41:16
“It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.”
The chapter at a glance
- 1–8Pharaoh’s two dreamsEgypt’s wisdom cannot read what God sends
- 9–13The cupbearer remembersThe forgotten prisoner is recalled in God’s time
- 14–36Joseph interpretsGod reveals and fixes what He will do
- 37–45Joseph exaltedFrom the pit to second in Egypt
- 46–52Plenty and two sonsGod makes him forget and makes him fruitful
- 53–57The famine beginsAll the earth comes to Joseph for bread
The chapter in brief
After two whole years Pharaoh dreams twice: seven thin, ugly cows come up out of the Nile and eat seven plump ones, and seven thin ears blighted by the east wind swallow seven full ears. None of Egypt’s magicians or wise men can interpret the dreams. The chief cupbearer at last remembers the young Hebrew in prison, and Joseph is brought quickly out of the pit, shaved and changed, and set before Pharaoh. He refuses the credit and tells Pharaoh that the two dreams are one: God is about to send seven years of great plenty and then seven years of severe famine, and the doubling of the dream means “the thing is fixed by God.” He counsels storing a fifth of the harvest in the good years. Pharaoh sees in him “the Spirit of God,” sets him over all Egypt with his signet ring, fine linen, gold chain and second chariot, names him Zaphenath-paneah, and gives him Asenath as his wife. Joseph is thirty. He stores grain like the sand of the sea, names his sons Manasseh and Ephraim, and when the famine comes, “all the earth came to Egypt to Joseph to buy grain.”
The chapter turns on a reversal only God could arrange: in a single morning the forgotten prisoner becomes the man through whom the world is fed. Thirteen years lie between the boy of seventeen (Genesis 37:2) and the man of thirty (41:46), and the cupbearer’s two years of forgetting were not wasted. Joseph’s first words before the most powerful man on earth point away from himself, and God, not Pharaoh, is the real actor in the chapter: He reveals, He fixes, He brings it about. The promise that in Abraham’s family “all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3) takes a first visible shape as the nations come to a son of Jacob for bread. Many readers see in Joseph, raised from the pit to the right hand of the throne and given authority to feed the world, a picture of Christ, humbled and then exalted, the bread of life to whom all must come (John 6:35). As with chapter 37, the New Testament does not draw this likeness itself, so it is a picture and not a proof. What is certain is the God who brings His servant low and lifts him up, and who does that fully and finally in His Son.
Points for discussion
vv. 1–8
The dreams no one can read
Pharaoh was regarded in Egypt as divine, and his court kept professional interpreters of dreams. The word for them, chartummim, is the same word used for the magicians who oppose Moses in Exodus 7-8. The Nile was the source of Egypt’s life, and cattle feeding in its reeds were a natural picture of plenty; in the dream the thin devour the fat and are “still as ugly as at the beginning” (v. 21). The chapter’s point is that Egypt’s best wisdom cannot read what God sends, just as Babylon’s could not in Daniel 2:27-28. Revelation is God’s to give.
vv. 9–13
Remembered after two years
The cupbearer’s “I remember my offenses today” comes two full years after Joseph begged him to remember (Genesis 40:14, 23). Psalm 105:19 interprets the wait as God’s testing (see chapter 39). The delay was not God forgetting His servant. Joseph is brought out on the very morning a dream needs him.
For discussion
What does Psalm 105:16-22 add about what God was doing in Joseph during the years of waiting?
vv. 14–36
“It is not in me”
Joseph is shaved and changed, ready to stand in an Egyptian court. His first words deny any power of his own, as he did in prison (Genesis 40:8), and in four separate verses he tells Pharaoh that God is the one acting (vv. 16, 25, 28, 32). Then he gives counsel. Revelation does not make him passive: because the famine is fixed by God, Egypt must prepare. God’s sovereignty and human prudence are not rivals here; the one is the reason for the other.
For discussion
If the famine is “fixed by God,” why does Joseph immediately urge a plan? Compare Acts 27:22-31, where Paul is promised that all aboard will live and still insists the sailors stay in the ship.
vv. 37–45
From the pit to the second chariot
Pharaoh asks, “Can we find a man like this, in whom is the Spirit of God?” The Hebrew ruach elohim can also be read “a spirit of the gods,” and a polytheist king may have meant no more than that, but the narrator lets his words stand truer than he knew. The signet ring gives Joseph Pharaoh’s authority; the cry before his chariot, “Bow the knee!”, renders a word whose exact meaning is uncertain. His new name is Egyptian and its meaning is debated, and his wife is the daughter of a priest of On, a center of sun worship. Joseph is placed wholly inside Egypt’s court, yet he goes on naming his God (vv. 51-52). Many readers hear in “Bow the knee” a far greater exaltation, of Christ before whom every knee will bow (Philippians 2:10). He emptied Himself by taking the form of a servant, and His exaltation was of His state as the God-man, not the gift of a glory He lacked (John 17:5).
vv. 46–52
Forget and fruitful
Manasseh sounds like the Hebrew for “making to forget,” and Ephraim like “fruitful.” Forgetting “all my father’s house” cannot mean that Joseph stopped loving his family, as chapters 42-45 show; the sting of the hardship has been taken away. Yet even exalted he calls Egypt “the land of my affliction.” Grace does not erase the memory of suffering; it bears fruit in the middle of it.
For discussion
How can a believer be fruitful “in the land of my affliction” without pretending the affliction was not real? Compare 2 Corinthians 4:16-18.
vv. 53–57
Bread for all the earth
When the Egyptians cry for bread, Pharaoh says, “Go to Joseph. What he says to you, do.” Many readers hear in it Mary’s word at Cana, “Do whatever he tells you” (John 2:5). The nations coming to Joseph for grain is a first taste of Genesis 12:3, and it sets the stage for chapter 42: the famine will bring Joseph’s brothers too.
Threads across the chapter
God reveals, God fixes, God acts. The dreams (vv. 1-8), the interpretation (vv. 25-32) and the famine coming “as Joseph had said” (v. 54) all put God at the center, and Joseph’s “It is not in me” (v. 16) says so aloud.
Garments and status. Joseph is shaved and changed (v. 14) and clothed in fine linen (v. 42), the third garment in his story after the robe torn from him (Genesis 37:23) and the garment left in the hand of Potiphar’s wife (Genesis 39:12).
Remembering and forgetting. The cupbearer remembers (v. 9) and Joseph is made to forget his hardship (v. 51), yet his naming of Egypt as “the land of my affliction” (v. 52) shows the past is not erased.
Blessing to the nations. Joseph’s counsel preserves Egypt (vv. 33-36), and all the earth comes to buy (v. 57).
Key words
- 41:8
- חַרְטֻמִּים chartummim“Magicians”; Egypt’s dream experts, the same word as the magicians of Exodus 7-8
- 41:38
- רוּחַ אֱלֹהִים ruach elohim“Spirit of God”; also readable as “a spirit of the gods” on Pharaoh’s lips
- 41:51
- מְנַשֶּׁה Menashsheh“Manasseh”; sounds like “making to forget”
- 41:52
- אֶפְרַיִם Ephrayim“Ephraim”; sounds like “fruitful”
Cross-references
- Psalm 105:16-22God sent Joseph ahead, tested him, and had the king make him lord of his house
- Acts 7:9-10Stephen: God was with Joseph and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh
- Daniel 2:27-28No wise man can show the king his dream, but God in heaven reveals mysteries
- Genesis 12:3In Abraham all the families of the earth shall be blessed
- John 2:5“Do whatever he tells you”
- Philippians 2:5-11The Son humbled by taking the form of a servant, and highly exalted
- 1 Peter 5:6God exalts the humble at the proper time
- 1
Why might God have let the cupbearer forget Joseph for two more years, and what might those years have done in Joseph?
- 2
Joseph says “It is not in me” before Pharaoh. What would it look like to say that honestly about the gifts God has given us?
- 3
If God had fixed the famine, why did it still matter that Egypt prepared? How do God’s sovereignty and our planning fit together?
- 4
Joseph calls Egypt “the land of my affliction” even after he is exalted. What does that teach about how God’s people carry old wounds?
- 5
In what ways does Joseph’s rise point us to Christ, and where does the likeness stop?
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