Genesis 40:2

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.