Immerse: Beginnings Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 75
40:15–41:12
G enesis
63
might let me out of this place. For I was kidnapped from my homeland,
the land of the Hebrews, and now I’m here in prison, but I did nothing to
deserve it.”
When the chief baker saw that Joseph had given the first dream such a
positive interpretation, he said to Joseph, “I had a dream, too. In my dream
there were three baskets of white pastries stacked on my head. The top
basket contained all kinds of pastries for Pharaoh, but the birds came and
ate them from the basket on my head.”
“This is what the dream means,” Joseph told him. “The three baskets
also represent three days. Three days from now Pharaoh will lift you up
and impale your body on a pole. Then birds will come and peck away at
your flesh.”
Pharaoh’s birthday came three days later, and he prepared a banquet
for all his officials and staff. He summoned his chief cup-bearer and chief
baker to join the other officials. He then restored the chief c up-bearer to
his former position, so he could again hand Pharaoh his cup. But Pharaoh
impaled the chief baker, just as Joseph had predicted when he interpreted
his dream. Pharaoh’s chief cup-bearer, however, forgot all about Joseph,
never giving him another thought.
Two full years later, Pharaoh dreamed that he was standing on the bank
of the Nile River. In his dream he saw seven fat, healthy cows come up
out of the river and begin grazing in the marsh grass. Then he saw seven
more cows come up behind them from the Nile, but these were scrawny
and thin. These cows stood beside the fat cows on the riverbank. Then
the scrawny, thin cows ate the seven healthy, fat cows! At this point in the
dream, Pharaoh woke up.
But he fell asleep again and had a second dream. This time he saw
seven heads of grain, plump and beautiful, growing on a single stalk.
Then seven more heads of grain appeared, but these were shriveled and
withered by the east wind. And these thin heads swallowed up the seven
plump, well-formed heads! Then Pharaoh woke up again and realized it
was a dream.
The next morning Pharaoh was very disturbed by the dreams. So he
called for all the magicians and wise men of Egypt. When Pharaoh told
them his dreams, not one of them could tell him what they meant.
Finally, the king’s chief cup-bearer spoke up. “Today I have been reminded of my failure,” he told Pharaoh. “Some time ago, you were angry
with the chief baker and me, and you imprisoned us in the palace of the
captain of the guard. One night the chief baker and I each had a dream, and
each dream had its own meaning. There was a young Hebrew man with us
in the prison who was a slave of the captain of the guard. We told him our
