and in the uppermost basket there were all sorts of baked food for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating it out of the basket on my head.”
The baker had just heard Joseph give the cupbearer good news, so he told his own dream in hope. Commentators read the two dreams as a picture of two ways of coming to God: one man carries food he made himself, the other hands the king a cup.
Why the baker spoke
He told his dream only after seeing how the first interpretation turned out. One writer sees that hesitation as the real difference between the two men:
The Bible TreasuryThe two men may look no different in position or in what they did. Yet there is a marked difference in how they receive Joseph's approach. The cupbearer gladly opens his heart to him. But of the other one we read, "When the chief baker saw…" He held back until some outward circumstance encouraged him: he "saw" — he walked by sight.
Food the baker made himself
The cupbearer's dream ended with a cup placed in the king's hand. The baker's dream was full of food he had made himself:
C. KnappLet us look at the chief baker now. He saw in his dream, as we have said, what stands for human righteousness — white baskets and baked goods prepared by his own skilful hand. And oh, what baskets of good things, as they suppose, are self-righteous sinners all around preparing for God's acceptance!
Prepared for Pharaoh, never tasted by him
The basket was the top one, and the food was for Pharaoh. Neither fact saved it:
The Bible TreasuryBaked goods are not enough. Men may pile them up, ornate and fragrant, as high as heaven. The evil spirits will still waste them, and the baskets are full of holes. The pastry of human religion is like Cain's sacrifice — his own design and work, lifeless and bloodless. There was the uppermost basket full of them — the very height of spirituality — and "prepared for Pharaoh" too. But Pharaoh would have none of them.
The birds
Scripture uses birds elsewhere as a settled image, and this verse is one of the places it is drawn from:
Morrish Bible DictionaryThese are used as symbols of evil agents: for example, in the dream of Pharaoh's baker, the birds ate the baked food he was carrying on his head, Gen. 40:17; and in the parable of the Sower the birds that devoured the seed by the path are interpreted by Christ to mean "the evil one." Matt. 13:4, 19.
If the king never ate the food, who did?
Leslie M. GrantGod cannot accept men's works as a substitute for the work of His own Son, who bore the agony of terrible judgment at Calvary. The baked goods were meant for Pharaoh. In the same way, men think God will accept their works as payment for their sins. But the food never reached Pharaoh's table: the birds ate it. The birds of the air picture the satanic activity of evil spirits. They love to deceive people by flattering their so-called good works (Matt. 13:4 and 19). It is Satan who gains from this, not God.
How Joseph could tell the two apart
Nothing in his own dream sounded alarming to the baker. The difference lay in one detail — who ate what he carried:
William KellyIt is clear that the chief baker saw nothing to discourage him from telling his dream to Joseph. But God gave Joseph the discerning ear to perceive the immense difference between the two. The cupbearer acted so that Pharaoh should drink. The birds — not the king — ate out of the basket on his head. In no way is the credit given to mere natural intelligence.
The man and his baskets
The same number appeared in both dreams, and the same three days brought opposite outcomes:
The Bible TreasuryThere were "three days" in each case: death and resurrection delivers one and condemns the other.
Summary
- Carried — the baker carries his baskets on his own head. Everything in the dream is his own work, and he holds it up himself.
- Offered — the food really is "for Pharaoh," and real effort went into it. Intention and quality were never the problem.
- Intercepted — the birds eat what was meant for the king. Birds picture evil spirits, so the offering feeds the deceiver instead.
- Rejected — Pharaoh refuses even the uppermost basket, the highest reach of it. No one can hand his own work to God as payment.
- Divided — the same three days restore one man and condemn the other. Only Joseph, given discernment by God, could hear which was which.