Join the Black Parade - Genesis 41:1-44

41:1-7 - The time after the butler was reinstated must have been tortuous for Joseph because he fully expected the butler to go back to Pharaoh and be so grateful for the dream interpretation that he immediately told all the important people about Joseph and he would be freed any second! I bet every time the door opened or every time a stranger came into the prison, Joseph must have had a thrill hoping that it was someone from the palace coming to rescue him. That must have been horrible, and it lasted two years before someone did finally show up and say “hey come with me to see the Pharaoh.”

While Joseph languished in prions, the butler was going about his daily life, just chillin, until two years later, “that Pharaoh dreamed.” The dream was that Pharaoh stood by the river, presumably the Nile, and seven really fat, healthy cattle came out of the river and grazed in the meadow. Then seven “ill favoured and leanfleshed,” cattle came out of the river and ate the healthy cows. The probably here was that if skinny cows ate fat cows, they themselves would become fat, but they didn’t, after eating the fat cows, they looked just as bad as they did before. And Pharaoh woke up.

After going back to sleep, Pharaoh had a second dream in which seven ears of corn grew out of a single stalk, “rank and good.” Then seven “thin ears” sprang up “and blasted with the east wind… devoured the rank and full ears.” Then Pharaoh woke up again. Both dreams are similar, especially in number, all with sevens everywhere so that would be significant. But each dream had seven fat and healthy things that were then destroyed by seven weak and starving things, but after destroying the healthy things, the weak things didn’t improve.

41:8-13 - When Pharaoh got out of bed in the morning, “his spirit was troubled.” These dreams obviously meant something but he didn’t know what, so he “called for all the magicians of Egypt, and all the wise men thereof: and Pharaoh told them his dream; but there was none that could interpret them unto Pharaoh.” I think I’ve mentioned it before but as far as I know, anciently the role of “magician” was a specific one, it wasn’t like we have now where you have your day job, then one the side you pull a rabbit out of a hat. The role of magician wasn’t as much about entertainment as it was a communicator with the supernatural, I would probably liken it more to a medium now a days.

As far as interpreting dreams I rad somewhere that there were books about what different aspects of dreams meant and that the magicians would go through the books, look at the meaning of different elements, then construct a narrative based on that. So when the magicians could come up with any type of meaning, Pharaoh was probably irritated, like, “what do I even pay you guys for?” But he didn’t just involve the spiritual experts, he also summoned “all the wise men thereof,” and I would imagine that this is like getting the opinions of important people of whom he had sought and received good counsel from previously. But they were at a loss as well.

At this point, the butler had an epiphany, and told Pharaoh, basically, “hey you remember when you got really mad at me a couple of years ago and sent me to prison? Well there was a guy there who interpreted the dreams that I had along with the baker that you executed, and both interpretations were correct. You should talk to that guy.”

41:14-16 - Pharaoh agrees that this is the guy that he needs to see and sends for Joseph who is taken out of prison, cleaned up, and sent to see Pharaoh. This must have been a wild day for Joseph, he probably expected the butler himself to come back and fetch him for some menial job, or some lowly guy to come tell him that he had been purchased to be a slave again, but hearing “get dressed, you’re going to see the Pharaoh,” was probably not what he expected.

Having been summoned, Pharaoh tells Joseph that he had a dream but no one can interpret it, but that he had heard that Joseph was able to do it. Tom Bradford from the Torah Class says that up until this point, dreams have caused Joseph nothing but trouble, every time he talks to someone about a dream, something bad happens. I can only imagine what Joseph thought was going to happen to him once he talked to the most powerful man in the land about dreams. Maybe it was to hedge his bets, maybe it was his genuine humility, maybe it was just to say, “hey don’t kill the messenger,” because at this point Joseph has no idea what Pharaoh is going to say and what interpretation Joseph is going to have to give him.

Joseph responds “It is not in me: God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace.” I thought it was interesting too because when I first heard this statement as Joseph’s response, I thought that it was a smart way of keeping his own ego out of the mix. People in leadership positions such as king of the world and all that, get and keep that power through violence much of the time, and ANY threat to their position is usually met with swift and brutal punishment, both as a consequence and a deterrent to others. So if Joseph had shown up and said, “sure I’ll tell you what your dream means,” it could have been taken in such a way that Joseph would have been asserting his own authority, and promoting himself to a position of power as a spiritual adviser. This answer tells Pharaoh, “as the king of the land, God is speaking to YOU, as is your right.” He totally removes himself from the interaction, especially considering that I believe ancient Egyptians considered Pharaoh as a god himself, so if Joseph had shown up and said, “God will tell me what message he wants to give you,’ that implies that Joseph would be the rightful communicator with God instead of Pharaoh, which would have been a dangerous position for him to put himself in.

41:17-32- Pharaoh recounts his dreams to Joseph and explains, “I told this unto the magicians; but there was none that could declare it to me.” Joseph again defers to the Pharaoh’s position as the rightful communicator with God, saying, “God hath shewed Pharaoh what he is about to do.” It’s like “you know what Pharaoh, God is giving you a heads up on his plan, as is your right to receive it.” Joseph explains that both dreams mean the same thing, “Behold, there came seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt: and there shall arise after them seven years of famine; and all the plenty shall be forgotten in the land of Egypt; and the famine shall consume the land… for it shall be very grievous.”

Tom Bradford (TB) noted the importance of there being two dreams, one with cattle and one with corn, because the famine was going to affect both livestock and produce. Pharaoh asked for an interpretation of his dreams and Joseph rendered that interpretation, but here’s what I found interesting, Joseph now offers a solution to the problems that the dream suggested. I don’t know if Joseph himself thought this up on the fly thinking that this was a way out of his situation in prison, or if God fed him the idea to suggest, or if he just genuinely saw this as a solution to the famine problem and was like “you should get someone to do this,” not even imagining himself as the one chosen. It’s really interesting to think about how that idea ended up coming out of Joseph’s mouth, and was it even appropriate to make that suggestion to Pharaoh? Would the magicians, if they could have interpreted the dreams, have made a suggestion of how to work the solution to the problem presented?

41:33-44 - This is the suggestion made to Pharaoh by Joseph, “appoint officers over the land, and take up the fifth part of the land of Egypt in the seen plenteous years.. and that food shall be for store to the land against the seven years of famine, which shall be in the land of Egypt; that the land perish not through famine.” That’s a good plan, makes sense to everyone, surely the people would be pissed as a 20% tax hike, especially considering that it would be announced BEFORE the people recognized that they would be experiencing seven years of abnormal abundance.

Pharaoh commences a meeting with his advisors and they all conclude that this is a good plan, but who would run that program? Surely Pharaoh wasn’t going to do it. He concluded that the person who would be most qualified to run the program was the one who God explained the program to asking, “Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is?” The interpretation of dreams was a spiritual position, and also Joseph had referenced God repeatedly during his interpretation, in a society where religion was heavily engrained in their daily lives, and spiritual experts were in positions of high authority, it would make sense that someone who was clearly to in tune with God should be in a high position as well. A diamond in the rough, as it were.

Pharaoh tells Joseph, “Forasmuch as God hath shewed thee all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou art: Thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled: only in the throne will I be greater than thou… See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt.” Maybe Pharaoh knew of Joseph through Potiphar and/or the prison warden and knew that he was capable of accomplishing this task, maybe he just believed that anyone who could communicate with God in such a manner had been chosen by God to do that work, who knows why, but Pharaoh makes Joseph ruler over all Egypt, second only to himself. I don’t know why he didn’t just make him in charge this one project, because “hey I met you 6 hours ago, be my right-hand man over every single issue facing this huge and diverse country,” seems like a stretch, but hey maybe I’m missing something.

This transfer of power is solidified when Pharaoh gives Joseph the ring off his own finger, dresses him up in “vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck.” He had a parade in which Joseph rode “in the second chariot which he had,” meaning he had Joseph ride behind him in his second best chariot, and made all the people “bow the knee; and he made him ruler over all the land of Egypt.” Pharaoh really went hard on this image of Joseph having such high status, but it seemed to stick with the people. TB noted that Joseph went from the big house to the penthouse, from pauper to prince, from in the lowest pit to the highest tower.

TB makes another good point here in that Pharaoh isn’t just making a lazy decision because he doesn’t want to run the grain storage program himself, but he’s making a political decision here as well. He gave the example of politicians and how when something goes right, they are right there in the front to take all the credit, but when something goes wrong or is unpopular, like this new huge tax was about to be, they are right there to point the finger of blame at the front man. Joseph is now Pharaoh’s front man, there to run the program and take all the blame if/when the people don’t like it. I don’t know how much that was a conscious decision on Pharaoh’s part, or how much it just naturally worked out like that, but this choice to appoint someone, especially someone who isn’t Egyptian, to impose and then enforce an enormous tax had significant long term consequences spanning several centuries.