Dreams with Meaning

“Behold, I have dreamed yet a dream; and, behold, the sun and the moon and eleven stars made obeisance to me” (Genesis 37:9, scriptures from RVIC, unless otherwise noted).”

— Jim Parkinson

Joseph’s life in Egypt is an example for us. He began in the house of Potiphar, then was humbled in the king’s prison, and finally, he became the number-two man in Pharaoh’s kingdom. Yet, Joseph foreshadows one still greater than he.

Introducing Joseph

Joseph was not Jacob’s firstborn, but eventually, he was to receive his father’s firstborn blessing. Jacob had six children by his first wife, Leah; then, at the urging of Leah and Rachel, their handmaids bore two more children. Thus, Joseph, the firstborn son of the more-loved second wife, Rachel, was the eleventh son born to Jacob. Yet, he was Jacob’s favorite (Genesis 37:3).

His brothers were already jealous of Joseph when God gave him two dreams. In the first, Joseph’s sheaf (of wheat?) stood upright, and his brothers’ sheaves made obeisance to his. In the second, the sun and moon and eleven stars made obeisance to him, representing his father, mother, and eleven brothers making obeisance to him. (See article below.)

Reuben, the firstborn, kept the others from killing 17-year-old Joseph. Then Judah, the fourth-born, persuaded the others to sell Joseph into Egypt instead. So, they sold him to traveling salesmen (“Ishmaelites”), specifically Midianite merchantmen, who took him to Egypt. Joseph’s Egyptian experiences began when Potiphar, Pharaoh’s captain of the royal guards, acquired him. (Compare with “Jehovah acquired me as the beginning of his way, the first of his works of old” Proverbs 8:22.)

A Slave in the House of Potiphar, Captain of Pharaoh’s Guard

Potiphar was called “an officer of Pharaoh’s, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian.” Some think that he was a chief of the executioners. In any case, Potiphar was a high-ranking official in the government of Pharaoh and likely keenly aware of the kind of people who threatened the Egyptian government. Subsequent events suggest that seventeen-year-old Joseph entered the house of Potiphar during Egypt’s Twelfth Dynasty, in the latter half of the reign of Sesostris III, who reigned for thirty-six years.

Potiphar was a wealthy man. He noticed that Jehovah God was with Joseph and that whatever Joseph did had prospered. So, Potiphar put his entire house into the hands of Joseph, and God caused his house to prosper even more. (Genesis 39).

We notice a similarity to Joseph growing in authority over Potiphar’s house and Jesus as the Logos. “All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that hath been made” (John 1:3). The more beings that Jesus created, the more the Logos grew in authority over them. But when the fullness of time came, things changed.

Humiliated in the King’s Prison

Satan caused Potiphar’s wife to tempt Joseph, and when he did not yield, she convinced her husband to put him in prison. Potiphar was a high military authority, so Joseph was put into the king’s prison, where corrupt government officials were cast. What Joseph had learned of government in Potiphar’s house was less than what he would now learn from many former government officials. No university could compare to the education about government that he was about to receive.

Joseph served the chief warden well. So, he gave Joseph authority over all the other prisoners. Again, even in prison, God caused Joseph’s works to prosper. Probably in the second year of the new Pharaoh, it would appear Pharaoh was served food or drink that made him ill. Pharoah surmised that it was the fault of either the chief baker or the butler. So, they, too, were put into the king’s prison until Pharaoh could decide which of the two had tried to poison him.

Then, in prison, these two each had a dream. The butler dreamed of three grapevine branches from which he would fill Pharaoh’s cup with juice. The baker dreamed of three baskets of white bread, but the birds ate from the top basket. Joseph provided an accurate interpretation of each dream: After three days, the butler would be recalled to his previous job, but the baker would be hanged on a tree.

Two days later, it was Pharaoh’s birthday; he decided the chief baker had been the villain and, therefore, had him hanged, but the chief butler was received back again, just as Joseph had predicted.

Again, we may see a similarity with Jesus during his First Advent. He was humbled by being made a human being — “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). He also provided an accurate interpretation of the bread and the fruit of the vine (Luke 22:14-20, John 6:48-56). The two dreams show that Jesus was hung on a tree (a wooden cross), shown by the baker’s death, but was afterward restored to life in a spirit nature (this time, in the divine nature), depicted by the butler’s restoration.

Second Highest in Pharaoh’s Kingdom

Joseph’s last deed before leaving prison was to interpret Pharaoh’s two dreams: of kine (cows) and ears of grain. Seven good things came first in each dream, and afterward, seven emaciated ones swallowed up the good ones. Pharaoh’s chief butler (server, waiter) remembered that Joseph had interpreted his dream, so he commended Joseph to Pharaoh (Genesis 41).

Joseph interpreted Pharaoh’s two dreams as one. “Behold, there come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt: and there shall arise after them seven years of famine; and all the plenty shall be forgotten in the land of Egypt, and the famine shall consume the land; and the plenty shall not be known in the land by reason of that famine which followeth; for it shall be very grievous. And for that, the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh because God establishes the thing, and God will shortly bring it to pass.” Pharaoh responded by making Joseph the second in command in all of Egypt (Genesis 41:29-32, 39-43).

As vizier or governor for all internal affairs of Egypt, Joseph was to be faced with serious problems over the next fifteen years. Applying simple economics, he could predict that supply and demand would seriously affect farm prices. The years of plenty would drive down prices for crops and animals to bankrupt the farms. Therefore, the government must buy and store all the excess harvest to survive the second seven-year period — the famine years. That would put a serious strain on Pharaoh’s Treasury. However, in the famine years government would sell the food, which would more than restore the Treasury.

Genesis does not tell us how long Joseph served in Pharaoh’s house. Yet it tells us that he was thirty when he began serving Pharaoh, who then would have been Nymare Amenemes III (Egyptian, Amenemhat III), who reigned an unusually-long forty-six years.

Archaeology bears witness to these years of Joseph under Amenemes (the Greek form of the name). The basalt quarries at Hammamat were mined for making stone statues. Inscriptions are found there in Amenemes’ 2nd and 3rd years but not again until renewed activity in his 19th year (James Henry Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, I, para. 707-712). The year Joseph came to power, the seven years of abundance, and the seven years of famine account for the fifteen years those quarries were shut down. The high priority was to be in food management.

During Amenemes’ reign, Swampland in the Fayum district was drained to open 90 km2 of new farmland. That would have been to maximize food production in preparation for the famine.¹

(1) The drainage canal was called Beni Suph (or, Bahr Jousuf). Some suggest it means Ben-Joseph, or Joseph with mercy “Son/Creation of Joseph.” (No opinion here).

The road from the Nile to the Fayum district has one massive statue of Amenemes III on each side. These two stone statues are about sixty feet high (about the height of a six-story building). The Pharaoh is seated and has a serious expression. That would be appropriate for a Pharaoh who receives credit for leading Egypt and the surrounding world through the great feast and famine.

“Under [Amenemhat III] the grandiose tombs built by families of local rulers reached a peak and then ceased, and this has suggested to some that there was a major administrative reform, curbing ‘feudal power’” (Richard B. Parkinson, Voices from Ancient Egypt, Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1991, page 10). To a Bible student, it seems clear that the nomarchs (local rulers) were becoming very wealthy in the years of plenty. Still, in the famine years, they and their subjects were becoming too impoverished to build elaborate tombs, if any tombs at all.

Archaeology Explained

Archaeology gives us evidence but does not explain reasons for many of these things. Nor does it explain why, under Amenemes III, the Middle Kingdom of Egypt rose to the apex of its glory, yet apparently not by military victories. The Genesis account of Joseph gives us explanations. Statues of Amenemes III have been found as far north as Byblos in Lebanon, which implies the famine likely had extended at least that far north. (See Genesis 41:46 RVIC, footnote 411.) This Pharaoh did not need to conquer neighboring lands; he was held as a hero for helping them through times of starvation.

When the famine began, the Egyptians came to Pharaoh, who sent them to Joseph. Joseph opened the storehouses to sell to the people; Pharaoh’s Treasury had been depleted to hold up farm prices, but now the Treasury was being refilled and more. The people soon ran out of money, so Joseph accepted their horses, flocks, and herds in exchange for grain. When they ran out of livestock in the second year of the famine, they offered their lands and themselves, so Joseph bought them for Pharaoh in return for grain and seed-Pharaoh’s Treasury funded only the priests with their lands (Genesis 41:53-57, 47:13-26).

It was evidently in the 2nd year of Amenemes when he interpreted the dreams of the chief butler and chief baker and the 4th year when he interpreted Pharaoh’s two dreams and was given authority. Years 5- 11 were with plenty/abundance, while Years 12-18 were in famine. Joseph remained in Pharaoh’s government for another 28 years until Pharaoh died. His son reigned for perhaps seven more years, and his daughter perhaps another three before Dynasty 12 was overthrown. “Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who knew not Joseph” (Exodus 1:8). The kings who overthrew Dynasty 12 had not merely forgotten the history of famine; they were enemies of Israel.

Joseph lived eighty years after he had come to power, forty-two of which were under Pharaoh Amenemes II. Jacob came to Egypt in the second year of the famine, the thirteenth year of Amenemes. Jacob blessed Joseph with his brothers and died in Amenemes’ thirtieth year.

Notable among the exalted experiences of Joseph is that he is brought from humiliation to become the #2 ruler in all the land, second only to Pharaoh himself. Pharaoh gave him a new name, Zaphenath- Paneah (‘the God speaks and he lives’). “According unto thy word shall all my people be ruled: only in the throne will I be greater than thou and he made him to ride in the second chariot which he had; and they cried before him, Bow the knee” (Genesis 41:40-43). In this we similarly see Jesus: “God highly exalted him and gave unto him the name which is above every name: that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow” (Philippians 2:9-10). Upon His resurrection, Jesus said, “All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18).

When the people sold themselves to Pharaoh, it foreshadowed the work of the kingdom when mankind will offer themselves in consecration to God.

Joseph’s Mercy to His Family

Joseph’s relation to the people of Egypt is one thing, but his relation to his brethren is another (Genesis 42-46). Here, we have a picture within a picture. Jesus has a relationship with the world for which He died and a closer relationship with Israel, descendants of Abraham.

In Egypt, Joseph’s first encounter with ten of his brethren was in the first year of the famine. He spoke in the Egyptian language and used an interpreter. He accused them of being spies and demanded that one be held prisoner until the others could take the food they bought and return with their youngest brother. Then, he listened to them talking about their past attempt to kill him. He learned that Reuben had tried to keep him alive but, evidently, that Simeon (Jacob’s second son) had been the ringleader; so Simeon was held in prison, awaiting their return. (Joseph returned all their money in their sacks without them knowing it, just as Jesus paid the price of redemption.) Then, the nine sons returned to their father and their households.

By the second year of the famine, the Egyptian grain they had purchased was running out. Jacob understandably was reluctant to let Benjamin return to Egypt with the others, yet the alternative was starvation. Upon their return to Egypt, Joseph commanded them to come to his house and had his brothers seated for a meal according to their ages (which he already knew); Benjamin was given five times as much food as each of the others. (Joseph ate separately.)

To prick the consciences of his brothers, Joseph then framed Benjamin for stealing his silver cup. Judah then interceded for Benjamin, and Joseph made himself known to all his brethren. They were instructed to take food home but bring Jacob and his household to Egypt and escape the famine.

By the second year of the famine, the Egyptian grain they had purchased was running out. Jacob understandably was reluctant to let Benjamin return to Egypt with the others, yet the alternative was starvation. Upon their return to Egypt, Joseph commanded them to come to his house and had his brothers seated for a meal according to their ages (which he already knew); Benjamin was given five times as much food as each of the others. (Joseph ate separately.)

To prick the consciences of his brothers, Joseph then framed Benjamin for stealing his silver cup. Judah then interceded for Benjamin, and Joseph made himself known to all his brethren. They were instructed to take food home but bring Jacob and his household to Egypt and escape the famine.

God then told Jacob, “Fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will there make of thee a great nation: I will go down with thee into Egypt; and I will also surely bring thee up again.” Then Israel was given the area of Goshen, the best of the land of Egypt (Genesis 46:3-4, 47:5).

Joseph saved his family, foreshadowing Jesus saving Israel. Joseph’s two encounters with his brethren foreshadow Jesus’ 1st and 2nd Advents. Joseph feeding his family and Egypt typifies Jesus offering the bread of life. As Jacob was given Goshen, Israel is now being restored to their Promised Land.

Summary Observations

The life of Joseph in Egypt typifies the life of Jesus. Under Potiphar, he typifies Jesus as the Logos. In prison, he typifies Jesus, humbled to be a man. As the #2 ruler under Pharaoh, he typifies Jesus Christ resurrected and given all authority in heaven and on earth — second in command in the entire universe, under Jehovah God Himself. (Several more correspondences in each case are left as an exercise to the reader.)