Genesis 40:16

The two men may look no different in position or actions. But there is still a marked difference in how they receive Joseph's approach. The butler opens his heart to him at once. But of the other one we read, "When the chief baker saw…" He held back until an outside circumstance encouraged him. He "saw" — he walked by sight.

Encouraged by this favourable interpretation, the baker told his dream. Its main points were: (1) there were three baskets of baked goods; (2) the baskets sat on his head; and (3) birds ate the food, so it never reached Pharaoh. Again the interpretation was simple. Within three days Pharaoh would lift up his head, hanging him on a tree, so that the birds would eat his flesh. His dream meant exactly the opposite of the butler's.

We see the gospel pictured in these dreams. The chief butler sees in his dream what speaks of the blood — the juice of the grape. And he was delivered. The chief baker dreams of what at once reminds us of human righteousness, the white baskets. He saw only what he had worked to produce, the baked goods. And he is hanged. The chief butler sees something ready to his hand, the grape clusters. He takes them and presents them to Pharaoh as the blood of the grape. The birds of the air eat the baker's offering. Here we have "the only two religions" pictured. One makes everything depend on the blood of Jesus. The other ignores the blood and trusts human righteousness.

The bakery goods were the work of the baker's hands. They were meant for Pharaoh, just as people mean to please God by their good works. They do not realise that these things can never take away the sins they have committed. God certainly cannot accept our works in place of what His own Son did. He bore the agony of terrible judgment at Calvary. People think God will accept their works as payment for their sins. But the baked goods never reached Pharaoh's table: the birds ate them. The birds of the air picture the work of evil spirits. They love to deceive people by flattering their so-called good works (Matthew 13:4 and 19). Satan gains from this, not God.

Baked goods are not enough. People may pile them up, decorated and fragrant, as high as heaven. Still the evil spirits will waste them, and the baskets are full of holes. The baking of human religion is like Cain's sacrifice — his own design and labour, lifeless and bloodless. The top basket was full of them — the very height of spirituality. They were "prepared for Pharaoh" too. But Pharaoh would have none of them.

It is clear how far the chief baker was from seeing anything to discourage him from telling his dream to Joseph. But God gave Joseph the discerning ear. In one dream the cupbearer handed Pharaoh a drink. In the other the birds — not the king — ate out of the basket on the baker's head. Joseph saw the immense difference. Mere natural intelligence gets no credit at all. The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him. Joseph's faith was in constant use. He knew that God stays the same in the middle of heavy trials, and his own trials had only grown from one great sorrow into a greater one. At his lowest point he looked up for wisdom to its only source.