It Is Not In Me Genesis 41:1-37

When Joseph was 17, he had two dreams. In one his brother’s sheaves bowed down to his. In the second, the sun, moon, and eleven stars bowed down to him. These two dreams were interpreted as foretelling the future. One day, Joseph’s family would come a bow down before him. Of course, this drove his brothers to jealousy and hatred. How could the second to the last born son of the family be in the position of authority over all of them, including Jacob? Who could this be? Jacob wondered about these things but Joseph’s brothers decided that it would not come to pass. They created their plans to make sure that the dreams would not come true. They plotted cold-blooded murder, but Reuben steered them away from that and suggested they just leave him for dead in a pit. Judah, seeing the traders going by, convinced the brothers to sell Joseph into slavery. How could a Hebrew slave in a foreign country be someone that the brothers would have to bow to? Through a series of events, Joseph found himself in jail listening to the dreams of two officials. God gave him the meaning of the dreams and Joseph was able to correctly interpret what they meant. God had shown the officials what was going to happen in three days. The cupbearer would be restored to his position and the baker would be dead. Three days later, it happened just as Joseph said. Joseph had asked the cupbearer to remember him when he was restored to his position in the presence of the Pharaoh. Unfortunately, for Joseph, the cupbearer forgot all about him. And with that, Joseph’s hopes of leaving the prison began to fade away. The dreams he had before became a distant memory. After all, how could a Hebrew slave in prison be the one to whom his family bows? But this is exactly where Joseph needs to be. God has placed him in the right place at the right time, which is what God often does for his people. When all hope is lost, as the years tick by, and there is nothing humanly possible to be done, God intervenes. His plan begins to unfold before our eyes. People’s lives are changed. All human boasting is destroyed and one can only boast in the Lord. God is the hero of this story, of our stories. In 1-8, we have the telling of Pharaoh’s dreams followed by Joseph being called to act as an interpreter. And finally, in 17-37, Joseph explains what the dreams mean and Joseph explains what must be done in response to the dreams.