Joseph the dreamer now is called upon to interpret the
dreams of others. The cupbearer to the
Pharaoh and the baker to the Pharaoh are imprisoned because Pharaoh has become
angry with them for some reason. Each has
a dream and each is troubled by his dream.
Joseph gives glory to God, God is the interpreter of dreams, not him,
but he is willing to hear and see if God will give the interpretation to him
and in both cases, the Lord gives him not only an interpretation but an
interpretation whose truth will be known in three days time. One, the cupbearer, will have his head lifted
and his position restored while the other, the baker, will also have his head
lifted - off! Joseph asks the cupbearer
to remember him to Pharaoh but, even though he had given him hope, taken care
of him in prison, and only three days had passed, the cupbearer forgot
Joseph. What a guy!
It would almost be impossible to imagine Jesus calling a tax
collector like Matthew/Levi to be a disciple.
Matthew would have been amazed, the other disciples would have been
shocked and somewhat scandalized. No one
called tax collectors to be their disciple, they were despised. Tax collectors also made a nice living,
Matthew already had a profession and that profession put him outside the pale
of Jewish society, He was in a pit, in a
prison, no less than Joseph. His future
was to be an outsider no matter what his religious opinions might be. Then, remarkably, Jesus stopped by his tax
table and said, "Come follow me."
Matthew didn't hesitate any more than the fishermen had done, he got up
and walked away, his future no longer secure.
Then, he had a feast for his old acquaintances and invited Jesus and the
others to join. No one knew what they
were looking at or what would happen next but they knew it was different from
John's ways, no camel hair and locusts for them. The Pharisees were there and asked why it was
different and Jesus' answer was startling, the bridegroom had come.
Solomon, if he is indeed the writer of Ecclesiastes, would
say a hearty Amen to Paul's words here, that the wisdom of this world is folly
with God. Paul agrees also with the
writer of the 146th Psalm, " Put not your trust in princes, in
a son of man, in whom there is no salvation…" Too often we fail to heed these warnings, we
trust in worldly wisdom and we trust in other people and we are disappointed in
the results. We aren't told how Joseph
felt about the cupbearer betraying his trust but we know that over a long
period of time Joseph came to the conclusion that his help was in the Lord
alone. Paul, too, knew that sting of
betrayal, that he couldn't depend on people, that God was His help and supply,
and that He never failed him. Until we
come to the point of His being our one thing we will never be truly free.
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