Joseph answered Pharaoh, “It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.”
Joseph comes straight from a dungeon to the throne room. Egypt's king has had a dream, and he greets Joseph as a man who can interpret dreams. Joseph's first words push the credit away from himself and give the whole matter to God. He promises not just an answer, but a peaceful one. (Where the ESV reads "a favorable answer," the older wording the commentators use is "an answer of peace.")
"It is not in me"
Joseph stood before the most powerful man on earth. He could have accepted the reputation handed to him. Instead he took no credit for himself, and pointed Pharaoh to God.
F. B. HoleHis answer to Pharaoh's question reveals his simple confidence in God. He disclaimed any power or wisdom in himself but declared that God would give an answer of peace. It is a mark of a true servant of God to say, "It is not in me." We see the same spirit in Paul: "Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God" (2 Cor. 3:5).
So what made Joseph the one to whom God revealed such things?
Leslie M. GrantJoseph tells Pharaoh that only God can give the answer, but he also indicates that God would give him an answer of peace. This simple confidence in God was the secret of why Joseph received such revelations from Him.
Faith says "will," not just "can"
Learning and rank did not give Egypt's wise men the answer. Watch the one word that sets Joseph's reply apart.
Hamilton SmithIt was no more in Joseph than in the wise men of Egypt. They may be learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and hold the highest positions in the king's court. Joseph, on the other hand, is "a young man, a Hebrew, a slave," in a dungeon. But God is with him. So he can surpass the wisdom of the wise, stand without fear in front of the king, and say with complete confidence, "God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace." He does not say, "God can give Pharaoh an answer," however true that would have been. Faith goes beyond what God can do and states plainly what God will do.
A settled habit, not a moment of modesty
Pressure did not produce this answer. The same reflex shows up everywhere in Joseph's life — under temptation, in prison, and later with the brothers who sold him.
The Bible TreasuryWherever he was, God was in all his thoughts. When tempted, he said, "How can I… sin against God?" When he came before Pharaoh, his first words were, "God will give…" When he told his brothers who he was, he said, "Do not be distressed or angry with yourselves, for God sent me before you." When they distrusted him, he said, "Do not fear, for am I in the place of God?" When he was punished for his honourable conduct and thrown into the dungeon, he asked his fellow prisoners, "Do not interpretations belong to God?"
Why the answer would be one of peace
Joseph had not yet heard the dream. His promise of peace rested on what he knew of God. One writer sees God's care here reaching past Pharaoh to the prisoner himself.
William KellyJoseph replies with a modest and godly disclaimer about himself, but with faith in God's willingness and goodness in the matter… Behind His goodwill to people, and to those He has set in authority, He cared deeply for the prophet who had suffered so long for righteousness and for His name's sake.
The rejected man is the interpreter
Joseph speaks these words as a forgotten prisoner. One writer sees the low place he speaks from as the key to the whole scene.
J. N. DarbyInterpretations belong to God. All through this, the Lord was with him, though he was rejected in this way and forgotten completely, like a dead man out of mind. It is as a man rejected like this that he becomes the interpreter. There is no true interpretation without the cross. It is there that God's interpretation has its place… then after righteous humiliation and wisdom comes exaltation to power at the right hand of the throne.
Summary
- Empty. "It is not in me" is not false modesty. It is the honest starting point of every true servant of God. Paul stands on the same ground: our sufficiency is from God.
- Trusting. That same emptiness opened the way. Simple confidence in God was the secret of why the revelation came to Joseph.
- Certain. Faith did not stop at what God can do. Joseph announced what God will do, before he had heard a word of the dream.
- Consistent. God filled his thoughts under temptation, in the dungeon, before the king, and with his brothers. One habit of mind, tested in four places.
- Peaceful. The answer promised peace because it came from a God who is willing and good. And it came through a rejected man who was later raised to the right hand of the throne.