Date: 20 October 2024, 9.30 am
Speaker: Ps Luwin Wong Sermon Text: Genesis 40-41
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TRANSCRIPT
It’s Reformation Month. And I’ll be opening today’s sermon with Martin Luther, not German Reformer, but the American Civil Rights Leader. His father, Micheal King Sr. was a pastor, and he travelled to Germany for a Baptist Conference, and during his time there, he visited historical sites associated with Martin Luther. And Micheal King was so inspired by the Reformer that when he returned to America, he renamed himself Martin Luther King Sr. and he renamed his eldest, 5 year old son accordingly, Martin Luther King Jr.
Like his namesake, Martin Luther King Jr, also sought to topple a historic institution, namely the institution of legalised racism, entrenched in Jim Crow Laws, which mandated racial segregation of public facilities in America. If you were black, you went to different schools from the whites, you drank from different water fountains, you used different public restrooms, you swam in different swimming pools, you sat in a different section on the bus.
Martin Luther King experienced this first hand when as young boy, he made friends with a kid who lived across the street, but when they turned 6 years old, they had to go to school, but they had to go to different schools. After sometime, the boys parents spoke to young Martin Luther, saying that he could no longer play with their son because “We are white and you are coloured”.
And thus a dream was born.
On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, and declared “I have a dream”.
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day down in Alabama with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, one day right down in Alabama little Black boys and Black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.
It is no easy thing to keep this dream alive in 1960s America. Martin Luther King was arrested and imprisoned 29 times in his pursuit of this dream, he lived for it and would eventually die for it – assassinated by a gunman when he was just 39 years old.
But it goes to show that if you have a dream you believe in, a dream grand enough, a big enough, a dream glorious enough, that dream has the power to sustain you through thick and thin. That dream can offer you strength to endure the gloom of prison, and courage to preach truth to power, and peace to put your life on the line each day for the cause.
If you have a dream worth believing in, you can endure almost anything.
That is the story of Joseph this morning.
Our text today contains a total of 4 dreams, at the centre of which we find Joseph the Dreamer who interprets these dreams, but above them all stands the Dream-giver, the Sovereign God who does not forget his faithful servant, and so calls us to not forget to be faithful to him.
Let us pray, before we get into the text.
Heavenly Father,
Show us in your word today, your faithfulness and goodness to your people, and then cause your word to shape us into people who are faithful and good in this world.
In Jesus name,
Amen.
Here’s the situation. With God’s help, Joseph was flourishing in the house of Potiphar, the officer of Pharoah’s guards. Day after day, Potiphar’s wife attempted to seduce Joseph, and he repeated refused on moral ground. She then falsely accused him of sexual assault, and Potiphar had him placed into prison – but get this, it was the prison that the king’s prisoners were kept.
GEN 40:1-4 1 Some time after this, the cupbearer of the king of Egypt and his baker committed an offense against their lord the king of Egypt. 2 And Pharaoh was angry with his two officers, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker, 3 and he put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, in the prison where Joseph was confined. 4 The captain of the guard appointed Joseph to be with them, and he attended them. They continued for some time in custody.
When I was working at a law firm, the partner of the firm brought me to lunch at an exclusive member’s only establishment. And even if you had money, you can’t just pay to become a member. You need two existing members of that organisation to endorse your membership before you could be accepted. And then you can enter the building and eat at their restaurant.
And frankly speaking, the food wasn’t that great. But we all know why everyone there was willing to jump through hoops and pay good money to eat there don’t we? They weren’t there for the food, they were there for the folks.
Everybody in there was a somebody in society. You had to be, or you couldn’t get in. Unless you were a +1 guest like me. But people go there so that they can rub shoulders with high society, perhaps get higher up in society as a result.
As everyone knows, if you want to get ahead in this world, oftentimes, what you know is not as important as who you know.
Now, unless you are a Mukbang creator, it will do very little for your career prospects to frequent coffeeshops, because you’ll meet folks like me. Where you go has a bearing on who you would know. Where you eat bears upon who you meet.
And as far has networking with the upper echelons the of social hierarchy is concerned, you generally want to avoid prison. Unless, of course, you happen to be Joseph the dreamer.
For it was in the depths of prison where he became acquainted with the top brass in Pharoah’s court. For he was in custody with no less than the chief cupbearer and the chief baker of Pharoah.
The chief cupbearer is one of the highest ranking officers of the court. He had to be trusted not to poison the king’s drink, and given his proximity to the king, since he had to constantly be close by to him, he is privy to much of the king’s conversation at the meal table. Few has the ear of the king as his cupbearer.
Pharoah’s chief cupbearer and his chief baker were in prison with Joseph. And Joseph was tasked to attend to them. But all of it would be for naught if Joseph was not able to do them some favour of sorts.
That’s the nature of networking, you gain goodwill by doing favours, and you hope that it would one day be reciprocated.
It just so happens that the chief cupbearer and the chief baker found themselves in a conundrum which could be solved by none other than Joseph the dreamer.
They both had a dream, which cannot be interpreted apart from Joseph, who just so happened to be attending them in prison.
It is one serendipitous event after another, you almost can’t help but think that the entire prison sentence was orchestrated for the good of Joseph.
And then we learn that we were right, for notice that Someone is behind it all.
GEN 41:8 8 They said to him, “We have had dreams, and there is no one to interpret them.” And Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Please tell them to me.”
The reader of Genesis know well by now that God is the author, the giver and the revealer of dreams. Because the fortunes of Joseph turned on the dreams we read in these chapters, we can confidently conclude that all the events that has led Jospeh up to this point came to pass because of God.
Our God is a sovereign God.
And his sovereignty is not confined to the realm of immaterial dreams, it reaches even to the very heart of Egypt, over which Pharoah is supposedly sovereign.
But Pharoah’s dreams spotlight the emperor’s new clothes. And reveals him to be both impotent and ignorant.
GEN 41:1-4 1 After two whole years, Pharaoh dreamed that he was standing by the Nile, 2 and behold, there came up out of the Nile seven cows, attractive and plump, and they fed in the reed grass. 3 And behold, seven other cows, ugly and thin, came up out of the Nile after them, and stood by the other cows on the bank of the Nile. 4 And the ugly, thin cows ate up the seven attractive, plump cows. And Pharaoh awoke.
GEN 41:5-8 5 And he fell asleep and dreamed a second time. And behold, seven ears of grain, plump and good, were growing on one stalk. 6 And behold, after them sprouted seven ears, thin and blighted by the east wind. 7 And the thin ears swallowed up the seven plump, full ears. And Pharaoh awoke, and behold, it was a dream. 8 So in the morning his spirit was troubled, and he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt and all its wise men. Pharaoh told them his dreams, but there was none who could interpret them to Pharaoh.
I want us to notice the nature of the dream. It concerns the Nile. And so it concerns the livestock, and it concerns the grain. The Nile is the life-source of the land. The artery of life through the land of Egypt.
And Pharoah’s dreams indicates that God is going to cause a 7-year famine by shutting up the heavens and drying up the Nile.
The fate of Pharoah depends on the Nile. But the fate of the Nile depends on God the sovereign Lord.
God is in charge you see, even in the land where Pharoah is king, God remains the sovereign one.
And if his sovereignty presides over the Nile, then where on earth can it not reach? From the prison to river, God is in control.
Pharoah on the other hand, does not even understand his own dreams. He has to turn to Joseph.
GEN 41:16 15 And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I have had a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it. I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream you can interpret it.” 16 Joseph answered Pharaoh, “It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.
Pharoah depends on the Nile for survival and the Nile depends on God for its survival.
Pharoah turns to Joseph for interpretation of the dream, Joseph turns to God for the answer.
It all comes down to God.
And then Joseph reveals to Pharoah that his dreams mean that there will 7 years of plenty followed by 7 years of famine in the land.
GEN 41:25,28,32 25 Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, “The dreams of Pharaoh are one; God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do.
28 It is as I told Pharaoh; God has shown to Pharaoh what he is about to do.
32 And the doubling of Pharaoh's dream means that the thing is fixed by God, and God will shortly bring it about.
They say knowing is half the battle. But after knowing the truth of his dreams, Pharoah can’t prevent it from happening. He can’t stop the famine. Why?
Because this the thing is fixed by God, and God will shortly bring it about. Because God is sovereign and Pharoah is not.
If God is sovereign, if his power extends to the depths of the dungeon and spans the length of the Nile. Then in what situation do you find yourself in today, in which you think the long sovereign arm of God cannot reach? There is no place in which his power cannot prevail, there is no situation over which he is not sovereign. In his hands, even the pit can be a place of purpose and promise where dreams come true.
But you might say. God may be sovereign but is he faithful? God may be great, but is he good? He may be there, but does he care?
We may have been neglected by those in power who can help us in our situation, but did not. Perhaps they will not, or simply because they forgot. And that makes us skeptical about the high and the mighty. They may not be trustworthy. We have met plenty who aren’t.
A story is told of an elderly couple who were at the age where their memories were failing them, and so they have taken to writing down whatever they needed to remember, instead of relying on their memory.
Plans for the day, conversations they had, passwords, all written down in their notebooks.
One day, while they were watching TV, the husband got up to walk to the kitchen to get himself a drink, and turned to ask his wife, “Honey, is there anything you want from the kitchen?”
She said, “Yes, I would like a scoop of vanilla ice-cream please.” He said, “Coming right up!” She says, “Hang on, I want a scoop of chocolate as well”. He said, certainly.” And she continued, “and you know those rainbow sprinkles we got last week? Put on some of that on top of the ice-cream.” He said, “Sure.” And he continued walking to the kitchen.
And the wife said, “Aren’ t you write all that down?” And he, feeling a bit lazy, said, “Ah don’t worry, I got it all in here”.
The wife went back to watching the TV. 20 minutes later, the husband showed up with a plate of bacon and eggs, cooked to perfection, handed to the wife, and said, “Here you go Honey, as you requested”.
She said, “You silly old fool! I told you to write it didn’t I? You said, ‘Oh, I got it all up here’. See what happened? You forgot the toast!”
That’s being human. That’s human beings. We are forgetful creatures.
There’s that saying right, about being human and forgetfulness. I forget what it was.
Joseph experienced this first hand.
When he interpreted the dreams of the cupbearer, that he would be restored to his high position, he asked that the cupbearer remember him and get him out of the pit.
GEN 41:14-15, 23 14 Only remember me, when it is well with you, and please do me the kindness to mention me to Pharaoh, and so get me out of this house. 15 For I was indeed stolen out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also I have done nothing that they should put me into the pit.” 23 Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph but forgot him.
Yes, Moses, we know what “did not remember” means, we know it means “forget”.
But the author repeats it to emphasise the forgetfulness of man.
But God is not a man that he should forget. Our sovereign God will not forget his faithful ones.
Let us see.
GEN 41:38-41 38 And Pharaoh said to his servants, “Can we find a man like this, in whom is the Spirit of God?” 39 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has shown you all this, there is none so discerning and wise as you are. 40 You shall be over my house, and all my people shall order themselves as you command. Only as regards the throne will I be greater than you.” 41 And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt.”
Joseph is now ruler over Egypt. From Slave to Senior Statesman. From Prisoner to Prime Minister. Why? Because God did not forget him. Pharoah promoted him precisely because he recognised that God was with Joseph.
And what was the result of that?
GEN 41:42-44 42 Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his hand and put it on Joseph's hand, and clothed him in garments of fine linen and put a gold chain about his neck. 43 And he made him ride in his second chariot. And they called out before him, “Bow the knee!” Thus he set him over all the land of Egypt. 44 Moreover, Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I am Pharaoh, and without your consent no one shall lift up hand or foot in all the land of Egypt.”
“Bow the knee”. Why make it a point to mention that phrase?
Because Joseph had a dream.
GEN 37:5-7, 9 5 Now Joseph had a dream... 6 He said to them, “Hear this dream that I have dreamed: 7 Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright. And behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.”
9 Then he dreamed another dream and told it to his brothers and said, “Behold, I have dreamed another dream. Behold, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”
Each time Joseph rode on Pharoah’s second chariot, and the herald cried, “Bow the knee!”, he is reminded of his dreams. It all comes full circle, and Joseph dreams are coming true.
From pit and prison to position and power. How did it happen?
It happened because the sovereign God does not forget his faithful servants, but fulfils his promises to them. God, the dream giver, is the dream maker.
So how should we respond to a sovereign and faithful God who does not forget his people? We respond as Joseph did. We do not forget to be faithful to God.
GEN 41:16, 25 16 Joseph answered Pharaoh, “It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.”
25 Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, “The dreams of Pharaoh are one; God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do.
Throughout his time in Egypt, Joseph who came, as a 17 year old boy, never forgot his God. He did not leave The Lord behind in Canaan. Throughout his time in Egypt, he was clear and made it clear that The Lord – Yahweh – was his God. Potiphar knew it. Pharoah knows it.
Some of us, the moment we clear immigration at Changi airport or Woodlands Checkpoint, and go on holiday, and our holidays always includes the weekend, Saturday and Sunday because no need take leave. I need. But most of you don’t need.
But the moment we are overseas on a Sunday, we somehow conveniently forget about our obligation to worship with God’s people on the Lord’s Day. We forget about Sunday service. You guys know Jesus doesn’t stay in Singapore right? Just want to make sure.
Not Joseph, Joseph took God wherever he went, for he knows God is with him wherever he goes.
Now it is not a simple thing to tell Pharoah to his face that God will give Pharoah the answer, that God has revealed to Pharoah what he is about to do.
Because Pharoah sees himself as god. In Ancient Egypt, the Pharaoh was considered to be divine. Ancient inscriptions uncovered in Egypt regularly describes the Pharaoh as the "good god" or the "perfect god".
By saying to Pharoah, “God will give you answer” implies that Pharoah is wrong, he is not god. Joseph’s God is God.
But Joseph spoke truth to power because he never forgot to be faithful to The Lord.
GEN 41:45 45 And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphenath-paneah. And he gave him in marriage Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera priest of On.
And then we read of Pharoah renaming Joseph, giving him an Egyptian name. But that is the only time we will hear of that name because Joseph did not assume an Egyptian identity. In the very same verse we revert to calling him Joseph.
And speaking of names, although Joseph married an Egyptian wife, he does not assimilate into her Egyptian culture, for hear what he names his two sons from the marriage.
GEN 41:50-52 50 Before the year of famine came, two sons were born to Joseph. Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera priest of On, bore them to him. 51 Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh. “For,” he said, “God has made me forget all my hardship and all my father's house.” 52 The name of the second he called Ephraim, “For God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.”
He gave them Hebrew names. Hebrew names which commemorate what God has done in his life. Manasseh meaning “make to forget”, Ephraim meaning “make fruitful”.
That is, Joseph declares that with the dream giver, the dream maker on his side, all the hardship, all the pain, all the tears in his past will be forgotten. And fruitfulness and blessing and promise is what awaits him, even in the unlikeliest places – the land of his affliction. So each time he calls his sons by their names, he is reminded of what God has done, and is doing in his life.
Joseph does not intend to forget about God. He is convinced that fruitfulness awaits him. He is certain that God is faithfully fulfilling his dreams. And so he is determined to stay faithful to God.
As we have mentioned, if you have a dream you believe in, a dream grand enough, big enough, glorious enough, that dream will be able to sustain you faithful through thick and thin.
If you have a dream worth believing in, you can be faithful to the Dream-giver through anything.
The question is, my friends, do you have a dream? Do you have a dream?
This is what we know as the Singapore Dream. The 5 Cs.
Cash, Car, Credit Card, Country Club, Condominium.
I have 2/5. Not quite there. Some of you have 5/5. Some of you are living it. Would you say you’re living the dream?
No. You want more. You think the solution is to have more Cs. Or to have the D E F Gs.
But friends, all these man-made dreams will not cut it. They simply will not satisfy the human heart. What dreams the world may offer, will merely a poor and inadequate substitute for the dream that God has given us.
What dream is this?
It is the dream of a whole new world, where righteousness dwells. The dream of everlasting life and eternal love. The dream of perfect peace and happiness.
The dream of a world - where sufferings cease and sorrows die, and every longing of our hearts are satisfied, there joy unspeakable will flood our soul, for we are truly home.
We know this place as “heaven”. We call this dream ‘the Christian hope’. And it is a hope that is certain because of the God who is sovereign. It is hope that will be fulfilled because of the God who is faithful.
And it is a hope that is offered to anyone, anywhere who would trust in a God who delivers on his promises to never forsake and never forget those who come to him in repentance and faith.
We don’t need 5Cs that we need to live the dream. We just need one – Christ. Jesus. By dying for our sins on the cross, he has made God forget our sins, he will make us forget our shame, and he will make us bear fruit – fruit that will last.
So, even if you are in a pit today. God is there and he cares. He is able to keep the dream alive even as you walk in the valley of the shadow of death.
His sovereign power reaches the depths of the deepest pit and stretches the length of the longest river.
And his love is assurance that his power will avail to make this dream come true for you.
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