Dreams

Sitting in the dungeon with my co-prisoners, I had ample reason to be depressed. Fondly, I remembered my past. I used to dream. And my dreams were ambitious too. I had my brothers kowtow to me in my dreams. When I shared these dreams with them, they didn’t like them. They started hating me. They caught me unawares one day and threw me into a dry ditch. Then they brought me out to sell me as a slave to some aliens. These Amalekites brought me as a migrant to a strange land, Egypt. I became a servant in a house. To top it all, I was unjustly accused and imprisoned due to the accusation of my master's lusty wife. Could things be any worse?

                                   But there is a silver lining to my story. The Lord my God was with me. All the while. While I was getting suffocated in the ditch. While I was with the Amalekites who carried me to Egypt. While I was in Potiphar, my master's home, while I am in this dungeon today.

                                   How am I sure of this? The Lord's presence improved my life. My master Potiphar saw that whatever I did, prospered and gave me control of his entire household. The prison warden in this dungeon saw that God was with me and gave me control of all the prisoners. In my sufferings, I was blessed. Thanks be to the great God of my forefathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and of my father Jacob!

                                   As I woke up this morning, I prayed to the Lord God and then went about my business in the dungeon. I saw that there were two men who seemed troubled. Calling them apart, I started talking to them.

                                   They were officials of the King, Pharaoh. One was his cupbearer, and the other was his baker.

                                   Looking at them, I asked them, "Why are you looking depressed today?"

                                   They replied in unison, "We have had dreams, and there is no one here to interpret them for us. This is perplexing us!"

                                   Knowing fully well that all interpretations and dreams as well, come from God, I told them, "Do not interpretations belong to God? Please tell them to me."

                                   The chief cupbearer was the first to share his dream with me. He said, "In my dream, there was a vine before me, and on the vine, there were three branches. As soon as it budded, its blossoms shot forth, and the clusters ripened into grapes.

                                   Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup and placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand."

                                   After a lightning prayer to God, I could tell the interpretation of this dream. I said, "This is its interpretation: the three branches are three days.

                                   In three days, Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your office, and you shall place Pharaoh's cup in his hand as formerly when you were his cupbearer."

                                   Then I remembered the injustice I was suffering from. I also told him, "Only remember me, when it is well with you, and please mention me to Pharaoh, and so get me out of this house.

                                   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."

                                   My interpretation cheered up the chief baker also who then shared his dream with me. He told me, "I also had a dream: there were three cake baskets on my head, and in the uppermost basket there were all sorts of baked food for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating it out of the basket on my head."

                             It was not a favorable dream for the baker. But I did not mince my words. I gave him the interpretation as the Lord God revealed to me. I said, "This is its interpretation: the three baskets are three days. In three days Pharaoh will lift up your head—from you!—and hang you on a tree. And the birds will eat the flesh from you."

                                   The third day was remarkable. Both the baker and the cupbearer were released from the dungeon. The baker, to be hanged, and die, and the cupbearer to be restored to his job!

                                   When the keeper of the prisons shared their fate with me, I was not surprised. Because I knew that what the Lord God reveals to me is the truth. I began to hope that the cupbearer will speak to the king and get me released soon.

                          Continuing to do my best to help the other prisoners, I waited for some word from the King regarding my release. But days grew into months and months into years. I did not hear from anyone.

                          Slowly I realized that the cupbearer has forgotten all about me as he went back to his former post with the Pharoah. The Lord was with me and that was enough for me. So I waited for His time. It was difficult to continue in the prison but God was with me and I managed to continue to help others there.

                        I could have, but I did not dwell on how ungrateful the cupbearer was. The Lord God helped me to walk one day at a time, with Him. I focused on my co-prisoners and cared and counseled them. Being other-centric helped me overcome the despair which would otherwise overwhelm me. I knew that God would work. In His time and in His own way. So, I did all I could and waited. And waited. Kept on waiting.

                             Two full years passed away as I waited. Suddenly I get a call from the governor of the prison. I am to freshen up, shave and be ready to be presented to the Pharoah! My spirits soared in thanksgiving to my God.

                            After my bath, I wore my best clothes and am led by Pharaoh's guards into his presence. An honor indeed for a poor lowly prisoner in the dungeon. I came to know later that my friend the cupbearer, remembered me and asked the Pharoah to send for me. Thanks are to God indeed!

                            The Pharoah addressed me and said, "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."

                             Immediately I corrected him. It was not me who interprets dreams. It is God who gives dreams and interprets them. So, I told the Pharoah, "It is not in me; the Lord my God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer."

                                The Pharoah shared his dream with me in detail. He said, "Behold, in my dream, I was standing on the banks of the Nile. Seven cows, plump and attractive, came up out of the Nile and fed in the reed grass. Seven other cows came up after them, poor and very ugly and thin, such as I had never seen in all the land of Egypt.

                                And the thin, ugly cows ate up the first seven plump cows, but when they had eaten them no one would have known that they had eaten them, for they were still as ugly as at the beginning. Then I awoke. I also saw in my dream seven ears growing on one stalk, full and good.

                                Seven ears, withered, thin, and blighted by the east wind, sprouted after them, and the thin ears swallowed up the seven good ears. And I told it to the magicians, but there was no one who could explain it to me."

                                   My silent and quick prayer to God helped me realize the essence of the meaning of the dreams of the Pharoah. I breathed a sigh of thanks to my God and then spoke to the king. I told him, "Your dreams, O Pharaoh, are one and the same; God has revealed to you what he is about to do.

                                   The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good ears are seven years; the dreams are one. The seven lean and ugly cows that came up after them are seven years, and the seven empty ears blighted by the east wind are also seven years of famine. It is as I told Pharaoh; God has shown to you what he is about to do.

                                   There will come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt, but after them, there will arise seven years of famine, and all the plenty will be forgotten in the land of Egypt. The famine will consume the land, and the plenty will be unknown in the land by reason of the famine that will follow, for it will be very severe.

                                   And the doubling of the dream means that the thing is fixed by God, and God will shortly bring it about.

                            Now, therefore, let Pharaoh select a discerning and wise man and set him over the land of Egypt. Proceed to appoint overseers over the land and take one-fifth of the produce of the land of Egypt during the seven plentiful years.

                                   And let them gather all the food of these good years that are coming and store up grain under the authority of Pharaoh for food in the cities and let them keep it. That food shall be a reserve for the land against the seven years of famine that are to occur in the land of Egypt, so that the land may not perish through the famine."

                            As I spoke those words, I had no idea whatsoever, about what was in store for me. The only thing I knew was the Lord was with me. As He was with me in the pit, while I was with the Amalekites, in Potiphar's house, and in the prison. I waited for Him to reveal His will for me. All these experiences had made me develop endurance and faith in my God.

                                            The proposal I made seemed to be good in the sight of Pharoah and his officials. The Pharoah spoke to his servants and said, in front of me, "Can we find a man like this, in whom is the Spirit of God?"

                                            He turned to me and spoke. "Since God has shown you all this, there is none so discerning and wise as you are. 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."

                                            I was flummoxed as the king set me over all the land of Egypt! Me, a dreamer who had last been for years, imprisoned? Me, an emigrant laborer from Canaan? But the ways of the Lord are so mysterious. I praised and thanked God.

                                            The king took his signet ring from his hand and put it on my hand. He clothed me in garments of fine linen and gave me a gold chain to wear around my neck. He made me to ride in his second chariot, people calling out, "Bow the knee" as it rolled on.

                                            He further said, "I am Pharaoh, and without your consent, no one shall lift up hand or foot in all the land of Egypt."

                                            He gave me the Egyptian name of Zaphenath-paneah and gave me the hand of Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera, the priest of On. Endued with the power to enforce my plans, I went out into the land of Egypt.

                                            As the Lord had predicted through the dreams of Pharoah, the next seven years were bumper years. The earth produced crops bountifully! So, I arranged for people to gather up all the products and store them safely in the cities and towns nearby.

                                            The grain I procured was abundant, like the sand of the sea. After a while, I was forced to stop measuring it because it was so abundant. Thanks be to God!

                                            God blessed me and Asenath with two sons. I called the first one Manasseh meaning, ""God has made me forget all my hardship and all my father's house." My second-born I named Ephraim, meaning, "For God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction."

                                            Indeed, the Lord was with me and made me fruitful. I continued to be thankful to Him. For God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction."

                                            As per the plan I had devised, with God's help, huge granaries were constructed to save and store all the excess produce through the length and breadth of the land.

                                            The next seven years were those of famine throughout the world. people famished with hunger. But by the grace of God, there was grain in Egypt!

                                            The people asked Pharoah for grain and he sent them all to me. I got the storehouses and granaries opened and sold the grain to the Egyptians. The famine was very severe at that time.

                                            People from the nearby countries and regions also heard that we were selling grain and came to us and bought grain from us. The famine was widespread throughout the earth.

                                            Though I was busy administering this through the land of Egypt, I often remembered my youth. I yearned for my parents and for my brother Benjamin. What was happening to me, I had dreamed about when I was a young boy, I recalled. How wonderfully the Lord God arranged for this to happen, I mused. The trials and troubles I experienced in my early youth shaped me to be what I am now, I realized. All is well and wisely put in the economy of God. How great are His ways!

                                            Later, as the famine affected Canaan too, my kinsfolk came to seek food grains from me, all the way to Egypt. But that is another story.