Dreams of cannibalistic cows and idiophagic wheat

Genesis 41



Two years later Pharaoh dreamed that he was standing by the Nile River.

This would certainly catch Pharaoh's attention.  The Nile is the source of life for this section of Egypt.

 In the dream, seven cows came out of the river and stood there eating grass. They were healthy, good-looking cows. Then seven more cows came out of the river and stood on the bank of the river by the healthy cows. But these cows were thin and looked sick. The seven sick cows ate the seven healthy cows. Then Pharaoh woke up.

Pharaoh went back to sleep and began dreaming again. This time he dreamed that he saw seven heads of grain growing on one plant. They were healthy and full of grain. Then he saw seven more heads of grain sprouting, but they were thin and scorched by the hot wind. The thin heads of grain ate the seven good heads of grain. Then Pharaoh woke up again and realized it was only a dream. 

A lot of my dreams are vague and it seems like the sequence of events in them is something I create as I think about them when I wake up.  In the case of Pharaoh, he has had two vivid dreams with the details stuck in his mind.

The next morning Pharaoh was worried about these dreams, so he sent for all the magicians and wise men of Egypt. Pharaoh told these men the dreams, but none of them could explain the dreams.

Nowadays, (non-Christian) dream interpretation assumes a person's dream is about the person.  For instance, dreaming of eating alone or eating too much are indications about things affecting the person.  If the Egyptian wizards are working along the same lines it's no wonder they were stumped: dreaming about cannibal cows and idiophagic wheat is not listed in the standard dream dictionary.  What could they do?  Tell Pharaoh to lay off the BBQ right before bedtime?

Then the wine servant remembered Joseph and said to Pharaoh, “I remember something that happened to me.  You were angry with the baker and me, and you put us in prison.  Then one night he and I had a dream. Each dream had a different meaning.  There was a young Hebrew man in prison with us. He was a servant of the commander of the guards. We told him our dreams, and he explained them to us. He told us the meaning of each dream,  and what he said came true. He said I would be free and have my old job back, and it happened. He also said the baker would die, and it happened!”

I don't know about you, but I feel a bit smug if I patiently wait upon the Lord for a few days or maybe a week.  Joseph has been waiting two years in prison for help from God.  Who knows, in hindsight maybe it was better that he was in prison - away from those wild Egyptian women who just wanted to have sex with him...  "Dear God, please save me from these women. Tomorrow will be fine."

So Pharaoh called Joseph from the prison. The guards quickly got Joseph out of prison. Joseph shaved, put on some clean clothes, and went to see Pharaoh. Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I had a dream, and no one can explain it for me. I heard that you can explain dreams when someone tells you about them.”

Joseph answered, “I cannot! But God can explain the dream for you, Pharaoh.”

That is faith, and giving credit where it is due.

Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “In my dream I was standing by the Nile River.  Seven cows came up out of the river and stood there eating the grass. They were healthy, good-looking cows.  Then I saw seven more cows come up out of the river after them, but these cows were thin and looked sick. They were the worst cows I had ever seen anywhere in Egypt!  The thin, sick cows ate the first healthy cows, but they still looked thin and sick. You couldn't even tell they had eaten the healthy cows. They looked as thin and sick as they did in the beginning. Then I woke up.

“In my next dream I saw seven heads of grain growing on one plant. They were healthy and full of grain.  And then seven more heads of grain grew after them, but they were thin and scorched by the hot wind. Then the thin heads of grain ate the seven good heads of grain.

“I told these dreams to my magicians. But no one could explain the dreams to me. What do they mean?”

Joseph must be wide open to receive the interpretation from God, or maybe in constant contact with him - because there's no hesitation in giving the interpretation; no need to ponder it overnight.  Pharaoh tells his dreams then, BAM, here comes the meaning.

Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, “Both of these dreams have the same meaning. God is telling you what will happen soon.  The seven good cows and the seven good heads of grain are seven good years.  And the seven thin, sick-looking cows and the seven thin heads of grain mean that there will be seven years of hunger in this area. These seven bad years will come after the seven good years. 

God has shown you what will happen soon. He will make these things happen just as I told you. For seven years there will be plenty of food in Egypt.  But then there will be seven years of hunger. The people will forget how much food there had been in Egypt before. This famine will ruin the country.  It will be so bad that people will forget what it was like to have plenty of food.

Joseph is seeing and speaking more deeply into what God is saying through the dreams.

“Pharaoh, you had two dreams about the same thing. That means God wanted to show you that he really will make this happen, and he will make it happen soon!  So, Pharaoh, you should choose a wise, intelligent man and put him in charge of Egypt. Then you should choose other men to collect food from the people. During the seven good years, the people must give them one-fifth of all the food they grow.  In this way these men will collect all the food during the seven good years and store it in the cities until it is needed. Pharaoh, this food will be under your control. Then during the seven years of hunger, there will be food for the country of Egypt. And Egypt will not be destroyed by the famine.”

Joseph is being shown a full picture of the situation and its remedy from a higher perspective, from God's point of view.  There is a deep peace that comes when God shares His view-point and we find ourselves working in full harmony to accomplish those goals.

This seemed like a very good idea to Pharaoh, and all his officials agreed. Then Pharaoh told them, “I don’t think we can find anyone better than Joseph to take this job! God’s Spirit is in him, making him very wise!”

I find this statement amazing.  Imagine a king pulling some guy out of prison on advice from his wine steward, the guy talks about a God the king doesn't know, and then the king puts the guy in charge of the entire country. All in the same afternoon.

So Pharaoh said to Joseph, “God showed these things to you, so you must be the wisest man. I will put you in charge of my country, and the people will obey all your commands. I will be the only one more powerful than you.”

Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I now make you governor over all of Egypt.”  Then Pharaoh gave his special ring to Joseph. The royal seal was on this ring. Pharaoh also gave Joseph a fine linen robe and put a gold chain around his neck.  Then Pharaoh had Joseph ride in the chariot of his second-in-command, and they said, ‘Bow before Joseph.’ In this way Joseph became the governor over all of Egypt.”

That echoes the dream Joseph had about his family bowing to him.

Then Pharaoh said to him, “I am Pharaoh, the king over everyone in Egypt, but no one else in Egypt can lift a hand or move a foot unless you say he can.” Then Pharaoh gave Joseph another name, Zaphenath Paneah. [The Egyptian meaning is probably Sustainer of Life, but in Hebrew this sounds like Explainer of Secret Things] 

He also gave Joseph a wife named Asenath. She was the daughter of Potiphera, a priest in the city of On. So Joseph became the governor over the whole country of Egypt.

These Potiphar and Potiphera names are similar. Some scholars think they might be the same man.  If that's so, then I guess Potiphar's wife - the one with the hots for Joseph - is really mad that her daughter is with him now. 

Along these same lines - if Potiphar, the chief of Pharaoh's guards is the same man as the chief guard of the prison where Joseph was kept, then he not only trusted Joseph enough to put him in charge of his household, and in charge of prison operations - he also trusted him enough to give his daughter in marriage.

Joseph was 30 years old when he began serving the king of Egypt. He traveled throughout the country of Egypt. During the seven good years, the crops in Egypt grew very well. Joseph saved the food in Egypt during those seven years and stored the food in the cities. In every city he stored grain that grew in the fields around the city.  Joseph stored so much grain that it was like the sands of the sea. He stored so much grain that it could not be measured.

Some of the translations note that Joseph kept a tally of the food being put into storage, but that he collected so much there was no good way to keep counting it.

Joseph’s wife, Asenath, was the daughter of Potiphera, the priest in the city of On [Now called Heliopolis.].  Before the first year of hunger came, Joseph and Asenath had two sons.  

Joseph named the first son Manasseh. [To Forget]   He was given this name because Joseph said, “God made me forget all my hard work and everything back home in my father’s house.”

Joseph named the second son Ephraim. [Twice Fruitful]   Joseph gave him this name because he said, “I had great troubles, but God has made me successful in everything.”

For seven years people had all the food they needed, but those years ended.  Then the seven years of hunger began, just as Joseph had said. No food grew anywhere in any of the countries in that area. But in Egypt people had plenty to eat because Joseph had stored the grain.  The famine began, and the people cried to Pharaoh for food. Pharaoh said to the Egyptian people, “Go ask Joseph what to do.”

It's good to be the king.

There was famine everywhere, so Joseph gave the people grain from the warehouses. He sold the stored grain to the people of Egypt. 

I wonder why the food had to be purchased?  There is a strange economics at work here, and it'll become harsher as the story unfolds.  One perspective says that the Egyptians agreed to store a fifth of their grain in the storehouses simply because Pharaoh told them to, but that the people didn't really belief the famine was coming.  On the other hand, it's hard for an individual to store seven year's worth of food and maybe they thought the storehouses were a common storage facility for the people.  They freely provided grain for storage and expected it to be freely disbursed when needed.

The famine was bad in Egypt, but the famine was bad everywhere. So people from the countries around Egypt had to come to Joseph in Egypt to buy grain.

Egypt was already an economic and military powerhouse.  The actions that Joseph are taking will transform all that power and wealth and concentrate it under one man: Pharaoh.  All the food, all the money, all the livestock, all the land, and the very freedom of the people will be transferred to control under Pharaoh (and Joseph).  And on top of that, they consented to a 20-percent tax rate on what they produced as slaves.