Where's Jesus? Joseph the Interpreter of 2 Dreams (Genesis 40)

The cupbearer and the baker - 2 dreams, 2 interpretations.  Most often we stop here, but let me add another, to our list. Do not the cupbearer and the baker represent 2 kinds of people?  If we are to find Christ in this passage, then I believe we must see these 2 men as representing two kinds of people in the world: the condemned and the saved, the self-righteous and those who abide in the vine.



Let's review the story for those who are unfamiliar with this pericope or those who have fogotten its details.  Joseph is in jail because Potiphar's wife falsely accused him.  But God continues to exalt Joseph.  As Potiphar's household prospered under Joseph's leadership, so the jail is kept in prime order and the warden takes no concern with its function.  Into this reality comes Pharoah's cupbearer and baker - both imprisoned because of an offense they cause their master.

Each of these men has a dream.  The cupbearer dreams of a vine that bears fruit, which he takes and squeezes into a cup and hands to Pharoah. The baker on the other hand dreams of baskets of bread on his head with birds eating the bounty.  Each dream has an interpretation: To the cupbearer, restoration is promised; to the baker, judgment and death.

Now it would be easy to say, that is a nice story, yet again God's hand is in action lifting up some, humbling others, redeeming the former, judging the latter.  And this is true, but Where's Jesus?  Here are my thoughts.  Jesus is the vine the cupbearer dreams of.  His is the fruit that restores men and women, boys and girls to rightful relationship with the sole master of the universe, God Almighty.  His is the righteousness in which we can abide, his the blood we reflect on and remember in the communion chalice.  He is the life-giving redeemer, the only thing acceptable to be given to the King of Kings.

So what does the baker have to do with Christ.  The baker represents the opposite of taking hold of the fruit of Christ, namely the baker is the one who relies on himself.  Notice that the baker says, "On my head were three baskets of bread" (Genesis 40:16). Where the cupbearer perceives blessing external to himself in the vine, the baker perceives righteousness integral to himself.  He looked not outside of his life, but as part of his life.  This is the fundamental difference in the 2 types of people portrayed: those who reach for Christ and those who reach for themselves.  One saves, the other condemns.  One is exalted to the courtroom, the other loses his head and is condemned to death.

Everyone has angered God.  Everyone has offended him, there is no one righteous, no, not one...All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:10, 23).  And because of this everyone is condemned to judgment, but God in his mercy reveals The Vine to some, and those who see the vision of Christ, The Vine, are saved, while those who do not, receive the just punishment for their sin - death eternal.  This is where I see Christ in Genesis 40.

Now many may question this hermeneutic, this Christ centered interpretation, but is this not what the Scripture teaches.  Consider John 5:39, “You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me.”  All Scripture points to Jesus.  Or consider Joseph's statement to the officials of Pharaoh “Do not interpretations belong to God?”(Genesis 40:8).  Of course.  All interpretations belong to God and God desires that Christ be known and preached in the world so that men may believe in the one he has sent (John 6:29).

Is this not in accordance with Peter's words in his second letter, “For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” (2 Peter 1:21).  Is this not how Paul interpreted the story of Hagar and Sarah in Galatians 4, or how Peter interpreted the events of Pentecost in Acts 2 or how all the gospel writers interpreted the prophecies as they related to Jesus?  It is, and we must begin to retrain our scientific minds to see Jesus in the text, not history.  We need to reclaim the author of the story, not the story itself.