May the mumbling commence!
Sometimes a skill that once got us in trouble becomes a skill that gets us out of trouble. Joseph and his dream interpretations is just such an example. As Joseph was languishing in the jail, his ability to interpret dreams came in quite handy. Read from Genesis chapter forty:
Some time later, Pharaoh's chief cup-bearer and chief baker offended him. Pharaoh became very angry with these officials, and he put them in the prison where Joseph was, in the palace of Potiphar, the captain of the guard. They remained in prison for quite some time, and Potiphar assigned Joseph to take care of them.
One night the cup-bearer and the baker each had a dream, and each dream had its own meaning. The next morning Joseph noticed the dejected look on their faces. "Why do you look so worried today?" he asked.
And they replied, "We both had dreams last night, but there is no one here to tell us what they mean."
"Interpreting dreams is God's business," Joseph replied. "Tell me what you saw."
The cup-bearer told his dream first. "In my dream," he said, "I saw a vine in front of me. It had three branches that began to bud and blossom, and soon there were clusters of ripe grapes. I was holding Pharaoh's wine cup in my hand, so I took the grapes and squeezed the juice into it. Then I placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand."
"I know what the dream means," Joseph said. "The three branches mean three days. Within three days Pharaoh will take you out of prison and return you to your position as his chief cup-bearer. And please have some pity on me when you are back in his favor. Mention me to Pharaoh, and ask him to let me out of here. For I was kidnapped from my homeland, the land of the Hebrews, and now I'm here in jail, but I did nothing to deserve it." (Verses 1-15)
The cupbearer and the baker of Pharaoh were jailed in the same place that Joseph was. There Joseph cared for them… enough to know when they were disturbed. It makes me think of getting to know someone at church or on my job as a school bus driver when you know when someone is having a bad day. Joseph cared for people in that way.
When Joseph found out that it was dreams that were bothering them, Joseph gave the dream interpreting business over to God… it is God’s business. Still, he helped them to interpret their dreams… accurately. Joseph saw this exchange as a way out of prison and tried to impress upon the cupbearer to give a good word for him to Pharaoh. Though that did not happen for some time, it did eventually happen.
To appear guilty of some heinous crime, to be punished, and then to be vindicated is an emphatic swirl of emotions! They go down to our very hearts. And what is in our hearts is essential to our wellness and wholeness. Read from Matthew chapter fifteen:
Then Peter asked Jesus, "Explain what you meant when you said people aren't defiled by what they eat."
"Don't you understand?" Jesus asked him. "Anything you eat passes through the stomach and then goes out of the body. But evil words come from an evil heart and defile the person who says them. For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all other sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander. These are what defile you. Eating with unwashed hands could never defile you and make you unacceptable to God!" (Verses 15-20)
What we say and do is just an outpouring of what is in our hearts… our actions and thoughts and words are symptoms of our true condition of our hearts.
Enough mumbling for now…
Peace Out
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