CRITICAL NOTES.—
Genesis 41:1. The river.] So the Nile is called, by way of emphasis in the Old Testament when the scene is laid in Egypt.
Genesis 41:6. Blasted with the east wind.] “The east wind here is the Chamsia from the south-east or desert of Arabia. It withers every green thing if it continues to blow any time,”—(Jacobus.)—
Genesis 41:8. The magicians.] “The scribes, the hieroglyphs, who belonged to the priestly caste, and whose primary business was to make hieroglyphic and other inscriptions; while they were wont to consult the stars, interpret dreams, practise sooth-saying, and pursue the other occult arts. The wise men. The sages, whose chief business was the cultivation of the various arts above mentioned, while the engraving or inscribing department strictly belonged to the hieroglyphs or scribes.”—(Murphy)—
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Genesis 41:1-8
PHARAOH’S DREAM
Pharaoh’s dream illustrates the following principles and truths:—
I. That apparently insignificant events may often grow into an important part of the world’s history. Who would have thought, before the event, that this strange dream would have had any important bearing on the history of the world! Yet we know that it stands connected with the highest interests of the human race. It led to the preservation of Israel and of Egypt. It educated the people of God for the peculiar position which they were to occupy in the history of redemption. The links of the chain were these: It was not God’s will that Pharaoh should understand his dream till it was explained to him by a heaven-taught interpreter. Had the meaning of it been so clear that the wise men of Egypt could not have failed to interpret it, the very purpose for which the dream was granted would have been defeated. Then Joseph comes to the front, and is found to be the man for the times. Both the Egyptians and the Israelites by his means are preserved. A position and persistent endurance are thus given to that family out of which redemption is to spring.
II. That God chooses the instruments of revelation according to His own good pleasure. Israel, of old, was the chosen home of revelation, yet God sometimes made known His will to men of other nations. Pharaoh’s dream was certainly prophetic, and there is no question but that dreams like this have been vouchsafed to many outside the chosen family. God gave this dream to a heathen man. Even the possession of the gift of prophecy does not of necessity imply superior religious knowledge, or the holiness of the prophet’s character. Balaam had the gift of prophecy, and spake the words of God, as well as Isaiah. There may be gifts where there are few or no graces. This heathen king is made to serve God by becoming an unconscious and unwilling instrument of His will. (Proverbs 21:1.) Such were the high priests in the days of our Lord.
III. That God can suddenly arrest the attention of those who are the farthest removed from every earthly fear. Pharaoh was absolute lord of the nation, yet “his spirit was troubled.” The common people were superstitious in regard to dreams and omens, but his princely education would surely place him above the credulous fears of the vulgar! Yet, God suddenly arrests the attention of this man by a remarkable dream. Pharaoh could afford to laugh at vulgar prejudices and superstitions, but now strange misgivings and terrors from, he knows not whence, arise within him. Thus there is a power above us which can tame the greatest of earth’s sons. Think of the courage and daring of Nebuchadnezzar, yet God could make him afraid like a grasshopper by the visions which he had upon his bed.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Genesis 41:1. Two years of imprisonment will appear a much longer time to one who has not learned to bear the evils of life with an uncommon degree of fortitude. In fact, it is not so much the intenseness of our trials as the duration of them that is the greatest test of our patience. Even those who have been taught of God are strongly tempted under long-continued afflictions to weary of the Lord’s correction.—(Bush.)
Joseph’s exaltation was accomplished by his innocent sufferings and his good conduct. (Philippians 2:6.) Carried out by God’s grace and wisdom as a divine miracle in His special providence. Its principal object, the preservation of Israel and of many nations. Its further object, Israel’s education in Egypt. Its imperishable aim, the glory of God, and the education of the people of God by means of the fundamental principle: through humiliation to exaltation. Its typical significance. The seal of Israel’s guidance in Egypt, of the guidance of all the faithful, of the guidance of Christ as the model of our divine instruction.—(Lange.)
Whom God means to raise to honour, He suffers to remain, for a time, under the cross.—(Cramer.)
Genesis 41:2. The cow is a very significant emblem of fruitful nature among the Egyptians, the hieroglyphic symbol of the earth and of agriculture; and the form in which Isis, the goddess of the earth, was adored.—(Murphy.)
Genesis 41:3-4. These, by their leanness, portended drought and dearth, though they came up out of Nilus also. This river, when it overflows unto twelve cubits’ height only, causeth famine; when to thirteen, scarcity; when to fourteen, cheerfulness; when to fifteen, affluence; when to sixteen, abundance, as Pliny tells us.—(Trapp.)
Genesis 41:5-7. The number seven represents the religious element in the case. The thin ears are said to be blasted with the east wind, which, when directly east, occurs in Egypt as seldom as the directly west. The south-east wind, however, is frequent. (Hengstenberg.)
Genesis 41:8. The wisdom that God reveals excels that of the world; therefore the latter is to be confounded by the former. (Romans 8:28.)—(Starke.)
Unlike the wise men of Babylon, whom Nebuchadnezzar summoned to his aid on a like occasion, and who confidently promised to unravel the king’s dream as soon as it was made known to them, the magicians of Egypt, when Pharaoh’s dream was rehearsed in their ears, did not pretend to know the meaning of it. All their combined wisdom durst not pretend to penetrate the secrets of Divine Providence to which it referred. God, by His overruling influence upon their minds, constrained them to acknowledge their ignorance:—(Bush.)