Genesis 40:23

Here as ever, man's extremity is God's opportunity. The chief cupbearer forgot Joseph's service. It was rare, well-timed, and unpaid. No money could have bought it, and God alone could have enabled that prisoner — his name blackened, though he was blameless — to give it. Both predictions came surely true: his own restoration to honour, and his companion's fatal fall. Was it not inexcusable that this stirred no quick gratitude in him, let alone any burning sense of justice, for the suffering prophet?

So Joseph, in his day, finds the waiting time in prison a testing time for faith. He too looks for deliverance through human help. He had befriended the king's cupbearer, so he naturally concludes the cupbearer will speak to Pharaoh and get him released... Joseph must learn not only that the help of man is useless, but that God is his only resource.

With the remarkable prudence that marks his character, he had begged not to be forgotten. But he stayed in irons a little longer. The word of the LORD tested him. God would work in His own way. If the chief cupbearer forgot Joseph in his prosperity, God did not.

In his renewed prosperity the chief cupbearer forgot about Joseph. He has become a standing monument of human ingratitude. Still, as we believe, the hand of God was over even this. If the cupbearer had remembered, a thankful and perhaps respectful human arrangement would have freed him from prison. God intended to bring him out by reviving the cupbearer's memory, in a far more striking way. And not only to bring him out, but to lift him above the chief of cupbearers and bakers.

Meanwhile, if man forgets to show Joseph kindness, God will not forget to show him mercy... The devil may tempt us day by day. God may test us by keeping us waiting from day to day. Still He renews His mercy every day...

Joseph prayed to be remembered when the chief cupbearer rose again to honour, but the man forgot him. He put his confidence, for the moment, in man, and he was disappointed. The dying criminal, on the other hand, prayed in his distress, but in faith: "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom;" and he received the immediate answer, "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise." His confidence was also in a Man. But that Man was the Messiah, David's Son and also David's Lord, and so he was not put to shame... First, it is useless to try to get ahead of the Lord's deliverance by human means, as Joseph was tempted to do. Second, it is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes; and last, "those who wait for me shall not be put to shame" (Isaiah 49:23).

After telling the chief cupbearer the good news of his deliverance, Joseph says, "Only remember me, when it is well with you." And has not our Joseph said to us about the Lord's Supper, "Do this in remembrance of me"? It was one of His last requests. Shame on us, then, if we hear and believe the good news of our salvation and then forget Him, like the chief cupbearer... And if any have, may you be moved to say, like the ungrateful cupbearer after years of ignoring Joseph's plea, "I remember my offenses today."