They said to him, “We have had dreams, and there is no one to interpret them.” And Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Please tell them to me.”
Joseph is in prison for a crime he never committed. Two of Pharaoh's officers wake up disturbed by dreams no one can explain. His answer moves the question. The problem is not a shortage of skilled dream-readers. Meaning itself is God's to give.
No human key
The two men are looking for a specialist. Joseph does not offer himself as one.
L. M. GrantJoseph did not claim to be an expert at interpreting dreams. Instead he told them, "Do not interpretations belong to God?" By saying this he showed them where any answer must come from. They had to depend on God Himself to reveal it. But he asks them to tell him their dreams.
Dreams with a sender
Joseph's question assumes these dreams carry a message. Not every dream does.
J. G. BellettThese dreams of the butler and the baker were "according to the interpretation." Those words imply that they came from God. For dreams have two sources: either God sends them, or they come from the press of business. In them God may reveal His mind, or they may be simply various empty things, the fruit of our own passions or needs.
Where the two men saw a dead end, Joseph saw a giver.
William KellyBoth men dreamed dreams true to their own case on one night. Joseph did not put that down to what people call chance. They were sad because no interpreter could explain what they felt closely concerned them. Joseph just as simply reckoned that interpretations belong to God. He is the giver of every good gift and of every perfect giving. So He is the One who answers faith's cry to Him, though no other ear hears it.
Wisdom drawn from above, not from talent
So where did Joseph's insight come from?
William KellyGod gave Joseph the discerning ear... In no way is the credit given to mere natural intelligence. The secret of the LORD is with those who fear Him. Joseph's faith was always in use. He knew that God stays the same in the middle of heavy trials — trials that had only changed from one great sorrow into a greater one. At his lowest point he looked up for wisdom to its only source. God's power then called him to solve the riddle, for good or for ill, in the cases that came before him.
The man who noticed other people's faces
Joseph's answer follows a question he asked first: why did their faces look downcast? A wrongly jailed man asked it.
The Bible TreasuryWherever he was found, God was in all his thoughts... They punished him for his honourable conduct and threw him into the dungeon. Even there his words to his fellow prisoners are, "Interpretations belong to God." He did not complain under that great disaster. He looked around to see what he could do to help others, even his jailers. He could not see his companions in misery losing heart and say nothing. He asked them, "Why are your faces downcast today?"
A greater Interpreter
Joseph turns the credit away at the very moment he could take it. Commentators hear an echo of that in Christ.
J. G. BellettJesus did not honour Himself. "Do not interpretations belong to God?" said Joseph. "My teaching is not mine, but His who sent me," said Jesus. Jesus was obedient, and therefore God has highly exalted Him.
Others press the setting itself — a rejected man is the one who explains God's mind.
J. N. DarbyAll through this the Lord was with him. Yet men rejected him and forgot him completely, like a dead man out of mind. It is as one rejected that he becomes the interpreter. There is no true interpretation without the cross. It is there that God's interpretation has its place... All the interpretation is bound up with the low estate of Joseph.
The same principle for our own future
The two officers wanted to know what lay ahead. So do we.
C. KnappJoseph says to the downcast butler and baker, "Do not interpretations belong to God?" God must reveal everything any of us can know about these things. And He has revealed how anyone may know where he will spend eternity. His Word, the Bible, gives us a perfect picture of our destiny.
Summary
- Belongs. Meaning is God's property. No expert can supply it, and the lack of one cannot withhold it.
- Given. What belongs to God, He gives. Joseph credits nothing to his own cleverness. The answer comes from the giver of every good gift.
- Received. The gift reaches a man whose faith was in constant use and who looked up for wisdom at his lowest point, in a dungeon.
- Shared. He spends the gift on others. He noticed two sad faces before he explained a single dream, instead of complaining about his own case.
- Fulfilled. The rejected interpreter points to Christ. He too said the teaching was not His own, and God exalted Him after His obedience.