So the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph and said to him, “In my dream there was a vine before me,
A cupbearer sits in an Egyptian prison, troubled by a dream he cannot read. He tells it to a fellow prisoner everyone has forgotten, and that man alone can say what the vine means.
God at work behind a prison wall
The chapter looks like a small household matter in a royal court. Commentators see God reaching even into the king's bedroom to move His plans forward.
C. H. MackintoshIn the scripture now before us, all this is seen in a most remarkable manner. God visits the home of a pagan captain, and the household of a pagan king — yes, even his bedside. He makes even the dreams in the king's head on his bed serve the working out of His plans.
Where the meaning comes from
Two prisoners woke up sad, with no one to explain their dreams. Joseph's answer pointed them away from human skill.
William KellyThey were sad because no one could explain what they felt concerned them most. Joseph, just as simply, reckoned that interpretations belong to God, the giver of every good gift and every perfect gift. So He is the answerer of faith's cry to Him, though unheard by any other ear.
Joseph's own dreams had once brought him nothing but trouble from his brothers. Now the same gift serves two strangers in chains.
William KellyAnd as in Joseph's dreams much had been divulged, while he was a young freeman in his father's house, which drew out the envious spite of his brothers, grace gave him now the opportunity of light from above on the dreams of his fellow prisoners... His soul entered into the iron; but love rose superior to evil, and flowed out readily.
A vine that buds, blossoms and ripens at once
The butler watches bud, blossom and ripe grapes appear at once, then squeezes them into the king's cup. No vineyard works that way.
William KellyNo one expects a vision like this to keep to real time or real place. A dream can crowd the events of months or years into a single scene. Here the vine buds, blossoms and yields grapes, and the wine is fit for a king's cup. History records nothing so fast in the hands of a cupbearer, with no winepress, no vat, and no storing in jars.
Three branches, three days
Joseph does not hedge. He names a number and a deadline, and the accuracy of it is the point.
William KellyThe striking point Joseph was given to grasp is the precision of the three days marked by the three branches. No interpreter among Egypt's priests would have dared to say, as Joseph did at once, "The three branches are three days. In three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your office." A guess would more likely have said three months. But no. The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him.
One writer explains what it meant for Pharaoh to "lift up his head."
Leslie M. Grant"The three branches are three days," he says (v.12), and within three days Pharaoh would "lift up his head," that is, bring him into public view, and restore him to his office of cupbearer.
The vine, the pressed grapes, and the cup
Writers also see a picture here. Someone must crush the grapes before the cup is filled.
George BellIn the passage above the grapes were pressed. We might well think of the Lord's death and the awful pressure when He was made sin... God has accepted sinners because of that finished work, which glorified Him. The butler, as we see, was restored to his position again. We who were guilty are justified before God. If we wish to extend the type further, maybe the three branches would remind us of Christ's resurrection. Justification is in a risen Saviour. The dream of the baker tells us that salvation is not by works; he was not restored to his position, but was executed.
The cup in Pharaoh's hand
Writers see the butler's part in the dream as a picture of a guilty man's place before God.
The Bible TreasuryThe dream sets the butler 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, presses them into the cup, and gives the cup into Pharaoh's hands. That is, the man takes his place before Christ, the true Vine. He accepts God's judgment and offers the blood of Christ, measured by that judgment. God accepts it, and the man is forgiven and exalted.
Commentators differ on how far to press the picture. Some read the dream as history and providence. Others see Christ Himself in the vine and the cup.
Summary
- Source — Joseph claims no skill of his own. He tells the two prisoners that interpretations belong to God.
- Sign — The dream packs bud, blossom and ripe grapes into one moment. No real vineyard grows that way, so this is a message, not a memory.
- Precision — "Three branches are three days" is a risk no guesser would take. A guess would have said three months. The exactness points to God.
- Substance — Crushed grapes fill the cup, and the king accepts it. Writers see the death of Christ here, and the restored butler pictures guilty people justified.
- Separation — One dream ends in restoring, the other in execution. The vine saves; a man's own work does not.