Our text for this evening is the entire chapter of Genesis 40. Genesis chapter 40. This is God's inspired and inerrant word. Then it came about after these things that the cupbearer and the baker for the king of Egypt offended their Lord, the king of Egypt. And Pharaoh was furious with his two officials, the chief cut there and the chief baker. So he put them in confinement in the house of the captain of the bodyguard in the jail, the same place where Joseph was in prison. And the captain of the bodyguard put Joseph in charge of them, and he took care of them. And they were in confinement for some time. Then the cupbearer and the baker for the king of Egypt, who were confined in jail, both had a dream the same night. Each man with his own dream and each dream with its own interpretation. When Joseph came to them in the morning and observed them, behold, they were dejected. And he asked Pharaoh's officials, who were with him in confinement in his master's house, Why are your faces so sad today?" They said to him, We've had a dream and there's no one to interpret it. Then Joseph said to them, Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell it to me, please. So the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph and said to him, In my dream, behold, there was a vine in front of me, and on the vine were three branches. And as it was budding, its blossoms came out, and its clusters produced ripe grapes. Now Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, so I took the grapes and squeezed them into Pharaoh's cup, and I put the cup into Pharaoh's hand. Then Joseph said to him, this is the interpretation of it, the three branches are three days. Within three more days, Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your office. And you will put Pharaoh's cup into his hand, according to your former custom when you were his cupbearer. Only keep me in mind when it goes well with you. And please do me kindness by mentioning me to Pharaoh and get me out of this house. For I was, in fact, kidnapped from the land of the Hebrews. And even there, I've done nothing that I should have been put into the dungeon. when the Chief Baker saw that he had interpreted favorably, he said to Joseph, I also saw in my dream and behold, there were three baskets of white bread on my head and in the top of it in the top basket. Rather, there were some of all sorts of baked food for Pharaoh and the birds were eating them out of the basket on my head. Joseph answered and said, This is its interpretation. The three baskets are three days. Within three more days, Pharaoh will lift up your head from you and will hang you on a tree. And the birds will eat your flesh off you. Thus, it came about on the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, that he made a feast for all his servants and he lifted up the head of the chief cotton bearer. and the head of the chief baker among his servants, and he restored the chief cupbearer to his office, and he put the cup into Pharaoh's hand, but he hanged the chief baker, just as Joseph had interpreted to them. Yet the cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him. This is God's word, which is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit of both joint and marrow and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Amen. Do be seated as we go to our God once again in prayer to seek his blessing upon the preaching of his word. Let's pray together. almighty and all-glorious Father. We come into your presence again to bless your holy name, to bless you, O Lord God, for you are a wise God to us. And you've given us such a wondrous revelation. And as you've been pleased, O God, to reveal yourself to us, so we ask now that by your Spirit's assistance, We might be enabled to get a grander and more glorious picture of your marvelous providence, your sovereignty in the lives of your people of all ages. Though, Lord, we would see Jesus exalted, we would see him, O Lord, lifted up in the Scriptures. And so, show us our Savior and cause Him to be to us all the more beautiful and glorious. Hear our prayer, O God, for we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. The more I read and study the Bible, The more amazed I am at all of its intricacies, the way its truths are intertwined, the way all of its doctrines fit together. The Westminster Confession of Faith puts it this way in chapter 1 and section 5. The efficacy of the doctrine, the majesty of the style, the consent of all the parts, the scope of the whole, which is to give glory to God, the full discovery it makes of the only way of man's salvation, and the many other incomparable excellencies, and the entire perfection thereof, which are arguments whereby it does abundantly evidence itself to be the Word of God. The more I read and study the Bible, the more I become convinced of this. And the more I preach the Bible, the more convinced I become that while God has many purposes in Scripture, the overarching purpose is the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, God has multiple purposes in our text. And that's amazing in itself. How the Holy Spirit, through His work in the life of Moses, the narrator of this story, works to bring those purposes to bear upon the lives of His people. But the more I study the life of Joseph, the more I become convinced that Joseph, more than any other Old Testament character, has been, by the Spirit's wisdom, designed to be a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so as we come to our text this evening, we want to see those purposes that God has for us, all the purposes, as many purposes as we can, because the more I preach God's word, the more I become convinced of the minuscule nature of my own understanding. But those purposes that God has for us, we shall stretch to see. We'll strain our eyes to see those, and we'll strain our eyes this evening to see Jesus. Now, it's every preacher's fear, at least any Orthodox preacher's fear, that he becomes allegorical in his preaching when it comes to preaching Christ. We want to see Jesus where he is, but we don't want to stretch the scriptures to find Jesus where he's not. Nevertheless, that's our purpose tonight. It's to see Jesus in some, what I think are unmistakable parallels between the life of Joseph as he finds himself here in prison And so as we begin, I want in the first place for us to see that God appointed Joseph as an authoritative servant. Joseph is portrayed for us here by Moses as an authoritative servant. On the one hand, Moses portrays Joseph as a man who has been vested with God's authority. Now as we refresh ourselves as to the narrative of chapter 39, it's very apparent that what God is doing is putting this man in a position of authority. And to be sure, It was Potiphar who put him in authority in his household and it was the keeper of the prison who after Joseph was falsely accused by Potiphar's wife and placed in that prison by Potiphar himself. It was the keeper of that prison who gave Joseph that authority. But it's God, you see. It's God who's behind the great favor shown to Joseph, and that's very clear, both in the first six verses of chapter thirty nine. The Lord was with Joseph, he became a successful man, he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian Joseph found favor, verse 4, in his side and became his personal servant. He made him an overseer of his house and all that he owned he put in his charge. It was because God had favor. It was because of God's favor to Joseph that Potiphar put him in charge over his house because he saw what God was doing. And he saw that the more he put Joseph in charge, the more God blessed his household. And the same is true of the keeper of the prison. Joseph is a man who is vested with authority, and he rose to authority in Potiphar's house only to be humbled in that prison after being falsely accused. And then there is another rise to authority in that prison. after which he is again humbled, because in our text we find him serving these chief officials of Pharaohs. He's gone from the top to the bottom twice now. Having risen to authority and influence, he found himself at the bottom. And so Joseph, on the one hand then, is a man vested with authority, on the other hand he's a slave and a servant. And Joseph's experience in Egypt typifies the Messiah's role as an authoritative servant. The difference of course is that Jesus didn't rise to authority. He has always, from all eternity, been vested with divine authority because he is God. Nor was Jesus forced into his circumstances. Joseph was forced into those circumstances. Jesus willingly humbled himself as a servant but notwithstanding these differences it's clear that Joseph's humiliation and not his former promotion proved to be the way forward for him. If you had interviewed Joseph after the fact and you had asked him if he would have ever even in his Greatest imaginations designed what God had planned for him. He would have said, absolutely not. He would have never devised such a plan. But in the divine plan, the way down is up. Humiliation is the way to exaltation. Nor would we ever conceive of such a plan for God's Messiah. But God's thoughts are not our thoughts, neither are His ways our ways. The Lord Himself has declared, for as high as the heavens are above the earth, so are His ways higher than our ways and His thoughts. Higher than our thoughts. The unexpected in God's decree That which is surprising to us in God's decree is what makes it all the more amazing. The idea that the Messiah would rise from humility. The very thought that God would decree willingly that His Son should be humiliated, should undergo humiliation. And the very thought that Jesus himself, the eternal son of God, would willingly offer himself as a sacrifice for sins. That's what amazes me about the scriptures. For the Son of God, the way up is down. The way down is up. Humiliation is the way to exaltation. Now that's the life that God has set before you and me. Have this attitude in yourself, Paul said, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although he existed in the form of God, didn't regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant and being made in the likeness of men. Have this attitude in yourself. humility is to be the very essence of our existence as Christians in many ways. Now, that's not the way we would have arranged things. That's not the way Joseph would have arranged things either. But for believers, it's the only way, whether voluntarily or not. It's not easy to be humbled personally. It's not easy to be humbled professionally. But that's the way God has said. That's the way. The way down is the way up. You younger men likewise be subject to your elders And all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for God is opposed to the proud. If you don't humble yourself, God will. You can be sure of that. If you don't obey the command to humble yourself, that's the only other alternative. is that God will humble you. He can do no other thing. Because he loves you. And he recognizes that that's the way. That's the way to exaltation. Humble yourself, therefore, under the mighty hand of God. That he may exalt you at the proper time. And Peter, having written these words, recognizes that this is a very difficult thing. Because you and I are not by nature humble people. None of us. And so he says cast all your anxieties on him. Because he cares for you. God will oppose you. In your pride. Because he cares for you. God will humble you. You will be humble. One way. or another. God has appointed for our reflection, Jesus as an authoritative servant. That's the first thing that we see. But secondly, God appointed Joseph as a compassionate prophet. Joseph has been humble He now finds himself, having been put in charge of all the prison, serving these chief officials of the king. And the very first thing he does is not to grade against what God has done, not to grade against the position in which God has placed him, but to come to these men and see them in their humility. He expressed concern for those he was appointed to serve. He took note of their sadness. He saw that they were out of sorts. He saw that they were dejected. Holy Spirit here reveals yet another side of this great picture of the Lord Jesus Christ and his character. When I read about Joseph and the concern that he expressed toward the cupbearer and the baker, I can't but think about the way Matthew portrays our Lord when he looked upon the multitude and he saw them as downcast and distressed like sheep without a shepherd. And I can't but think how many times the Savior initiated That compassion, as he simply as he was walking by, he walked by the pool of Bethesda. He saw a lame man there, a man who had been in that condition for a long time. And he said to him, do you want to be healed? And that initiation resulted in that man's healing. before he fed the five thousand. He looked out upon that multitude. And he felt compassion for them, Scripture says, and he healed their sick. And so, Joseph, in this sense, is a great picture of the compassion that the Lord Jesus Christ has exhibited in his ministry, which God has revealed to us in Scripture. Joseph expressed concern for these men that he was appointed to serve, and then he recognized that divine interpretation belongs to God. Notice how quickly Joseph says, this is the interpretation. We get the sense that there was no hesitation whatsoever. Once the dream was revealed, once he understood the dream, there was no hesitation in his voice whatsoever. He said, this is the interpretation. But all of that is prefaced by what he said, do not. Interpretations belong to God. Now in the ancient Near East, dreams were thought to come from the gods and to reveal the divine will. There are examples of that not only in the Bible here and also in the book of Daniel, for example, but also in the ancient Near East texts, the writings that are in our stand. But the interpretation of dreams was thought to be a science and was placed in the hands of learned specialists whose methods included examining livers, for example, taken from the bodies of animals. in order to arrive at what they thought was the will of the gods. Moses' intention here in verse 8 in our text is to draw a contrast between the so-called expert interpretations of the Egyptian diviners and the sure knowledge that God knows the future. That God knows all things, and He's the One. that imparted that knowledge to Joseph. God knows what the dreams mean. He and he alone knows what those dreams mean. And so, Joseph is able, confidently, to pass on that interpretation. It all starts with that concern, that expressed concern. We would do well in our daily experience as believers walking in the midst of an unbelieving world of people who are floundering around in darkness to express this kind of concern for the sorrows and the troubles of others. Now why? What do you and I have to offer an unbeliever? experiencing difficulty in this life. We can't interpret dreams. We can't understand the great mysteries. The secret things belong to the Lord. We have, we understand some things, but the secret things are God's. What is it that we can do? What can we possibly offer them? On one sense, we're not nearly on the level that Joseph was. Because he received special revelation from God so that he could do what he did. But in another sense, your knowledge far exceeds that that Joseph had. Because you have at your disposal the fullness of God's revelation. You know that God knows. And therefore, you can speak with the kind of authority with which Joseph spoke. You've got a knowledge. If you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, if you are united to Christ by faith, you have a certain knowledge of the scriptures that enables you to speak to that unbeliever with authority. And furthermore, you have a hope that he or she doesn't have. And that's why they're in the position they're in. That's why they're dejected. That's why they're sorrowful. Because they haven't put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so make it your business, Christian. Make it your business to observe those around whom you live and work and show concern as you see them in sorrow, as you see them dejected. Now this compassionate prophet, in one case, spoke a word of favor. As God's mouthpiece, he spoke a favorable word to the cupbearer. Now that's, if there is an easy part to being God's mouthpiece, that's it. When the message bearer gets to speak those words of favor. God revealed this favorable interpretation of the dream to Joseph, and he simply passed it on to the cupbearer. Joseph even found hope himself in the interpretation of this dream. He said, when this happens, when God brings this to pass, remember me and get me out of this place, because I didn't do anything to get put in here. I've been treated unjustly. Part of the prophet's job is to proclaim the good news of the Lord. That's a great privilege. Sometimes it's not any easier than proclaiming those difficult things, but it's a great privilege. Isaiah speaks of that Privilege in the sixty first chapter of his prophecy. Where he writes the spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring the good news to the afflicted he sent me to bind up the brokenhearted to proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord. And the day of vengeance. of our God, to comfort all who mourn. Joseph was a compassionate prophet. The prophets were compassionate in their day. They spoke these favorable things to God's people. And one of those marvelous intricacies about which I spoke earlier is bound up in the sixty-first chapter of Isaiah's prophecy. It speaks of another compassionate prophet who found himself in a synagogue in Galilee, in Nazareth, where he'd been brought up and as was his custom, he entered that synagogue on the Sabbath and he stood up to read. And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. And he opened the book and he found the place where it was written, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he appointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He sent me to proclaim release to the captives. and recovery of sight to the blind to set those who are down to free those who are downtrodden to proclaim the favorable year of our Lord. Then the reader. Jesus closed the book. Gave it back to the attendant. And sat down. In the eyes. Of all in the synagogue were fixed upon him. And he began to say to them, he began to say to them, today this scripture has been fulfilled and you're here. Joseph, the compassionate prophet, is a picture of Jesus, the compassionate prophet who came to speak words of favor. to you and me who came as the ultimate fulfillment of what this man Joseph represented to us. Who came to bring good tidings of salvation to you and to me. To offer himself as a sacrifice for sin that you and I might enjoy that salvation and live forever with our Savior in heaven. A prophet must, as he is considering his calling, speak those words of favor to God's people. He must show the same compassion that the Savior, those who would be a mouthpiece of God, must speak those words of compassion that the Lord Himself spoke to those in his hearing. But a prophet must speak all of God's truth. That's what makes him unpopular sometimes. Joseph spoke words of favor to the cupbearer, but he spoke hard words to the baker. The baker's dream has a very shocking and almost brutal interpretation. Even the way that Joseph reveals the interpretation of that dream is a little bit surprising. It almost seems insensitive when he tells this man What's going to happen? He rushes straight forward. Wow. Those three baskets, those are three days, too. You remember that dream I interpreted for the cupbearer? Those three days, those three baskets on your head are three days, too. But in three days, Pharaoh is going to lift up your head from you, lifted off of you. It's a play on words. The cupbearer's head was lifted up, which means to be restored. The baker's head was lifted off, which doesn't have quite that sense, as it turned out. But that's what God's mouthpiece must do, you see. He must speak those things that are hard. He must say the hard things. He's got to warn people about God's displeasure. And the prophets did that, too. Calvin gives some very helpful commentary on this text as he reflects upon the job of the preacher and the prophet. He says, the job of the preacher and the prophet is to tell you the truth as God has told it to them, even when it's unpleasant. Joseph didn't come up with the interpretation of the dream himself. He didn't invent it, he simply reported it. Ideally, that's what the minister does. He doesn't make up the Word of God. He doesn't fabricate God's response for you in your situation. As he applies God's truth, he's not seeking to inject things into the Scripture that aren't there. He simply tells it as it is. He tells you what God's will is for you. And even if the messenger is blamed for the bad news, he still must be faithful. Now that's not always what people want. It should be what they want, but that's not always what they want. They should desire a messenger who will tell them the truth and all the truth, even when it's uncomfortable for them. even when they don't like the message that they hear. Messengers who will speak to them about their sin, who will remind them of their responsibility, their covenant obligations. That's what God's messengers ought to do. But Paul tells us that in the last days, people will accumulate teachers and preachers who will instead tickle their ears, tell them things that they want to hear, tell them things that will make them happy, so that they can leave the assembly of God's people a happy people, a joyful people. There's a surplus of preachers who will do that. There's a glut of preachers who are willing to soft pedal God's Word, to tickle the ears of God's people. And there is a great shortage of those who will boldly proclaim the whole counsel of God from the pulpit. And so we ought to pray. We ought to pray that the Lord would raise up men who would go out into the ripening harvest fields and say what needs to be said regardless of what it means for them regardless of whether it offends the ear of the hearer because they recognize that all they're doing is reporting what God has said to them. God appointed. Joseph. As a compassionate profit finally we want to see. That God determined that Joseph should remain under the grip of humiliation for a time God determined that Joseph should remain under the grip of humiliation for a time. Now, this is, in the first place, a grand and glorious picture. It may not seem like a grand and glorious picture, but it is a grand and glorious picture of God's people here on Earth. Joseph's story is a universal one, in that this prayer for deliverance from prison is not answered. At least not for a long time, it's not answered. It's apparent that it's not answered. And we can imagine that in prison, as the days pass, and as must certainly have been the case after the story of the cut bearer's restoration to court circulated among the prisoners itself, and as the days became weeks, and the weeks became months, and the months years perhaps, Joseph knew that the cupbearer had been restored. He knew that the word he spoke had come to pass, but that the cupbearer had forgotten him. His prayers had gone unanswered. Brother Joseph's experience has been repeated over and over again in the lives of God's people. Moses has already revealed that that's going to be the case in the life of Israel when he spoke to Abram, when Abram received that vision from God all the way back in chapter 15. And he said to Abraham, know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in the land. That is not theirs, where they will be oppressed for 400 years. And for 400 years, God's people cried out to Him, and it seemed as though their prayers went unanswered. But as we look at the history of that people, we see in Exodus chapter 2, verse 24, that God heard the crowd and remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and God, God saw the sons of Israel. And there's this wondrous phrase. He took notice of them. God hears the cries of his saints as they go out week after week, month after month. Year after year, it may seem that God isn't going to deliver me ever. That God will never hear my prayer. Certainly that must have been upon the mind of Joseph as he remained in that prison. But God did hear that prayer. It would subsequently be the experience of Israel. as they found themselves in captivity in Assyria and Babylon. It would be the common experience of God's people. A psalmist cries out, How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? And so, We see that Joseph's experience is a picture of you and I. It's a picture of God's people as they cry out to him and sense that God doesn't hear. But we know that God did hear Israel's cry. And we know that God did hear Joseph's cry. But he answers in his timetable. Not the same time that Joseph's humiliation is a picture of God's people. It's a picture of the humiliation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ was humble as a man. He endured the miseries of this life. He was made under the law. That's a magnificent thing to think about in itself. That the lawgiver, the creator, The one who gave the law, the one through whose mouth the law was spoken became subject to the very law that he had spoken. He suffered the cursed death of the cross and he remained under the power of death for a time. The eternal Son of God broke into time in the incarnation. He lived under the laws of time during the course of His 33 years upon the earth. And He remained under the power of death for a time. And as we read of the Savior in the 22nd Psalm, we see prophetically what Jesus experienced on that cross. My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning. Oh my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer." Joseph's experience is our experience. Because Joseph's experience is the Savior's experience. But Jesus came to a place of great trust. in his God. My God, I cry by day. You don't answer by night, but I have no rest yet. You are holy. You were enthroned upon the praises of Israel in you. Our fathers trusted. They trusted and you delivered them to you. They cried out and they were delivered in you. They trusted. And we're not disappointed. You see, that's the point that you and I must come to. If we're to walk in a way that pleases our God, if we're to walk in a way worthy of our calling, we must come to this position, even as the psalmist did, who penned those words that I read earlier. How long, O Lord, will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul? Having sorrow in my heart all the day, how long will my enemy exult over me? Consider and answer me, Lord, my God. Enlighten my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death. Let my enemy say I have. I have overcome him, lest my adversaries rejoice when I am shaken, rather less my enemies say I've overcome him. But he comes to the end of the song. I trusted in your loving kindness. My heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord because he has dealt bountifully with me. That's where you and I need to live to live. in the Savior's reply to His God, in the Savior's trust in His God on the cross, when He's living in the psalmist's trust in His God, even though He cried out to God time and time again, even though He thought He must take counsel in His own soul, talk to Himself, try to encourage Himself, because it seems as though He's not getting any encouragement outside of Himself from His God. But there's a corrective, you see. He comes back. He comes back. I've trusted in your loving kindness. My heart shall rejoice in your salvation. What does the experience of Joseph teach us then? It teaches us that that experience, that experience of humility is programmatic. for all of God's people. And it's programmatic for God's people not because Joseph experienced it as an example for us. It's programmatic for God's people because he is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ and Christ experienced that humility on our behalf. And it teaches us saints of God to continue to cry out to our God, because we don't have Joseph's cries recorded, but we can be assured that he did, and God delivered him, and exalted him. And the psalmist cried out to his God, and God heard him, and he delivered him. And the Savior of all men cried out to his God, and God heard him. And He exalted him. Shall we not then, beloved, shall we not continue to cry out to God individually for deliverance from our trials? Are you crying out to God? Has God afflicted you? In your circumstances, has God humbled you personally, professionally? Are you crying out to God? Are you continually crying out to God for deliverance from your trials, from your afflictions, from your sins? And we ought to cry out to God corporately. Because it hasn't pleased God to hear us yet. Rather, it hasn't pleased God to answer us yet. God has heard us. He hasn't answered us. We've cried to him. We continue to cry to him. Lord, revive us. Lord, look at the state of the church. Look at the walls of Jerusalem are broken down. Her gates are burned. She does not have compassionate prophets who will preach the truth boldly. Here, O Shepherd of Israel, who leads forth Joseph like a flock, Shine for us, hear us, deliver us. Teaches us to persevere. In our crying out. Deliverance is coming. That's the great promise, that's the great. That's the that's the end that we see in Joseph's life, exaltation is coming. God is going to exalt. Joseph even as he exalted his son to a place of great glory and we must always keep That end in mind as we think about the life of Joseph Because God was pleased in order to preserve a people for himself and in order remember to preserve the line of the Savior. God was pleased to exalt Joseph, to preserve him through his humility and preserve him unto exaltation. And when Christ came, he was humbled for a time that God might secure to himself a people for his own glory. even you and me, the elect of all ages. Oh, the depths of the wisdom. The depths of the riches, both of the wisdom and power of God. How unsearchable are his judgments. How unfathomable are his ways. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, as we consider all of the intricacies of your glorious revelation. We are humbled. We're humbled because of our blindness to the glories and excellencies of scripture. We're humbled, O Lord, because while you have clearly revealed yourself, we have not sought you in the scriptures as we ought. And yet, in many ways, O God, we are a proud people. We pray that you would teach us to humble ourselves under your almighty hand. We pray that you would teach us not to rebel against your providences in our experience. Even though those be difficult providences, O Lord, we pray that you would enable us to bear up under them. We pray that you would teach us to trust. Even when we endure affliction, when we undergo trial for great periods of time, we ask, O God, that you would teach us to trust in you, to trust in our Savior. And we ask, O Father, that you would continue to show us more of Jesus, to show us evermore the Savior's face upon all the pages of Scripture, and cause him to be most beautiful and glorious. Endear him to our hearts, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.