And it came to pass after these things, [that] the cup-bearer of the king of Egypt and the baker offended their lord the king of Egypt.
Two of Pharaoh's officers fall out of favour with him. They land in the very prison that holds Joseph. The verse says nothing about their crime, and nothing about God. Yet everything that follows for Joseph turns on this moment.
Scripture leaves the crime blank. One writer suggests why Pharaoh would suspect these two men in particular, then counts the moves God was making:
Both the chief butler and the chief baker of Pharaoh had offended their lord. Nothing is stated about the nature of their offence. But Pharaoh was of a foreign race, and so likely to fear that someone would try to poison him. It is not surprising that the two men in charge of his drink and his food had both fallen under suspicion. While the matter awaited a decision, they stayed in the same prison as Joseph, and were put in his charge. The first link in the chain of events God ordered was that Joseph should be put in the place where the king's prisoners were held. The second was that in due time these two men should be placed there too.
Nothing here looks like God at work. Yet God is steering the whole episode:
The hand of God was in all this, however little it looked like it. In the king's prison house were two servants of Pharaoh, his chief baker and chief butler.
That hidden work went further than Joseph's release. It never included clearing his name:
In this account of the imprisonment of Joseph and the butler and the baker, God was at work in grace behind the scenes. He worked both to bring Joseph out of prison and to lift him up in a way that would normally have been unthinkable for a Hebrew... Nothing was said about the reason he had been put in prison. As far as the record goes, he was never cleared of the charge falsely brought against him. He evidently left this in the hand of God, who knows how to guard His servant's reputation.
Joseph answers each drop in status the same way. He serves wherever he lands.
Joseph had served as a slave in Potiphar's house. Now he served as a criminal in the tower-house, falsely accused of what was true of his accuser. But his faith stayed simple, peaceful and bright. We notice its effect on those who had no faith themselves, yet valued faithfulness highly. The captain put Joseph in charge of the king's officers. In his master's house before, and now in the governor's state prison, he became the responsible man: whatever needed doing there, he did it. The Lord was with him in each place of trial; and whatever he did, the Lord made it prosper.
The two men arrive together and are jailed together. One writer sees here a picture of what happens where Christ comes among people:
Here were two men in the same place of confinement. Both stood condemned, and so far as we know both were equally guilty — or innocent. They looked exactly alike in every outward way. Christ (Joseph) comes among them and pronounces one saved and the other lost.
Another writer compares the two officers with the men executed beside Jesus. The difference is not the suffering but the guilt:
And we see two others suffering with him — Pharaoh's two officers, his chief butler and his chief baker. But they do not suffer as Joseph does. He suffered though he was innocent. They were most likely receiving the due reward of their deeds, like the two thieves crucified with Christ. Joseph was ruler in the dungeon, and the verdict of his fellow prisoners' conscience must have been, "This man has done nothing wrong."
The story turns here. Joseph, wronged and jailed, becomes the man who tells others what God has decided about them:
The righteous Joseph is charged with the sin his accuser was guilty of. The Gentile authority treats him as a criminal. His feet are put in the stocks, and the iron enters his soul. He is handed over to the Gentiles, and by them symbolically put to death. There he is the interpreter of restoring blessing and of fatal judgment. Earlier, the Lord's plan spoke of Messiah's rise to the highest place among His own Jewish people, and of His exaltation in principle. Here rejection and death come in — and with them the Lord's mind in saving and condemning the guilty, according to His true purposes.
- Offence — Two officers anger their king. Scripture never says how. What matters is not their crime but where it lands them.
- Link — Their arrival in Joseph's prison is the second link in a chain God ordered. The first link was Joseph's own arrival there.
- Service — Slave, then criminal: Joseph keeps doing whatever needs doing. The Lord makes it prosper in each place of trial.
- Separation — The two men look alike in every outward way until Joseph speaks. Then one is saved and one is lost.
- Purpose — From a cell the innocent sufferer announces blessing and judgment. God guards his reputation, though the record never clears his name.
And Pharaoh was wroth with his two chamberlains -- with the chief of the cup-bearers and with the chief of the bakers;
Two of Egypt's most senior officials fall out of favour. The king's anger lands them in the prison where Joseph is already held. Why does Scripture pause over a palace quarrel — and what was God doing inside it?
The text never says what the two men did wrong. One writer points out that the offence mattered less than the anger it provoked:
Two men are now committed to Joseph's care in the prison, the cupbearer and the baker of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. We are not told what offences they were imprisoned for, but they had incurred Pharaoh's anger, and that was enough.
Another writer finds a likely reason in the offices these men held. They handled what the king drank and ate:
Both the chief butler and the chief baker of Pharaoh had offended their lord. Nothing is stated about the nature of their offence. But Pharaoh belonged to a foreign race, so he was likely to fear that someone would poison him. It is not surprising, then, that the two men in charge of his drink and his food had both fallen under suspicion.
Read on its own, the arrest is palace politics. Read as part of the story, it is a move in something larger. The same writer counts the steps:
Until their case was decided, they were held in the same prison as Joseph and put in his charge. God ordered a chain of events. The first link was Joseph being put in the place where the king's prisoners were bound. The second was that in due time these two men should be placed there too.
One writer traces the path and finds that every wrong done to Joseph was carrying him forward:
See how the trial of Joseph turned out. Divine ordering limited it from anything that would hinder it. It was intended to frustrate God's purpose, and seemed completely against it. Yet that trial and his righteous suffering in Egypt only brought about the very thing they seemed to frustrate. It was the Egypt his brothers sold him into, and the prison Potiphar put him in, that led him to the butler and baker — and that made him governor over all the land of Egypt. We cannot put God out of His way. It is better to trust Him.
One writer looks behind the human actors and sees two powers at work — one scheming, one ruling:
In Genesis 39 Satan uses Potiphar's wife, and in Genesis 40 he uses Pharaoh's chief butler. The first he used to put Joseph into the dungeon; the second he used to keep him there, through his ungrateful neglect. But it was all in vain. God was behind the scenes. His finger was guiding all the springs of the vast machine of circumstances, and when the right time came, He brought forth the man of His purpose and set his feet in a large room.
Pharaoh's anger brought two noblemen down to a prisoner's level, and that prisoner served them:
Joseph had served as a slave in Potiphar's house. Now he served as a criminal in the tower-house, falsely accused of what was true of his accuser. But his faith stayed simple, peaceful and bright. We notice its effect on people who had no faith themselves, yet valued faithfulness highly. The captain gave him the care of the king's officers. As before in his master's house, so now in the governor's state prison, he became the responsible agent: whatever was to be done there, he did it. The Lord was with him in each place of trial, and whatever he did, the Lord made it prosper.
The two men arrive together and share one sentence. One writer shows how alike they look:
Here were two men in the same place of imprisonment, both condemned. As far as we know they were equally guilty — or innocent — exactly alike in every outward appearance. Christ (Joseph) comes among them and pronounces one saved and the other lost.
Another writer sees the same pairing as a picture of the cross:
So in Joseph in prison we see the suffering Christ. And we see two others suffering with him — Pharaoh's two officers, his chief butler and his chief baker. But they do not suffer as Joseph does. He suffered though innocent. They, in all likelihood, were receiving the due reward of their deeds, like the two thieves crucified with Christ.
- Anger — Scripture never records the offence, only the king's anger. For these two men, that anger alone decided everything.
- Link — Joseph in the king's prison was the first link in a chain God ordered. These two officers arriving there was the second.
- Hand — Satan used Potiphar's wife to put Joseph in the dungeon, and Pharaoh's butler to keep him there. It was all in vain. God was behind the scenes, and at the right time He brought out the man of His purpose.
- Service — Set to serve fallen noblemen, Joseph did whatever needed doing. The Lord was with him there, as in Potiphar's house, and made his work prosper.
- Division — Two prisoners look identical in guilt and circumstance. Joseph comes among them, and one is pronounced saved, the other lost.