Genesis 40:21

Joseph, in communion with the mind of God, had no difficulty in interpreting this dream. "The three branches are three days," he says (v. 12). Within three days Pharaoh would "lift up his head" — that is, bring him into public view and restore him to his office of cupbearer.

Joseph's interpretation of the dreams proved true when the third day arrived. It was Pharaoh's birthday, and he made a feast for his servants. Both the cupbearer and the baker came out into public view, but for opposite reasons (v. 20). Pharaoh restored the chief cupbearer to his former post and hanged the baker (vv. 21-22). Scripture does not say what influenced Pharaoh in these matters, but the evidence of God's presence with Joseph was unmistakable.

No temple interpreter in Egypt would have dared to say, as Joseph did at once, "The three branches are three days. Within yet three days will Pharaoh lift up your head, and restore you to your office." If he had been guessing, three months would have seemed more likely; but no. The secret of the LORD is with those who fear Him... Interpretation of what God says or does belongs to God. He gives it as He wills, and as a rule to those He loves, even in the deepest humiliation.

Here were two men in the same place of bondage, equally condemned, and, so far as we know, equally guilty — or innocent — just alike in all 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 like Joseph. He suffered though innocent. They, in all probability, were receiving the "due reward of their deeds," like the two thieves crucified with Christ.

The butler is brought before a vine, with three branches, living and fruitful. Pharaoh's cup (the symbol of God's judgment, Psalm 75:7-8) is in his hand; he takes the grapes and presses them into the cup, and then gives the cup into Pharaoh's hands. That is, the man takes his place in the presence of Christ, the true Vine. He accepts God's judgment and offers the blood of Christ, in the measure of that judgment. God accepts the offering, and the man is forgiven and exalted... There were "three days" in each case: death and resurrection delivers one and condemns the other.

We see the gospel pictured in these dreams. The chief butler sees that in his dream which speaks of the blood (the juice of the grape). And he was delivered. The chief baker, on the other hand, dreams of that which 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... Here we have "the only two religions" pictured — the one that makes everything depend on the blood of Jesus, and the one that ignores the blood and trusts human righteousness.

Yet the chief butler in his renewed prosperity forgot about Joseph, and has become a standing monument of human ingratitude. Still, as we believe, the hand of God was over even this. Had the butler remembered, Joseph's deliverance from prison would have been the result of thankful and perhaps respectful human arrangement. God intended to take him out, reviving the butler's memory, in a far more striking way. And not only take him out but also exalt him above the chief of butlers and bakers.