Joseph before Pharaoh, or from the prison to the throne.
I. THE DREAMS OF THE MONARCH.
1. His midnight visions. Two full years have expired since the memorable birthday of Pharaoh which sent the baker to ignominious execution, but restored the butler to the favor of his royal master. Slumbering upon his bed, the king of Egypt seems to stand among the tall grass upon the banks of the Nile. First seven well-formed and full-fleshed heifers appear to climb up one after the other among the reeds from the river's edge, where they have probably been drinking, followed by seven lean and haggard animals, walking up in the same mysterious procession, till they stand side by side with their thriving predecessors, when they suddenly fall upon these predecessors and eat them up. Startled by the strangeness of the scene, the royal sleeper wakes only to discover it a dream. Then composing himself a second time to slumber, he finds himself still standing in the Nile valley, but now looking out towards its luxuriant corn-fields. Again a strange phenomenon occurs. Growing from the soil he sees a tall, massive stalk of corn, with seven fat ears depending from its top; but scarcely has this arrested his attention, when he notices another by its side, spare and feeble, with its seven ears parched and empty, as if they had been burnt up by the hot south-east winds blowing up from the sandy wastes of Arabia. To his astonishment, as before, the fat ears are devoured by the thin. Awaking, he a second time discovers that he has been dreaming.
2. His morning agitations. The spirit of the king of Egypt was troubled first because of the dreams, which he obviously regarded as conveying to his royal mind some supernatural communication, which, however, he failed to understand; and secondly because the interpretation of them appeared equally to baffle the penetration of all the wise men and magicians of his empire, whom he had summoned to assist him in deciphering their import.
II. THE INTERJECTION OF THE BUTLER.
1. The recollection of his faults. If this referred to his ingratitude to Joseph (which is scarcely likely), that was a shortcoming which should have been remembered at least two years before, though it was better he should recall it then than never. But it is more than probable the offence spoken of was the crime for which he had been previously imprisoned by Pharaoh, and of which he now confessed himself to be guilty, as without acknowledging the justness of his royal master's anger he could scarcely hope to experience the mildness of his royal master's favor. That he only remembers Joseph when he deems it possible by doing so to gratify his master and serve himself indicates a disposition as hypocritical and time-serving as ungrateful and unfeeling.
2. The recital of his mercies. Narrating the story of his imprisonment, he informs the anxious monarch that he and his late companion, the chief baker, while suffering the righteous penalty of their misdeeds in the round house or State prison, had each dream on one and the self-same night; that a young man, then an inmate of the cells, a Hebrew, and a servant of the provost marshal, to whom they severally related their extraordinary dreams, volunteered to deliver their interpretation; and that the event, in the case of both himself and his companion, had turned out exactly as had been predicted—the chief baker had been hanged, while himself, the chief butler, through the royal clemency of Pharaoh, had been restored to his office.
III. THE APPEARANCE OF THE PRISONER.
1. The opening of the interview. In obedience to a royal summons, Joseph, after shaving and exchanging his prison garb for a costume suited to the high occasion, is hastily presented to the king. Regarding him with mingled feelings of respect and awe, the mighty potentate declares his dilemma,—he has dreamed a dream which has baffled the ingenuity of all the Court magicians,—and explains how he has heard of Joseph's Are skill as an interpreter of dreams, upon which Joseph, disclaiming all ability in himself, and pointing Pharaoh to the true Interpreter of dreams, assures him, speaking in the exercise of prophetic faith, that God would vouchsafe to him an answer that should tend at once to the happiness of his own person and the prosperity of his realm.
2. The interpretation of the dreams. Listening to the monarch's recitation of the singular phenomena of his nocturnal visions, Joseph
3. The reward of the interpreter. As became one who had proved of such incomparable service to the monarch and the State, Joseph was immediately and generously recompensed.
(a) He was constituted grand vizier of the empire, in the historian's account of which may be noticed the monarch's resolution and the reason of it—"Forasmuch as God hath showed thee all this, thou shaft be over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled," or dispose themselves; the royal edict and the public attestation of it—"See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh took off his ring," &c.; the extent of his authority and the limitation of it—his power was to be absolute over all the realm—"without thee shall no man lift up hand or foot"—only as to the throne was he to be subordinate to Pharaoh.
(b) He was naturalized as an Egyptian prince by the assignment of a new name, Zaphnath-paaneah, for the import of which the Exposition may be consulted.
(c) He was married to a daughter of the priestly caste, who formed the highest dignitaries in the State.
Learn—
1. The marvelous facility with which God can accomplish his designs. God can make Pharaoh dream and the butler recollect his faults when it is time to bring Joseph out of prison.
2. The amazing incompetence of human wisdom to understand God's riddles. The world by wisdom knows not God, any more than Pharaoh's magicians could interpret his dreams.
3. The extraordinary insight which those have-who receive their teaching from God. Joseph can interpret the dreams of the monarch and the dreams of his officers with a like promptitude and accuracy, and God's people have an unction from the Holy One that enables them to know all things.
4. The incomparable greatness to which Christ's followers will eventually be raised. Joseph stepped from the prison to the palace, from the tower to the throne, from the wearing of iron fetters to the wielding of regal power; and such honor will have all the saints in the day of the manifestation of the sons of God. Even now God "raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill, that he may set him with princes, even with the princes of his people;" but then "to him that overcometh will I grant," saith the King, "to sit with me on my throne, even as I overcame, and am set down with my Father on his throne."
HOMILIES BY R.A. REDFORD