The captain of the guard charged Joseph with them, and he served them
Light upon Joseph’s destiny
This chapter discovers signs that Joseph was destined to fill an important place in the history of the kingdom of God.
This was now the time of his trial and preparation for his great calling as the ruler of the Egyptians, the deliverer of his nation. Some of the indications of his high destiny are these:--
I. THE CONVICTION OF HIS INNOCENCE AND INTEGRITY GAINS GROUND. Joseph was, at first, thrown into a dungeon and laid in irons. Now, this severe discipline is relaxed, and he is appointed to a kind of stewardship over the other prisoners. It is highly probable, that, by this time, Potiphar was convinced of his innocence, though he detained him in custody for prudential reasons. Joseph was everywhere giving the impression of being a good and holy man. The character of Potiphar’s wife could not long be concealed; and as it became more and more known, the belief in Joseph’s innocence would gain ground.
II. HE DISCOVERS SIGNS OF HIS TRUE VOCATION.
1. As a saint of God. Mark how Joseph refers to God in every important crisis of his history. When Pharaoh’s two officers lamented that there was no interpreter of their dreams, he said, “Do not interpretations belong to God?” He was always true to his religion. Mark his temperateness and forbearance, his calmness and simplicity. He does not speak unkindly of his brethren, he does not even name them, but simply states that he was “stolen out of the land of the Hebrews,” and that he had “ done nothing” that they should put him “ into the dungeon” (verse 15). Here was the faith and resignation of a saint, whose life was fit to be recorded in the pages of Revelation as an eminent and worthy example to all ages.
2. As a prophet of God. As such he interprets dreams, which are here to be considered as Divine revelations to men of warning, reproof, and teaching Job 33:14-18).
3. As a kind and just ruler of men. Joseph was clearly a man who was destined to wield a commanding, and even a regal influence over others. He was fitted for this, doubtless, by his intellectual gifts and characteristics, but more especially
(1) by his sympathy. “Wherefore look ye so sadly to-day?” he said to his fellow-prisoners, whose dreams suggested the worst forebodings (verses 6-7). He himself had been in the school of affliction, and he had learned to be tender. Though he had griefs of his own to bear, he felt for others. He cannot be a true ruler of men who has not learned sympathy.
(2) By his uprightness. He was firm and faithful, even when he had to tell unpleasant truths (verses 18-19). Such are the qualities required in a true ruler of men (2 Samuel 23:3-4).
III. HE RETAINS FAITH AND HOPE IN GOD IN THE MIDST OF ALL. HIS ADVERSITIES. God was with him in the prison. Therefore he does not abandon himself to despair, but still trusts and hopes on. (T. H. Leale.)
Joseph and the two prisoners
I. We cannot but be struck with THE MINUTE PARTICULARITY OF THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD. See at how many critical points Joseph’s life touches the lives of others, and is, thereby, carried so much the farther forward towards the attainment by him of the place which God was preparing for him. When I get to a great railway junction, and find trains coming m together from the east, and the north, and the south, just in time to join another that is starting from that point for the west, I should be regarded as a simpleton if I spoke of that as a wonderful coincidence. And yet on the great Railroad of Life, when I come to such a junction and meet there a train that leads me on to some significant sphere of service, I am supposed to be a simpleton if I refer that to the over-ruling providence of God. But I am not a simpleton--I am only reasoning in that department as I would in the domain of literature or daily travelling; and he who repudiates God’s providence is the fool, according to that scathing utterance of the Psalmist--“The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.”
II. We are reminded by this history also that THE CHARACTER OF THE INDIVIDUAL HAS AS MUCH TO DO WITH WHAT I HAVE CALLED THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PLOT OF HIS LIFE AS THE PLAN OR PURPOSE OF GOD HAS. Providence is not fatalism. Joseph, if he had chosen to act otherwise than he did, might have thrown away all the opportunities which these places of junction in his life afforded him. The men that fail in life do not fail for want of such opportunities as Joseph had, but for want of the character to see these opportunities, and the ability to use them. Keep near to God, therefore, form your character according to His principles, and then, even though you may be in a prison, you will find a way to serve Him, and will feel that somehow you are on the road to your success, and in training for your sphere.
III. We may learn that THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN THEMSELVES UPHELD IN TROUBLE, ARE THE MOST EFFICIENT HELPERS OF OTHERS WHEN THEY ARE IN TRIAL. Young as Joseph was, he had not seen enough sorrow to dispose him to sympathize with others in their affliction. And in the suggestive question which he put to his fellow-prisoners, “do not interpretations belong to God?” he not only expresses his own faith, but in the most delicate and skilful manner indicates to them the source whence alone true consolation comes. More than thirty years ago, just at the beginning of my ministry, I was in the house of a beloved pastor, when he was called to pass through the greatest trial that a man can know, in the death of a truly good and noble wife. Two mornings after, the postman brought in a sheaf of letters. I think there were more than twenty of them, but each was from a brother minister who had been led through the same dark valley, and who was seeking to comfort him with the comfort wherewith himself had been comforted of God. Only a few evenings ago I met a Christian lady, with whom I was comparing notes regarding the experience of the loss of little children, and she said to me, “I never see the death of a little child announced in the newspaper but I have an impulse to write to the parents and speak comfortably to them.” Thus we may console ourselves under our own trials with the thought that God is endowing us thereby with the gift of sympathy, and fitting us to become “ sons of consolation” to others in affliction. The price is costly, but the learning is precious.
IV. THOSE WHOM WE BENEFIT HAVE OFTEN VERY POOR REMEMBRANCE OF KINDNESS. Men too often write the record of grudges in marble, and of favours in water. Nay, such is the perversity of human nature, that not unfrequently men return evil for the good which has been done them. One spoke to an English statesman of the violent enmity which another evinced towards him. “Yes,” was the reply, “and I cannot understand it, for I never did him any kindness that I can remember.” The sarcasm was bitter, but there was enough of truth in it to give it point; and every one who seeks to be a helper of others learns, sooner or later, to give over looking for human gratitude, and to think mainly of the Lord Jesus Christ and His appreciation. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.)
Lessons
1. Let no circumstances ever tempt the children of God to doubt and question the watchful care and kindness of their heavenly Father’s providence. Let them bear in remembrance, that He not only works in His own way, but chooses His own time; and let them rest in the assurance that both His way and His time are always the best. Though He tarry, then, wait for Him. “Fret not thyself in any wise to do evil.”
2. The source of true and constant enjoyment of that happiness which all seek and so few find must be within. It lies essentially in a sense of God’s love. This is happiness. This will ever he associated with confidence in His wisdom, and faithfulness, and kindness; and consequently with contentment in all conditions. These are sources of joy of which no power can rob us, and which remain ever the same--amidst all changes unchanging. (R. Wardlaw.)
Joseph ministering to the comfort of others
It may possibly cause momentary surprise, that Joseph, who interpreted others’ dreams, was left in ignorance of his own destiny. Is not this, however, the method ordinarily employed to strengthen faith and produce entire reliance upon God? Indeed, was it not communion with God produced by this sense of dependence which enabled him to interpret mysteries, which fitted him for comforting the sorrowing? It not frequently happens that those whose lives are passed in unrelieved sadness--with whom the present is an enigma, the past a memory of grief, the future a cloud of torturing uncertainty--are nevertheless the instruments in God’s hand of producing joy in others’ hearts. As a block of ice, chiselled into the form of a lens, can be made to concentrate the sun’s rays, kindling a flame, so the believer, by gathering the scattered beams of Heaven’s love, may pour cheerfulness into others’ hearts while his own may remain quite cheerless. (J. S. Van Dyke.)
The same prison is not the same thing to good and bad
Too often it happens to the righteous according to the wish of the wicked. Here we find two men who had sinned against their lord, the king of Egypt, confined in the same prison with Joseph. Yet the same prison is not the same thing to a good and to a bad man. The two offenders trembled in anxious dread of some worse punishment; and the consciousness of their demerit, if they were really guilty, was more painful to them than the irons were to Joseph, although they entered into his soul. Joseph had the testimony of his conscience to cheer him. He not only suffered without cause, but suffered for righteousness’ sake, and trusted that God would bring his sufferings to a comfortable conclusion. In the world you may meet with much distress; but keep consciences void of offence towards God and man, and you shall be preserved from the sting and venom of those troubles that Providence allots you. “Let no man suffer as a thief, as an evil-doer, as a busy-body in other men’s matters. But if any man suffer as a Christian,” or without deserving to suffer, “let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God, who executes righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.” (G. Lawson, D. D.)
The butler and the baker
I. PRISON OCCUPATIONS. The crime is the disgrace, and not the scaffold or the prison. Good men have often been imprisoned, while many wicked have escaped. Yet, notwithstanding the prison, these sufferers are amongst our heroes and martyrs. Milton said, “there shall one day be a resurrection of names and reputations.” Bunyan, Baxter, &c., are not honoured the less for the dungeons in which they suffered. Next to escaping the prison, the best thing is, like Joseph, to suffer innocently. Joseph in prison. Suffering often hardens the bad and purifies and manifests the good. Joseph’s character could not be hid. Even the keepers saw how different he was from the ordinary criminals committed to their care (see Pr
16:21. The prisoner becomes a keeper (so many of the captive Jews, asDaniel, Nehemiah, Mordecai, were exalted). Is so much trusted as to be freed from supervision (Genesis 38:22-23). God, who was with him in Canaan, is with him in Egypt, and in prison. He does not forsake His friends in distresses brought upon them by their fidelity to Him.
II. PRISON COMPANIONS. The butler and baker, two officers of importance in eastern and ancient courts. Yet even these were not spared by a capricious and absolute monarch. “Oh, how wretched is that poor man that hangs on princes’ favours!” In a palace one day, a prison the next. In ancient times a courtier’s office was often like the Bridge of Sighs at Venice, “a palace and a prison on each hand.” These men may have suffered justly; like the malefacters who were crucified with Jesus Luke 23:41). The worst punishment of the good is forced fellowship with the wicked. As providence over-ruled the wrath of Joseph’s brothers, so now he ever-rules the wrath of Pharaoh. One of these degraded officials shall be the instrument of Joseph’s release and exaltation.
III. PRISON DREAMS. That is: the dreams of the butler and baker. The subject was so strange, and the recollection so vivid, that they were troubled. Dreamland, a mysterious region to the ancients. No interpreter of dreams in the prison, they thought. Joseph’s inquiry. Be thinks of his own dreams, doubtless, and the transitory trouble they had brought him into. He gives the praise to God, as the true interpreter of dreams. By the help of divine illumination, he reveals the meaning of their dreams. No doubt he saw that God had sent them those dreams for him to interpret; and that his connection with these men would work out the fulfilment of his own dreams. It is certain that what was foretold by their dreams would have occurred even if they had never dreamed at all. Hence, it was clear that there was a purpose in their dreaming, and in their relating their dreams to Joseph. Probably had not Joseph been in prison, they would not have dreamed as they did. Learn:
I. If we suffer, let it be for righteousness’ sake.
II. When a man’s ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies, &c, (J. C. Gray.)
Lessons
1. Providence keeps its method in multiplying mercy to His saints in misery.
2. The sins of others God sometimes maketh an occasion of refreshing His own servants.
3. Court officers are very prone to sin, and abuse favours.
4. Kings themselves are not secured from offences by their nearest servants (Genesis 40:1).
5. Kings, offended, are apt to swell in wrath and displeasure.
6. Greatest wrath of kings is apt to rise against officers (Genesis 40:2).
7. The wrath of kings usually causeth the restraint and imprisonment of their criminal subjects.
8. God orders place where the wrath of man imprisons, and that for His own ends.
9. Innocents and malefactors may lie together in the same prison (Genesis 40:3).
10. God inclineth the hearts of chief commanders for imprisonment, more to the innocent than guilty.
11. Innocent prisoners under Providence may have the charge of malefactors.
12. Good souls trusted in any capacity, do execute it faithfully.
13. Set times and seasons of restraint God appoints to His own and others for His own ends.
14. All these Providence orders to be occasions of glorifying His grace in His saints (Genesis 40:4). (G. Hughes, B. D.)