Today we begin Genesis Chapter 41.
For the Complete Jewish Bible, click here.
For the King James Version, click here.
“In the morning he found himself so upset that he summoned all the magicians of Egypt and all its wise men. Pharaoh told them his dreams, but no one there could interpret them for him.”-Genesis 41:8
Much more than the last chapter, the contrast between Joseph with his God-given talent for dream interpretation and the bankruptcy of the Egyptian magicians is much more pronounced in this section, which deals with the Pharaoh’s dreams.
We are told two years have passed, Joseph is now 30 years old and still in prison.
However, things are about to change.
One evening, the Pharaoh has two dreams of such realistic intensity that when he awakes, he is relieved to realize they were just dreams.
However, the Pharaoh just can’t shrug off the visions he was given while sleeping and so summons all the “magicians” and “wise men” in Egypt.
In modern terms, these two groups of men were Pharaoh’s governmental brain trust.
The magicians were the spiritual elite of Egypt and were experts in the sorcery connected with the many gods and goddesses of the ancient Mystery Babylon styled religion of Egypt.
The wise men on the other hand were the intellectual elite representing the combined total of worldly knowledge and science at the time.
We are told that this combined group of both spiritual and secular experts were completely confounded.
And then out of the blue comes this lone Hebrew slave.
A man with no education or any special training is given an audience with the Pharaoh and the most admired religious leaders and intellectual elite in the world at the time.
And what does this humble Hebrew man tell them?
“It isn’t in me.
God will give Pharaoh his answer…….”
When I was in my prayers before writing this post, I felt God telling me that the biggest takeaway from this whole incident is not Joseph giving credit to God for his supernatural dream interpretation ability as great as that is.
More than that, I feel the biggest takeaway from this scene is having the courage and confidence to proclaim our God to an unbelieving world!
We must stand tall and not be intimidated by a world hell-bent on doing everything it can to deny the truth of YHVH and His Word.
I’m talking about the cynics on TV and scientists like Richard Dawkins.
All of their worldly knowledge and false (although sincere) religions will never be able to understand and interpret the Holy Truths of God.
ONLY the children of God, in spiritual union with the Father, can know the truth.
And just as Joseph did, we are to unashamedly and unabashedly proclaim that truth to the world.
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“When they bring you before the synagogues and the ruling powers and the authorities,
don’t worry about how you will defend yourself or what you will say;
because when the time comes,
the Ruach HaKodesh will teach you what you need to say.”
-Luke 12: 11-12
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