A young Hebrew was there with us, a servant of the captain of the guard. When we told him, he interpreted our dreams to us, giving an interpretation to each man according to his dream.
Pharaoh's dreams had beaten every expert in Egypt. Only then did the cupbearer remember the prisoner who had read his own dream two years earlier, and his brief words about that young Hebrew servant raise the questions this chapter turns on: why God left Joseph forgotten so long, and why He chose such an unlikely man to speak for Him.
Egypt's Wisdom Exhausted First
The cupbearer speaks up only because everyone else has failed. God had spoken, and Egypt's trained experts could make nothing of it.
Hamilton SmithFirst God reveals what He is about to do, yet even then man gains nothing from what is revealed. God speaks in a vision to Pharaoh, by writing on the wall in Belshazzar's day, and by very plain speech in our day. But now, as in days gone by, the wise men of this world fail completely when they try to interpret the Word of God. So Pharaoh turns to "all the magicians of Egypt and all its wise men," only to find "there was none who could interpret them." Man's natural pride in his own mind blinds him to a simple fact: only God can interpret what God says.
A Conscience That Finally Speaks
Before the cupbearer mentions Joseph, he mentions himself. One writer reads his opening words as real self-judgment, not just fear of what might happen to him.
William KellyFor sinful man, repentance is also the necessary condition of blessing to the soul. God's goodness is what leads to it. It is healthy and steadying for the man who truly judges himself before Him and honestly admits his fault. "I remember my offenses today." This was no mere fear of the consequences; he confessed how much he was to blame... He hides nothing of his shame or his danger. He tells how the two of them had dreams on the same night, and how they told them to the young Hebrew, their fellow prisoner in the royal prison, who interpreted them at once.
Three Words of Contempt
The cupbearer describes Joseph by age, race and rank: young, foreign, owned by another. That is how the world values the man God keeps in reserve.
Hamilton SmithHaving destroyed "the wisdom of the wise" and thwarted "the discernment of the discerning," God falls back on the man He has kept in reserve, "a man in whom is the Spirit of God." But God's man always counts for little in the eyes of the world. This man will one day hold power that no mortal, before or since, has ever held. For now he is wasting away in a prison, counted among "what is low and despised in the world." Yet he is the one God has chosen to "shame the strong" and to "bring to nothing things that are"... Joseph is "a young Hebrew" and "a servant," in a dungeon. But God is with him, so he can go beyond the wisdom of the wise and stand without fear in front of the king.
Why The Forgetting Was Allowed
Joseph had asked the cupbearer to remember him, and the cupbearer forgot. One writer sees God's hand even in that.
F. B. HoleYet once the chief cupbearer had his position back, he forgot about Joseph. He has become a lasting monument to human ingratitude. Still, we believe God's hand was over even this. If the cupbearer had remembered, Joseph would have come out of prison by a grateful and respectful human arrangement. God meant to bring him out in a far more striking way, by waking the cupbearer's memory. And not only bring him out, but raise him far above the greatest of cupbearers and bakers.
Another writer sets the same delay against God's timing, and the people He used one after another.
Hamilton SmithBut God carries out His plans in God's time, by God's instruments, and in God's way. Joseph had probably expected release as soon as Pharaoh restored the cupbearer to his place in the royal household. But two full years had to pass before God's time came... God had already used the king's captain, the king's jailer, and the king's cupbearer; now He will use the king himself.
A Larger Story Behind The Prisoner
One writer sees Joseph as a picture of Christ: rejected, unjustly punished, then raised to authority.
William KellyJoseph was a picture of Him, first, in this. Christ is "the Prophet who is to come." He would go through every grief and shame, yet be God's wisdom while He was humbled. His brothers rejected Him. The Gentiles punished Him unjustly, though He was the righteous One. Then He was raised out of the depths to hold the authority of the kingdom outside Israel and the land, to the great relief of Israel and Egypt.
Summary
- Forgotten — two years passed with no word for Joseph; God's plans run on God's time, by God's instruments, and in God's way.
- Remembered — the cupbearer recalled Joseph only after Egypt's experts failed; only God can interpret what God sends.
- Confessed — "I remember my offenses today" is honest self-judgment, not panic; he hides nothing of his shame.
- Despised — "a young Hebrew" and "a servant" is the world's valuation of God's man; he is still the one God chose to shame the strong.
- Lifted — an earlier release would have been a human favour. God waited and brought Joseph out far higher — a picture of One rejected, then raised out of the depths.