Context No. 3819 of 4322 · Genesis

Genesis 40:16-23: in context

16When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was good, he said to Joseph, “I also was in my dream, and behold, three baskets of white bread were on my head. 17In the uppermost basket there were all kinds of baked food for Pharaoh, and the birds ate them out of the basket on my head.” 18Joseph answered, “This is its interpretation. The three baskets are three days. 19Within three more days, Pharaoh will lift up your head from off you, and will hang you on a tree; and the birds will eat your flesh from off you.” 20On the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday, he made a feast for all his servants, and he lifted up the head of the chief cup bearer and the head of the chief baker among his servants. 21He restored the chief cup bearer to his position again, and he gave the cup into Pharaoh’s hand; 22but he hanged the chief baker, as Joseph had interpreted to them. 23Yet the chief cup bearer didn’t remember Joseph, but forgot him.

Encouraged by the good interpretation Joseph gave the cupbearer, the chief baker asks about his own dream. But this dream carries a grim meaning, and Joseph does not hide it or dress it up: within three days the baker will be executed. Joseph tells the truth even when the truth is hard, refusing to flatter with false comfort.

And so it comes to pass, exactly as he said. But the chapter ends on a note of quiet disappointment: the cupbearer, restored to his post, forgot Joseph and did not remember him. The one Joseph had helped moved on and left him in prison, where he would remain two more years. Two things linger here. Joseph's integrity, speaking the truth God gave him whether it was welcome or hard. And the experience of being forgotten by those we have served, a real and painful thing. Yet the story reassures us that though the cupbearer forgot Joseph, God did not; in his own time God would remember and lift him up.

When I am overlooked or forgotten by those I have helped, can I trust that God has not forgotten me, and that he will remember and lift me up in his own time?

Sources

Genesis 40:18-19: "The three baskets are three days. Within three more days, Pharaoh will lift up your head from off you, and will hang you on a tree."
Genesis 40:22: "But he hanged the chief baker, as Joseph had interpreted to them."
Genesis 40:23: "Yet the chief cup bearer didn't remember Joseph, but forgot him."