then hardened, it left an indelible impression of the ruler’s seal and so carried his authority. Pharaoh also dressed Joseph in linen clothes and a gold neck chain, made him second in command to Pharaoh, and had him ride in the second chariot so all the people could do homage to him.
As a token of Joseph’s new status, Pharaoh gave him a wife, Asenath, from the priestly family of On (a city which was a center of sun worship seven miles north of Cairo and also known as Heliopolis). He also gave Joseph an Egyptian name, Zaphenath-Paneah (the meaning of which is unknown). Joseph was 30 at the time of his installment, 13 years after he was sold by his brothers. Joseph’s position gave him opportunity to travel extensively across Egypt. (Psalm 105:16-22 speaks of Joseph’s imprisonment, release, and rise to power.)
Pharaoh’s dreams were then fulfilled. The land produced abundant, even immeasurable crops for seven years, and Joseph gathered them into storage in the Egyptian cities, exercising absolute authority throughout the land. In spite of the success that Joseph enjoyed, he did not abandon his Israelite heritage. He gave his two sons characteristically Hebrew names. Manasseh (forget) signified that God had made him forget the misery of his separation from his family. Ephraim (fruitful) signified that God had made him fruitful in the land of Egypt.
Joseph’s wisdom bore fruit, for the seven good years were indeed followed by seven years of severe famine, and the Egyptians and people in other countries as well went to buy grain from the storehouses throughout Egypt. At last Joseph was in power in Egypt. God’s revelation to him by dreams was being fulfilled.
SO WHAT? (what will I do with what i have read today?)
When you look at Joseph's life it’s like three strikes and you’re out! Strike one was his own brothers selling him into slavery. Strike two, he lives as a slave down in Egypt. Strike three, he’s thrown into a prison. If this were baseball it would be “Strike three! You’re out!” That’s it.
But this isn’t baseball. And you can have three strikes against you or ten strikes or twenty strikes and you may be feeling, “That’s it! I'm in the dugout. I'm out of the game.” But life isn’t baseball. God has a plan for our lives.
Point number four as you look at Joseph's life is RECEIVING THE DREAM
How do you receive this God-given dream? A lot of you have been motivated by this quote by Robert Kennedy, “Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not?”
I'm here to tell you today why not, one of the reasons. We do not know how to make the step from dream to reality. We don’t know what to do when we get right to the edge of our dream. Even if we’ve had the dream for years and years, sometimes, when we get right to that moment when God wants to do something, when God wants to do the miracle that brings the dream about, often it’s at that very moment that we stumble.
If you take a close look at Joseph's life in Genesis, you discover how his faith played a part in his dream becoming a reality. How do you get dreams to come true? That’s what we’re asking. How do dreams come true? How do dreams happen? It’s more than just sitting back and letting God’s dreams happen to you. He’s going to let your faith – He’s going to demand that your faith – play a part in those dreams happening. There are some practical faith steps that you and I can see in Joseph's life that let us know what to do when we get right to the edge of a dream. How do you receive a dream?
Many of you already know this if you’ve been on the edge of a dream. One of the overriding emotions that you feel when you get right on the edge of a wonderful great dream, you’d think it would be a thrill. But one of the overriding emotions is fear. Am I going to be worthy of this dream? I’ve been waiting so long for it. Is it really going to happen now? These faith steps help to deal with that fear that often keeps us from living out the dream that God has for our lives.
He had wisdom. He knew the right time to act. Wisdom enabled him to act at the right time. Remember Joseph's in prison and God does something. 40:1 says, “Sometime later the cup bearer and baker of the king of Egypt offended their master, Pharaoh. And Pharaoh was angry with his two officials. [These were very high, exalted positions. It doesn’t sound like much to us but if you had anything to do with food for the Pharaoh you were a very trusted person because one of the main ways you could kill a Pharaoh in that day was to poison the food. These were very trusted people.] These two people were put in the custody of the house of the captain of the guard. [This is the same prison where Joseph was confined.] The captain of the guard assigned them to Joseph and he attended them.”
What Joseph does in relationship to them is very important. v. 4. The two men have been in custody for some time. “They had a dream the same night. Each had a dream with a meaning of its own. Joseph came to them the next morning. He saw that they were dejected and so he asked Pharaoh’s officials who were in custody with him in their master’s house, ‘Why are your faces so sad today?’”
Doesn’t that amaze you? If I were Joseph and I saw somebody else unhappy, with all I’d been through, I’d think, “Great! Somebody else can be miserable with me!” But here’s somebody who recognizes somebody else’s need and continues to care for people in prison. He continues to serve people in prison. I think he may have had some wisdom here. He knew who these people were. It may be more than just his niceness. He knew that God may be able to use his relationship with them in some way and God is going to do that.
The next thing that happens, in v 8 “‘We both had dreams,’ they answered. ‘But there’s no one to interpret them.’” If you’d been Joseph what would you have said at that moment? Dreams and no one to interpret. Joseph had a dream and look where he ended up. Wouldn’t you have been tempted to say, “Ha! Dreams! Let me tell you about dreams! I had a dream that I was going to be a ruler and look where I ended up. Forget it! Dreams don’t work!” Thinking what we would think… look at the next verse.
“Joseph said to them, ‘Do not interpretations belong to God?’” I think that’s the most amazing verse in the story of Joseph. Here he is at the bottom. He has every reason to disbelieve that any dream could ever come true and some guys had a dream and he says, “Interpretations of dreams belong to God. Tell me your dreams.” And they do.
He’s got the wisdom to continue to believe when everything is saying you shouldn’t believe.
He also has the wisdom to see the right opportunity in a situation. Look at what happens. They tell him their dreams. One guy, the cupbearer, says, “’I had a dream of a vine, three branches. They budded and blossomed. Grapes, Pharaoh’s cup in my hand. I took the grapes and squeezed them into the cup and then put it in his hand.’ ‘This is what it means,’ Joseph said. ‘Three branches, three days. Within three days Pharaoh’s going to lift up your head and restore you to your position. You’re going to be putting the cup back in his hand.’” Great dream! They’re feeling pretty good.
So the baker says, “’That’s good! Here’s my dream. Three baskets of bread on my head [he’s thinking three days I'm going to be put back in this great position.] The birds came and took the bread out. What does it mean?’ Joseph said, ‘the three baskets are three days. Within three days Pharaoh will lift off your head.’” [A little bit different interpretation] and the birds will eat away your flesh.’”
“The third day was Pharaoh’s birthday. He gave a feast for all the officials. He lifted up the heads of the chief cup bear and the chief baker in the presence of the officials.”
Notice back a few verses. V. 14 Joseph said nothing to the baker whose head is going to be cut off. He’s not the right person. That’s not the right opportunity there. But to the one whose position is going to be lifted up, “When all goes well with you, remember me and show me kindness and mention me to Pharaoh and get me out of this prison.”
Three days. He’s three days away from freedom. If this dream comes true in three days will you remember me? Will you tell Pharaoh?
Have you ever felt three days away from your dream and were disappointed? You know what that’s like when you are on the edge. You can see it, taste it, and touch it. If you’ve ever been like that and felt, “I was so close that I could touch it but I lost it. That must mean that God doesn’t want me to have it. That must mean it could never happen.” Notice what happened to Joseph.
v. 23 “The chief cup bearer however did not remember Joseph.” He forgot! This is his dream, his life and he forgot! Then 41:1, “When two full years had passed…” two years later! Joseph's story is an amazing story of God’s wisdom and God’s timing. It was a right time. And Joseph did the right thing at the right time. It took two years and three days for God’s timing to act. You may be in that time right now – that two-year period – where God’s at work for something you’ve already done. It’s not that you haven’t shown faith. What you’ve done is already working in some way; you just haven’t seen the results of it yet. Just like Joseph.
I want to spend a bit of time on the opportunistic wisdom that Joseph had. He had what I’d like to call an open door faith. That is the kind of faith that looks for and goes through God’s open doors. What we do so many times in our faith is close the doors for God, deciding in advance that they’re closed. We’re not even going to try that door. “God doesn’t want to do that. It didn’t work before. That’s just the way it is.”
Fast forward – two years later. Pharaoh has a dream and he can’t find anybody to interpret it. Guess what? The cupbearer remembers, “There’s a guy in prison. I wonder if he’s still there.” They go back and get Joseph and they bring him out and Joseph interprets Pharaoh’s dream. 41:14 “Pharaoh sent for Joseph. He was quickly brought from the dungeon. When he had shaved and changed his clothes he came before Pharaoh. Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘I had a dream but there’s no one to interpret it. I’ve heard it said of you that when you hear a dream you can interpret it.’”
Let’s be clear… What’s an open door faith?
It’s the ability to take risks. There was a good chance in that day that if you didn’t interpret a dream the way the leader, the Pharaoh, liked, if he felt like you were trying to make up an interpretation, if he felt like you were trying to impress him, trying to lie to him in any way the leader would have you killed. That simple. That’s the way they did things back then.
So Joseph had to make a choice. Be stuck in prison. He could stay there the rest of his life and be safe. Or he could take a risk and try and interpret Pharaoh’s dream and perhaps lose his life. An open door faith has the ability to take risks in a godly kind of way. He did that when he went and interpreted the dream.
Think upon these things today as you consider laying hold of the dream God has for your life. I love you guys. Stay faithful. Stay the course.
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