Yet did not, &c.— How easily doth men's own prosperity make them forget either the deservings in miseries of others! The behaviour of the butler represents strongly the conduct of too many in prosperity. However, it must be observed that God would not deliver Joseph out of prison immediately by means of this officer; but was pleased to try him yet two years longer, to deliver him afterwards in a more wonderful manner, and raise him to a greater degree of power than he would probably have attained if he had been set at liberty before. This shews that God's ways are not as our ways; that he does not always make use of those methods for the deliverance of his children which men judge most convenient; and if he be slow in coming to their assistance, it is because he will deliver them in a more signal manner.—Ostervald.
REFLECTIONS.—Precisely at the time predicted, the interpretation of the dreams is fulfilled. Pharaoh, on his birth-day, inquires into the faults of his former chief butler and baker; and, according to their deserts, the one is acquitted and restored, the other condemned and executed. Note; Great events lie often within a small compass of time. Who knoweth whether his life shall continue three days, nay, three hours? His preferment now so engages the butler, that Joseph in his prison is no more thought of. Great men too often have the art of forgetting their obligations and their promises; and if Joseph's heart was buoyed up with the expectation of the butler's doing something for him, the greater must be his disappointment. Note; They who depend on great men will frequently have cause to lament their neglects; but they who depend only on the Great God shall never be disappointed of their hope.