Genesis Chapter 40 Verses 1 – 3

• That just gave us a little bit more information as to where Joseph is being held. Last chapter we read that he was put into prison in a place where the king’s prisoners were confined. But here we are told that he is in custody…in the house of the captain of the guard in the prison…and so this may indicate that Potiphar didn’t completely buy his wife’s story, (her accusations against Joseph), because we know from Chapter 39 verse 1 that Potiphar himself is the Captain of the Guard. So Joseph is in Potiphar’s custody still, in the prison that is in the house of Potiphar…where the king’s prisoners were kept.

Genesis Chapter 40 Verse 4

• Notice this…Joseph is in prison but he’s not going to stay there. Why? Because a) God’s got a bigger plan for him, but also b) Joseph is a man of authority and position but notice, he doesn’t use it to make others serve him…he uses his high position to serve others! Do you see it? They are in his custody and yet he serves them! Godly stuff right there. What’s the point?

• God has a bigger plan for him and God has a bigger plan for you…In the economy of God, blessing and favor are upon those who trust in the Lord and serve as unto Him. Colin Powell said, “There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.” Hard work beats talent on its best day. Joseph is in prison now…but he’s on his way out…why? Because right where he is at, he serves the Lord.

• Romans chapter 1 verse 5 says, “Through Him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all peoples.” Joseph is in a prison, but that prison is temporary. From the day he arrived he was on his way out because that’s what God desires and has planned AND Joseph is actively partnering with God in that plan…

Genesis Chapter 40 Verses 5 – 19

• I wonder what the expression was on the baker’s face!? I mean, dang!! HA! But although the meaning was a message of judgment, Joseph was still faithful to deliver it… James Boice, born in 1938 and died in June of 2000, was the senior pastor of the Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia from 1968 until 2000. A world traveler and evangelist who earned degrees from both Harvard and Princeton once said this, “How many there are who are willing to preach the cupbearer’s sermon but are unwilling to preach the baker’s sermon!”

• The fact is, we must preach both…we must preach the great news of the Gospel of grace! That forgiveness of sins has come…sufficient payment and atonement has been made to purify the spirit of any man who would accept it…but the great news of the Gospel is without context and reason if sin, condemnation and hell are not also instructed.

• The situation here is that in reality, this chapter is not at all about a baker or a butler…it’s really not at all about Joseph in the long run…this chapter is in its entirety a pointer, a type and a picture of a much deeper reality…a much more important story…

• We have discussed in chapters past how that Joseph is a picture and a type of Jesus Christ…beginning with his coat of many colors, his father’s greatest of loves for him, his brother’s rejection of him and even his character of faithfulness, loyalty and purity…but this chapter opens a whole new dimension to that picture and type.

• We opened this chapter with Joseph being found in prison…a place he doesn’t belong and a place where he is unlike the rest. He’s there because of his righteousness…not as a penalty for unrighteousness and even in the midst of this prison…he seeks to serve those around him. Joseph is numbered with the transgressors and finds himself between two prisoners. And already you are seeing it perhaps…

• Jesus, as was foretold in Isaiah 53 was hung on a cross between two criminals…and even as He was nailed to the cross, in personal agony and spiritual torture, Jesus sought to minister to those around Him. To His mother wailing, to His friend John watching…to the collective history of creation as He prayed, “Father forgive them, they don’t know what they’re doing…” and to the thief on the cross who asked of Jesus, “Lord, remember me when you come into Your kingdom.”

• Jesus’ reply? “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.” What about the other? Condemned…the other criminal said to Jesus, “If you are the Christ, save Yourself and us.” No faith, no belief, no desire to glorify God…simply a test. And so one prisoner was saved, and one prisoner was condemned. And yet there is so much more here…

• The butler’s dream was that of a vine and that vine budded, blossomed and clusters of grapes came forth…and he took that fruit and pressed them into Pharaoh’s cup…the vine speaks of the blood and the cup speaks of what the blood bought. Remember the night Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane and as He was overwhelmed with the stress and weight of the circumstance of the cross, what awaited Him, remember His request of the Father?

• “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will but as You will.” The baker’s dream however was of baked goods…of bread…which speaks of the body of Jesus broken and offered for the sins of the world…and here is where it gets a bit more interesting…why is it that the cup, the vine receives deliverance while the bread receives condemnation? Here’s where you become part of this story…

• The vine speaks of the blood and Leviticus 17 says that the life is in the blood. Jesus gave His life, He afforded His blood for your sin and for mine. It is His covenant that He offers to you, to me, to anyone who would receive Him. Matthew 26:28 Jesus said, “This is My blood of the New Covenant, given for the remission of sins.” And Ephesians 1:7 says, “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.”

• And yet the bread speaks of the His body, His flesh that was broken in our place…one speaks of the blood, the butler, while the other speaks of the flesh, the baker…one the spirit, one the flesh…and in the end…you have a choice…which thief on the cross are you? Which dreamer are you? Are you one who calls Jesus, “Lord?” Are you a participant in the New Covenant? Or are you the one that cries out, “If You are Lord?” Have you chosen the flesh?

• It says here that the butler’s head was lifted…while the baker’s head was lifted off…and such is the fate of each man or woman…eternally and even immediately…as communion with God has a real, day to day affect…things are either falling together or they are falling apart.

• Ultimately this chapter is about just that…communion. That’s why Jesus died…to bring us back onto common ground with our Creator…communion. The vine of the butler and the bread of the baker…the vine and the bread…

Genesis Chapter 40 Verses 20 – 23

• Joseph, a picture of Jesus…was forgotten. Seems like a sad ending…and truly many lives become very sad and even end very sadly having forgotten the Lord…but just like we will see in the coming chapters, Joseph will emerge from that prison to the highest position of authority we have yet seen…and there is soon ahead a day where it will be impossible to forget the Lord…and in that day, some will rejoice!