Joseph and Pharaoh’s Dream - part 2

Jesus said to his disciples, I have  food to eat you know nothing about John 4:32. 

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Joseph and Pharaoh’s Dream - part 2

Clayt Sheridan II at work

A Brief Review of part 1: We have seen the ups and downs of Joseph’s life in this OT drama. He was sold into slavery by his jealous brothers. Potiphar bought his at the slave market. Potiphar saw that he was highly favored by God and made him chief steward over all his possessions. Potiphar's wife attempted to lure him into her bed, when he refused she lied about the honorable young slave. He lands in prison but again was noticed as an in extraordinary leader. He interprets two dreams of two highly placed inmates. They promise to remember Joseph but soon forget the commitment. Now Joseph is ready to her what Pharaoh dreamed.

Pharaoh said, In my dream, behold, I stood upon the bank of the river—The dreams were purely Egyptian, founded on the productions of that country and the experience of a native. The fertility of Egypt being wholly dependent on the Nile, the scene is laid on the banks of that river; and oxen being in the ancient hieroglyphics symbolical of the earth and of food, animals of that species were introduced in the first dream.

There came up out of the river seven cows, of the buffalo kind, are seen daily plunging into the Nile; when their huge form is gradually emerging, they seem as if rising “out of the river.”

They fed in a meadow—Nile grass, the aquatic plants that grow on the marshy banks of that river, particularly the lotus kind, on which cattle were usually fattened.

Then behold, seven other cows … poor and ill-favored—The cow being the emblem of fruitfulness, the different years of plenty and of famine were aptly represented by the different condition of those kine—the plenty, by the cattle feeding on the richest fodder; and the dearth, by the lean and famishing kine, which the pangs of hunger drove to act contrary to their nature.

I saw in my dream, and, behold, seven ears—that is, of Egyptian wheat, which, when “full and good,” is remarkable in size (a single seed sprouting into seven, ten, or fourteen stalks) and each stalk bearing an ear.

Then blasted with the east wind—destructive everywhere to grain, but particularly so in Egypt; where, sweeping over the sandy deserts of Arabia, it comes in the character of a hot, blighting wind, that quickly withers all vegetation (compare Ez 19:12; Ho 13:15).

The thin ears devoured the seven good ears—devoured is a different word from that used in Ge 41:4 and conveys the idea of destroying, by absorbing to themselves all the nutritious virtue of the soil around them.

Ge 41:25–36. Joseph Interprets Pharaoh’s Dreams.

Joseph said, … The dream … is one—They both pointed to the same event—a remarkable dispensation of seven years of unexampled abundance, to be followed by a similar period of unparalleled dearth. The repetition of the dream in two different forms was designed to show the absolute certainty and speedy arrival of this public crisis; the interpretation was accompanied by several suggestions of practical wisdom for meeting so great an emergency as was impending.

Now therefore let Pharaoh look out a man—The explanation given, when the key to the dreams was supplied, appears to have been satisfactory to the king and his courtiers; and we may suppose that much and anxious conversation arose, in the course of which Joseph might have been asked whether he had anything further to say. No doubt the providence of God provided the opportunity of his suggesting what was necessary.1

Let him appoint officers over the land—overseers, equivalent to the beys of modern Egypt.

Let him take up the fifth part of the land—that is, of the land’s produce, to be purchased and stored by the government, instead of being sold to foreign corn merchants.

In Ge 41:37–57. Joseph Made Ruler of Egypt.2

1 & 2 Adapted from Jamieson, Fausset, Brown Commentary - Logos Research System