Two whole years later, Pharaoh has some nightmares. In the
first one, seven healthy, delicious looking cows come out of the Nile and
graze. They’re shortly followed by seven mangy, ugly, cannibal cows that sneak
up on and devour the first seven cows. After waking up in a cold sweat from
that one, and hoping to fall back into a peaceful sleep, Pharaoh’s second
nightmare starts. In this one, grain is the focus. Seven wonderful, plump ears
of grain end up falling victim to seven thin, blighted ears. Now since these
dreams concerned all of the most central icons of Egyptian life and economy,
the Pharaoh was rightly freaked out. He desperately tried to find someone to
interpret these dreams, but no one could.
At this point, the chief cupbearer chimes in, remembering
Joseph who is still locked away in prison. He informs Pharaoh of Joseph’s
accurate dream interpretations. Pharaoh sends for Joseph and asks him to
interpret. Joseph agrees, but points out again that it’s God who does the
interpreting and that Joseph is merely the vessel for it. Either way, it comes
down to seven good fruitful years of abundance followed by seven years of the
worst famine the world has ever seen. Joseph recommends stockpiling food during
the seven years of plenty because God has forewarned them all that the famine
is coming and fast. Now, normally with all the God talk that Joseph has been
doing, Pharaoh would be disinclined to listen as everybody knows that Pharaohs
are gods themselves. This one, however, did listen. He even put Joseph in
charge of collecting and storing all the food. He goes so far as to make Joseph
his right hand man saying, “only with regard to the throne will I be greater
than you” (41:40). As part of Joseph’s new station he gets fancy new duds and a
signet ring. Man, Joseph gets a costume change every time his luck changes.
It’s almost like it’s a literary device of some sort. Anyways, the seven
food-filled years happen as predicted, stockpiling and all, and when the seven
years of famine start, Pharaoh sends everyone in the country to Joseph for
their rations.
Now, with his new station, Joseph gets a wife, and eventually
they have two sons that he names according to his life experiences. The
firstborn is named Manasseh, which means “making to forget” because Joseph says
God helped him forget his crappy childhood. You remember, the one where his
brothers were going to kill him but sold him into slavery instead. The second
son is named Ephraim, meaning “to be fruitful.” I think this one is fairly
obvious from this chapter and all of the rising to power. I was going to skip
talking about this part all together because I didn’t think it seemed terribly
important, but then it kind of hit me. Joseph isn’t a character that lets us
know what’s going on in his head like some others we have and will meet. He’s
all about hard work and interpreting dreams to the point where you can actually
forget the terrible things he’s had to endure in his life. He just keeps on
keeping on. Working hard, loving his God, and being a generally well-adjusted
person. It’s one of those moments reminding us that everyone has a story to
tell, and their own set of baggage to go with it, whether they tote it openly
or not. Be kind to people. You never know when someone was thrown into a pit by
their own family and turned into a piece of property.
<3 Agnostic in the Pews
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